Noemi Giszpenc: The Cooperative Path to a Prosperous, Equitable Economy

Human beings evolved over millions of years as a highly cooperative species. We are deeply programmed to desire and thrive in a mutually supportive, interdependent and reciprocal environment. Can we make where we spend the greatest part of our lives—i.e., work—into this kind of social environment? Giszpenc will discuss democratic workplaces, worker cooperatives, and why they are crucial to creating the world we want to live in and pass on to our children and explore how you can get involved. Noémi Giszpenc is executive director of the Cooperative Development Institute (www.cdi.coop) a nonprofit whose mission is to work with people in the Northeast to create cooperative businesses and networks that grow a prosperous, equitable economy. She began her career as an economics researcher at the World Bank, worked as an editor at Nonprofit Quarterly and became a principal at Ownership Associates, Inc., a consulting firm in Cambridge, MA specializing in developing an ownership culture at employee-owned firms. She resides in New Jersey with her husband and two young children and is vice president at her synagogue of “Tikkun Olam” (“world repair,” which connotes social action and the pursuit of social justice).