YWSE is led by a Board of Advisors ("Board"), responsibilities include:
- Ensuring the regular occurrence of content-rich meetings and retreats
- Membership development
- Curriculum development and workshop facilitation
- Setting goals, direction and activities of the group consistent with YWSE's mission and vision
YWSE National
Sara Ellis Conant is a manager with Deloitte Consulting and specializes in training, communications, and change management. She is on the national leadership team to launch Deloitte's client services for sustainability and corporate responsibility. Her research on values-based business can be found in Lahaska Publishing's Building an Extraordinary Business. Previously, Sara ran a boutique consulting company, Ellis Group, which offered strategy consulting and executive coaching to assist clients to improve their effectiveness through values-based operations. Before starting Ellis Group, Sara served as Development Director for RSF Social Finance. Sara is now a Board Member for RSF Social Finance and is founder and Board Member of Young Women Social Entrepreneurs. Sara has an MBA and a BA in Organizational Sociology and Economics from Stanford University. Sara also has advanced training as a Falling Awake Life Coach. She lives with her husband, daughter, and dog in the Oakland hills.
Michelle Lapinski, Founding Principal of SustainBiz, has over ten years of experience working within or with Fortune 500 companies and their supply chains, particularly in the food and agriculture and consumer products industries. Her experience and services span strategy, environmental issues, stakeholder relations, communications, social/labor issues/standards, facilitation and training. Prior to starting SustainBiz Michelle served as Director, Advisory Services (consulting) for Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), where she lead the Food & Agriculture, Consumer Products and Transportation Teams. Previously she was also BSR’s Manager of Environment and Climate Change.
Previously Michelle was the Global Environmental Health and Safety Manager (EHS) at Gap Inc., where she co-developed their corporate social responsibility program, including standards and procedures to promote improved factory conditions and reduced environmental impacts in 3500 suppliers in over 50 countries, setting corporate environmental priorities and issues management and communication for CSR. Michelle is an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco where she created the masters course Strategic Corporate Environmental Management and founder of EcoTribe. Michelle holds a Master of Science in Environmental Management from USF, a Bachelor of Arts in Behavioral Biology from JohnsHopkins University and is a Environmental Leadership Program Senior Fellow. Her role as a founding Board member of YWSE has been one of her most valuable experiences.
