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For the third year running, CESR has announced the 2024 winners of the Impact Business Buff Awards, a student and faculty driven award that recognizes the members of the Leeds community who inspire excellence in sustainability and social responsibility. Leeds students have nominated all award winners, and we want to congratulate all nominees. The winners of the 2024 award are:

• Faculty: Joshua Nunziato (Undergraduate), Dejun “Tony” Kong (Graduate)
• Graduating Student: Gabriel Cervantes (Undergraduate), Steven Winterbach (Undergraduate), Mary Boling (Graduate)
• Rising Star Student: Natalie Bovie (Undergraduate), Emma Ritson (Graduate)

Congratulations to all our winners! Each of these students and faculty members have dedicated themselves to making lasting change and a positive impact within Leeds and sustainability. We had the opportunity to speak to the award recipients regarding what this award means to them and how CESR has helped them in their sustainability journey.

CESR: What lasting impact do you believe you have made in the Leeds Community?

Steven Winterbach: I've never held back from bringing my unique perspectives and experiences into class discussions. As a non-traditional student, I leveraged my life experiences to expand classroom discussions, aiming to encourage others to challenge the status quo and take into account diverse viewpoints. I believe that my impact I leave is one of empowerment - helping to empower my classmates to see themselves as a catalyst for positive change and the curiosity and drive to make a meaningful impact in this world. Don't accept mediocre, instead set audacious goals and set out with intent to achieve them.

Mary Boling: I hope I have helped students explore their interests and navigate the opportunities at Leeds in the same ways others have helped me. I really value supporting others in achieving their goals and helping them navigate a new job market or industry. Having this recognition tells me that the way I am showing up within the Leeds community is aligned to those values, which means a lot.

Dejun “Tony” Kong: I truly believe that people make the place. Caring people make the place caring. A caring place is a sustainable one. I’m grateful for being part of the Leeds community since 2022, and for the support and recognition I have received from this amazing community. I care about people – faculty colleagues, staff members, students, and other stakeholders – and about our systems – human system, sociocultural system, educational system, and environmental system. With such beliefs and values, I try to make a positive impact on the people and culture of the Leeds community and encourage students and others to contribute to the sustainability and social responsibility of our Leeds School, their own organizations (if they are employed and business owners), and the society.

CESR: What does winning this award mean for you?

Joshua Nunziato: Acknowledgment (both giving it and getting it) is a really important part of human life. It feels good—and I’m deeply grateful—to be acknowledged for my teaching. It also reminds me what a privilege it is to have the students I have.

Steven Winterbach: Winning this award means a lot. It's not just about a recognition of my impact but also the gratitude I feel for being able to make a difference in others. Going to university was a big decision, one that required putting my career on hold and navigating my growing family. This student led award is a validation of those sacrifices and confirmation that pursuing my strong passion for social responsibility & sustainability was worth it.

Emma Ritson: Receiving the Impact Buff Award is a tremendous honor for me, symbolizing the culmination of two years’ worth of dedicated effort in helping to enhance CESR and its associated initiatives. Throughout my journey, I've been privileged to collaborate closely with CESR's exceptional staff and fellow students, absorbing invaluable lessons along the way.

CESR: How have you been involved with CESR and sustainability at Leeds?

Joshua Nunziato: I teach ethical leadership and sustainability within Leeds’ Social Responsibility and Sustainability division. It’s fun to work with student populations from our Executive MBAs to our traditional MBAs to our advanced undergraduates. Each group brings a distinctive lens, a different set of questions, and a unique slice of professional life into the classroom. As for my research, it examines how human goods like intimacy, respect, trust, and solidarity get enabled (or disenabled) by marketplace exchanges that cannot directly transact them. I have published in top academic journals and have a robust pipeline of forthcoming work under review or currently in preparation for outlets like Administrative Science Quarterly and Journal of Consumer Research.

Gabriel Cervantes: Before my freshman year, the late Prof. Mark Meaney gave a lecture at the EXCEL Summer Bridge Program regarding ethics in business, which inspired me to declare my first emphasis to be Sustainability my very first semester. I've gone to every workshop I could and read almost everything in the CESR newsletter that comes out if you'll believe it. Most of all, I try my hardest to stay engaged with the CESR faculty. These are leaders who were our age at one point thinking "there has to be a better, more ethical way to conduct business," so gaining insight from them has been invaluable to me.

Emma Ritson: My involvement with CESR and sustainability initiatives at Leeds has been multifaceted. Serving as Vice President and later President of Judge Relations for the Net Impact Case Competition, I navigated the complexities of implementing significant changes, a journey that was both challenging and rewarding. I have actively participated in CESR treks, networking events, and conferences, broadening my professional network within and beyond CU. These experiences have not only enriched my understanding of sustainability but have also cultivated a dynamic network of professionals with whom I intend to collaborate for years to come.

Natalie Bovie: I’ve been involved with CESR since my first few days on campus when I met the seniors at the time promoting CESR Fellows. Since then, I’ve had nothing but excitement about all things CESR and sustainability related. Through being a Fellow my first semester, to the Director of Curriculum, to now the Co-President of CESR Fellows it’s been such a fun time. It’s very super interesting to be a part of an extracurricular group while taking my classes for the SRE Certificate, since I feel I’m getting both an academic and informal perspective of what it means to be involved in suitability in business. Sustainability has shaped my CU, Leeds, CESR and even abroad track so far and everything about it has been extremely insightful and I’m constantly eager to learn more.

CESR: How have CESR and the Leeds community supported you?

Gabriel Cervantes: I want to genuinely thank the amazing people that have helped me and empowered me in the CESR community. From Dr. Nunziatio to Terri Walters, Lorna Christoff, Caleb Batts, Erin Miller, and Abby Lowrey and so many other amazing members of the CESR community I wish I could name that I have had the absolute honor of receiving insight from. CESR has provided me with knowledge and a platform for me to be able to inquire about what I believe are central issues to myself, my family, and my community. I truly hold the faculty, community members and my fellow students in such high regard for caring about more than what we used to.

Mary Boling: CESR and the Leeds community have supported me both on and off campus to take advantage of opportunities that would help me successfully pivot into the clean energy space. CESR hosted workshops for carbon accounting and green finance in addition to bringing speakers onto campus. When opportunities presented themselves outside of Boulder that would further my learning, both CESR and the broader Leeds community helped me secure funding to make those opportunities a possibility. In addition to these opportunities, this community has helped me navigate different career paths and networking opportunities based on my interests and skill set. I am someone who likes to talk through things with others and I have always found someone at Leeds who is willing to talk to me, which I have really appreciated.

Dejun “Tony” Kong: I’m honored to be a CESR Faculty Affiliate, supporting CESR mission and activities. CESR has supported my work in various ways (e.g., funding, promotion of me and my work), and so has the Leeds School. As a minority faculty member, I greatly appreciate the support and encouragement. I love the fact that CESR has good leadership who promotes inclusion and equity (evidenced by the diverse backgrounds of CESR Faculty Affiliates), which is very important to me. Likewise, the Leeds School, under the leadership of Dean Khatri, promotes a culture of care, which has a positive impact on me and others and makes me want to stay in this place and contribute to its development. I’m excited about the future of CESR and the Leeds community. With my research insights on people’s prosocial and caring behaviors, I will continue contributing to CESR and the Leeds community.

Natalie Bovie: The CESR and Leeds community have been nothing but supportive over my last three years here. The current and previous CESR program managers Katherine Ratledge and Taylor Dewitt have helped CESR Fellows so much in what it is today. Their connections to potential speakers, their ideas for club growth and their constant optimism have made them such great women to work with as well as amazing role models. They have helped us bring in speakers from such cool companies including: Protect Our Winters, HelloFresh, Mountain Hardware, and many others. CESR Fellows wouldn’t be possible without our active members and attendees and it’s awesome to see the community excited about all the different paths of what sustainability can look like in a career.

These incredible individuals at Leeds are paving the way for sustainable business and responsible operations. Thank you for making the impact that you have at the Leeds School of Business!

Learn more about some of the previous Impact Business Buff Award Winners - Shiao June Yuan, Anna Reves, Lorna Christoff.