Evans Alum and Aritzia’s Senior Manager of Product Environmental Impact, Nicki McClung (MPA ’15), is leveraging her experience, Evans education, and passion for social justice to positively impact product sustainability and climate strategy.

Can you tell us a little about yourself? 

My name is Nicki and I use she/her pronouns. I grew up in a tiny town in the foothills of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. I am of mixed Japanese/Irish ancestry, which was a bit of a novelty where I grew up. My undergrad is in accounting and finance, and after a couple of years living and working in Banff, Alberta, South Korea, and Australia and doing some travel in between, I landed in Seattle with my then-boyfriend trying to make it in a new city. 

Fast forward a few years and I left Seattle in the middle of the pandemic to relocate to a small ski town in British Columbia with my husband, two kiddos, and dog. I work remotely with Aritzia, a contemporary women’s wear brand based out of Vancouver, BC, and whenever I can, I’m biking, skiing, or somehow enjoying the outdoors with my family.

What contributed to your decision to pursue an MPA degree? Was there a defining moment in particular?

When I moved to Seattle, I thought I would have no trouble finding a role in my field. With the boom in tech, and my corporate finance and accounting background, surely someone would sponsor me.

My theory proved to be wrong.

I wanted to go back to school to have work eligibility primarily, and someone suggested I look into an MPA. For me, I already had worked in huge corporations, I could make a business case, I could operate easily in the private sector, so an MBA seemed redundant.

The MPA program was like an MBA but with the lens of impact and social justice. Through the wonderful support of the admissions team at Evans, I was able to determine it was the right fit for me, and they helped me through the process.

Looking back on your Evans School experience, what stands out as being particularly impactful while you were a student?

So much changed during my time at Evans, both personally and professionally. There were a lot of social and political changes happening during that time. George Zimmerman had just been acquitted in the homicide of Trayvon Martin, and Michael Brown and Eric Garner were murdered months later. The conversation shifted dramatically I found, especially as a newcomer to the US, from bi-partisan politics to the deep and entrenched racism prevalent in the country (and bi-partisan politics).

I learned so much from my professors and cohort at Evans. I’m still learning, but my time at Evans shifted my perspective. I finally had the opportunity to embrace my own identity and my intersectionality. I began to work through the questions and traumas of my own experience, and it has helped me immensely in my career, as a leader, and community member.

Can you share a bit about the work you are currently doing and what a typical day in your work looks like?

I currently work on the sustainability team at Aritzia. Officially I am the senior manager of product environmental impact, but my scope includes beyond just product. I’ve been working on what our climate strategy looks like, both from a high-level organizational view and then specifically what we are doing along parts of our value chain.

My days are nicely varied, but it’s a lot of internal and external stakeholder engagement – and report and memo writing! Thanks, Evans!

As an MPA working in the private sector, how has your Evans education contributed to your work?

Other than the stakeholder engagement and writing pieces I already mentioned – probably critical thinking! Specifically how to dig into the sources of information, and not cherry-pick data! Embracing the data – good and bad – is so hard to do but Evans taught me how to work through that.

I think something else that I credit Evans for is the reminder to always think about the bigger impact and the danger of inappropriate interventions.

Can you tell us about some of the projects you are working on or excited about?

I am so excited about some big projects coming up soon. In the past, many teams worked in silos, with different goals and KPIs, that didn’t all track towards a common objective. Now, we are entering a very exciting phase of being able to set a comprehensive environmental impact strategy. I hope to be able to share more soon!

What are one or two resources that inspire you?

Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth Cline is probably one of the most realistic portrayals of how products are made and what factories are like. It doesn’t tell the whole picture, but it’s a great primer for anyone interested in the industry.

This New York Times piece on organic cotton is super fascinating and extremely relevant to my world: That Organic Cotton T-Shirt May Not Be as Organic As You Think.

Harvard Business Review’s article The Myth of Sustainable Fashion is a little depressing, but some good guiding principles.

Mark Frischmuth, MPA 2019, believes that technology can help solve challenging social, economic, environmental, and civic problems while empowering all members of society. At DemocracyLab, he is building on that vision by connecting tech-for-good projects with skilled volunteers and socially responsible companies.

What contributed to your decision to pursue a career in support of the public good? Was there a defining moment in particular?

I have always been motivated by a search for meaning and majored in philosophy as an undergraduate. Two sources of meaning I have found are authentic personal relationships and contributing to the public good. A spark of insight the day after the 2004 Presidential election motivated me to explore how technology could be used to crowdsource public policy by mapping connections between the values people believe, the objectives they seek to accomplish, and the policies they would like to see implemented. It was from that exploration process that I formed DemocracyLab in 2006, and it began a long journey that eventually led me to the Evans school and my full-time dedication to advance public interest technology.

Can you share a bit about the work you are currently doing and what a typical day in your work looks like?

DemocracyLab empowers people who use technology to advance the public good by connecting tech-for-good projects with skilled volunteers and socially responsible companies. Our platform and programs help tech-for-good projects to launch without funding, volunteers to upskill and advance their careers, and companies to build cultures of purpose. DemocracyLab is a volunteer-driven organization and thousands of hours of volunteer labor have been contributed toward the research, design, and development of our open-source online platform. I spend time every day coordinating volunteer efforts, engaging with current and prospective partners, reaching out to companies to solicit employee engagement opportunities, and building relationships with prospective funders.

Can you share how diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to your work and the work you continue doing?

Our world and our communities face many very difficult problems. Many of these problems were created by systems that exploited people, land, and resources for profit. I believe that addressing these problems will require the voice, perspective, and talent of as many people as possible. I believe an extroverted culture of inclusion leads to diversity, and that open-minded and respectful teams of diverse people can create communities and products that advance equity. I have experienced much personal privilege in life, and feel a responsibility to use that privilege to create greater equity at whatever scale I can.

If there was one thing you’d want people to know about your work, what would it be?

One of the most important effects of DemocracyLab’s work is that it increases the sense of agency of members of our community. We help people recognize that they have something valuable to contribute to solutions to public problems, and, that their response to these problems is within their control. The infrastructure that DemocracyLab creates has positive impacts on many other problems in society. By activating skilled volunteers and encouraging them to contribute their talents, we make it possible for organizations addressing a host of other issues to pursue their missions more effectively.

Looking back on your Evans School experience, what stands out as being particularly impactful during that time?

While the Evans classroom instruction was invaluable, I found my interactions and conversations with my classmates to be the most impactful aspect of my Evans experience. The diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of my classmates helped me better understand my own worldview and challenged me to think more broadly. The education I received at Evans helps me see my work in the larger context of society and to better understand the complex range of stakeholders whose engagement is important to the success of my work.

What are 1 or 2 resources that inspire you personally or professionally?

A book I read long ago that stuck with me is Ken Wilbur’s A Brief History of Everything, where he made some very interesting points about systems thinking. The biggest takeaway for me was that any particular thing can be understood simultaneously as a whole, as a sum of its parts, and as a part of a larger whole.