GSIPM

Who: MIIS Community
What: Social Entrepreneurship Panel Discussion
When: Monday, April 19th from 12:00 to 1:30pm
Where: McGowan 100

Dr. Fredric Kropp, Professor of Entrepreneurship, Creativity & Innovation, has invited the MIIS community to view a panel discussion on social entrepreneurship with the following special guests:

Gary Peterson, Deputy Director of ALBA: The Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA) provides educational and business opportunities for farm workers and aspiring farmers to grow and sell crops grown on two organic farms in Monterey County, California.  Gary joined ALBA in May 2004 with ten years’ experience in family farm and sustainable agriculture advocacy. Before joining ALBA, Gary worked at the Community Alliance with Family Farmers in Davis, California, and at the Center for Rural Affairs in Nebraska. Gary has a BA in Political Science from Moorhead (MN) State University and a Masters of Public Administration from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. At ALBA, Gary is working to diversify sources of support, build new partnerships and programs and broaden public recognition for its work. He serves on the boards of the Coastal Watershed Council and the Granary Foundation, a support corporation of the Center for Rural Affairs.

Dan Cort: Dan graduate from the University of the Pacific (UOP).  During his college years, he lived on an island on the Delta Waterway and grew most of his own food.  He created water irrigation from the river, rebuilt an old cabin on the island and renovated the “House of the Future” from the San Francisco 1939 World’s Fair that was languishing on the other end of the island.  He has a strong foundation and philosophy of community and renovation to the political arena.  Dan served several terms as Mayor of Pacific Grove where he championed green and sustainable practices.  Dan now runs a real estate business that specializes in buying old empty buildings in downtowns and converting them to mixed use spaces.  He is a strong advocate for the “urban village” concept and revitalizing neighborhoods to be more community centric and sustainable.  He also wrote a book last year on the subject called “Downtown Turnaround”.

Max Perlman, MBA/IEP ’09:  Max is a LEED Accredited Professional focusing on environmental issues within the United States and China. Max holds an MBA as well as an MA in International Environmental Policy from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Max is a project manager with BuildingWise, a high performance building consulting firm as well as the president of American Environmental & Agricultural, Inc., an import export and trade consulting firm focused on environmental technology transfer between Asia and North America. Max made a documentary film and multimedia project, The Green Dragon, that explores  the Chinese green building movement. Other projects include: Strawbale, home construction in rural China;  Sun-Plugged, a retail and B2B business manufacturing and selling bags with integrated solar panels for charging personal electronic devices and laptop computers; and PerformanceWise, a multi-disciplinary consulting service that rapidly identifies resource efficiency opportunities for existing buildings.