I’m Jim Zimmerman (Zim),
The Founder of V-Impact.
I am fascinated by life—this wondrous evolutionary force, four billion years in the making. As a human, privileged to contemplate the magnificence of life’s creative impulse, I am moved.
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I believe that through a deeper awareness of life itself, we can come to recognize the true wonder and vast potential of being human.
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For decades, I’ve been enthusiastically connecting the dots of evolutionary biology from the extraordinary nature of our existence to this moment in our human journey.
My enduring passion for both individual and collective human potential has led me and my team in this pivotal moment, to create V-Impact.
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V-Impact is my sincere effort to offer a new 21st-century narrative—one that redefines who we are as humans, what we are capable of as humankind, and introduces a new model of progress called Conscious Progress. We have laid out a bold Action Agenda, including a Voting Bloc to help us make this a reality.
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We invite you to explore the possibilities with us.
Life and Times of Zim
In The Beginning
I am so grateful for my wonderful parents, Marie Molinaro and Alfred Zimmerman.
Along came baby Zim!
Way back in the 1940s they met and fell wildly in love.
And, got married!!
Young Zim Has It Good
Zim's first above ground pool - shared with brother Bob and sister Janet.
Big brother Zim sets a good example in the neighborhood :)
Little Zim loves the mud.
​Zim and his childhood dog, Puddles, were the quintessential embodiment of the classic “boy and his dog” bond.
Zim recruits his younger bother Bob to clean up the neighborhood.
Zim Goes Full-On Hippie
Zim gets a log cabin.
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Zim and his spirited cousins indulge in smoking and drinking in the woods behind his parents’ house.
Zim is at peace with the natural world.
Zim goes to music festivals.
All the while, Zim continues to look out for his little sister Janet.
Zim Takes On Business - an entrepreneurial sampling
Zim’s dad, Alfred, was a Ph.D. chemist.
Zim gravitated towards micro-electronic design - here he is showing his mom the tech from his engineering startup - she looks like she is into it.
Zim’s first company, Microstructures Inc., was highlighted in a news article describing how micro-electronic technology developed by his engineering firm is being used to track the sun for a solar farm powering an ethanol plant.
The 400-collector solar farm, powering the ethanol plant.
Zim poses in front of a television, demonstrating the VisionLink Internet system designed for home use.
Zim in his office: judging by the décor on the wall, it’s clear that his business persona hasn’t erased his hippie roots.
Long before the invention of the web browser, Zim’s engineering company built the hardware that powered his firm, VisionLink, enabling it to harness the potential of the Internet.
Later in his entrepreneurial journey, Zim developed a web-based platform called Escape Locally, designed to support local businesses and boost tourism.
A Five Decade Through-line - activism and inspiration
During his junior year of high school, the entire class was asked, “What is a loser?” Their responses were published in a school publication. Zim’s answer, "A narrow-minded person who cannot accept new ideas" clearly revealed his openness to new ideas and fresh approaches—an insight into his evolving worldview, even at that early stage.
Zim was deeply involved in the cultural revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s. Here, he can be seen protesting against a university’s investments in apartheid-era South Africa.
In 1980, the Citizens Party nominated environmentalist Barry Commoner for president. Zim led Commoner’s campaign in Southern Illinois and served as a delegate to the party’s national convention.
R. Buckminster Fuller was, without question, an influential figure in shaping Zim’s overarching view of humanity’s role in the cosmos. In the 1970s, Zim attended one of Fuller’s talks at the Southern Illinois University basketball stadium. Afterwards, Zim devoured many of his books, and went on to collaborate with several of Fuller’s friends and colleagues.
These three quotes from Bucky capture the guidance he offered to Zim.
Bucky presents a striking choice: we can either consciously and deliberately shape our future, or continue with business as usual—driving ourselves straight off a cliff.
This quote applies to our larger systemic structures—government, economics, and monetary policy. According to Bucky, when a system is broken, the best way forward is to create a new model that is clearly superior to the old one.
Bucky’s quote reminds us that we are not passive observers of the universe, but rather active participants with genuine agency. Collectively, we have the potential to play an integral role in the unfolding of the cosmos.
Cierra and Augustus
Thank you for exploring “The Life and Times of Zim.” By sharing my journey, primarily through photographs, I hoped to convey the arc of my life. This process has been an invaluable exercise in self-reflection—one that has greatly fueled my inspiration and motivation for creating this site.
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A loving shout out to my daughter, Cierra Zimmerman and her son, Augustus Zimmerman! You both inspire me each day to keep fighting for the future.
Cheers