Allison Marie Cooper, MBA

The urgency of the climate crisis calls for immediate action. I left my role as a Product Manager working on a shared electric vehicle fleet management software platform ( AndGo by Goodyear ) recently to dive more deeply into opportunities to impact this issue, with a particular focus on scaling clean energy and equitable, sustainable transportation. After dedicating a few months now on organizing around the election, I'm excited to start the hunt for my next role.

PS - Local artists, apply to get involved with various public art opportunities in El Cerrito here !

A bit more about the different projects I'm involved with now:

• Climate Action & Policy: This is my top priority. To do this, I've been doing a ton of research into local groups and how I can be effective; so far, I'm working with 350 Bay Area's Mobilizing Team, getting trained with the Climate Reality Project, and am getting involved with Sunrise Bay Area.
• Democratic Organizing in Contra Costa County: I'm a volunteer on the field strategy team of our county's Coordinated Campaign to support progressive candidates up and down the ballet. It's been an amazing learning experience for me — a crash course in phone bank captaining and everything that happens behind the scenes to endorse and support candidates. I currently support four weekly phone banks.
• Transportation Planning Graduate Studies: I've been designing my own education around my passion for transportation/urban planning for a while now, and was so excited to find a graduate certificate program at San José State University where I could formalize a foundational learning experience in this space. With online classes one night a week, it's an awesome way to really dive in while keeping up all my other projects.
• Future-of-Mobility & Clean Energy Events/Conferences: I'm so happy to have more time to plug into all the amazing conversations happening on these key interests! My fellowship with the Clean Energy Leadership Insitute just ended (and was an incredible experience) and I'm excited to continue to be involved as an alum there too.
• Arts & Culture Commission: The now over two years I've served on this commission have been a fascinating introduction to city governance and programming, and now as Chair I'm more involved in directing the agenda and our priorities.
• General learning and exploration: Taking time to focus on learning and exploring what I want to do next has been really valuable as I'm preparing for a career pivot. In addition to the bigger projects above, I've also been catching up on coursera courses and other trainings in my professional development backlog.
• Writing & Researching: Aiming to share some of my policy analysis work on my blog shortly! I'm also preparing a short talk for the Long Now member Ignite talks in October.
• Local Pedestrian and Biking Advocacy: TBD what exactly this will look like.

I also enjoy biking, kiteboarding, sailing, traveling, reading, screenprinting and making ceramic art... but of course haven't gotten to do all of these during shelter-in-place.

Originally from the Berkeley area, I was involved in local sustainability efforts before moving to Montréal to study at McGill University (BA Anthropology, Environment minor). After graduating, I managed the Students' Society's building and hundreds of student clubs and services as McGill's VP Clubs & Services before moving back home to the Bay Area, where I soon realized I needed to learn about tech to make a home here. I attended all the tech events I could find, including my first hackathon, where I pitched a concept and led a world-class team to win the event. This crash course in entrepreneurship led me to the world of UX research and design, and I've now owned end-to-end full-stack product design processes at fast-growing early-stage startups as well as Fortune 500 innovation labs.

Seeking more involvement in product strategy, visioning and roadmapping than I'd found in pure UI Design roles, I attended California College of the Arts' innovative MBA program, which emphasizes design strategy and technology, and grew into more formal product manager roles. I've also completed Product Management and Agile Project Management coursework from UC Berkeley Extension and Stanford Executive Education. I'm most excited about making an impact as a "full-stack" user-centered product strategist, whether that's found in a designer or product manager role.

Please check out my work and reach out if there might be an opportunity to work together:

• Nominee, STEP Ahead Awards | Manufacturing Institute, 2020
• Conference Presenter | Traction Conference, 2020
• Winning Team | American Heart Association Hackathon San Francisco, 2018
• Lead Designer - Top Prize: Most Polished App | Stanford Treehacks Hackathon, 2017
• Co-Director, Graduate Students' Alliance | California College of the Arts, 2017
• Graduate Merit Scholar & CCA Scholarship Awards | California College of the Arts, 2016-2018
• First Place Team | HackSF, 2014
• Team Lead - First Place and Popular Vote Winner | Startup Weekend San Francisco, 2013
• Conference Presenter | QPIRG McGill-Concordia Study in Action Undergraduate Research Conference, 2012
• Intern Scholarship Award | CUE Research Group, 2011

• Energy Innovation and Emerging Technologies Certificate | In Progress: Stanford, 2020
• Graduate Certificate in Transportation and Land Use Planning | In Progress: San Jose State University, 2020-2021
• Fellow | Clean Energy Leadership Institute (San Francisco), 2020
• Climate Reality Leader | The Climate Reality Leadership Project, 2020
• StartingBloc Fellow | StartingBloc Los Angeles, 2020
• M.B.A., Design Strategy | California College of the Arts, 2018
• Agile Project Management: Facilitating a Product Development Team with Scrum | Stanford Executive Education, 2018
• Managing Product and Go-to-Market Strategies | UC Berkeley Executive Education, 2018
• B.A. Honours, Anthropology, Environment minor | McGill University (Montréal), 2012, as well as coursework at Universiteit Leiden (Netherlands) and UNAM/Autonomous University of Social Movements (Chiapas)

• Product Manager, AndGo | Goodyear Future-of-Mobility Innovation Lab, 2018-2020
• Alumni Organizer | California College of the Arts DMBA Community, 2018-2019
• Co-Director, Graduate Student Alliance | California College of the Arts, 2017
• Policy Researcher & Advocate | The Climate Reality Leadership Project, 2020
• Mobilizing Team, Solidarity Lead | 350 Bay Area, 2020
• Chair, Arts & Culture Commissioner | City of El Cerrito, 2018-2020
• #IamRemarkable Facilitator | Google's #IamRemarkable initiative, 2019
• Program Designer, 2015 Volunteer of the Year | Peninsula Roller Girls, 2014-2016
• Board of Directors | CKUT Radio Montréal, 2012-2013
• Vice President, Clubs & Services | Students' Society of McGill University, 2012-2013
• Organizer, Researcher | Independent Student Inquiry, 2011-2012