DAVID CHATFIELD (CHAIR)
David Chatfield has worked with environmental organizations for nearly thirty years. Currently, he is the Director of Californians for Pesticide Reform, a coalition of 135 organizations addressing the health and environmental impacts of pesticides. Previously, David was California Director of Clean Water Action. He worked for Greenpeace for ten years in various roles, including as Chair of the Greenpeace board, Pacific Southwest Regional Director and Senior Development Associate. He also served for eight years as Friends of the Earth's International Director, and worked for the American Friends Service Committee and UFW before that. He is currently President of the EarthShare of California Board and serves on advisory committees for Greenaction, Political Ecology Group and the League of Conservation Voters in California.
PEGGY BURKS (TREASURER)
Peggy Burks has twenty-five years of experience in managing nonprofit organizations, working as Executive Director of the San Francisco Zoological Society (1978 - 1996) and as Executive Director of the Marine Mammal Center, also in the San Francisco Bay area (1996 - 2000). Peggy has served on numerous advisory boards and task forces: the Oiled Wildlife Care Network; the Salmonid/Pinniped Interaction Working Group, composed of representatives from the fishing industry, environmental organizations, scientific institutions, and government agencies; the City of San Francisco negotiation team for giant panda and golden monkey exhibit loan agreements with the People's Republic of China; and the Joint Use Task Force for Environmental Review of Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plants.
As Executive Director of the San Francisco Zoological Society, Peggy used a team management style to lead this public institution through impressive growth. She expanded operations from $2 to $15 million and increased attendance from 600,000 to 1.2 million. To support the expanding program, she increased membership from 1,200 to 27,000, increased annual giving from $100,000 to $2 million, and raised $20 million in capital campaign funds. Over the past four years at The Marine Mammal Center, Peggy drew upon her considerable financial and management skills to turn around this ailing nonprofit. She clarified and strengthened the organization's vision, established clear staff responsibilities and authority, created a collaborative process in planning and problem solving, strengthened and expanded the fundraising program, and re-built the Board into a strong leadership body. Peggy is currently a consultant in organizational development and fundraising.
KAREN TOPAKIAN
Karen Topakian has been the Executive Director of the Agape Foundation - Fund for Nonviolent Social Change since 1993. Karen has worked in the activist and advocacy wing of the non-profit sector for 30 years, including serving as a Nuclear Disarmament Campaigner for Greenpeace, as the first director of the University of Rhode Island's Women's Center and as a manager of a food co-op. Karen has served on the Greenpeace Fund board since 1994. She served for 10 years on the Board of the Western States Legal Foundation and for four years on the Women's AIDS Network board.
Karen co-chaired San Francisco's Fundraising Day in 2003 and served on the event committee for National Philanthropy Day in San Francisco from 2002 to 2004. In 2006, she served on the Fundraising Committee and Organizing Committee for Raising Change, A Social Justice Fundraising Conference sponsored by the Grassroots Fundraising Journal. She frequently serves on panels of social justice grantmakers, nonprofit executive directors and board members. Karen is a 1976 graduate of Clark University and a 1987 graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute where she received a master's degree in filmmaking.
JOHN WILLIS
John Willis has extensive experience with Greenpeace, having worked as a Campaigner for Greenpeace Canada (1981 - 1988), a Project Coordinator for Greenpeace International (1988 - 1995), and as National Campaign Director for Greenpeace Japan (1995 - 1996). In the early 1980s, he developed the original Great Lakes Campaign ('Water for Life') in conjunction with Greenpeace USA activists, and was prominent in the anti-nuclear movement and the campaign to stop acid rain. At Greenpeace International he oversaw the successful Greenpeace effort to halt nuclear industry expansion into Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. And in Japan, John trained a new team of campaigners working on French nuclear testing and toxics.
Since returning to Canada, John has been a Senior Consultant with Strategic Communications, a leading Canadian consulting firm that specializes in fundraising and campaign mobilization for advocacy groups, labor unions, and public service organizations. John was elected to the Greenpeace Canada Board of Directors in 1996, and was made Chair of the Board one year later. As Chair and Trustee for Canada, John has guided the successful selection and hiring of a new Executive Director, introduced measures to enable effective oversight by the Voting Membership, and promoted an improved system of electing the international Board.
ELIZABETH GILCHRIST
Liz Gilchrist is a progressive political activist who has spent her life working with cutting edge NGO's that are about creating social change. For the first 15 years of her professional life, she worked as a civil rights and Legal Services lawyer in Mississippi, primarily as a federal litigator. She joined the Greenpeace fund raising staff in 1993, and in her capacity as Major Gifts Manager, spent the next seven years leading a team that helped establish the major donor and planned giving programs as vital components of the organization's overall financial health. She is currently Gift Planning Director of the National Organization for Women (NOW), the largest grass roots feminist organization in the country with over 650,000 contributing members.
Liz has been a volunteer activist with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for nearly two decades. She has been a board member of both the Mississippi and Virginia ACLU affiliates, and currently chairs Virginia's Development Committee, which is responsible for a $100,000 annual fund raising campaign. She served several terms on the National Board of ACLU in the 1980's, and is standing for election to another term in May, 2005.
Since leaving the Greenpeace staff in 2000, Liz has remained active in governance issues as a Voting Member, having served four consecutive terms on the Membership Committee, which reviews and recommends applicants for voting membership. She also served one term on the Nominating Committee, representing the voting membership.
OFFICERS
JOHN PASSACANTANDO (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
DANNY MCGREGOR (SECRETARY)
