Why Women?
When climate-related disasters occur, women are the ones left to pick up the pieces. They are the displaced. They deal with the ensuing repercussions including increased poverty, violence and disease. The situation is exacerbated in regions of the Global South, where women often shoulder the responsibility for their families’ food, water, and energy needs. Despite these challenges, women’s contributions, work and leadership often go unnoticed, unappreciated, and underfunded.
The narrative needs to change and it begins with addressing women’s vulnerabilities.
Daughters for Earth recognizes that supporting women’s power is the key to achieving climate justice. By acknowledging, celebrating, and funding women-led initiatives around the world, we are sparking a movement for positive change that will unlock our shared future’s full potential.
What We Do
Fund Daughters
Women and girls globally are spearheading environmental initiatives for a sustainable future for all of us. Despite their contributions, organizations led by women receive less than 2 cents of every philanthropic dollar dedicated to the environment. Daughters for Earth is rewriting this script by swiftly providing funding to women on the frontlines. In our inaugural year, we disbursed over $1.2 million to support 50 women’s projects spanning 24 countries. Now, our goal is to raise $100 million to back more than 500 endeavors.
Daughters for Earth is addressing a critical flaw in our approach to combatting the climate crisis: the marginalization of women. When women are given equal opportunities and the right resources to participate in climate action, entire communities and ecosystems experience positive outcomes.
The Hummingbird Effect serves as a rallying call, urging individuals to proactively endorse and champion women’s leadership in addressing climate change. By embracing varied perspectives and fostering cooperation, we can shape a world where women’s voices and contributions are fully acknowledged, and integrated in our efforts to reverse climate change.
Toolkit to Mobilize Action
Daughters for Earth is mobilizing women and girls from all corners of the globe to help build this movement from the ground up. We are actively working on forming Daughterhood Circles where we will be collaborating with existing women’s circles globally to channel our collective power. Our engaging Toolkits will provide accessible scientific information, localized solutions, eco-friendly suggestions, and sample projects tailored to specific cultures. We are shifting from dialogue to solutions, nurturing positivity and engaging with individuals on their own terms. Join us in establishing a community that will drive enduring change.
Our Team
Leadership Team
Our leadership team comprises a devoted and diverse group of women who are fully committed to the mission of preserving the planet.
Wise Daughters Council
Our Wise Daughters Council is an autonomous grant-giving entity made up of prominent figures in the climate and conservation fields. The council’s role is to engage and rally women at the grassroots level to drive meaningful change.
Advisory Council
Our Advisory Circle members come from diverse backgrounds and bring distinct skills to the table, yet they share a common purpose: safeguarding the environment and promoting sustainability.
Our Leadership Team
Zainab Salbi
Daughters Co-Founder, Humanitarian; Athor; Founder of Women for Women International
Zainab is the co-founder for Daughters for Earth, Chief Awareness Officer at Find Center, and host of Redefined podcast. Zainab started her career when she was 23 years old as the founder and former CEO of Women for Women International, an organization to help women survivors of conflicts. She built the group from helping 30 women to reaching nearly half a million women and raising 146 million dollars in aids and micro-loans to help them and their families rebuild their lives. Zainab is also the author of a few books, including the national bestseller Between Two Worlds and her latest Freedom Is an Inside Job. She is also the creator and host of several shows, including #MeToo, Now What? on PBS, and Through Her Eyes with Zainab Salbi at Yahoo News.
Taran Gehlot, Kenya
Founder of Soul Safaris
Taran is the CEO and Founder of Soul Safaris, a luxury travel concierge service that curates authentic soul fulfilling experiences, which allow people to connect deeper with themselves through immersive experiences in Nature. Being a passionate wildlife photographer, Taran strives to share her beliefs in the healing powers of Mother Nature and the immense importance of protecting it. Taran also sits on the Board of the Zeitz Foundation Kenya. The Zeitz Foundation, founded by Kate and Jochen Zeitz, is dedicated to inspiring and achieving the highest standards in sustainability through the balance of conservation, community, culture and commerce (the 4Cs) in privately managed areas. Taran lives in Kenya with her husband Samit and their miniature Horse/ Dog Chyulu
Sofia de Meyer, Europe
Co-Founder and Chair of the Board, Opaline SA
Sofia de Meyer is the Co-Founder and Chair of the board of Opaline SA (www.opaline-factory.ch), a Swiss beverage company focused on circular and regenerative economy. Founded in her kitchen 2009, Opaline is today BCorp certified and has reached 1 million bottles produced and sold. In 2021, she joined the board of the FiBL (www.fibl.org), the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, employing over 200 scientists and project managers, running programs around the world. The FiBL is dedicated to the promotion of organic farming and continuing research on regenerative nature-based practices.
Rachel Rivera
Chief Operating Officer, Wild Lives Foundation
Rachel Rivera is the Chief Operating Officer of Wild Lives Foundation, a nonprofit organization launched by Jody Allen in 2016. Wild Lives Foundation is dedicated to marine and wildlife conservation and other philanthropic initiatives. In addition, Rachel serves as a board member of Sealife Response, Rehabilitation and Research, an organization dedicated to improving the health and welfare of marine wildlife in the Pacific Northwest. Previously, Rachel Rivera worked directly with Jody Allen in her role as the trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust and Chair of Vulcan Inc. on philanthropic initiatives. In that role, Rachel worked on philanthropic strategy, including work in oceans, conservation, films, communities, and climate.
Justin Winters
Co-Founder and Executive Director, One Earth
Driven by a passion for nature, Justin Winters is committed to democratizing climate philanthropy in order to create an inclusive and impactful movement to address the climate crisis from the ground up. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of One Earth, a philanthropic organization working to galvanize science, advocacy and philanthropy to drive collective action on climate change. Through One Earth, she is focused on creating a vision for the world that is possible by 2050 – one in which humanity and nature coexist and thrive together. This vision is based on three pillars of action: 100% renewable energy, protection and restoration of 50% of the world’s lands and oceans, and a transition to regenerative, carbon-negative agriculture. Prior to One Earth, Justin served as Executive Director of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation for 13 years, where she built the organization’s grant-making program, which awarded over $100 million in grants across 60 countries and created a series of innovative philanthropic funds, including Oceans 5, Shark Conservation Fund, The Solutions Funds, Lion Recovery Fund, Elephant Crisis Fund, and Quick Response Fund for Nature.
Jody Allen
Daughters Co-Founder, Philanthropist, CEO of Wild Lives Foundation
Jody Allen is the founder and CEO of Wild Lives Foundation and co-founder of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. In addition, she is founding director of MoPOP, co-founder and chair of Vulcan LLC as well as the Allen Institute, and serves as chair of the Seattle Seahawks NFL and Portland Trail Blazers NBA franchises. She is also a board member of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa and Sealife Response, Rehab and Research (SR3).
Wise Daughters Council
Bianca Pitt
Co-founder, SHE Changes Climate
Bianca Pitt is an advisor to the environmental charity sector, an activist and campaigner, and an environmental funder and founder. She is the Founder of the Women of the Environment Network and Co-Founder at SHE Changes Climate. She also serves on a number of boards and advisory committees which include ClientEarth, The Environmental Funders Network, The Sustainable Angle, Action for Conservation, Climate&Sustainability, Nature 2030 and the South Downs National Park Trust. She and her husband endowed the first Chair for Environmental Sustainability at INSEAD, one of the leading business schools. She is a Fellow of the RSA, author and speaker (TEDx, Women‘s Forum, FT Climate and Capital, ChangeNOW, BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour, France 24 etc). Bianca lives on a farm in West Sussex, which she and her family are turning into a regenerative venture together with some community farmers and where she enjoys spending as much time in nature as possible.
Farwiza Farhan
Founder and Chair at HAkA
One of the most fearless environmental activists of her generation, Farwiza leads the fight to protect the Leuser ecosystem in Aceh, Indonesia, a pristine ancient forest and one of the last places in the world, where Sumatran orangutans, elephants, tigers, and rhinos still roam side by side. It is also one of Earth’s most important carbon sinks where Farwiza and her grassroots team fight to avert forest fires set to clear land for monoculture, that emit large amount of carbon into the atmosphere. Farwiza focuses on ground level species protection on the one hand and high-level legal advocacy on the other. Farwiza’s work through the Forest, Nature and Environment Aceh Foundation (Yayasan HAkA) has taken on big industries and governments. She initiated a grassroots movement that has succeeded in enforcing laws against palm oil companies that cause huge swathes of forest destruction, launching citizen lawsuits to ensure forest communities have a meaningful voice in policy making. Farwiza brings together forest communities, government, NGOs and technical experts, to both protect and replenish the Leuser ecosystem and its vital wildlife migration routes and natural flood protection. For her tireless campaigning work in Indonesia and globally, Farwiza has been recognized by the international Whitley Awards (2016) and Future for Nature Award (2017), she is also a TED Fellow (2021).
Dr. Gladys Kalema
Founder, Conservation Through Public Health
Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is Founder and CEO of Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH), an award-winning NGO that protects endangered gorillas and other wildlife through One Health approaches. After graduating from the Royal Veterinary College, University of London, in 1996, she established Uganda Wildlife Authority’s first veterinary department. In 2000, she did a Zoological Medicine Residency and Master in Specialized Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina Zoological Park and North Carolina State University, where masters research on disease at the human/wildlife/livestock interface led her to found CTPH in 2003. In 2015, she founded Gorilla Conservation Coffee to support farmers living around habitats where gorillas are found. Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka is a National Geographic Explorer, an Ashoka Fellow and Mulago Foundation Henry Arnhold Fellow. She has won a number of awards through CTPH and Gorilla Conservation Coffee that improves the quality of life of people and wildlife to enable them to coexist in and around protected areas in Africa. These include the 2008 San Diego Zoo Conservation-in-Action Award, 2009 Whitley Gold Award; 2011 WINGS Women of Discovery and Exploration Humanity Award, 2017 President of Uganda’s Golden Jubilee Award for her contribution to the nation as a conservationist and veterinarian on Women’s Day, 2018 Sierra Club EarthCare Award, 2019 Finalist for the Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa and 2020 and 2021 Finalist for the Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize. She won the 2020 Uganda Veterinary Association World Veterinary Day Award focussed on One Health approaches and the 2020 Aldo Leopold Award for Mammalogists. In 2021 she was recognised by Avance Media among 100 most influential women in Africa and won the UNEP Champions of the Earth Award in the category of Science and Innovation. She is the winner of the 2022 Edinburgh Medal for her work in Planetary health and 2022 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize. She is a finalist for the 2023 Indianapolis Prize. Dr. Gladys is on the leadership council of Women for the Environment in Africa, Chairperson of the Africa Chapter of the Explorers Club and Vice President of the African Primatological Society. She has sat on a number of Boards including Uganda Wildlife Authority, Uganda Wildlife Education Centre, Wildlife Clubs of Uganda, Bwindi and Mgahinga Conservation Trust, Buganda Heritage and Tourism Board, The Gorilla Organisation and was recently appointed to the Population Connection Board. Dr. Gladys is also a member of the World Health Organisation Special Advisory Group for the Origin of Novel Pathogens (WHO SAGO) and advisory committee member for the International Livestock Research Institute One Health Research, Education and Outreach Centre in Africa. She is the author of “Walking With Gorillas” – a memoir about her leadership and conservation journey shaped by One Health.
Helena Gualinga
Climate justice and human rights defender
Helena Gualinga, 20, is an Indigenous climate justice and human rights defender who advocates for the protection of the Amazon Rainforest and Indigenous people’s rights. Gualinga is from the Kichwa community of Sarayaku, a community that has been fighting against big oil for decades. She partly grew up in the Amazon and in Finland where she received her primary and secondary education. She is a co-founder of Polluters Out and a member of the Indigenous Youth Collective of Amazon Defenders. She has attended several conferences such as COP 26 and UN summits advocating for Kawsak Sacha, The Living Forest Proposal which is the cosmovision of the Sarayaku people. Gualinga has also spoken up about the inclusion and representation of Indigenous People in decision-making and other spaces of influence. In April 2022, along with her sister Nina they were the first Indigenous women ever to be on the cover of a magazine, Revista Hogar, in Ecuador.
Jade Begay
Policy Director, NDN Collective
Jade Begay (she/her), Director of Policy and Advocacy, is a citizen of Tesuque Pueblo and is also Dine and Southern Ute. Jade works at the intersections of storytelling, narrative strategy, climate and environmental justice, and Indigenous rights policy both at the domestic and international level. She has served as the Creative Director and Climate Justice Campaign Director at NDN Collective. Now, Jade directs the Policy and Advocacy work leading programs and projects that elevate policy and advocacy issues that are important to the self-determination of Indigenous Peoples and Tribal Nations. Jade has a Bachelor’s degree in Film/Video and Communications and a Master of Arts degree in Environmental Leadership. In 2021, she was appointed by President Biden to serve on the inaugural White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. Jade was named a “Grist Fixer” in 2022 and is a fellow in the Ripe for Creative Disruption: An Environmental Justice Movement Fellowship.
Leela Hazzah
Executive Director and Cofounder of Lion Guardians, Cofounder and Leadership Council Member of Women for the Environment Africa (WE Africa), and Cofounder of PRIDE Lion Conservation Alliance
Leela is the Executive Director and Cofounder of Lion Guardians, Cofounder and Leadership Council Member of Women for the Environment Africa (WE Africa), and Cofounder of PRIDE Lion Conservation Alliance. She obtained her PhD and MSc from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is an affiliate faculty at University of Cape Town and Colorado State University. She also serves on many advisory boards that focus on the environment, social justice, and philanthropy. Leela has worked on conservation issues in East Africa for over twenty years and is especially passionate about indigenous communities leading and owning conservation solutions, employing innovation to further environmental goals, putting more women at the head of decision-making spaces and at the heart of the African environmental movement. She has been recognized for her groundbreaking work through numerous awards, including the Explorers Club Presidential medal, Rolex Awards for Enterprise (Finalist), CNN Heroes, the Future for Nature Award, the St. Andrews Prize for the Environment, a Fulbright Fellowship, and the Jordan Prize for African Studies. When Leela is not traveling to give talks or build partnerships, she is based at the Lion Guardians camp near Amboseli National Park in Southern Kenya, living in a tent with a gorgeous view of Mt. Kilimanjaro.
Advisory Council
Xiye Bastida
Co-Founder of Re-Earth Initiative
Xiye Bastida is a teenage climate activist based in New York City. Xiye was born and raised in Mexico as part of the Otomi-Toltec Indigenous Peoples, with a value-system of caring for Mother Earth. As one of the lead organizers of Fridays For Future in New York, she trained youth over the summer of 2019 for the Climate March that mobilized over 300,000 people -youth and adults-in the city. She started Re-Earth Initiative on April 22, 2020 to expand the climate justice movement in every continent by educating on how and why to pledge for personal and systemic change. Since 2018 she has been a guest speaker at multiple conferences, platforms and media outlets. Her message in op-eds and books is about the intersectionality of climate justice and the role of indigenous peoples in protecting ecosystems and life systems. She currently studies Environmental Studies with a concentration in Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.
Virginia McKenzie
Elder of the Anishinaabe Tribe
Trea-Yip
Philanthropist; CEO of TY Commercial Group
Trea Yip formed her company in 1990 and currently serves as TY Commercial Group CEO. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Loyola University of Los Angeles, and her master’s degree from Southern Methodist University. She currently holds a Texas Real Estate Broker License. Yip serves many notable organizations including Baylor Health Care Systems, the Portfolio Advisory Board of Texas Women Ventures, North Texas Public Broadcasting (KERA), and is the former chair of the Dallas Women’s Foundation.
Tjada D'Oyen McKenna
President and CEO of Mercy Corps
Tjada D’Oyen McKenna has grounded her career in the simple belief that, no matter where someone is born, no matter where they live, they should be able to lead a thriving and successful life. As Chief Executive Officer of Mercy Corps, Tjada leads a global team of over 5,400+ humanitarians, who provide immediate relief to save lives and livelihoods and work to create transformational change reaching 37 million people in more than 40+ countries. Previously, she served as Chief Operating Officer of CARE, where she oversaw the organization’s programming and global operations. Tjada has also served as Chief Operating Officer at Habitat for Humanity. Tjada spent more than a decade working to end world hunger in roles with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. government. During the Obama administration, Tjada served as the Deputy Coordinator of Development for Feed the Future, the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, and the Assistant to the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Food Security in Washington, D.C. Tjada also brings a passion for innovation to her work, developed early in her career, through various roles at McKinsey & Company, American Express, and General Electric. Tjada earned a B.A. from Harvard College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. When she’s not working, Tjada enjoys reading, exercising, spending time with her husband, Joe, and chasing their two young sons.
Susan Flood
Wildlife Photographer, Global Ambassador White Feather Foundation
Sue Flood is an award-winning photographer and filmmaker, zoologist, adventure travel leader, and public speaker. Her work takes her all over the world but she has a special passion for the wildlife and icy beauty of the Polar regions and is one of the very few women professional photographers who returns again and again to Earth’s harshest and most demanding environments. Her first visit to the Poles happened during her 11 years in the BBC’s prestigious Natural History Unit, working on such global hits asThe Blue PlanetandPlanet Earth, with Sir David Attenborough; on National Geographic and Discovery Channel co-production, and on the Disneynature movieEarth.Since then, Sue’s travels as a photographer have taken her to hundreds of destinations on all seven continents and found her living with reindeer herders in Siberia, swimming with humpback whales in the South Pacific, working aboard Russian ice-breakers; camping in an emperor penguin colony in the Weddell Sea and seeking out spirit bears in British Columbia. Sue is proud to be an Ambassador for Julian Lennon’sWhite Feather Foundation, a Partner Photographer with ‘Girls Who Click’ and a Gitzo PioneerWhen not traveling, North Wales-born and raised Sue lives in Gwynedd on the edge of the Snowdonia National Park with her husband Chris Graham and is currently developing a suite of photography tours showcasing the natural beauty of her homeland
Sally Ann Ranney
President, Co-Founder of Global Choices and the Arctic Angels
Sally Ann Ranney is a businesswoman, environmental strategist, activist and visionary with four decades of work in environmental management, renewable energy, wetlands banking, water resources, biodiversity protection, sustainability, and the climate change sectors. She works in the public and private sectors at the local, national and international levels, ranging from local committees to a USA Presidential Commission. Her life-long commitment to Nature was ignited when she was a young child who took her naps inside of a very big tree that had a cavity at the base which was just big enough for her to crawl inside. She says she learned more from that tree than 17 years of formal education. Currently, Sally is President/Co-Founder/ of Global Choices and the Arctic Angels, a global leadership network of young women climate justice activists. She is the President Emeritus/Co-Founder of American Renewable Energy Institute (AREI) and AREDAY Summit, and CEO of Stillwater Preservation, LLC, a wetlands mitigation banking company. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Wildlife Federation (USA), the largest conservation organization in the USA, with over 6 million members as well as the Bonobo Conservation Initiative which succeeded in establishing the 9 million-acre Bonobo Peace Forest (DR Congo). Sally is a Senior Advisor to the One Humanity Institute (Poland), the Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) which works with Indigenous women on the front lines of climate change and the Getches-Wilkinson Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado Law School. She is a Founding Benefactor of Artemis, a sportswoman’s group mobilizing the voice and engagement of women across the USA in defense of America’s public lands heritage, amplifying the voice of women demanding climate change solutions and the protection of wildlife habitat, rivers and watersheds. She also serves as the Vice President of Colorado Headwaters, working on a water resilience plan for the Colorado River which serves over 100 million people and the reintroduction of beaver to protect watersheds of the western United States where indigenous.
Peggy Dulany
Founder and Chair of Synergos Institute
Peggy Dulany is Chair of Synergos, a global organization helping solve complex issues around the world by advancing bridging leadership, which builds trust and collective action. Drawing from her experience living and working in Rio de Janeiro as a young woman, she realized that the people most affected by adverse living conditions also have the greatest energy and motivation to solve their problems. The resources they lack are connections to the economic and political realms where necessary changes can affect whole communities. Peggy founded Synergos in 1986 to promote trust and collaboration among grassroots groups and government or business leaders and organizations, people who otherwise would not have access to each other so that they can develop long-term relationships and forge new paths in overcoming poverty. In 2001, she co-founded Synergos’ Global Philanthropists Circle with her father, David Rockefeller, to support philanthropic families in using this approach.
Paula Kahumbu
CEO of WildlifeDirect
Paula Kahumbu is one of Africa’s best-known wildlife conservationists. She is the CEO of WildlifeDirect and brainchild of the Hands Off Our Elephants campaign with Her Excellency Margaret Kenyatta, the First Lady of the Republic of Kenya. The campaign is widely recognized for its singular successes in advocacy and the engagement of the people of Kenya to support the protection of elephants. She is the producer and host of Africa’s first wildlife documentary series made by Africans for Africans called Wildlife Warriors. Paula is the winner of the Whitley Award Gold Award 2021, ROLEX National Geographic Explorer of the Year for 2021, The Whitley Award 2014, National Geographic Howard Buffet Award for conservation leadership in Africa in 2010, and is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer. She received a special commendation at the United Nations Person of the Year celebrations for her critical role in creating awareness and mobilizing action around the crisis facing elephants in Kenya. She is recognized as a Kenyan conservation ambassador by Brand Kenya and in 2015 received the Presidential Award and title of Order of the Grand Warrior (OGW). She is a trustee of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and the Maun Science Park Botswana. Paula received her Ph.D. in Ecology from Princeton University where she studied elephants in coastal Kenya.
Nina Simons
Bioneers Co-founder & Chief Relationship Officer
Nina Simons is co-founder of Bioneers and serves as its Chief Relationship Strategist. She is a social entrepreneur who is passionate about the power of women to transform the world, reaching racial and gender justice, indigeneity, and rekindling a sacred relationship to nature, while co-creating a just transition that’s regenerative, loving, and peaceful. She speaks internationally and co-facilitates transformative leadership offerings that integrate Relational Mindfulness, Restoring the Deep Feminine, and The Work That Reconnects. Nina co-edited Moonrise: The Power of Women Leading from the Heart, and recently wrote the award-winning book Nature, Culture & the Sacred: A Woman Listens for Leadership. She was named a recipient of the Goi Peace Award in recognition of her pioneering work through Bioneers to promote nature-inspired innovations for restoring (reciprocal relationships among) the Earth and our human community.
Nikki Eslami
Founder and CEO of New Theory Ventures and Wild Elements
Nikki Eslami is CEO and Founder of Wild Elements Foundation, and an Investor at New Theory Ventures. Wild Elements is a platform that works to restore the symbiosis between Animalkind, Humankind and PlantKind for a better future for all. They aims to democratize their philanthropy not only by providing resources for women and Indigenous communities but by ensuring that these people have a seat at the table and true leadership in the fight for environmental justice.
Nicole Rycroft
Founder and Executive Director, Canopy
Born in Australia, Nicole Rycroft is the Founder and Executive Director of award winning environmental not-for-profit, Canopy. A former physiotherapist and elite level athlete, she is an ardent surfer and enthusiast of life. One of Nicole’s guiding philosophies in life, “ask for what you want, you might just get it”, is foundational to her work in guiding Canopy’s team to transform unsustainable supply chains and advance forest conservation and community rights. In addition to being a member of the UBS Global Visionaries Program, Nicole is an Ashoka Fellow, the recipient of a Canadian Environment Award Gold Medal, winner of the 2020 Climate Breakthrough Award, and a recipient of the Meritorious Service Cross of Canada.
Nemonte Nenquimo
Co-Founder of Ceibo Alliance, 2020 Goldman Prize Winner
Nemonte Nenquimo led an Indigenous campaign and legal action that resulted in a court ruling protecting 500,000 acres of Amazonian rainforest and Waorani territory from oil extraction. Nenquimo’s leadership and the lawsuit set a legal precedent for Indigenous rights in Ecuador, and other tribes are following in her footsteps to protect additional tracts of rainforest from oil extraction.
Mary Robinson
Former President of Ireland and Founder of the Mary Robinson Foundation
Mary Robinson is the first woman President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; a passionate advocate for gender equality, women’s participation in peace-building, human dignity and climate justice. Mary is a globally recognized voice on climate change and frequently highlights the need for drastic action from world leaders, as well as the intersectionality of the climate emergency: from intergenerational injustice to gender inequality and biodiversity loss. Between 2013 and 2016, Mary Robinson served as the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy in three roles; first for the Great Lakes region of Africa, then on Climate Change and most recently as Special Envoy on El Niño and Climate along with Macharia Kamau of Kenya, to focus the world’s attention to meet the urgent challenges posed by extreme weather events on the poorest and most vulnerable communities. She continued in this post until the end of December 2015 which saw the successful conclusion of the COP21 Climate Summit and the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Lynn Mento
CEO, Conservation Nation
Lynn Mento is committed to a planet sustained by a strong community of diverse wildlife conservationists so all life thrives. She is the founder and CEO of Conservation Nation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving wildlife, their habitats, and our planet by cultivating and building a more diverse and inclusive community of conservationists. Conservation Nation focuses its impact on supporting wildlife conservationists from traditionally marginalized groups and inspiring children from underserved communities to see themselves as wildlife champions, all the way up to pursuing a STEM academic and career path into conservation. Prior to running Conservation Nation, Lynn was the Executive Director of Friends of the National Zoo (FONZ), a nonprofit that supported the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute in their conservation, education, and engagement work. Before that, Lynn held a senior leadership role at AARP headquarters, ran marketing agencies in D.C., and worked for advertising agencies in New York City.
Leymah Gbowee
Founder and President of Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Nobel Peace Laureate Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist, social worker, and women’s rights advocate. She is the Founder and President of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa, based in Monrovia, Liberia. Leymah is best known for leading a nonviolent movement that brought together Christian and Muslim women to play a pivotal role in ending Liberia’s devastating, fourteen-year civil war in 2003. This historic achievement paved the way for the election of Africa’s first female head of state, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. It also marked the vanguard of a new wave of women emerging worldwide as essential and uniquely effective participants in brokering lasting peace and security.
Leila Salazar Lopez
Executive Director, Amazon Watch
Leila (she/ella/ela) is a mother; proud Chicana-Latina woman; and passionate defender of Mother Earth, the Amazon, Indigenous rights and climate justice. Since 2015 she has served as the Executive Director of Amazon Watch, leading the organization in its work to protect and defend the Amazon rainforest and climate in solidarity with Indigenous peoples. For 25+ years Leila has worked to defend the world’s rainforests, human rights, and climate through international solidarity and advocacy campaigns at Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action Network and Global Exchange. She is a steering committee member of the Amazonia for Life: Protect 80% by 2020 Initiative, a Latin America Advisor for the Global Fund for Women, and a Greenpeace Voting Member. In April 2019, she was acknowledged in Make it Better Media’s “17 Bay Area Environmentalists Making a Difference.” She is a 1998 graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara. Leila lives in San Francisco, CA (Ohlone Territory) with her husband and two young daughters.
Leah Thomas
Founder of Intersectional Environmentalism
Leah Thomas is an eco-communicator, aka an environmentalist with a love for writing + creativity, based in Ventura, CA. She’s passionate about advocating for and exploring the relationship between social justice and environmentalism. You could say she’s trying to make the world a little more equal for everyone and a little nicer to our home planet. She is the founder of eco-lifestyle blog @greengirlleah and The Intersectional Environmentalist Platform, which is a resource + media hub that aims to advocate for environmental justice + inclusivity within environmental education + movements. Her articles on this topic have appeared in Vogue, Elle, The Good Trade, and Youth to the People and she has been featured in Harper’s Bazaar, W Magazine, Domino, GOOP and numerous podcasts. She has a B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy from Chapman University and worked for the National Park Service and Patagonia headquarters before pursuing environmentalism full time.
Laurie Adams
Chief Executive Officer, Women for Women International
Laurie Adams is the Chief Executive Officer of Women for Women International (WfWI), a leading global organization dedicated to working with women survivors of war. With more than 25 years of experience working in international development and human rights, Ms. Adams is an innovative leader, strategist, and gender rights advocate. Prior to joining WfWI, Ms. Adams served as the Director of Women’s Rights for Oxfam in the United Kingdom leading communications, fundraising, program development, and advocacy of Oxfam’s women’s rights work. During her tenure, Ms. Adams created high-level partnerships with government leaders and multinational corporations and, under her leadership, Oxfam doubled its financial commitment to women’s rights. Previously, Ms. Adams managed Oxfam’s country programs in three African regions, where she played a pivotal role in transforming the governance and management structure of the confederation. In each role, she was accountable for several hundred staff in up to 11 countries, including countries where WfWI currently works. Ms. Adams joined Oxfam after eight years at ActionAid International leading efforts to measure impact, strengthen learning, and build accountability for over 40 countries. Ms. Adams’ philanthropic contributions include voluntary board service with emerging non-governmental organizations in South Africa and Brazil. As the chair of the founding board for The Other Foundation in South Africa, Ms. Adams launched a community foundation model to catalyze local philanthropy after securing matching funds from The Atlantic Philanthropies. In addition, she served as a director on the boards of The Forum for the Empowerment of Women in South Africa, and ActionAid Brazil. Ms. Adams holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy Management from the University of London, a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Women’s Rights from Dartmouth College, and completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business
Kristine Zeigler
Co-Founder and CEO of Planet Women
Kristine is the co-founder of and chief executive officer at Planet Women, which addresses climate change and other conservation challenges through projects led by women and for women around the world. For the past 22 years, Kristine has been an environmental nonprofit leader focused on helping nature and people thrive. Previously, Kristine served as Conservation International’s chief development officer and as director of philanthropy at The Nature Conservancy in California, raising funds for global land, water, ocean, and science programs. Kristine also served as director of development at Yosemite Conservancy and worked at the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the San Francisco Zoological Society. Kristine is a third-generation Californian and grew up in rural Bishop, on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. She studied art history and French at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. She holds a private pilot license and flies a Cessna and a Piper. A published fiction author and creative writing teacher, Kristine is currently working on a short story collection set in the Southwest desert. She lives in Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Joe, and serves on the board of directors for the Mono Lake Committee.
Kristine Tompkins
President and Co-founder of Tompkins Conservation
Kristine McDivitt Tompkins is the president and co-founder of Tompkins Conservation, an American conservationist and former CEO of Patagonia, Inc. For thirty years, she has committed to protecting and restoring wild beauty and biodiversity by creating national parks, restoring wildlife, inspiring activism, and fostering economic vitality as a result of conservation. Kristine and her late husband Douglas Tompkins have protected approximately 14.8 million acres of parklands in Chile and Argentina through Tompkins Conservation and its partners, making them among the most successful national park-oriented philanthropists in history. Through Tompkins Conservation and its offspring organizations, she has helped to create or expand 15 national parks, including two marine national parks, in Chile and Argentina, and works to bring back species that have gone locally or nationally extinct, such as the jaguar, red-and-green macaw, and giant river otters in Northeast Argentina, and Darwin’s rheas and extremely endangered huemul deer in Chile. As president of Tompkins Conservation, she works closely with the organization’s now independent offspring, Rewilding Argentina and Rewilding Chile.
Kristina Liliana Nova
Public Figure, Activist, Actress & TV Host
I was thrust into the world of fashion at an early age, beginning my career in modeling at 14 years old. While I enjoyed a successful era in that realm, my greatest purpose and honor has been becoming a mother to my daughter Virginia Isabella. Her future is what has commanded my steadfast commitment to Daughters For Earth. Sustainability is something that I have only fairly recently become aware of, admittedly during the pandemic, while spending time with my partner who is involved in the energy transition; I have begun to understand the extent of nature’s fragility, and more importantly, how we can tackle the problem in an achievable manner via the Global Safety Net. Though I am still very much in the nascent stages of my climate journey, I hope that the questions I ask and the everyday understandings I offer, in my own voice, will resonate with people who are too shy to ask the same. Climate education must be accessible to all, and I would like to do my part by informing my audience in a manner that is appropriate for those too intimidated to ask themselves. Too often climate messaging requires a comprehensive command of science, and most of the non-scientific population just wants to know how they can do their part; I hope to offer this bridge.
Katie Frohardt
Executive Director, Wild Earth Allies
With over 25 years’ experience, Katie is a recognized non-profit leader, field practitioner, and international conservationist. At the helm since 2003, and leading our re-branding in 2016, Katie focuses on delivering the Wild Earth Allies mission to protect vital areas of our natural world for the benefit of wildlife, habitats and people by inspiring collaborative action. Her grounded leadership style draws from years spent living in Rwanda as director of the International Gorilla Conservation Program and as program technical director for the African Wildlife Foundation. Her earlier career included grant-making with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, private sector natural resource management consulting, and land use planning. Katie also enjoys serving as an inaugural member of the Charity Navigator Consultative Council of Nonprofit Leaders, as an Environmental Leadership Liaison for Rachel’s Network, and on the Advisory Circle of Daughters for Earth with partner One Earth.
Kate Horner
Deputy Executive Director, Amazon Frontlines
Kate Horner is an experienced human rights and climate activist. She has more than fifteen years experience and an exceptional track record in securing transformational change in protecting the environment and upholding communities’ rights. Prior to joining Amazon Frontlines, she was Executive Director of International Rivers. Kate also directed Forest Programs at the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), where she shaped both global and national forest governance reform processes, including successfully instigating high-profile enforcement actions against illegal timber trafficking on nearly every continent.
Karen Korponai
CEO and Founder, Konscious Konsulting llc and Sr. Advisor to Purpose Driven Visionary Private Equity Group
Karen is in the business of guiding conscious companies in their quest to turn visions into reality. She promotes the business paradigm that focuses on people, planet, purpose and prosperity. Karen has over 20 years’ experience working with global brands, including managing projects for celebrity brands such as George Foreman, Bob Marley and Akon. She is an MBA graduate of Thunderbird School of Global Management. In 2014, Karen launched her own consulting company to support organizations with business development, marketing and communications, events, sustainability strategies and strategic partnerships. One of her first projects included a C-suite position at Akon Lighting Africa, which brought solar energy solutions to over 1 million rural households in over 10 countries. Karen was the first hire and is a founding member of the House of Marley consumer electronics leadership team and launched the brand in over 20 countries. She was involved in all aspects of the business from marketing and events, hiring brand and industrial design companies to identifying suppliers and sustainable materials. The goal was to spread Bob Marley’s vision of creating a better world through earth-friendly audio products. Most recently, she joined the purpose driven Visionary Private Equity Group as a Sr. Advisor. They invest in early stage, high growth companies within security, clean-tech, fin-tech, med-tech, and media-tech (blockchain/web3.0) centric platforms. One of Karen’s many skills is her ability to foster strategic partnerships between like-minded organizations. She is an Ambassador for the Global Blockchain Business Council where she has spoken on panels hosted on Sr. Richard Branson’s Necker Island, a Founding Member of 100 Woman@Davos, and an Advisory Council Member of Thunderbird School of Global Management.
Kahea Pacheco
Co-Director, Women's Earth Alliance
Kahea Pacheco (Kanaka ‘Ōiwi) is a passionate advocate for Indigenous people’s rights, intersectional environmentalism, and climate justice that puts aloha ʻāina at the heart of solutions. She joined WEA as a Legal Research Intern in 2011 after graduating from law school with a focus on Environmental and Federal Indian Law. During her time with WEA, Kahea facilitated legal advocacy partnerships for indigenous women-led environmental campaigns to protect lands, water, and sacred spaces through the North America Advocacy Network. She also co-led a partnership with the Native Youth Sexual Health Network to develop the “Violence on the Land, Violence on our Bodies” report and toolkit, which provides a critical perspective from Indigenous women and young people on the health and social impacts of extractive industry within their territories, as well as community-developed tools to address environmental violence. Kahea has a background in critical theory and human rights, and has lived and traveled around the world, including studying the shifting terrain of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland, and the ongoing impact of colonization on the construction of culture and identity in the Pacific. She serves on the Advisory Council for 1t.org—the trillion trees platform of the World Economic Forum—is on the Board of Directors of Planet Women, and is a Program Advisor to Dr. Jane Goodall’s Trees for Jane campaign.
Jessica Sweidan
Founder, Synchronicity Earth
Jessica Sweidan has been an active philanthropist for the last 20 years. Her journey began almost straight out of university, when she formed a partnership with Adam Sweidan, to create The Synchronicity Foundation. She oversaw donations to a range of projects, including themes in education, environment, social justice, economic upliftment, art, health care, relief efforts, and children’s well-being. The Synchronicity Foundation has worked with over 70 projects in nearly 40 countries. In 2007, the environment became a priority: it underscored most themes that they were addressing, and upon close examination, found it to be a severely under-funded, and under-supported sector. Exploring how to have a greater impact within the conservation realm -and recognizing that biodiversity loss was the least well appreciated and most poorly addressed of all -they launched Synchronicity Earth in November 2009. Jessica plays an active role at Synchronicity Earth, developing its profile, networks, and events. Jessica is also an IUCN Patron of Nature, helping to raise the visibility of global conservation needs worldwide. And, she was appointed Honorary Conservation Fellow at the Zoological Society of London in March 2015. Jessica has a degree in Philosophy from Northwestern University
Jean Oelwang
Founding CEO and President of Virgin Unite
Jean is the founding CEO and President of Virgin Unite, an entrepreneurial foundation that builds leadership collectives, incubates ideas, and re-invents systems for a better world. Over the last 19 years, she has worked with partners to lead the incubation and start-up of several global initiatives, including: The Elders, The B Team, The Carbon War Room (successfully merged with the RMI), The Africa Donor Collective, Ocean Unite (now ORRAA), The Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, 100% Human at Work, The Virgin Unite Constellation, and The Branson Centres of Entrepreneurship. She also played a key partner role in the incubation of many other initiatives such as The Audacious Project. As part of her work over the last three decades, Jean has helped corporations put the wellbeing of people and the planet at their core, including working with over 25 Virgin businesses across 15 industries to help embed purpose in all they do. Jean also served as a Partner in the Virgin Group leading their people strategy. Jean spent seventeen years living and working on six continents to start and help lead mobile phone companies in South Africa, Colombia, Bulgaria, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, and the US. She was the joint CEO of Virgin Mobile in Australia prior to starting Virgin Unite. Jean has long explored the overlap of the business and social sectors having worked for the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife in Australia, and as a VISTA volunteer where she worked with – and learned from – homeless teens in Chicago. Jean holds several advisory board roles, including The Elders, Vintro, Vatican Humanity 2.0, and the Sara Blakely Foundation. She is on the boards of RMI, The Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator, Ocean Unite, AID Live, Unite BVI Foundation, The B Team, Penn State Board of Visitors, Just Capital, and NOVONIX. She is also honoured to be a B Team leader. She co-founded Plus Wonder to spark more meaningful deep connections and collaborations in the world. She is the author of the new book, Partnering. Jean has been on the TED and TEDx stages as a host and speaker and has been the recipient of several awards including the Bernie Glassman Trailblazer Award, FilmAid Philanthropic Leadership Award, and the Gerry Susman Sustainability Award.
Inge Relph
Executive Director and Co–Founder of Global Choices
Inge Relph is Executive Director and Co–Founder of Global Choices, a female-led and genuinely intergenerational not-for-profit prioritizing protection of the Central Arctic Ocean as the most endangered of our climate systems. She advocates for reframing the Ice Shield as a Global Commons, calling for a 10-year moratorium to protect it, as losing the Ice is already having global repercussions. Known for thought leadership and policy innovation around systems change, global governance, feminine leadership, and peace and security, she was Senior Policy Advisor to The Elders, a group of retired wisdom keepers including Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, Pres. Carter, Pres. Mary Robinson and others during the landmark Paris COP and the SDG agreements. Prior she held executive roles in business, founded several international NGOs, and has a lifelong passion for climate justice and human rights. Her advisory work is focused on fostering better policies that promote inclusion and conscious, feminine leadership, and collaboration. She co-founded the London Chamber Women in Business Group, The Arab International Women’s Forum, Chaired WomankindWorldwide, the UK’s foremost Women’s development agency, co-founded with the First Lady Women for Peace International in Egypt, and worked globally, including Iraq, Libya, Syria, the Lebanon and Somalia mentoring and training women in the intersectionality of peacebuilding. She is active in promoting investment in women entrepreneurs and in the She Changes Climate core group. Currently, Global Choices mentors a stellar global network of young women climate leaders as Inge sees this as essential to a sustainable future. Developing an inner ecology of compassion that finds expression in making meaningful change is her life mission.
Helena Gualinga
Climate justice and human rights defender
Helena Gualinga, 20, is an Indigenous climate justice and human rights defender who advocates for the protection of the Amazon Rainforest and Indigenous people’s rights. Gualinga is from the Kichwa community of Sarayaku, a community that has been fighting against big oil for decades. She partly grew up in the Amazon and in Finland where she received her primary and secondary education. She is a co-founder of Polluters Out and a member of the Indigenous Youth Collective of Amazon Defenders. She has attended several conferences such as COP 26 and UN summits advocating for Kawsak Sacha, The Living Forest Proposal which is the cosmovision of the Sarayaku people. Gualinga has also spoken up about the inclusion and representation of Indigenous People in decision-making and other spaces of influence. In April 2022, along with her sister Nina they were the first Indigenous women ever to be on the cover of a magazine, Revista Hogar, in Ecuador.
Heather Grady
Vice President and Practice Lead on Environment and Climate Change, Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
Heather is a Vice President in the San Francisco team of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and leads the practice area of Environment and Climate Change, including a range of funder collaboratives, advisory engagements, and research. She leads the Shifting Systems initiative that encourages funders to place longer-term, more adaptive funding with grantee partners to enable them to create systemic impact. She oversees a portfolio of over 40 sponsored projects in environment, climate change and cross-cutting rights issues, and advises individual philanthropists and foundations on issues from grantee selection to governance of funder collaboratives. Her perspectives and practice have been influenced by two decades living and working in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She previously worked with the Rockefeller Foundation, Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, and Oxfam Great Britain. She serves on the boards of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, Dropbox Foundation, Wildlife Justice Commission, Forum for the Future, and Doc Society, and holds degrees from Smith College and Harvard University.
Halla Tómasdóttir
CEO & Chief Change Catalyst, The B Team
Halla Tómasdóttir is the CEO of The B Team. Hallastarted her leadership career in corporate America working for Mars and Pepsi Cola. She was on the founding team of Reykjavík University, where she established the Executive Education Department, founded and led a successful women’s entrepreneurship and empowerment initiative, and was an assistant professor at the Business School. She was the first female CEO of the Iceland Chamber of Commerce and later went on to co-found an investment firm with the vision to incorporate feminine values into finance. The company successfully survived the infamous economic meltdown in Iceland. In 2016 Halla was an independent candidate for the President of Iceland. She entered a crowded field of candidates and finished as the runner-up with nearly 30 percent of the vote. Halla has served on for-profit and non-profit boards in education, healthcare, finance, and consumer products. An active change catalyst, Halla was a founding member of the National Assembly held in Iceland in the wake of its financial collapse, where a random sample of the Icelandic nation discussed its values and vision for the future. She also founded and chaired WE2015, a global dialogue on closing the gender gap. Her work has led her to the TED stage twice. She has delivered keynotes and participated in dialogues around purpose-driven and principled leadership for companies and conferences around the world. In 2011, Newsweek named her to a list of 150 women who shake the world, and following Iceland’s Presidential Elections in 2016, The New Yorker called her A Living Emoji of Sincerity. Halla holds an international MBA degree from Thunderbird
Ginger Cassady
Executive Director, Rainforest Action Network
Ginger Cassady is the Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network. She has over 20 years of experience securing transformational change with some of the world’s largest corporations and financiers through global campaigns and litigation to protect the environment and uphold human rights. She has spent her career working at the intersection of ecological and social justice issues, with a strong track record of combining strategic thinking and grassroots organizing with effective organizational management and fundraising to achieve high-impact results.
Geraldine Patrick Encina
Member of Grand Council of the Eagle and the Condor and member of Earth Timekeepers
Geraldine Patrick Encina is mother of climate justice activist Xiye Bastida and music producer Danzaki, and wife of Mindahi Bastida Muñoz, a principal authority in the Grand Council of the Eagle and the Condor. Geraldine has Mapuche and Celtic ancestry, and her ethnoecological approach has led to groundbreaking findings about the astronomical and ecological basis of timekeeping in Mesoamerica. She is a member of the Otomi Council of the High Lerma River Basin that achieved legal protection of the headwater wetlands in Toluca Valley, Mexico State. She is a board member of the Biocultural Heritage Network of the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), the American Renewable Energy Institute, Land Healers and Y on Earth! Over the past decade, she has worked with community leaders and teachers in the Yucatan Peninsula and Central Mexico to promote the use of original calendars in year-round biocultural activities for a good and harmonious living in their ecosystems. Among her publications are: Biocultural Sacred Sites in Mexico and Ecology and Wetland Culture in Almoloya del Río, 1900-2004. Towards a Sustainable Management of Chiconahuapan, a Remnant of the Lerma Wetlands.
Fern Shepard
President of Rachel’s Network
Fern Shepard is the president of Rachel’s Network, a nonprofit named in honor of Rachel Carson that supports women funders committed to a safer, healthier, and more just world for all. To address the historic and current underfunding of women of color who are some of our nation’s most skilled, dedicated, and impactful environmental advocates, Rachel’s Network developed its signature Catalyst Award. The award annually recognizes and supports at least five women environmental leaders of color with three years of individual and organizational grants plus coaching, wellness, and networking opportunities. Fern has over 30 years of experience in the environmental community, first as a staff attorney with the nation’s largest public interest law firm, Earthjustice, and later as a senior officer managing international lands conservation programs at The Pew Charitable Trusts. She has worked on issues ranging from securing threatened and endangered species habitat to protecting children and at-risk populations from lead contamination and dangerous pesticides. Fern is chair of Earthjustice’s Board of Trustees and is a mother of three.
Erin Axelrod
Partner at LIFT Economy
Erin Axelrod is a Partner at LIFT Economy, helping to accelerate the spread of businesses that benefit our climate, specializing in enterprises that address soil and water regeneration. She is a grassroots organizer and an amateur (for love of) ecologist. Her clients include/have included: Winona’s Hemp & Heritage Farm, Jonas Philanthropies, Buckminster Fuller Institute, Native Conservancy, Sunken Seaweed, Salt Point Seaweeds, Singing Frogs Farm, Daily Acts Nonprofit, Fibershed Nonprofit, North Coast Brewing Company, MycoWorks. She is also co-founder of the Force for Good Fund-the first crowdfunded accelerator and development fund supporting a more diverse, inclusive economy through social enterprise. She also convenes LIFT Economy’s regenerative agriculture investor network (RAIN)and a Restorative Ocean Economies Field-Building Initiative. She co-initiated the launch of The Next Egg, a collaborative project to support citizens to move the $32T in US retirement savings away from Wall Street and onto Main Street. Erin is an expert in business design, planning, and systems development. As a facilitator, she focuses on effective process management, shared values alignment, and customized project planning. When not working, she loves to plant trees and harvest wild foods in the forest ecosystems around her home, including mushrooms, huckleberries, elderberries, and bay nuts to make nutrient-dense foods for her community. A frequent public speaker, she has given presentations at conferences including Social Capital Markets Conference (SOCAP), Permaculture Voices Conference, FoodFunded, Sustainable Enterprise Conference, NorCal Permaculture Convergence, the Indigenous Hemp Conference, and the CA Greywater Conference. She received her Permaculture Design Certificate with Toby Hemenway in 2011 and has worked on projects ever since to support an economy that works for the benefit of all life, with no one left out.
Ella Robertson McKay
Managing Director, One Young World
Ella Robertson McKay is the Managing Director of One Young World, the global forum for young leaders. Ella oversees the annual One Young World Summit which has taken place in ten different cities across the world, from Bangkok to Bogota. Ella is the co-author of How To Make A Difference – the authoritative handbook to activism; she has also written for Prospect, City AM, Glamour Magazine and The Telegraph. In terms of environmental activism, Ella has been a passionate proponent of climate action over the past decade including staging the One Young World Environment Expert Event at the Biosphere2, University of Arizona and organising CallonCOP, the biggest youth campaign surrounding the Paris Climate Agreement. Last year, Ella led the One Young World delegation to COP 26, with Green Zone events hosted with the governments of Wales, Rwanda, Palau, Colombia and the UK. In 2021, Ella established indigenous youth as a strategic priority for One Young World to ensure that the wisdom of Indigenous communities can be tapped, particularly with regard to biodiversity. Ella has advised several Fortune 500 Companies on their climate strategy and has recently been advising a municipal government on their route to Net Zero. Ella read English Literature at Balliol College Oxford and began a law training contract with a Magic Circle firm before changing track and pursuing a career in the third sector. She was on the Scottish International Debating team and is a Governor of two schools: a primary and a secondary. Ella was featured in British Vogue and Forbes for her activism in getting more women into politics and was on the Management Today/Daily Telegraph list of 35 Women Under 35 in 2019.
Sylvia Earle
President and Co-Chair of Mission Blu
Sylvia Earle is President and Chairman of Mission Blue / The Sylvia Earle Alliance. She is a National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence, and is called Her Deepness by the New Yorker and the New York Times, Living Legend by the Library of Congress, and first Hero for the Planet by Time Magazine. She is an oceanographer, explorer, author and lecturer with experience as a field research scientist, government official, and director for several corporate and non-profit organizations.
Dr. Kirsten Dunlop
Chief Executive Officer, EIT Climate-KIC
Dr. Kirsten Dunlop’s career spans academia, consulting, banking, insurance, strategy, design, innovation and leadership. Kirsten joined EIT Climate-KIC in January2017. She is committed to developing and implementing innovation to catalyze profound systemic change and is honored to work with Climate-KIC’s world-class network of partners to support climate innovation across Europe and beyond. In Italy, she led the Generali Group Innovation Academy for Assicurazioni Generali, pioneering proprietary thinking in the areas of Strategic Risk management, strategic innovation, strategic leadership development and cultural change. Kirsten is a member of the EJP Soil Advisory Board, EAT Foundation Advisory Board, High Level Missions Advisory Board for the Innovation Fund Denmark, UK Government EEIST Senior Oversight Group and is a Director of Responsible.us. She is one of 16 experts at the Economic and Societal Impact of Research and Innovation (ESIR) expert group, providing independent advice on how future EU research and innovation policy can best support sustainable development and the European Commission’s priorities.
Dr. Ameenah Gurib-Fakim
President of the Republic of Mauritius (2015-2018)
Ameenah Gurib-Fakim has served as the 6th and first Female President of the Republic of Mauritius (2015-2018). Before that, she has been the Managing Director of CIDP Research and Innovation (2010-2014); Dean and Pro Vice Chancellor at the University of Mauritius (2004-2010). Since 2001, she has been appointed as the first female Professor at the University of Mauritius with an endowed Chair in Organic Chemistry at the Faculty of Sciences. Prior to that she served as Managing Director at the Mauritius Research Council (1995-1997). She has lectured widely, published more than 25 books and several scientific articles in the field of Biodiversity conservation, Traditional Knowledge systems and sustainable development. She has received many local and international awards including the 2007 l’Oreal-UNESCO Prize for Women in Science, the African Union Commission Award for Women in Science, 2009, and six honorary doctorates. She has served on advisory boards, committees for academic, research and scientific as well as international institutions.
Dianne Dain
Chief Innovation Officer for the World Humanitarian Forum
Dianne is the Chief Innovation Officer for the World Humanitarian Forum and a member of the WHO Innovation team, consulting on innovation throughout the Covid crisis. Prior to these roles, she was with the United Nations Secretariat where she led the UN Reboot Accelerator for youth crowdsourcing and on the core team that created the global network of UN Technology Innovation Labs (UNTIL). Passionate about women’s influence and economic empowerment in the world, she is a co-founder of COPXX and an Honorary Professor at the Wise Center for Economic Justice at Glasgow Caledonia University. Additionally, as the President of The Singer Foundation, her focus is on supporting environmentally sustainable needs of women and youth globally. Gratefully, She is the mother of 4 children and grandmother of 4 and was honored to be named the National Mother of America in 2010.
Dana Rice
VP of Philanthropy, Lever for Change
Dana Rice is the VP of Philanthropy at Lever for Change, a nonprofit affiliate of the MacArthur Foundation, that uses grant competitions to help donors find and fund effective solutions to significant challenges, including gender and racial equity and climate change. Previously, she served as Managing Director for Opportunity International, which provides microfinance and training to millions of women living in developing countries. Before that, Dana led the corporate global social responsibility program for GCM Grosvenor, a financial services firm. Early in her career, Dana practiced law, most of that time leading mergers and acquisitions for Pacific Telesis Group. Dana graduated from Wellesley College and Harvard Law School and is on the board of the Joffrey Ballet and Ministry Brands.
Connie Nielsen
President and CEO of Human Needs Project; Actor; Producer; Writer
Danish-born actor, producer and writer, Connie Nielsen’s achievements in the arts range across leads in films such as the Academy Award winning Gladiator, the critically acclaimed Brothers, One Hour Photo, and Demon Lover. Connie Nielsen also appeared as Hippolyta in DC Comics and Warner Brothers’ Wonder Woman, WWll and Justice League. Ms. Nielsen produced and starred in Sundance/Channel Four’s current smash hit series, Close To Me. She also stars and produced “The Dreamer”, a biopic based on the life of Danish Writer, Karen Blixen, scheduled for release Q3 2022, for Viaplay and Zentropa, based on the original idea by Connie Nielsen and Karoline Leth. She is the recipient of Best Actress Awards from The San Sebastian Film Festival, The Danish “Bodil” Awards, and The Empire Awards. Ms. Nielsen co-founded and is the President and CEO of Human Needs Project (HNP) providing sustainable Infrastructure Services for informal settlements since 2010. In 2014 HNP opened the Kibera Town Center (KTC) serving residents with dignified services and access to jobs and education. A social enterprise, the Kibera Town Center has transformed tens of thousands of lives through more 2 million transactions since opening. Human Needs Project is the recipient of the 2015 Aspen Big Idea Award and in 2017 Connie Nielsen was awarded the Nelson Mandela Changemaker Award. She was the keynote speaker at major conferences including PTTOW! 2017, The CSR Awards 2015, the Gates Foundation Sanitation Summit 2013, Opportunity International 2012. Ms. Nielsen also founded Road to Freedom Scholarships in 2011, which continues to educate children living in informal settlements.
Casey Rogers
Director of The Ellen Fund
Casey Rogers, a longtime philanthropic advisor, has climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, completed the Chicago Marathon and traveled to more than 40 countries. That sense of adventure and follow-though also has led her to launch The Ellen Fund; help found a nonprofit that provided scholarships to secondary school students in three developing countries; to helm the Hilton Foundation’s multi-million-dollar collaborative grant-making post-Katrina; and to continue the legacy of a family business by stepping in as a co-owner and advisor after her father’s passing.
Carly Vynne Baker
Conservation Biologist and Strategic Partner, RESOLVE
Carly is a co-founder of TerrAdapt, and an author of a number of recent publications including the Global Deal for Nature, Global Safety Net, The Importance of Alaska for Climate Stabilization, Resilience, and Biodiversity Conservation, and An Ecoregion-based Approach to Restoring the World’s Intact Large Mammal Assemblages. Carly holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Policy from Middlebury College (VT-USA) and a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Washington, Seattle. Carly’s principal motivation is to help ensure that natural places and wild species can thrive together with humanity now and into the future. To that end, she works to bring to the table (or into the field) uncommon partners, novel approaches, and an open mindset. Carly has led biodiversity planning efforts in Asia, Africa, and South America, and has helped design and implement species-based conservation programs across the western US and Alaska.
Betsy Taylor
President of Breakthrough Strategies & Solutions
Betsy Taylor is President of Breakthrough Strategies & Solutions, a consulting firm in New Haven, Vermont. Betsy has over four decades of philanthropic and non-profit leadership experience, including as the Executive Director of the Merck Family Fund, Center for a New American Dream, and as Chair of 350 Action. She organized and chaired a 2017 conference in France with over 200 participants from 33 countries focused on strategies for scaling ecological restoration and regenerative agriculture. She was the author of a 2019 guide for philanthropic action, Healthy Soils to Cool the Planet, co-founded Funders for Regenerative Agriculture and is on the board of Regenerative Agriculture Foundation. She is co-author of Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the 21st Century. She is living on a 20-acre homestead where she is planting native species, sequestering carbon, and restoring the land.
Atossa Soltani
Director of Global Strategy for the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative
Atossa Soltani is the director of global strategy for the Amazon Sacred Headwaters Initiative, an alliance of 30 indigenous nations in Ecuador and Peru working to permanently protect 86 million acres of rainforests in one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth. She is also the founder and board president of Amazon Watch and served as the organization’s first executive director for 18 years. In response to the Amazon fires in 2019, Atossa helped co-found Artists for Amazonia to catalyze global action for the Amazon. In recognition for her life’s work as rainforests and indigenous rights campaigner, Atossa was named the Hillary Institute’s 2013 Global Laureate for Climate Leadership. Atossa is also a member and contributing author to the Science Panel for the Amazon.
Ashley Judd
Acclaimed humanitarian, writer and actor
Ashley Judd is fiercely committed to social justice. In particular, she believes that the sexual and reproductive health of girls and women, including choosing if, when, and how many children to have, is at the heart of poverty eradication and sustainable development. She is a passionate advocate for the right of every girl and boy to enter adulthood safely and empowered and to ending all forms of gender-based violence, including in the United States. At present, she is Goodwill Ambassador for UNFPA and serves many organizations that seek to end the modern slave trades and systems of prostitution. Additionally, Ms. Judd works with countless other NGO and CBOs that focus on the legal, economic, social, cultural, educational, health, and financial empowerment of the poorest of the poor. She has traveled around the world being in community with girls and women in slums, brothels, schools, hospices, drop-in centers, and clinics in Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America. As well as being a best-selling author and filmmaker, Ashley and her partner have a bonobo research camp in the Central African rainforest where they study the egalitarian, matriarchal apes who have evolved free from male sexual coercion. Females have reproductive autonomy and strong coalitions, which Ashley studies as a model of hope for human gender relations.
Amira Diamond
Co-Founder and Co-Director, Women's Earth Alliance
Amira Diamond has over two decades of leadership experience around the world designing and delivering community-driven, rights-based programming at the intersection of gender, racial, economic, environmental, and climate justice. A women’s studies and international development practitioner, Amira is passionate about building replicable models for achieving resilient communities. Before WEA, Diamond was the West Coast Director of Democracy Matters, a national student movement founded by NBA player Adonal Foyle to raise public awareness of democratic reform and clean elections. There she mentored and trained thousands of students across 5 states to lobby, produce street theater, organize rallies, and launch grassroots advocacy campaigns to deepen democracy. In 2004, inspired to forward bridge-building between the disconnected environmental and human rights movements, she joined tree-sitter Julia Butterfly Hill’s team at Circle of Life where she supported environmental justice campaigns and production of the nation’s first “zero waste events”, biodiesel bus tours and rock concerts. A violinist and vocalist, she founded the Social Prophet Choir in 2007 to build community and fund local resilience initiatives. Diamond received her interdisciplinary training in Women’s Studies at Colgate University, studied Women and Development with the School for International Training in Jamaica, and attended Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley. Diamond’s board experience includes groups like the Forbes Executive Women’s Board, Mycelium Youth Network, and Planet Women, and she is an Advisor to Regeneration, a book and initiative launched by environmentalist Paul Hawken. A certified Holistic Health Educator, she was recently named one of FoodTank’s Women Reshaping the Food System. Amira lives with her partner and their two young sons on the traditional, unceded land of the Graton Rancheria and Southern Pomo nations, in the Atascadero/Green Valley Watershed. She is a frequent keynote speaker and performer at social impact events, a leadership trainer, facilitator, and strategic planner.
Alyse Nelson
President and CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership
Alyse Nelson is president and CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership. A co-founder of Vital Voices, Alyse has worked for the organization for more than 25 years, serving as vice president and senior director of programs before assuming her current role in 2009. Under her leadership, Vital Voices has expanded its reach to serve over 18,000 women leaders across 186 countries and territories. Previously, Alyse served as deputy director of the State Department’s Vital Voices Global Democracy Initiative and worked with the President’s Interagency Council on Women at the White House. Alyse is author of the best-selling book “Vital Voices: the Power of Women Leading Change Around the World” and a regular speaker on leadership and global women’s issues. Alyse is a Member in the Council on Foreign Relations and serves as an official Observer for the World Bank’s We-fi Initiative for Women Entrepreneurs. She serves on advisory boards for The B Team, Chime for Change and Global Citizen. Alyse was honored in 2015 with a Tribeca Disruptive Innovation Award and in 2018 Apolitical named her one of the most influential people in global gender policy.
Alexandra Lunt
Armonia
Alexandra Luntis part of the team at Armonia, a family office investing in the regeneration of soil, soul, and society. Her current focus is on reshaping consumers’ relationships with the food system in order to promote better practices for the health of people, land, and animals. She has backgrounds in investment banking, hospitality, and digital marketing.
Alexandra Zimmermann
Chair, IUCN Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Specialist Group
Alexandra Zimmermann is a conservation scientist specializing in conflict negotiation and human-wildlife conflict. She has spent the past 25 years leading and advising conservation conflict resolution efforts and has worked with hundreds of practitioners, researchers, policymakers, and community members around the world. Alexandra is the founding Chair of the IUCN SSC Human-Wildlife Conflict & Coexistence Specialist Group, a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, and Senior Advisor to the World Bank’s Global Wildlife Program. After degrees in zoology and conservation science and a doctorate from Oxford, she trained in nonprofit strategy, conflict resolution, and multilateral negotiation at Harvard Law School. Alexandra grew up in Indonesia, Lebanon, Germany, France, and Canada before settling in the UK. Her vision is to bring insights from peacebuilding and conflict negotiation into conservation to enable human-wildlife coexistence.
Farwiza Farhan
Founder and Chair at HAkA
One of the most fearless environmental activists of her generation, Farwiza leads the fight to protect the Leuser ecosystem in Aceh, Indonesia, a pristine ancient forest and one of the last places in the world, where Sumatran orangutans, elephants, tigers, and rhinos still roam side by side. It is also one of Earth’s most important carbon sinks where Farwiza and her grassroots team fight to avert forest fires set to clear land for monoculture, that emit large amount of carbon into the atmosphere. Farwiza focuses on ground level species protection on the one hand and high-level legal advocacy on the other. Farwiza’s work through the Forest, Nature and Environment Aceh Foundation (Yayasan HAkA) has taken on big industries and governments. She initiated a grassroots movement that has succeeded in enforcing laws against palm oil companies that cause huge swathes of forest destruction, launching citizen lawsuits to ensure forest communities have a meaningful voice in policy making. Farwiza brings together forest communities, government, NGOs and technical experts, to both protect and replenish the Leuser ecosystem and its vital wildlife migration routes and natural flood protection. For her tireless campaigning work in Indonesia and globally, Farwiza has been recognized by the international Whitley Awards (2016) and Future for Nature Award (2017), she is also a TED Fellow (2021).
