Noémi Giszpenc, Executive Director Of Cooperative Development Institute

Vernon Interviews Ms. Noémi Giszpenc, Executive Director of Cooperative Development Institute. Vernon and Noémi discuss the role that cooperatives can play in the Arts,the role that African American Women have played in the cooperative movement, and CDI's work to help start-up cooperatives, and support existing cooperative businesses. Ms. Giszpenc, manages the day-to-day activities of the organization. She began her career as an economics researcher at the World Bank, worked as an editor at the Nonprofit Quarterly, a magazine for nonprofit managers, and became a principal at Ownership Associates, Inc., a consulting firm in Cambridge, MA specializing in developing an ownership culture at employee-owned firms. As part of earning a Master's in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University, she did a thesis on the creation of a cooperative economy in the Northeast, including the practical development of an interactive cooperative directory, which has now evolved into the Data Commons Cooperative (www.datacommons.coop).