The Next Frontier for Business

Glen Dowell is an Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at the Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University. He researches in the area of corporate sustainability, with a focus on firm environmental performance. Recent projects have investigated the effect of local demographic factors on changes in pollution levels, the role of corporate merger and acquisition in facilitating changes in facility environmental performance, and the relative influence of financial return and disruption on the commercial adoption of energy savings initiatives.

Professor Dowell’s research has been published in Management Science, Organization Studies, Advances in Strategic Management, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of Management, Industrial and Corporate Change, Journal of Business Ethics, and Administrative Science Quarterly. He is senior editor at Organization Science and co-editor of Strategic Organization, is on the editorial boards of Strategic Management Journal and Administrative Science Quarterly, and represents Cornell on the board of the Alliance for Research in Corporate Sustainability (ARCS). He is also the Division Chair for the Organizations and Natural Environment Division of the Academy of Management.

Professor Dowell teaches Sustainable Global Enterprise and Critical and Strategic Thinking. He is a faculty affiliate for the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise and a faculty fellow at the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future.

Kamillah Knight has a passion and purpose to be a change superhero, transforming the way that people interact with their environment and with one another. The Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Ferrero, Ms. Knight is also the co-founder of Éclat Culture LLC, which focuses on coaching and consulting individuals and organizations on learning and development practices in addition to building cultural competency rooted in diversity and inclusion. 

Prior to joining Ferrero, Ms. Knight worked at Unilever, where she gained experience in Supply Chain, Sales, and Human Resources. She received an MPA in 2015, completing the Sustainable Global Enterprise Immersion, as well as a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Sociology with Spanish minor in 2013 from Cornell University. Ms. Knight recently started her Executive MBA in the Cornell University Metro NY program, which she will complete in 2022. 

Ms. Knight currently serves as the VP of Programming for the Cornell Black Alumni Association and is a class officer for the Cornell Class of 2013, a Director-at-Large for the Cornell Association of Class Officers, a Cornell Class of 2022 Class Representative, a member-at-large of the Cornell Mosaic (Diversity) Steering Committee, and a member of the Cornell Alumni Admissions Ambassador Network. She is also a member of the Pittsburgh University Center for Sustainable Business Advisory Council, a board member of the Montclair Fund for Educational Excellence, and a board member of the International Girls Academy.

Kandi White (Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara) has emerged as a leading voice in the fight to bring visibility to the impacts that climate change and environmental injustice are having on Indigenous communities across North America. Upon completion of her Master’s degree in Environmental Management, Ms. White began her work with the Indigenous Environmental Network as the Tribal Campus Climate Challenge Coordinator, engaging with more than 30 tribal colleges to instate community-based environmental programs, discuss issues of socioecologic injustice, and connect Indigenous youth with green jobs. 

Ms. White is currently IEN’s Lead Organizer on the Extreme Energy & Just Transition campaign, focusing at present on creating awareness about the environmentally and socially devastating effects of hydraulic fracturing on tribal lands and working towards a Just Transition away from the fossil fuel industry. Her local work is complemented by international advocacy work, including participation in several United Nations forums and testimony before the U.S. Congress on the climate issue and its links to issues of health, identity, and well-being on tribal lands.