Careers in Impact Event
Careers in Impact is an opportunity to learn more about what a career centered around doing good for people and planet could look like. We have a line up of amazing speakers listed below. The event will have two parts: short talks by each of the five professionals followed by breakout rooms for Q&A and networking.
Sander Reuderink (1985), started his career aged 13 as a computer programmer but fell in love with coffee after visiting his in-lawʼs coffee farm in Jamaica. Sander worked as a coffee trader and coffee roaster in both the Netherlands and Germany and as Commercial Director at a medium-sized sustainable coffee trading company in the Netherlands. Growing ever more annoyed with the traditional coffee sector’s inability to address systemic poverty among coffee farmers and farmworkers, as well as the impact of coffee production on our climate, Sander switched from commodity trading to impact technology. Currently, Sander is Director of Business Development at Topl, the world's first blockchain built to be a global impact monetization engine located in Austin, TX. Besides his work at Topl, Sander is also active as the founder of Carble, an impact technology startup helping coffee brands reduce their impact on the climate by rewarding smallholder farmers for storing carbon.
Meghan is the founder of the ethical lifestyle brand, HarperSage, which was born out of the desire to embrace her own duality. Meghan grew up in the 1990s, a time synonymous with labels for women like “girly” and “tomboy.” She went on to play D1 soccer at the University of Wisconsin - Madison (UW), but she started to look for a creative outlet to balance out the grind of competition. She chose to study Textile & Fashion Design at UW, eventually landing at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. She has designed for ultra-femme brands like Carolina Herrera and Anthropologie, where at times, her work was deemed too “masculine.” She felt she had to choose at times- being both athletic and creative, and thus HarperSage was born. HarperSage is the first ethical lifestyle brand to empower dynamic, multifaceted women through style and community. Meghan hopes to inspire other women that they too can be anything they want to be even if those things seem opposite.
Medora is a Project Manager in the Nairobi office of Dalberg Global Development Advisors. Her project work has included supporting multinationals in market-entry decisions, advising donor-funded organizations in the creation of new program offerings; advising governments on the development of universal health care systems, and more. She has sector-specific experience in health and pharmaceuticals, COVID-19 economic recovery and resilience, green growth and forest economies, youth employment, agriculture, education, gender empowerment, digital skills transfer, and water and sanitation. Medora holds an MBA from The Wharton School and an M.A. in International Studies (Francophone Africa) from The Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She graduated cum laude with a B.A. from Vanderbilt University, where she majored in Political Science (High Honors) and French.
Jill L. Barrett is Interim Executive Director at The Lever Fund where she leads the creation and implementation of strategic initiatives that help the organization build on its assets and activate all stakeholders in the fight to end poverty. An executive coach with a background in social innovation, Jill brings a holistic approach to this work. Over the course of her long career in DC, Jill held leadership positions in the business, nonprofit, think tank and political arenas, specializing in creating and launching bold, empathetic programs from the ground up -- including places like Ashoka, the world's largest network of social entrepreneurs, and the DC Mayor's Technology Office where she was instrumental in establishing the District’s first digital inclusion program. Jill is the eighth generation in her family born and raised in the Washington, D.C. region.
Kalena Bonnier-Cirone graduated from Cornell University in 2021 with a B.S. in Environment & Sustainability and minors in Climate Change and Law & Society. At Cornell, Kalena was a Senior Consultant with SBC and participated in a range of research labs that focused on topics such as women’s empowerment and food security, roadside ditch networks and water quality, and the impacts of climate change on agricultural production. She is currently an Associate at Malk Partners and serves on a team that specializes in providing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) advisory services for Venture Capital and Growth Equity. While the Venture Capital and Growth Equity team engages with a range of industries, Kalena primarily serves clients in the technology space.