Crystal Fashant
- Associate Professor, MPNA/MPA/MNLM Grad Prog Dir
Credentials
- Doctor of Business Administration, Business Administration and Management
Metropolitan State University - Master of Public & Non-profit Admin, Public and Non-profit Administration
Metropolitan State University
Recent and upcoming courses
Fall 2024
- MPNA 695: Capstone in Community Oriented Management
- MPNA 600: Practical Research for Public Administration and Non-profit Management
Spring 2025
Biography
Dr. Crystal Saric Fashant is an associate professor in the Department of Public and Nonprofit Leadership. She began teaching at Metropolitan State University in 2013, creating an environmental sustainability course in the MPNA program, and later teaching Management Principles and Practices for undergraduate business students. Since 2017, she has co-directed the Master of Public and Nonprofit Administration Program and teaches graduate-level research methods (MPNA 600), nonprofit governance and management (NPM 600), nonprofit finance (NPM 675), and the capstone course (MPNA 695).
Dr. Fashant earned a bachelor of psychology and sociology from Vermont State University - Castleton Campus; a Master of Public and Nonprofit Administration degree from Metropolitan State University in 2011, and a doctorate in Business Administration in 2017. She serves as secretary of the Board of Directors for Total Health Africa, past president of the Board of Trustees at Merrick, Inc., and on the board of Maji Wells.
Dr. Fashant's career in the nonprofit sector spans more than 20 years, including at Fairview Health Services leading corporate-level strategies for environmental sustainability including recycling, reuse, and waste reduction; energy reduction; climate impact; sustainable supply chains; and responsible medical mission donations. Her team received a Minnesota Governor’s Award for Pollution Prevention in 2011 and the Becker’s Hospital Review “50 Greenest Hospitals” designation in 2013. She developed University of Minnesota Technical Assistance Program (MnTAP) healthcare sustainability web resources, and has been a sustainability consultant at Hennepin Healthcare since 2015. She is an annual awards reviewer for the national healthcare sustainability consortium, Practice Greenhealth.
Dr. Fashant's research interests include the convergence between social entrepreneurship and nonprofit organizations as well as environmental sustainability and social justice issues. Her research has been featured in the Journal of Public and Nonprofit Affairs; Twin Cities Medical Journal; Midwest Academy of Management; Management & Organizational Behavior Teaching Society; Practice Greenhealth’s ‘Greenhealth Academy;’ Journal of Organizational Psychology; among others. She is passionate about engagement through community service and has served on several university committees/councils, but what brings joy to her day is the privilege of working with the amazing students at Metropolitan State University.