Archives: People

Anna is a national bestselling author and an internationally recognized expert on food systems. The author or co-author of three books and contributing author to a dozen more, Anna is a recipient of the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award and a TIME magazine Eco Who’s Who. Her most recent book, Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork, was recognized as an environmental book of the year by Booklist. Anna is the founder or co-founder of two national organizations, the Small Planet Institute and Fund and Real Food Media. At Real Food Media, Anna and her team work with partners nationwide to catalyze creative storytelling about food, farming, and sustainability. The former co-host of the PBS show, The Endless Feast, Anna hosts the podcast, Real Food Reads, and regularly speaks to audiences around the country. In addition, Anna serves as a consultant to philanthropists funding food system transformation and is the director of the Food & Democracy for a family foundation based in Marin. Anna lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and their two daughters.

For nearly 35 years, Alisa has led Green America, the national green economy organization. Green America develops marketplace solutions to social and environmental problems with a key focus on climate, sustainable agriculture, fair trade and responsible finance.

Green America operates the nation’s largest green business and consumer networks. Ms. Gravitz is a leading expert on how families and businesses can “go green,” saving money and resources. As part of Green America’s Center for Sustainability Solutions, which focuses on transforming supply chains, she co-chairs innovation networks on carbon farming, sustainable agriculture, solar and clean electronics.

Ms. Gravitz’s board service includes Ceres, Positive Future Network, Network for Good, Non-GMO Project and Underdog Foundation. She earned her MBA from Harvard University and her BA in economics and environmental sciences from Brandeis University. Green America is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

Stefanie has been publishing environmental news for nearly 30 years. Her life’s work has been focused on amplifying and uniting the voice of the grassroots movement while mobilizing millions to engage on the most important issues impacting people and planet. She founded EcoWatch in 2006 to publish a newspaper that educated people on the most important environmental news. In 2011, Stefanie and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. co-founded EcoWatch’s website, which has grown to become one of the nation’s top environmental news sites. When Stefanie is not in front of her computer, she is likely to be found on the water paddleboarding her beloved Lake Erie.

Kris is Strategic Adviser and CSR Manager for Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, the top-selling brand of natural soaps in North America. She is responsible for overseeing and managing many diverse projects under the umbrella of sustainability and social responsibility.

Kris advises the Special Operations Team and affiliated Fair Trade projects on financial and operational matters, provides integrated risk assessments on new business ventures, and works to institutionalize Dr. Bronner’s sustainability efforts across multiple levels of the company, from operations to governance. Prior to joining Dr. Bronner’s, she worked in the non-profit sector for programs serving recently resettled refugee and immigrant youths in San Diego.

Kris earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard University and a graduate degree in International Economic Development from UCSD. She is a former hospice volunteer, as well as a design enthusiast, and she enjoys adventure travel. She was born in 1974 in Taiwan and currently lives in Encinitas, California with her husband David and their daughter Maya.

The founder of Center for Food Safety’s Soil Solutions program, Diana Donlon has a proven history of creating widespread awareness about the importance of healthy soil to climate stability at the local, national and international level. Soil Solutions to Climate Problems, a short film she conceived of and produced, was screened during COP21 (the Paris Climate Conference), in December 2015. Soil Solutions created an aesthetic that has been widely emulated, and its animated footage has been incorporated into two feature-length documentary films. Diana, a skilled public speaker, excels at identifying trends, and she brings a depth of social and intellectual capital to the soil and climate movement. Diana has a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of California, Berkeley; a Master’s in Education from Harvard University and served two years in Peace Corps, Morocco.

Rebecca is Executive Director of Fibershed, and Chair of the Board for the Carbon Cycle Institute. She has over a decade of experience writing and implementing hands-on curriculum that focuses on the intersection of restoration ecology and fiber systems. She has taught at Westminster College, Harvard University, and has created workshops for a range of NGOs and corporations. She is the author of the best-selling book Harvesting Color, a bioregional look into the natural dye traditions of North America. She has built an extensive network of farmers and artisans within our region’s Northern California Fibershed to pilot the regenerative fiber systems model at the community scale.

Sarada Tangirala is the National Campaigns Manager at Women’s Voices for the Earth, where she leads corporate campaigns aimed at eliminating toxic chemicals from products that impact women’s health and our communities. Before joining WVE, she led market-based change efforts at the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics. Her social justice history also includes coordinating Project Underground’s Chevron Nigeria campaign and conducting strategic corporate research for environmental justice campaigns at the DataCenter. She holds a Masters in Public Policy from Oregon State University, and a BA in Sociology from UC Davis.

Susan Grelock is the senior communications lead at Amy’s Kitchen and has worked in marketing for values-based brands for over a decade. In addition to the food movement, she is interested in how communications can be used to support conservation work. She is currently working on dissertation research into how the arts can support conservation communication. Her field research is focused on the Yellowstone to Yukon corridor, where she has been interviewing biologists, artists, and conservationists interested in human-wildlife coexistence. To get in touch with Susan, go to LinkedIn.

Sunya Ojure is the senior sustainability manager for Salesforce, where she leads sustainability communications, event greening and stakeholder engagement initiatives. She is passionate about creating happy, healthy communities at Salesforce and beyond. Sunya has a MBA from Presidio Graduate School, BA from Brown University and over ten years of experience building sustainability programs at diverse organizations, from nonprofits to Fortune 500 companies. Her best days involve bringing people together, problem solving and crafting stories to inspire change.