Board of directors

Pesticide Action Network North America's Board of Directors include:

JD Doliner

Opus 4

JD Doliner is a principal of Opus 4, Arlington, Virginia, consulting with environmental businesses. She has been active in promoting socially responsible investment for more than 19 years. Before co-founding Opus 4 in 2002, JD was Senior Vice President at Environmental Enterprises Assistance Fund (EEAF) and she also managed a portfolio of direct investments for Solar Development Group, building an investment team for Latin America and Asia. During her tenure at EEAF, JD designed the first environmental venture capital funds for Latin America, and led efforts to engage $70 million in investments and $25 million in grants for four funds and several smaller programs. Before joining EEAF in 1993, JD was Director of Communications for Temple University Health Sciences Center. JD also serves on the boards of IBENS (Viabilizando negócios éticos e sustentáveis, Brasil), Fiber Futures and Oley Institute.

Martha Guzman

California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation

Martha is Legislative Advocate for the CRLAF in Sacramento, focusing on farmworker health and safety issues, environmental justice and education justice, including environmental hazards of heat-related illness and pesticide exposure. In 2003, she served as the Legislative Coordinator for the United Farm Workers, AFL-CIO, covering a range of labor and environmental issues. She is currently a member of the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, and is a council member of the Roots of Change Fund working towards the transition to a healthier food system in California, and a board member of Ag Innovations Network and Community to Community Development. She is a gubernatorial-appointed member to the California Water Commission and a member of the California Agricultural Leadership Program.

Jonathan Harrison

Rubicon National Social Innovations

Jonathan is a social entrepreneur who has devoted his career to economic justice and building and running community-based enterprises. He is presently the Director at Rubicon National Social Innovations, a think/do tank building new models for social enterprise implementation and expansion. Previously, he led lending programs at MACED in Berea, Kentucky, a community development financial institution focused on lending to viable but unbankable businesses in Appalachia. Jonathan co-founded alt.Consulting, a social mission-driven consulting firm and was a fellow of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise in North Carolina. His big city experience includes marketing management at Carnegie Hall and teaching in Xi'an, China. He has an MBA from the Yale School of Management. 

 Judy Hatcher

Environmental Support Center

Judy is Director of Programs for the Environmental Support Center, which helps build the capacity of environmental justice and advocacy organizations around the country through grants and other resources. Since 1981, Judy has worked as a grantmaker, a program manager, a consultant and a trainer for social justice groups all over the country. Previous employers include Amnesty International USA, the Funding Exchange, the Crossroads Fund, the Community Resource Exchange and the Center for Community Change. She was a consultant with the Grantsmanship Center and the Women of Color Fundraising Institute, among other organizations. Judy currently serves on the boards of directors of Changemakers, the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, the Pesticide Action Network of North America, and the Black Philanthropic Alliance. She is a program committee member of the Twenty-First Century Foundation.

Ellen B. Kennedy

Calvert Group

Ellen is a social investment research analyst with the Calvert Group in Bethesda, Maryland, a socially and environmentally responsible investment firm. She joined Calvert in 2000 where she specializes in consumer safety, health and other product-related issues, as well as animal welfare and toxics. She focuses in particular on the food and agriculture industries. She has over ten years experience in environmental research and advocacy, and has also worked on international development, gender, and agricultural projects. She previously worked for Winrock International and the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. Ellen holds an M.A. in Latin American Studies and International Development from the University of California, Berkeley.

Shawna M. Larson

Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Indigenous Environmental Network

Shawna is aligned with two Alaska Native groups. She is Ahtna Athabascan (Indian) from Chickaloon Village on her father’s side, and Supiaq (Aleut/Eskimo) from the village of Port Graham on her mother’s side. Shawna is Environmental Justice Program Director at Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT). The Indigenous Environmental Network (a North American organization located in Minnesota) helps support this position. Shawna has established an international reputation because of her successful efforts to garner support for the U.N. treaty to eliminate twelve of the most deadly chemicals worldwide. She was identified as one of thirty young U.S. visionaries by the Utne Reader in 2002 and took part in the Environmental Leadership Program in 2004. Shawna was effective in establishing programs in hospitals and clinics throughout Alaska for safe disposal of medical waste. She is one of the trainers for the Democracy School in Alaska and she served on the Traditional Council of the Village of Chickaloon, where she was elected to the executive committee as Secretary. Before her work with ACAT, Shawna was a youth representative to the International Indian Treaty Council.

Nikiko Masumoto

Masumoto Family Farm

Nikiko grew up on an 80-acre farm in Del Rey in California’s Central Valley and is committed to building a foundation for the next generation of farmers. She holds a B.A. in Gender and Women’s studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She is the daughter of David Mas Masumoto—a third generation farmer of organic peaches, grapes and nectarines, acclaimed author, newspaper columnist, and sustainable farming advocate. Nikiko is serving as apprentice in preparation for inheriting the farm and business. She is also a Taiko Japanese drummer, writer and poet and runs Central Valley school youth leadership programs that focus on issues of self esteem, sexism, body image, racism and language barriers.

Clara Nicholls, Ph.D.

University of California, Berkeley & Universidad de Antioquia (Colombia)

Clara is originally from Medellin, Colombia, and divides her time between teaching and research in Berkeley — where she is a professor with the Center for Latin American Studies; Colombia where she is an adjunct professor with Universidad de Antioquia; and travel throughout Latin American to work with NGOs. An entomologist (UC Davis) specializing in biological control, Clara’s research and advocacy focuses on participatory integrated pest management (IPM) strategies for small farmers in Latin America and agroecological strategies for conversion of conventional agricultural systems to low-input organic management. With Miguel Altieri, she coordinates the Latin American Consortium on Agroecology and Sustainable Development (CLADES) based in Chile.

Michael Picker

Lincoln Crow

Michael is a co-founder of Lincoln Crow, a strategic communications firm in Sacramento. He has 30 years of experience in policy development, government, grassroots policy campaigns, coalition building, community organizing, nonprofit management and press relations. Before founding Lincoln Crow, Michael served as Chief of Staff to Sacramento Mayor Joe Serna, Jr., as Deputy Treasurer of California, and Deputy Assistant to the Governor for Toxic Substances Control. He helped found the Toxics Coordinating Project, a coalition of environmental, farm, labor and neighborhood groups that framed local and statewide policy on toxic hazards in California. He was West Coast Director of the National Toxics Campaign, supervising coalition building and organizing in six Western states. His political experience includes serving on the Steering Committee for environmental initiatives Prop 65 (1986) and Big Green/Prop 128 (1988). A former lecturer at UCLA's Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning and instructor at Occidental College's Urban and Environmental Policies Institute, Michael holds an MBA from the University of California, Davis.

Amy C. Shannon

Enlaces America

Amy is Associate Director of Enlaces America, a program of Chicago-based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs & Human Rights. Enlaces America seeks to maximize the potential for transnational leadership and regional policy advocacy within Latino immigrant communities in the United States. In addition to her work with Enlaces, Amy has worked since 1997 as a non-profit management consultant, supporting foundations and NGOs with program design and project evaluation. Prior to that, she was a program officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation with responsibilities for grantmaking and strategy on biodiversity conservation in Latin America and sustainable development policy. She also serves on the board of Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente. She holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School, where she conducted research on rural financial systems, sustainable enterprise, and social marketing.

Jennifer Sokolove

Compton Foundation

Jennifer is the Program Officer for the Environment and the Family Advisory Board at the Compton Foundation. Her Environment portfolio covers grantmaking in the fields of freshwater, climate change, and community-based conservation in the western United States. She also manages a family grants program in sustainable food systems, youth, the arts, and spirituality. Jen has been working on sustainability issues for the past decade, with a focus on natural resource-based economies and collaborative decision-making. Prior to joining Compton, Jen worked on a variety of community-led projects in California, Montana, and the Pacific Northwest. She conducted post-doctoral research on sustainable food systems in northern California, and completed her PhD at UC Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science,Policy and Management. She received her BA from Stanford University in Human Biology (concentration in environmental policy) and English in 1994. She also serves on the board of the Switzer Foundation.

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