ISSIP Recognizes Outstanding Volunteers for 2024

Terri Griffith, Keith Beedie Chair in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Simon Fraser University; 2022 ISSIP President

The International Society of Service Innovation Professionals (ISSIP) is pleased to recognize several outstanding volunteers’ contributions during 2024. The ISSIP “Above and Beyond” honor highlights volunteers beyond the Board and Executive Committee who go above and beyond in their work supporting ISSIP. These volunteers advance ISSIP’s mission of promoting service innovation on a global scale. This year, we recognize Rupal Jain, Christine Leitner​, Christine Ouyang, Vittal Prabhu​, Kazuyoshi Shimada​, Jan-Simon Veicht, ​and Yueming Xu.

Jan-Simon Veicht, Head of Industrial Design and Design Fellow and Lecturer at UC Berkeley, served as an ISSIP Ambassador in 2024. He made notable contributions by authoring three articles on human-centered innovation, featured in ISSIP News. Additionally, Veicht organized and chaired a successful hybrid event in San Francisco, collaborating with EIT Silicon Valley at SAP Labs. 

Rupal Jain, a Consultant at GLG and ISSIP Ambassador, showcased her design skills by creating Ambassador Certificates and developing code for their automated generation. The process automation is invaluable as ISSIP’s Ambassador program now boasts more than 100 active leaders, growing at a double-digit pace annually.  

Yueming Xu, a Reliability Engineer at IBM, is the first ISSIP Ambassador Operations Manager, assisted with managing our ISSIP Ambassador community, updating contact info on those actively engaged, assisting with ambassador onboarding, and the semi-annual planning and Progress calls. Yueming has also helped ISSIP explore the Benevity platform.

Christine Ouyang, a Distinguished Engineer at IBM, has been the Lead for ISSIP’s Ambassadors Program since 2022. Her exceptional leadership has been instrumental in recruiting and managing a top-notch operations team, facilitating planning calls with global ambassadors, and maintaining a calendar of article submissions on topics of greatest interest to them. Ouyang also initiated the highly successful Ambassador Event Series model in 2023, further expanded by ISSIP Ambassadors Kazuyoshi Shimada and Christine Leitner in 2024. 

Shimada, the Manager of the Office of Diversity at JST, initiated and led ISSIP’s 2024 AI and global democracy Discovery Series. He recruited outstanding speakers from Japan Science & Technology and its network, and contributed analytic insights to the subsequent white paper.

Christine Leitner, Co-Founder of CEPA and ISSIP Ambassador, responded to the call for collaboration on the Democracy Series, bringing in OECD and European perspectives. She recruited complementary experts and facilitated meaningful discussions on trends and issues, drawing from her expertise and network of contacts actively piloting and leading the digitization of democracies in multiple countries. 

Vittal Prabhu, Director of the College of Engineering at PSU, member of ISSIP’s Awards Committee and ISSIP Ambassador, conceived and co-led the Industry Transformation Series of Events with Jim Spohrer. This series explored trends and themes across various industry sectors, including healthcare, finance, supply chain/logistics, energy/IT, retail/hospitality, and education. A comprehensive white paper is in the works. Additionally, Prabhu championed three different PSU Learning Factory Student teams to work with ISSIP mentor Jim Spohrer on ISSIP-related projects. He will also help with the free onramp online course materials for 2025 – to increase the number of ISSIP participants with a digital certificate for completing the initial ISSIP service innovation professional introductory online short course.  

Vaishali Mane, a Senior Product Analyst at CMS, has been the Community Lead for ISSIP’s Give Get Grow Program since 2023. Throughout 2023 and 2024, Mane has organized and planned the quarterly Give Get Grow calls with Jim Spohrer, allowing new participants in ISSIP’s global community to connect and engage more deeply. She invites all recently registered ISSIP participants and supports ISSIP News, welcoming everyone to join and hear updates on priorities and programs from the executive director. Her efforts foster a sense of belonging and active participation within the ISSIP community.

ISSIP is truly grateful for the tireless efforts and dedication of these outstanding volunteers. We encourage all ISSIP participants to consider the opportunities noted at issip.org/volunteer/. We can all GIVE in a volunteer service role, GET new skills or knowledge, and Grow a larger network of colleagues through our participation in ISSIP.