Alisa Gravitz

CEO/President

For thirty years, Alisa Gravitz has led Green America, the national green economy organization. Green America develops marketplace solutions to social and environmental problems with a key focus on tackling climate change, building fair trading systems, accelerating corporate sustainability, and growing the green economy. Alisa brings her years of experience and knowledge of sustainability to the Center team. She is deeply involved with the development of strategy for the Center and co-chairs several of the Innovation Networks. 

Alisa is a nationally recognized leader in the social investment and solar industries. She authored Green America's acclaimed Guide to Social Investing and the popular Guide to Community Investing. She co-convened the Solar Circle and co-authored several solar thought-leadership papers including the Solar Opportunity Assessment Report (SOAR), the Solar High-Impact National Energy (SHINE) Project, and the Utility Solar Assessment (USA) Study: Reaching 10% Solar by 2025.

Alisa's board service includes Ceres, Positive Future Network, Network for Good, and the Underdog Ventures Foundation. She was on the founding boards of Business for Social Responsibility and the Social Investment Forum. Prior to Green America, Alisa worked on renewable energy and energy efficiency for the Carter administration, and small business and economic development issues in both the public and private sectors. She earned her MBA from Harvard University and her BA in economics and environmental sciences from Brandeis University. 

Pamela Brody-Heine

Director Clean Electronics Production Network

Pamela has over twenty-five years of program management and multi-stakeholder facilitation experience, with the last 15 years focused on promoting environmental and corporate social responsibility in the electronics industry via standards development and stakeholder processes. She is currently the Director of Clean Electronic Production Network (CEPN) – a multi-stakeholder, cross-industry collaboration that launched in 2016. CEPN serves as a platform for collaborative innovation where diverse stakeholders – including technology suppliers, brands, labor and environmental advocates, governments and other leading experts – work together to understand, address, and eliminate worker exposures to toxic chemicals in electronics production.

Previously, Pamela was Green Electronics Council’s Director of Standards Management, designing and managing multi-stakeholder processes to maintain the sustainability standards on the EPEAT Registry for product categories including personal computers and displays, servers, imaging equipment and PV modules and inverters. Before joining GEC, Pamela was an independent consultant, with projects including management and facilitation of the development of the ground-breaking Outdoor Industry Association and European Outdoor Group Eco Index Green Standard.

MARY Swanson

Senior Programs Specialist Clean Electronics Production Network

Mary Swanson is an environmental scientist with a career focus on reducing toxic chemical hazards in the environment. Mary has over 25 years of experience in environmental work including ecolabelling, developing tools for evaluating cleaner products and cleaner technologies, hazardous waste site remediation, and evaluating the fate and effects of chemicals in the environment. Before joining Green America, Mary led the certification program, reviewed products for certification, and participated in ecolabel standard development for Green Seal. Prior to that she worked as a research scientist with the University of Tennessee’s Center for Clean Products and Clean Technologies. She has a MSCE degree in environmental engineering/environmental chemistry from the University of Minnesota and a BS degree in natural resources/water chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, gardening, and volunteering as a Wisconsin Master Naturalist.

Ginger Leib

Program Manager,
Clean Electronics Production Network

Ginger serves as the Program Manager for the Clean Electronics Production Network where she manages operations, network events, special projects, and supports research.

Ginger's previous work has been in the nonprofit sector, where she has worked in program operations, event planning, and fundraising at open space organizations. Prior to joining Green America, Ginger completed her MA in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy, where she conducted research on housing, sustainable transportation, and workers' rights, and recently completed her thesis on fare-free bus programs in medium-sized cities. Ginger believes in elevating and raising awareness about the intersection of environmental justice, economic empowerment, and community resilience. Ginger lives in the greater Boston area and enjoys gardening, cooking, and mountain biking.

Jessica Hulse Dillon

Senior Director
Soil & Climate Alliance

Jessica has extensive experience in fostering cross-sector collaborations to drive systemic change. Her expertise lies in engaging diverse stakeholders to develop sustainable national supply chains, a focus that has been central to her work with member organizations.

This work has led Jessica to engage across industries including in the for- and non-profit worlds, as well across the government engaging both policy makers and policy implementors to create meaningful change that impacts the lives of those working to improve the world around them.

Working in both local and national food systems has allowed Jessica to more directly understand and engage in the issues that impact both our global food system and those on the front lines of this work. By connecting players across the food and agriculture spaces Jessica is able to identify the roadblocks in advancing the system and guide the development of solutions that address the root cause of the block. Focusing on all possible levers to create lasting change allows for solutions that address all sectors and players and lead to lasting change.

Throughout her career spanning multiple sectors including energy, maternal and newborn health, education, food access, and agriculture as well as a global approach from working with partners around the globe, Jessica has developed a versatile approach to problem-solving and collaboration.

Justine Ghai

Program Manager
Soil & Climate Alliance

Justine is the Program Manager for the Soil & Climate Alliance at Green America’s Center for Sustainability Solutions. She works with a community of leaders across the food and ag supply chain to drive soil regeneration and climate-based solutions across North America.

For more than a decade, Justine has been working in nonprofit management and conservation across the U.S. and abroad. Her expertise lies in communications and program and partnership development. Justine is a certified volunteer administrator with a Bachelor of Science degree in ecology and environmental biology from the University of North Carolina and a Master of Arts degree in biology from Miami University. Prior to Green America, she led all outreach and education programs for a county-wide land conservancy. Justine also developed the strategic direction for the organizations communications efforts and worked to expand experiential learning opportunities.

From running large-scale habitat restoration projects to working with farmers in rural Namibian communities, Justine brings unique insight into the importance of biodiversity and ecosystem regeneration. In her free time, she enjoys gardening, drawing, traveling, and being outdoors in nature. She is currently based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Lindsey Johnson

Program Coordinator, Soil & Climate Alliance

Lindsey is the Program Coordinator for the Soil & Climate Alliance through Green America’s Center for Sustainability Solutions. She supports general Soil & Climate Alliance operations and initiatives, assists with network events, and helps with the Nutrient Density Alliance. Interested in the intersection of climate and health, she focuses on work that promotes equitable food systems and regenerative agriculture. She is excited to bring her experience in project management, operational support, research, and communications to Soil & Climate Alliance initiatives. Lindsey is also passionate about the ways regenerative agritourism can support sustainable food systems and serves on the Sustainable and Regenerative Agriculture and Agritourism subcommittee of the Global Agritourism Network. Lindsey is also an alum of Terra.do’s Climate Farm School program.

TINA OWENS

Senior Advisor
Soil & Climate Alliance

Tina works at the intersection of regenerative business, financing on farm regenerative transitions, sustainable sourcing, supply chain management, fueling soil carbon sequestration, non-punitive cost savings, and topline growth. She has been at the forefront of several transformational shifts within the food system, including the Non-GMO Project movement, unprecedented growth on large organic brands, launching of the Certified Transitional protocol, and emerging Regenerative Agriculture certifications, agricultural carbon imperatives, and regenerative food and financial systems.

She has led major initiatives in sustainability on natural and organic brands as a Director at Kellogg's and created the first regenerative finance portfolio as a Senior Director at Danone North America (grant + philanthropic + impact investing).

Tina is a board member at Regenerative Rising, a member of GOOGLE Food Labs, and an advisor to the Culinary Institute of America for their Master’s degree in Sustainable Food Systems. She is currently the Senior Fellow at the Center for Sustainability Solutions at Green America, and co-leading the Nutrient Density Alliance for Regenerative Agriculture.

Since 2016 Tina has been focused on the food as medicine movement within the regenerative agriculture movement. She is passionate about the intersection between soil health, human health and nutrient density and unlocking on-farm profitability and inter-generational transfer within community-based agriculture. Growing consumer demand for regenerative products is central to accomplishing this mission.

Whether her work involves driving topline sales, reducing bottom line costs, or fundraising to meet company objectives, Tina has continuously risen to the challenge of the moment to meet business imperatives in the organic, non-GMO, regenerative agriculture and nutrient density spaces.

Tina values authenticity, transparency, trust, teamwork, creativity and working for the communal good. She is passionately committed to addressing climate change through agriculture and using business and consumer demand as forces for good. Tina and her husband of 25+ yrs own a farm in Michigan where they raise grazed pork, lamb, turkeys and more.

Adam Kotin

Managing Director
Soil Carbon Initiative

For the past decade, Adam has worked at the intersection of climate and agriculture in a variety of roles, from advocacy to technical analysis on issues ranging from soil carbon sequestration to farmland conservation. As a Senior Sustainability Consultant at Quantis, he led strategic sustainability projects and Life Cycle Assessments for major CPGs, ingredients start-ups, and fiber producers around the world, with a focus on natural climate solutions and regenerative agriculture.

Prior to Quantis, he was Director, Environmental & Regulatory Affairs for Wine Institute and Associate Policy Director at the California Climate & Agriculture Network (CalCAN), where he helped create California's Healthy Soils Initiative and other climate-smart agriculture programs. Adam's writing on ag sustainability has been published by Civil Eats and Greentech Media, among others.

He's partnered with growers from certified organic to conventional, and regularly works on side projects for a biodynamic farm in his home region of Northern California. Adam holds a Master's in Environmental Studies from Brown University and a BA in Environmental Analysis from Pomona College.

He lives in Providence, Rhode Island, where he spends his nights and weekends teaching acting and creating shows in his role as Co-Artistic Director of Dugway Theater.

Kristen Efurd

Verification Director
Soil Carbon Initiative

Kristen facilitates regenerative stewardship and co-creating revitalized food and farming systems by healing people, lands, and ecosystems. Growing up on a farm in rural Arkansas, she experienced first-hand the challenges many farm families face. This experience anchored her passion for sustainable food, regenerative farming, and rural livelihood creation. Her expertise spans sustainable operations, local food procurement, sustainable supply chains and food systems, and circular economy. She and her partner, Joe Balooshi, are building a small diversified regenerative farm in west central Arkansas.

Jeffrey Bos

Senior Director, Innovation & Design
Soil Carbon Initiative

Jeff Bos is a entrepreneur, values-based executive, wilderness wanderer and zen practitioner. He is a Strategic Advisor & the Director, Innovation & Verification for Green America’s Soil Carbon Initiative, a Soil & Climate Health Certification Program to support farmers and companies in the transition to regenerative agriculture.

He is a Co-Founder of Foment, a consultancy that partners with leaders and teams to foment visionary change through co-creating and co-cultivating regenerative cultures and programs.

Trained as an ecologist, Jeff has an MBA in Sustainable Business from the Bainbridge Graduate Institute (now Presidio Graduate School). He has worked as a facilitator for Capgemini’s Accelerated Solutions Environment and is trained in the Presencing Institute’s Foundations Program and U.Lab Process. Jeff worked in values-based finance including 6 years with Vancity Credit Union. During this time he also worked with the Global Alliance for Banking on Values, facilitating the Values Ambassador Program and then as a facilitation team member for the GABV Leadership Academy.

Jeff was a Mel King Community Fellow at MIT in 2015-2016 where he supported work on the Just Money MOOC. Following his time in values-based banking, Jeff worked for 4 years as the CFO/COO of The Non-GMO Project, and most recently as Co-CEO of Acme Farms and Kitchen.

Jeff is guiding partner and facilitator in Evolving the Myth, where he offers his depth of experience in leadership, facilitation, wander guiding and entrepreneurship to help shape the curated journey participants will experience in the immersive art environments.

He lives with his wife and son in Bellingham, WA - the traditional and unceeded territories of the Lummi and Nooksack peoples. Jeff spends as much time as possible wandering the old growth forests, North Cascade mountains and waters of the Puget sound, courting and deepening a sacred connection to land and Mother Earth.

megan tymesko

Company Program Manager
Soil Carbon Initiative

Megan serves as the Company Program Manager for Green America’s Soil Carbon Initiative. She’s inspired to collaborate daily with innovative and values-driven leaders supporting soil regeneration and prioritizing climate-based solutions throughout the US and abroad.

Prior to joining Green America, Megan’s background in environmental design influenced her passion for a wide range of sustainability initiatives that included involvement in nonprofit management, urban design, and integrative health and wellness. Her expertise lies in program and partnership development, corporate sustainability, design and communications, systems-thinking, and community-based programming. For over a decade, she’s developed wealth of experience in environmental leadership, most recently in advancing wellness brands on their sustainability journey and helping to reimagine the potential to evolve beyond.

Megan is committed to supporting the vitality of our people and planet and is an advocate for developing regenerative systems that work in harmony with nature. She holds a Bachelor's in Landscape Architecture, Certificate in Corporate Sustainability, and is a Certified Regenerative Practitioner. In her free time, Megan enjoys reading, yoga, beach volleyball, traveling, hiking, and harnessing wisdom from the natural world.

Julie Davenson

Farm Finance Specialist
Soil Carbon Initiative

Julie Davenson has spent the past decade immersed in the agricultural sector at the intersection of farm management, policy and food system advocacy, and developing regional supply programs. Most recently she developed the supply program a vertically integrated regenerative meat processing company contributing to regional financial pilots. She has experience managing regenerative farm transitions for both dairy farms and no-till market gardens systems.

Julie served as a HUB leader and Accredited Educator in the Savory Institute’s Global HUB Network where she managed the farm’s grazing program and participation in Stonyfield’s Open Team HUB trials. Building on her graduate level work in systems thinking, she is passionate about developing systems level solutions, like the SCI model, that address the polycrisis of climate change, food security and resulting economic instability.

As a core leader of the Northeast Healthy Soil Network, she led the planned the March 2023 Symposium of Financing the Regenerative Transition and is passionate about supporting the development of market solutions that deliver better value to farmers.

She holds a master's degree in Organization & Management from Antioch New England University. She currently serves on the Regenerate America’s National Steering Committee and is the Board President of the Northeast Organic Farming Association of NH. She lives in New Hampshire with her family where she raises goats and is planning to start a farm on her land.

tAYLOR HERREN

Program Specialist
Soil Carbon Initiative

Over the past decade, Taylor has worked to grow the healthy soil movement and scale regenerative agriculture. After earning a B.S. in Agriculture and M.S. in Regenerative Agricultural Systems from Chico State, she was integral in establishing what is now the Center for Regenerative Agriculture and Resilient Systems at the university while also working on several applied research project on farms located throughout California.

During this time, she also worked for the small, catalytic consulting team Breakthrough Strategies & Solutions on projects including a philanthropic and investment guide to scale soil carbon sequestration, campaigns and coalitions to advance state policies promoting healthy soils, and international conferences and working groups that convened farmers, funders, researchers, corporations, government officials, NGOs, and industry leaders.

She then moved on to join the team at Kiss the Ground as their Development Director. During her tenure, the organization tripled its operational budget and launched a full length self-titled documentary that was released on Netflix in 2020.

Currently, in addition to her role with the Soil Carbon Initiative at Green America, Taylor works on a regenerative vegetable and flower farm in Santa Barbara, CA where she spends time doing her favorite thing -- being on the land and putting her hands in soil.

Mai Ichihara

Research Fellow
Soil Carbon Initiative

Mai (pronounced "my") is the Research Fellow for the Soil Carbon Initiative and a PhD student at Cornell University. Prior to Green America, Mai worked as a monitoring-evaluation-learning (MEL) analyst for Sustainability Advisory, where she helped philanthropies, nonprofits, and international organizations to rethink strategy, develop MEL systems, and assess impact. She has an undergraduate degree in international relations from George Washington University and master’s degrees in environmental management and global affairs from Yale University.

Prior to graduate school, she worked for Natural Resources Defense Council, where she advocated for stronger environmental laws as part of its government affairs team. She has also worked for a Japanese television network (TV Asahi) as a news producer covering U.S. politics and foreign policy, as well as for the U.S. Department of State as a public affairs specialist. Mai loves her small hometown of Monument, CO, and she is a big fan of animated films, especially those by Studio Ghibli. 

Erin Gorman

Strategy and Farm Program
Soil Carbon Initiative

Erin has a closet full of hats - having had lots of career adventures over the past twenty years. She worked at Green America in the 1990's as Strategic Development Director, designing the campaigns and funding strategies for the organization's work on Fair Trade and social justice advocacy, playing a role in our early Solar Circle development and served as the Center for Sustainability Solutions Director for a period of time. A passion for farmer advocacy led her to pioneering farmer owned fair trade company Divine Chocolate where she served as the CEO for the US operations and took the company to profitability and scale in a highly competitive market. In recent years she has helped build her family-owned property development firm in DC along with her husband and brother-in-law. In 2016 her family started their own 63 acre grass fed beef and sheep operation, primarily supplying their own Turkish restaurant in DC. When not moving cows from pasture to pasture she can be found jumping on a trampoline with her children who speak fluent Turkish and who like to make fun of their mother's terrible Turkish accent.

Sarah Andrysiak

Senior Director
Special Climate & Agriculture Programs

Sarah is the Senior Director of Special Climate and Agriculture Programs within Green America’s Center for Sustainability Solutions.

Prior to joining Green America, Sarah provided business consulting services to enterprises working to create a more just and sustainable food system. Her clients included impact investors, food system entrepreneurs, and farmer advocacy organizations. Earlier in her career, Sarah directed a non-profit land conservation organization and led management consulting projects for fortune 500 companies.

Sarah holds a BA degree from Yale University and an MBA from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College.

Susan Davis

Founding Innovator
Key Initiator Innovation Networks (KINS) 

Susan Davis is the visionary developer of Key Initiator Innovation Networks (KINS) and has helped introduce sustainability to more than 40 networks over 40 years. KINS are self-organizing networks of key, collaborative, high-integrity leaders in widely diverse fields who come together by invitation to achieve inspiring innovations while enjoying their kindred spirits. Network focus areas include: social institutional investment, corporate social responsibility, economic empowerment of women, solar, micro-enterprise financing, organics, and sustainability leadership overall. 

Started in 1975, the KINS model was gifted to Green America in 2012.  The Center draws heavily from this model.

Davis was key to the founding of four social ventures:  Boston’s African-American newspaper in 1965, John Naisbitt’s urban affairs publishing company in 1968, a national news magazine for women in 1971 and the first U.S. neighborhood development bank in 1973.

Russ Gaskin

Senior Fellow
Strategic Design & Facilitation

Russ Gaskin is a social entrepreneur, consultant, and teacher who helps people who don't know each other, and often don't work well other, solve complex social problems. His consulting firm, CoCreative, specializes in designing collective impact networks to solve complex social problems in international development, sustainability economy, and social challenges.

As a Senior Fellow with the Center, Russ designs and facilitates our Innovation Network meetings, provides strategic advice on new opportunities for applying the Center's approach to collaborative innovation, and leads collaborative strategy development in our existing innovation networks, from rebuilding non-GMO food supply chains to eliminating harsh toxins from electronics manufacturing.

Russ speaks and teaches around the world on changing complex systems, human-centered design, and leveraging conflict and diversity as sources of strategic innovation.  He teaches workshops and graduate courses on leading social innovation, designing collective impact initiatives, polarity thinking, and creating shared value. Prior to launching CoCreative, Russ served as the chief business officer of Green America, a national leader in leveraging economic strategies to advance social equity and environmental sustainability; served as managing director of US SIF, the trade association for financial firms and institutional investors doing impact investing; and grew Green America’s Green Business Network, the country’s first network of triple-bottom line businesses. 

Russ has served on numerous leadership and advisory boards. He currently serves on the Expert Panel on Social Innovation & Design at the UN Development Program and on the advisory board of Engineers Without Borders Canada. He has also served on the Leadership Board of the National Education Association, Good Housekeeping’s Green Seal of Approval Advisory Board, and eBay’s World of Good Advisory Board.

Krista Kurth, Ph.D.,

Senior Fellow
Strategy & Training

Dr. Krista Kurth has been working towards a sustainable society in different forms for most of her career. Since 2010, she has played a variety of roles at Green America, including Board Member, Treasurer, Senior Program Associate.  She was interim Director and has been the Program Director of the Clean Electronics Production project.  Krista currently participates in the strategic development of the Center, its Innovation Networks, and staff. She also is involved in stakeholder engagement with companies, NGO’s and donors who are interested in the work of the Center and its Innovation Networks. She has been also the acting Program Director of the Clean Electronics Production project. 

Krista has an extensive background in business, organization development, and psychology. Prior to joining Green America, she was the co-founder of Renewal Resources, a consulting firm dedicated to the renewal and revitalization of individuals and organizations. She spent a decade there focused on coaching, consulting and speaking about how to lead more renewing and productive lives at work. She has designed and delivered a wide variety of training programs, as well as co-authored the book Running on Plenty at Work: Renewal Strategies for Individuals. She also wrote and consulted on emotional intelligence, regaining balance at work, enhancing leadership skills, moving through organizational transitions, and improving team communications. She has been featured in the national media and spoke internationally on these topics. Some of the organizations she spoke at include: American Society of Training and Development, Food and Drug Administration, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, IBM – Life Sciences Division, Perot Systems Government Services, and the World Bank.

Prior to co-founding Renewal Resources, Krista had a private consulting practice and also held a range of other managerial and consulting positions, including one with KPMG Peat Marwick. She has also taught graduate level Leadership courses at the University of Maryland University College and is a contributing author in The Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance (M.E. Sharpe, 2003).

Krista received a doctorate in Organizational Development from George Washington University, and her MBA and BA from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. She is currently on the Boards of three charitable foundations and she has participated in a number of professional associations.