Board of Directors
Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director of Advancement Project
Vice Chair
Judith Browne Dianis is the Executive Director of Advancement Project, a Washington, D.C.-based multi-racial civil rights organization known for its pioneering, grassroots work to end the school-to-prison pipeline. Most recently, Advancement Project has challenged the growing trend of public-school closures and privatization in communities of color. Dianis joined the Advancement Project at its inception in 1999 after serving as the Managing Attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund. A graduate of Columbia University School of Law, she was awarded a Skadden Fellowship, served as a Tobias Simon Eminent Scholar at Florida State University Law School, and as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Katie Eder, Founder and Executive Director, Future Coalition
Katie Eder (she/they) is an organizer, student, and climate justice advocate. Katie is a co-founder and Strategy Director of Future Coalition. Built by youth activists for youth activists, Future Coalition is a national network and community for youth-led organizations and youth activists across the country. Future Coalition works collaboratively to lower the accessibility barrier to youth organizing by providing young people with the resources, tools, and support they need to create change in their communities. Future Coalition has provided significant infrastructure and support to the youth-led climate justice movement over the last four years. Originally from unceded Kickapoo, Potawatomi, and Menominee land in Milwaukee, WI, Katie is now a Junior at Stanford University concentrating in transforming the American Political System.
Arturo Garcia-Costas, Program Officer, New York Community Trust
Arturo Garcia-Costas is the New York Community Trust’s Program Officer for the Local, National, and International Environment. In June 2020, he was appointed to the board of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority. He has worked for the Environmental Protection Agency, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Congressman Jerry Nadler. In the early 2000s, Arturo also managed a United Nations Development Programme initiative to help developing nations implement the 1994 Earth Summit treaties. Arturo earned a B.A. from the City University of New York, a J.D. from Stanford Law School, and an M.S. in Urban Policy and Leadership from Hunter College.
Jeffrey Glueck, Founder & CEO, Salvo Health
Chair
Jeff is a longtime digital entrepreneur and environmental activist. Currently, he is CEO of Salvo Health, a startup aiming to improve access to better health care and make it more affordable for millions of Americans living with chronic health conditions. Previously, he helped found Hawkfish, a digital tech and data platform for progressive campaigns and causes, based in New York City. In 2019 he was named to Business Insider’s list of leaders inventing the future of marketing technology.
Jeff served for five years as CEO at Foursquare, the location technology company, and as CEO for Skyfire Labs in Silicon Valley, which built technology to make mobile networks more efficient around the world. He previously served as Chief Marketing Officer for Travelocity, where he launched the Travelocity Roaming Gnome, and created “Travel for Good” including the first carbon offset program of any online travel agency. He has held positions advising Latin American governments on sustainable development and as a White House Fellow in the Clinton administration working on green trade and renewable energy financing. He is married and lives in New York, and on the weekends enjoys hiking and spending time with his three young children.
Eva Hernandez, Managing Director, Sierra Club
Eva Hernandez has worked for the Sierra Club since 2009, leading organizational development and design and building teams to develop successful community, state and national campaigns to protect people and the planet. Before becoming Managing Director in 2021, Eva served as the National Program Director and on the Executive team, working to lead the Sierra Club’s Clean Energy for All work, to further collaboration across campaigns while emphasizing equity and justice to maximize our effectiveness as an organization and partner across the movement. Eva has always worked to create a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive environmental and social justice movement. Before joining Sierra Club, Eva worked for or served on the boards of several environmental and social change organizations, including MoveOn.org, Dogwood Alliance, Green Corps, Building Equity & Alignment Initiative, GoAustin/Vamos Austin (GAVA), and Environment Texas. She believes in the power of people and communities, as she strives to put her core values of justice and integrity into practice every day. To recharge, Eva reconnects with nature in the Texas Hill Country or at some swimming hole near Austin, TX, where she’s based.
Nancy Metayer Brown, Senior Manager, Energy, and Equity Specialist
Nancy Metayer is an environmentalist and advocate. She is a graduate of Florida A&M University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree, and Johns Hopkins University where she earned her Master of Health Science degree. Nancy has over a decade of public service experience, with a record of championing community resilience and building pipelines for access and equity while leveraging the power of data and amplifying the importance of coalition-building.
Nancy has worked across multiple government agencies and nonprofit organizations – both domestically and internationally. She has brought long-term strategic expertise to programs seeking to improve environmental and public health conditions across vulnerable communities. She has worked extensively in response to the impacts of climate change and its intersectionality. In 2020 she made history by becoming the first Scientist, first Black Woman, and first Haitian-American elected to the Coral Springs Commission.
Ruth Miller, Climate Justice Organizer, Native Movement, Wilson Center
Ruth (Łchavaya K’isen) is a Dena’ina Athabaskan, and Ashkenazi Russian Jewish woman raised in Dgheyay Kaq (Anchorage), Alaska. She is a member of the Curyung Tribe from the Lake Clark region and also has roots in Bristol Bay. She is a recent graduate from Brown University, built on occupied Wampanoag and Narragansett lands, and received a BA in Critical Development Studies with a focus on Indigenous resistance and liberation.
Ruth is the Climate Justice Director for Native Movement, a matriarchal grassroots Indigenous organization that fights for the rights of Indigenous peoples, our lands and waters, and justice for our ancestors and descendants. She has worked many years towards climate justice and a regenerative economy for all on her lands and beyond; her work also includes international advocacy, including attending the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the UN Youth Climate Summit, COP25 in Madrid, Spain, and the Continental Gathering of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMIA). She is a daughter, a granddaughter, and an aunty.
Dr. Michelle Montgomery, Ph.D., Associate Professor of American Indian Studies and Ethnic, Gender, and Labor Studies: School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington – Tacoma
Dr. Michelle Montgomery (enrolled Haliwa Saponi/descendant Eastern Band Cherokee) is an Associate Professor of American Indian Studies and Ethnic, Gender, and Labor Studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, Tacoma. She is also the Assistant Director for the Office of Undergraduate Education, and the Indigenous Curriculum and Community advisor for the School of Education. Dr. Montgomery’s research focuses on Indigenizing and decolonizing the climate justice narrative, environmental ethics connected to Indigenous Peoples’ identities, and eco-critical race theory to eliminate racial and environmental oppression.
Stephen Nemeth, Founder and CEO, Rhino Films
Stephen Nemeth formed and heads up Rhino Films, the independent film company that originated as a division of iconoclastic record label Rhino Records. He has produced and executive produced dozens of films including, “The Sessions, C.O.G.,” “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” “Why Do Fools Fall in Love,” and recently released, “Fear and Loathing in Aspen.”
Nemeth’s documentary credits include, “Dogtown and Z Boys,” “Wardance,” “Fuel,” “Flow,” “Climate Refugees,” “Good Fortune,” “Higher Love,” “Kiss the Ground,” and “137 Shots.” In addition to Friends of the Earth, Nemeth has served on the boards of Children Uniting Nations, the Wildlife Eco station, the Woodstock Film Festival, Wheels for Humanity, Shine on Sierra Leone, and OneVoice. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and a graduate of UCLA.
Chris Paine, Writer/Director
Chris Paine is an environmentalist and filmmaker best known for his documentaries “Who Killed the Electric Car?,” “Revenge of the Electric Car,” and “Do You Trust this Computer?” about artificial intelligence. He also executive produced “Bikes vs Cars,” Charge,” “Faster,” and “No Maps for These Territories” among other projects. Environmental work includes campaigns against California freeway expansion, fracking, nuclear weapons testing, and corporate disinformation in the wake of oil spills. Chris is a graduate of Colgate University in New York and a native Californian. He is an avid mountain biker swimmer and advocate for renewable power.
Soroush Richard Shehabi
Soroush has experience in finance, law, business, politics, and media, with expertise in energy/environmental security, foreign policy, and political organizing. Soroush served 10 years as Vice Chairman of Friends of the Earth and serves on the Legal, Communications, Program, Audit, and Executive Committees. He owns and runs an international media services company and publishes a magazine in Washington, DC. Soroush enforced environmental laws in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he successfully litigated numerous complex multi-party cases in federal courts. He also worked in corporate finance at Salomon Brothers, focusing on pollution control and emerging clean energy technologies. Soroush has worked on three presidential campaigns, notably for Gen. Wesley Clark as Senior Policy Advisor for energy and environment and John Kerry as Political Constituency Director in Pennsylvania. He obtained a J.D. from the University of California and an A.B. from Harvard University with an honors thesis on global environmental security.
Rae Richman, Social Impact Advisor
Secretary
Rae is a cross-sector philanthropic leader with twenty-five years of experience providing strategic consulting and facilitation services to organizations of all sizes, including family and corporate foundations, leading nonprofits and a wide range of Fortune 500 corporations. She currently works at the intersection of psychedelics and philanthropy with corporate and individual donors. Previously Rae was the first Head of Global Citizenship at Airbnb and a Vice President at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors (RPA).
Rae holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and Master’s in Business degrees from Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley, through the Berkeley/Columbia Executive MBA program. Passionate about facilitating community-based transformative experiences, Rae was a founding Board Member and Strategic Advisor for Burning Man Project.
Marc Zionts, CEO Synacor (Cloud ID & Zimbra), PE Advisor and Athlete
Treasurer
Marc Zionts, an executive, athlete, and environmentalist, has been successfully leading companies since 1987. Zionts is currently the CEO of Synacor, a Centre Lane Partners portfolio company. Zionts is also an Independent Board Director for TEOCO and an advisor to Precision Nutrition.
Zionts earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Zionts has been happily married for over 31 years and has four kind adult children. Besides enjoying spending time with his family, Zionts is an avid outdoorsman and an accomplished criterium, cyclocross, and velodrome bicycle racer.
Arlie Schardt, Founder and Director, Environmental Media Service
Chair Emeritus (deceased)
Arlie Schardt was Chair Emeritus of Friends of the Earth. He covered the 1960s civil rights campaigns for TIME magazine, was a staff writer for Sports Illustrated, Associate Legislative Director for the ACLU (where he co-chaired a national campaign to impeach Richard Nixon, one year before Watergate), executive director of the Environmental Defense Fund, News Media editor at Newsweek, chief of the News Service at Sports Illustrated, National Press Secretary for Al Gore’s 1987-88 presidential campaign, and editor of Foundation News magazine. He has written features and op-ed pieces in numerous national magazines and leading dailies. He has also contributed to three books on politics and national issues, including “Investigating the FBI.” His book, “Amnesty, the Unsettled Question of Vietnam,” went through three printings and was a factor in President Jimmy Carter’s granting amnesty to hundreds of thousands of Vietnam war resisters.