37: Rebecca Van Bergen
On this week’s episode of the Baked-In podcast presented by Busey Bank, Josh has the opportunity to talk with Rebecca Van Bergen of Nest. Nest is a nonprofit supporting the responsible growth and creative engagement of the artisan & maker economy to build a world of greater gender equity and economic inclusion. She founded Nest in 2006 after graduating with a Masters in Social Work from Washington University and winning a business/social enterprise competition which provided seed money for Nest. Over the years, she has garnered a tremendous reputation and numerous accolades for her work including being named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, a Levi Strauss & Co. Collaboratory Fellow, a PBS Changemaker, a CNN Young Person Who Rocks and one of the White House’s Top 100 Entrepreneurial Enterprises led by a young person.
Nearly 18 years later, Rebecca leads an organization that is partnering with brand leaders such as Etsy, Madewell, Patagonia, Target and West Elm to continue to improve transparency, social wellbeing, and economic opportunity for handworkers which includes both artisans and less skilled manual laborers, often working from their homes.
She is super inspirational. Josh and Rebecca talk about both starting businesses at 24, the challenges of leading a 100% remote workforce and Nest’s initiatives to assist makers in addressing the growing number of climate change issues.
