2026 Next Level Leaders

Nick Haukom

Life Cycle Assessment and Transparency Lead at Owens Corning

Nick Haukom is a life cycle assessment and transparency lead at Owens Corning, where he is responsible for developing and managing life cycle assessments (LCAs) across the company’s product portfolio and supporting the material health transparency program in response to customer expectations and evolving transparency standards. 

Haukom has led complex, enterprise-level initiatives, most notably through his recent leadership of an effort to establish a reproducible and science-backed methodology for calculating and publicly communicating the positive impacts of insulation products. In addition to his role at Owens Corning, he contributes to the advancement of the LCA community as co-chair of the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment Outreach Committee and as co-chair of the 2026 Environmental Life Cycle Assessment in Design Symposium.

Prior to joining Owens Corning, Haukom held roles at Target Corporation, Gilead Sciences and 3M, where he led environmental compliance, product stewardship, and sustainability programs across retail, biopharmaceutical and manufacturing contexts. Nick holds a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and molecular biology from the University of Minnesota Duluth and is a LEED® Green Associate.

Emily McDonald

EHS Manager at Epredia

Emily McDonald is currently the environmental health and safety manager at Epredia in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Prior to Epredia, she worked for over a decade as a senior environmental engineer for General Motors in various manufacturing and research and development facilities managing water, waste and air compliance. McDonald attended Michigan Technological University where she obtained her Bachelor of Science in environmental engineering in 2012. In 2019, she graduated from Wayne State University with her Master of Business Administration with concentrations in international business and management. In recognition of her career and philanthropic achievements, McDonald received the honor of being inducted into the Presidential Council of Alumnae at Michigan Tech in 2018. 

Outside of her career, McDonald is passionate about volunteering and education. She is currently the president emerita of the Alumni Board of Directors for Michigan Tech, a director of the Miss Mattawan Scholarship Program and serves on the school board for The Montessori School of Kalamazoo.  In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, reading and spending time outdoors with her husband and two kids.

Holly Rogers-Rios

Responsible Sourcing Manager at Kalsec

Holly Rogers-Rios is responsible sourcing manager at Kalsec Inc., leading social and environmental sustainability initiatives across procurement, including food loss reduction and Scope 3 greenhouse gas efforts. She also serves as a gate keeper for the Stage Gate New Product Innovation process, where she evaluates the viability of turning ideas into products. Rogers-Rios earned an M.S. in sustainable management from the University of Wisconsin-Stout and holds a B.S. in agriculture and natural resources communications from Michigan State University. 

Before joining Kalsec, Rogers-Rios served three years in Paraguay as a Peace Corps agricultural extension volunteer, developing a school gardening curriculum and supporting farmer groups with soil recuperation projects. She later spent nine years with a local apple orchard and packing operation, gaining end-to-end experience across sales, logistics, food safety, production planning, inventory management and procurement. She was named one of the U.S. Apple Associations Top 10 Young Leaders in 2012.

Sally Stephenson

Senior Human Resources Business Partner at Kalsec

Sally Stephenson is a senior human resources business partner at Kalsec Inc., bringing more than a decade of experience within the organization and a deep understanding of manufacturing and operational environments. She began her career at Kalsec in quality assurance and quality control, where she spent 10 years supporting food safety, regulatory compliance and continuous improvement initiatives. In 2020, Stephenson earned a master’s degree in organizational change leadership from Western Michigan University, which supported her transition into human resources and sharpened her focus on leading change at both the organizational and individual level.

In her current role, Stephenson serves as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, partnering across manufacturing and corporate functions to address complex employee relations, labor relations, investigations, compliance and talent matters. She is known for a steady, principled approach and for delivering clear, practical guidance in high‑risk or sensitive situations. Her background in quality assurance and quality control, combined with strategic human resources leadership, allows her to bridge operational realities with people strategy—strengthening accountability, trust and sustainable performance across the organization.

Julien Wilder

Director of Human Resources at the Kalamazoo Nature Center

Julien Wilder is the human resources director at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, where she leads HR as a department of one, supporting staff across the organization. She holds a B.A. in ecology and environmental humanities and is a SHRM Certified Professional. Wilder is passionate about building strong relationships and fostering a workplace culture that is collaborative, engaging and grounded in policies and practices that truly support the organization’s mission and people.

Raised on small, diversified farms along the East Coast, including years spent living off the grid without electricity or running water, Wilder brings a deep sense of resilience and adaptability to her work. She is committed to creating environments where people feel connected, supported and able to thrive.

Elizabeth Case

Elizabeth Case is the program manager for Next Level Leaders in the Center for Sustainable Business Practices at the Western Michigan University Haworth College of Business. Drawing from a background in education, nonprofit leadership and the arts, she is passionate about creating meaningful learning experiences that foster authentic connection, collaboration and purpose-driven leadership. In her work with Next Level Leaders, Case helps cultivate spaces where professionals can grow both personally and professionally while building relationships rooted in empathy, reflection and shared impact. 

Prior to joining WMU, Case spent 10 years in public education as a middle and high school choir director before transitioning into nonprofit leadership roles with the Gilmore Piano Festival and Camp Wakeshma. She also serves as the choir director and service pianist at Unity of Kalamazoo. Her leadership approach is grounded in creativity, relationship-building and a strong commitment to helping individuals feel seen, supported and empowered in their growth. Case holds a Bachelor of Arts in music and a Master of Arts in secondary education.

Nancy McGaw

Nancy McGaw is an independent advisor, with a focus on values-based leadership and dialogue design. For 25 years she worked at the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program where, in 2009, she founded the Aspen First Movers Fellowship Program which is now one of the world’s top leadership development programs and networks for corporate social intrapreneurs.

Her book, “Making Work Matter: How to Create Positive Change in Your Company and Meaning in Your Career,” published in 2024, captures inspiring stories from First Mover Fellows and offers strategies to help others develop the mindsets and skills needed to follow a similar path and create purpose-driven careers that deliver value for their companies and for society. 

Prior to joining the Aspen Institute, she worked for nearly two decades as a corporate banker. 

McGaw grew up in Royal Oak, Michigan. She received her B.A. from Michigan State University and her M.A. from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins. She has lived and worked in England and Japan and is currently based in New York.

Timothy Palmer

Dr. Timothy Palmer is a professor of management and director of the Center for Sustainable Business Practices at Western Michigan University’s Haworth College of Business. A nationally recognized educator and thought leader in ethics, sustainability and strategic management, Palmer brings decades of experience helping students and professionals connect purpose-driven leadership with meaningful organizational impact. His teaching and research focus on sustainability, organizational reputation, strategic decision-making and student learning, with an emphasis on experiential and service-based learning. 

Palmer is widely respected for creating learning experiences that bridge business strategy with community engagement and global awareness. His innovative integration of service learning into business education earned him the Michigan Campus Compact Faculty and Staff Community Service-Learning Award, as well as the Distinguished Professor of the Year Award from the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan. In addition to leading sustainability initiatives at WMU, he has facilitated international study abroad experiences and was selected for a prestigious Fulbright Specialist Award recognizing his expertise in sustainability education and experiential learning.

Gretchen Slenk

Gretchen Slenk, founder of Melo Leadership Consulting, is an executive leadership coach, facilitator and speaker who helps leaders build workplaces where people—and performance—thrive.

With over 20 years of experience spanning leadership development, organizational effectiveness and nonprofit administration, Slenk brings a rare blend of strategic insight and people acumen to every room she enters. She has partnered with hundreds of leaders—from emerging professionals to the C-suite – and believes leadership is not about titles or control, but about self-awareness, intentional decision-making and the courage to lead with humanity in complex systems. Her work challenges leaders to move beyond surface-level change and into sustainable, values-driven impact.

Slenk is trained as an executive coach through Georgetown University’s Institute for Transformational Leadership, certified as a Gallup Strengths Coach and works as a Certified Community Leadership Practitioner. She holds a master’s degree in social work from Western Michigan University and is licensed in both clinical and macro practices. She has also taught classes on human and organizational behavior as an adjunct professor at Western Michigan University, grounding her work in both research and real-world application.

Calling Portage, Michigan, home, Slenk lives with her husband and three children. When she’s not tackling the to-do list of work or family life, you can find her in one of her other happy places—reading, enjoying live music (preferably outdoors), lingering over breakfast with unreasonable amounts of coffee or going for a run with 90s R&B motivating every step.

Mike Tiesenga

Since childhood Mike Tiesenga has been fascinated by storytelling and how the stories we collect and share communicate meaning and guide our decision making. Professionally, Tiesenga has helped everyone from college students to executives understand the importance and impact of storytelling in their contexts. As the founder of Forerunner Story Co., he is on a mission to help each person he serves better understand their unique story and equip them to lead with it as they move toward their goals.