IEP

Anonymous Donor Pledges $1.8 Million to Support Center for the Blue Economy

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu CBE, donors, Environment, Featured, Fellowships, IEP, newsroom

Trent Hodges.jpg

Student Trent Hodges’ summer 2014 fellowship working on ““surfonomics” with Save the Waves in Mexico was funded by generous supporters of the Center for the Blue Economy, and included the opportunity to participate in a “paddle out” ceremony.

The Monterey Institute has received a $1.8 million challenge gift that aims to both support and inspire the continued growth and expansion of the Institute’s ocean and coastal economics research and education center, the Center for the Blue Economy.

The gift has three components: a $600,000 outright gift in the first year (beginning July 1, 2014), and challenge matching gifts of $600,000 in each of the following two years, with the goal of generating at least $3 million for the center’s operations over the next three years.

“This generous challenge gift will help to ensure the continued vitality and growth of the Center for the Blue Economy over the next several years,” commented MIIS President Sunder Ramaswamy. “It should serve to inspire other individuals, foundations, and grant-makers to meet this donor’s challenge and raise additional major support, including endowed funds, to ensure the long-term sustainability of the Center. I look forward to working with potential supporters worldwide who care about the future of our oceans.”

CBE Director Jason Scorse, a MIIS professor who also chairs the school’s Master of Arts in International Environmental Policy program, said “this new gift and the challenge it kicks off will allow the CBE to build upon the strong momentum generated over the past two years. It will allow us to expand our economic databases and analyses into new and important policy areas where economic data is lacking. We will also launch our new Journal of Ocean and Coastal Economics this year, expand our international efforts beyond Asia and Europe, and be able to provide significantly more financial support to students enrolling in the ocean and coastal resource management concentration in our International Environmental Policy program.”

“The CBE is uniquely positioned to make the economic case for ocean conservation and to better inform decision makers with important economic information long absent from policy dialogue,” added Scorse. “We hope to play a key role in helping to shape policies on ocean and coastal issues in the years ahead.”

Recent Alumnus Amer Barghouth: “MIIS Prepared Me Well” for Demanding New Career

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu Alumni, careers, Environment, Featured, IEP, newsroom
Amer Barghouth

Recent MIIS graduate Amer Barghouth speaking at the December 2013 Energy Management Conference & Exhibition in Bahrain.

We always love to hear back from recent alumni who have realized their dreams for an exciting new career propelled by the training and education they received at MIIS. Amer Barghouth (MAIPS ’09, MAIEP ’13) received his job offer from the Regional Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (RCREEE), less than three weeks after graduating with a master’s degree in International Environmental Policy in 2013. While acknowledging that the job is demanding, he says happily, “I have always felt up to the task. My education at MIIS has prepared me well for this job.”

Amer first heard about the organization through Dr. Tareq Emtairah, executive director of RCREEE, who taught a workshop on sustainable urban transformation at MIIS. RCREEE is a regional nonprofit organization that provides policy advice, as well as technical and institutional support to 13 Arab governments. “My first assignment at RCREEE was to co-author a study commissioned by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the League of Arab States,” says Amer. The findings were presented at the World Future Energy Summit in January, and will guide IRENA’s future interventions in the region. Currently Amer is leading the Private Investment Promotion Program, which aims to identify and scale up profitable business models in sustainable energy in the Arab region. Furthermore, he will be the co-author of the Arab Future Energy Index (AFEX) report, an annual assessment of progress made by Arab countries in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

Four people report directly to Amer and he has to manage multiple budgets amounting to a hundred  thousand euros. In addition, he spends about one week per month on the road promoting energy efficiency and working with various governments and companies to increase the share of sustainable energy in the region. “Professor Zarsky’s and Shrimali’s classes in particular equipped me with the right mix of policy and business skills,” says Amer. He really enjoys his new career, especially “working with different stakeholders from young entrepreneurs to senior-level policymakers to create the right environment for rapid deployment of sustainable energy technologies and practices.”

City of Monterey Recognizes MIIS Students for Exceptional Contribution to Climate Action Plan

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu careers, Energy and Climate Change, Environment, Featured, IEP, internships, newsroom
Climate Action Plan

Matthew Nichols (MAIEP ’14) and Gabriel Kiritz (MAIEP ’14) with members of the Monterey City Council.

Proving yet again that the Monterey Institute prepares students to take on the most pressing issues of our time and “be the solution” in their chosen field, on May 6 the City of Monterey recognized the outstanding contribution of two graduating MIIS students to their Climate Action Plan.

The students, Gabriel Kiritz (MAIEP ’14) and Matthew Nichols (MAIEP ’14), both of the International Environmental Policy program, were specially recognized for their superb analytic and critical thinking skills by their supervisor, Sustainability Coordinator Ted. J. Terrasas. Mayor Chuck Della Sala thanked them on behalf of the City of Monterey, and also recognized MIIS Career and Academic Advisor Edy Rhodes and Director of Outreach and Employer Relations Dayton Hughes for their role in shaping and promoting the internship.

Matthew describes the eight-month internship with the City of Monterey as a “unique and exciting opportunity” to put theory from his academic program into practice at the local level. By working on the Climate Action Plan, Gabriel adds, not only did they gain “invaluable experience in a specific issue” (climate policy), they also had the opportunity to develop their core competencies of policy and data analysis, technical writing, collaboration, and communication.

Matthew goes on to say that the experience of synthesizing hundreds of pages of data and statutes into a series of appropriate policy recommendations was both a great learning experience and a challenge to think outside the box. Both students are happy to add this internship to their resumes, recognizing the value of gaining real-world job experience as part of their degree program.

Matthew and Gabriel will both be honored as “Graduates with Distinction” at Spring Commencement on May 17.

MIIS Professor and Student Win $50,000 Innovator of the Year Award

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu Business, careers, Community, Environment, Featured, IEP, MBA, newsroom
Monterey Bay Startup Challenge Winners

Monterey Bay Startup Challenge winners Maeve Murphy (MBA/MAIEP ’15) and Professor Jeff Langholz after the competition.

“A supportive culture of innovation exists at MIIS,” says Professor Jeffrey Langholz of the International Environmental Policy program, who this weekend won the main prize of $50,000 and title of Innovator of the Year at the Monterey Bay Startup Challenge along with graduate student Maeve Murphy (MBA/MAIEP ’15). Their idea is called Water City and it helps make water conservation easy and profitable for the public.

Freshwater issues are a passion for Maeve, who is working on a joint degree in business administration and environmental policy. “This is why I came to MIIS,” she says happily, explaining that she has long been bothered by the inefficiencies in the way we handle freshwater. Professor Langholz is also passionate about water issues, and when his colleague Kent Glenzer founded the recent Monterey Institute Community Innovation Challenge for students with a challenge focused on water issues, Jeff started thinking actively of solutions.

When Maeve made an appointment with Professor Langholz in February to discuss career options, he shared his water ideas and they decided to combine their strengths. For Maeve, the challenge came at a perfect time. “It was a real-world situation in which I could apply my education thus far to an idea that I am passionate about. There were countless times I would be in class and would realize that what we were learning that moment I could apply to the Water City project and would pull open my notes or financial spreadsheet and start adjusting immediately.” Smiling wryly, Langholz says,”MIIS faculty are in the business of making students’ dreams come true.”

When MIIS faculty and students put their heads together, the rest of the world benefits. But these two do not want to take all the credit for their success so far. “This may have looked like a single student and a single professor,” says Langholz, ”but more than 40 people on campus supported the effort – that’s how it works at MIIS!”

Monterey Institute Students Propose Solutions to County Water Crisis

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu Environment, Featured, IEP, newsroom
MIIS Community Innovation Challenge

Winners of the Monterey Institute Community Innovation Challenge: Malcolm Johnson (MAIEP ’14), Nereyda Montaño (MAIEP ’14), Nate Maynard (MAIEP ’14), Emily Cluff (MAIEP ’14), and Matthew Nichols (MAIEP ’14).

The Monterey Institute Community Innovation Challenge is the brainchild of Professor Kent Glenzer of the Development, Practice and Policy program. “Complex social problems require interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches,” he says, adding that addressing these so-called “wicked problems” requires expertise from across many disciplines – in the case of MIIS, many degree programs – to tackle them.

Close to 40 students from the Monterey Institute and several from California State University Monterey Bay jumped at the opportunity to participate in the first challenge, “Nor Any Drop to Drink,” focused on finding innovative solutions to Monterey County’s water issues. Channeling Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner, the challenge focused on Monterey County specifically, while providing insight into the broader issue of water challenges around the world. The students were invited to sessions with stakeholders from all over the county as well as a diverse group of experts. The final judging took place on Wednesday, April 23 as part of the Institute’s Earth Week celebrations.

The winning team consisted of five Monterey Institute students from the International Environmental Policy degree program: Matthew Nichols (MAIEP ’14), Emily Cluff (MAIEP ’14), Nereyda Montaño (MAIEP ’14), Nate Maynard (MAIEP ’14) and Malcolm Johnson (MAIEP ’14). In their view, Monterey County’s water problem, like most fresh water issues, amounts largely to a problem of communication.

The main goal of the group’s proposal is to achieve communication, collaboration, and coordination via the creation of a community-based organization called the Water Science Trust (WST). “By bringing all the stakeholders together and acting as a clearinghouse for sound science, WST tears down the lettuce curtain to create socially, environmentally, and economically sound projects without added government oversight,” says team member Malcolm Johnson. For more about the proposal, check out their presentation slides.

“I hope to make such ‘wicked challenges’ an annual feature here at MIIS,” says Professor Glenzer, “eventually opening up to participation from student teams from around the globe.”

MIIS Students Advance to Regional Finals for Million-Dollar Hult Prize for Social Benefit Ventures

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu development, Featured, IEP, MPA, newsroom, social_change
Hult Prize Teammates

Hult Prize competition teammates Natalie Cox, Amitay Flores, Maria Kovell, and Amy Ross.

The Hult Prize is described as “the world’s largest student competition and start-up platform for social good.” This year, more than 10,000 teams from 350 universities in 150 countries sent in proposals focusing on the 250 million slum dwellers suffering from chronic diseases. In January, a team consisting of five MIIS students in the Development Practice and Policy programs, Amanda Boyek (MAIPS ’14), Natalie Cox (MPA ’14), Amitay Flores (MAIPS ’14), Maria Kovell (MPA ’14), and Amy Ross (MPA ’14) got word that they had advanced to the regional finals in San Francisco.

The MIIS team’s proposal is centered around improving youth nutrition and they are now hard at work preparing for the next stage which will take place on March 7 and 8 in San Francisco. “The Hult Prize competition is a unique opportunity to fully develop our ideas into a feasible plan for action,” says Natalie Cox, “and also a chance to see perspectives from students around the world.” Other regional finals will be held in Boston, London, Dubai, Shanghai and Sao Paulo at the same time. One winning team from each host city will move into a summer business incubator, with the final round hosted by the Clinton Global Initiative at its annual meeting in September of this year.

“We are very proud of the Monterey Institute team,” says President Sunder Ramaswamy. “The Hult Prize competition challenges them to put into practice many of the concepts and techniques they have been learning here, and we are delighted to have them represent MIIS in the regional finals.”

Team of MBA Students Wins Third Prize in International Business Plan Competition

Anne-Marie Steiger asteiger@miis.edu Business, Environment, Featured, IEP, MBA, newsroom
International Business Plan Competition

James Shirreff (MBA/MAIEP ’14), John Foss (MBA ’13), Mary Vargo (MBA ’14) (holding check) and Morgan Rogge (MBA/MAIEP ’14) (next to Mary) with the judging panel and their award at Davos.

Four Monterey Institute MBA students traveled to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January to compete in the final round of the international Business for a Better World competition, sponsored by Corporate Knights and the Schulich School of Business. The MIIS quartet beat out teams from 20 other universities around the world to reach the final three.

Mary Vargo (MBA ’14), Morgan Rogge (MBA/MAIEP ’14), John Foss (MBA ’13), and James Shirreff (MBA/MAIEP ’14) said the experience in Davos was “amazing,” and their presentation was very well received. They were awarded the third place, carrying a $2,000 prize. “The MIIS team was the thought leader in this competition,” says Dean Yuwei Shi of the Institute’s Graduate School of International Policy and Management. “Their work treads convincingly beyond corporate social responsibility and shows an exciting direction to businesses that are looking past the one-, five- or even ten-year horizon. We are very proud of the team’s achievement.”

Vargo and Foss are students in the Institute’s Fisher MBA in International Management program, while Rogge and Shirreff are pursuing the joint degree program combining the MBA with the Master of Arts in International Environmental Policy.