As the Founder and Chief Evolution Officer of Evolution University, Joni combines her unique experience as an international entrepreneur and business professor with a passion for creating a more joyful, prosperous, and sustainable world. From launching one of the first American-owned tech companies in Romania in the early 2000s to today with Evolution University, her work has woven in themes of creating a better world through people, processes, and products.
As a professor, Joni has taught nearly 100 MBA and undergrad courses across diverse topics including international business, strategy, innovation, sustainability, leadership, and organizational behavior, impacting 1,000s of students with ways to build better businesses. She is the Vice Program Chair and Student Success Fellow for Saylor Academy for the open-education MBA program and developed the Innovation and Sustainability course. In 2015, she helped Kean University launch Kean Online by creating the International Business and Trade course and continues as an adjunct faculty member. She also serves on the President’s Taskforce for Sustainability in Academics.
In January 2020, Joni decided to go for it and set up Evolution University, a dream many years in the making. During the pandemic, she took this time for deep thinking and reflection and has been on a significant creativity surge since. Her work is a game changer for the way we do business by thinking differently about how we solve problems for people and the planet while making products and delivering services and includes new frameworks, online courses, and books that reshape education for sustainability.
She is the creator of the:
• EVOLVE Sustainability Framework
• EVOLVE Sustainability Journey
• EVOLVE Sustainability Sprint
• Compassion-Centered Stakeholder Approach
• Compassion-Centered Stakeholder Analysis
• Sustainability Stakeholder Matrix
• Celebrations, Appreciations & Frustrations practice
She earned a dual International MBA (IMBA) from the University of South Carolina Darla Moore School of Business and Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien along with a BA in Advertising from Michigan State University.
