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Anke Wessels
Executive Director at the Center for Transformative Action
Professional Background
Anke Wessels plays an instrumental role as the Executive Director of the Center for Transformative Action, an esteemed organization affiliated with Cornell University. The Center stands out as an alliance representing individuals and organizations that are driven by nonviolent principles and a passionate commitment to making vital progress in the realms of justice, sustainability, and peace. Through empowering innovative social entrepreneurs, the Center provides an array of essential supports including non-profit status, comprehensive business services, and the unique framework of Transformative Action.
The framework of Transformative Action is noteworthy in its approach to social change. It transcends traditional paradigms of activism that often succumb to competition, grievances, and divisive thinking. Informed by the rich history of non-violent movements, Transformative Action consists of three foundational precepts: the imperative to break the silence surrounding injustices, the cultivation of inclusive coalitions where adversaries transform into allies, and the articulation of a captivating proactive vision— elements that showcase Dr. Wessels's commitment to fostering constructive dialogue and collaboration.
In conjunction with her role at the Center, Dr. Wessels enriches the academic community through her teaching at Cornell University. She offers an undergraduate course, AEM 3385, which is a practical exploration of social entrepreneurship. Within this unique course, students actively manage and operate a campus grocery store, named Anabel's Grocery, universally regarded as a model of student-led enterprise and social initiative.
Education and Achievements
Dr. Wessels's academic journey is marked by an impressive educational background. She completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in French and Economics, followed by a Master of Science in Agricultural Economics, and ultimately earned her PhD in Geography, with a specialization in Environmental Politics and Social Movements. All of her advanced studies were conducted at the prestigious Penn State University, reflecting her deep commitment to understanding the intersections of economic policy, social equity, and environmental sustainability.
Prior to her influential role at the Center for Transformative Action, Dr. Wessels also served as an Assistant Professor at Syracuse University, where she taught courses focused on Environmental Sustainability and Environmental Politics. Her tenure at Syracuse endowed her with a unique perspective on the intricacies of social movements and the pressing challenges facing environmental justice.
Dr. Wessels's professional trajectory reveals her unwavering dedication to social change, and her expertise extends across a range of fields, including social entrepreneurship, transformative action, and non-profit management. Her work not only inspires students but also catalyzes meaningful conversations about the role of non-profits in addressing complex societal issues.
Notable Contributions
As a thought leader in the field of transformative action, Dr. Wessels has contributed thoughtfully towards reshaping social entrepreneurship and community engagement. Her work empowers individuals and organizations to rethink conventional approaches towards social impact, fostering a collaborative spirit characterized by inclusivity and empathy. By advocating for a transformative model of action, she induces positive social change while encouraging the pursuit of justice and equity.
Dr. Wessels remains dedicated to mentoring emerging leaders in social entrepreneurship, sharing insights, and expanding their capacity to contribute effectively toward societal betterment through her adept guidance and teaching facilitation. Her innovative directives at the Center for Transformative Action position her as a champion of social justice and sustainability, making her a pivotal figure in the social entrepreneurial space.
achievement
A long-time advocate for environmental justice, Anke has played significant roles in various initiatives designed to bring about positive change in communities. Under her leadership, the Center for Transformative Action has fostered numerous social enterprises focused on sustainability and equity.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
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Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.