NC State Poole College announces Jessica Thomas as inaugural Sustainability Initiative director

Jessica Thomas was named the inaugural director of the college’s Sustainability Initiative at the NC State University Poole College of Management, effective August 1, 2013. By August 29, she had inventoried a collection of sustainability related activities in Poole College and posted the information on the new Sustainability Initiative website. 

"Sustainability today is an intrinsic part of doing business,” said Dr. Ira R. Weiss, dean of the college. “It is imperative that as a business school, we enable our students to learn through instruction and real world experiences how sustainability principles and practices contribute to a company’s value, to integrate this into our research activities, and to extend this knowledge into the business community,” he said.

In her new role, Thomas is building on a commitment Weiss made when the college was named in 2010, following a $37.5 million endowed gift from Lonnie C. Poole, Jr., founder of Waste Industries and a proponent of sustainable business practices. At that time, Weiss said a portion of the gift would be used to establish a center of excellence in sustainability in the college.

Since then, Poole College faculty members have been laying the groundwork for a sustainability initiative, identifying interdisciplinary sustainability related research across the university and conducting new research on sustainability topics in the practice of business. Student interest has been expressed through the college’s curriculum, including strong enrollment in a new course in sustainability in the college’s Jenkins Graduate School, and involvement in the college’s chapter of Net Impact and other organizations.

“Poole has in place a strong foundation on which to build a world class sustainability initiative,” Thomas said. “I am pleased to be part of the team, to expand student engagement opportunities and outreach to the business community, and to work with faculty to identify new opportunities for further integrating sustainability topics into their research and teaching,” she said.

“Jessica has tremendous experience with organizations that support sustainable enterprises and student engagement, including her current role on the North Carolina Sustainability Center’s board of directors. We are pleased to have her join the Poole College community and share her expertise and enthusiasm for sustainability education, engagement and research,” Weiss said.

Thomas has already connected with the NC State student chapter of Net Impact, and recently met with Poole College's Jenkins MBA students on the chapter's leadership team and an undergraduate student exploring interest on campus for an undergraduate chapter. 

Thomas previously was managing director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and program director of that center’s Business Accelerator for Sustainable Entrepreneurship. She also has held leadership roles at Duke University’s Competition for Underserved and Resource-poor Economies (CUREs); CFED, an economic development corporation in Durham, N.C.; and new product development roles in educational toys and communications products.

She has written or co-authored white papers, case studies and research reports on the topics of corporate sustainability strategy, employee engagement, and microfinancing. Her novel, “How Not to Save the World,” was published by LuLu Press in 2011.

Thomas received her MBA from The Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, and her bachelor’s in engineering from Stanford University. She resides in Durham, N.C.

Photo

Nicholas Mullen, Poole College Jenkins MBA candidate; Kyle Barth, College of Engineering senior in electrical engineering; Jessica Thomas; and Allan Carr, Poole College Jenkins JD/MBA candidate.