Founding Trustees And Advisors: Overview
Many people, of a wide age spectrum, have been involved in the development of the ECGS to this point. The circle includes individuals with academic, organizational, and legal expertise, as well as numerous other assets.
TRUSTEES:
Christina Beck, Linda Bergh, Ingunn Henrikssen, John Miller, and Eric Utne.
FOUNDER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:
Eric Utne is an entrepreneur, publisher, and educator. He was founding publisher and editor of the New Age Journal, now owned by Martha Stewart/Omnimedia. In 1984, he founded Utne Reader, of which he was chair for many years. In June, 2006 the magazine was sold to Ogden Communications, publisher of Mother Earth News, Natural Home, and ten other special interest publications. Utne is the father of four Waldorf-educated sons and was integrally involved in the founding, growth, and development of City of Lakes Waldorf School and Watershed High School. He was the 7th & 8th grade class teacher at CLWS from 2000-2002. He has a B.E.D. (Environmental Design) from the University of Minnesota. He is the President of the Board of Trustees of Sunbridge College, a Masters Degree-granting Waldorf teacher-training college, based in Spring Valley, New York. In November, 2006 he was elected to the Executive Committee of the Nobel Peace Prize Forum.
CO-FOUNDER, CHAIR OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES:
John Miller is the founder of Albert Schweitzer College, an educational initiative out of which the idea for the Earth Corps for Global Service has sprung. John completed the Biodynamic Agriculture Training at Emerson College, Sussex, England, and has worked with developmentally disabled adults (in the Camphill Movement), and as a woodworker, gardener, and farmer. He has been teaching in Waldorf schools for 17 years, working primarily with adolescents. John has been Chair of the Faculty or College of Teachers at various schools for five terms, and has served on boards of trustees at City of Lakes Waldorf School or Watershed High School for 15 years. He spearheaded the effort to obtain public charter status for Watershed High School, one of only two Waldorf-methods charter high schools in the country. John has a BA in Ancient Studies from the University of Minnesota. He is currently enrolled in the MA in Education program at Augsburg College, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
ADVISORY BOARD
Carol Bellamy is the President and CEO, World Learning and President, School for International Training (SIT). A private, non-profit international organization, World Learning promotes international and intercultural understanding, democracy, social justice, and economic development, through education, training, and field projects in over 100 countries on five continents around the globe. She recently completed ten years as executive director of UNICEF, the children's agency of the United Nations. Prior to joining UNICEF, Ms. Bellamy was Director of the United States Peace Corps. Having served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala from 1963 to 1965, she was the first former volunteer to run the organization.
Orland Bishop is a research fellow at the Center for the Study of Violence at Drew University and the director of Shade Tree Multicultural Foundation in Los Angeles. He combines a deep dedication to human rights advocacy and cultural renewal with an extensive study of medicine, naturopathy, psychology and indigenous cosmologies. He has pioneered approaches to urban peace-making and mentoring at-risk youth that combine new ideas with traditional ways of knowledge. Shade Tree employs a unique process that draws on both contemporary and ancient practices, particularly that of the South African tradition of Indaba or "deep talk."
Gro Harlem Brundtland is a Norwegian politician, diplomat, and physician, and an international leader in sustainable development and public health. She was educated as a Medical Doctor at the University of Oslo in 1963, and Master of Public Health at Harvard University in 1965. She was Norwegian Minister for Environmental Affairs 1974-79, and became Norway's first female Prime Minister February — October 1981; her cabinet was renowned internationally for having eight female ministers out of 18. Brundtland became Norwegian Prime Minister for two subsequent terms - from May 9, 1986 until October 25, 1996. She was Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), widely referred to as the Brundtland Commission, developing the broad political concept of sustainable development and providing the momentum for the 1992 Earth Summit / UNCED, that was headed by Maurice Strong. Brundtland was elected Director-General of the World Health Organization in May 1998. In this capacity, Brundtland adopted a far-reaching approach to public health, establishing a Commission on Macroeconomics and Health — chaired by Jeffrey Sachs — and addressing violence as a major public health issue. In 2004 the British newspaper The Financial Times listed her the 4th most influential European for the last 25 years, behind Pope John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher. She has been suggested as a candidate for the next Secretary General of the United Nations, once Kofi Annan's term ends.
Virginia "Gigi" Coyle helped create and oversee the Ojai Foundation, an educational retreat sanctuary for youth and adults, where she served for many years as Co-Director and Co-Chair of the Board. She has worked extensively in the areas of citizen diplomacy, community development, permaculture and interspecies communication, such as directing the first release of dolphins back to the wild. She is a wilderness rite of passage guide and council trainer, working independently as well as through the School of Lost Borders (SLB). She directs SLB's Youth Program and Council Program and is a co-author of The Box and The Way of Council. Her current focus is on the establishment of a Global Youth Council and facilitating a space bridge satellite dialogue and film with 13 Indigenous Grandmothers.
Ze Frank is a designer, performance artist, and consultant on web design, marketing, and new forms of media. He has a special interest and expertise in viral marketing and contagious community.
Graham Francois is a designer, programmer and technology consultant. He was the first art director of Seventh Generation and later started his own design studio. In 1993 he joined Aveda where he created a new media department, developed their first web strategy and was a member of Aveda's advisory board. A self-taught programmer, Graham is an application developer and technology consultant exploring the junction of art and technology. He is fluent in geek and often works as a translator explaining technology to non-techno-speakers.
Mark Gerzon is President of Mediators Foundation, and founder of Leaders Without Borders. He has extensive experience building global teams. In the '70s he co-founded the Worldpaper, an international newspaper supplement. Gerzon directed the "Entertainment Summit" in the 1980s, resulting in the formation of a coalition of Soviet and American filmmakers. In the last decade he brought together a group of social entrepreneurs from the major regions of the world, forming the "Global Partners." He is currently working on the Global Leadership Network and his forthcoming book, Leading Beyond Borders: Tools for Transforming Conflict into Synergy, which will be published by Harvard Business School Press.
Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, best-selling author, and a proponent of corporate reform with respect to ecological practices. Starting at age 20, he dedicated his life to sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. His practice has included starting and running ecological businesses, writing and teaching about the impact of commerce on living systems, and consulting with governments and corporations on economic development, industrial ecology, and environmental policy. He is author and co-author of dozens of articles as well as six books including The Next Economy, Growing a Business, the best-selling The Ecology of Commerce, and Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution with Amory Lovins. His latest book Blessed Unrest will be published in April 2007 by Viking. He is a co-founder of the World Index for Social and Environmental Responsibility (WISER). WISER is a collaboratively written, free content, open source networking platform that links NGOs, funders, business, government, social entrepreneurs, students, organizers, academics, activists, scientists, and citizens. WISER creates the space for civil society (more than one million organizations and the one hundred million individuals), the private sector, and government to collaboratively define, address, and solve social and environmental problems.
Juliana Hepp, born in 1980, is one of the founders of the international youth project network "IDEM - Identity through Initiative" that aims to empower young people to "become active and connect…unfolding their true potential to contribute towards society." She grew up in Germany and is a registered nurse in Switzerland. During her high school years she was involved in various youth initiatives like establishing a school circus and various activist groups. She participated in the founding of Eos, a company for adventure education in Germany and worked for the Youth Section of the School of Spiritual Science at the Goetheanum in Switzerland. She was a lead organizer for the 1000-participant youth conference Connectivity, (half from Brazil, the others from all over the world), held in Sao Paulo, Brazil in July, 2006. Her life question of the moment is how are Initiation and Initiative related and how can you transform experiences into skills?
Frances Moore Lappé awakened a whole generation with her 1971, three-million-copy bestseller, Diet for a Small Planet. Her newly released Democracy's Edge is the completion of a trilogy which began in 2002 with Hope's Edge, written with her daughter Anna Lappé. Second in the trilogy is You Have the Power: Choosing Courage in a Culture of Fear, written with Jeffrey Perkins. Frances and Anna Lappé lead the Cambridge-based Small Planet Institute, a collaborative network for research and popular education to bring democracy to life. Together they founded the Small Planet Fund which solicits and channels resources to democratic social movements, especially those featured in Hope's Edge. In 1975, with Joseph Collins she launched the California-based Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First) to educate Americans about the causes of world hunger. In 1990, Lappé co-founded the Center for Living Democracy to accelerate the spread of democratic innovations in which regular citizens contribute to problem solving in public life. In 1987 in Sweden, Lappé became the fourth American to receive the Right Livelihood Award, sometimes called the "Alternative Nobel," for her "vision and work healing our planet and uplifting humanity.
Eli Pariser is the Executive Director of MoveOn.org. Pariser joined MoveOn in November of 2001, after his independent, web-based petition for a multi-lateral response to the events of 9/11 received overwhelming support from the online community. He directed MoveOn's campaign against the Iraq War, tripling MoveOn's member base in the process. Pariser was one of the co-creators of the "Bush in 30 Seconds" ad contest and, as Executive Director of MoveOn.org Political Action, raised over $30 million from over 350,000 small donors in 2004 to run ads, develop a powerful field program, and support various progressive positions and candidates. Pariser graduated summa cum laude in 2000 with a B.A. in Liberal Arts (concentration in Political Science) from Simon's Rock College in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He is originally from Camden, Maine and now lives in Portland, Maine.
Nicanor Perlas is a sociologist and an environmental activist from the Philippines. Because of his work against nuclear weapons, he was forced to leave the Philippines in 1978, but he returned after the end of the regime of Ferdinand Marcos. He founded the Center for Development Alternatives (CADI) to promote environment-friendly farming and sustainable development. Perlas is a leader in the fight against an unchecked globalisation. He is a member of the Club of Budapest and consultant for sustainable development at the UN. He was awarded The Outstanding Filipino Award (TOFIL) in 1994, the Global 500 Forum Prize from the UNEP (1994) and the Right Livelihood Award in 2003.
Cecily Sommers is a futurist who speaks, writes, and consults on the connection between global issues and local concerns. She is the Founder and President of The Push Institute, a non-profit futures think tank in Minneapolis, MN, where she directs research and innovation labs to benefit leaders in business, education, public policy, arts and social services. Her work has been used by leading institutions such as Best Buy, Accenture, Yahoo!, and Motorola. She is also the curator of its highly acclaimed PUSH conference, an annual event that brings thought leaders together from around the world to explore the ideas, discoveries, people and technologies that are pushing the future in new directions. Her provocative and entertaining "What's Up With That?" trend segment can be regularly heard on Public Radio's Weekend America and WCCO's Pat Miles Show. She is a member of the World Future Society, and was honored by the Business Journal as one of twenty-five "Women to Watch." She recently completed the Energy Foresight Report, and is currently at work on a book, The Next America.
John Steiner is an organizer and philanthropist who has played a pivotal role in the start-up of numerous organizations including the Threshold Foundation, the Social Venture Network and the Search for Common Ground. Steiner is also deeply involved in Reuniting America, and has played key role in several transpartisan dialogues.
Arthur Zajonc, Ph.D. is professor of physics at Amherst College, where he has taught since 1978. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from the University of Michigan. He has been visiting professor and research scientist at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, and the Universities of Rochester and Hanover, as Fulbright professor at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. He coauthored The Quantum Challenge and co-edited Goethe's Way of Science. In 1997 and 2002, he was scientific coordinator for the Mind and Life Dialogues with the Dalai Lama. Arthur is also a former president of the Anthroposophical Society in America.
ADDITIONAL ADVISORS (prospective):
Kwame Anthony Appiah, Ph.D., Princeton
Peter Blom, Triodos Bank, Holland
Larry Brilliant, Google.org
Carol Byrne, MN Int'l Center
Bill Drayton, Ashoka
Peggy Dulaney, Synergos Institute
Jeff Flug, MillenniumPromise.org
Tracy Gary, Changemakers Fund
Peter Goldmark, Env. Defense Fund
Al Gore
Rick Jackson, Ctr. for Teacher Formation
Caroline Kennedy
Geir Lundestad, Nobel Peace Prize Inst.
Wangari Maathai
Nipun Mehta, CharityFocus.org
Paul Newman
Iqbal Z. Quadir, MIT, GrameenPhone
J.F.Rischard, High Noon, World Bank
Jeffrey Sachs, Ph.D., Earth Institute
Vandana Shiva, Ph.D., Navdanya
Cameron Sinclair, Architecture for Humanity
Ed Skloot, Surdna Foundation
Jeff Skoll, Participant Productions
Hanne Strong, Earth Restoration Corps
Bishop Desmond Tutu
Lynn Twist, Pachamama Project
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