The Biodiversity Funders Group staff is based in the Presidio of San Francisco; they meet with NGO representatives at their request, at staff invitation, or Biodiversity Funders Group member request. The staff does not recommend proposals or projects to members.
Judy has a background in philanthropy and in nonprofit advocacy, management and training. She was first introduced to philanthropy while on the staff of the Crossroads Fund, in Chicago; a few years later she led the national grantmaking program at the Funding Exchange, in New York. Judy, who has served on the boards of directors of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, the Black Philanthropic Alliance and other funder institutions, is currently vice-chair of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation.
Judy learned about community organizing and social justice advocacy in Chicago, in the 1980s, where she worked with groups pressing for local, national and international policy change. Since then, she has been a public information officer and a regional director at Amnesty International USA, a development officer at the Center for Community Change and an organizational consultant to scores of nonprofits around the country. She was program director and executive director at the Environmental Support Center, which provided technical assistance and small grants to grassroots environmental groups. Most recently, Judy was executive director of Pesticide Action Network (PAN) North America, which organizes support to minimize chemicals in industrial agriculture and to transform the food system worldwide.
Besides the Noyes Foundation board, Judy also serves on the boards of Commonweal (Bolinas, CA), which incubates and supports health, healing, art, education, justice and environmental programs, and Coming Clean, a national environmental health and justice collaborative. Judy is an active volunteer at the East Bay Meditation Center, in Oakland. A graduate of Northwestern University, Judy has certificates in nonprofit leadership from Naropa University, Rockwood Leadership Institute, and the East Bay Meditation Center.
Deputy Director at the Biodiversity Funders Group, Bill has primary responsibility for working with representatives of approximately 100 grantmaking institutions on global terrestrial and marine conservation issues. He staffs the Land & Freshwater Conservation Program, the Marine Conservation Program, and the Conservation Science Program. He also assists in planning and conducting briefings for grantmakers on a wide range of biodiversity conservation issues, including the Biodiversity Funders Group Annual Meeting. Prior to joining the Biodiversity Funders Group, Bill was a program manager at the Council of State Governments and held positions with the US government and the State of Utah. He has academic degrees in both natural resources management and business administration.
Paige Brown is the Program Director for the Climate and Energy Funders Group at Biodiversity Funders Group where she works with funders to facilitate collaboration and expand the field of climate and energy philanthropy. Paige Brown most recently served as the Senior Program Manager for the Natural Assets and Environmental Equity program at the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) where she focused on natural asset-based strategies that both improve environmental stewardship and promote economic development. Previously, she was the Climate Change Program Director at Redefining Progress (RP), where she led the successful effort to promote auctioning permits under trading, rather than giveaways. Before RP, Ms. Brown was a research analyst at the World Resources Institute, where she worked on incentive-based measures for biodiversity protection. Ms. Brown served as a lead author on an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on the role of forests and land use change in climate change, which led to her receiving a share of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
Alison Wright joins Biodiversity Funders Group’s team following consultancies with the Protectors Fund of RSF Social Finance and Tamalpais Trust. Alison previously worked as a consulting lawyer with Environmental Defender Law Center, and she served as a legal extern at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San José, Costa Rica. Alison began her career at Global Greengrants Fund, where she worked on the programs team for seven years; she has also worked with Fondo Acción Solidaria, a Mexico environmental and social justice grantmaking organization. Alison holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a JD from Seattle University School of Law.
Amanda received a dual M.A. in Latin American Studies and Community and Regional Planning from the University of New Mexico. Before that, she spent four years in Colombia working with Peace Brigades International and Witness for Peace. Her Master’s thesis research focused on the social and environmental effects of the North American mining industry in a fragile wetland ecosystem in Colombia.
Clayton is the Program Outreach Associate for the Climate and Energy Funders Group where he is focused on encouraging peer-to-peer learning and coordination among philanthropies working in the climate and clean energy field. Clayton is originally from Florida, but comes to Biodiversity Funders Group from Utah, where he spent several years working on climate, clean energy and clean transportation advocacy with a clean energy focused public interest organization. In particular, he worked on policy and regulatory endeavors to allow continued growth of clean energy, energy efficiency and electric vehicle markets, as well as leading several community bulk purchase initiatives for rooftop solar and electric vehicles. Clayton holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental and Sustainability Studies from the University of Utah.
Shauna O’Donnell hails originally from the island of O’ahu and now makes her home in the Bernal Heights district of San Francisco. Most recently, she served as development assistant for Corporate and Foundation Relations at the University of San Francisco. Prior to that she worked as a program associate with the Marine Microbiology Initiative at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. She also spent six years as managing editor and then editor of California Energy Markets, an independent business weekly devoted to covering energy policy and resource development for natural gas and electricity industries in California and the Southwest. She has an extensive background in nonprofit administration and earned her undergraduate degree at Bennington College and a Master’s in Environmental Studies from York University, Toronto.
Albert holds a BA in Business Administration, is a Certified Public Accountant, and has recently graduated with a master’s degree in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. As a management and administration professional, he worked for over three years in public accounting providing auditing and tax services to numerous non-profit organizations. He also worked in corporate governance, investment management, and organizational development. As an international relations practitioner his focus was to develop and synthesize an understanding of the interdependencies of economic development, international politics, energy, human rights, and environment, with the purpose of shaping better policymaking and resource allocation.
Gerald until recently concurrently worked as the facility manager/webmaster with the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. He also spent several years as the webmaster for the Oakland Museum of California, as well as various roles with the City of Oakland. Prior to becoming interested in technology and design, Gerald had an over 20 year career in professional theater, including serving as the production manager for the University of Delaware’s Professional Theater Training Program, as well as the Oakland Ensemble Theater. He has a BA in Theater/Film production from Columbia College Chicago, and has done postgraduate work in Media Studies. He has recently been active in local politics, focusing particularly in the areas of affordable housing and mass transportation.