Vernon and Noémi discuss the role that cooperatives can play in the Arts, and CDI’s work to help start-up cooperatives, and support existing cooperative businesses.Ms. Giszpenc, manages the day-to-day activities of CDI. She began her career as an economics researcher at the World Bank, worked as an editor at the Nonprofit Quarterly, a magazine for nonprofit managers, and became a principal at Ownership Associates, Inc., a consulting firm in Cambridge, MA specializing in developing an ownership culture at employee-owned firms. As part of earning a Master’s in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University, she did a thesis on the creation of a cooperative economy in the Northeast, including the practical development of an interactive cooperative directory, which has now evolved into the Data Commons Cooperative. She has been entrenched in the world of cooperatives ever since. Cooperative Development Institute is the source for cooperative business development in theNortheast. CDI’s staff specializes in helping people work together to plan and launch a cooperatively owned business. The institute helps existing privately held businesses convert to ones owned by their employees or the consumers of their products and services.
