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.

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

Julie is the Chief Operating Officer and oversees the organization’s compliance, finance, human resources and operations work.

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

Luisa Abbott Galvao is a Senior International Policy Campaigner at Friends of the Earth, where she works to reform climate and energy policies at the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and other international financial institutions and to increase local and democratic control of financial systems and institutions.

Marta Alvarez is the Board Executive Assistant at Friends of the Earth; Marta has dedicated several years to serving as administrative support in the non-profit sector.

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

Darlene Azarmi is the Senior Democracy Campaigner at Friends of the Earth, where they are working to build momentum for an Independent Redistricting Commission in North Carolina while forging deeper ties between environmental and voting rights communities.

In her role, she creates content to move advocates to act on important issues that impact lives every day.

Terrance is directing organizing, coordination, and advocacy efforts in the Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, and Northwest regions to reduce air pollution from port and freight activity. 

She works with donors who are interested in making planned gifts, including bequests, IRA gifts, and charitable gift annuities and is passionate about helping donors meet their philanthropic goals.

Danielle oversees the organization’s lobby and electoral compliance with federal, state, and local entities, and ensures the organization is in compliance with state charitable solicitation registrations, trademarks and copyrights, and liability and health insurance requirements.

Anne works closely with the senior grants coordinator and rest of the team to produce high-quality, compelling written content and raise funds to support our mission.

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 Climate & Energy Justice Program Manager with Friends of the Earth U.S.

Megan is the Senior Digital Advocacy Specialist who leads our digital advocacy program using comprehensive digital strategy to optimize member engagement.

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 manages the office of the president. She is responsible for facilitating the president's internal and external relationships and the flow of information. Stacey is also the nexus between the president and the board of directors.

She leads our email fundraising efforts, working to garner support from members to further important programmatic work that makes a difference for the planet. 

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 leads our policy work to phase out the use of toxic pesticides, break up Big Ag and fight for equitable climate solutions across our food system

Kate DeAngelis is an International Finance Program Manager, working to end public financing for fossil fuels and give a voice to affected communities.

Malaika Elias is a Food and Agriculture Campaigner at Friends of the Earth, where she assists the Food and Agriculture team's national regulatory and market campaigns on biotechnology and genetic engineering.  

Audrey Fox is the digital communications manager 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.

Raena is the Fossil Fuels and Lands Campaigner at Friends of the Earth where she works to phase out oil and gas leasing on public lands.

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.

Lisa Gonzalez is a Senior Food and Climate Policy Analyst at Friends of the Earth, where she works to support climate-friendly federal food procurement initiatives.

Sarah is the Grant Manager 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 senior 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 towards plant-based foods.

Paloma supports resilient communities working to protect their health and our shared climate and oceans by preventing the construction of new petrochemical plants.

Caroline is the Senior Digital Production and Analytics Specialist at Friends of the Earth. As a part of the Membership and Development team, she ensures the digital program runs smoothly and analyzes and reports on the data surrounding the program.

Erin Jensen is the 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 main duty is using his design expertise to maintain and improve Friends of the Earth’s social media accounts.

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 works as a director of the oceans & vessels program and has championed bans on ship sewage discharge in CA, WA & National Marine Sanctuaries.

Jonathan Kellam is the Director of Philanthropy at Friends of the Earth. He advises donors on gifts that can have the greatest impact towards protecting the planet.

As Senior HR Generalist, she focuses on benefits management, leave administration, HR compliance, and compensation. 

Kendra Klein, PhD is Deputy Director for Science at Friends of the Earth where she leads work on food and farming solutions.

Kiara oversees the digital advocacy program including managing advocacy emails, digital fundraising goals & assisting with online-to-offline organizing.

Katharine Lu is the Senior International Finance Program 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 a Climate Campaigner at Friends of the Earth, where she works to decarbonize our energy sector.

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.

She works to shift private sector investment away from industrial animal agriculture and toward just and sustainable food production.

Kelly McNamara is a senior research and policy analyst in the International Climate and Agriculture Finance Program.

Monique leads our work to shift investment away from industrial animal agriculture & towards a just, plant-forward, agroecological food system

Brittany is a Senior Press Officer at Friends of the Earth, where she works to generate media coverage for the organization’s programs.

Ariel leads the Government and Political Affairs Department and sets the strategic direction for the organizations’ federal advocacy.

Kayla Mohammed serves as the Federal Policy Advocate for Friends of the Earth, where she supports the organizations federal advocacy with Congress and the Executive Branch.

Nabeelah Muhammad is the Social Media Coordinator at Friends of the Earth, where she creates digital content for FOE’s social media platforms and website.

Paolo serves as the Food and Agriculture Campaigner 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.

Dao Nguyen is the Staff Accountant at Friends of the Earth. As a part of the Finance team, she primarily helps with revenue activities.

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.

Veronica O’Hern is the Senior Compliance Specialist at Friends of the Earth, where she ensures organizational compliance.

Keiko Okisada is the design and multimedia manager at Friends of the Earth. She is a hybrid creative with diverse work experience as a video director/producer, post-production supervisor, graphic designer, and motion graphic artist

Karen Orenstein is Director of the Climate and Energy Justice Program at Friends of the Earth U.S, where she oversees efforts to ensure science-based, equitable, and just responses to the climate crisis.

As part of the Digital Membership and Advocacy team, she leads email production, assists in data and analytics projects, and manages FOE's comment & signature delivery systems.

Michelle Perez is the People and Culture Director at Friends of the Earth where she oversees the Talent Management functions that include recruitment, performance, benefits, and employee engagement.

Dana Perls is a Senior Food & Agriculture Program Manager 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.

Bryan Pomeroy is the Senior 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 program manager at Friends of the Earth. He works on greening the federal budget and ending subsidies for polluting industries.

She utilizes her marketing and content development skills to help with Friends of the Earth’s digital strategies.

She works to defund industrial animal agriculture, pushing public development banks like the World Bank to stop bankrolling factory farming.

She collaborates with campaigners on issues ranging from climate disinformation to global forest preservation, providing media cultivation support and messaging strategy. 

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

Amanda Sky is the Philanthropy and Donor Services Coordinator at Friends of the Earth. She fosters relationships with donors and connects them with the organization.

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

Liza Sprout is a Policy Campaigner for the Banks and Biodiversity campaign at Friends of the Earth, where she is working to end financing to harmful projects located in highly biodiverse and critical ecosystems.

Nora Stewart is the Manager of the California Climate-Friendly School Food Program and is passionate about leading innovative initiatives to offer healthy, climate-friendly, plant-based and plant-forward food in schools

Hallie Templeton is Friends of the Earth’s legal director and senior campaigner, where she manages and advances the organization’s legal portfolio and fights to stop the expansion of offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

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.

Preston VanAlstine is a Digital Advocacy Associate at Friends of the Earth where he delivers high impact digital content to engage our members on the issues that keep them up at night.

Kaleen works directly with the development team to create captivating content that effectively displays Friends of the Earth's mission and impact.

Chloë Waterman currently serves as the senior program manager for Friends of the Earth’s Climate-Friendly Food Program where she leads Friends of the Earth’s policy and markets campaigns to advance a healthy and climate-friendly food system.

Prior to joining Friends of the Earth, Larona has spent the last four years working within the Tides ecosystem as an HR Generalist for Tides Advocacy, and as an HR Manager for Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, a project of Tides Advocacy. 

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