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Board of Advisors

E. F. Schumacher Society Board of Directors

Gar Alperovitz Gar Alperovitz, Lionel R. Bauman Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland, is a Founding Principal of The Democracy Collaborative. He is a former Fellow of the Institute of Politics at Harvard and King's College of Cambridge University. He has served as a Legislative Director in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, and as a Special Assistant in the Department of State. Earlier he was President of the Center for Community Economic Development, Co-Director of The Cambridge Institute, and President of the Center for the Study of Public Policy. Dr. Alperovitz's numerous articles have appeared in publications ranging from The New York Times and The Washington Post to The Journal of Economic Issues, Foreign Policy, Diplomatic History, and other academic and popular journals. Dr. Alperovitz is also author of Unjust Deserts: How the Rich Are Taking Our Common Inheritance, America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming Our Wealth, Our Liberty and Our Democracy, The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb, andMaking a Place for Community: Local Democracy in a Global Era (with Thad Williamson and David Imbroscio). Read Gar Alperovitz's article America Beyong Capitalism: The Pluralist Commonwealth. Read Gar Alperovitz's E. F. Schumacher Lecture.

Jessica Brackman Jessica Brackman was CEO of FPG International, a leading stock photography agency recognized for its creative innovation, commitment to social issues and unique corporate culture. During her tenure there, she became involved Social Venture Network and served on the board of the Aperture Foundation, a not-for-profit photography institute and book publisher. After retiring from FPG, Jessica co-produced a film documentary about the spiritual teacher, Ram Dass, entitled Fierce Grace. Currently she serves on the board of the Tibet Fund, an organization founded under the auspices of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to provide humanitarian aid to the Tibetan community in exile. Most recently she participated with Melcher Media on the production of Al Gore’s book, An Inconvenient Truth and authored the book’s Resource Section: What You Personally Can Do to Help Solve the Climate Crisis.  Presently, she is working with Melcher Media to develop illustrated books that address pressing social, political and environmental issues.

 

John Fullerton John Fullerton is the Founder and President of the Capital Institute. He is also the Founder of Level 3 Capital Advisors, LLC, an investment firm focused on high impact sustainable private investments. Previously, he was seed investor and CEO of Alerian Capital Management, an investment firm focused on energy infrastructure that grew to $250mm in assets under under his leadership, and before that, a Managing Director of JPMorgan. During an 18-year career at JPMorgan, John managed multiple capital markets and derivatives businesses around the globe, and finally ran the venture investment activity of LabMorgan as Chief Investment Officer. He was JPMorgan’s representative on the Long Term Capital Oversight Committee in 1997-98. John is currently a director of Investors Circle, New Day Farms, Inc., and an Advisor to Natural Systems Utilities. He is a participant/author of the UNEP Green Economy Report. John earned a BA in Economics at the University of Michigan, and an MBA at the Stern School of New York University’s in the Executive MBA Program.

Neva Goodwin Dr. Neva Goodwin is Co-Director of the Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University (www.gdae.org). She is the lead author of two introductory college-level textbooks: Microeconomics in Context and Macroeconomics in Context, published by M.E.Sharpe. These are the starting points for her effort to develop an economic theory – "contextual economics" – that will have more relevance to real world concerns than does the dominant economic paradigm. The Micro text is available in Italian, Russian and Vietnamese. Goodwin is also director of a project that has developed a "Social Science Library: Frontier Thinking in Sustainable Development and Human Well-Being." Containing a bibliography of 9,000 titles, including full text PDFs of about a third of these, this will be sent on USB drives or CDs to all university libraries in 137 developing countries. As a member of the board of Ceres, and in other activities outside of her academic work, Goodwin is involved with efforts to motivate business to recognize social and ecological health as significant, long-term corporate goals. Read articles by Neva Goodwin here.

Hildegarde Hannum Hildegarde Hannum received degrees in German language and literature. After teaching in California and Connecticut, she turned to a career as free-lance translator with her husband. Their translations from German to English include the work of philosopher Hans Jonas and psychoanalyst Alice Miller. Hildegarde Hannum edits the Annual E. F. Schumacher Society Lectures, turning inspiring lectures into essays that are published in pamphlet form and are available on the internet. She also edited People, Land, and Community: Collected E. F. Schumacher Society Lectures (Yale University Press, 1997). She has been a board member since 1982.

Eric Harris-Braun Eric Harris-Braun lives in rural New York where he writes software for a living, is working to launch a local currency, serves on the board of a small school, is starting a Quaker Intentional community, plays with his two boys, raises chickens, tends a vineyard, and is learning to fly small airplanes.

Dan Levinson Daniel Levinson, Managing Partner, founded Main Street Resources after ten years with Holding Capital Group, a highly successful niche private equity firm and an investor in Main Street Resources. Dan received his MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a joint ScB in Applied Mathematics and Economics from Brown University with Honors. He spent time in the Corporate Finance department of Morgan Stanley after graduating from Brown.

Richard Norgaard Richard B. Norgaard is Professor of Energy and Resources Group and of Agriculture and Resource Economics. Among the founders of the field of ecological economics, his recent research addresses how environmental problems challenge scientific understanding and the policy process, how ecologists and economists understand systems differently, and how globalization affects environmental governance. He has field experience in the Brazilian Amazon, Alaska, and Vietnam with minor forays in other parts of the globe. He is the author of one book, co-author or editor of three additional books, and has over 100 other publications spanning the fields of environment and development, tropical forestry and agriculture, environmental epistemology, energy economics, and ecological economics. He is also among the 1,000 economists in the world most cited by other economists and was one of ten American economists interviewed in The Changing Face of Economics: Conversations with Cutting Edge Economists in 2004. Dr. Norgaard has served on numerous committees of the National Academy of Sciences and the former office of Technology Assessment and was a member of the U.S. Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment. He served as President of the International Society for Ecological Economics (1998-2001). He has been a visiting scholar at the World Bank and served on the Science Advisory Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

David Orr David Orr is a Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College and a James Marsh professor at the University of Vermont. He is a well known environmentalist and is active in many areas of environmental studies, including environmental education and environmental design. In 1996, he organized the construction of one of the greenest buildings in North America, at Oberlin College. He has been awarded a Bioneers Award in 2002, a National Conservation Achievement Award by the National Wildlife Foundation in 1993, and a Lyndhurst Prize in 1992 for his work in Environmental Education (1995). Read David Orr's E. F. Schumacher Lecture.

Connie Packard Connie Packard , MSW, is a retired social worker and family therapist. She is a founder and Board member of Windhorse Associates, Inc., a community-based, recovery oriented treatment program in Northampton, MA for people with serious psychiatric disturbances, and the author of The Windhorse Guide for Families. She is one of the conveners of the 2004 international conference for leaders pioneering new approaches to recovery from major mental illnesses. Connie is the Director of the Valentine Fund of the Tides Foundation which supports grass roots organizing initiatives in the New York City area around issues of community empowerment, youth organizing, gay and lesbian rights, and farm worker rights.

Will Raap Will Raap is founder and chairman of Gardener's Supply, an employee-owned family of companies that has won several national & regional awards for its innovative gardening products & services, as well as for its socially responsible business practices. Currently, Will's passion and energy is focused on three new environmental restoration initiatives; The Earth Partners, El Centro Verde, an agroforestry training and education center in Costa Rica and Carbon Harvest Energy, a business developing integrated landfill methane to electricity to aquaponics and algae projects. Will is also the founder and past Chairman of the Board for the Intervale Center. Read Will Raap's E. F. Schumacher Lecture.

Gus Speth Gus Speth is the Sara Shallenberger Brown Professor in the Practice of Environmental Policy at Yale where he served as Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies from 1999 to 2009. From 1993 to 1999, Dean Speth was Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and chair of the UN Development Group. Prior to his service at the UN, he was founder and president of the World Resources Institute; professor of law at Georgetown University; chairman of the U.S. Council on Environmental Quality; and senior attorney and cofounder, Natural Resources Defense Council. Throughout his career, Dean Speth has provided leadership and entrepreneurial initiatives to many task forces and committees whose roles have been to combat environmental degradation, including the President’s Task Force on Global Resources and Environment; the Western Hemisphere Dialogue on Environment and Development; and the National Commission on the Environment. Among his awards are the National Wildlife Federation’s Resources Defense Award, the Natural Resources Council of America’s Barbara Swain Award of Honor, a 1997 Special Recognition Award from the Society for International Development, Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Environmental Law Institute and the League of Conservation Voters, and the Blue Planet Prize. He holds honorary degrees from Clark University, the College of the Atlantic, the Vermont Law School, Middlebury College, and the University of South Carolina. Publications include The Bridge at the Edge of the World: Capitalism, the Environment, and Crossing from Crisis to Sustainability, Global Environmental Governance, Red Sky at Morning: America and the Crisis of the Global Environment, Worlds Apart: Globalization and the Environment and articles in Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The Nation, The Harvard Business Review, and other journals and books. Professor Speth currently serves on the boards of the Natural Resources Defense Council, World Resources Institute, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Population Action International, The Center for Humans and Nature, 1Sky, and Climate Central. In July 2010, Professor Speth will join the faculty of the Vermont Law School in South Royalton, Vermont. Read Gus Speth's "A New American Environmentalism and the New Economy" and also his "Preamble: New Economy, Sustaining Economy"

Joseph Stanislaw   Joseph A. Stanislaw is founder of the advisory firm JA Stanislaw Group, LLC, specializing in strategic thinking and investment in energy and technology.  He is Independent Senior Advisor to Deloitte & Touche USA LLP’s Energy & Resources practice.  He serves as a member of a number of advisory boards for energy, technology, and investment companies.  He was one of three founders of Cambridge Energy Research Associates in 1983 and served as managing director for non-U.S. activity until 1997 when he was named president and later CEO.  He is an adjunct professor in the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences at Duke University, where he is a member of the advisory board for the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.  He co-authored with Daniel Yergin the book The Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy.  He received his B.A. from Harvard College, his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Edinburgh, and was awarded an M. A. from Cambridge.

Peter Victor Peter Victor is a Professor in Environmental Studies at York University.  He is a member of the Advisory Council of the Royal Canadian Institute for the Advancement of Science, Canada’s oldest science organization having served as its President from 2000 to 2004. He was the founding President of the Canadian Society for Ecological Economics and is a member of many boards and committees including the Ontario Government’s Advisory Committee on Transboundary Science, the Advisory Panel of TruCost, the Board of the David Suzuki Foundation and the Advisory Committee on the National Accounts for Statistics Canada.  His current research is an inquiry into managing without growth, using LOWGROW, a systems model of the Canadian economy for exploring the interplay of growth, employment, poverty and the environment. His book Managing Without Growth: Smaller by Design, Not Disaster was published in 2008 by Edward Elgar Publishing. Read Peter Victor's essay "Bigger isn't Better"

Stewart Wallis Stewart Wallis graduated in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University. His career began in marketing and sales with Rio Tinto Zinc followed by a Masters Degree in Business and Economics at London Business School. He spent seven years with the World Bank in Washington DC working on industrial and financial development in East Asia. He then worked for Robinson Packaging in Derbyshire for nine years, the last five as Managing Director, leading a successful business turnaround. He joined Oxfam in 1992 as International Director with responsibility, latterly, for 2500 staff in 70 countries and for all Oxfam’s policy, research, development and emergency work worldwide. He was awarded the OBE for services to Oxfam in 2002. Stewart joined nef (the new economics foundation) as Executive Director on 1 November 2003. His interests include: global governance, functioning of markets, links between development and environmental agendas, the future of capitalism and the moral economy.

E. F. Schumacher Society Board of Founders
 

Ian Baldwin Ian Baldwin's commitment to environmental issues led him from the Environmental Defense Fund to taking the risk of starting his own green publishing firm.  Chelsea Green has become one of the most effective voices for an ecological future.

Starling Childs A graduate of the Yale School of Forestry, Starling Childs manages the six thoundand acre Great Mountain Forest, organized as a 501(c)(3) operating foundation, and once his family's land. Management employs sustainable practices, setting a model for community-based forestry and serving as a teaching center for new foresters.   Starling is a founder and principal of EECOS, an environmental consulting firm. He serves his local community on several boards and is President of Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council.

David Ehrenfeld David Ehrenfeld is Professor of Biology at Rutgers University, an author, and most importantly our conscience when it comes to how we should conduct our lives in concert with the earth.

John McClaughry John McClaughry wrote the incorporation documents for the E. F. Schumacher Society because he believes in solving problems at the local level through citizen-based initiatives and believed that Schumacher championed such a world view.  He is President of the Ethan Allen Institute in Vermont and is a regular commentator on Vermont Public Radio. John served on the Society's board from its inception in 1980 to 2003, serving as a chairman during his final four years. He was also a Senior Policy Advisor in the Reagan White House and a Vermont state Senator (1989-92).

Satish Kumar Satish Kumar is the editor of Resurgence magazine, the ProgramDirector for Schumacher College in Devonshire, England, and the President of the Schumacher Society in the U.K.  He is author of "You Are, Therefore I Am" and "No Destination:  An Autobiography."

Kirkpatrick Sale Kirkpatrick Sale has the Irish gift for words, but he combines it with the disciplined research needed to effectively make his case.  His classic work Human Scale examines the impact of size throughout human history and institutions.  It is the natural companion to Schumacher's "Small Is Beautiful."

Nancy Jack Todd A co-founder of New Alchemy Institute and of Ocean Arks International, Nancy Todd continues to be the recorder of the innovation that has come from these two groundbreaking institutions.  As editor of Annals of Earth, she guides readers to an understanding of the new technology described in its articles and conveys the story of the cultural context within which the technology is embedded.

E. F. Schumacher Society Advisory Board
 

Tanya and Wendell Berry The Berrys are deeply entwined with the Kentucky community, human and natural, surrounding their hillside farm.  Through his essays, stories, and poems, Wendell Berry is the consummate contemporary American spokesperson for small communities and an agrarian ethic.

Thomas Berry A cultural historian and Passionist Priest, Thomas Berry was the spiritual heir of Teilhard de Chardin.  His writings on a vision of an Ecozoic Era have had a profound influence on members of many cloistered religious communities, leading them to rethink how they conduct their lives on their land. He is remembered for his many contributions, among them his two eloquent and inspiring Schumacher lectures.

Lisa Byers Lisa has been the Director of OPAL Community Land Trust in Eastsound, WA since January 1996. She has supervised the design, development and financing of multiple new permanently affordable single family homes and a mixed use project with offices and rental apartments on Orcas Island. Prior to OPAL, Byers was the Land Steward for the San Juan County Land Bank, and worked for ten years as a manager of historic properties for the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities.

Olivia Dreier Olivia Stokes Dreier is the Associate Director of the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding and has facilitated intercommunal dialogues and peacebuilding seminars in many troubled regions of the world including, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, India, Macedonia, the Republic of Georgia, Rwanda, Senegal, and Sri Lanka. She is the Director of the Graduate Certificate Program in Conflict Transformation Across Cultures at the School for International Training (SIT) in Brattleboro, Vermont. A clinical social worker with many years of experience in community mental health, Ms. Dreier also worked for two years with the Gandhian movement in rural India and served as President of the Board of the Hartsbrook Waldorf School in Hadley, Massachusetts and of the E.F. Schumacher Society.

Jane Jacobs A planner and author by profession, Jane Jacobs was one of the most powerful spokespersons for regional economies. She is remembered as a valued and much loved advisor to the Schumacher Society.

Hazel Henderson Hazel Henderson is the founder of Ethical Markets Media, LLC and the creator and co-executive Producer of its TV series. She is a world renowned futurist, evolutionary economist, a worldwide syndicated columnist, consultant on sustainable development, and author of The Axiom and Nautilus award-winning book Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy (2006) and eight other books. She co-edited, with Harlan Cleveland and Inge Kaul, The UN: Policy and Financing Alternatives, Elsevier Scientific, UK 1995 (US edition, 1996). Hazel Henderson has done more than any other one person to spread the ideas of E. F. Schumacher around the world.

Wes Jackson Wes Jackson is a geneticist by training but by nature a radical with the courage to follow through on his dreams.  His commitment to achieving a perennial agriculture for the prairies is a bold initiative for the future of the landscape he loves.

Amory Lovins One of today's most brilliant thinkers on the subject of energy, Amory Lovins persuasively argues that energy security can be achieved only with decentralized production and conversion to renewable fuel sources.

John McKnight Ever committed to the welfare of the poorest in our midst, John McKnight has helped design tools and systems that empower marginalized communities.

Michael Shuman With a background in policy issues and an understanding of organizational structures, Michael Shuman turned his attention to what makes local economies work and in the process has become the Johnny Appleseed for the renewal of local economies.

Cathrine Sneed Her fellow law-enforcement officers thought she was crazy, but Cathrine Sneed believed in the prisoners under her care and in the healing power of growing vegetables.  That belief started a garden and a movement.

Lewis Solomon A Professor of Law at George Washington University, Lewis Solomon wrote the handbook on legal issues regarding community issued scrip, a handbook that every local currency activist needs.

John Todd One of the original "New Alchemists," biologist and Professor of Environmental Design at the University of Vermont, John Todd continues to amaze us by showing what well designed communities of plants can achieve in repairing the consequences of human intervention on the earth.

Greg Watson Greg Watson's peers thought he had sold out when he became an advocate for environmental issues, but Greg knew that the consequences of ecological degradation would most directly affect poor communities.  He is a charismatic speaker, compellingly making the link between social and ecological issues.

Barbara Wood Barbara Wood is E. F. Schumacher’s eldest daughter and also his biographer (see E. F. Schumacher: His Life and Thought.) She has degrees in History, Economics, and Theology. She also has an MA in Interreligious Dialogue. She worked for the Intermediate Technology Development Group in its early years and then for Voluntary Overseas Association. After marriage and six children she became convinced that education for sustainable living had to be rooted in the experience of daily life, practiced within the context of the family and that the role and presence of the mother was fundamental. She therefore worked at home and from home. She has a particular interest in Christian theology and the Christian response to the environmental crisis on which she has written and lectured.

Arthur Zajonc Professor of Physics at Amherst College, Arthur Zajonc leads us from a careful study of the physical world into what is traditionally called the ìother world.î  Goethean in his approach, he makes the connection between these two worlds step by step, clearly, confidently, as if the transition were a common natural phenomenon.

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