Supplier Diversity News
Success Story: Marlene Kowalski-Braun
December 15, 2021
Business growth often comes by sharing business successes
Grand Valley State University is interested in the growth of our business partners and is excited to share success stories, highlighting how our mutual goals are achieved by working together. Our business partners have a strong desire to meet our institutional needs and to bring innovation to our campus by collaborating with divisions and departments who steward University resources. This partnership is a result of relationship building and doing business and our desire is to share these stories to model lead practices and to share potential opportunities within our campus community.
Marlene Kowalski-Braun from the Division of Inclusion and Equity shares her story:
I so appreciate the work and customer service from Green Giftz, founded in 1992 in Grand Rapids, Michigan by Karen Scarpino. The goal of Green Giftz is to connect customers with brand merchandise to enhance messaging and to bring a deeper sense of connection to the project being highlighted. I recently worked with them, alongside my colleague Mei Mah, to develop products for youth learners that we wanted to elevate as creators, teachers, and knowers through REP4. The quick turn-around, care, and willingness to listen to the “why” resulted in top notch products that matched our desired outcomes. And, they didn’t give up on finding us what we needed until we were completely satisfied, which was greatly appreciated. I love that they are a boutique business that works to make the order process easy and fun.