Program

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10

7:00 – 8:00 am

Breakfast

Ad Hocs

8:30 – 10:00 am

Featured Conversation: Reflections on Change—An Exploration of Social Movements

Perceptions of social change are often rooted in narratives of heroic individual leadership, valorizing either grassroots actors or elected officials. This can confine our thinking about social change within a space bounded by grassroots agency and electoral politics. To the extent that there are always deeper historical forces at work—economic, political, social, cultural, technological, and ecological—social-change efforts need to comprehend the scope and magnitude of these forces and to anticipate the opportunities and challenges they create. Our speakers will share their thinking about these issues as they relate to the prospects for their own work, for environmental progress, and for fruitful social-change collaborations.

David Bonior represented the people of Michigan in the US House of Representatives for 26 years. David earned a reputation as a strong voice for working families, the environment, fair trade, jobs, and human and civil rights. He also served in the Air Force and worked in social services.

Taj James is the founder and executive director of the Movement Strategy Center (MSC), a national intermediary working to build a collaborative, strategic, and sustainable progressive movement. He has written extensively on the topics of movement building, organizational change, and the role of young people in social change.

Cecile Richards served as founder and president of America Votes, a coalition of organizations working to maximize voter registration, education, and mobilization. She worked as deputy chief of staff for Nancy Pelosi and directed a national pro-choice project for the Turner Foundation. She is currently president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. 

Facilitator

Deepak Bhargava has been executive director of the Center for Community Change since October 2002. The Center is a national social justice organization whose mission is to build the power and capacity of low-income people, especially people of color, to change the policies and institutions that affect their lives. He has been quoted widely on issues of poverty and social justice and has written on these issues for a range of publications, including The Washington Post and The American Prospect.

RELATED LINKS

Movement Strategy Center http://www.movementstrategy.org/

10:30 am – 12:00 pm

Concurrent Sessions

The 95% Solution—Aligning Mission, Program, and Investment

Foundations are required to pay out 5% of their assets annually to support their mission. But how many consider the potential embedded in the remaining 95% to promote this same mission? This session will provide an overview of investment strategies that foundations can utilize to add value to their traditional grantmaking. Examples will cover shareholder activism—proxy voting, filing resolutions, and company dialogues; socially responsible investing and screening portfolios; and program-related investment including community investing and micro-lending.

Mark Finser is president and CEO of Rudolf Steiner Foundation (RSF), a nonprofit leader in social finance. RSF creates social benefit by moving money through investing and grantmaking in alignment with its mission. It fosters environmental, social, and economic sustainability through relationships, collaboration, and community building.

John Powers has served on the board and executive finance committee of the Educational Foundation of America since 1985. He is the founder of the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado and a trustee of the Colorado Environmental Coalition and Colorado Conservation Voters. He received his MBA in finance from the University of Colorado.

Michael Passoff is associate director of the Corporate Responsibility Program at the As You Sow Foundation. He is a leading practitioner of shareholder activism and regularly engages America’s largest investors and corporations. Michael co-authored the booklet “Unlocking the Power of the Proxy,” and authors an annual Proxy Preview for foundations.

RELATED LINKS

Alliance for Sustainable Colorado http://www.allianceforcolorado.org/
RSF: Innovations in Social Finance http://www.rsfsocialfinance.org/

Cleaner Air in the San Joaquin Valley: Success through Collaboration

California’s San Joaquin Valley shares the distinction (with Los Angeles) of having the worst air quality in the nation, and asthma and other diseases are at epidemic proportions. A diverse group of organizations and individuals— from community-based environmental and public-health organizations, to volunteer-run environmental justice and neighborhood groups, to statewide and national environmental organizations—have come together to form the Central Valley Air Quality (CVAQ) Coalition, with the shared goal of cleaning up the Valley’s air. Come learn how CVAQ—made up of more than 120 members representing 55 organizations across California— is achieving cleaner air.

Brent Newell joined the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment in 2000 to lead their Dairy Project. Brent later established and now leads the Central Valley Air Quality Project, while also working on factory farm pollution. He graduated from University of California, Santa Cruz, and received his law degree from the University of Oregon.

Carolina Simunovic is the environmental health director for Fresno Metro Ministry, an interfaith social-justice nonprofit in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where she advocates for clean-air policies and empowers activists. Carolina has worked on the Latino Environmental Health Project and helped create and co-chairs the CVAQ Coalition.

Carole Chamberlain came to the California Endowment with more than 20 years of experience working to improve the health of underserved communities. A resident of Fresno, she interacts with central California community organizations in all facets of grantmaking. Carole has an MSW from University of California, Berkeley, and an MA in public health from Johns Hopkins.

RELATED LINKS

The Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment  http://www.crpe-ej.org/
Central Valley Air Quality (CVAQ) Coalition http://www.calcleanair.org/
Fresno Metro Ministry http://www.fresnometroministry.org/

Gender Power: Women’s Leadership in the Environmental Health Movement

Scan the environmental health movement through a gender lens, and a surprisingly vivid picture emerges. At every level women play critical roles: janitors, promotoras, nail-salon workers, nursing moms, breast-cancer-survivor-market-campaigners, nurse lobbyists, chemists, politicians, donors. Their engagement is fueled by bio-monitoring, uncovering women’s unique toxic burdens and rapidly amassing scientific data linking exposure to health problems. Women’s engagement is rapidly translating into leadership in environmental health and justice, cutting across race and class. As this women’s movement connects with others, so does its political potential. Hear about opportunities and strategies using gender as an organizing frame.  

Fatima Angeles, California Wellness Foundation; Ellen Dorsey, Heinz Foundation; Tina Eshaghpour, Women’s Foundation of California; Mary Tyler Johnson, Johnson Family Foundation; Leslie Leslie, Fred Gellert Family Foundation, Anita Nager, Beldon Fund; and others will contribute in a highly engaging fishbowl conversation.

Sophia Kolehmainen is the deputy director of the Cedar Tree Foundation, an environmental foundation based in Boston. Prior to joining the foundation she worked in the nonprofit sector on issues related to new genetic technologies and law in Russia.

RELATED LINKS

WELL Network http://www.wellnetwork.org/
Women’s Foundation of California www.womensfoundca.org

The Gulf Coast Hurricanes: One Year Later

One year after the devastating hurricanes of 2005, the ecosystems and communities of the Gulf Coast are still struggling to recover and rebuild. The Gulf Coast has also become critical ground for philanthropic efforts to work differently across race, class, and issue areas and to employ creative responses to support grantees in non-traditional ways. This group discussion among and with Gulf Coast leaders will look at the region’s current status (in areas such as environment, health, equity, and civil-society capacity), major lessons learned, and new partnerships to guide this important work forward over the many long years to come.

Sharon Alexis is co-founder and director of Katrina House of Care, an organization that provides services to seniors and evacuees and helps find safe, affordable housing in New Orleans and rural Louisiana. Prior to that, Sharon served as a program officer for Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans for 22 years.

Stephen Bradberry is head organizer for the New Orleans Chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). He has worked with communities of color and low-income neighborhoods on environmental and social-justice issues for more than a decade. In 2005 Stephen was named a Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Human Rights Award Laureate.

Cynthia Sarthou is executive director of the Gulf Restoration Network, where she works with environmental, social justice, and citizens’ groups to restore the Gulf of Mexico to an ecologically and biologically sustainable state. Cynthia holds a law degree from the University of Mississippi and a master’s of law in marine affairs from the University of Washington. 

Penny Fujiko Willgerodt is vice president and senior philanthropic advisor for Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, where she administers the Gulf Coast Ecological Health and Community Renewal Fund, a collaborative grantmaking project focused on just and sustainable rebuilding in the Gulf Coast. Penny has two decades of experience in philanthropy and serves on numerous boards and committees.

RELATED LINKS

ACORN http://www.acorn.org/

The Russian Far East: Ten Years of Conservation in a Global Hotspot

The Russian Far East is home to the world’s most vibrant brown bear and salmon populations, inhabiting giant watersheds that mirror and complement Alaska and British Columbia. Enormous conflict is brewing between these natural systems and cash-strapped Russia’s drive to extract natural resources. Russian environmentalists have conserved millions of acres of wild lands in the past decade, although much more remains to be done. This panel will discuss the globally important nature of the Russian Far East, the unique opportunities it presents for philanthropic leverage and science-based conservation, and courageous environmental heroes who are developing Russia’s increasingly vibrant civil society.

Xan Augerot oversees scientific programs at Wild Salmon Center and co-directs the State of the Salmon Consortium. Xan’s experience in salmon conservation in Russia, Japan, Canada, and the United States led her to author Atlas of Pacific Salmon, the first map-based status assessment of salmon in the North Pacific.

David Gordon is the executive director of Pacific Environment, which has been spearheading environmental initiatives in Russia since 1991. David’s commitment to partnering with and supporting Russian conservationists has been instrumental in the growth of the country’s grassroots environmental movement since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Michael Fischer has worked for over 35 years on environmental issues in the public and nonprofit sectors. Michael initiated the Hewlett Foundation’s grantmaking in the Russian Far East in the late 1990s and last year evaluated the environmental and social capital returns on the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s investments in this critical region.

RELATED LINKS

Pacific Environment http://www.pacificenvironment.org/

What’s the Matter with Coal? US Energy Demand Leaves Rural America Behind

From Appalachia to the Rocky Mountains, the coal mining necessary to meet our insatiable demand for energy is quietly undermining the American dream and disproportionately harming the poorest regions of rural America. Although environmentalists often overlook these typically conservative geographic areas, organizations working there are building powerful grassroots alliances that broaden the base of support for environmental protection. Join Appalachian community and environmental activists during this interactive session to discuss mountaintop removal coal mining—one of the nation’s largest hidden environmental and human-rights tragedies—and its impact on climate and our entire energy future.

Maria Gunnoe is a Cherokee Native resident of the southern coalfields and a coalfield community activist for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. She has been organizing against mountaintop removal mining for the past nine years. She is currently on the board of Southwings, an organization that provides flyovers of mining sites. 

Mary Anne Hitt is the executive director of Appalachian Voices, a nonprofit organization that brings people together to solve the environmental problems with the greatest impact on the central and southern Appalachian Mountains. Previously, she served as executive director of both The Ecology Center and the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project.

Burt Lauderdale has worked on coal and energy issues since joining the staff of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC) in 1983. Founded in the Appalachian counties of eastern Kentucky, KFTC is a statewide, multi-issue organization that uses grassroots, direct-action organizing, leadership development, strategic communications, and public-policy campaigns to create change.

David Orr is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics, and chair of the Environmental Studies Program at Oberlin College. David serves on the Rocky Mountain Institute board of directors and is a former trustee of the Educational Foundation of America, the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, and the Compton Foundation.

RELATED LINKS

Appalachian Voices http://www.appalachianvoices.org/
End Mountain Top Removal http://www.ilovemountains.org/
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition http://www.ohvec.org/

12:30 – 1:30 pm

Lunch

3:00 – 4:30 pm

Concurrent Sessions

Challenging the Status Quo: Emerging Environmental Leaders from Rural America

Most of the landscapes that the predominantly urban environmental movement works to protect are adjacent to rural communities. Yet the strategies employed to protect these landscapes have often alienated rural populations. As rural communities struggle with declining populations, an erosion of public services, and poverty rates surpassing those of urban areas, a new class of environmental leaders has risen to develop innovative approaches to restoring landscapes, rebuilding rural economies, and staving off development pressure. By working collaboratively to develop sustainable forestry and ranching and restore forests and watersheds, these leaders are providing solutions that critics frequently claim the movement lacks. 

Don Snow launched Northern Lights, a quarterly journal of arts, politics, and nature in the Rockies in 1984, when he was executive director of the Northern Lights Institute in Missoula, Montana. In 1998, he was appointed director of the University of Montana Environmental Writing Institute.

Diane Snyder is a fourth-generation rancher of Wallowa County, Oregon. Diane has extensive experience in land-use planning, community development, public mediation, and state and local government. She is executive director of Wallowa Resources, a community-based organization working to blend the needs of land and community in natural-resource management.

Frank Taylor is a forester, a funeral-home operator, and radio personality. Frank was recently honored with a third-place award for Small Farmer of the Year at the annual conference of the National Organization of Black Professional Natural Resources Conservation Service Employees.

Jeff Campbell has worked at the Ford Foundation for 15 years in the US, Indonesia, and India, focusing on community forestry and conservation-based community development. Born and raised in India, Jeff has also worked as an extension forester, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow, naturalist, photojournalist, teacher, ecotourism manager, ethnomusicologist, husband, father, poet, and birder. 

RELATED LINKS

Wallowa Resources http://www.wallowaresources.org/

From Worst to First: Los Angeles Goes Green and Clean

With the worst air pollution, lowest per capita green space, densest sprawl, and most gridlocked freeways, Los Angeles has long ranked as an environmental wasteland. Yet with the recent election of new city leadership, veteran environmental and environmental-justice advocates have taken the helm of the country’s largest municipally owned utility, largest port complex, and other key posts, where they are advancing ambitious policies. Learn more about the work of an unprecedented coalition of mainline environmental and grassroots environmental-justice organizations in steering Los Angeles toward national and global leadership in environmental sustainability, and extrapolate lessons for other cities and regions.

Paula Daniels is a commissioner with the Los Angeles Board of Public Works. The Department of Public Works is responsible for the infrastructure of the City of Los Angeles. She is the recipient of Heal the Bay’s Superhealer Award (1991) and the Environmental Leadership Award of the California League of Conservation Voters (2005).

Jerilyn Lopez Mendoza is an environmental-justice leader and a commissioner for the Port of Los Angeles, one of the largest ports with major health and environmental impacts for the region. As policy director for Environmental Defense, she has negotiated unprecedented community benefit agreements with the Los Angeles International Airport and other large-scale projects.

FACILITATOR

Torie Osborn serves as special advisor to the mayor of Los Angeles, working with the philanthropic sector to address the city’s most pressing urban problems. Formerly the executive director of the social justice–oriented Liberty Hill Foundation, Torie brings a deep understanding of the role of organizing in shaping public policy.

RELATED LINKS

Million Trees LA http://www.milliontreesla.org/

Green Chemistry: Where Science Meets Environment, Health, and Equity

Imagine that the materials, processes, and energy supporting human society were designed by scientists with no training in eco-toxicity. This is our world. Leaders in green chemistry are guiding a science revolution to change that, integrating knowledge of the environment and health into every new molecule. Because green chemistry relies on renewable feedstocks (not petroleum or gas), it also suggests significant new economic opportunity for rural communities. The speakers—a green-chemistry pioneer and a Native American sustainability leader—will discuss the new science and its relationship to embattled communities, strained ecosystems, and advocates defending them. 

Henry Red Cloud, Sr., is a direct descendent of Chief Red Cloud. He is the owner of Lakota Solar Enterprises and a lifetime resident of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He has been involved with sustainable development—wind, water, sun, natural building—for 15 years, bringing back buffalo to Indian lands, and empowering Lakota women.

John Warner directs the Center for Green Chemistry and is professor of Plastics Engineering and Community Health and Sustainability at University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Warner co-authored Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice and the “Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry.” He won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring in 2004.

Ellen Dorsey is an environmental program officer at the Heinz Endowments.  She is also an adjunct professor of International Politics in the Heinz School at Carnegie Mellon, a member of the board of directors of Amnesty International USA, and former executive director of the Rachel Carson Institute.

The River Unites Us: A Bi-National Effort to Restore Economic, Cultural, and Ecosystem Vitality to the Colorado Delta

In the arid southwest, the mighty Colorado is the river everyone loves to overuse. The forces that can—industry, agriculture, development, and municipalities—have staked claim to every drop of this national artery and the delta is drying. But a number of traditionally underrepresented water users have combined forces to simultaneously revive impaired ecosystems, rural economies, and cultural traditions. Come learn about an integrated river restoration model that unites environmentalists with farming communities, indigenous peoples, landowners, and institutional water managers in a bi-national effort to bring back the vitality and diversity of both the river ecosystem and the rich cultural communities.

Joaquin Murrieta-Saldivar is director of People, Culture, and Conservation at the Sonoran Institute. He has a PhD in anthropology from University of Arizona and wrote a thesis on Tohono O’odham cultural landscapes of the Pinnacate. He has expertise on tropical-forest indigenous groups of Central America and received a Pew Fellowship for Biodiversity Conservation in 1995.

Jennifer Pitt manages Environmental Defense’s efforts to protect and restore the Colorado River delta. She has published widely on the scientific, economic, and legal issues of restoration and co-authored the report “Conservation Priorities in the Colorado River Delta, United States and Mexico.” She lives in Boulder with her husband and daughter.

Enrique Salmón is a program officer for the greater Southwest and northern Mexico regions for the Christensen Fund. He earned a PhD in anthropology from Arizona State University. Enrique has published several articles and chapters on indigenous ethno-botany, agriculture, nutrition, and traditional ecological knowledge. 

Saving God’s Creation: The New Generation of Evangelical Environmentalists

Christian colleges are undertaking energy audits. Christian rock bands are performing songs about conservation. Young churches are holding prayer retreats in wilderness areas—all with no connection to environmental organizations or popular faith-based environmental networks. What attracts these emerging environmental leaders to the cause yet separates them from the environmental community? What impact can theologically conservative, socially progressive young Christians have on environmental policy? Why do young evangelicals say that environmental groups and donors won’t speak with them “because we are Christian”? Participants will learn about the new movement in support of “Creation-care” and strategies to work with these communities.

Peter Illyn is an evangelical minister who has spent a decade engaging Christians in national environmental campaigns. Focusing on young evangelicals and operating on a shoestring budget, Peter preaches at Christian colleges and churches nationwide, weaving progressive environmentalism with a conservative theology, putting him at the forefront of a grassroots “Creation-care” movement.

Dave Warners is a professor of biology at Calvin College, a Christian liberal arts college in Grand Rapids, Michigan. While engaging his students in environmental science and action, Dave also helped lead a 2005 pro-environment protest of President Bush’s commencement speech at the college, which received attention from national and international media.

Eric Kessler’s firm researches effective grantmaking opportunities for private foundations. Arabella Advisors recently completed an analysis of opportunities to support a budding grassroots environmental movement among young evangelicals. Previously, Eric was an appointee at the Interior Department and was the first national field director of the League of Conservation Voters.

RELATED LINKS

Calvin College http://www.calvin.edu/
Restoring Eden http://www.restoringeden.org/

4:30 – 6:00 pm

Open Time

We encourage you to use this time to relax, reflect, and truly retreat. Take advantage of the lovely location, and check your participant packet at the meeting for other ideas.

Green Chemistry Fair

sponsored by the Sustainable Consumption and Production Funders and the Health and Environmental Funders Network, a project of the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity

Stop by the Social Hall to experience some fascinating new work from the innovative world of green chemistry!  Professor John Warner (director of the Center for Green Chemistry) and his students will present cutting-edge projects to get you thinking and questioning your assumptions about what chemistry can offer for a greener world.

Hatha Flow Yoga Class with Amanda Dates
suitable for all levels
Please bring your mat if possible, and wear yoga clothes or loose fitting clothing.

Amanda Dates has been practicing yoga for eight years. She was originally introduced to it as a tool to relax and focus. She soon realized the truly transformative power of the practice and its logical connection to her work in the sustainability movement. She has worked to integrate the notion of “systems healing” into her practice and teaching. Amanda is the founder of Daterra Associates, and is currently in the development phase of a collaborative yoga/agriculture/food systems project called, Getting Back to the Source.

6:00 – 7:00 pm

Town Hall Meeting

Calling all members! Join EGA’s executive director Dana Lanza and EGA Management Board chair Mike Pratt in an open forum to hear all about what’s happening with EGA, and how you can jump in and shape things to come.

7:00 – 8:00 pm

Dinner

8:30 – 10:00 pm

Hoedown—Northern California Style

Now’s the time to dust off your dancing shoes—square dancing, that is! Local square-dance caller Andy Wilson will inspire you to grab your partner . . . well, you get the drift! Scrumptious food and wine abounds. What better way to enjoy your last night in Monterey?