Meet the Team
Led by Tensie Whelan, the CSB team is comprised of driven professionals with diverse backgrounds in corporate strategy, research, education, and engagement.
Tensie Whelan, Director
Tensie Whelan (NYU ‘80), Clinical Professor for Business and Society, is the Founding Director of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, where she is bringing her 25 years of experience working on local, national and international environmental and sustainability issues to engage businesses in proactive and innovative mainstreaming of sustainability.
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Chander Balakumar, Associate Research Scholar
Chander Balakumar is an Associate Research Scholar at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, where he is researching how private equity management practices are driving both unsustainable and sustainable practices with a focus toward developing a set of principles to guide value creation vs value extraction.
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Divya Chandra, Associate Research Scholar
Divya Chandra is an Associate Research Scholar at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business and is developing and executing monetization methods used in the application of the ROSI methodology across a diverse set of Industries.
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Alyssa DeFalco, Assistant Director
Alyssa DeFalco (NYU ‘19) is the Assistant Director at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, where she manages the everyday workflows of CSB, helps execute thought leadership programming, and prepares communication materials and strategy. Alyssa is currently an MBA Candidate at NYU Stern.
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Elyse Douglas, Senior Research Scholar
Elyse Douglas (Stern ‘83) is a Senior Research Scholar at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business and has responsibility for monetization methods used in the application of the ROSI methodology.
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Chisara Ehiemere, Senior Research Lead of Return on Sustainability Investment (ROSI)
Chisara Ehiemere is the Senior Research Lead, Return on Sustainability Investment (ROSI™) at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, where she oversees our ROSI methodology research partnerships with companies.
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Eliza Heeks, Associate Director
Eliza Heeks is the Associate Director at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, where she manages day-to-day operations and oversees activities in education, career development, and outreach and engagement.
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Marianna Koval, Director of Invest NYC SDG Initiative
Marianna Koval is the Director of the Invest NYC SDG Initiative at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, where she manages a team engaging in the private sector to drive financing toward creating a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient New York City. Using the UN SDGs as a guiding framework, the team is developing investable projects to advance NYC’s sustainability goals in waste, food and health, climate resilience, renewable energy, the built environment, and sustainable mobility.
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Randi Kronthal-Sacco, Senior Scholar of Marketing & Corporate Outreach
Randi Kronthal-Sacco (Stern ‘83) is a Senior Scholar of Marketing and Corporate Outreach at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business. Ms. Kronthal-Sacco leads CSB’s research in the areas of marketing and brands including the Sustainability Market Share Index™ and is responsible for corporate outreach.
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Wythe Marschall, Senior Research Project Manager of Invest NYC SDG Initiative
Wythe Marschall is the Senior Research Project Manager in food and health for the Invest NYC SDG Initiative at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, where he works to improve the resilience of NYC’s food system, in part by encouraging growth of socially just urban farms.
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Carleigh McFarlane, Associate Director of Invest NYC SDG Initiative
Carleigh McFarlane is the Associate Director of the Invest NYC SDG Initiative at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, where she manages day-to-day operations and develops strategy for the initiative which works to engage the private sector to finance projects aimed at creating a more sustainable, inclusive and resilient New York City. She brings a background in strategic communications, logistics, and business development.
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Maggie Paruta, Administrative Aide
Maggie Paruta (Stern '20) is the Administrative Aide at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business, where she supports the CSB team on internal and external projects and engagements.
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Rithu Raman, Associate Research Scholar
Rithu Raman (Stern '13) is a Associate Research Scholar within the Corporate Research & Engagement team at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business where she manages and executes ROSI collaborations with companies across a variety of industries.
Read more about Rithu Raman