Tune in to WOL 1450 AM, 95.9 FM, and WOL Livestream on December 7 at 10:30 am EST for Everything Co-op, hosted by Vernon Oakes. This week, Everything Co-op continues its 2023 Holiday List, a thoughtfully curated list of products and services from the cooperative community. In the 2nd installment, Vernon will introduce you to three of his picks for your mind and community.
Christina Jennings, Executive Director of Shared Capital Cooperative; Christina Clamp, Director of the Center for Co-operatives and Economic Development at Southern New Hampshire University; Michael Peck, Executive Director and Co-founder of 1worker1vote; and Kevin O’Brien, General Manager of Worx Printing will share their products and services featured in the 2023 Holiday list.
Christina Jennings is the Executive Director of Shared Capital Cooperative. This national CDFI loan fund provides financing to support the growth and development of cooperatively owned businesses and affordable housing. Christina has over 25 years of experience in community development finance in the US and internationally. Her work has focused on economic justice and creating equitable access to capital. She joined Shared Capital in 2008, where she provides strategic leadership, oversees lending, and leads capitalization efforts. She has also launched and managed small businesses and social ventures.
Christina holds a Master’s in Community Economic Development and Nonprofit Management from the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a BA in Gender and Development from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. She serves on the boards of directors of the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA-CLUSA), the Cooperative Development Foundation, and the City of Lakes Community Land Trust.
Christina Clamp is the Director of the Center for Co-operatives and Economic Development. She has over 40 years of teaching experience as a professor of sociology at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). She is also a consulting researcher on a national study of catalyzing community wealth with the American Sustainable Business Network.
Christina has been actively promoting the study of cooperatives since her dissertation, which was a study of management in the Mondragon cooperatives. She has consulted with various clients, including the National Cooperative Bank and the US Department of Agriculture Rural Development. Her board work includes the board chair of LEAF, a CDFI, the ICA Group, and the Fund for Jobs Worth Owning.
Michael Peck serves as executive director and co-founder of 1worker1vote. Emerging from the October 2009 collaboration MOU between the United Steelworkers and Mondragon International, 1worker1vote serves as fiscal sponsor for the 2022-2023 Build Mutualism Campaign. Peck is also co-founder and managing director of a second for-profit start-up, The Virtuous Cycle Collaboratory, a majority-minority worker cooperative and social enterprise (mission: to “flatten unequal socioeconomic curves into shared prosperity virtuous cycles”).
Michael is a board member of the American Sustainable Business Network and was the 2019 recipient of ASBC’s Sustainable Leaders Award. At ASBN, Michael focuses on three campaigns: “Ownership4All”; “Own The Metrics” – Alternative ESG Human & Social Capital Assets with UNRISD + SEE and Rebuild Social Economy Ukraine through the SEE/ASBN Sustainability Collaboration Partnership announced in December 2020.
Kevin O’Brien is the founder and general manager of the worker-owned union cooperative Worx Printing in Worcester, MA (USW 2936). Worx is a third-generation evolution of the Union Co-Op Model codified in 1worker1vote by the United Steelworkers and the Mondragon Cooperative. For 28 years, he has cooperated with others to advance anti-sweatshop movement policies and practices in the apparel industry. His experiences have helped thousands of Labor Unions, Nonprofits, and Political Campaigns to lift awareness, advance campaigns and programs, and improve fundraising results using ethically manufactured branded merchandise.