About the Author: Christine Bader '93
Christine Bader
Current Home:
New York City
Place of Birth:
New York City
Education:
Hunter College Elementary & High Schools; Amherst '93; MBA, Yale School of Management, '00
Why did you choose to come to Amherst?
I fell in love with Amherst on my first visit, and the rest is history.
Favorite (most memorable or most influential) professor:
This is like asking me to choose my favorite kid! Kim Townsend, Lawrence Douglas, Austin Sarat, Geoffrey Woglom and Carol Clark stand out; but please don't make me choose!
Awards and Prizes:
Named to the 2012-13 class of the Donaldson Fellows Program, which recognizes Yale School of Management graduates “whose personal and professional accomplishments embody the school’s mission to educate leaders for business and society.”
Favorite Book:
I used to read Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man" every few years. Now I find myself picking up Anne Lamott's books over and over, namely "Bird by Bird" and "Operating Instructions" - which makes sense as a first-time author and first-time parent!
Favorite Author:
David Foster Wallace. Of course.
Tips for aspiring writers?
Write, write, write.
Tell us a bit about your path to becoming an author:
When I first joined BP and lived in Indonesia and China, I was writing emails home to friends and family - before blogs were blogs - about what I was doing. People found it really interesting! I realized not a lot of people know that companies have staff deep inside the company forging the sort of investments in communities and partnerships with NGOs that I was working on. So I started to think there might be something there to write about one day.
But it was really after the Deepwater Horizon disaster that I felt compelled to write the book. The BP that emerged in the wake of that disaster was not the BP I recognized, which went above and beyond what was required to protect people and the environment. To try to reconcile those two BPs, I started speaking with the many peers I've gotten to know over the years, pushing for safer and more responsible practices deep inside big companies -- and realized we faced similar frustrations and challenges. Those conversations and that deep personal reflection is what turned into the book. What is more Amherst than thinking by writing?