Meet the DEAL Community

Mexico

I am 47 years old, studied business administration in Mexico, then studied an MBA in Barcelona, and worked for over 20 years in things that I hated, just maximizing profit. In 2018 my life came to a turning point, probably the midlife crisis, and I started questioning everything. Why am I working here? Why am I living here? What is my purpose in life? Is this the life I want? Is making money my only purpose in life? One thing lead to another and all this questions made me aware of the planetary crisis we are in. I decided that was something I really wanted to get involved in. I made that my purpose in life. But when I started exploring it, a whole universe opened. I had no idea what I wanted to do. So I started studying, reading and experimenting a lot of new things. Permaculture, agro ecology, bio construction, systems thinking, community resilience, I worked in a couple of NGO’s looking for something that I really loved, believed in and wanted to put my life into. Then I found the transition movement, started reading Rob Hopkins, took the transition facilitators training program, and that really resonated with me. I feel that at the core of our multi crisis there is a lack of imagination from our end (the majority), and a necessity of maintaining the status quo for a minuscule minority. I also feel that other main issue we need to work on is our disconnection with Nature. I LOVE Nature. I am Nature. We are Nature. So that is other issue I am getting involved in. Reconnecting myself to Nature and being of service to others to reconnect with Gaia. So, at the moment I am taking an online course with Gaia Education and in march I am taking other two “in person” programs. My intention is to become a trainer and be of service to others in feeling and re connecting to our Mother Earth. I will be collaborating with a community in San Cristobal to hold space for these re integration with Nature process. I also feel a profound calling to imagination, to re imagine new worldviews. As Albert Einstein once said, in times of crisis imagination is more important than intellect. So I started reading a lot in the subject of imagination, collective imagination, futures thinking and participatory futures (IFTF), social imagination, Rudolf Steiner, Michael Meade, Ken Robinson, Octavia Butler… I would love to learn, to imagine together, to be of service, to imagine a future for every living being with no one left out. Let me share with you what I have been imagining, visualizing and feeling is needed. I feel we need physical, local, safe spaces to create community to practice our collective imagination and futures thinking. Not only a temporal workshop or gathering. Most of our “third places” have been displaced by shopping malls and consumerism. We need to create spaces where imagination is practiced, where we can create community, art, myth, share our visions and our grief. Play, imagine and create together. At the same time we need to be connected to all that is going on around the planet. To all the imagination, the creativity and visions of the future. To share our knowledge so we can create collective wisdom. I feel we need to create physical local spaces all around the world with interconnected sharing of all that is learned and of all the possibilities being imagined and created. What worked, what did not, methodologies, reading material, personal and group learnings (gold), visions of the future, signals and drivers…

Ankara

Independent Consultant Degrowth, Integral Politics, Gift Economy, Shared Resources

Didcot

Student of Sustainability & Ecology at the Centre for Alternative Technology, Machynlleth, Wales. Long time fan of the Doughnut. Previous career in the Humanitarian and Development, specialized in Shelter and Housing. Keen to work on applying the Doughnut in that sector, but also locally in Oxfordshire.

Okotoks

Rochester NY

I'm an avid reader and only recently discovered Doughnut Economics. It's a remarkable book and gives me more hope than I've had in a long time for the future of humanity and our planet.

Seattle, WA

Senior executive with 25 years of hands-on strategic planning, non-traditional HR, business development, P&L responsibility and execution experience focusing on great outcomes for business and for the people running them. Leads and manages as a catalyst with a growth and agile mindset to find creative solutions to problems. Natural learner with high intellectual curiosity for new possibilities. Broad experiences within start-ups, small and mid-sized private companies and larger publicly traded companies. M&A due diligence and integration experience. Non Sibi.

London

Certified in Climate risk, I creatively collaborate to help financial services & banking clients transform end to end wholesale lending by digitally transforming their processes, policies, systems and people.

Venezuela

A computational Logician and Agent-oriented simulations engineer

Edventure Frome

I am CEO of Edventure, a Community Interest Company in Frome UK. We work to listen to what our community needs to be more resilient, and then support groups to develop organisations or interventions to meet the need. We started the first community fridge and Share Shop in the UK and are currently looking at how we can find ways to address individual and planet health. Working in partnership with our local council and health clinic we are launching and running a range of activities from building retrofit, to clothes swapping events. 

South West, UK

Purpose-driven professional with 10+ years experience in client-facing roles and a passion for community empowerment, participative storytelling and inclusive collaboration.  Masters graduate, qualified in Sustainability and Behaviour Change. Recognised with distinction and awarded for creative research design, analysis and writing.  Shares a vision for empowering organisations and individuals alike, to foster an equitable and nature-connected future for all.            

London

A Digital & Data Leader with a focus on creating more equitable, inclusive and sustainable places and cities.

Chapecó, SC, Brazil

Product designer from Brazil. I've been working with UX/Product design through the last 20 years and now I am on a movement to reinvent myself, trying to understand how my skills can help to design a better world.

Chicago, IL

Southside Chicago native with a passion for leveraging education, cross-cultural collaboration, and social innovation to enhance sustainable development on a local and global scale. Currently studying Global Wealth and Poverty part-time at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC), while working full-time as a Senior ESG Analyst at Nasdaq on the Corporate ESG Strategy and Reporting team. During my studies at UIUC, I have gained sustainable development practitioner experience through participating in four international programs in three countries on the African continent. These programs included conducting research on gender-based violence at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania in 2018, working as a micro-enterprise consultant in Cape Town, South Africa and Arusha, Tanzania in 2019, and spending a semester taking courses in International Development and Kiswahili at the University of Nairobi in Kenya in 2020. I take pride in continuing to leverage these bottom-up/local engagement experiences to inform potential macro-impact strategies in the private sector.

Singapore

Menjez Lebanon

Georges Youssef, Physical Therapist, Mayor of the municipality of Menjez since its creation in 2012 Certified in sustainable development and social innovation The municipality of Menjez has implemented in Menjez a several projects in sustainable development and climate resilience

Cheltenham

I am a student who is studying A level economics and recently read doughnut economics.  I have a particular interest in government policy and doughnut economics really made me realise how influential it can be, not only on the economy but on society as a whole. We have the potential to reshape the world and solve global issues through doughnut economics, and i would like to do what i can to make that become reality.

Glasgow

I am a recent MSc Sustainability and Environmental Studies graduate from The University of Strathclyde Glasgow. I have written my dissertation on doughnut economics and other post-growth models, how they are being used by existing economies and what attitudes students have towards these ideas. I am a freelance environmental campaigner and educator and one of my main goals is to promote better, more sustainable and inclusive initiatives.

KOREA, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do

I am a community researcher on the topic of sustainability.

São Paulo - Brasil

I am a Brazilian woman, mother of two grown ups (25 and 27) interested in making better choices and helping a better future world. 

Switzerland

I like to explore how we can drive systemic change and support people to act as local catalysts. My work often explores cutting edge topics and their intersection in the education space.  • I help organizations engage educators and youth in critical topics like futures literacy, green skills, regenerative economics, and civic engagement.    • I work with schools and organizations to make bold new ideas tangible and spark pathways to action • I design experiences and learning opportunities that facilitate the implementation of new ideas.  Bio: Michelle is an educational consultant that helps schools and organizations unlock opportunities to activate changemakers and drive meaningful change. After teaching social studies in both the U.S. and Switzerland, she founded the Educators’ Lab, which infuses startup strategies into professional learning so that teachers are empowered to bring changemaking, social innovation, and SDGs into their work. Michelle is the co-author of The Startup Teacher Playbook, and Preventing Polarization (2023). She has worked with organizations like Center for Curriculum Redesign, PBS Education, and Ashoka, and occasionally blogs for Edutopia. A graduate of IE University in Madrid, she is a part of the Global Shaper Community of the World Economic Forum and has presented at numerous events, including SXSWedu and TEDxLausanne. Her focus - helping teachers and students use their agency for social good.

Cieszyn, Poland

I am the social economy activist/ expert in social politics, most of my work experiences are focused on the reintegration of the most vulnerable groups, with especial scope on homelessness. I m developing cross regional project aiming to rise social inclusion and socialenertproneurship. Another area of my working and research interest are social services (research, grassroots analysis, developing new pathways, methodology, evaluation of the services provided). Day to day I m managing director of the NGO which is the helping institution delivering help to more then 2000 people annually in my family town Cieszyn, south Poland.                       

Altadena, CA

Video games can be more than bloodbaths or cute farms. The video games of the 21st century will make us think in new ways. We can capture the greatest thoughts and questions that humanity has to offer, and make video games a pastime of even the most sincere and dedicated persons. There are classic films, classic plays, classic novels: works preserved to show us what humanity can be. My work is in elevating video games as a medium to the level enjoyed by every other form of expression. If you think there is a way to showcase your own idea, through a video game or simulation, reach out, we probably have plenty to talk about. 

Buea, Cameroun

Développeur Territorial, Expert en conception et évaluation des politiques et DLI.

Mountain Home, AR, USA

Born in Amsterdam, Holland in 1949.  Immigrated 1957. Masters Degree & Teaching Assistant, Economics. Retired from Federal Gov't work, mostly in Computer Administration.