Skip to main content

Author

GEO

Bio for Jim Johnson

Jessica Gordon-Nembhard, Ph.D., has been a member of GEO since 2001; is a co-founder of the Eastern Conference for Workplace Democracy (and was its long term Treasurer), and a charter member of the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives. She is a political economist and Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay College, City University of New York; an affiliate scholar at a couple of co-op research centers, as well as a board member of several non-profit organizations. Author of Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice, she’s a mother of two and grandmother or four.

 

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"437","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"266","style":"width: 122px; height: 116px; float: right; margin-left: 8px; margin-right: 8px;","width":"278"}}]]Immanuel Ness teaches political science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. He is the director of the Labor Policy Institute and Deputy Director of the Graduate Center for Worker Education. He has been a labor organizer and has authored several books on labor, migration and social transformation. He is also the editor of Working USA: The Journal of Labor and Society.

Dr. Alberto Corbino is a human geographer, born and raised in the South of Italy, a beautiful but complicated place. He is currently teaching Economics of Organized Crime and Social Innovation at Arcadia University Centre for Italian Studies in Rome. In the last two years he has worked as part-time professor in Environmental economics and law at University of Naples - Federico II. For some 20 years, as a professional and a community builder, he has been working to understand how the theories of sustainable development could be turned into practices, thus becoming an expert on the co-existence of legitimate and illegitimate systems of government and economies. He transformed this experience into training processes for students of any grade, a job he loves: in his vision, learning and understanding are essential to change.

In 2004 Dr. Corbino completed an executive program in Innovation in Governance at Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, MA; in 2000 he received a Ph.d from the University of Padua and in 1992 he graduated with honors in Political Sciences at University of Naples – Federico II. In 1998 he worked as national expert at the European Commission in Bruxelles as coordinator of IMPEL - European Network for the Implementation and Enforcement of Environmental Law.

In 1999 he co-funded the Campania regional branch of the NGO Mani Tese (fighting the imbalances between North and South of the world); he currently manages the non-profit organization Il Vagabondo (The tramp) to promote responsible tourism in the South of Italy. He volunteers for Banca Popolare Etica to make the social assessments of projects.

Contact him at: corbinoa [at] arcadia.edu; albertocorbino [at] gmail.com; skype: labuonaeconomia
blog: http://labuonaeconomia.wordpress.com (In Italian)

Brian Van Slyke and David Morgan are both worker-owners at The Toolbox for Education and Social Action (TESA), which has participated in the creation of numerous cooperative education materials and programs since 2010, including many cooperative academies. TESA also published the renowned Co-opoly: The Game of Cooperatives and co-produced the Own the Change: Building Economic Democracy One Worker Co-op at a Time documentary.  They are also active in many other social and economic justice movements. David lives in Northampton, MA; Brian lives in Chicago, IL.

 

 

Brian Van Slyke's adventures in the popular education and cooperative economics movements began in 2005 when he founded a record label that soon became a worker collective. In 2007, he facilitated a participatory class at a community-learning center for teens in Massachusetts about starting cooperatively-run record labels. That experience cemented his dedication to democratizing education for democratizing our workplaces, economy, and society. Since then, Brian has designed workshops, curricula, board games, and other educational resources on topics ranging from people's history to co-ops and social change movements. Brian is a member of the worker-owned cooperative The Toolbox for Education and Social Action (TESA) – toolboxfored.org, which designs participatory educational resources for social and economic change. brian AT toolboxfore DOT org

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"431","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"197","style":"width: 106px; height: 111px; float: right; margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px;","width":"189"}}]]

Andrew Stachiw's interest and experience in education, curriculum, and cooperative movements was catalyzed during his time at Hampshire College, beginning in 2006. While at Hampshire, Andrew completed a thesis on American Expansionism and Indian Removal Policy, while at the same time receiving a Massachusetts Teaching License for Secondary Education as a History Teacher. Andrew has extensive experience designing and and implementing curriculum and lesson plans. Furthermore, Andrew has created and designed workshops and conferences for a variety of issues, ranging from educational resources to social justice and social change movements. Andrew is a member of the worker-owned cooperative The Toolbox for Education and Social Action (TESA) – toolboxfored.org, which designs participatory educational resources for social and economic change.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"432","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"99","style":"width: 138px; height: 84px;","width":"162"}}]]

The Toolbox for Education and Social Action (TESA) is a worker-owned, next-generation publisher of participatory resources for social and economic change. (Including Co-opoly: The Game of Cooperatives). TESA also provides services to support individuals and organizations developing and implementing their own educational materials, programs, and digital resources.