Meet The Reconsidered Team: Jessica Marati Radparvar, Founder & Lead Impact Strategist

Meet our Founder & Lead Impact Strategist, Jessica Marati Radparvar.

Discover how a new year’s resolution snowballed into a career motivation, the not-so-guilty pleasure she can’t get enough of and how she really feels about networking.

😉 Describe what you do in a couple of sentences

A little bit of everything, really! I lead Reconsidered’s consulting practice as well as create content and teach courses to help our community of impact leaders drive bigger, bolder, more sustainable change. I feel lucky to get to work with some of the smartest, most inspiring sustainability practitioners out there, both as clients and as colleagues.

⚡️ “Aha!” moment that sparked your interest in sustainability

After my first year living in New York City, I made a new year’s resolution. I was a cab-taking, take-out-eating, caffeine-addicted workaholic, who released stress with SoHo shopping sprees and a bit too much Friday night whiskey. I felt the desire — or actually, the urgent, desperate need — to seriously shake up the hedonistic patterns I'd developed. I decided to start small and resolved to become a more conscious consumer, to think more about the purchases I made and the origins of the products I used. That resolution snowballed into nearly every aspect of my life, including my career, and continues to motivate me 15 years later.

 🎉 Favorite part of your job

Working in impact is HARD. I know that as much as anyone else. I love brainstorming ways we can make the lives of the change agents in our community easier. Because imagine what would happen if all the sustainability practitioners struggling out there felt energized and empowered to show up fully in all their changemaking efforts? Magic, that’s what.

📚 Last movie you watched

One of the recent pleasures I fully and joyfully own up to — no guilt here! — is rewatching the movie Eat Pray Love, adapted from the book of the same name. Elizabeth’s Gilbert’s words, spoken with Julia Roberts’ wide smile, against a backdrop of Roman cobblestones and Balinese rice paddies… what’s not to love? As impact practitioners, we all need our sparks of joy; great authors and indulgent rom-coms are two of mine.

😍 Current brain-crush

I am continuously mesmerized by the words of Julian Aguon, an author, human rights lawyer and climate activist — and a distant cousin! — from my home island of Guam. His Atlantic essay on life on the front lines of the climate crisis in Oceania was named a 2022 Pulitzer Prize Finalist and his powerful debut book is being rereleased internationally this fall with an introduction from Arundhati Roy. I’ve been following Julian’s writing since he was a teen beat reporter with Guam’s local newspaper, and I’m so excited that his voice is starting to be recognized on the global stage. 

🌳 Words of wisdom for anyone starting a career in impact

Truth time: I hate the idea of networking. Too often, it takes the form of uninteresting small talk, blind LinkedIn requests and outreach emails asking to "pick your brain" that you can tell have been copy-pasted to dozens of targets. Instead, I view my network-building — if you want to call it that — as making friends, exchanging ideas and exploring what you can create when you combine your talents with other people. If you're going to reach out blindly to people, take the time to explain what it is about that person's career path that sparked interest for you. If you're going to a conference, take a real interest in the people you speak with (rather than scanning the room for other people to approach — hate that). And circle back! I love hearing updates from people I took the time to mentor months and even years later. It makes me feel more connected with their journey (and therefore more likely to help them if asked).

To learn more about what it's like to work with us, read more about Reconsidered’s approach and check out our other “Meet The Team” profiles.