Abby Young | Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) | Principal Environmental Planner
Current: Abby Young is the Principal Environmental Planner at Bay Area Air Quality Management District, a regional government agency that regulates sources of air pollution within the nine San Francisco Bay Area Counties.
Past: Previously, Abby was the Director of the U.S. Cities for Climate Protection Campaign, a program of ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability, where she directed a national program to assist local governments in measuring and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Education: Abby studied in John Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies.
Adam G. Porsch | Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation | Program Officer
Current: Adam G. Porsch is the US Education Program Officer for the Gates Foundation. He leads grant making to charter schools and other school networks throughout the US.
Past: Prior to joining the foundation, Adam was a consultant at New Leaders for New Schools. Before that, he was the Director for Performance Management for the District of Columbia Public Schools in Washington, DC.
Adam Browning | Vote Solar | Executive Director
Current: Adam Browning is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Vote Solar, a nonprofit organization that works to build the economies of scale necessary to bring solar into the mainstream.
Past: Prior to Vote Solar, Adam spent eight years with the Environmental Protection Agency where he ran an award-winning pollution prevention program.
Adrian Gonzalez | Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) | Lead Researcher
Current: Adrian Gonzalez is Lead Researcher at Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX). He joined MIX in 2004, performing global analysis of microfinance institutions’ data collected primarily by MIX and other leading organizations. His research focuses on topics such as risk and portfolio quality, efficiency, depth of outreach, sustainability and interest rates.
Past: Prior to joining MIX, he was a researcher at The Rural Finance Program from Ohio State University (OSU), where he worked on microfinance, poverty reduction, and development issues in Latin America.
Education: Adrian Gonzalez has a Ph.D. in Finance and Development from the Development Economics Program at Ohio State University. He also received an M.A. in Economics from OSU. He speaks English and Spanish.
Alden Meyer | Union of Concerned Scientists | Director of Strategy and Policy
Current: Director of Strategy and Policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Director of its Washington office. He has >30 years of experience on energy and environmental policy.
Past: Before coming to UCS in 1989, Alden served as Executive Director for 4 national organizations: the League of Conservation Voters, Americans for the Environment, Environmental Action, and Environmental Action Foundation. He worked as a policy analyst for the Environmental Action Foundation, and as energy issues coordinator for the Connecticut Citizen Action Group. He has testified before Congress on energy and environmental issues, and has authored numerous articles. He has served on several federal advisory panels, including the Secretary of Energy’s Advisory Board.
Education: Political science and economics (BS) from Yale. Human resource and organization development (MS) from American University.
Alex Bernhardt | Guy Carpenter & Company LLC | Assistant Vice President of Micro Risk Solutions group
Current: Assistant Vice President Alex Bernhardt manages Guy Carpenter & Company LLC’s Micro Risk Solutions group and, in his role as Intellectual Property Subject Matter Expert, is a member of the firm’s Professional Liability Specialty.
Alex spearheaded Guy Carpenter's recent microreinsurance facility grant writing initiative, which culminated in the firm's receipt of a grant from the Microinsurance Innovation Facility, a partnership between the International Labour Organization and the Gates Foundation. This grant has positioned the firm as a global leader in the intermediation of microinsurance risks. In addition, Alex regularly contributes content to industry publications, including a recent article in Microfinance Insights regarding the maximization of microinsurance investment returns. In his tenure at Guy Carpenter he has also worked on an array of internal initiatives, accounts and lines of business.
Based in Seattle, Washington (US), Alex sits on the board of SeattleMicrofinance.org (SeaMo), a microfinance connector organization. He has obtained the designations of Associate of Reinsurance, Associate of Risk Management for Public Entities and Associate of Insurance Services.
Alison Wise | National Renewable Energy Laboratory | Senior Strategic Analyst
Current: Alison Wise analysis expertise lies with renewable markets and private sector investments, public policy and market/corporate policy. Her primary research interests are renewable energy and renewable fuels competitiveness, best practices for incentivizing renewable energy and renewable fuels. Her other affiliations include being a member of Corporation 20/20 (hosted by the Tellus Institute) and member of EcoSpeakers.
Past: Her prior work experience include being the Senior Research Consultant atClean Edge, Inc.; Director of Public Policy and Development at Future 500; Founder and Executive Director of Sea Change Sustainable Business Interest Group; Director of Business Development at Progressive Asset Management; Lead Public Policy Advocate at Washington Public Interest Research Group; Account Executive at Deep E. Co. and Field Manager at Oregon Public Interest Research Group.
Education: Alison received her B.A. in history and biology, 1996, Reed College. She received her M.B.A. in 2000 from the University of Oregon.
Amanda Eaken | Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) | Policy Analyst
Current: Amanda Eaken is a Policy Analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) energy program. Amanda's primary focus is reducing transportation sector's greenhouse gas emissions through improved land use and transportation planning and policy. Her recent work has focused on implementing California’s landmark Global Warming Solutions Act through administrative and legislative advocacy. Aiming to create a model for state involvement in land use planning, Amanda has recently worked on SB 375, a bill that will provide state transportation funding and regulatory incentives for implementation of regional growth plans that achieve state-assigned emissions reductions targets.
Education: Amanda received her Master’s degree in Transportation and Land Use Planning from U.C. Berkeley’s College of Environmental Design, and her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology from Dartmouth College.
Andre Chapman | Unity Care Group | Chief Executive Officer
Current: In 1993, while working as a National Director of Sales and disheartened by the lack of other minorities in the technology field, André Chapman founded The Unity Care Group, Inc. to develop educational and social programs designed to enrich the lives of disadvantaged at-risk youth. Unity Care is a multi-service culturally proficient youth and family development agency serving families through its Mental Health, Residential and Community Base programs with special emphasis on Foster Care Youth. Today its programs stretch throughout California with sites in Orange, Monterey, Placer and Santa Clara Counties.
Past: Mr. Chapman has worked vigorously to address the over-representation of minorities in the Juvenile Justice and Foster Care Systems. Mr. Chapman is a national presenter on creating effective and efficient culturally proficient services for communities of color and has received both local and national acclaim for his dedication and innovative programs. His recognitions have included: “Award for Excellence” by Wells Fargo; “Grand Hero Award” by Bob Dole, “From Whence They Came” Award by Allstate Insurance Company, to name a few.
Education: Mr. Chapman earned a BS in Business and a Masters in Organization Management.
Andrew Gunther | Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration (CEMAR) | Executive Director
Current: Andy Gunther is the Executive Director of Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration (CEMAR), a nonprofit organization that was founded by scientists committed to working with stakeholders to integrate state-of-the-art research into environmental policy.
Past: Andy has more than 20 years of experience in the application of science to environmental policy. He served as the Assistant Chief Scientist for the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Restoration Program, managed the first program established by the State of California to measure toxic pollution in San Francisco Bay, and for the last several years has been assisting the California State Coastal Conservancy with the restoration of steelhead trout along the coast of California. He is the Executive Director of the Center for Ecosystem Management and Restoration and a member of the Board of Directors of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Education: Andy received his Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from the University of California at Berkeley in 1987.
Angus Parker | WiserEarth | Program Director
Current: Angus Parker is the Program Director of WiserEarth, an online community with the world's largest free and editable international directory of non-governmental organizations and socially responsible organizations that encourages people and organizations to connect, collaborate, share knowledge and build alliances.
Past: Previously, Angus was the former Director of Operations for The Nature Conservancy's Asia Pacific Region and former Chief Operating Officer of Island Conservation, a science-driven, non-profit organization dedicated to preventing extinctions and protecting island ecosystems.
Education: Angus holds a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the Wharton School of Business, a Masters of Arts (MA) with Honors in International Management from the Joseph H. Lauder Institute, and a Master of Science (MSc) in Environmental Science from the Johns Hopkins University.
Ann Sorensen | American Farmland Trust | Director of Research, Center for Agriculture in the Environment
Current: Ann Sorensen is the Research Director for American Farmland Trust. Most recently, she has been helping her organization work with mainstream agriculture to define and unlock agriculture’s potential role in mitigating up to 20 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. This includes working on federal policy, designing and implementing private markets for carbon credits and other ecosystem services, convening listening sessions with producers and working with certification efforts around the country to recognize producers who transition to more sustainable practices.
Past: After years as a university researcher, she brought her understanding of agriculture’s unique role in improving environmental quality to the Texas Department of Agriculture, the American Farm Bureau Federation and, since 1992, American Farmland Trust.
Education: Ann has a Ph.D. in entomology from the University of California at Berkeley where she worked with farmers to reduce their use of agricultural chemicals.
Ann Hancock | Climate Protection Campaign | Executive Director and Co-Founder
Current: Ann Hancock is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of the Climate Protection Campaign, a nonprofit organization that supports and accelerates the work of Sonoma's cities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as part of a worldwide effort led by the nonprofit, International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI).
Past: Ann has over 25 years in community leadership, education, and fundraising. She has been a Sustainability Planner for the County of Marin, commentator for TomPaine.com, human sexuality instructor at Humboldt State University, and real estate broker.
Education: Ann has a Master in Public Health Administration and Planning (MPA) from University of California, Berkeley.
April Newman | West Coast Village Capital | Venture Partner
Current: April Newman serves as Venture Partner of West Coast Village Capital (an initiative of First Light Ventures), a peer support group and seed capital program for social entrepreneurs. Inspired by the village bank model used in microfinance throughout the world, Village Capital is an innovative investment model built on the hypothesis that entrepreneurs, working intimately together and providing peer support to one another, will be able to efficiently and wisely allocate investment to one another’s companies. In addition, she is managing the efforts to create a graduate-level textbook on microfinance, with support from the Center for Financial Inclusion at ACCION International.
Past: April led Silicon Valley Microfinance Network (SVMN) as Interim Executive Director 2008-2009. Supporting members in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, SVMN provides a forum for individuals to connect, learn, and engage in microfinance. During her tenure, April strengthened and expanded SVMN’s programming, including initiating educational course offerings with a “Microfinance 101” course. She previously worked for Kiva.org, at local NGO in one of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas (shantytowns), and on a multi-agency health initiative for the homeless in Los Angeles’s ‘Skid Row’ area.
Education: April has a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), a Bachelor’s in Biology and Ethnomusicology from Tufts University, and conflict management training from the International Institute for Mediation and Conflict Resolution.
Arthur Keller | Minerva Consulting | Managing Partner
Current: Arthur Keller is Managing Partner of Minerva Consulting, where he advises startups in technical strategy, business strategy, and intellectual property strategy, as well as serves as expert witness on patent infringement cases. He is also a researcher at the Baskin School of Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He serves on the board of the Electric Auto Association and is a member of the Planning and Transportation Commission for the City of Palo Alto, where he has championed sustainable policies including a mandatory green building ordinance.
Past: He was founding co-chair of the Environmental Affinity Group of the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2). He previously taught at Stanford University, The University of Texas at Austin, and Brooklyn College (City University of New York), as well as visiting professorships at the Helsinki University of Technology in Finland and Pascal University in Cordoba, Argentina.
Education: He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University .
Arthur O'Donnell | Center for Resource Solutions | Executive Director
Current: Arthur O’Donnell is the Executive Director of Center for Resource Solutions.
Past: Prior to joining CRS in January 2008, Arthur O’Donnell was an independent business, energy and environmental writer for more than 25 years, winning many national and regional awards for his energy reporting. He was the founding editor and associate publisher of the award-winning California Energy Markets newsletter from 1989 through 2002. He was senior reporter for E&E Publishing's Greenwire.com and editor of the Land Letter. He frequently wrote for Public Utilities Fortnightly, the California Energy Circuit newsletter and was Editorial Director for EnergyCentral.com. He is also the author of several books.
Education: Arthur holds a MS in Communications from the University of Washington, where he was a Graduate Fellow in Business and Economics Reporting in 1981-82. He also graduated from Rutgers College in 1975 with a BA in Human Communications.
Ashley Dills | Civic Builders | Director of Business Development & Finance
Current: Ashley Dills is the Director of Business Development & Finance at Civic Builders. Civic is the only nonprofit real estate developer in the New York City area dedicated solely to providing permanent facility solutions for charter schools. She is responsible for direct engagement with the charter community as well as financing Civic Builders' real estate transactions. She works closely with the real estate team to deliver optimal facilities solutions to Civic's charter school tenants.
Past: Ms. Dills background is in community development finance. Prior to Civic, Ms. Dills worked with local and national Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) in NY. In these roles, she offered access to capital for micro-entrepreneurs and non-traditional lending strategies for nonprofit agencies. In addition, Ms. Dills has several years of retail banking experience.
Education: Ms. Dills holds a BA in Community Leadership with a minor in Spanish from Aquinas College. She completed the preMBA program at the Graduate School of Business at Fordham University.
Ashley Boren | Sustainable Conservation | Executive Director
Current: Ashley Boren is the Executive Director of Sustainable Conservation, a San Francisco environmental group founded on the idea that the environmental movement was missing a major opportunity to work more collaboratively with the private sector. Ashley and her colleagues have proven not only that it's possible to break through long-standing animosities between decades-old feuds over water supplies, air quality, and pesticide, but that a collaborative, problem-solving approach to environmental challenges, one that involves businesses as partners rather than opponents, can succeed in ways that more traditional strategies of regulation and litigation may not. Ashley and her colleagues at Sustainable Conservation are addressing a range of California's major problems — including climate change, air and water pollution, and loss of wildlife — and helping entire industries shift toward environmental sustainability.
Past: Ashley was formerly a fund-raiser for the Nature Conservancy.
Education: Ashley has a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Stanford University. She blends a lifelong commitment to the environment with strong business acumen.
Awards: For her practical, collaborative approach to solving some of the state's toughest environmental challenges, Ashley received the 2007 James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award.
Barry Vesser | Climate Protection Campaign | Deputy Director
Current: Barry Vesser is the Deputy Director of the Climate Protection Campaign, a nonprofit organization that supports and accelerates the work of Sonoma's cities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as part of a worldwide effort.
Past: Barry began working with the Climate Protection Campaign in 2005. Prior to this, Barry directed a nonprofit in the Sierras and built the organization from total resources of less than $8000 to in excess of $2,103,000 in less than seven years. He also worked as director of a nonprofit promoting organic agriculture in Nepal and as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines.
Education: Barry has an M.A. in International Public Administration.
Beth Rittenhouse | San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium | Director of Community Services
Current: Beth Rittenhouse is Director of Community Services at the San Francisco Community Clinic Consortium, a network of 10 non-profit community clinics providing primary health care services to 75,000 uninsured and underserved people annually. She has served in this position for 5 years, where she manages all aspects of the Street Outreach Services (SOS) Healthcare for the Homeless mobile medical clinic. She oversees the Veterinary Street Outreach Services (VET SOS), a unique project serving the companion animals of homeless people. She supervises medical and outreach staff, students, and over 100 volunteers per year. She facilitates an 11-member Consumer Advisory Panel (CAP) consisting of homeless and HIV+ patients of SFCCC clinics. She develops federal grant proposals. She serves on 2 Board committees to support workforce development and quality improvement activities across 10 clinics. And she provides training and technical support to partner health centers.
Past: Beth has worked in non-profit community health services for over 15 years.
Education Beth holds a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from Fordham University, New York, NY.
Bhakti Mirchandani | Unitus Capital | Associate Vice President
Current: Bhakti Mirchandani is an Associate Vice President at Unitus Capital (www.unituscapital.com), a Bangalore-based financial advisory firm that helps social enterprises and social investment funds that benefit the poor raise capital and make investments.
Past: Prior to Unitus Capital, Bhakti worked in Corporate Strategy and Investment Management at Barclays Capital/Lehman Brothers, where she was also the firm's Microfinance Specialist. Her work included one of the first microfinance CLOs. Bhakti co-founded the Global Microentrepreneurship Awards (later incorporated into Citi, for which the U.N. presented her with an innovation award), was a consultant to Women’s World Banking, and worked in Homebuilding Equity Research at Salomon Smith Barney.
Bhakti co-chaired numerous social enterprise and microfinance investor conferences and published articles on publicly traded MFIs, housing microfinance, microfinance investment vehicles, and micropension.
Education: Bhakti holds a B.A. in Chemistry (cum laude) from Harvard College, an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she received the Dean's Award, the program's highest honor.
Bill Waldman | Island Conservation | Executive Director
Current: Bill Waldman was selected as Executive Director of Island Conservation in July, 2008. Island Conservation is a nonprofit organization that prevents extinctions by working where the concentration of species extinction is greatest – islands – and by removing one of the greatest threats to the continued existence of plants and animals there – introduced invasive species.
Past: Prior to joining Island Conservation, Bill had a 30 year career as a non-profit leader, including 23 years with The Nature Conservancy. From 1988 through 2005, Bill served as the State Director and Vice-President of The Nature Conservancy in New Mexico. In this capacity he restored financial and operational stability to the organization and led it to significant achievements. Among these were the protection of 1.3 million acres of ecologically significant lands in New Mexico, the negotiation for and acquisition of the 500 square mile Gray Ranch in New Mexico, and successful lobbying for the passage of three state-wide land protection acts. Bill also served the Nature Conservancy by managing complex regional and international initiatives in the Great Plains of North America and in Kenya, and as manager of a newly formed global team charged with supporting the integration of The Nature Conservancy’s 2015 Conservation Goal.
Blakely Atherton | Alliance for Climate Education (ACE) | Senior Director
Current: Blakely Atherton is a Senior Director of ACE and member of the Executive Team. ACE is a national nonprofit dedicated to educating America's high school students about the science behind climate change and inspiring them to do something about it—while having fun along the way. Blakely is a marketing professional who has developed and managed effective programs for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations throughout her career. She has worked with start-ups as well as Fortune 500 organizations to develop effective strategies, articulate corporate positioning and value, implement direct marketing programs and drive revenues through effective communications and marketing programs. Blakely is also an expert at analyzing and assessing customer experiences and developing marketing programs to optimize those experiences. She is active in community service organizations including the Taproot Foundation, and works with a variety of philanthropic organizations on their fundraising and marketing programs, including Head-Royce School and Middlebury College.
Past:Prior to joining Alliance for Climate Education, Blakely ran her own consulting practice. She also has held marketing and marketing-related positions at Princeton University, iPix, VitesseLearning, and GetActive Software.
Education: Blakely holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English Literature from Middlebury College, cum laude, and a Master of Science (MS) in Integrated Marketing Communications from Northwestern University. Blakely lives in Oakland with her husband and three children.
Bonnie Holmes-Gen | American Lung Association of California | Senior Policy Director
Current: Bonnie Holmes-Gen has been the Senior Policy Director for the American Lung Association of California (ALAC) in Sacramento since January 2000. In her role at ALAC, Bonnie is responsible for advocating the public policy concerns of ALAC and the California Thoracic Society before the California Legislature and state agencies such as the California Air Resources Board and the California Energy Commission. In her advocacy work at the lung association, she has specialized in air quality and environmental health issues including: global warming and AB 32 (Nunez/Pavley) implementation; heavy-duty diesel pollution; alternative fuel and zero emission vehicle programs; electricity generation and air pollution; indoor air pollution; and statewide and local air pollution control programs. Bonnie also provides information and resources on ALAC public policy positions and priority issues to staff and volunteers in the 10 local lung association offices throughout California.
Past: Prior to her work with the American Lung Association of California, Bonnie was the Senior Legislative Representative for Sierra Club California (1/96-1/2000) in Sacramento and the Senior Consultant for the consulting firm of V. John White Associates (9/89-9/95).
Education: Bonnie has a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning from the University of California at Davis (June, 1982) and a Master of Arts degree from New College Berkeley (August, 1993).
Brandon Malmberg | Education Pioneers | Managing Director in Los Angeles
Current: Brandon joined the Education Pioneers team because they increase the efficiency and quality of programs serving children. He is extremely excited about his role in developing a talent pipeline for individuals with the skills and passion to drive positive change in the education sector.
Past: Prior to business school Brandon worked in a series of management roles impacting youth. He was part of the leadership team of a start-up camp serving children with severe behavior problems, managed a multi-site residential treatment facility, and served as interim-dean at a special needs school. Brandon has dedicated his career to building organizations that help meet the needs of underserved children and families. During his time at graduate school, he served as the Net Impact club President and as a leadership coach for executives leading Head Start and Healthcare organizations.
Education: Brandon earned his MBA with a focus on Entrepreneurship and Non-Profit Management at the UCLA Anderson School of Management.
Brent Plater | Wild Equity Institute | President and Executive Director
Current: Brent Plater is the Executive Director of Wild Equity Institute, a nonprofit organization that accelerates the transition to a more equitable world through innovative education programs, nature-inspired design, science-based petitions, and vigorous enforcement of environmental laws.
Bruce Riordan | Joint Policy Committee (JPC) | Climate Consultant
Current: Bruce Riordan currently serves as the Climate Consultant for the Joint Policy Committee, which consists of The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). Bruce Riordan is also the co-chair of Climate Bay Area, formed by the Joint Policy Committee and the Bay Area Council Economic Institute.
Past: For eleven years, Bruce Riordan has provided expert guidance and assistance to a series of Bay Area clients including Next Ten, BART, MTC, BAAQMD, Alameda County, Santa Clara County, the Marin Community Foundation, California Food Policy Advocates and more.
Bruce Hirsch | Clarence E Heller Foundation | Executive Director
Current: Dr. Bruce Hirsch is the executive director for Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation. The family foundation is based in San Francisco and its mission is to protect and improve the quality of life through support of programs in the environment, human health, education, and the arts. Dr. Hirsch is also a Co-Chair for the Steering Committee of Sustainable Agriculture Food Systems Funders, which is a broad national network of grant makers that works to foster communication, shared learning and information exchange about issues connected to sustainable agriculture and food systems.
Education: Dr. Hirsch holds a phD.
Bryan Solis Segura | International Network of Alternative Financial Institutions – Latin America | Executive Director
Current: Bryan is the Executive Director of the International Network of Alternative Financial Institutions – Latin America (INAFI-LA) where he has cooperated with Oxfam Novib, Foundation Ford and INAFI Foundation. In the last 4 years he has worked exclusively with Microfinance networks, promoting capacity building, research and development, advocacy and communication, services to the members, product development, and monitoring of projects.
Past: Bryan previously served as an independent consultant in banking topics and have worked for BanCrecen Bank. He has interacted with Microfinance counterparts in Asia and Africa.
Education: Bryan is a professional in Business Administration (basic formation), with specialization in Banking and Finance with formal title given by the Universidad Internacional de las Américas, Costa Rica. In addition he has a Master Degree in Business Administration with emphasis in International Management from the same Institution.
Calla Rose Ostrander | City and County of San Francisco | Climate Action Coordinator
Current: Calla Rose Ostrander has been the Climate Change Coordinator at City and County of San Francisco since October 2008.
Past: Previously Calla was the Global Warming Project Coordinator at the City of Aspen for two years. From 2005-2006, she was a fellow at the Local Economic Development and Communications at Rocky Mountain Institute, and from 2004-2005 she was a Communications and Outreach Coordinator at the International Society for Environmental Economics.
Education: Calla graduated from the University of Puget Sound with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in International Political Economy. She wrote her thesis on the political economy of environmental policy in the United States.
Carl Palmer | Beartooth Capital | Principal
Current: Carl is a co-founder and Principal of Beartooth Capital Partners, a private equity fund that invests in ranchland.
Past: Prior to Beartooth, Carl was President & CEO of Greenbridges, LLC, a conservation real estate investment company. He has also served as Executive Director of the Ogden Nature Center, an environmental education center and land trust. Carl successfully grew the Nature Center’s programs, staff and endowment, receiving the Salt Lake Olympic Committee’s Spirit of the Land Award on behalf of the Center. Carl also worked at the Teton Science Schools (TSS) in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, with the TSS Executive Director and Grand Teton National Park Superintendent to launch the Murie Center, a nonprofit dedicated to building on the conservation legacy of Mardie, Olaus and Adolph Murie, some of our nation’s foremost conservation leaders.
Education: BA in Architectural Studies and BA with honors in Environmental Studies from Brown University. MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
Carla Javits | REDF | President
Current: Carla is the President of REDF. She sets REDF's strategy with the Board of Directors and oversees its operations. Under her leadership, REDF helps to create and grow ‘double bottom line’ enterprises that earn income while employing people with high barriers. She also oversees REDF's efforts to build the field by broadly sharing the results of its extensive, multi-year effort to measure outcomes that demonstrate the effectiveness of social enterprise in helping people with difficulties.
Carla is on the Board of Directors for The Philanthropic Initiative (since 2006), the Northern California Grantmakers (since March 2008), and the Youth Council of the San Francisco Workforce Investment (since March 2009). She is on the advisory panel for the American Human Development Project, and is a member of the Alliance for Effective Social Investing, and Enterprise Community’s Northern California Leadership Council.
Past: Prior to joining REDF, Carla was with the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) for 15 years, leading it for the last 6. By the end of her tenure, CSH had committed nearly $124 million in loans and grants to support the development of more than 26,000 units of permanent supportive housing. She has also worked as a policy and budget analyst for the State of California and as Director of Policy and Planning for the San Francisco Department of Social Services.
Carleen Cullen | Cool the Earth | Co-Founder and Executive Director
Current: Carleen Cullen is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Cool The Earth, a grassroots program that educates K-8 students and their families about global warming and inspires them to take simple actions to conserve energy.
Past: Carleen draws from a wealth of experience, having previously created an international company in the technology field. Her entrepreneurial endeavors began in 1986 when she moved to New York City to become a partner in a start-up venture with her brother. Together they grew the business, Ovid Technologies, into a successful global information technology giant in the medical and scientific markets. After expanding to include 120 employees at 5 international offices, Ovid went public (Nasdaq) in 1994 and was successfully sold in 1998. In 2006, after moving to California with her husband Jeff, Carleen co-founded Cool the Earth, Inc.
Education: Carleen has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English Literature from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA and graduated in 1986.
Carmen Rojas | Mitchell Kapor Foundation | Manager of Strategic Grantmaking
Current: Carmen Rojas is the Manager of Strategic Grantmaking in Mitchell Kapor Foundation, a private foundation with the mission to ensure fairness and equity, especially in low-income communities of color.
Past: Dr.Rojas has spent the last 10 years working as an activist, organizer, and researcher for some of the leading environmental and economic justice organizations in the region, including Urban Habitat and the Lower San Antonio (Oakland) collaborative.
Education: Dr. Rojas has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Politics from the UC Santa Cruz and a doctorate in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley.
Carol Wilkins | | Independent Consultant
Current: Carol Wilkins became an independent consultant in 2009.
Past: Carol served as the Director of Intergovernmental Policy and Research with the Corporation for Supportive Housing(CSH). At CSH she worked for more than 15 years to develop and support the implementation of research-based policy solutions to end long-term homelessness for people with complex health needs and to reduce the avoidable use of emergency, inpatient, and institutional care. She worked to increase the capacity of state and local governments and non-profit agencies to provide housing opportunities linked to effective health care and supportive services.
Carol has more than 25 years of experience in public finance, human services and public policy, including previous work with the California Legislature’s office of the Legislative Analyst and the Assembly Ways and Means Committee, as Deputy Mayor of Finance in San Francisco, and as Finance Director for the San Francisco Housing Authority.
Caroline Smith | Kresge Foundation | Program Officer
Current: Caroline Altman Smith is a Program Officer at The Kresge Foundation in Michigan. She helps manage the portfolio of education-related grants. She has served on the boards of Girls Incorporated of Indianapolis, the Alumni Executive Committee of the Center on Philanthropy, and on the founding board of Giving Sum. She is a trustee of the University of Virginia Class of 2002 and is the Chair of the Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy (EPIP) National Board of Advisors.
Past: Prior to joining Kresge in summer 2008, Caroline served for five years as a Program Officer at Lumina Foundation for Education in Indiana. At Lumina, her work focused on student persistence and attainment in postsecondary education and the Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count initiative.
Education: Caroline earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and American Studies from the University of Virginia and a Master of Arts degree in Philanthropic Studies and a certificate in Non-Profit Management from Indiana University.
Carroll Harrington | Harrington Design | President
Current: Carroll Harrington is the owner of Harrington Design and coordinator of Palo Alto Goes Green/Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce.
Past: In 1970 Carroll Harrington became an advocate for environmental conservation as co-author and coordinator of If You Want To Save Your Environment…START AT
HOME Environmental Handbook Project through the Palo Alto branch of the American Association of University Women (AAUW). She appeared on the Steve Allen Show in September, 1971 to discuss the Environmental Handbook Project and how to save your environment. Carroll Harrington was one of 25 AAUW members invited to attend the first national environmental conference in Washington, D.C. in May, 1971 that was co-sponsored by AAUW and the Environmental Protection Agency. She received the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce Women in Business Athena Award for Outstanding Woman in Business and in the Community and was one of seven women honored at the 1975 National AAUW Convention.
Cate Steane | Family Emergency Shelter Coalition | Executive Director
Current: Cate Steane has been the Family Emergency Shelter Coalition’s Executive Director since January, 2008. FESCO helps homeless families in Alameda County move toward self-sufficiency. It provides emergency shelter, transitional housing, intensive case management, mental health services, nutrition, budgeting and savings programs, life skills classes, housing placement assistance, and alumni support. She has served in various volunteer roles for EveryOne Home, Alameda County’s coordinating organization for ending homelessness.
Past: Before coming to FESCO, Cate served as Director of Operations for various Bay Area nonprofits for 11 years, where her duties included property management and asset management of hundreds of units of affordable housing. Nonprofit administration is Cate’s second career, which she took on after 15 years in the legal profession. Her legal career included five years as a tenants rights advocate. She also served for two years as a Commissioner on the San Francisco Rent Arbitration and Stabilization Board and as a board member of San Francisco's Housing Rights Committee.
Education: Cate is a graduate of Yale Law School and Boston College.
Christina Egan | Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen | Executive Director
Current: Christina Egan is the Executive Director of Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen in San Jose, CA and brings a wealth of experience in the corporate and nonprofit sectors.
She is well known throughout Santa Clara County as an advocate for the needs of the low-income populations. She speaks Spanish and this helps her to communicate with the people in the community. Her volunteer work includes acting as a Board member of EHC LifeBuilders and as a member of Downtown San Jose Rotary.
Past: Christina Egan was a Board member for Loaves & Fishes while serving as the Financial Development Director at The Salvation Army. She was also the Assistant Development Director overseeing direct mail and events.She has also volunteered at Big Brothers/Big Sisters, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Red Cross, NERT Neighborhood Emergency Relief Trained, Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Co-chair Marketing Committee of National Philanthropy Day 2005.
Education: A graduate of San Francisco State University with a B.A. in International Relations, she spent most of her time on Latin American studies. She received a certificate in Fundraising Management from The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.
Christina Sloop | Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation (Laguna Foundation) | Conservation Science Program Director
Current: Dr. Christina Sloop is the Conservation Science Program Director of the Laguna Foundation. She joined the Foundation staff in June 2006. Using science to address the critical problems facing biodiversity. Dr. Sloop’s research program evaluates and constructs workable solutions to issues of invasive species, habitat loss, degradation & connectivity, endangered species recovery, water quality impairment, and sedimentation within the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed.
Past: Dr.Sloop's extensive experience spans across multiple disciplines and includes research on the conservation ecology of rare and endangered species, the population dynamics of invasive species, conservation ecology and population genetics of vernal pool plant species, public-access impacts on bird diversity, restoration efficacy of riparian plantings, water quality modeling and monitoring, invasive species control, endangered species recovery, and conservation planning.
Education: Dr. Sloop holds a Ph.D. in Ecology from UC Davis, and a M.A. degree in Conservation Biology from San Francisco State University.
Cliff Chen | Sea Change Foundation | Program Associate
Current: Cliff Chen is the Program Associate of Sea Change Foundation that provides grants that focuses on climate change.
Education: Cliff graduated with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Earth Systems from Stanford University, and a Master of Science in Energy and Resources Group from University of California, Berkeley.
Connie Malloy | Urban Habitat | Director of Programs
Current: Connie Galambos Malloy is the Director of Programs of Urban Habitat, a nonprofit organization that builds power in low-income communities. As Director of Programs, Connie leads the organization's climate, transportation, land use and affordable housing work and advances Urban Habitat's agenda on key partner coalitions. She led the Bay Area Social Equity Caucus through a 10 year Evaluation and Strategic Plan, resulting in Urban Habitat's launch of the State of the Region, Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute, and Speakers and Writers Bureau programs.
Past: Prior to her years at Urban Habitat, Connie coordinated the Regional Sustainability Initiative at Redefining Progress. Through a fellowship from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Connie has worked with a variety of California organizations on urban planning issues, including the Earned Asset Resource Network (EARN), Unity Council, and Strategic Actions for a Just Economy (SAJE). She has also worked as a planner and funding liaison for United Way of the Inland Valleys in Riverside, California, and as a Peace Corps volunteer leading sustainable tourism development projects in Bolivia’s Amazon Basin. Connie is a founding board member of Adopted & Fostered Adults of the African Diaspora, and has directed the Children's Program at Pact Camp. She previously served on the board of the California Planning Foundation, and is currently serving as Diversity Director on the California Chapter of the American Planning Association’s Northern Section board.
Education: Connie earned her Master's of City Planning (MCP) in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley and a Bachelors Degree in Communications & Spanish from La Sierra University.
Craig Appel | Energy Foundation | Director of Partner Relations
Current: Craig Appel is the Director of Partner Relations at the Energy Foundation, which provides grants to institutions that most effectively leverage change for a clean energy future. He is also currently a trustee at San Francisco Waldorf School.
Past: Previously Craig was the San Francisco Regional Sales Coordinator at Green Mountain Energy Company.
Education: Craig received his Masters in Nonprofit Administration (MNA) from the University of San Francisco and his Bachelor from Michigan State University.
Cymie Payne | University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) | Lecturer in Residence; Director, Global Commons Project; Associate Director, Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment
Current: In addition to teaching at Boalt, Cymie serves as the associate director of the Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment (CLEE) and as director of the Global Commons Project, which seeks to extend the influence of environmental law on global policy.
Past: Cymie is an expert in natural resource and environmental law, and joined the Boalt Hall faculty in 2006 after working for international and domestic entities engaged in environmental regulation and advocacy. Cymie was employed from 1999 to 2005 by the United Nations Compensation Commission. As a senior attorney, she was responsible for an international team of lawyers and technical experts assessing claims of damage to the environment and public health from conflict in the Persian Gulf. In this position, she supported a panel of commissioners involved in landmark decisions that granted war reparations for environmental damage. Following graduation from Boalt with an environmental certificate, Cymie served as an attorney-advisor in the Solicitor's Honors Program at the U.S. Department of the Interior, where she advised a host of governmental agencies on land claims, endangered species protection, tribal rights and other issues. She also worked in the environmental department of Goodwin Procter's offices in Boston. Before law school, Cymie served as the executive director of Earth Access, a nonprofit forest conservation organization that she founded in Cambridge, Mass.
Education: Payne received her M.A. at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (1993) and her J.D. at UC Berkeley (Boalt Hall) (1997).
Dana Armanino | County of Marin | Sustainability Planner
Current: Dana Armanino is a Planner on the Marin County Community Development Agency's Sustainability Team. The team has developed programs to promote renewable energy, tackle climate protection, encourage green building, certify green businesses and implement energy efficiency in Marin County schools, cities and special districts.
Past: Dana spent several years in Colorado leading outdoor tours. She also worked for the Aspen Skiing Company's Environmental Affairs department on green building and waste reduction programs. In 2000, Dana moved back to her native Marin County to run her family's commercial cabinet company. She joined the County of Marin staff in May 2003 to coordinate the County's Green Business, energy efficiency and solar programs.
Education: Dana received her undergraduate degree in Environment, Economics and Politics and a Masters degree from the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her emphasis during her degree program was in water resource management and pollution prevention.
Dave Brennan | Sonoma County | Regional Climate Protection Coordinator
Current: Dave Brennan is the Regional Climate Protection Coordinator with the Sonoma County Transportation Authority who is in charge of organizing and focusing countywide efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Sonoma County to 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2015 and to ensure that local goals are in line with those mandated by AB 32 and SB 375. He works closely with the local leadership of the cities, county, Sonoma County Transportation Authority, the Sonoma County Water Agency, local nonprofits and others to define roles, develop partnerships, coordinate policy development and to leverage shared resources.
Past: Dave was previously the former Sebastopol City Manager.
Dave Room | Bay Localize | Co-Founder and Local Clean Energy Coordinator
Current: Dave Room is the Co-Founder and Local Clean Energy Coordinator of Bay Localize, a nonprofit organization working to build a more socially equitable and sustainable Bay Area. He also coordinates the Local Clean Energy Alliance. Dave also does solo performance theater (The Monkey Trap) and Green Pill Workshops to awaken and activate mainstream audiences, people of color, and youth.
Past: Dave coined the term “Energy Preparedness” and served on the Oil Independent Oakland by 2020 Task Force.
Education: Dave holds a Master of Science (MS) in Engineering-Economic Systems and a Bachelors of Science (BS) in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
David Mears | Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, Vermont Law School | Director and Associate Professor
Current: David Mears specializes in environmental law and environmental litigation. Director of the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, he helps students hone their lawyer skills and assists nonprofit organizations and individuals.
Past: He has worked as assistant attorney general in the Texas Attorney General office and then as a senior attorney with the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission. He served as the energy and environmental policy director for State-Federal Relations Texas office in Washington, DC, then served both as a trial attorney and counselor with the U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division. In 1998, he was appointed senior assistant attorney general in the Washington Office of the Attorney General, Ecology Division. In 2005, he joined the Vermont Law School faculty.
Education: He received his BS degree from Cornell University in 1985, and his JD degree, summa cum laude, and MELP degree from Vermont Law School in 1991.
David Bannister | Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation (Laguna Foundation) | Executive Director
Current: David Bannister is the Executive Director of the Laguna Foundation, a placed based organization focused on the Laguna de Santa Rosa, the second largest wetlands in Northern California and Sonoma County’s richest wildlife area with over 200 species of birds along with many threatened and endangered species of plants and animals.
Past: David joined the Board of Directors of the Foundation in 2004 and by August of 2009 had served as Board President, Vice President and Secretary. At that time the Board requested that David take the open position of Executive Director and he agreed. David has a long history of business management and consulting as well as a long history of serving as a volunteer on environmental organizations. As Chair of the Sonoma Group of the Sierra Club he led the successful collaborative campaign with the grape growing industry and environmental community that resulted in the Vineyard Erosion Control Ordinance.
Education: David has a Masters of Public and Private Management (MBA) from the University of Kansas.
Deborah DeSantis | Corporation for Supportive Housing | President and CEO
Current: Deborah De Santis became President and CEO of the Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) in January 2007. As President and CEO, Ms. De Santis has guided the development of initiatives that bring the benefits of supportive housing to more people at risk of chronic homelessness. Her efforts have lead to the creation of an internal CSH Innovations Team, placing a continuing effort on better programs, and CSH Consulting Group, a flexible and mobile group of experts who travel the country assisting communities with supportive housing development. She has also stressed more accountability in the supportive housing industry, the creation of Dimensions of Quality, and independent benchmarks to measure successful supportive housing projects. Ms. DeSantis has been a strong advocate for incorporating the proven cost saving methods found in supportive housing to healthcare reform. During her tenure, CSH surpassed the halfway mark in its goal to create 150,000 new units of supportive housing throughout the US.
Past: Ms. De Santis joined CSH in 2003 as Director of CSH’s New Jersey program. During this time, she tripled the state program’s lending portfolio, successfully advocated for the creation of New Jersey’s $200 million Special Needs Housing Trust Fund, and helped launch a statewide grassroots organization to advance the development of 100,000 units of affordable housing over 10 years. Prior to CSH, Ms. De Santis oversaw the business operations of a real estate development company, International Senior Development, LLC.
Deborah Behles | Golden Gate University | Visiting Assistant Professor
Current: Deborah Behles is a visiting assistant law professor at the Golden Gate University.
Past: Deborah was formerly a trial attorney with the US Department of Justice in Washington, DC, where she litigated and settled several civil environmental claims. She taught classes at the National Advocacy Center, received a Gold Medal from the US Environmental Protection Agency in 2008, and was a former editor of the Minnesota Law Review. Her publications include "A Wrong Turn Crushes Protective Air Regulations: American Trucking Association v. EPA," 85 Minnesota Law Review 319 (November 2000).
Education: Deborah holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) from Purdue University, and a JD from University of Minnesota School of Law.
Diane Luther | Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency | Assistant Director
Current: Diane Luther is an Assistant Director at the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. Her current assignments include development of special needs and homeless housing, and affordable housing production in redevelopment areas.
Past: Ms. Luther arrived in Sacramento in 2006 after a successful career in Portland, Oregon in the fields of affordable housing production, policy advocacy and systems change. During more than 10 years as Executive Director of Northwest Housing Alternatives, a nonprofit low income housing development agency in Oregon, Ms. Luther led the organization to a portfolio of more than 1200 units of affordable housing – including a family homeless shelter, transitional housing, special needs projects, nine Low Income Housing Tax Credit-financed projects, six HUD preservation projects, and a new Community Land Trust to create permanently affordable homeownership opportunities. Because of her leadership and success as a community-based housing developer, Multnomah County (the county containing Portland) asked Ms. Luther to assume the role of the County’s Housing Director. Her mission was to create housing opportunities for the populations served by the County. She served as the County’s point person for Portland’s nationally-recognized Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. After four years at Multnomah County, SHRA recruited Ms. Luther to come back to her home town of Sacramento. Her first assignment was to lead the successful ramp up of Sacramento’s Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness.
Diane Bailey | Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) | Senior Scientist
Current: Diane Bailey is a Senior Scientist in the Natural Resources Defense Council's (NRDC) health program. Her research focuses on reducing exposure to diesel exhaust and other air pollutants.
Past: Before joining NRDC, Diane worked at Citizens for a Better Environment and a local transportation planning agency in Houston, Texas.
Education: Diane holds a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Washington University and a master's degree in environmental engineering from Rice University.
Doug Ford | | Management Consultant
Current: Doug Ford has been a management consultant with nonprofit and government agencies for the past 25 years, specializing in the areas of governance, strategic planning, organizational assessment, board development, nonprofit organization formation, program design and evaluation, affordable housing development, community needs assessment, grant making systems, fund development planning, and mergers and strategic alliances.
His current community activities include serving as Board President of Abode Services and of Allied Housing, both in Fremont, and an organizer of Fremont’s Advocates for Affordable Homes.
Past: Prior to starting his consulting business, he was Vice President of Fund Distribution and Community Services with United Way of Santa Clara County, Executive Director of Eden I & R in Hayward, and held planning and community organizing positions in the field of Social Services. He has extensive volunteer experience as a Board member and officer, public commission member, and political campaign chairperson. He was raised in a minister’s family in the Southwest and has lived in the Bay Area for over 35 years.
Douglas Bevington | Environment Now | Forest Program Director
Current: Douglas Bevington is the Director for the Forest Program at Environment Now, a nonprofit organization that creates environmental programs to protect and restore California's environment. In this role Douglas oversees the programs to protect California's forests.
Past: Dr. Bevington previously worked as the regional organizer for the John Muir Project of Earth Island Institute and as the biodiversity program assistant for the Foundation for Deep Ecology. He has also been active with the Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters, Center for Biological Diversity, Endangered Species Coalition, and Sierra Club. He has served on the board of advisors of the Student Environmental Center and is currently on the board of directors of the Fund for Wild Nature. Dr. Bevington is the author of The Rebirth of Environmentalism: Grassroots Activism from the Spotted Owl to the Polar Bear (Island Press, 2009), which chronicles the powerful impact of grassroots forest and biodiversity protection groups on environmental policies in the United States over the past two decades.
Education: Dr. Bevington holds a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he taught courses on social movement studies.
Dustin Clark | City of Sunnyvale | Environmental Sustainability Coordinator
Current: Dustin Clark is the Environmental Sustainability Coordinator at City of Sunnyvale. He has spent nearly a decade working for the City of Sunnyvale as an industrial waste inspector. Chief among Clark’s duties is inter-departmental coordination of the City’s environmental sustainability efforts.
Education: Dustin holds an undergraduate degree in environmental health and safety, and a graduate degree in public administration.
Edward Mainland | Sierra Club | Co-Chair, Energy-Climate Committee
Current: Edward Mainland is the Co-Chair of Sierra Club's California-Nevada Regional Conservation Committee (CNRCC) Energy-Climate Committee since 2005. He is also a Senior Conservation Fellow at the national Sierra Club since 2000.
Past: Edward's background is in organizing and leading local sustainability groups, with focus on climate protection and local green power. He was formerly vice chair of Global Environmental Security and Survival at the national Sierra Club from 2001 to 2002.
Eileen Richardson | Downtown Streets Team | Chief Executive Officer
Current: Ms. Richardson took the helm of the Downtown Streets Team (DST) within weeks of its kickoff in May 2005. She is responsible for overall leadership and strategic direction for the agency, including managing national growth, organizational activities, fundraising, and recruitment. Under her leadership, DST’s budget has grown 100% annually and the organization uses a creative mix of revenue streams which have proved critical for viability and continued growth in these tough economic times. Eileen believes new, fresh approach can be applied to homelessness and draws from her business background to ‘think outside of the box’. Today, that approach is considered one of the “Top 50 Innovations in American Government” by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government’s Ash Institute and nearly 100 formerly homeless people now have a place to call home and/or a job and purpose to wake up to each morning.
She is a member of Santa Clara County Steering Committee’s 10-Yr Plan to End Homelessness, the County’s Nonprofit CEO Group, and Founding Member of Palo Alto Alternative Services (PAAS) and Palo Alto Police Department.
Past: Previously, Ms. Richardson held varied roles in the Venture Capital industry from 1989 to 1999. As Founding Partner of a high-technology venture firm, she has a long track record of successful IPO’s, mergers, marketing and branding successes. She also served as Interim CEO and CEO of 2 high-technology Silicon Valley companies.
Eli Kennedy | Pacific Charter School Development | Interim President & CEO
Current: Eli Kennedy is the interim President & CEO of Pacific Charter School Development. He is an expert in urban school district strategic redesign, including efficient human resource operations, performance-based pay and performance accountability.
Past: Prior to PCSD, he was an Associate Director at The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, managing the foundation’s investments in school districts, and prior to Broad, was the Western regional director for Platform Learning, a New York-based tutoring company. His previous experience also includes working as a senior analyst at UC Berkeley, as a manager of strategic planning for DNET in San Francisco and as an analyst and senior consultant for Accenture in Atlanta.
Education: Kennedy has a B.S. in business administration and finance from Howard University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Elizabeth Funk | Dignity Fund | Founder and CEO
Current: Elizabeth Funk serves on the Board of Unitus, a leading Microfinance accelerator, where she previously served as Chairman. Ms. Funk is also the founder and CEO of the Dignity Fund, a debt fund for Microfinance.
Past: Prior to becoming Chair of Unitus, Ms. Funk served as the President and CEO of CML Global Capital, a diversified international investment firm. Prior to joining CML, Ms. Funk was one of the earliest employees of Yahoo!, where she helped formulate Yahoo!’s initial shopping, online Finance and commerce strategy, and helped grow that business to comprise a major source of Yahoo!’s revenues and customer usage. Ms. Funk spent 4 years at Microsoft Corporation where she served as a Product Manager for Microsoft Word.
Ms. Funk is an active member of the Young President’s Organization (“YPO”) serving as the Chair of the Board of the Pacific Region, and as a founder of Social Enterprise Networks, an initiative within YPO that brings together members worldwide on projects that “make a difference” in the world. Her other board involvements include Root Capital, Deutsche Bank’s Global Microfinance Consortium Fund, the Silicon Valley Microfinance Network, Glide Community Development Corporation (San Francisco), I-Spire (London) and Imperial Parking (Hong Kong).
Education: Ms. Funk holds an undergraduate degree in International Relations and Economics with Honors from Stanford University and an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she graduated in 1996 as a Baker Scholar. She is a frequent speaker about Microfinance, to audiences such as at the US Department of State, the Forbes CEO Conference, and the Clinton Global Initiative. She was recently named the “Female Entrepreneur of the Year” by TiE. She has been profiled in publications including Forbes, the San Jose Mercury News, and Business Week.
Ellie Cohen | PRBO Conservation Science | President and CEO
Current: Ellie Cohen is the President and CEO of PRBO Conservation Science. She serves as an invited member of the US North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) Committee’s Policy and Legislative Subcommittee, as a management board member of both the San Francisco Bay (Immediate Past Chair) and the Central Valley Joint Ventures (USFWS), and as a member of NOAA’s Pacific Coast Ocean Observing System Governing Board.
Past: From 2002-2005, Ellie represented the US Shorebird Plan on the U.S. Committee of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. She has been invited to speak at multiple conferences. In January 2009, she was an invited plenary speaker at the west coast-wide “Climate Change, Coastal Resources and Natural Resources Management” conference sponsored by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and US Geological Survey. In May 2008, she was the invited keynote speaker at the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project. In March 2009, as part of National Women’s History Month, Ellie was among 100 women honored nationally under the theme of Women Taking the Lead to Save Our Planet. She was recognized for her contributions to understanding and addressing the negative impacts of rapidly accelerating environmental change on our ecosystems.
Education: Ellie received her undergraduate degree with honors in Botany (focus on ecology) from Duke University. Field studies in butterfly ecology brought her to California in 1979. She later received her Master in Public Policy degree from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, where she was honored with the Policy Analysis Exercise Award for highly distinguished performance and the first annual Robert F. Kennedy Public Service Award. In 2001, she was awarded a fellowship to Stanford University’s Executive Program for Non-profit Leaders at the Graduate School of Business.
Emily Kirsch | Ella Baker Center- Human Rights | Lead Organizer, Green-Collar Jobs Campaign
Current: Emily Kirsch is the Lead Organizer of Green-Collar Jobs Campaign at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in California, a nonprofit strategy and action center based in Oakland, California whose stated aim of the center is to work for justice, opportunity and peace in urban America. Emily is building cross-sector partnerships between green businesses, labor, environmental and community based organizations to create local partnerships, policies and pilot programs that create green-collar jobs for low-income people, people of color and women. Emily convenes the Oakland Climate Action Coalition, the Oakland Apollo Alliance and in on the Steering Committee of the Local Clean Energy Alliance.
Education: Emily has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from San Francisco State University in Urban Health & Sustainability. She is passionate about creating solutions that save both lives and our planet.
Erica Etelson | | Blogger
Current: Erica Etelson is a Berkeley journalist, former environmental attorney and oil independence activist. Her work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Bay Guardian and LA Times. She is also a stay-at-home-and-write mother and recovering attorney.
Gary Knoblock | Gordon And Betty Moore Foundation (Moore Foundation) | Program Officer, San Francisco Bay Area Program
Current: Gary Knoblock is a Program Officer for the San Francisco Bay Area Program at Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
Past: Before joining the foundation, Gary served as the Executive Director of the Point Reyes National Seashore Association, where he led programs for endangered species protection, habitat restoration and oversaw environmental education programs. He has served in leadership positions in two San Francisco nonprofit organizations serving the homeless, worked for an international school of business in France and for the American Association of Museums in Washington, DC.
Education: Gary holds a Bachelors of Arts (BA) from Grinnell College, Iowa, and completed Masters-level coursework at Indiana University.
Gina Harman | ACCION USA | Chief Executive Officer
Current: Gina Harman is the CEO of ACCION USA. Most recently, she has led the combination of ACCION New York and ACCION USA to create the nation’s largest microlender. Her organization has developed new risk evaluation and mitigation tools, as well as new products so it continues to lend wisely while the US economy remains in a recession. Contributing to the vitality of the small and micro-business sectors is critical to economic recovery and microloans are a proven method of doing that. Impact studies show further that microloan recipients experience increases in their wages, develop, assets, and create jobs.
Past: After 7 years as a member of the Board of Directors of ACCION New York, and two decades as an Executive at Harman International, Gina brought her unique skills to bear at AUSA to stabilize a rapidly growing organization operating in a uniquely difficult economy.
Education: Gina has a B.A. from the State University of New York in Urban Planning and Policy and is a graduate of the Columbia University Institute of Not-for-Profit Management.
Gregory McGinity | The Broad Foundation | Managing Director
Current: Gregory McGinity is the Managing Director at the Broad Foundation, where he oversees the foundation’s policy investments to improve the K-12 education operating and policy environment. His career includes extensive work at the federal and state level on education policy.
Past: Prior to joining the foundation, McGinity was the senior education policy consultant to the California State Board of Education, where he worked on the creation of California’s academic content standards and assessment system. In 2005, on leave from the foundation, McGinity served as chief of staff to the California secretary of education. McGinity previously worked for U. S. Senator Thad Cochran as a legislative assistant and for U. S. Representative Lindsey O. Graham as legislative director. McGinity advised both members on education and training issues. Prior to that, McGinity served as a legislative liaison at the U.S. Department of Education during President George H.W. Bush’s administration.
Education: McGinity received his bachelor’s degree in history and political science from the University of California, Berkeley and an M.B.A. from the UCLA Anderson School of Management, where he was a Sigoloff Fellow.
Heather Hood | San Francisco Foundation (SFF) | Initiative Officer, Great Communities Collaborative
Current: Heather Hood is the Initiative Officer at The San Francisco Foundation. She directs the foundation’s work with the Great Communities Collaborative, a 25-partner initiative in the Bay Area that promotes quality transit-oriented development with compact development that blends income levels, homes, businesses, and community amenities together.
Past: Hood has 18 years of experience as an architect, city planner and educator. Previous to working in philanthropy, she was a lecturer in UC Berkeley’s Department of City and Regional Planning, and the co-founder and director of its Center for Community Innovation. She has co-authored reports about urban revitalization, housing and community development, and has served on several boards, including the American Institute of Architects, the Center for Urban Family Life, and the California Architecture Foundation.
James Buizer | Office of the President, Arizona State University | Senior Advisor
Current: James Buizer is Science Policy Advisor to Arizona State University (ASU) President, and Executive Director for Strategic Institutional Transformation in the Office of the President. He also serves as Director of the University Center for Integrated Solutions to Climate Challenges and Professor in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning.
Past: Upon arriving ASU in September 2003, until July 2007 he served as founding Executive Director of the Office of Sustainability Initiatives in the Office of the President, where he led the conceptualization, design and initiation of the University-wide Global Institute of Sustainability and its School of Sustainability, which was launched in fall 2006. Prior to this, he served as Director of the Climate and Societal Interactions Office at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Washington, D.C. James serves on the Board of Directors of Second Nature, Inc.; Member, National Academies of Sciences Study: America’s Climate Choices; Member, Board of Directors, National Council for Science and the Environment; Secretary, Board of Trustees, Tesseract School.
Janice Hamrin | HMW International Inc. | Chief Executive Officer
Current: Jan Hamrin is CEO of HMW International, a consulting firm specializing in the implementation of sustainable energy policies. She also serves as Secretary General of the Environmental Tracking Network of North America.
Past: Jan recently retired as the President of the Center for Resource Solutions (CRS). Her work has provided policy and technical support for the implementation of renewable energy, energy efficiency and climate programs throughout North America and globally. Jan has been part of the China Sustainable Energy Program Renewable Energy Team since 1999 as well as working in Europe, Canada, India, Mexico, Thailand, Brazil and several other countries. She has co-authored numerous publications and serves on Advisory Committees for the International Energy Agency, the US Department of Energy and others.
Education: Dr. Hamrin received her Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California at Davis, with emphasis on public policy evaluation of environmental and energy programs.
Jason Scorse | Monterey Institute of International Studies (MIIS) | Associate Professor; Chair of the International Environmental Policy Program
Current: Jason Scorse is currently Associate Professor and Chair of the International Environmental Policy Program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies. He is also currently the Lead Non-Market Economist for the National Ocean Economics Program. Dr. Scorse also sits on the board of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Research Activities Panel and The Otter Project. In addition to his scholarly work and consulting, he writes for the Grist blog and the Environmental Economics blog.
Past: Dr. Scorse previously was Assistant Professor for the Monterey Institute of International Studies, and a postdoctoral fellow for University of California, Berkeley in the summer of 2005. Dr. Scorse has consulted for numerous environmental organizations, including the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Sierra Club. He has published articles in American Economic Review, California Management Review, and for books published by the Brookings Institution and Routledge Press. His book, What Environmentalists Need to Know About Economics, is slated for publication in 2010.
Education: Dr. Scorse received his Ph.D. in Agricultural & Resource Economics from UC-Berkeley in 2005. He has a Master of Science (MS) in Applied Economics & Finance and Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Environmental Studies from University of California, Santa Cruz.
Jeff Kositsky | Community Housing Partnership | Former Executive Director
Current: Jeff Kositsky has been working in the non-profit sector since 1989. He brings extensive expertise in the field of affordable housing, including housing development, tenant services and program development.He also serves as a board member for the Coalition on Homelessness and for the San Francisco Information Clearinghouse.
Past: Jeff has worked on community development projects both in the United States as well as internationally.
Education: Jeff holds a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas and a B.A. in Economics and International Studies from American University.
Jenny Bard | American Lung Association of California | Regional Air Quality Director
Current: Jenny Bard is the Regional Air Quality Director of the American Lung Association of California, a nonprofit organization that works to prevent lung disease and promote lung health with educational programs about air quality, smoking, tobacco use and other causes.
Education: Jenny studied at California State University-East Bay.
Jeremy Osborn | 350.org | European Co-Coordinator
Current: Jeremy Osborn, 25, is the European Coordinator of the international climate change project 350.org. A recent university graduate, Jeremy co-founded and ran his first post-graduate project, Step It Up, with Bill McKibben and university cohorts. The climate campaign proved a resounding success, with over 1400 events held in all 50 states, and afterwards he co-authored Fight Global Warming Now with McKibben and the rest of the Step It Up crew. He now works from Berlin, Germany, facilitating European efforts using the 350ppm emissions target as a social movement symbol for bold, equitable action on climate change and a strong United Nations deal in Copenhagen.
Jeremy Symons | National Wildlife Federation | Senior Vice President for Conservation and Education
Current: Jeremy Symons is Senior Vice President for Conservation and Education at the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), America’s largest conservation organization. He is a spokesperson for NWF and has appeared on NBC Nightly News, Fox News, CBS Evening News, CNN, the News Hour, ABC World News Tonight, National Public Radio and other media outlets. Jeremy also works with members of Congress and other elected officials to advance global warming policies and clean energy initiatives. He has been recognized as one of the nation’s top nonprofit advocates by The Hill newspaper.
Past: Jeremy previous position with NWF was Executive Director for their global warming campaign. Before joining NWF in 2001, he served as Climate Policy Advisor at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Jeremy has also worked on in the United States Senate for Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon on environmental and climate change issues, and in 2006-2008 served as co-chair of the U.S. Climate Action Network.
Jeremy Madsen | Greenbelt Alliance | Executive Director
Current: Jeremy Madsen is the Executive Director of Greenbelt Alliance, California's San Francisco Bay Area land conservation and urban planning nonprofit organization. He sets and implements the organization's strategic goals and manages its operations. He is the leader of Greenbelt Alliance's policy and advocacy efforts to protect the Bay Area's open spaces and promote the creation of vibrant urban places.
Past: Jeremy comes to Greenbelt Alliance from The San Francisco Foundation, where he helped to launch the Great Communities Collaborative and supported social equity, affordable housing, and smart growth efforts around the Bay Area. From 2001 to 2005, Jeremy was Greenbelt Alliance's Field Director, leading the organization's policy campaigns and supervising the work of all its field offices. Previously, Jeremy served as Field Director for Washington state’s Transportation Choices Coalition, coordinated fair trade campaigns for the Washington, DC-based Citizens Trade Campaign, and ran get-out-the-vote efforts for candidate and ballot measure campaigns.
Education: Jeremy has a Master of Science (MS) in Environmental Studies from the University of Oregon, and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from George Washington University.
Jesse Jenkins | The Breakthrough Institute | Director of Energy and Climate Policy
Current: Jesse Jenkins is Director of Energy and Climate Policy of The Breakthrough Institute, a leading public policy think tank. Jesse is one of the country's leading energy and climate policy analysts and advocates, managing the Institute's analytical and policy development programs. Jesse is the lead author or co-author of: the Breakthrough policy framework, "Make Clean Energy Cheap;" the reports "Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant: Asian Nations Set to Dominate Clean Energy Race by Out-Investing United States" and "Jumpstarting a Clean Energy Revolution with a National Institutes of Energy"; the "National Energy Education Act" policy proposal, and widely cited analysis of the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act. Jesse has written for the San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, Yale Environment 360, Forbes.com Grist.org, and HuffingtonPost.com. His research and analysis has been cited by Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Times, New York Times and other major media outlets.
Past: Jesse previously co-directed Breakthrough Generation, the Institute's youth leaders initiative, and prior to joining Breakthrough in June 2008, he worked at the Renewable Northwest Project to advance the development of the Pacific Northwest's abundant renewable energy potential. He is founder and chief editor of WattHead - Energy News and Commentary and is a featured writer at theEnergyCollective.com.
Education: Jesse is a graduate of the Clark Honors College at the University of Oregon (magna cum laude), where he completed an interdisciplinary course of study in computer science, philosophy, political science & energy studies.
Jessica Boehland | The Kresge Foundation | Program Officer, Environment Program
Current: Jessica Boehland serves as a Program Officer in the Kresge Foundation’s environment program. In this role, she supports the foundation’s work on climate change with an emphasis on energy efficiency in the built environment.
Past: Prior to joining Kresge, Jessica worked as a writer and editor on subjects related to environmentally responsible design and construction. A LEED-accredited professional, Jessica spent seven years working for the publisher BuildingGreen in various roles, including as managing editor of Environmental Building News and contributing editor of GreenSource magazine.
Education: Jessica earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental studies from Oberlin College. She also holds a Master of Environmental Management degree from Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, where she focused on climate change science and policy.
Jessica Bailey | Rockefeller Brother Fund | Program Officer for Sustainable Development Program
Current: Jessica Bailey is the Program Officer for the Rockefeller Brother Fund's (RBF)Sustainable Development program, where she focuses on climate change. She also manages the RBF’s Cross-Programmatic Initiative on energy, which explores the security and sustainability dimensions of energy policies.
Past: Before attending graduate school, she was awarded the Herbert Scoville, Jr. Peace Fellowship to work in the Nuclear/Security Program of Physicians for Social Responsibility. She interned in the Developing Policy Planning Office of the United Nations in 2003 and conducted a research project on the border of Colombia and Ecuador in 2001. She sits on the board of the 1Sky campaign, the Energy Action Coalition, the Herbert Scoville, Jr. Peace Fellowship, and is the co-chair of the Steering Committee of the Climate and Energy Funders Group.
Education: Graduate of the University of Notre Dame. International Relations (MA) from Yale University, where she concentrated on International Security Strategy.
Jessica Leas | ClimateWorks Foundation (ClimateWorks) | Development Associate
Current: Jessica Leas is the Development Director at ClimateWorks Foundation, which is an international philanthropic network dedicated to achieving low-carbon prosperity. Jessica and the foundation are working to secure large foundations to systematically combat climate change.
Past: Jessica was previously an environmental advisor at Sewalanka Foundation, where she advised on making community development project environmentally sustainable, and provided assistant to government on biodiversity plan and reforestation plan. Between 2003-2007, Jessica was Director of Foundation and Corporate Gifts at Rails-To-Trails Conservancy, and managed relationships with foundations and corporate funders.
Education: Jessica received her masters in Environmental Science and Policy from John Hopkins University and her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Government and Law from Lafayette College.
Jim Illig | Project Open Hand | Director of Government Relations
Current: Jim Illig is Director of Government Relations at Project Open Hand, responsible for advocacy and contract management to maintain over $3 million in government revenue to feed people with HIV/AIDS and seniors in San Francisco and Alameda counties. Jim was appointed to the San Francisco Health Commission in 2004, and is currently President of this governing body responsible for $1.5 billion in public health services, including $400 million in contracts with nonprofits. He also serves as Vice Chair of both the St. Mary’s Medical Center Community Board of Directors and the Governing Board of the San Francisco In-Home Supportive Services Public Authority.
Past: Before coming to Project Open Hand 16 years ago, Jim was an executive director for 10 years at two nonprofit agencies with community mental health, substance abuse and AIDS service programs. As a longtime advocate for services to San Francisco’s poor, sick and elderly residents, he has founded and led local nonprofit contractor associations such as the HIV/AIDS Provider Network, the Coalition of Agencies Serving the Elderly, and the Human Services Network.
Jim Williams | E3: Energy & Environmental Economics (E3) | Chief Scientist
Current: Dr. Jim Williams is the Chief Scientist for E3: Energy & Environmental Economic (E3), an energy research and consulting organization. In this position, Dr. Williams leads E3’s practice in climate change policy and greenhouse gas reduction. He is the lead analyst on the E3 team modeling implementation of AB32 (California’s Global Warming Solutions Act) for the California Public Utilities Commission. With more than 20 years experience in the energy industry, he is a specialist in regulatory policy and clean energy technologies, resources, and costs. His practice areas include carbon pricing and market design, renewable generation and transmission, retail rate design for energy efficiency and demand response, and economic modeling/analysis of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, energy storage, and distribution automation. Dr. Williams is also Associate Professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, where he teaches energy and environmental policy, with a focus on energy markets and regulation in Asian developing countries.
Education: Dr. Williams received his Bachelor of Science (BS) in Physics from Washington and Lee University, and his PhD in Energy and Resources from U.C. Berkeley.
Jimmy Daukas | American Farmland Trust | Managing Director
Current: Since 1997, Jimmy Daukas has been with American Farmland Trust (AFT) managing national policy campaigns, as well as handling senior project management, communications and development. Currently, Daukas directs AFT’s new Agriculture & Environment Initiative helping farmers and ranchers improve water quality and combat climate change while maintaining an economically viable agricultural sector. Daukas manages this $2 million initiative that includes federal policy campaigns and field projects.
Past: Prior to this effort, Daukas oversaw AFT’s campaign to transform U.S. agriculture policy in the 2008 Farm Bill to provide a better safety net, enhance conservation, improve rural development and expand access to healthy foods.
Education: Daukas has a bachelor’s in economics from Middlebury College and an MBA and MPM (masters of public management) from the University of Maryland.
Joe Sciortino | Schmidt Family Foundation | Project Director
Current: Joe Sciortino is Executive Director of The Schmidt Family Foundation. He oversees all facets of the foundation's programs, including The 11th Hour Project, a project that the Foundation sponsors to educate the public about global warming solutions and to empower individuals to take actions in everyday life to reduce emissions and to use our natural resources wisely. He led The 11th Hour Project as Project Director for four years. Joe is currently on the Board of The Regeneration Project and active in several organizations, including Environmental Grantmakers Association and the California Academy of Sciences.
Past: A former Director of the eCommerce division of Williams-Sonoma, Joe has spent many years as a volunteer for environmental groups in the Bay Area, including leadership of a team monitoring populations of harbor seals in the Gulf of the Farallones Marine Sanctuary.
Education: Joe has a Masters of Science (MS) in Environmental Management from The University of San Francisco and a Bachelors of Science (BS) in finance and marketing from New York University.
Joe LaClair | State of California | Chief Planning Officer, Bay Conservation and Development Commission
Current: Joe LaClair is the Chief Planning Officer with the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission in San Francisco. He is a licensed landscape architect and an urban and regional planner. He has more than 20 years of experience, specializing in public space design and planning, land use, recreation and trail planning, and wildlife and recreation compatibility. He has served on the San Francisco Bay Trail Project Board of Directors since 1992.
Education: Joe received his Masters of Landscape Architecture and Masters of City and Regional Planning from the University of California at Berkeley.
Joel Levin | California Climate Action Registry | Vice President, Business Development
Current: As the Climate Action Registry's Vice President of Business Development, Joel Levin is responsible for strategic development of the California Registry and has overseen the development of the Climate Action Reserve from inception to its current status as the recognized environmental standard for carbon offset projects in the United States. He is the California Registry’s primary liaison to the business community and is a frequent and popular speaker on the Registry’s programs and other climate change topics.
Past: Joel has served as staff to the California Market Advisory Committee and the California Climate Action Team. Prior to working at the California Registry, Joel worked at Feeva Wireless in Berkeley and APX in Santa Clara. He has also served on the Capitol Hill staff of Senator Timothy E. Wirth (D-Colorado). Joel is a member of the Sierra Club’s National Global Warming and Energy Committee and former chair of Energy Committee in both the San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles Chapters of the Sierra Club. In these roles, he has been active in promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency as key elements in California’s energy future.
Education: Joel holds a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley and an M.A. in International Economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
John Haig | County of Sonoma | Division Head, Energy & Sustainability
Current: John D. Haig, Jr, is employed by the County of Sonoma, General Services Department, as the Division Manager for Energy and Sustainability. He currently manages the County Greenhouse Gas Emissions reduction strategy, directs operations for the Sonoma County Energy Independence Program Property Assessed Clean Energy Program funding program, helps steer the County's Comprehensive Energy Building Retrofit Project and Renewable Energy Projects, and is involved in many other green initiatives.
Education: John is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley (1977) and Golden Gate University School of Law, and has a varied background in Corporate Operations at Gap, Inc and in Facilities Management, holding the prestigious International Facility Management Association Certified Facility Manager (I.F.M.A. C.F.M/C.F.M.J.) certifications. He lives in Sonoma County with his wife and two children, has a passion for sustainable practices generally, and enjoys volunteering in the community in his spare time.
Jonathan Lewis | Microcredit Enterprises | Chief Executive Officer
Current: Jonathan C. Lewis is the founder and chief executive officer of the Opportunity Collaboration -- a learning, teaching and networking summit of 300 senior antipoverty
leaders which occurs every year on World Poverty Day. Jonathan is also the founder and board chair of MicroCredit Enterprises -- an innovative social venture which leverages private capital to make tiny business loans to deeply impoverished people, mostly women, in developing countries. A rarity in the non-profit world, MicroCredit enterprises is operationally sustainable
without donations or grants.
Past: In his eclectic entrepreneurial career, Jonathan has served as the founder of a business knowledge company which addressed the role of American healthcare companies in the global health economy, CEO of the California Association of Health Maintenance Organizations, the Chief Budget Advisor to the President of
the California State Senate, ounder/CEO of an urban real estate investment company and founder/owner of a contemporary art gallery. Lewis is a recipient of both a Social Venture Network Innovation Award and a
World Affairs Council Award.
Education:Jonathan is a graduate, with honors, of the University of California, Davis, with a B.S. in Applied Behavioral Sciences.
Joseph Fullerton | Earth Efficient Solutions | Owner and Operator
Current: As the owner of Earth Efficient Solutions Joe helps building and business owners and tenants design and implement sustainability efforts. Joe is also the Green Building and Environmental Specialist at the City of Santa Cruz where he is responsible for everything from outreach and education to program design and implementation In addition, Joe is a co-chair of the Environmental Affinity Group at Silicon Valley Social Venture (SV2) where he been involved with key grants and capacity building efforts to organizations like Build It Green, The Ella Baker Center, Job Train, and Sustainable Conservation. Recently Joe joined Acterra's Be the Change program and is a volunteer environmental coordinator at the City of Los Altos.
Judith Corbett | Local Government Commission (LGC) | Executive Director
Current: Judith A. Corbett is the founder and for the past 25 years has served as Executive Director of the Local Government Commission, a nonprofit organization working to build livable communities. With the Local Government Commission, Judith has published over 50 policy guidebooks for local government officials on topics including community water sustainability, hazardous waste reduction, recycling, energy conservation and alternative energy, sustainable economic development, and resource-efficient land use patterns.
Past: Judith has coauthored three books on resource efficient land use and building design, most recently Designing Sustainable Communities: Learning from Village Homes. She has served as a featured speaker at conferences throughout the United States, Mexico, and Europe. She was named by Time Magazine as a "Hero for the Planet" and in 2005 received the National Leadership in Planning Award from the American Planning Association. She serves as a board member for the Rail-Volution Conference and was a member of the board of Directors of the Congress for the New Urbanism for the past 15 years. Judith was also co-developer of the highly acclaimed Village Homes, a model for sustainable development located in Davis, CA.
Education: Judith holds a Masters of Science (MS) in Ecology from the University of California.
Julian Meisler | Sonoma Land Trust | Baylands Program Manager
Current: Julian Meisler is the Baylands Program Manager of Sonoma Land Trust, a local nonprofit organization that works with private landowners and public governmental agencies to protect environmentally significant land in and around Sonoma County.
Past: Previously, Julian was the Restoration Program Director for Laguna Foundation. He was responsible for overseeing the Foundation’s restoration projects including the Ludwigia Control Project. Prior to coming to California in 1999 Julian worked throughout the United States as a field biologist. Previous to the Foundation, he spent five years as a conservation planner and biologist with the Solano Land Trust implementing restoration and land management on 10,000 acres of wildlands.
Education: Julian holds a Master’s degree in Botany (Field Naturalist Program) from the University of Vermont and a Bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource Management from Colorado State University.
K.C. Golden | Climate Solutions | Policy Director
Current: K.C. Golden is Policy Director of Climate Solutions, a research and advocacy organization accelerating practical and profitable solutions to global warming by galvanizing leadership, growing investment and bridging divides.
Past: From 1999 to 2002, KC was a special assistant to the Mayor of Seattle for clean energy and climate protection initiatives where he helped to engineer Seattle City Light's commitment to become the nation's first climate neutral electric power utility and the City's commitment to exceed the goals of the Kyoto protocol. KC was formerly Assistant Director of Washington’s Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, where he directed the state’s energy policy office. From 1989 to 1995, he was Executive Director of the Northwest Energy Coalition. He serves on the boards of Energy Northwest, 1Sky, and USCAN. He's a columnist and river enthusiast, and lives in Seattle with his wife and 2 teenagers.
Kaid Benfield | Natural Resources Defense Council | Director of the Smart Growth Program
Current: Kaid Benfield is director of the smart growth program at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). He co-founded LEED for Neighborhood Development, and is a founder and board member of Smart Growth America. He has authored or co-authored many leading publications on smart growth and transportation policy. He writes commentary for The Huffington Post and Daily Kos web sites, along with a daily blog on NRDC’s web site. Kaid was recently voted one of the world’s “top urban thinkers” in an online poll.
Past: Kaid’s previous NRDC position was director of the organization’s land program, and as its legal affairs coordinator. Prior to NRDC, he worked at the U.S. Department of Justice, and in private legal practice. He has served as chair of the environmental task force of the Congress for the New Urbanism, was a member of the National Academy of Sciences public advisory board, and of several other steering committees and boards relating to smart growth and transportation.
Education: He is a graduate of Emory University and Georgetown University Law Center.
Kara LaPierre | Joint Venture- Silicon Valley Network | Vice President and Executive Director
Current:Kara LaPierre joined Joint Venture in August 2007 and serves as Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Economic Development Alliance. She also serves as coordinator of California Competes and is liaison to the government and development community on building code issues. Kara has 10 years of experience in the government and non-profit sectors, where she has worked on a broad range of public policy issues.
Past: Prior to Joint Venture, she was Director of Economic Vitality and Health Policy at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, a trade association representing over 200 employers. In that capacity she worked on federal, state and local policy issues. Kara was formerly a consultant and government program analyst in Sacramento, where she worked with state agencies and county governments on management and technology projects. Kara moved to California after 4 years in the Washington, DC area, where she worked for government associations and contractors.
Education: Kara holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from the University of New Hampshire and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Plymouth State University.
Kassie Siegel | Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) | Senior Counsel, Climate Law Institute Director
Current: Kassie Siegel is the Senior Counsel of Climate Law Institute Director at The Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit organization that is devoted to protecting biodiversity in different arenas through science; legal action; policy advocacy; negotiation with government and industry; and creative, strategic media and outreach. Kassie develops and implements campaigns for the reduction of greenhouse gas pollution and the protection of plants and animals threatened by global warming, including the Center’s petition to protect the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.
Past: Prior to working for the Center for Biological Diversity, Kassie was a natural-history guide leading wilderness trips in Alaska.
Education: Kassie attended Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law.
Kathleen Stack | Freedom from Hunger | Vice President for Program Development
Current: Kathleen Stack has thirty years of experience in international development with expertise in program design, strategic business planning, microfinance and microenterprise development, curriculum design and training of trainers. She has consulted for and trained microfinance organizations and NGOs in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Ms. Stack is one of the co-creators of the Credit with Education methodology and developed the strategy for linking Credit with Education to credit unions. She also developed Freedom from Hunger’s Basic Business Education curriculum for microfinance clients. More recently she contributed to the design of Saving for Change, a joint program with Oxfam America to support savings-led microfinance. She currently coordinates strategic planning efforts for Freedom from Hunger.
Past: Ms. Stack has served on the Steering Committee of the Global Financial Education Program (GFEP), a joint program of Microfinance Opportunities and Freedom from Hunger. She was a founding member of the Small Enterprise Education and Promotion (SEEP) Network and served on the SEEP Board of Directors, and has been an instructor at the University of Southern New Hampshire’s Microenterprise Development Institute.
Education: Ms. Stack holds a Master of Arts degree in International Administration from the School for International Training Graduate Institute and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Clark University. She speaks fluent French.
Kevin Corcoran | Lumina Foundation for Education | Program Director
Current: Kevin Corcoran is the program director for Lumina’s policy advocacy and public will building efforts. He works with organizations to draw attention to the need for broader college access and increased numbers of students completing high-quality degrees and credentials, especially among disadvantaged students. He also works with nonprofit intermediary organizations and state partners in foundation-led efforts such as Tuning USA and Making Opportunity Affordable.
Past: Prior to joining Lumina in 2007, Mr. Corcoran spent ~20 years as a newspaper reporter, covering state government, crime and punishment and the military. He is a co-recipient of the George Polk Award, and his work also has been recognized by Human Rights Watch and the American Bar Association. Mr. Corcoran spent the final few years of his journalism career as an investigative reporter for The Indianapolis Star.
Education: Mr. Corcoran has a bachelor’s in journalism (’88) and an MBA in finance (’07) from Indiana University.
Kevin Danaher | Global Exchange | Executive Director
Current: Dr. Kevin Danaher is the Executive Director of the Global Citizen Center, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate the public about our need to engage in new economic practices — as consumers, businesses, and communities — that are environmentally sustainable and socially just. In this capacity, Dr. Danaher is responsible for establishing and developing the Center's overall vision.
Past: With over 25 years of non-profit leadership experience, Dr. Danaher is widely recognized as one of the civil sector’s most insightful and inspirational advocates for social justice and environmental sustainability. In 1988, Dr. Danaher co-founded Global Exchange, an international human rights organization whose present annual operating budget is approximately $9MM. He also was Founder and Executive Producer of the GreenFestival, which brings together over 400 socially responsible enterprises, a full program of world reknown speakers, and 25,000 attendees for weekend-long celebrations of the emerging green economy. In addition, Dr. Danaher launched and served as the initial board chair of TransFair, USA, and international fair trade organization whose certifications have established national benchmarks for domestically distributed coffee and cocoa products. Dr. Danaher is a highly sought after public speaker and author of 10 published books on topics ranging from international economic policy to grass roots, community organizing.
Education: Dr. Danaher received his PhD in sociology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, after which he held a fellowship at the prestigious Washington D.C. think tank, The Institute for Policy Studies.
Khaled Al-Gazawi | First Microfinance Foundation- Egypt | Chief Executive Officer
Current: On September 6th 2009, Dr. Khaled Al-Gazawi joined the First Microfinance Foundation – Egypt (FMF-E) as the Chief Executive Officer. FMF-E is the local affiliate of the Aga Khan Agency for Microfinance (AKAM), which in return is part of the bigger Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). Khaled has more than 11 years of experience in micro-finance, plus an extensive experience in banking, marketing, and business consultancy.
Past: Prior to joining FMF-E, Khaled served as the director of operations at Quality Finance International (QFI), the international arm for of the well-known consulting firm; Environmental Quality International (EQI). EQI possesses more than 27 years of experience in creating and supporting the major microfinance programs in Egypt and the MENA region. In his capacity at QFI, Khaled managed the operations of several projects in Sudan, Syria, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Jordan, and the West Bank. Khaled also worked before as a Management Consultant for QRPC in Qatar.
Earlier in his career, Khaled worked for FINCA International, a major microfinance provider. Based in Washington, DC, Khaled worked in the capacity of the Greater Middle East Program Manager. Khaled also served as the CEO of the Jordan Micro Credit Company (Tamweelcom), the leading Jordanian Microfinance institution in Jordan. Thanks to his experience, Tamweelcom became the leading microfinance service provider in Jordan, and was awarded globally on different occasions for its transparency, dedication to poverty alleviation, and good governance. Prior to Tamweelcom, Khaled was the Director of Operations at CHF International in Jordan.
Education: Khaled is a certified CGAP/Sanabel Trainer in various fields of microfinance. Khaled holds a PhD. degree in International Management from the University of Phoenix, Arizona/USA, an MBA from the Yarmouk University in Jordan.
Kirsten Schwind | Bay Localize | Program Director
Current: Kirsten Schwind is the Program Director of Bay Localize, a nonprofit organization working to build a more socially equitable and sustainable Bay Area. At Bay Localize Kirsten focuses on program and organizational development. She has worked with a number of Bay Area nonprofits including as Program Director at Food First, and currently serves on the City of Berkeley’s Energy Commission.
Past: Kirsten has over eleven years of organizing, research, and program development in the fields of social justice, global trade, food policy, labor organizing, clean energy, and local resources. Her writings on localization have been widely reprinted in several languages, and she enjoys speaking with groups of all sizes. She co-authored the report Tapping the Potential of Urban Rooftops, which won an award from the American Planning Association's California Chapter.
Education: Kirsten holds a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Economics and Public Policy from Swarthmore College and a Masters of Science (MA) in Natural Resources Management from the University of Michigan. Kirsten lived for several years in Latin America and is fluent in Spanish.
Kristi Kimball | Hewlett Foundation | Program Officer
Current: Kristi Kimball is a Program Officer in the Education Program of the Hewlett Foundation. Her focus is on grants that advance statewide education policy reform in California. Past grant portfolios involve national education policy and advocacy; school districts’ use of the federal stimulus funding for education; and basic and secondary education in developing countries.
Past: Kristi has served in the U.S. Department of Education during the Clinton Administration, where she worked on the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, school construction and modernization, charter schools and school choice issues. She also worked as a Research Associate at the Urban Institute, where she helped evaluate national progress in implementing standards-based reform, and as an education staffer on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in Congress.
Education: Kristi holds a B.A. from Dartmouth College, and an M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University.
Laura Tam | San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Association (SPUR) | Sustainable Development Policy Director
Current: Laura Tam is the Sustainable Development Policy Director for San Francisco Planning & Urban Research Assocation (SPUR). Laura coordinates SPUR's work in five major policy areas: green buildings, water supply, wastewater, energy and climate change.
Past: Prior to joining SPUR, Laura worked for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Inspector General, where she conducted research and analysis that produced recommendations for the EPA to better manage environmental problems. In this position, she worked on a variety of policy issues, such as enforcing the Clean Water Act and managing electronic waste. She previously worked for the Northern Forest Center on rural development and conservation in the Northeast. She is the author of the book, At Home in the Northern Forest.
Education: Laura earned a Master’s degree in environmental management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and received her Bachelor of Arts in Geography from Dartmouth College. Originally from Honolulu, Laura has lived in San Francisco since 2003, and in her free time, enjoys running, yoga, and spending time in San Francisco’s natural areas with her family.
Lauren Speeth | Georgia Green Loans | Board of Advisor
Current: Lauren Speeth currently serves in the following formal capacities for partner non-profits: Board of Advisors, and System Architect & html/xml programmer for inequality.com at Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality at Stanford University; Board of Trustees & External Board of Advisors at Graduate School of Business, Mills College of California; Board of Regents at Saint Mary's College of California, and although not in Georgia is part of the ‘brain trust’ for Georgia Green Loans.
Past: Speeth She was the founding CEO for the Elfenworks Foundation and Elfenworks Productions, LLC. Her previous positions range from Systems Analyst to Consulting Systems Engineer at Bank of America in 1984. Since the early days of the internet when her work was noted in Gramophone Magazine (Webwatch, 2001) and highlighted in the New York Times (Classical Musicians Take to the Web, 2002), her client sites have consistently been award winners. She is also the author of the awareness-raising book on domestic poverty entitled Tracks of Hope.
In 2001, Speeth began her filmmaking career. Since 2007, with the joint effort Faces of Poverty, she has focused on visual storytelling on behalf of nonprofits. Her films have been: screened on Waikiki beach; garnered Silver Lei, Best International Mid-Length Documentary, Best Music Video, and Best Jazz Video awards; and received Davey, Summit, JPF, and Telly Awards. An active recording and performing musician, Speeth is a founding member of the band Commodore Callahan and is currently on sabbatical from the Peninsula Symphony, where she has been honored to hold a seat in the First Violin section since 2000.
Education: Speeth holds a bachelor's degree from Mills College, a master's (MBA) from Saint Mary's College, a doctorate (DBA) from Golden Gate University, and an Advanced Computer Security Professional Credential from Stanford University, as well as lifetime Community College Teaching Credentials in Finance, Manage
Leslie Leslie | Fred Gellert Family Foundation | Grant Director
Current: Leslie Leslie is currently the Grant Director for The Fred Gellert Family Foundation. She also serves on the Steering Committee of the WELL Network and on the Advisory Board of Permacouture Institute and China Rivers Project.
Past: Prior to her work with the Gellert Foundation, Leslie served as a Program Coordinator for the Resource Renewal Institute (RRI), assisting in research, event planning and program development. She currently continues to consult with RRI and assists in raising funds for a number of nonprofit organizations. She has co-founded three schools, including the Mountain School, a Waldorf pre-school in Corte Madera. For over 13 years, she helped lead fundraising efforts for the Waldorf School in San Francisco and was a co-founder of the S.F.Waldorf High School pre-school in Corte Madera.
Linda Civitello | Breathe California Golden Gate Public Health Partnership (Breathe California) | President and CEO
Current: Since 1992, Linda Civitello has been the President and CEO of Breathe California, a nonprofit organization that works to reduce the impact of lung disease through prevention, education, advocacy and patient services.
Past: Linda has extensive experience in community service, urban planning and government affairs. She was the founding director of the Tri Cities Children Center in Alameda County. She served as the Business and Community Liaison for the University of California, San Francisco for over 10 years, and she was the Senior Vice President of McL. Young, Inc., a management-consulting firm, for two years.
Education: Linda has a Master of Arts Degree in Political Science from San Francisco State University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Public Administration from Antioch College. She attended the CORO Leadership Program in San Francisco.
Linda Schuck | California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) | Senior Advisor and Director of the Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Project
Current: Linda Schuck is a Senior Advisor and Director of the Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Project at the CIEE. CIEE's mission is to support public-interest energy research in California. Linda's work is focused on expanding behavior and decision research and its use in energy and climate policy and technology commercialization. At CIEE, she founded and chairs the Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Conference, which now involves 200 speakers and over 800 attendees, and, in 2007, convened the first Summit on Behavior, Energy and Climate Change Research.
Past: Linda has 25 years of experience working on energy, technology commercialization and climate change issues. Prior to joining CIEE, Linda directed the California Climate Change Project at Stanford University, an inter-university collaboration to facilitate the use of research in the design, adoption and implementation of strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. She has held managerial positions at the US Department of Energy, PG&E Company and the Alliance to Save Energy and has served as a management consultant to the California Energy Commission, Southern California Edison, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, PG&E and other organizations. Linda has extensive experience managing social science-based research and conducting experimentally designed research programs. She founded the Utility Customer Research Network, served on the advisory board of the International Energy Program Evaluation Conference and on the organizing committee for ACEEE Summer Study for many years. She also works on clean technology commercialization and serves on the Advisory Board of the Environmental Business Cluster, a clean energy technology incubator.
Education: Linda has an Masters of Public and Private Management MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, a MA from Antioch Graduate School and a BA from Stanford University.
Lisa Kuhn Fraioli | Freedom from Hunger | Director, Credit with Education, Latin America
Current: Lisa Kuhn joined Freedom from Hunger in 2005. She is a microfinance specialist with eleven years of experience providing training, technical assistance, and research services to microfinance institutions and networks around the world. As leader of Freedom from Hunger’s initiatives in Latin America, Ms. Kuhn Fraioli develops the regional strategy, supervises Freedom from Hunger’s technical teams based in Mexico, Peru, and Ecuador and provides technical assistance to partner organizations in Latin America, including the development of new products, services, support systems and materials related to Credit with Education.
Past: Prior to joining Freedom from Hunger, Lisa worked as a Micro-Lending Manager at Opportunity International specializing in assessing and improving the impacts of microfinance products and services on women. She worked closely with Opportunity’s partners around the world providing full-service product development for new loan and education products. She has also worked as a policy assistant for FINCA International and as a research assistant for the Microcredit Summit Campaign Secretariat. Ms. Kuhn Fraioli is co-author of “Empowering Women Through Microfinance” commissioned by the Microcredit Summit Campaign in 2002.
Lisa Micheli | Pepperwood Foundation | Executive Director
Current: Lisa Micheli is the Executive Director of The Pepperwood Foundation, which is a beautiful nature sanctuary north of Santa Rosa. In this position, she directs the expansion of Pepperwood’s extensive conservation, education and research programs into the education cent.
Past: A Switzer Environmental Leader since 2002, Dr.Micheli brings with her more than 20 years of experience in environmental research, policy and community conservation program development. Previously, she worked at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 watershed program in San Francisco.
Education: Dr.Micheli received her masters degree at University of California, Berkeley, and her post-doctoral degree at University of California, Davis, where her research was on the Sacramento River that helped to guide the Nature Conservancy’s large-scale restoration effort.
Louis Chicoine | Abode Services | Executive Director
Current: Louis Chicoine, MSW, Executive Director, Abode Services formerly Tri-City Homeless Coalition and its housing development subsidiary, Allied Housing. Louis has been with Abode Services for 18 years. Under Louis’s leadership Abode Services continues expand strategies to end local homelessness by creating new housing opportunities for homeless families and individuals. Mr. Chicoine is the President of the EBHO, East Bay Housing Organizations Board of Directors where he proudly represents our community and its efforts to created affordable housing. He is sits on the Redevelopment Advisory Committee’s in the cities of San Leandro and Fremont as well as serves as Supervisor Scott Haggerty’s appointee to Measure A Oversight Committee.
Louis is currently leading Allied Housing's Main Street Village Affordable Housing Development Project in Irvington in Fremont which when completed in fall 2011 will create 64 new supportive Housing homes for the most vulnerable. More recently, he has positioned Abode Services as the county-wide provider of Rapid Re-housing utilizing American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to re-house over 500 homeless households by 2012.
Lynne Trulio | San Jose State University (SJSU) | Department Chair, Environmental Studies
Current: Lynne Trulio joined the Department of SJSU in 1991 as an assistant professor and is now a full professor and the Department Chair of the Environmental Studies. Dr. Trulio teaches a wide range of courses including Introduction to Environmental Studies and Globalization and the Environment. Dr. Trulio conducts research investigating human impacts to species and habitats and seeks effective methods to mitigate or eliminate those impacts. Specific research with colleagues and graduate students includes studies of tidal salt marsh restoration in the San Francisco Bay, the effects of recreation on wildlife, and the ecology and recovery of the western burrowing owl in California. She has been a committee member or chair for scores of Environmental Studies master of science students. She is also the faculty advisor to the Environmental Resource Center, a student-run center for sustainability action in the Department.
Past: In addition to her professorship, Dr. Trulio was the Lead Scientist for the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project during its planning phase, from 2003-2008. For this position, she directed the Project's science program and was a member of the Project Management Team. In 1999, she was selected as an American Association for the Advancement of Science Environmental and Engineering Fellow. In that capacity, from August 1999 to December 2000, Dr. Trulio was a visiting environmental scientist in the Wetlands Division, Office of Wetlands, Oceans and Watersheds of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC.
br>Education: Dr.Trulio received her Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California, Davis (1988) and her undergraduate degree in Biology from Goucher College in Towson, MD (1979).
Marcus Schneider | Energy Foundation | Climate Program Director
Current: Marcus Schneider is a Senior Program Officer at the Energy Foundation, a private foundation whose mission is to promote a sustainable energy future through increased energy efficiency and renewable energy. Marcus oversees the Climate Program, which seeks to spur state and regional climate change actions. He is also co-chair of the Climate and Energy Funders Network.
Past: Previously, Marcus was a Research Associate at the Energy Foundation, and from 1994 to 1996 he was a Program Associate for the foundation’s utilities, renewables, and buildings programs.
Education: Marcus holds an Masters of Science (MS) in Energy and Resources from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Oberlin College.
Marianna Grossman | Sustainable Silicon Valley (SSV) | Executive Director
Current: Marianna Grossman is President and Executive Director of Sustainable Silicon Valley, which is a collaboration of businesses, governments, and non-governmental organizations that are identifying and addressing environmental and resource pressures in Silicon Valley.
Past: From 1994-2009 she was a partner of Minerva Consulting responsible for the Sustainability and Innovative Practice. From 2000-2009 she was a partner in the Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund (SV2) where she was co-liaison for a three-year grant to The Natural Step, Rocky Mountain Institute, and Natural Capitalism, Inc., to integrate their work and to bring sustainability thinking to the technology industry. She founded the Green Committee at Congregration Kol Emeth in Palo Alto, which is working to reduce its climate impact, and founded and was past chair of the Sustainable Schools for Palo Alto committee, where she wrote successful grant applications for two solar photovoltaic (PV) systems for Ohlone and Escondido elementary schools.
Education: Marianna has a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Yale University School of Management. She received a Bachelor of Arts cum laude, with distinction in Policy Studies (the Policy of Social Change) at Dartmouth College, and was a National Merit Scholar.
Mark Spalding | The Ocean Foundation | President
Current: Mark Spalding concurrently serves as the Executive Director of Fundación Bahía de Loreto A.C. He is the chair of the Council of the National Whale Conservation Fund. Mark is an active participant in the marine working group, Baja California group, and coral reef group of the funders' organization, the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity. He serves on the International Bering Sea Forum. He has consulted for the Alaska Conservation Foundation, San Diego Foundation, the International Community Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Fundación La Puerta, and a number of family foundations.
Past: He designed and managed the Orca Fund. He has served as a member of the Environmental Grants Advisory Committee of FINCOMUN (Tijuanas Community Foundation). In addition, he has helped design some of the most significant ocean conservation campaigns in recent years. He brings his extensive experience with the legal and policy aspects of ocean conservation to the Foundation's grantmaking strategy and evaluation process. For more information see www.markjspalding.com.
Mark Levine | Lawrence Berkeley National Lab | Group Leader, China Energy Group
Current: Mark Levine is Group Lead of the China Energy Group at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, an organization that conducts unclassified research across a wide range of scientific disciplines, and where eleven scientists associated with Berkeley Lab have won the Nobel Prize and 55 Nobel Laureates either trained here or had significant collaborations with the Laboratory. Dr. Levine is also Director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy and the Center for Clean Air Policy, and has authored more than 100 publications.
Past: Dr. Levine previously served as Director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division and was head of the Lab’s Energy Analysis Program. Earlier in his career, he was a Senior Energy Policy Analyst at SRI International and worked for the Ford Foundation Energy Project.
Education: Dr.Levine has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in chemistry from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.
May Boeve | 350.org | Global Partnerships, Policy, Operations, and US/Canada outreach
Current: May Boeve is the Global Partnerships, Policy, Operations, and US/Canada outreach at 350.org, a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to building a movement to unite the world around solutions to the climate-crisis. At 350.org, May oversees partnership programs with nonprofit organizations, is responsible for coordinating activities for the campaign in the United States and Canada, and helps oversee operations.
Past: Previously, May worked on the Step It Up campaign,which helped change the debate about global warming policy in the U.S.
Education: May graduated from Middlebury College in 2007 where she studied political science. In the fall of 2004 she traveled the country as part of Project BioBus, an educational tour of the U.S. that visited 65 schools and gave presentations about climate change. She was awarded the Brower Youth Award in 2006.
Megan Fluke | Sierra Club | Grassroots Organizer
Current: Megan Fluke is the Grassroots Organizer of Sierra Club. She was also recently elected as Chapter Executive Committee (ExCom) member.
Past: Megan served as the Director of the Environmental Resource Center at San Jose State University where she coordinated 22 student volunteers. She was also the Community Director at GenerationEngage, an organization that promotes long-term engagement through volunteerism.
Melchior de Muralt | Blue Orchard Finance S.A. | Vice-President and member of the Executive Committee
Current: Melchior de Muralt is Vice-President and member of the Executive Committee of Blue Orchard Finance S.A., a company specialized in investments in the microfinance industry. Since April 2001, he is a Managing Partner of de Pury Pictet Turrettini & Co. Ltd, an independent asset management firm based in Geneva.
He is a member of the Investor Committee at Zurmont Madison Management AG, a Zurich private equity firm. H He is president of Cadmos Fund Management and the Guilé European Engagement Fund, a pioneer in the field of SRI equity investments and Treasurer of the Guilé Foundation. He is also a director of the OASIS fund, an investment vehicle dedicated to investing in social enterprises. He is the President of the World Microfinance Forum Geneva.
Past: Prior to joining de Pury Pictet Turrettini & Co. Ltd, Mr. de Muralt was a Portfolio Manager within the Institutional Department of Lombard Odier Darier Hentsch & Cie. In this capacity, he was one of the promoters of the Ethos Foundation (www.ethosfund.ch). He was also head of the Family Business department.
Education: Melchior de Muralt holds a Bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D in Political Sciences at the University of Lausanne.
Michael Fischer | Consultative Group on Biological Diversity | Executive Director
Current: Michael Fischer is the executive director of the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity, a back-office thinktank and collaboration hub for 55 of the nation’s leading foundations making grants in the environmental arena. He brings to his work almost 50 years’ experience in environmental management and regulation, including postings as executive director of the national Sierra Club and the California Coastal Commission.
Past: For 5 years, he directed the Environment Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. He has served on the boards of directors of a dozen environmental organizations, including Friends of the Earth-US, High Country News and the Yosemite Restoration Trust.
Education:In 2007, the College of Environmental Design at the University of California Berkeley awarded him its Distinguished Alumnus medal.
Michael Noble | Fresh Energy | Executive Director
Current: Michael Noble is the Executive Director of Fresh Energy, an organization working to enhance our economy, protect human health and communities, restore our environment, and establish energy independence by providing research, advocacy and innovative policy models while engaging citizens to take action on the energy issues that affect us all. He has over thirty years of professional expertise in energy, and has been a key strategist for major public policy innovations in energy, such as energy efficiency, renewable energy development, global warming solutions, and strategies to reduce reliance on foreign oil in Minnesota and the Midwestern region. Currently, he is the Chair of the Clean Energy Working Group and serves on the Steering Committee of RE-AMP. In addition, Michael serves on the board of directors of Conservation Minnesota Voter Center, Wind on the Wires, and the Will Steger Foundation.
Past: Michael has served as the CEO of three different not-for-profit energy organizations since 1979 and one for-profit energy services company.
Michael Replogle | Institute for Transportation and Development Policy | Global Policy Director, Founder, and long-term past President
Current: Michael Replogle is Global Policy Director and Founder of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, which helps cities develop sustainable low-carbon transportation systems worldwide, promoting smart growth, transit, non-motorized transportation, and pricing and travel demand management strategies. He is also currently a strategic advisor to the Environmental Defense Fund.
Past: Michael was a long-term past President of the Institute for Transporation and Development Policy and transporation director of the Environmental Defense Fund from 1992-2009. He has advised the World Bank, US Department of Transportation, the Singapore Land Transport Authority, and other governments worldwide.
Education: He holds an M.S.E. and undergraduate honors degrees in Civil and Urban Engineering and Sociology, all from the University of Pennsylvania.
Michael Hamp | International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) | Senior Rural Finance Advisor & Coordinator of the Finance, Assets, Markets and Enterprise Development Cluster of the Programme Management Department
Current: Michael is the Senior Rural Finance Advisor and Coordinator of the Finance, Assets, Markets and Enterprise Development Cluster of the Programme Management Department of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
Past: Michael Hamp has been working with the German Technical Cooperation, GTZ, in various positions for 18 years. Initially, he has been an Advisor to Bank Indonesia (central bank) on the famous Linking Banks and Self-Help Groups Project, PHBK, in Indonesia. This was from 1990 until 1995. He then joined GTZ’s Financial Systems Development Unit, where he supervised the GTZ portfolio of financial system and credit projects in Africa (1995 -1998). After his assignment in Namibia as Principal Advisor to the Ministry of Trade and Industry for the Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion Project (1999 – 2003), he joined the bilateral technical assistance programme for the Promotion of Small Financial Institution (ProFI) in Indonesia as Programme Coordinator and Principal Advisor until October 2007. He became staff member of the IFAD in Rome on November 2007.
Education: He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology of Economics and a Master Degree in Agricultural Engineering both from the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Bonn, Germany.
Michael Wara | Stanford University | Assistant Professor, Law; Center Fellow, Woods Institute
Current: Michael Wara is an Assistant Professor in Law at Stanford University, and a Center Fellow of the Woods Institute. Michael is an expert on environmental law and policy. His research focuses on climate policy and regulation, both domestically and internationally. Professor Wara’s current scholarship addresses the performance of the emerging global market for greenhouse gases and mechanisms for reducing emissions, especially in developing countries after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. Professor Wara is a research fellow at the Program in Energy and Sustainable Development in Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
Michele Jackson | Shelter Network | Executive Director
Current: Michele Jackson has been serving as Executive Director at Shelter Network since 2001. She serves on the Housing Endowment and Trust Board of San Mateo County, the Local Emergency Food and Shelter FEMA/EHAP Board, and is the Chair of the Executive Committee for the San Mateo County Continuum of Care. She also serves on the Interagency Council for HOPE, San Mateo County's 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness.
Past: She began working at the agency in 1994, and previously served as Program Director, Director of Programs and Services, and Associate Executive Director. She has over 27 years of experience in the development and management of programs serving low-income families and individuals. In 2003, she was awarded the Heart of Social Work Award from the National Council on Social Work Education for excellence in field instruction.
Education: Michele has both a Bachelors of Social Work and a Masters of Social Work from San Francisco State University.
Michelle Manion | NESCAUM/NESCCAF | Program Manager of the Climate and Energy team
Current: Michelle Manion is the Program Manager of the Climate and Energy team at NESCAUM/NESCCAF, where she works closely with the New England states, New York and New Jersey to support their efforts on state and regional energy, climate, and air quality policy and programs.
Past: Previous to NESCAUM, she was a Sr. Analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists working on forest carbon policy and has also worked as a consultant to a variety of governmental, industry, and non-profit clients including the US EPA, the Department of the Interior, the World Bank, and Conservation International.
Education: Michelle holds master’s degrees in natural resources and applied economics from the University of Michigan, and a B.S. in economics from Bucknell University.
Mike Sandler | Climate Protection Campaign | Co-Founder
Current: Mike Sandler is the Co-Founder of Climate Protection Campaign, a nonprofit organization that supports the work of Sonoma's cities to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. He has worked with 9 North Bay cities to quantify and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and helped the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in the creation of its new Climate Protection Program.
Past: In the late 1990's Mike co-founded the SEE Green Program and SEE Green Directory, a program promoting green businesses north of San Francisco Bay. He has also worked on several local government sustainability programs. From 2002-2006, Mike was Program Coordinator of the Community Clean Water Institute, working on water and climate issues. From 2004-2006, Mike was a Planning Commissioner for the City of Sebastopol. He is a charter member of the U.S. Society for Ecological Economics. From late 2006 to January 2008, Mike was Southern California Outreach Director for California Interfaith Power and Light. In this position, he worked with congregations to address global warming by educating and encouraging the faith community's use of energy efficiency and renewable energy. In 2007, Mike promoted public trust characteristics in any proposed market mechanisms in California's implementation of AB32, the Global Warming Solutions Act. His research was featured in "Climate Solutions: A Citizen's Guide" and "Carbon Capping: A Citizen's Guide." Mike is also researching the per capita distribution of greenhouse gas emissions shares directly to California citizens, which he calls Carbon Share.
Education: Mike holds a degree in Political Economy from the University of California at Berkeley, and completed his Master's Program in Urban Planning at UCLA.
Moira (Feeney) Duvernay | Law Offices of Amitai Schwartz | Attorney At Law
Expertise:
Moira has been involved in human rights work related to Haiti since 1998. She was the Center for Justice and Accountability’s lead attorney in the case against former Haitian death squad leader Toto Constant. She also litigated CJA’s other successful Haiti case, Jean v. Dorelien, in which CJA’s clients recovered just under $1 million from former Haitian colonel Carl Dorelien who in 1997 had won $3.2 million in the Florida state lottery. Both Constant and Dorelien were found liable for human rights abuses committed during the 1991-1994 military dictatorship in Haiti.
Currently, Moira is on the board of Sustainable Organization Integrated Livelihood (SOIL). She is also involved in the US-based Haiti solidarity community working to raise awareness of human rights issues in the US and Haiti. Moira is fluent in French, Creole, and Spanish.
Background:
Moira first got involved in Haiti when she volunteered as an English and Spanish teacher in Haiti at the Louverture Cleary School, administered by the Haitian Project, a US-based non-profit. She taught school for one year in Haiti, but it was really her students who taught her the most, including how to speak Haitian Creole. She came back to the United States and worked for the international human rights organization Global Exchange based in San Francisco. She served as the coordinator of their Haiti program, organizing election observation delegations. She also led and organized educational travel focused on issues of global justice to Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Chiapas, Mexico.
Education:
After her work with Global Exchange, Moira pursued her law degree at UC Hastings College of the Law. During her time in law school, she helped create a sister school relationship with the law school in Jeremie, Haiti. The Hastings to Haiti Partnership is now a thriving program that allows educational exchange between American and Haitian law students and professors. In addition to her J.D.
Nadine Chehade | Planet Rating | Business Development Manager
Current: Nadine Chehade joined the Planet Rating team in May 2006 to head the Beirut office from where she covered the MENA and Caucasus regions. Starting 2009, she became in charge of overseeing the development process of new products and services offered by Planet Rating worldwide. Nadine has conducted over 30 missions in MENA, Eastern Europe, Central and East Asia, as well as East and West Africa.
Past: Nadine started her career in Investment Banking with ABN Amro, before working as a strategy and management consultant for 4 years, conducting projects for various industries and clients, first with Accenture and then with Kea&Partners, a company spun off CapGemeni. In 2005, she worked as a consultant for ILDES, a Lebanese NGO with a microfinance program. Nadine is fluent in Arabic, English and French.
Education: She holds an MBA from Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (ESSEC).
Ole Dahl Rasmussen | DanChurchAid, | Microfinance Advisor
Current: Ole Dahl Rasmussen is Microfinance Advisor at DanChurchAid, a Danish non-missionary faith-based NGO with an annual turnover of USD$80 million.
Past: He has previously worked with a microfinance institution in Thailand, taught a microfinance course at graduate level at Copenhagen University and done research on performance in microfinance in Benin, West Africa.
Education: He holds an MA in Political Science from University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
Patricia Monahan | Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) | California Office Director and Deputy Director, Clean Vehicles Program
Current: Patricia Monahan is the Director of the California office and Deputy Director for Clean Vehicles at the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a nonprofit organization that combines independent scientific research and citizen action to develop innovative, practical solutions and to secure responsible changes in government policy, corporate practices, and consumer choices. Patricia has published numerous studies on the benefits of reducing pollution from cars, trucks, buses, and heavy equipment. She has worked on federal and California-specific legislation and regulations to reduce pollution from vehicles and fuels.
Past: Before joining UCS in 2001, Patricia spent eight years as a scientist working on air pollution and toxics at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in Washington DC, and San Francisco. She spent several years as an energy analyst at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, where her research encompassed industrial energy use and efficiency, projections of energy use and pollution, and international strategies for reducing heat-trapping gas emissions.
Education: Patricia has a bachelor's degree in environmental science from the University of California at Berkeley and a master's degree in energy analysis and policy from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Patrick Parenteau | Vermont Law School | Professor
Current: Patrick A. Parenteau is Professor of Law and Senior Counsel in the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic (ENRLC) at Vermont Law School (VLS).
Past: He previously served as Director of the Environmental Law Center at VLS from 1993-1999; and in 2004 founded the ENRLC. Previous positions: Vice President for Conservation with the National Wildlife Federation in Washington, DC (1976-1984); General Counsel to the New England Regional Office of the EPA in Boston (1984-1987); Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation (1987-1989); and Senior Counsel with the Perkins Coie law firm in Portland (1989-1993). Professor Parenteau is a nationally recognized expert on the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, NEPA, and other environmental laws. He has been involved in drafting, litigating, implementing, teaching, and writing about environmental law and policy for over 30 years. He is a recipient of the National Wildlife Federation’s Conservation Achievement Award 2005 in recognition of his contributions to wildlife conservation and environmental education. In 2009 he received the River Advocacy Award from the Connecticut River Watershed Council.
Paul Robillard | World Water Watch | Executive Director
Current: Paul Robillard is the Executive Director of World Water Watch. He has been actively contributing to international education, development and research programs for almost 40 years.
Past: From 1968 to 1970, Paul was a Civil Engineer working with Peace Corps Ecuador on a United Nations project, which later became the basis for the worldwide UN water decade (1980-90). He also designed and coordinated water quality monitoring projects in the West Branch of the Delaware River and led a research effort in the Great Lakes to evaluate the impact of agricultural practices on surface and groundwater quality. He was named a Fulbright Scholar in 1995-96. He is widely recognized for his research, awards received include the W. Lamar Kopp Award at the Pennsylvania State University in 2001, and the National Gunlogson Engineering Award and the National Software Awards (1990 and 1993) by the Society for Engineering in Agricultural, Food and Biological Systems.
Education: BS in Civil Engineering from Notre Dame. MS and PhD were completed at Cornell.
Paul Boden | Western Regional Advocacy Project | Executive Director
Current: Paul Boden is the Executive Director of WRAP.
Past: He became homeless at the age of 16 after the death of his mother. He began volunteering at a drop-in shelter in San Francisco in 1983, eventually becoming a program director there. He then worked as a case manager in a supportive hotel program for mentally ill people. Most notably, Paul served as Executive Director of San Francisco's Coalition on Homelessness for 16 years. He was one of the founders of the Community Housing Partnership, a nationally recognized permanent housing corporation with optional supportive services, and served as president of its Board for 10 years. Paul was also a Board member of the National Coalition for the Homeless and co-chair of its civil rights and grassroots organizing workgroup. He has received dozens of community awards during the last twenty-five years as well as recognition from the city and county of San Francisco, the State of California, and the Congress of the United States. Paul regularly writes articles and op-eds and does public speaking and panels throughout the country.
Rachel Massaro | Joint Venture- Silicon Valley Networ | Associate Director, Climate Initiatives
Current: Rachel Massaro is the Associate Director of Climate Initiatives at Joint Venture Silicon Valley Network, an organization that provides analysis and action on issues affecting our region's economy and quality of life. Rachel joined Joint Venture in 2009 to assist with the Climate Prosperity Initiative, the Climate Protection Task Force and related projects.
Past: Rachel was previously a data analyst, researcher and field operations coordinator for three years with the Department of Oceanography at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Education: Rachel earned her Master of Science degree in geochemical oceanography in 2008. She was accepted into the program on an Oceanography Department Research Assistantship and a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Sea Grant-funded Traineeship. Her research was focused on global climate change and the role of the coastal ocean, specifically with respect to carbon dioxide dynamics. Rachel completed her Bachelor of Science degree in physical geography with a minor in geology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. She specialized in geospatial data analysis, Geographic Information Systems and global climate change. Rachel has volunteered her time with community organizations such as Sustainovation, Operation Care & Comfort and Habitat for Humanity. She was born and raised in Palo Alto, California.
Rafael Reyes | Bay Area Climate Collaborative (Silicon Valley Leadership Group) | Program Director
Current: Rafael Reyes is the Program Director of the Bay Area Climate Collaborative, a collaborative that brings together leaders from government, the business community, academia, and nonprofit advocacy groups to address the challenge of climate change across the region. Rafael is also on the Sierra Club board of directors and is Program Manager for EcoAmerica. At EcoAmerica Rafael leads large scale for-profit and non-profit partnership projects to reach mainstream Americans on the benefits of environmental progress. Among Rafael's projects with EcoAmerica are the collaboration with Monster.com to create GreenCareers, a green jobs service which shows that environmental progress leads to economic opportunity, and with the Princeton Review, Rafael led the development of the College Green Rating, which makes college green practices relevant to mainstream students by showing how they improve campus quality of life and career preparation. As an award-winning volunteer leader with the Sierra Club, he has led numerous initiatives, most recently the Cool Cities which encourages local innovation to reduce climate impacts and spur the green economy.
Past: Rafael has had 15 years of experience in high tech project management, systems architecture design and business consulting. He is fluent in Spanish, and has presented "An Inconvenient Truth" in both English and Spanish.
Education: Rafael was born in Peru, is a graduate from UC Berkeley. His blog on Northern California climate crisis topics is www.ClimateAtBay.net.
Ranya Abdel-Baki | Sanabel | Deputy Executive Director
Current: Ranya Abdel-Baki is an economist by education and is currently the Executive Director at Sanabel – The Microfinance Network of Arab Countries.
Past: Prior to working at Sanabel, Ranya has worked as a credit analyst for five years at National Société Générale Bank and as an Urban Economist & Development Specialist in an environmental consultancy firm. Ranya has undertaken a number of consultancy assignments assessing the social impact and financial sustainability of development projects in Egypt. Experience in microfinance includes the co-writing of the Arab Microfinance Analysis and Benchmarking Report for the past two years and lecturing on microfinance in the American University in Cairo.
Education: Ranya holds a MSc. in Urban Economic Development from University College London.
Richard Somerville | University of California, San Diego | Distinguished Professor Emeritus and Research Professor, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Current: Richard Somerville has been a professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego since 1979. He is a theoretical meteorologist and an expert on computer simulations of the atmosphere. Richard Somerville's research is on the physics of clouds and their role in the climate system. He comments frequently on climate and environmental issues for the media.
Past: Somerville has received awards from the American Meteorological Society for both his research and his popular book, The Forgiving Air: Understanding Environmental Change. Among many honors, he is a Fellow of both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Meteorological Society. He is a Coordinating Lead Author for the 2007 Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize equally with Al Gore.
Education: He received the Ph. D. in meteorology from New York University in 1966.
Rolf Nordstrom | Great Plains Institute for Sustainable Development | Executive Director
Current: Executive Director of the Great Plains Institute since 2007.
Past: Previously, Rolf helped manage the Institute’s Powering the Plains program. He has written and helped craft new laws on multiple environmental issues. Before coming to the Institute in 2003, Rolf served for a decade with the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board and Office of Strategic and Long-range Planning. For 7 of those years he served as Assistant Director of then Governor Arne Carlson’s Sustainable Development Initiative. 23 years of experience in economic and environmental policy, including positions with: The United States Congress; World Wildlife Fund (International), in Brussels, Belgium; National Wildlife Federation's, Corporate Conservation Council.
Education: BA in English Literature from Carleton College and MS in International Environmental Policy from Tufts University.
Rory Cox | Pacific Environment | California Program Director
Current: Rory Cox is California Program Director at Pacific Environment, a nonprofit organization that works to protect the living environment of the Pacific Rim by promoting grassroots activism, strengthening communities, and reforming international policies. Rory leads Pacific Environment's campaign, "Keep California's Clean Energy Promise" to reduce fossil fuel use in California's energy grid by opposing all imports of Liquefied Natural Gas into the state, while supporting efficiency and renewable development. He is also the lead facilitator of the statewide clean energy coalition "Ratepayers for Affordable Clean Energy."
Past: Rory was first involved with Pacific Environment in the summer of 1996 as an intern, and joined the staff in June 1998 as the Communications Coordinator. He is the founding editor of Pacific Environment's newsletter "Pacific Currents On-Line," has authored or edited several reports, and has led several media campaigns and strategies for the organization.
Education: Rory has a master's degree in International Relations from San Francisco State University, where he authored his masters thesis, "Paper Tigers," on the impact of the Asian paper industry on forests worldwide. He received his Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Public Communication from California State University in Chico.
Rosalind Jackson | Vote Solar | Director, Communications & Development
Current: Rosalind Jackson is the Director of Communications & Development for Vote Solar, a nonprofit organization that works to build the economies of scale necessary to bring solar into the mainstream. In this position, Rosalind manages media, member and donor relations for Vote Solar.
Past: Previously Rosalind spent five years directing and implementing public relations campaigns for all manner of clean energy and sustainable business innovators.
Education: Rosalind has a degree in Environmental Science and Mass Communications from UC Berkeley.
Rose Braz | Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) | Climate Campaign Coordinator
Current: Rose Braz is the Climate Campaign Coordinator at The Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit organization that is devoted to protecting biodiversity in different arenas through science; legal action; policy advocacy; negotiation with government and industry; and creative, strategic media and outreach. Rose coordinates the Climate Law Institute’s climate campaign and communications work.
Past: Rose has worked both in private practice and at the United Nations International Commission of Jurists in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to coming to the Center, Rose helped found and was the campaign and media director for Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization working to end society's reliance on prisons as an answer to social problems.
Education: Rose is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law.
Ryan Calkins | Seattle Microfinance (SeaMo) | Executive Director
Current: Ryan Calkins co-founded SeaMo in 2007 in response to a growing need in the microfinance community for collaborative spaces. He regularly contributes to the SeaMo website (www.seattlemicrofinance.org) with editorial content covering important topics in microfinance, including social performance metrics, augmenting financial services to the poor, and technology.
Past: Before graduate school, he spent two years in Colombia as a human rights monitor and a year in Honduras as a disaster relief liaison.
Education:Calkins graduated with a Master of Arts in International Relations from Yale University in 2005, concentrating on Latin America, microfinance, and intergovernmental policy.
Ryan Schuchard | Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) | Manager, Research & Innovation
Current: Ryan Schuchard leads Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) practice in climate change in the position of Manager of Research & Innovation. BSR is an organization that works with member companies to develop sustainable business strategies and solutions through consulting, research, and cross-sector collaboration. Using a strategic lens, Ryan drives innovative business solutions for climate change—from driving supply chain energy efficiency to engaging in public climate policy to managing sustainable adaptation. His recent work includes launching Wal-Mart’s global supply chain energy-efficiency program based at their global procurement headquarters in Shenzhen, leading global climate policy intelligence for a US$30 billion+ extractives company, and driving analysis and reporting for BSR's own global footprint. Ryan has co-authored chapters in Corporate Responses to Climate Change (Greenleaf Publishing) and Carbon Trading (ICFAI Books), in addition to numerous reports and articles. Ryan is also an advisor to standards-building initiatives such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol’s Scope 3 Initiative, the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition's Supply Chain Carbon Reporting System, the World Economic Forum’s Task Force on Low-Carbon Prosperity, and the China Energy and Climate Registry.
Education: Ryan has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA)from Thunderbird School of Global Management and a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Finance from Oregon State University. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Central Asia and is proficient in Russian.
Sally Benson | Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University | Director
Current: Director of the Global Climate and Energy Project at Stanford University, Sally helps develop innovative low carbon energy supplies to meet global energy needs.
Past: Prior to Stanford, Sally worked at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , serving as Division Director for Earth Sciences, Associate Laboratory Director for Energy Sciences, and Deputy Director for Operations. She is a Professor (Research) in the Department of Energy Resources Engineering. For the past 10 years she has studied how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by capturing carbon dioxide from power plants and pumping it into deep underground formations for permanent sequestration. Benson was a coordinating lead author on the 2005 IPCC Special Report on Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the National Renewal Energy Laboratory and Climate Central.
Education: BA in Geology from Barnard College, MS and PhD Material Science and Mineral Engineering Department from University of California.
Sarah Lynn Cunningham | | Consultant
Current: Sarah Lynn Cunningham is the director of the Louisville Climate Action Network.
Past: Sarah Lynn has been an environmental activist for nearly 40 years. Through her work as a civil servant for a large utility and a decade of practical experience identifying and implementing energy-efficiency projects and practices, Sarah committed herself to educating others about the many benefits of reducing their carbon footprints. After being invited to join www.theclimateproject.org and licensed by Al Gore to give her own version of An Inconvenient Truth, she cofounded the Louisville Climate Action Network. She has since been promoted to district manager of TCP’s presenters in IN, IL, KY, MO and OH.
Education: BS in environmental engineering and MS in environmental education and environmental history from the University of Louisville. She is a licensed, professional environmental engineer and a state certified environmental educator.
Sarah Henry | Next 10 | Program Director
Current: Sarah Henry is a Program Director at Next 10, an independent, nonpartisan organization that educates, engages and empowers Californians to improve the state’s future.
Past: Sarah was previously the Program Manager at California Center for Regional Leadership, and EA at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Education: Sarah studied at San Francisco State University.
Scott Hajost | | Consultant
Current: Scott is currently the Senior Counsel to Center for International Environmental Law Advising.
Past: Between 1994—2009 Scott was the Executive Director and Manager of the Global Senior Management Team for the IUCN-USA Multilateral Office. In that position he was responsible for promoting IUCN within the US Executive and Legislative branches; coordinating IUCN’s relations with the major multilateral institutions based in the United States such as the GEF, the World Bank, UNDP, IADB and the UN; building and maintaining linkages with the private sector in the United States; and working with IUCN members to promote international conservation. In addition Scott was also the Executive Director of the separate IUCN-US public charity.; 1990-1994: Environmental Defense Fund, International Counsel; 1988-1990: US Environmental Protection Agency, Acting Associate Adm inistrator and Associate General Counsel for International Activities; 1981-1988: US Department of State, Office of the Legal Adviser.
Scott Sklar | The Stella Group, Ltd. | Founder and President
Current: Scott Sklar is the founder and president of The Stella Group, Ltd, which is a strategic marketing and policy firm for clean distributed energy users and companies. Currently he is Chair of the Steering Committee of the Sustainable Energy Coalition, serves on the non-profit Boards of the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and the Renewable Energy Policy Project, and CoChairs the Policy Committee of the Sustainable Buildings Industry Council.
Past: For 15 years he was the Executive Director of the Solar Energy Industries Association and the National BioEnergy Industries Association, 2 years he was Political Director of the Solar Lobby, 3 years he was RD&D and Washington Directors at the National Center for Appropriate Technology, and 9 years he was an energy and military aide to Senator Jacob K Javits (NY). He cofounded the Congressional Solar Coalition, and was appointed in April 2007 onto National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy & Technology of USEPA.
Stephanie Reyes | Greenbelt Alliance | Policy Director
Current: Stephanie Reyes is the Policy Director for Greenbelt Alliance, California's San Francisco Bay Area land conservation and urban planning nonprofit organization. She is responsible for coordinating efforts to protect open space and create livable communities on a regional and state level. She works with citizens, elected officials, and diverse groups to protect the greenbelt of open space and improve the livability of existing communities through grassroots organizing, coalition building, policy analysis, political strategizing and local advocacy.
Education: Stephanie has a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Computer Science from Brown University.
Stephen Schneider | Stanford University | Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies
Current: Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Biology Professor, and a Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University.
Past: 1973-1996 NCAR scientist, where he co-founded the Climate Project. Since 1988, involved with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and was a Coordinating Lead Author for Working Group II, and a Synthesis author for the Fourth Assessment Report. In 2007, he along with 4 generations of IPCC authors received a collective Nobel Peace Prize for their joint efforts. Elected to the US National Academy of Sciences in 2002, Schneider received the American Association for the Advancement of Science/ Westinghouse Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology and a MacArthur Fellowship for integrating and interpreting the results of global climate research. Founder/Editor of Climatic Change, he has authored or co-authored over 500 books, scientific papers, proceedings etc. Schneider consults for climate-policy decision-making, and has consulted for federal agencies and White House staff in 6 administrations.
Stephen Schneider | Stanford University | Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Professor of Biological Sciences, Professor (by courtesy) of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment
Current: Dr. Schneider is the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies, Professor of Biological Sciences, Professor (by courtesy) of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and a Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University. He is currently counseling policy makers, corporate executives and other stakeholders in industry and the nonprofit sectors regarding possible climate-related events.
Past: Dr. Schneider has consulted with federal agencies and/or White House staff in the Nixon, Carter, Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton and G.W. Bush administrations. Dr.Schneider has been actively involved with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) since its origin in 1988. He has been a contributor to all four IPCC Assessment Reports and is currently a Coordinating Lead Author. He has authored or co-authored over 400 scientific papers, proceedings, legislative testimonies, edited books and book chapters, and over 200 book reviews, editorials and other pieces for popular media. Dr.Schneider has served as Co-Director of the Stanford Center for Environmental Science and Policy from 2002 to 2007 and Co-Director of Stanford's Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources from 2003 to 2005.
Education: Dr. Schneider received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Plasma Physics from Columbia University in 1971. He was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in 1972.
Awards: Dr. Schneider, along with four generations of IPCC authors, received a collective Nobel Peace Prize for their joint efforts in 2007. Other awards he has received include the American Association for the Advancement of Science/ Westinghouse Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology, the MacArthur Fellowship award, the Edward T. Law Roe Award of the Society of Conservation Biology.
Steve Goldbeck | San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (SFBCDC) | Deputy Director for Climate Change, Water & Legislation
Current: Steven Goldbeck is the Deputy Director for Climate Change, Water & Legislation at San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission.
Past: Steven has been the Commission’s lead staff member on dredging issues for over 15 years, where he has specialized in policy and management of technical planning issues, including water quality, sediment management and climate change. He was promoted to a Career Executive Assignment 1 position in 1992. He has served as Co-chairman of the San Francisco Estuary Project’s Dredging and Waterway Modification Committee, Manager of the LTMS reuse/upland studies, and Chair of the LTMS Reuse/Upland Work group. Steven has also served as the staff legislative coordinator for over a decade. He was appointed as Deputy Director for legislation and climate change in December 2007. In addition to authoring legislation and Bay Plan amendments, he has presented at numerous professional conferences.
Education: Steven holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Planning and Public Policy from the University of California at Santa Cruz.
Stuart Cohen | TransForm | Executive Director
Current: Co-founder and Executive Director of TransForm, an organization that has built powerful, diverse coalitions to promote world class transit and walkable communities in the Bay Area and beyond. Stuart spearheaded the campaign for the Bay Area’s smart growth visioning process, which later spread to other regions and became the framework for SB 375.
Past: In 2005 Stuart helped conceive and launch the Great Communities Collaborative, which engages Bay Area communities in planning for sustainable, equitable development near transit. He also co-founded ClimatePlan, a statewide network promoting smart land use and transportation as critical components of California's climate strategy. Previously, Stuart worked with ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability as a researcher on the climate impacts of transportation policies, and at NYPIRG as a Statewide Outreach Director.
Education: Master's Degree in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at U.C. Berkeley.
Stuart Cohen | TransForm | Executive Director
Current: Stuart Cohen is Co-Founder and Executive Director of TransForm, an advocacy nonprofit that works to create world-class public transportation and walkable communities in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Stuart has spearheaded a number of Transform's efforts such as their campaign on transportation sales tax, bringing together diverse coalitions, raising over $6 billion for sustainable and socially-just transportation, and initiating the Bay Area's Regional Smart Growth Strategy, which is a project that seeks to determine and lay out strategies for how the nine-county Bay Area can grow smarter and become more sustainable over the next 20 years and beyond. Stuart has been the primary author of eight TransForm reports, including the 120-page report on how counties can provide transit that is faster, more convenient, and more affordable than any other plan to date.
Past:Previously, Stuart worked with ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability as a researcher on the climate impacts of alternative transportation policies and fuels, and at NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Research Group) as a Toxics Campaign Coordinator and Statewide Canvass Director.
Education:Stuart received a Master's Degree in Public Policy (MPP) from the Goldman School of Public Policy at U.C. Berkeley.
Stuart Weiss | Creekside Center for Earth Observation | CEO and Chief Scientist
Current: Stuart Weiss is the Chief Scientist and Chief Executive Officer of Creekside Center for Earth Observation, which is an ecology and conservation biology, scientific consulting firm.
Past: Dr.Weiss was previously a research assistant professor at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California at Santa Barbara. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University from 1996-1999. He has published multiple articles in Ecology and Society, Earth Interactions, and Conservation Biology.
Education: Dr.Weiss received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences in 1996 from Stanford University. His dissertation was about "Weather, Landscape Structure and the Population Ecology of a Threatened Butterfly, Euphydryas editha bayensis". He also received his B.S. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University with honors.
Susan Stephenson | Regeneration Project | Executive Director
Current: Susan Stephenson is the Executive Director of The Regeneration Project and its Interfaith Power and Light campaign, which is a unique coalition of Episcopal churches aggregated to purchase renewable energy. She has been involved with California Interfaith Power and Light since its inception in 2000.
Past: Susan has over twelve years experience with developing and implementing issue-advocacy and electoral campaigns for environmental and other public interest organizations. Prior to joining The Regeneration Project, she served as Vice President of the Oakland-based campaign consulting firm, The Next Generation. Beginning in 1999, she organized and coordinated the California Global Warming Campaign, which implemented a proactive strategy resulting in several landmark legislative victories.
Education: Susan received her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English Literature from the University of North Carolina.
Terrie Light | Berkeley Food and Housing Project | Executive Director
Current: BFHP’s Executive Director, Terrie Light, has spent the past 9 years easing and ending the crisis of homelessness through her work at the Berkeley Food & Housing Project.
Past: Her early clinical training was at Project Eden in South Hayward, working with low-income, drug addicted and/or alcoholic addicted families, as well as people who suffer from mental illness. In 1994, Terrie began public advocacy work to create change in the Roman Catholic Church providing safe environments for children. She has had the opportunity to speak abroad about her work in both Belgium and Italy. In recognition of her outstanding service in this area, she has won several awards, including the Recognition of Outstanding Service presented by the Voice of the Faithful. She has also been acknowledged by Episcopal Charities as Caregiver of the Year. Berkeley Food & Housing Project was fortunate to obtain Terrie's services as Transitional House Supervisor in 1998. She was then promoted to Director of Women’s Services in 1999, Associate Director in 2001, Associate Executive Director in 2005 and since May 2006, proudly serves as our Executive Director. She has brought operational stability and standardization of services to BFHP, and has created a hard working, loyal team of managers. She is committed to quality professional services for low income consumers and combines this with extensive experience in monitoring multiple government grants and other funding.
Education: She possesses a Master’s Degree, a Marriage and Family Therapist license, a teaching credential from California State Hayward and a Bachelor's Degree from UC Berkeley.
Terry Watt | Terry Watt Planning Consultants | Owner
Current: Terrell Watt has been the owner of Terrell Watt Planning Consultants since 1989, a firm specializing in planning and implementing projects that promote resource conservation and sustainable development patterns which are significant to the region. Terrell is an expert in general and specific planning, open space and agricultural land conservation and environmental compliance. Her role also includes facilitation, public outreach, and negotiation. Terrell has a wide variety of clients throughout California including non-profit organizations, government agencies and foundations. In 2005, on behalf of Friends of Harbors, Beaches and Parks and its environmental coalition she negotiated $243.5 million in an Orange County transportation measure to comprehensively mitigate for habitat impacts due to freeway projects.
Past: Prior to forming her own consulting group, Terrell was the staff planning expert with the environmental and land use law firm Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger.
The Reverend Canon Sally Grover Bingham | The Regeneration Project | Founder and President
Current: Sally has been active in the environmental community for 25 years. She is the founder and president of The Regeneration Project, which is focused on its Interfaith Power and Light (IPL) campaign. The IPL campaign includes a national network of over 10,000 congregations with affiliated programs in 29 states. She has brought widespread recognition to the link between faith and the environment, and as one of the first faith leaders to fully recognize global warming as a moral issue. Sally serves on the National Board of the Environmental Defense Fund, the Environmental Working Group, the US Climate Action Network, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Past: The IPL campaign and the Rev. Bingham have received numerous awards including the 2007 U.S. EPA Climate Protection Award, the Purpose Prize, the Energy Globe Award and recognition as a “sacred gift to the planet” by the World Wildlife Fund. The Rev. Bingham was named one of the top 15 green religious leaders by Grist magazine and received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity from the University of the South in Oct 2008.
Thelma Cruz | TEAR Fund | Program Officer
Current: Thelma Cruz is the program officer of TEAR Fund, New Zealand since 2006. She is also currently the member of a pool of consultants under the NZAID Approved Contractors’ Scheme since 2008.
Past: Previously she worked as a freelance consultancy work between 2003-2006. Between 2001-2003 she was the regional program advisor, Monitoring & Evaluation Coordinator, Habitat for Humanity Int’l/Regional Program Officer for Habitat for Humanity in the East & Southeast Asia Regional office. She has also been the program director for Save the Children in the Japan-Philippine office, the program officer for United Nations Development Program in Manila.
Education: Thelma obtained her Masters in Community Development and Diploma in Community Development at the University of the Philippines. She received her Liberal Arts (English) and Bachelor of Science in Education (History) at the College of the Holy Spirit, Manila, Philippines.
Tom Carter | United States Agency for International Development (USAID) | Coordinator of Cooperative Development Program
Current: Tom coordinates USAID's Cooperative Development Program (CDP). The CDP funds US cooperatives and cooperative development organizations that partner with counterpart cooperatives in developing and transitional economies. The major focus of the program is supporting efforts to develop solutions to significant cooperative development challenges including cooperative law and regulation, governance, achieving salience and scale, attaining and maintaining autonomy and self-reliance.
Past: Prior to joining USAID, Tom worked as an FAO Advisor to India's National Dairy Development Board (1990-2000); as Representative in India for the Cooperative League of the USA (NCBA/CLUSA - 1982-89); as Director of International Programs for the World Council of Credit Unions (1975-82); and various postions with the Peace Corps including Volunteer (1965-67), Associate Director (1967-70), Regional Director (1970-72) and trainer (1972-74).
Education: Tom has an A.B. degree with a major in Philosophy from Dartmouth College. In addition to graduate work in philosophy at the Nagpur University Post-Graduate Teaching Department and UCLA, he completed Peace Corps training at the University of California, Davis.
Tom Kelly | KyotoUSA | Director
Current: Tom Kelly is the Founder and Director of Kyoto USA, an all volunteer, grassroots organization that encourages U.S. cities and their residents to reduce the global warming greenhouse gas emissions for which they are responsible. His organization persuaded the City of Berkeley to meet the goals set by the Kyoto protocol. By the fall of 2005, the city of Berkeley reduced its CO2 emissions by 14 percent through programs, which is double the target set by the Kyoto protocol. The city was able to achieve this goal through programs such as converting all the city's diesel vehicles to biodiesel, replacing 15 conventional automobiles with a half-dozen hybrids that are used by city employees during the week and available for use by Car Share members on weekends, giving all city employees free bus passes and discounts on BART, the region's commuter rail system, retrofitting energy-saving devices in city buildings, and converting all stoplights to light-emitting diodes.
Past: Tom used to work as a health investigator, trying to puzzle out environmental causes of ailments such as asthma and autism. Kelly wondered if he could find something that would show people that they can make a difference as individuals.
In January 2005, Kelly and his wife, Jane, with help from the owner of the company Tom had worked for, launched Kyoto USA. The idea is to persuade cities, counties, universities, businesses -- any institution, large or small -- to pledge to meet the goals set by the Kyoto protocol that the US under George Bush walked away from.
Twana Karney | Acterra | Green@Home Program Director
Current: Twana is currently the Green@Home Program Director for the environmental non-profit, Acterra.
Past: Twana worked first as a chemical engineer and plant operator in chemical and food industries. For 8.5 years, she was the Executive Director for the Leadership Mountain View program, a program to train and develop community leaders. In January of 2007, Twana was selected by The Climate Project to be trained to present the slide show for “An Inconvenient Truth.” After training with Al Gore in Nashville, along with 800 other volunteers from around the country, Twana is currently giving presentations on behalf of The Climate Project to spread awareness about global warming and climate change. She was a member of the Mountain View Environmental Sustainability Task Force and has appeared with her husband, Bruce, on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer. She has also made guest appearances as a home energy efficiency expert on KPFA radio, ABC 7 morning TV news and KCBS radio.
Education: MBA from the University of Chicago in 1983.
Wendy Jackson | Kresge Foundation | Senior Program Officer
Current: Wendy Lewis Jackson is a Senior Program Officer with the Kresge Foundation, working with the Detroit and Community Development Team.
Past: Prior to her arrival at Kresge, Wendy was the a Program Director and the Executive Director for Education Initiatives at The Grand Rapids Community Foundation in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Recently named the 2008 Emerging Leader by the Association of Black Foundation Executives, she is an active participant on several local, state, and national boards and committees. Ms. Jackson was listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who among American Women, and is an American Marshall Memorial Fellow of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Education: Ms. Jackson earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and communication from the University of Michigan and received her Master’s of Social Work degree from The University of Michigan with a concentration in community organization and social policy and planning.
Ms. Jackson is married to Carlton, they are the parents of two daughters, ages 11 and 6.
Yvonne Hunter | Institute for Local Government | Program Director, California Climate Action Network, Communities for Healthy Kids
Current: Yvonne Hunter is Program Director of two of Institute for Local Government’s programs- the California Climate Change Action Network and the Communities for Healthy Kids Program. The Institute for Local Government is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of local government nationally.
Past: Before joining the Institute in January 2007, Yvonne worked for the League of California Cities for 24 years, and the last fifteen years as a lobbyist emphasizing environmental and community services issues. In total, She has worked on environmental and energy issues for over thirty years.
Education: Yvonne has a Bachelor of Arts (BA) and a Masters of Arts (MA) from the University of California, Davis.
Zach Olmstead | Housing California | Homeless Policy Director
Current: As the Homeless Policy Director, Zack Olmstead advocates for policy reform to prevent and end homelessness and coordinates the efforts of homeless advocacy partners throughout the state. Efforts include tracking and lobbying legislation relating to homeless policy, the development of policy positions advocating for state leadership plans and initiatives to end homelessness, and building support among homeless advocates for legislative and funding priorities.
Past: Prior to joining Housing California, Zack worked directly with homeless individuals and families in transitional and permanent housing settings as a case manager at St. Vincent De Paul Village in San Diego, CA. He grew up in Sacramento, California. Zack's favorite hobbies include traveling with his wife, playing golf, and reading.
Education: Due to a desire to work for systematic change within homeless policy, Zack obtained his Master's degree in Public Policy and Administration from California State University, Sacramento. While in graduate school Zack worked as a graduate assistant for the California Student Aid Commission and for the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy.
Zack studied as an undergraduate at the University of San Diego where he received a Bachelor's in Spanish and a Bachelor's in Theology and Religious Studies.
Zahirul Alam | Integrated Development Foundation (IDF) | Founder & Chief Executive Officer
Current: Mr. Alam left ILO in 1992 and came back to Bangladesh and established Integrated Development Foundation (IDF) to work for the poor people of difficult, remote, hilly and un-served areas of Bangladesh. IDF was rated as one of the top microfinance institutions in the world by Forbes magazine in 2007, and the 6th in Bangladesh.
Past: Mr. Alam started his career with Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Yunus in 1973 and worked as founder member-secretary of the Rural Economics Program from where Grameen Bank model was developed. He also worked in the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development as Action Research Fellow in an experimental project on microfinance for the poor for about 8 years. He joined in a ILO regional program for Africa based in Addis Ababa in 1984.
Education: Zahirul Alam completed his Master in Economics and Bachelor with Honors in Economics from the University of Chittagong in 1975.
Current: Brian Moura is the Assistant City Manager & Green Programs Coordinator at City of San Carlos.
Current: David Kessler is the Senior Media Officer of Greenpeace. He has served on the San Francisco Bay Trail Project Board of Directors since 1992.
Current: Eugene Cordero is an Associate Professor in the Department of Meteorology and Climate Change at San Jose State University. His research interests are aligned with understanding how the climate is changing as a result of both natural and anthropogenic processes. His investigations are performed using a variety of tools including global and mechanistic models of the atmosphere, and various observational networks.
Current: Helen Kang is the Director of the Environmental Law and Justice Clinic and is also an Associate Professor of Law at Golden Gate University.
Climate Change Expert Mutual Fund
Education Expert Mutual Fund
Microfinance Expert Mutual Fund
Bay Area Climate Change Mutual Fund
Bay Area Homelessness Expert Mutual Fund