ABOUT
Marisa Zalabak​
Educational psychologist, AI ethicist and transdisciplinary specialist. Marisa is Co-Founder of Global Alliance for DigitalEducation and Sustainability (GADES), a global community of knowledge and practice advancing multisector, multigenerational and multicultural education, awareness, capacity, and literacy around the responsible design, development, and use of digital and AI technologies with consideration for social and environmental sustainability.
Marisa currently serves with IEEE.org as Co-Chair of the AI Ethics Education committee and as Chair of the Global Methodologies committee for the Planet Positive 2030 climate and technology initiative, Strong Sustainability by Design. She is contributing author to publications in transdisciplinary collaboration and several recommended standards with IEEE for AI design and practices related to human well-being, including standards for smart cities and addressing the use of emulated emotions in AI systems.
Founder and CEO of Open Channel Culture, Marisa has been dedicated to fostering adaptive leadership, transdisciplinary collaboration, and providing continuing education on AI ethics in advanced technologies and regenerative systems design for the emerging future. Current research includes the future of education, workforce and impacts on human wellbeing and safety in human-machine interactions and partnerships.
A Senior Fellow with The Digital Economist Center of Excellence, Marisa works on guiding applied AI practices and research projects to foster sustainable, human-centered economies. Marisa has worked across public and private sectors and disciplines in education, psychology, business, arts, health, organizational transformation and social equity.
Marisa also serves on advisory boards and leadership teams with global organizations committed to the advancement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, digital literacy, future of education, peacemaking, and responsible technologies (Smart Ethics, UNEP, Future Earth, MKAI.org, SustainableIT.org, MIT’s Presencing-Institute/ULab, Million Peacemakers, Knowledge Impact Network, Women4Solutions, Africa Coalition, Willie Mae Rock Camp, and Create 2030).
What does culture and leadership mean in your organization now, in this transformative era?
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About Open Channel Culture
Our name, Open Channel Culture, was created based on three concepts: one from nature, one from engineering and one from social science:
“Open Channels”
The world is filled with open channels which, unlike a pipe or a tunnel, has one free surface, open to the atmosphere
—like a river or the ocean—
open to continually changing conditions.
“Open Channel Flow”
A term in hydraulic engineering, analyzes and the flow of liquids occurring in channels and do their best to identify and utilize the dynamics and possible benefits given the elements
and situation.
“Flow”
Then there’s human “Flow,’ as defined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, as a state of intrinsic human motivation.
Optimum psychological flow occurs when high levels of skill and challenge are combined — characterized by feelings of
great absorption, motivation, engagement, and fulfillment.
Together, these three form an inspirational combination—a joyful immersion for tackling challenging tasks with high level skills while utilizing existing power dynamics and an open mind.
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OCC supports organizational growth by fostering the uniquely human assets needed for this combination; building community, stimulating imagination, developing social-emotional intelligence, cultivating insight, expanding optimism, and establishing good will that supports visionary, global leadership.
“The ability to shift from reacting against the past to leaning into and ‘presencing’ an emerging future is probably the single most important leadership capacity today.”
– C. Otto Scharmer
M.I.T. Sloan School of Management
“Bring in a kind of leadership that values people working together, that values cooperation rather than competition, that makes room for having a full life.”
- Eileen Fisher
“Culture beats strategy”
– Apple
So…Create a culture that becomes the core of your strategy.
– Open Channel Culture
Giving Back
