Board of Directors

Akwasi Aidoo

ON LEAVE

Akwasi is the founding Executive Director of TrustAfrica, a grantmaking foundation dedicated to advancing democratic governance and equitable development in Africa. Akwasi has extensive experience in philanthropy. His previous positions include regional program officer for West and Central Africa at IDRC, head of the Ford Foundation’s offices in Senegal and Nigeria, and director of the Ford Foundation’s Special Initiative for Africa. He serves as a director on boards of several nonprofit organizations, including the Fund for Global Human Rights, Resource Alliance, International Beliefs and Values Institute, International Committee of the Council on Foundations, African Grantmakers' Network, Global Greengrants Fund; and previously served as a trustee of OXFAM America. Akwasi has taught at universities in Ghana, Tanzania, and the United States. He was educated in Ghana and the United States and received a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Connecticut in 1985. He writes poetry and short stories in his spare time. Akwasi has been an Independent Voting Member since January 2011.

Nnimmo Bassey

Environmental Rights Action

Nnimmo is a Nigerian human/environmental rights activist. He is the executive director of the Environmental Rights Action (ERA), – Nigeria’s foremost environmental rights advocacy group, and chair, Friends of the Earth International – the world’s largest federation of grassroots organizations fighting for environmental and social justice. Nnimmo is a member of the international steering committee of Oilwatch International. 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

Antaeus Enterprises

Jake is a recent graduate of New York University School of Law, where he studied environmental law and the legal implications of social enterprises. He is a former Executive Director and founding board member of the Law and Social Entrepreneurship Association, and was a legal intern at Acumen Fund during law school. Jake has professional experience in sustainable food and agriculture, environmental activism, energy conservation, and traditional philanthropy. Jake currently serves on the Young Patrons Steering Committee of Lincoln Center Theater, the New York Regional Board of Indego Africa, and is actively involved in the grant-making activities of the Prospect Hill Foundation. Jake Beinecke has been an Independent Voting Member since January 2011.

Maxine A. Burkett

University of Hawaii

Maxine is an Associate Professor of Law at the William S. Richardson School of Law, University of Hawaii and serves as the inaugural Director of the Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy (ICAP), a Sea Grant College Program. 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. Professor Burkett’s courses include Climate Change Law and Policy, Torts, Environmental Law, Race and American Law, and International Development. She has written in the area of Race, Reparations, and Environmental Justice. Currently, her work focuses on "Climate Justice," writing on the disparate impact of climate change on poor and of-color communities and the ethical and legal obligation owed to these communities. She has presented her research on Climate Justice throughout the United States and in West Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. Maxine Burkett is the Board Vice Chair and has been an Independent Voting Member since January 2010.

Helen Gemmill

Helen has a background in international development (B.A., Middlebury College, International Studies and French Literature, 2000) and environmentalism (M.A., Naropa University, Environmental Leadership, 2005). She has taught French and Spanish to high school students at a Waldorf School. She also founded and quadrupled the annual revenue for the Individual Giving program at Global Greengrants Fund from 2005-2009. She is currently focusing on pursuing research on how communities heal after conflict, by surveying major conflicts (wars and genocides) of the 20th-century an the ensuing outcomes decades later. Helen also sits on the boards of the Women Donor Network, the Community Foundation Serving Boulder County, and the White House Project. She resides in Boulder, Colorado and is a native of New Hampshire. Helen Gemmill 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’s staff in 1982 as a program officer and progressed to senior program officer. His program work at Public Welfare included environmental justice and international human rights. He is a graduate of Goddard College and received a master’s degree in organization management from Antioch New England. Larry currently serves on the board of directors of Stop It Now! and The Hesperian Foundation, and also serves as a trustee of Goddard College. He has served as a board member and co-chair of the National Network of Grantmakers; as a board member and vice chair of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy; as a member of the Committee on Inclusiveness of the Council on Foundations; on the steering committee of the Working Group on Funding Lesbian and Gay Issues; and as a director of the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers, the Center for Economic Justice and the Share Foundation. Larry Kressley is the Board Secretary and Treasurer; he has been an Independent Voting Member since January 2010.

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 work with the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Tobacco Free Project, Mele funded local groups and coordinates a coalition of community based organizations fighting the tobacco industry in San Francisco and internationally. She serves on the board of Corp Watch and is an ex-officio board member 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 and has been an Independent Voting Member since January 2009.

Michael Lerner

The New School at Commonweal

Michael is President and founder of Commonweal, a health and environmental research institute in Bolinas, California, and of Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts in Washington, D.C. He is also co-founder of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment, www.healthandenvironment.org, an international partnership for people interested in or working at the interface between the environment and human health. Michael's most recent project is The New School at Commonweal, www.commonweal.org, which explores the interface between ecology, culture and the inner life. Michael sits as president on the Board of Directors for the Jennifer Altman Foundation. 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

Joseph Rowntree Trust

Stephen has worked at Joseph Rowntree Trust since 1986 and has been the Trust Secretary since 2001. While at the Trust he has overseen 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.