Our Theory of Change

I work on the home care team to transform the home care industry by strengthening existing home care cooperatives, supporting the development of new home care cooperatives, and scaling the home care cooperative sector and its impact on the care economy.

I have been able to support the development of ABQ Assisted Care en Comunidad, a worker-owned home health care cooperative, and Valley Abortion Group, a queer and BIPOC-led, employee-directed abortion clinic. With both, I have been so inspired by the commitment, dedication, persistence, and creativity of the members.

I work from home on unceded Tiwa lands in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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A book that has impacted me is The Many Headed Hydra: The Hidden History of the Revolutionary Atlantic by Peter Linebaugh and Marcus Rediker. It details the histories of some of the many people that fought against the rise of global capitalism, colonialism, and the transatlantic slave trade. I find it helpful to ground in and take inspiration from the stories of those who have acted creatively and collectively to envision, struggle for, and create a better world.

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Part of my work is on the Cross Programs Team, supporting business transitions to employee ownership, collaborating with partner organizations, and developing tools and resources for other ICA programs. I also work on the Fund for Jobs Worth Owning to support clients with loans and other financing assistance.

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I’m really interested in worker-owned businesses in the food industry. I’m a big fan of Equal Exchange’s teas and chocolates, and love that they support farmer cooperatives. I’m also a fan of Once Again’s peanut butter and almond butter.

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Robin Wall Kimmerer’s “Reclaiming the Honorable Harvest.” Kimmerer talks about the idea of living in reciprocity with the natural world, reframing what we take from the Earth as gifts rather than commodities, and asking us what we can give back.

I love spending time outdoors, walking and biking in NYC and getting out of the city to hike when I can. I also love watching and playing basketball.

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I live in Brooklyn and work out of our NYC office.

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I help businesses that are interested in converting to cooperative ownership better understand the process as it relates to their goals, financials, and structure.

I’m a big fan of the CERO Cooperative, a composting and food diversion company in Boston. They used a Direct Public Offering (DPO) to finance their business through community support. I love this model because it allows community members to invest in the success of a business they care about, providing opportunities for both the business and the community to build wealth and power.

Hannah Gadsby’s “Three ideas. Three contradictions. Or not.” She sort of flips comedy on its head, and has an incredible way of talking about vulnerability that I find really inspirational.

I love to spend time outdoors hiking, swimming, and biking (when Massachusetts weather allows). I’m also an amateur potter and I spend many afternoons throwing on the wheel after work.

Northampton

Many of my personal models for leadership come from novels, rather than books that specifically lay out leadership strategies. I find the characters in Octavia Butler’s novels to be particularly inspiring– Lauren from Parable of the Sower is probably my favorite example.

I work on the Home Care team supporting the creation of new home care cooperatives, strengthening existing cooperatives, and building a resilient sector for home care workers.

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I learned about worker-owned cooperatives on a visit to Home Care Associates in Philadelphia, which inspired me to learn more about the field. I’m grateful to now work with many inspiring home care cooperatives across the country!

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I love Donella Meadows’ lecture on sustainable systems (you can find it on Youtube) and her related book “Thinking In Systems.” While not directly about leadership, her teachings emphasize the power of relationships and information in shaping the behaviors and outputs of a system. She offers a holistic way of thinking that I believe all organizational leaders can learn something from.

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Trees, music, and food! I try to spend time outside as much as possible, whether that is biking through the city or camping in the woods. I usually have music playing throughout the day, and I play the drums and guitar. Cooking and tending to my container garden always bring me back to the present.

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I’m based in Philadelphia, PA.

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I collect and work to interpret data about the impact of employee ownership in the range of industries and regions that ICA operates. I also help develop content and resources about cooperative conversions.

I’m inspired and motivated by all child care and home care worker-owners, and their stories. And I do love Democracy Brewing.

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Nick Van Der Kolk’s work on Love & Radio, mostly non-linear character studies, is remarkable.

I was raised by a chef, so now a lot of my time is spent trying to recreate food that holds a candle to my childhood lunches. I like following events in gymnastics, tennis, and the dance industry. I love reading and writing of all kinds.

I work primarily out of the Northampton office, but you’ll catch me in the Boston office from time to time!

Although certainly not billed as a book on leadership, Ibram X. Kendi’s How To Be An Antiracist helped me think clearly about how much power policy has to produce equity in the spaces that matter in our lives, and how much power individuals have to advance policies in a democracy. There is a throughline here to worker ownership that has significantly impacted the way that I see the work we do at ICA. When workers have the ability to influence the policies in their workplaces, it naturally creates better jobs in industries where workers typically have little to no leverage.

On my best days, I am a coach, guide, and thought partner. I am responsible for much of our sales and development work, and I play a role in various coalitions and partnerships across the country. I also help to shape ICA’s long-term goals.

Lately I’ve been particularly inspired by the home care cooperatives we work with. For instance, Home Care Associates of Philadelphia has taken a major business challenge – recruitment and retention in a sector with a major workforce shortage and low wages that are largely dictated by public payment rates – and doubled down on ownership as a way to build meaningful connections with workers. In a sector with turnover approaching 80%, HCA is seeing more and more workers joining the cooperative as members.

“Will automation take away our jobs?” by David Autor. When we let middle skill jobs die, we create a chasm between bad jobs and good jobs that can’t be bridged. Autor’s work is one of the few places where this issue is being addressed, and his analysis has had a significant influence on ICA’s approach to our employee ownership conversion work.

A good day for me will involve time in the garden. Digging in the dirt is incredibly relaxing and I love that my mistakes often take a whole season to be truly understood. I also enjoy playing board and card games with my children, especially now that they are old enough to give me a run for my money.

I am based out of Northampton, a place I lived for a number of years when I went to UMass Amherst as an undergrad and grad student.

Building trusting relationships is really what leadership is really about and Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well by Douglas Stone & Sheila Heen is a great guide for giving feedback and having effective and engaging conversations. I also appreciate one of the central ideas in Building Long-Term Value: Developing a High-Performance Ownership Culture by Virginia J. Vanderslice and Alexander P. Moss – effective leaders treat information as a common resource for everyone to share, not a commodity that is only shared on a need-to-know basis.

Between 2017-2023, I led ICA’s home care program, contributing to growth and strengthening of the national home care cooperative sector through research, education, and consulting. Today, as Vice President of Home Care Innovations, I lead strategy, planning, and development of ICA’s scaled home care innovations including national and state-based secondary cooperatives, rapid replication models of home care cooperative development, acquisitions strategy and related work including partnership development, fundraising, and public education.

I deeply respect and admire each of the cooperatives we work with. Home Care Associates of Philadelphia and its core of deeply dedicated worker-owners stand-out as a particularly inspirational group for me as they live and breathe cooperative values in every aspect of their work and remain steadfast in their pursuit for quality jobs and quality care despite a continuous stream of challenges that push them in new and intense ways.

My recent favorite TED Talk is “How Mom’s Shape the World” by sociologist and author Anna Malaika Tubbs. In her talk, Tubbs shares about the lives of Alberta King, Louise Little and Berdis Baldwin (the mothers of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and James Baldwin, respectively), and their deep influence in the life trajectories and work of their celebrated sons. It was inspiring to hear the life stories and journeys of these three powerful women, and it was a great reminder that behind every great person are many others that shape and support them on their journey, that should be recognized and celebrated too.

I have two young children, so I don’t have a lot of time for myself. But ICA is incredibly supportive of self-care and work-life balance so I use the time and space given to me to connect with my family, cook, garden, travel and partake in the many activities I enjoy!

I’m based in our office in Northampton, a community I love!

The last leadership book I read was Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg. While Sandberg has come under scrutiny in recent years for her involvement at Facebook, her message still rings true for me. I have had to “lean in” many times in my career, despite feeling uncomfortable, unqualified, or unwelcome.  I see this a lot in the work that we do with home care cooperatives. Many caregivers, the majority of which are women, are initially intimidated by the prospect of business ownership and leadership. They have never had the opportunity to “lean in” in their workplaces and question their abilities. But when they do, they realize just how capable they are.

I help worker co-operatives thrive by offering support on new conversions, coaching existing ones, and building resources to strengthen the employee-owned sector. I also love facilitation and getting people to discuss and be creative together.

Bluestockings in the Lower East Side was one of the first co-ops I interacted with. The activism, openness and care that drives their work makes the space so special, especially as the neighborhood continues to change and they flex to the challenges that come their way. I also have a soft spot for bookstores!

Making things just for the sake of it is really important to me - whether that's music, being on the pottery wheel, or playing mahjong. I’ve also been working on a mag/zine project with some friends called Third Place Zine, where we celebrate the third places in cities across the world and the communities that keep them alive. Otherwise, I devote way too much time reviewing almost everything I watch / read / eat on the trifecta of Letterboxd, Goodreads, and my notes app.

I work hybrid out of home in Queens, New York and our Manhattan office with our amazing NYC team. I am super grateful to finally have my own desk at home and no longer share with my (very lovely) partner.

I work on the home care team and support existing home care cooperatives across the country, as well as agencies exploring the employee ownership model.

I spent ages 8-20 living in the Cumberland Green Cooperative in St. Charles, Illinois. I always thought we were just renters, but later learned that my parents were shared owners in the 204-unit complex. The co-op has large sprawling green spaces, a swimming pool, and bike paths—and it was integral in shaping who I am today. It provided an affordable place to live, and a space where families from varying backgrounds and countries, like my own, could begin to establish themselves and provide their children access to good schools, safe neighborhoods, and a community of support.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story.” Chimamanda presents relatable examples of interrogating her own internal narratives of others, the realization that others have created definitive narratives about her, and that these narratives are ever present but driven and reinforced by those in power.

I love to ride my bike, and try to take advantage of Massachusetts’ beautiful Rail Trails as often as possible. When I’m at home, it’s a balance between watering/talking to my plants and cleaning or organizing my space.

Boston

My role includes communications, marketing, digital content management, business support and development, and market research.

Mi Oh My Hydroponic Farms is a worker-owned business that I founded and am still a member of. The farm is primarily based in the Bronx and expanding into the Hudson Valley with a mission to eradicate food insecurity and provide wealth-building opportunities for our community.

Reggie Watts: Beats that defy boxes

Like the name implies, this “performance” has many layers and being mostly improvised, resonates with how I truly see the world: a place to make magic from nothing!

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What helps me maintain a work-life balance is my wellness practice, particularly yoga, deep tissue massages, acupuncture, chiropractic, and meditating in saunas.

My work is mostly done in Kingston, New York which is in the Hudson Valley, and I also spend time working in the New York City office.

Collective Courage by Jessica Gordon-Nembhard because it demonstrates how leadership is born out of adversity and resilience.

I work with business owners across ICA’s program areas to establish and grow cooperative ownership models in New York City.

I love my neighborhood cooperative, the Flatbush Food Coop. I can find products that local commercial supermarkets don’t carry, and I always appreciate the staff’s patience and friendly attitude.

“What nonprofits can learn from Coca-Cola” by Melinda Gates. Melinda challenges nonprofits to use aspirational marketing to create demand for their products and services.

I like to spend time with family and friends, having brunch or dinner out at each other’s homes. I also like attending the many low-cost and free events around New York City like concerts in the park, community plays, and street festivals.

I work in NYC from the ALIGN: the Alliance for a Greater New York offices in the financial district.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. Covey teaches that effective leadership is a process of self-development that takes work and time. In order to become more effective, we must first become independent. Then we must value interdependence over independence.

I work on a number of administrative projects, including bookkeeping and data entry.

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When I was a child, my family did the majority of our grocery shopping at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op. I remember being very intrigued by how it was set up.

Stella Young’s talk, “I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much.” It’s a well-laid-out evisceration of an all-too-common form of disability discrimination; this specific form is often viewed as a “good thing” in society.

I have a number of hobbies—fiber arts, cooking and baking, and indoor gardening—that I enjoy doing in my spare time and I work a part-time schedule that gives me plenty of that.

I am located in Northampton, where I moved shortly after graduating from Hampshire College.

I almost exclusively read SciFi and Fantasy novels. One of my favorite novels is The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. It’s about a young man who was never expected to take the throne; that is, until his father and older brothers are killed. He isn’t exactly imperial material, and he desperately tries to keep his kind heart while also wielding an immense amount of power. It looks very frankly at the compromises that people in power must make, and how hard it is to stay uncorrupted when making them.

I lead ICA’s New Ownership Opportunities work to I am on the organization’s cross program team. As part of this group, I work on a variety of projects regarding business conversation, feasibility reports, market assessments, research, and policy analysis.

One of my favorite organizations is the Wellspring Harvest in my hometown of Springfield, MA. The Wellspring Harvest is an affiliate of Wellspring Cooperative Corporation, an organization that aims to build a network for worker-owned cooperatives throughout the city. The Wellspring Harvest supplies fresh produce to local grocery stores, school districts, and other organizations in Western Massachusetts. Their community building work in my hometown has always been an inspiration to me.

I discovered what I’ve come to think of as “dirt therapy” I think work-life balance is key to overall well-being. I enjoy spending time with family and friends, watching movies, listening to music, video games, and learning about history. I also like exploring many of the great activities happening around NYC.

I am based out of New York City. I work from both the ALIGN: the Alliance for a Greater New York offices and my home office in Queens.

A People’s History of the United States, by Howard Zinn is a book that greatly influenced my passion for public service and nonprofit work. As an avid history buff, I enjoyed Zinn’s telling of American history. However, more importantly, I was inspired by stories of resilience, resistance, collective action, and leadership from everyday people. These are stories that are often left out of typical American discourse. Although it is not a traditional book on leadership, I believe it teaches valuable lessons on collaboration, creating a vision, and overcoming difficult circumstances. Ultimately, this book taught me that with enough passion, anyone can be a leader in their own right

I lead ICA’s New Ownership Opportunities work to cement employee ownership into the standard economic and business development toolkit, including with our partners in local and state government. I also help build new collaborative models to support and resource broad-based employee ownership at scale.

I had the opportunity to visit the Mondragon cooperatives with leaders from the Bronx and NYC as an inspiration for our own regional economic development initiative in the Bronx. Mondragon’s scale (over 70,000 employees and $16 billion in revenues), diversity of companies (industrial, distribution, retail, finance, and knowledge), and resilience (survived previous economic downtowns with fewer layoffs by re-absorbing workers in other firms) shows what is possible for cooperatives when they are organized as a network with their own support institutions.

I discovered what I’ve come to think of as “dirt therapy” when I spontaneously decided to rip up a small patch of grass last summer and planted a garden in its place. This started what I suspect will be a life-long gardening practice, and a great source of personal calm, connection to the land, and joy!

I work primarily in Massachusetts and NYC.

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I recently re-read Leading from the Emergent Future: From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies by Otto Sharmer and Katrin Kaufer. It is based on a social technology called Theory U which is all about shifting individual and collective awareness in order to source and co-create new (in this case, economic) systems that respond to the needs of the whole and serve our wellbeing.

I work on the cross-program team to support new cooperative conversions as well as supporting the success of existing worker-owned businesses.

I am inspired by the White Electric Coffee Co-op in Providence, RI, which transitioned to employee We have so many great worker co-ops in NYC I can’t pick just one. I’m a subscriber to Hell Gate and love the way they employ the cooperative model in service of great local journalism. I love the ambition of the Drivers Cooperative, which is building a worker-owned alternative to Uber and Lyft. When I lived in their delivery zone, I loved getting fresh produce from Brooklyn Packers. Recently, I’ve been enjoying stopping by Donna, NYC’s newest worker-owned cocktail bar, for a happy hour drink.

It’s not a TED talk officially, but when I was a senior in college I saw Gar Alperovitz give a version of this talk about the role that worker and community ownership can play in systemic transformation and it had a pretty enormous impact on me and my path to this work.

In all but the very coldest months of the year you can find me taking the subway to one of NYC’s many wonderful public beaches. If I’m not doing that I’m probably cooking, watching basketball, listening to music, reading a science fiction novel, or playing cards with friends.

I live in beautiful Brooklyn, NY and work out of our NYC office.

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I’ve frequently found myself going back to For All The People by John Curl and Collective Courage by Jessica Gordon Nembhard – two great and complementary histories of the cooperative movement in the United States. In particular, these texts have helped me understand how cooperative and community ownership strategies have been leveraged as part of larger struggles for labor, environmental, and racial justice.

I lead ICA’s home care program, working with home care cooperatives and supporters across the country to build a thriving home care cooperative sector. This includes providing technical assistance to cooperatives and startups, exploring new partnerships and opportunities for home care cooperative development, and building the case for the cooperative difference in home care.

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I am inspired by the White Electric Coffee Co-op in Providence, RI, which transitioned to employee ownership in 2021.  I worked at White Electric for many years as a part-time barista, and I am thrilled to see that some of my former coworkers are now worker-owners. I am proud that Providence has a co-op cafe that will provide good food service jobs and circulate profits locally for years to come.

I love spending time outside – walking, hiking, gardening, or just basking in the sun. Noticing the sights, smells, and sounds around me always helps me get grounded.

I live in Western Massachusetts and work out of our Northampton office.

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I work on the home care team to support home care I will be supporting the development and growth of Home care cooperatives across the US and contribute to the creation of the Elevate cooperative. Elevate will strengthen the home care cooperative world and build the collective voice and power of home care cooperatives so that we can create the policy changes needed to recognize the worth and lift up the quality of life for all home care workers.

Brightly Washington Heights is the first worker cooperative that I helped develop. They are powerful guerreras who inspire me to this day and are family. They have pushed through obstacles with grace and ferocity and continue to grow their cleaning services business, check them and the whole Brightly crew!

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My fave Ted talk is Brené Brown’s “The power of vulnerability”. I really appreciate this Ted Talk because it affirms my journey to live the most authentic version of myself. The more we lean into vulnerability, lead with the heart and practice gratitude, the better equipped we will be to build a cooperative economy and create the world we want to live in.

Homebase is East Elmhurst, Queens! I work hybrid sometimes from home and sometimes out of our NYC office.

As Director of Lending, I manage the lending and outreach work for the Fund for Jobs Worth Owning, which helps design financing solutions for employee-owned businesses, and provides capital for conversions to worker ownership.

Cooperative Care is a passionate, selfless group of people (mostly women) who are working so hard to take care of the vulnerable people in their community. This small company of 40 caregivers has taught me what being a cooperative is all about: creating a business that brings joy to the people who work there, because it becomes an extension of themselves.

“Why not eat insects?” by Marcel Dicke. A very practical (albeit hard to swallow) talk. I’m an inner environmentalist and outward vegetarian, but might be okay with eating insects to save the world!

Working from home and having flexibility as a working parent really makes me feel balanced. I also love to garden and work outside around my house. I’m usually covered with dirt at the end of each Saturday in the summer.

I work from home in East Falmouth, Massachusetts (Cape Cod).

I really like Good to Great by Jim Collins. In particular, the ‘Hedgehog Concept’, which basically says that the most successful and enduring businesses are built at the intersection of what you are passionate about doing, what you can make money on, and what you can be the best in the world at. It’s a strong foundation for businesses, including cooperatives!

With a leading focus on organizational culture; hiring and staff development; team coordination; and office policies and procedures, I strive to drive internal organizational development and support a thriving democratic workplace, bringing a lens of equity, diversity, and inclusion to everything I do.

Before joining the ICA team, I wasn’t very familiar with worker-owned businesses, and didn’t truly understand the power and promise they hold for changing the economic landscape. That has certainly changed, and I haven’t met a worker-owned business yet that hasn’t inspired me!

As a mother of a thriving teenager, work-life balance is key. I make a conscious effort to avoid scheduling back-to-back meetings and do my best to merge my personal and professional calendars to plan ahead. My daughter plays ALL the sports, so when I am not working, you will likely find me on the sidelines or in the stands cheering my her on!

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I am based out of Northampton, where I’ve lived for a number of years after graduating Smith College as an Ada Comstock Scholar.

Adam Grant is particularly intriguing to me. As a philosophy major and systems-thinker, Think Again, really resonated with me. Most recently, Jennifer Morton’s Moving Up Without Losing Your Way: The Ethical Costs of Upward Mobility really hit home. While it is written within the context of higher-ed, it highlights the true cost and the moral and ethical barriers people from underrepresented communities face when trying to break societal norms. A perspective that is essential, particularly in equity and inclusion work.

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