Board of Directors

Nnimmo Bassey

Environmental Rights Action/Oilwatch International

Nnimmo is a Nigerian human/environmental rights activist. He served as executive director of the Environmental Rights Action (ERA), – Nigeria’s foremost environmental rights advocacy group (1993-2012), and chair, Friends of the Earth International – the world’s largest federation of grassroots organizations fighting for environmental and social justice (2008-2012). Nnimmo is a member of the international steering committee of Oilwatch International and also coordinates the network. He is also a practicing architect in Nigeria as well as a published writer and poet. Nnimmo is a longtime advisor on the West Africa Advisory Board and served on the strategic planning committee. Nnimmo Bassey has been a Voting Member since January 2011.

Jake Beinecke

Open Space Institute

Jake Beinecke is a New York City-based attorney and strategic consultant with experience in sustainable food & agriculture, environmental conservation, social enterprise and philanthropy. He is currently a Program Analyst with the Open Space Institute, a $200m regional land conservancy, and has previously worked on the Legal Team at the Acumen Fund, a $100m global social venture fund. He was also, once, a professional cook. In addition to serving on Global Greengrants Fund's Board of Directors, Jake also serves on the Boards of the Prospect Hill Foundation and Page73, and is a former Executive Director of the Law and Social Entrepreneurship Association. A lifelong New Yorker, Jake graduated from Trinity School, Columbia University and New York University's School of Law. He has traveled extensively, but currently lives in Red Hook, Brooklyn with his girlfriend Julia, where he does his best to go after it, often on skis or a fish, wearing hiking boots or with a golf club in hand. Jake is the Board Secretary and has been an Independent Voting Member since January 2011.

Maxine A. Burkett

University of Hawaii

Maxine Burkett is an Associate Professor of Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawai‘i. Professor Burkett attended Williams College and Exeter College, Oxford University, and received her law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. An expert in the law and policy of climate change, she has presented her research on diverse areas of climate law throughout the United States and in West Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. From 2009-2012 Professor Burkett also served as the inaugural Director of the Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy (ICAP). At ICAP, she led projects to address climate change law, policy, and planning for island communities and raised and managed over $1.2 million in public and private funding. In its first three years, ICAP published six major climate adaptation policy documents for Hawai‘i and other Pacific Island nations. It also hosted numerous outreach and education programs on island resiliency and climate change and engaged state, national, and Asia-Pacific regional entities. In 2010, Burkett served as the Wayne Morse Chair of Law and Politics at the University of Oregon, where she was the Fall scholar for the Center’s “Climate Ethics and Climate Equity” theme of inquiry. She is the youngest scholar to have held the Wayne Morse Chair. Maxine Burkett is the Board Vice Chair and has been an Independent Voting Member since January 2010.

Larry Kressley

Larry was the Executive Director of the Public Welfare Foundation in Washington D.C. from 1991-2006. He joined the Foundation staff in 1982. Prior to becoming Executive Director, he was the Foundation’s senior program officer, and was responsible for the development of its disadvantaged youth, environmental justice and international human rights programs. He is a graduate of Goddard College and received a master’s degree in organization management from Antioch New England. Larry currently serves as chair of the board of directors of Stop It Now!, and as a member of the boards of Hesperian, the Institute for Community Peace and the Global Greengrants Fund. He has served as a trustee of Goddard College; a board member and co-chair of the National Network of Grantmakers; a board member and vice chair of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy; a member of the Committee on Inclusiveness of the Council on Foundations; and as a director of the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers and the Center for Economic Justice. Larry Kressley is Board Treasurer and has been an Independent Voting Member since April 2009.

Mele Lau-Smith

ExCEL After School Programs, SFUSD

Mele is Director of the ExCEL After School Programs at the San Francisco Unified School District, where she to seeks to create and sustain "safe havens" at public schools where students and community members can access learning opportunities and integrated programs in the out-of-school hours. Through her previous work with the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Tobacco Free Project, Mele funded local groups and coordinated a coalition of community based organizations fighting the tobacco industry in San Francisco and internationally. She serves on the board of the Chinese Progressive Association. Formerly she worked for the New York City Department of Health and has taught school in San Francisco and Nepal. Mele Lau-Smith is the Board Chair; she has been an Independent Voting Member since November 2002.

Michael Lerner

The New School at Commonweal

Michael Lerner is president and co-founder of Commonweal in Bolinas, California. Founded in 1976, Commonweal has program interests in health, the environment, education, and justice. He is the co-founder of the Commonweal Cancer Help Program, the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, and the New School at Commonweal -- three of Commonweal's twelve programs. Lerner is also president of the Jennifer Altman Foundation and the Barbara Smith Fund. He is co-founder and president of Smith Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C. He is past chair of the Consultative Group on Biodiversity, co-founder and chair emeritus of the Health and Environmental Funders Network, and serves on the boards of Global Greengrants in Boulder and the Wildflowers Institute in San Francisco. Michael Lerner has been an Independent Voting Member since January 2011.

Terry Odendahl

Global Greengrants Fund

Terry joined Global Greengrants Fund as Executive Director and CEO in 2009. Her vision and leadership have grown out of her three decades of experience in philanthropy, including stints teaching, writing, and organizing. Prior to Greengrants, Terry served as President of the New Mexico Association of Grantmakers. She has also been Executive Director of two women’s funds, the Business and Professional Women's Foundation and the Women's Foundation of Colorado, and Program Director at the Santa Fe Community and Wyss Foundations. For a decade in the 1990s, she served as Executive Director of the National Network of Grantmakers where she led a campaign to increase foundation payout. In 2004-5 she was Neilsen Chair in Philanthropy at the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute. She served on the faculties of Yale University’s Program on Nonprofit Organizations and the University of California, San Diego Women’s Studies Program. Terry Odehdahl is the Executive Director & CEO of Global Greengrants Fund and an Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Directors.

Stephen Pittam

Stephen worked at Joseph Rowntree Trust from 1986 to 2012, and was the Trust Secretary starting in 2001. While at the Trust, he oversaw the expansion of the Trust's work from Northern Ireland into Ireland, and the setting up of a local Racial Justice programme in West Yorkshire. Before joining JRCT in 1986, he spent 10 years in local government in London in roles involving liaison with the voluntary sector and support for community development. Previous to this he worked in community development projects in Ireland, Jordan and in the UK. Stephen is now responsible for the Power and Responsibility programme of the Trust. He represents the Trust at the Network of European Foundations and is chair of the European Policy Centre steering group on multicultural Europe. He is also a member of the working group – Philanthropy for Social Justice & Peace. Stephen Pittam has been an Independent Voting Member since January 2012.

Nonette Royo

Samdhana Institute

Antoinette Royo is a lawyer, specializing in defending indigenous peoples, natural resources and land rights in Southeast Asia. In the Philippines, she co-founded advocacy organizations for indigenous peoples and women’s rights. In Indonesia, Nonette helped foster environmental justice movements, including Greenpeace in Asia and a local network for community-based forest management. She has promoted community participation in natural resources management and land use planning frameworks. With the Samdhana Institute, Nonette helped develop the Indigenous People’s Support Fund, in tandem with the Greengrants Alliance of Funds in Brazil and Mexico. This program nurtures local indigenous organizations in protecting key biodiverse landscapes in the region. It provides funding, support, and the foundations for social/cultural/economic rights among local people. Nonette is the Research and Social Outreach Vice President of the Ateneo de Cagayan University in Southern Philippines. She also remains a member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, since 1991, practicing environmental and Public Interest Law. Nonette Royo has been a Voting Member since January 2010.