Meet Team MACK
Kashay Sanders & Christopher Owen.
Meet Team MACK (Mark, Allison, Chris and Kashay), a team that is invested in the power of listening, co-design and humility to catalyze the efforts of partner entrepreneurs. Moved by a passion for social justice, Team MACK recognizes — and wants to build upon — the important role small businesses play in the future of the U.S economy.
Mark comes with two years of financial experience at Citibank and worked with small-scale entrepreneurs in the Peace Corps. Allison brings seven years of experience working as an internal consultant at Google creating the business case for supporting diversity and inclusion, and has empowered 1400 US minority-owned small businesses to leverage the web to grow. Chris specializes in building communities around brands. With seven years of marketing experience, he is committed to helping social impact organizations differentiate themselves in a noisy marketplace. Kashay is excited to leverage her five years of experience in facilitation, brainstorming, and process design to encourage entrepreneurs to develop out-of-the-box ideas.
TEAM BIOS
Mark was born in Detroit but raised in Texas. He returned to Michigan with two years of experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica where he helped implement a regional eco-tourism strategy, and an additional two years as a commercial banking analyst at Citibank in Dallas. He is especially interested in urban mobility, the circular economy, and international supply chains. Mark is getting a dual MBA/MS in Sustainable Systems and enjoys college football, learning guitar, dancing salsa and playing soccer (usually on the intramural “B” team, if there is no “C” team).
Mark is especially excited about Open Road because it is a unique mix of impactful work consisting of giving back and collaborating with local entrepreneurs and developing relationships with his teammates while on a cross-country adventure.
Allison is from Long Beach, CA and was a program manager on the Business Inclusion team at Google where she focused her time on developing the capacity of Google teams to level the playing field for communities that have unequal access to technology and economic opportunity. Prior to this role at Google, Allison focused her efforts on empowering minority business owners to survive and thrive online. She also previously worked in Sales focusing on consulting on online growth strategies with companies whose primary customers were other businesses. In the community of Oakland, she served as a board member at Oakland Digital focusing on creating economic impact and opportunity for young graphic designers and business owners in Oakland. Allison is a proud Management Leadership for Tomorrow Fellow (MBA Prep 2017 and Career Prep 2009) and she graduated from the University of Southern California in 2010 with a B.S. in Business Administration. Allison is passionate about economic justice and seeks to play her part in creating a country where everyone has the right to pursue economic opportunity and a dignified life. She is excited to hit the Open Road to build capacity with entrepreneurs across the country seeking to create jobs and a positive impact within their communities.
Chris is passionate about social entrepreneurship, sustainability, and people strategy. He joins the Open Road Fellows Program after serving for three years in Ecuador with the U.S. Peace Corps, first as a business consultant in the natural resource conservation program and then as a Regional Volunteer Leader. As a business consultant, Chris equipped environmental NGOs nationwide with the tools for business development. As an RVL, Chris collaborated with senior staff to manage and train incoming volunteers. Prior to his service with the Peace Corps, Chris co-founded Hosea’s Heart, a non-profit organization in Swaziland, Africa, which shelters and empowers at-risk girls. Chris graduated from Marquette University, and enjoys canoeing, hiking, and cycle touring in his free time. He is currently a first-year dual-degree student with the Ross School of Business and the School for Environment and Sustainability.
Kashay attributes almost everything she cares about to being born and raised in New York City (including a well-crafted pizza slice and cozy 24/7 diners). While in New York, she witnessed some of the most beautiful sides of humanity, including pockets of harmonious diversity, celebrations of artistic expression, and the small ways people take care of each other in times of need. She also witnessed social ills, such as demographically divided neighborhoods, unaffordable housing, and uneven access to opportunity and resources. The latter drives her passion for social change, the former fuels her hope that the equitable future she imagines is attainable. Kashay has expressed her passion through work experiences developing curriculum for a girls’ empowerment organization in India, program managing workforce development initiatives in New York City government, and launching HR and talent systems in a nonprofit organization. Kashay is coming to Open Road with enthusiasm for utilizing business ideas to support the efforts of entrepreneurs aiming to make a difference in their local communities.
