Deborah Schimberg is the founder and CEO of Verve, inc., producer of two all-natural, eco-friendly candy lines: Glee Gum and Make Your Own Candy Kits. After graduating from Brown in 1979, she started the Southside Community Land Trust, a nonprofit urban environmental organization in Providence, and subsequently founded the International Charter School, a dual language immersion elementary public school in Pawtucket, RI. The concept for Verve, inc. was born in 1992, the year she and her family visited an economically depressed chicle- producing community in Northern Guatemala. Since the harvest of chicle is sustainable and benefits both the rainforest and the local economy, Schimberg became inspired to create a market for it in the States. She has served as the Executive Director of Social Venture Partners of Rhode Island, and has taught social entrepreneurship at Brown University. She holds an Ed.M. from Harvard University.