Contributors

Marlena Crow

Marlena earned a professional project management certificate from the University of Arizona, whose Eller College of Management is one of the top-ranked entrepreneurial business programs in the country. As Deputy Vice President with PMI’s San Francisco/Bay Area Chapter, she developed a comprehensive green chapter and sustainability program: a strategic assemblage and application drawn from  components that Marlena had developed over the years, it comprised an innovative program within the project management community.

A non-traditional project manager, she began as a corporate anthropologist, analyzing the alignment of corporate culture with organizational strategy. In a natural evolution, she began implementing the system solutions and process changes which she recommended and developed. This analyst-through-design-to-implementation background resulted in an unusual breadth of functional management expertise. To this end, she holds professional certificates in project management, human resources, mediation, real estate, mortgage lending and fraud examination, with membership in the SHRM, PMI and ABA. She also holds professional membership in the APA and NASW.

Marlena became active in the sustainability community over two decades ago and has participated on a long list of community development boards, leading projects in the areas of water harvesting, permaculture, greenway design and sustainable infrastructure.  She additionally was a construction project manager for multiple green renovation projects, including SFR, commercial and multi-family properties. Certified in Permaculture Design (PDC), Marlena is most interested in creating alliances among “green” NPOs, public entities and professional organizations such as PMI to cross-pollinate skills, project opportunities and applied solutions to local development of the commons.

She graduated magna cum laude with a double major and double minor from the 3rd ranked anthropology department in the country.  After completing graduate coursework and original research in international development practice and a 2-yr post-bac in law in Arizona, she earned dual masters degrees (MSW, MURP) in policy/program evaluation, community organizing and urban planning at the University of Michigan. Her emphasis is on urban sustainability and social equity. Currently a resident of Detroit, Marlena is actively involved in policy advocacy, building community capacity and engaging her own creative projects.

As you would suspect, Marlena’s MBTI is an INTx. She strongly identifies with Systems Thinking and adds a perspective not often present in evolving women’s leadership.