original content and community building
impactmania, an award-winning program development firm, features and connects people and projects to accelerate cultural, social, and economic impact. This is realized by visualizing research and societal issues, providing interactivity between experts in the fields and the community-at-large.
impactmania has collaborated with more than 300+ impactmakers in 30+ countries and connected hundreds of people and programs. impactmania’s work has been featured at the United Nations (UN), U.S. Consulates, universities, and (inter-)national media. It has formed partnership across sectors and industries, offering entrepreneurial and interdisciplinary internship programs.
team
paksy plackis-cheng, founder | 
Paksy Plackis-Cheng
Entrepreneur, has worked in 20+ countries across 5 continents, 15+ years in executive management for high growth companies, one of which exited with an IPO of $6.9B.
Paksy is the founder of impactmania, a strategic services firm, advising, and creating programs for startups and organizations globally. Clients incl. tech startups (Staex GmbH), institutions (University of California, Santa Barbara), global super brands (Lamborghini), and gov (U.S. Consulate). Paksy’s work has been covered by the UN and awarded the U.S. Embassy Public Diplomacy grant. She is an official startup mentor at the German Entrepreneurship org (funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action). And served on several Boards in California incl. elected Board President of the Santa Barbara Symphony twice; raised millions for organizations.
jody turner |
Jody Turner, Culture of Future, is an insight strategist and writer with a foundation in design communications. For sixteen years Turner has advised 200+ brands on project initiatives small, large, local and global in scope. Her specialty is innovating to the human experience. To date, her favorite work has been with sparks and honey, TrendWatching, IDEO, Starbucks, Nike, and Apple.
paola ferrari |
Paola Ferrari’s platform developed by the non-profit she founded in a small village of Calabria, Italy (L’Accademia di Gagliato, nanogagliato.org) has received mention by UNESCO and is now replicated in several countries. Paola is among the founders of the Equality Moonshot, an initiative aimed to balance global wealth allocation as a requisite to achieve the SDGs.
carla de landri |
Carla De Landri, Emmy-winning journalist, produced at ABC News for decades, and reported on the Gulf War, US political campaigns, the Tiananmen Square uprising, and the fall of the Berlin Wall. She and her team were the first to break the story about sexual assault at the US Air Force Academy and uncovered inhumane labor practices faced by women in clothing factories.
Since ABC, Carla has pursued a wider portfolio as a media consultant. For the PBS NewsHour she produced a story on vaping. She has also contributed her skills to Reading Partners, a national organization for children’s literacy. For impactmania, Carla is writing an occasional column on media and news. She also serves as a member of the jury for the impactmania students fellowships program.
pak schreurs |
Pak Schreurs is a Director in Corporate Strategy at Evonik, one of the world’s largest specialty chemicals companies.
Prior, Pak worked in marketing and strategic partnerships for Procter & Gamble, Cisco Systems, Toyota, and Sony.
Throughout her career, she has been active in societal critical organizations including the South African-Netherlands Chamber of Commerce and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. Pak is a mentor to young professionals through the Exchangeables; impactmania; and her alumni network.
A graduate of CEMS Master’s in International Management from RSM Erasmus University, the Netherlands and Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden, she has lived and worked in the Netherlands, South Africa, Sweden, Spain, Belgium, the UK, and Germany, is fluent in Dutch, English, and German.
pakley cheng |
Pakley Cheng is a Marketing Communication professional specialized in (re)branding, communication and promotion of sustainable products and companies. She traded in her extensive commercial background maximizing the value of highly recognized brands to support positive social projects. In 2017, she founded the agency LMK. With LMK she takes on engaging community projects and spends her time mostly giving back to society through producing (inter)national projects to benefit vulnerable and underserved communities.
“Double Bravo for the discussion meeting: I was impressed with the people who have joined up, the ones who showed up, and the ones I personally know whom you introduced at the dais. You obviously have tapped into some special energy system … keep it up … no one can do it better. You are onto something really exciting.”
– Prof. Emeritus Duncan Mellichamp, UCSB Trustee
advisory group
Eva Haller, activist, mentor, philanthropist | Prof. Emeritus Duncan A. Mellichamp
impactmania students
UCSB: Alice Taylor | Stephanie Ando | Mina Nur Basmaci| Sabrina Li | Stevie Sandy | Jennifer Yoshikoshi | Kristina Goetz | Alex Moon | Austin Bernales | Laic Beugre | Joanne Mun | Natalie Gomez | Saehee Jong | Jenna Cambilargiu | Lizbeth Martinez | Tess Reinhardt | Joyce Tsui | Denisse Gonzalez | Nerwel Zhao | Zoe Crouzat | Haoran ‘Tyler’ Jiang | Nicollette Juchum | Madeleine Lazarovits | Nikhil Ograin | Marirose Meyer | Winston Braun
PhD candidates: Courtney Applewhite | Letícia Cobra Lima | Sophia McCabe | Virginia ‘Ginny’ Reynolds Badgett | Mary Okin | Melina Gooray
past contributors
Ricardo Gandour | Prof. Emeritus Bruce Robertson | Elyse A. Gonzales | Kayla Bonnin PhD | Nick Pici PhD | Chelsea Catania PhD | Kristina Van Dyke PhD | Erika Carlos | Nastacia Schmoll | Leah Kuritzky PhD | Melissa Walker | Chad Sykes | Victoria Herbert | Ida Storm | Joanna Lamstein | Cliff Lundberg | Sebastian Schumacher | Francesca Milocco
news
view all impactmania news & media
impactmania’s work have been cited by a number of global media outlets, university presses, the United Nations, and the U.S. Consulate. The Women of Impact program has been awarded with the U.S. Embassy Public Diplomacy Grant (2019).
Harvard Business School
“impactmania interview with Robert Zimmerman, Berlin Philharmonic, was cited as a source for the report: The Berliner Philharmoniker’s Digital Forte.”
Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV)
“impactmania interview with artist Barbara Caveng was cited in the IKSV report: Living Together. Fostering Cultural Pluralism Through The Arts.”
media
timeline
2018
Women of Impact book, museum exhibition, and presentation launched with 200+ community members and close to 30 women from the project traveled from 8 U.S. cities and 5 continents for the July 19th launch.
Pat Mitchell, first female President and CEO of PBS and Co-Director of TED Women, writes Women of Impact foreword.
impactmania partners with Art, Design & Architecture (AD&A) Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) to deliver entrepreneurial, design-led, internship program for students.
2017
impactmania featured more than 300 original interviews with impact makers in 30 countries.
Newton Paiva University (Brazil) partners with impactmania to uncover and feature social enterprises.
impactmania’s video story The Future of Business is Responsible is also available on view at the United Nations Foundation’s website as part of the Every Woman Every Child initiative.
impactmania video story The Future of Business is Responsible was featured at the United Nations Global Compact Conference 2017.
2015
Impact X book and community event for 290 people takes place at The New Vic Theatre in Santa Barbara, California.
We matched dozens of people and projects.