Everything Co-op With Vernon Oakes

November 16, 2023 Everything Co-op continues its observance of National American Indian Heritage Month, with an interview of Josephine Foo, executive director of Indian Country Grassroots Support, and project attorney with the Diné Nihi Kéyah Project, and Raymond Deal traditional counselor with Diné Bá Álchíní Yił Ádaaní Navajo Family Voices. Vernon and his guests will discuss the role Lawyers and counselors play in representing tribal communities, and families in the Navajo Nation. Josephine Foo is executive director of Indian Country Grassroots Support and project attorney with the Diné Nihi Kéyah Project, which maps land base and local governance information and laws that impact community life on the Navajo Nation. She has served Diné communities since 2000 including eight years in the Navajo Nation Supreme Court, Office of the Chief Justice. She is a member of the Cooperative Professionals Guild webinar planning circle. Raymond Deal is a traditional counselor with Diné Bá Álchíní Yił Ádaaní Navajo Fami

November 9, 2023 Everything Co-op's kicks off its observance of National American Indian Heritage Month, with an interview of Eva Seidelman, associate at Chestnut Law Offices, and Kevin J. Fort, Executive Director and CFO of Regenerative Business Institute (RBI). Vernon and his guests will discuss the role Lawyers and accountants play in representing tribal communities, governments, businesses and non-profit organizations. Eva Seidelman is an associate at Chestnut Law Offices. Her practice includes cooperative formation, and other business, housing and community development legal service, as well as general counsel representation to tribal governments and organizations. Ms. Seidelman leads CLO’s partnership with Cooperative Catalyst to provide legal services to cooperatives throughout the Southwest and has practiced cooperative and community development law for almost a decade. Kevin J. Fort is the Executive Director and CFO of Regenerative Business Institute (RBI). RBI is a cooperative financial services f

October 12, 2023 Vernon interviews Angela Marie Sayles, CEO of Little Africa Food Collaborative. Angela. Vernon will discuss her efforts to address land and food rights, and the topic of Rethinking Market Studies for Black Led Cooperatives. Angela holds the position of CEO for the Little Africa Food Cooperative. She advocates for local food systems and cooperatives, lobbying within the Ag Noire Coalition and the National Cooperative Business Association. Angela’s work as research facilitator, with National Black Food & Justice Alliance Market Study Group, has produced a 40-page summary report on the topic of Rethinking Market Studies for Black Led Cooperatives. Most recently, Angela hosted the United Nations parallel event focused on Innovation and Technology in Land and Food Rights for Global African Women and Girls at the 67th Commission on the Status of Women. Angela is involved in local, national, and global projects addressing land and food rights, cooperative ownership equity, financial sustainabilit

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, organize

September 28, 2023 Sheldon C. Petersen retired governor and CEO of the National Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation (CFC), discusses his co-op journey, and projections about the future of the cooperative movement. Sheldon Petersen served as Governor/CEO of CFC for 26 years from 1995 until his retirement in 2021. He began his career in the rural electrification program in 1976 as staff assistant for Nishnabotna Valley REC in Harlan, Iowa. He later served as general manager of Rock County Electric Cooperative Association in Janesville, Wisconsin in the early 1980's. Petersen joined CFC in 1983 as an area representative providing financial management and consulting services to CFC members in the states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana, and the Dakotas. In 1990, he moved to CFC headquarters where he held various management positions. Petersen also served as the CEO of two CFC affiliated organizations targeted to the financial needs of the electric cooperatives and rural telecommunications com

September 21, 2023 Everything Co-op continues it's tribute to the 2023 Cooperative Hall of Fame inductees, with an interview of Leslie Mead, retired Executive Director of the Cooperative Development Foundation. Leslie discusses her co-op journey, and projections about the future of the cooperative movement with Vernon. After growing up in Indiana and attending college in Iowa, Mead moved to Washington, DC and took a job with the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC) as assistant general counsel. After a decade with NCFC, she moved into her role as an independent consultant, where she developed education projects for NCFC, set up the Leadership Scholarship Program for the Ralph K. Morris Foundation, and served as the executive administrator for the Association of Cooperative Educators (ACE). Building upon its historic strengths, while redirecting resources to meet a more diverse contemporary and future audience, Mead helped ACE re-establish itself as a premier educational organization, with uniqu

August 14, 2021 Everything Co-op continues its tribute in honor of the 2023 Cooperative Hall of Fame Inductees, with an interview of co-op housing advocate, Linda Leaks. Linda and Vernon discuss her cooperative journey, and projections for the future. Linda Leaks, affectionately known as the "Godmother of Housing Co-ops," is a Co-founder of the Ella Jo Baker Intentional Community, and at least 20 other housing co-ops in the Washington DC Metro Area. Linda's’ organizing of tenants for housing justice and housing cooperatives is legendary in the DC Community. She is highly revered and respected as a consummate advocate for addressing housing inequities. Leaks moved to Washington, DC in 1978, during a period of immense gentrification. As she witnessed the drastic change in the city, and pursued a career that would enable her to address the impact of its transformation. Linda ultimately earned a degree in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University. In 1982, Leaks led the founding

September 7, 2023 Everything Co-op has dedicated the Month of September to interview the 2023 Hall of Fame Inductees. Induction into the Cooperative Hall of Fame is the highest honor that the U.S. cooperative community bestows on the extraordinary men and women who have made genuinely heroic contributions in support of the cooperative form of enterprise. The first interview to kick off this tribute was with Maurice Smith, Attorney and Counselor at Law, and retired CEO of Local Government Federal Credit Union (LGFCU) . Maurice and Vernon discussed his co-op journey, and projections about the future of the cooperative movement. As the retired CEO of LGFCU, the fourth largest credit union in North Carolina, Maurice led expansion of the institution at an industry-leading pace—16-fold organic growth rate to current $3.8B in assets—while creating an enduring brand for 400,000 members. Maurice has accomplished this with his agile style of leadership, based on co-op principles and values, and staying focused on m

August 24, 2023 Joanne Lechasseur, Co-founder, Program Director of the Global Innovation Cooperative Summit, and Zuraidah Hoffman, Communications Director for the Global Innovation Cooperative Summit, discuss the upcoming Global Innovation Cooperative Summit, which will occur in Montreal, September 27 – 29, 2023. Zuraidah Hoffman is an Independent International Cooperative Communications consultant, with more than 20 years of experience in communications. Her cooperative journey began with NRECA International, a US-based global rural electrification NGO that takes its roots from the American electric cooperative movement. She continues to support their communications needs and travels the world to produce stories on the impact rural electric cooperatives have on improving lives. Zuraidah is currently the Communications Director for the Global Innovation Cooperative Summit. In 2021, Zuraidah was the MC for International Cooperative Alliance’s (ICA) 33rd World Cooperative Congress in Seoul and led the Congres

August 10, 2023 Vernon interviews Deb Trocha, Executive Director at Indiana Cooperative Development Center (ICDC). Deb and Vernon discuss the Up & Coming Food Co-op Conference, "The River of Cooperation." The conference will be held at the InterContinental Saint Paul Riverfront hotel, September 14 - 16, 2023. For the first time ever, the Up & Coming Food Co-op Conference will be held in a city that is home to multiple food co-ops. Conference organizers are excited to have five local food co-op hosts for 2023 including: Eastside Food Co-op; Mississippi Market; Seward Community Co-op; Valley Natural Foods Cities and TCCP (Twin Cities Co-op Partners).” Two notable points are: the Early bird rate has been extended to August 11, and the Hotel room block (see reduced rates), expires August 23, 2023. Deb Trocha joined the Indiana Cooperative Development Center (ICDC) in 2006 after serving as Executive Director of the Indiana Small Business Development Center. During that time, she worked with many different type

August 3, 2023 Vernon interviews Minnie McMahon, Coordinator of the Greater Boston Community Land Trust Network. Vernon and Minnie discuss the role community land trusts play in retaining collective control, strengthening diverse neighborhoods, creating permanent affordability in housing, and the history of the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative (DSNI). Minnie McMahon is the Coordinator of the Greater Boston Community Land Trust Network, hosted by Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative. She started at DSNI in 2019, acting as the Project and Operations Manager at Dudley Neighbors, Inc., the community land trust. Before that, Minnie worked for small farms in Massachusetts, California and New York, growing flowers, developing systems, and advocating for workers' rights. Shared governance and the role of power in social systems have been throughlines in Minnie’s work.

July 27, 2023 Vernon interviews Dr. Dawn Carpenter, director of the Solidarity Economy Workshop. Vernon and Dawn discuss the theological nature of work and the moral responsibilities of wealth. Dr. Dawn Carpenter is an ethicist and a leading authority on the theological nature of work and the moral responsibilities of wealth. She is the founding director of the Solidarity Economy Workshop and the host and executive producer of the What Does It Profit podcast that seeks to tell the stories of the solidarity economy through the lens of contributive justice theory. She comes to this work as a veteran of Wall Street where she engineered the capitalization of over $3 billion for some of the country’s most venerable social purpose corporations. Her first podcast, More than Money, reached the Top 15 on the iTunes Business chart and was rated as a Top 15 Podcast that Will Inspire You to Change the World by Causeartist.com. Her work seeks to provide a moral foundation for economic and social justice. In recognition

July 20, 2023 Peter Dean leads National Co-op Community Services, the national division of UHAB, in New York City. UHAB has empowered New York City tenants to create over 1,300 limited equity housing cooperatives totaling over 30,000 homes during the past 50 years. NCCS is offering incubators around the country to share the lessons UHAB has learned so others can build permanently affordable housing cooperatives throughout the US.ds Peter has developed and managed permanently affordable housing co-ops, grocery and cable television co-ops as well as non-profit and for-profit affordable housing. He lives in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC and has an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.

July 13, 2023 Gary Hampton, Business Growth Consultant, and Vice Chair of the Association of Cooperative Educators' (ACE) Board of Directors, discusses the upcoming Climate, Cooperatives and Resilience conference, sponsored by ACE, on August 7-10, 2023, in San Juan Puerto Rico. Gary W. Hampton is an expert on organizational development, fundraising and community-based economic development. He advises, trains and coaches' businesses and nonprofit organizations on strategic growth and development. Hampton has nearly two decades of experience in IT and strategic development across different industry sectors (Technology, Financial, Government, Private, Non-profit, Retail, Education). Mr. Hampton is also active in community-based cooperative economic development and a member owner of the Ajani Group Cooperative. He is a passionate cooperative and community supporter. Hampton currently sits on the boards of Create WV, Compensation Committee and Association of Cooperative Educators, Vice Chair. He holds a BA fr

June 22, 2023 Vernon Interviews Mark Goehring, Manager of Columinate and Common Good Management Services (Common Good); and Alejandra Chavez, Community Service Representative at Common Good. Our host, Vernon Oakes, is a member consultant of Columinate, and has been on the Common Good development team since its inception in Fall 2018. Vernon and his guests discuss the overarching goals and objectives of Columinate, and the many facets of Common Good. Mark Goehring is the Manager of Columinate, a cooperative of consultants who share strategies, tools and skills that help organizations build and empower community. Mark also assists with the development of tools and resources to support effective governance, and provides ongoing management and board support. Alejandra Chavez is the Community Service Representative for Common Good. She manages three different Mobil Parks, offering local resources to its residents and promoting social justice in everything she does. Her dream is to continuing raising community aw

Vernon interviews Erika Allen, Co-Founder and CEO of Operations for Urban Growers Collective. Erika discusses the Urban Growers Collective's apprenticeship program, and how the cooperative business model can be used to address food insecurity in urban areas. Erika Allen is the Co-Founder and CEO of Operations for Urban Growers Collective, President of Green ERA Educational NFP and Co-Owner of Green Era Sustainability Partners. Previously, Allen founded and was the Director of Growing Power — Chicago from 2002 to 2017. She is the co-founder of the Chicago Food Policy Action Council, serves on the board of Grow Greater Englewood and Leadership Council for Growing Home, and is an advisor for the Community Food Navigator project. Allen has been appointed by IL Governor J.B. Pritzker for the IL Leadership Council for Agricultural Education (ICAE) for a 3 Year term (2022–24). Allen was recently appointed by the Biden Administration to join the Farm Service Agency Committee for Illinois. She is also a Co-Chair of t

May 25, 2023 Julian McKinley, Senior Communications Director, at Democracy At Work Institute (DAWI), discusses DAWI's work with the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives to track, measure, and support worker co-ops through research, and the launch of its bi-annual census with Robert McClinton and Pat Thornton. DAWI staff are excited, because when the results of the census are evaluated, they will be able to look at 10 years of worker co-op data for the first time in history. Julian McKinley leads DAWI's communications initiatives in support of its work to expand worker ownership. He is a passionate and mission-driven storyteller with deep roots in community empowerment and economic development, previously leading organizational storytelling and strategic communications around community and systems-level economic change at United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut and Capital Institute. Julian began his career as a community news editor in Connecticut, where he founded and managed operations of multi

April 6, 2023 Vernon interviews Bob Allnutt, and Leslie Nordin. Vernon and his guests Bob and Leslie will discuss how co-ops are solving housing needs for their adult children with special needs, Bob and Leslie also introduce The Neighborhood of Maryland, Inc, and the Big Wave Project, two programs they have established as a vehicle for their efforts. Bob Allnutt is a real estate broker and developer in Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. Bob and his wife Amy are parents to three children, daughters Elizabeth and Emma, and their son Jack. Non-speaking and autistic, Jack learned to communicate via typing at age 10 and was mainstreamed in the public school system. Now 21, Jack has graduated from high school and will start college to pursue his interest in finance and the stock market. Jack was one of the stories featured in the 2017 documentary Far from the Tree, based on the Andrew Solomon bestseller. Bob has used the knowledge and contacts accumulated from over 40 years of real estate experience – suppleme

April 27, 2023 This week Vernon continues his discussion of "Humanity@Work&life-Global Diffusion of the Mondragon Cooperative Ecosystem Experience,” with an interview of contributing author, John Holdsclaw IV, President and CEO of Rochdale Capital. Vernon and John discuss the challenges and opportunities of financing worker cooperatives, and new initiatives of Rochdale Capital. John Holdsclaw IV currently serves as president and CEO of Rochdale Capital, a newly formed, national non-profit community development loan fund that provides financing and technical assistance to cooperative enterprises and other community-based organizations. Rochdale Capital focuses on making financial services accessible to under-resourced communities, specifically to women and/or minority-owned small and growing businesses. John currently serves on the board of directors of Global Communities, Groundswell, Partners for Common Good, and American Bankers Association (ABA) Stonier Graduate School of Banking. In addition, John is the

April 13, 2023 Michael Alden Peck, Co-founder/Executive Director of 1worker1vote, and Co-editor of "Humanity@Work&life-Global Diffusion of the Mondragon Cooperative Ecosystem Experience,” and contributing author, Sara Horowitz. Michael and Sara will give an overview of the book, discuss the Build Mutualism and Humanity@Work&life campaigns, and explore next steps on the pathway to the greater common good. Michael Peck serves as executive director and cofounder 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 for the American Sustainable Business Network, and was