Our Team

Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica is a nationally recognized expert on energy subsidies who for more than a decade has worked to reform U.S. tax and budget policy in ways that reduce pollution and spark a transition to clean energy.

Liz Butler is the Vice President of Organizing and Strategic Alliances at Friends of the Earth. Butler brings over 25 years of experience organizing and campaigning on critical issues, with a focus on both corporate and legislative campaigns.

Michelle Chan is the Vice President of Programs for Friends of the Earth and oversees its campaigns, communications, organizing and political work.

Julie is responsible for compliance, manages the organization’s Finance and Operations Teams, the day-to-day operations of HR and is the chief organizer of the board of directors. Julie studied conflict resolution at George Mason University and is a trained mediator.

Peter Stocker directs our membership and development program and has a wide range of development experience in Europe, Central America and the U.S.

Lisa leads our work to rapidly transition the food system to one that is regenerative, resilient, healthy and equitable

Jenny is from Brooklyn, NY and has been building people power to create solutions to environmental and social issues since she learned about the dangers of climate change in high school.

She implements and tracks HR processes, ensures the organization is in compliance with state charitable solicitation registration and insurance requirements, manages the intern and fellowship programs, launches staff performance evaluations, and acts as the staff point of contact for benefits administration.

Donna Chavis has over 40 years of service in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors on the local, state, and national level and currently serves as Senior Fossil Fuels Campaigner with Friends of the Earth U.S.

Britten Cleveland is a Senior Regional Organizer with Friends of the Earth working to grow and engage our activist base across the country to build long-term people power.

Jeff Conant directs Friends of the Earth’s international forests program, which protects forests and the rights of forest-dependent peoples by addressing the economic drivers of forest destruction.

Stacey Conn is the executive assistant to Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth, where she manages all requests for his time. 

Denise is Friends of the Earth’s data systems administrator. She manages our donor database of record and supports FOE’s mission by ensuring the integrity of our supporter data.

Jason is a Food and Agriculture Campaigner at Friends of the Earth. He supports the Bee Action Campaign.

Kate DeAngelis is a senior international policy analyst, working to end public financing for fossil fuels and give a voice to affected communities.

Aisha Dukule is a Press Officer at Friends of the Earth, where she manages external communications and rapid response for the organization’s campaign teams.

Audrey Fox is the digital communications coordinator at Friends of the Earth. She produces social content for the organization, tracks and analyzes metrics, coordinates between the communications and campaign teams, and manages the website.

As the Friends of the Earth Fossil Fuels Program Manager, Nicole works to protect the public from dangerous big oil and coal money grabs, land giveaways, and the rollback of critical safeguards by exposing conflicts of interest and ethics violations at government agencies.

As part of the Membership and Development team, she leads our state and local digital advocacy, ensures the smooth operation of our email program, and supports our online fundraising.

Sarah is the Grants Coordinator working with Friends of the Earth’s development team. She works directly with the grant writer and all team members to orchestrate grant applications, reporting, foundation outreach, and more.

As financial analyst, Marco primarily helps with various analysis, budgeting, payroll allocation, financial closing, advance excel and integration projects.

Kari leads the organization’s animal agriculture work, including a climate-friendly food service initiative that aims to leverage state, municipal, K-12 and university food purchasing dollars to support local farmers and ranchers and drive market shifts and consumption towards healthier, plant-forward, sustainable food.

Emily is Friends of the Earth’s grant writer based in Berkeley, CA, and works on the development team to help fund all of the organization’s campaigns.

Whether it’s showing up at your member of Congress’ office, protesting at a hearing on Capitol Hill, or texting and calling you before an event, Drew and the Organizing team help you take the actions that protect our planet when it matters most.

Erin Jensen is the Deputy Communications Director for Friends of the Earth, where she helps manage the day to day operations of the communications department and generate media coverage for the organization’s various campaigns.

His work at FOE primarily concerns reducing pollution from shipping, and he has worked to help establish the U.S. & Canada’s Emission Control Area and the Polar Code – a suite of regulations pertaining to Arctic and Antarctic shipping.

Marcie directs our oceans and vessels program and provides legal advice to our board and staff as legal director.

As Friends of the Earth’s Senior Donor Relations Manager, Jonathan works directly with donors to help them achieve their philanthropic goals. Jonathan ensures donors are kept informed of their impact through face-to-face visits, telephone calls and other personalized communications.

Kendra Klein, PhD is Senior Staff Scientist at Friends of the Earth where she leads work on food and farming solutions.

Katharine Lu is the Senior Sustainable Finance Manager at Friends of the Earth US. She leads the organization’s research on new models of sustainable finance and development, primarily those from China and other emerging markets.

Adam is responsible for Friends of the Earth’s direct mail fundraising program and quarterly member newsmagazine, and has over ten years of fundraising experience.

Sarah is Friends of the Earth’s Operational Assistant. She oversees the day-to-day logistical & operational needs of all the Friends of the Earth offices and remote staff.

Gaurav serves as the Senior Forests and Lands Campaigner at Friends of the Earth. He advocates for private financial institutions to stop financing deforestation and human rights violations.

Carrie works to grow our digital base and gives people ways to take online action on the issues they care about.

As Art Director, Josette manages all visual aspects of the Friends of the Earth brand for both print and web.

Ariel collaborates closely with campaigns to develop materials and policy recommendations for activists, journalists and key decision-makers, as well as monitors, researches and analyzes legislative and regulatory attacks on the environment and public health.

Paolo serves as the Sustainable Food and Agriculture Campaign Associate for Friends of the Earth where he continually elevates the market and policy campaigns to the eliminate the use of toxic pesticides and create a sustainable and just food system.

For 18 years, Doug Norlen has conducted successful advocacy to achieve environmental, developmental and accountability policy reform of multilateral trade and finance institutions, export credit agencies and private banks.

Karen Orenstein is Director of the Climate and Energy Program at Friends of the Earth U.S. She previously oversaw the sustainable finance program, which covers international energy financing by the U.S. and China, as well as Wall Street backing of the climate crisis.

Dana Perls is the senior food and agriculture campaigner with Friends of the Earth, and leads the Food and Agriculture team’s international and national regulatory and market campaigns on biotechnology and genetic engineering.

As a member of the Development team, Martin writes and edits membership email communications, drafts advocacy petitions, and collects signatures from FOE members and supporters.

Bryan Pomeroy is the Member Relations Specialist at Friends of the Earth. He processes gifts, assists with our direct mail fundraising program, and works to provide an excellent member experience for our donors.

Lukas Ross is a senior policy analyst at Friends of the Earth. He works on greening the federal budget and ending subsidies for polluting industries.

Sharon Smith is Friends of the Earth’s senior accountant. She brings with her more than 20 years of accounting experience.

Hallie Templeton is Friends of the Earth’s senior oceans campaigner, leading our strategic campaign to highlight the dangers of industrial ocean fish farming and expand support for sustainable seafood production alternatives.

Jahnavi is the finance director at Friends of the Earth. She comes to us with more than 15 years of accounting management experience with various non-profit organizations.

Elizabeth Vaughan serves as the Senior School Food Specialist with Friends of the Earth where she works to strengthen a healthy, equitable, and sustainable food system across communities through institutional procurement, policy, and community engagement. 

Chloë Waterman currently serves as the program manager for Friends of the Earth’s Climate-Friendly Food Purchasing Program where she implements policy and markets campaigns to advance a sustainable and just food system.

Verner focuses on protecting the marine environment from shipping pollution and disturbance in the Pacific Northwest and Arctic.