Jennifer Kaplan, MBA, MFA
Adjunct Professor
Jennifer Kaplan is the Director of Sustainability at C16 Biosciences, a biotechnology firm that uses microbiology to brew sustainable alternatives to palm oil. It was founded in 2017 with the objective of creating a sustainable, environmentally friendly alternative to conflict palm oil. She played a similar role for Miyoko’s Creamery, an award-winning plant-based dairy.
She has many years of experience teaching, first at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia, and most recently at the Culinary Institute of America Greystone. She taught undergraduate and graduate-level writing and sustainable food systems courses and served as a capstone advisor in the MPS Wine and Beverage Program.
She is the author of Greening Your Small Business (Penguin Random House) and has published more than 400 articles and blog posts on sustainable food and wine and food politics. Her work has appeared in Eating Well, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Salon, LA Review of Books, and more.
Before her career as an educator and writer, Jennifer spent over a decade working in corporate and cause-related organizations focusing on developing and implementing revenue-generating, cost-saving marketing, and sustainability programs. While a Senior Director of Corporate Relations at First Book, a children’s literacy organization, she developed award-winning cause-related marketing programs for partners such as Disney, Pizza Hut, Subaru, Baskin & Robbins, Mastercard, and Cheerios. As a Group Research Manager at Condé Nast Publications, she managed market research for several culinary and lifestyle magazines, including Gourmet, Bon Appetit, and House & Garden.
As a founding board member of Impact Justice, a national criminal justice innovation and reform organization, Jennifer remains involved in their work. She is currently on the advisory board of their Food In Prison Project, the first-ever landmark study on prison food.
Jennifer earned an MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business, an MFA in Nonfiction Writing from the University of San Francisco, and an AB from Barnard College of Columbia University. She is the mother of four who currently lives in Berkeley, California.
Courses
MBA638 – Marketing & Communications for Social Impact
MBA676 – Sustainable Food Systems