Sustainability & Environmental Affinity Group (virtual)

Welcome to Inforum's Sustainability + Environmental Affinity Group

Join us for Inforum's Sustainability & Environmental Affinity Group meeting! This meeting we will hear from Sara Soderstrom who is Associate Professor of Organizational Studies and Program in the Environment at the University of Michigan.

The goal of this group is to provide learning and inspiration about work in this area being done in Michigan. One outcome the group is working toward will be building relationships between Inforum members and organizations focused on sustainability as an extension of our inSTEM initiative. One of the roles of the Affinity Group will be to help develop a pool of potential board members for nonprofits in the environmental and sustainability fields who don’t always have access to board candidates with corporate/business backgrounds.

Speaker:

Sara Soderstrom is interested in how corporations engage in societal sustainability challenges.  She studies how individuals within organizations mobilize others, develop coalitions, and access key decision makers when they are trying to implement sustainability initiatives. Further, she studies individual and organizational responses to the ambiguity and uncertainty that surrounds sustainability, such as making sense of emergent issues, prioritizing and agenda setting, and balancing multiple goals.

Professor Soderstrom was a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Erb Institute at the University of Michigan. She completed her PhD at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. Prior to obtaining her PhD, Professor Soderstrom worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company serving retail and financial services organizations and led a business transformation team in post-merger activities at The Auto Club Group, a AAA umbrella organization. 

Professor Soderstrom holds MSE degrees in Chemical and Environmental Engineering and a BSE degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Award(s)

• 2011 Organizations and the Natural Environment, Academy of Management Best Dissertation Award

Field(s) of Study

• Organizational theory, corporate sustainability, organizational change, and social movements

View Attendee List

Affinity Group Chairs

Alissa Sevrioukova, Chief of Staff, Public Affairs Manager DTE;

Cynthia Williams, Global Director, Sustainability, Homologation & Compliance, Ford Motor Co.

Susan Marin, Vice President, Corporate Information Manager Flagstar Bank

Inforum's Sustainability & Environmental Affinity Group

The goal of this group is to provide learning and inspiration about work in this area being done in Michigan. One outcome the group is working toward will be building relationships between Inforum members and organizations focused on sustainability as an extension of our inSTEM initiative.

This group is made possible through the support of the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation.