IMPACT Scholars and Leaders Share their Co-op Journey

Everything Co-op with Vernon Oakes

Everything Co-op features four Cooperative Leaders and Scholars who are participating in the 2023 IMPACT Conference. Vernon will discuss the co-op sectors they are involved with, and they will share their cooperative journey. Adrián Román is a Co-op Organizer at BCCO parallel to his work as a mediator and mindfulness instructor. His work as a co-op organizer focuses on creating and facilitating curriculum in cooperative education, assessing interpersonal dynamics to design organizational systems that support shared ownership and facilitating the process of developing a cooperative. Lesly Calle serves as the Manager of Alumni Relations at the Office of Student Success at the City College of New York where she manages program development and outreach strategies to engage a growing network of alumni of the social science division. Prior to this work, Lesly served as Manager of Member Engagement at the Drivers Cooperative where she supervised driver engagement. Tomi Chung is a student, educator, organizer, and co-operator. At the time of writing, she serves as the President of the Berkeley Student Cooperative and is responsible for coordinating the development of next fiscal year's $13 million operating budget along with a three-year Strategic Plan for the organization. Karen Tyler-Ruiz serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Community-Based Enterprise, Inc, in Detroit Michigan. C2BE supports the creation of people-centered businesses, cooperatives, community, and worker-owned enterprises where worker-owners and members have a say in all financial and strategic decisions. The Cooperative Leaders and Scholars (CLS) program is an opportunity for employees, board members, and post-secondary students working for cooperatives and others interested in working for a cooperative or cooperative organization to participate in multi-sector programming and events and engage with co-op industry thought leaders, policymakers, and other stakeholders. The program is administered by the Cooperative Development Foundation. The interviewees are listed below.