Donna Goodman ’81 (BUS) says her eclectic career as a corporate executive, educator, international development advisor, and entrepreneur has always “centered upon service to the world’s children and to Mother Earth.”
Goodman is founder and executive director of the Earth Child Institute, a nonprofit founded in 2002 that partners with the United Nations and global nongovernment organizations on education, health, and policy issues relating to children and climate change, water, and environmental sustainability.
A self-described “action-oriented visionary,” Goodman spends much of her time traveling and speaking to young people in countries like Malawi, Togo, and Tajikistan, where she says that – just like their counterparts in the U.S. and Europe – children have difficulty getting the adults in their community to take them seriously.
“It is for each and every one of these extraordinary children and young people that the Earth Child Institute has been founded,” she says. The institute seeks to facilitate intergenerational dialogue on environmental issues, to develop and promote cross-sectoral educational solutions, and ensure that young people’s needs are addressed in emerging international and national policies and frameworks. The organization’s Water for Life program works to ensure that children in developing nations have access to clean water, sanitation, and hygiene education, while its Power-of-One school program develops and partially funds kits to help schools set up nurseries and plant trees and school gardens, while improving access to electricity and the Internet.
Recently, the Institute launched the 2.2 Billion: Power of One Child + One Tree campaign with the goal of planting one tree for every child on Earth. The trees will help offset carbon emissions and deforestation while engaging and empowering the world’s 2.2 billion people under the age of 18 in sustainable life practices, says Goodman, who previously spent four years as a program advisor on climate change and environmental education for UNICEF.
Goodman, the daughter of former UConn Club President and Lifetime Achievement Award winner Bob Goodman ’55 (BUS), says her business courses at UConn gave her the confidence to make her visions realities. As part of a marketing class, she developed a campaign for Fabergé, traveling to New York City to pitch her ideas to the company’s executives.
“That experience supported me in my future endeavors more than anything else,” she says. “It taught me to never be afraid of presenting and selling my ideas.”
