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The Anthony Cortese Fellowship Fund: Investing in the Future of Sustainable Finance
As we honor Dr. Cortese’s retirement, we are excited to announce the launch of the Anthony Cortese Fellowship Fund, which preserves his legacy of mentorship and leadership in sustainability. Dr. Cortese has dedicated his career to mentoring young professionals, helping countless individuals make meaningful contributions to the sustainability movement.
The Fellowship Fund will support 4-6 fellows annually, including students and early-to-mid-career professionals from underrepresented backgrounds in finance. These fellows will gain hands-on experience in sustainable investing and build the networks and skills they need to become future leaders in the industry.
To launch this effort in 2024, IEN aims to raise $150,000 to fund the selection, onboarding, and education of the fellows. Contributions to the Anthony Cortese Fellowship Fund will help IEN build a more diverse and forward-thinking community of finance professionals, ensuring the sustainability movement thrives for years to come.
Call to Action: Support the Anthony Cortese Fellowship Fund.
We encourage impact-investing community and our partners to contribute to the Anthony Cortese Fellowship Fund and join us in celebrating Dr. Cortese’s legacy. By supporting this fund, we invest in the future leaders of sustainable finance and advance the transition toward a more equitable, low-carbon economy.
Support the Anthony Cortese Fellowship Fund
Past Fellow Experience
“At the start of the fellowship, my main goal was to learn more about responsible investing including gaining a better understanding of the larger ecosystem .... The fellowship has provided me with substantial language, tools, and understanding to hopefully enter into the space professionally after graduation. I really appreciated the mentorship I received throughout the fellowship, and the opportunity to interact with different types of IEN members."
---- JULIA CEDARHOLM Former IEN Fellow (‘20), Current Senior Associate, ESG Research & Shareholder Engagement, Arjuna Capital
"During this internship, I primarily learned about student-managed funds, endowments, ESG investing, and sustainability in higher education, but I also learned about the challenges and rewards of non-profit work, the benefits and difficulties of having a small team, and the value of persistence....... I also learned that work in sustainability, and specifically ESG, is something that I’m going to be interested in going forward, and I intend to focus my internship search for next summer around ESG investing firms."
---- MEGHAN AHERN Former IEN Intern (‘19), Current Senior Analyst, Responsible Investing, Nuveen
Dr. Anthony Biography
Dr. Cortese has been actively engaged in public policy and educational transformation on climate change and other large system sustainability challenges for over 40 years. He founded Second Nature, the Boston-based advocacy organization committed to promoting sustainability through higher education, along with U.S. Senator John Kerry, Teresa Heinz Kerry and Bruce Droste. He served as Second Nature’s president from March 1993-August 2012, which is where he and Georges Dyer met -- collaborating to create the Crane Institute of Sustainability and its flagship initiative, the Intentional Endowments Network, in April 2014 as the fossil fuel divestment movement was taking campuses across the nation by storm.
He was the organizer of the Presidents' Climate Leadership Commitment and co-founder of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) and the Higher Education Association Sustainability Consortium. Dr. Cortese was also one of the founding employees of the US EPA and the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. He was the first Dean of Environmental Programs at Tufts University and founded the award-winning Tufts Environmental Literacy Institute in 1989 that helped integrate environmental and sustainability perspectives in over 175 courses. Additionally, he organized the effort that resulted in the internationally acclaimed Talloires Declaration of University Leaders for a Sustainable Future in 1990 now signed by over 350 presidents and chancellors in over 50 countries.
Dr. Cortese is a trustee of Green Mountain College and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He served as a trustee of Tufts University and was a founding member of the board of directors of The Natural Step US and of the Environmental Business Council of New England. He has been a consultant to UNEP, a member of the EPA Science Advisory Board, President Clinton's Council on Sustainable Development's Education Task Force and a Woodrow Wilson Fellow for Higher Education.
Dr. Cortese is a frequent presenter to a wide variety of professional audiences. His writing can be found in a wide spectrum of publications. His essays on Education for Sustainability serve as foundational reading for transforming the process, content and practice of higher education.