In Memoriam

Theodore 'Ted' Smith

Ted Smith, a longtime conservationist and member of the Board of Trustees, passed away in 2012. For Ted, life was an adventure and an opportunity to improve the world.

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Reginald Brack is a former chairman and CEO of Time, Inc. and currently serves as chairman emeritus of the company. Mr. Brack also serves on the board of directors of the Advertising Council, as a trustee of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and has served as chair of the Business Council for International Understanding. Mr. Brack received a B.S. degree from Washington and Lee University.

Susan Britton practiced commercial and antitrust litigation with Dewey Ballantine and later joined Earthjustice, where she focused on federal Clean Air Act litigation until 2005. She now divides her time between her two sons and various community organizations in the Bay Area. Ms. Britton received her J.D. from Columbia Law School.

Peter Carson is a San Francisco-based partner of the Bingham McCutchen, LLP law firm. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers, and has served the American Bar Association and the State Bar of California in various leadership capacities. He also co-chairs his law firm's pro bono practice and has served on the ABA's standing pro bono committee and working group on the civil right to counsel, on the board of several legal aid programs and as chair of the State of California's IOLTA program (providing critical funding for legal services throughout the state). He received his B.A. and J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

David Cox is the retired CEO of Cowles Media Company in Minneapolis. He is a past chair of Earthjustice and currently serves on the boards of the San Francisco Ballet and the Berkeley Repertory Theater. He is a lifetime member and past chairman of the Guthrie Theater board, past chair of the Newspaper Association of America and the Twin Cities United Way, and has served on the boards of trustees of The Nature Conservancy (Minnesota), the Alan Page Foundation and Link TV.

Russ Daggatt is a general partner of Denny Hill Capital, a Seattle-based early-stage venture fund. He worked with cellular pioneer Craig McCaw in various roles in Seattle and London, including serving as president and vice chair of Teledesic LLC, CEO of New ICO Global Communications Ltd., and CEO and vice chair of ICO-Teledesic Global Ltd. Drawing on his experience as a mountain-climbing and river-rafting guide, Mr. Daggatt earlier led the merger of the top two U.S. international adventure travel companies, Mountain Travel and Sobek Expeditions.

Steve Daetz is executive vice president of the Sandler Foundation, where he oversees the foundation's grant-making, investments and other functions. He previously was deputy general counsel at Golden West Financial Corporation, a Fortune 500 company, advising the Board and senior management on corporate and securities matters, regulatory compliance, and governance and public policy issues. A Bay Area native, Mr. Daetz attended Berkeley Law, the London School of Economics and UCLA.

Tony DeFalco is a community organizer for Verde, a non-profit dedicated to serving low-income communities by building environmental wealth through social enterprise, outreach and advocacy. Prior roles include creating Indian Country Conservancy, the nation's first native-led, national land conservation organization, running regional and national advocacy campaigns to protect ocean fisheries and small boat fishermen and helping to found the Center for Diversity and the Environment. He holds a B.A. in Ethnic studies from UC Berkeley, an MS in Natural Resources Planning from Humboldt State University and is an active social justice advocate and birdwatcher.

Carmen Gonzalez is a Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law, where she teaches environmental law, torts, international environmental law, hazardous waste and toxics regulation, and international trade law. She has published widely in the areas of international environmental law, environmental justice, trade and the environment, and food security. In 2011–12, she served as chair of the Environmental Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools. She holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.

Chris Killingsworth is Vice President of the Wyss Foundation. Before joining the Foundation in 2002, Chris worked for the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. and the Bureau of Land Management in Utah. Chris holds a B.S. in Agriculture from the University of Florida and a M.S. in Urban and Regional Planning from Florida State University.

David Klipstein was elected to the Board of Trustees in 1998. Having earned his doctorate in chemical engineering from MIT, Dave has over 30 years of experience in research and long-range planning in the field of air and water pollution control equipment and in the development of computer modeling to minimize pollution, energy consumption and use, especially in industrial combustion and waste incineration processes. Dr. Klipstein has a strong interest in the relationship between increased international trade and environmental values, and has encouraged and supported the efforts of Earthjustice in this area.

Ed Lewis is a consultant to environmental campaigns and foundations, and previously practiced law for many years in Arizona. From 1986 to 1994 he served as executive director of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, building it into one of the foremost regional conservation organizations in the country. Mr. Lewis is past Chair of the Earthjustice board, and also currently serves on the boards of National Parks Conservation Association, Training Resources for the Environmental Community and the LaSalle Adams Fund.

George Martin founded the workers' compensation law firm of Martin, Banks. He is a past president of the Philadelphia Trial Lawyers Association and is active with that group, as well as the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association of Justice. He is the past president of Green Valleys Association of Chester County and a member of the Planning Commission of West Vincent Township.

Judge William Newsom is a retired associate justice of the California Court of Appeal who devotes extensive time to environmental causes, especially the protection of wildlife, in the United States, Canada and Africa.

Dan Olincy is a tax and estate-planning attorney, and certified as a specialist in both fields by the California State Bar. He has served as chair of the California Bar's Tax Section and received its V. Judson Klein award for outstanding achievement and public service; his other public service includes 20-plus years on the board of the UCLA Center of Aging, almost 20 years as a trustee of the Hans G. Burkhardt [artist] Foundation, and terms on the Stanford Law School Board of Visitors and the Law School's Advisory Council on Environmental Law. He is a graduate of Stanford University and its Law School.

Brad Parker is Managing General Partner of WeHope LLC. After several years working in finance, including Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, and Vanguard, he obtained his MBA from the University of Washington in 2006. Mr. Parker is a volunteer for a number of conservation organizations, and joined the Board of Earthjustice at the beginning of 2008.

Marcia Riklis attended Tufts University and is a graduate of Hebrew University of Jerusalem (B.A.) and New York University (M.B.A). Following a career in business, she now devotes substantial time to a number of non-profit organizations and causes, including current membership on the boards of Earthjustice, the New York Legal Assistance Group, the Institute for National Strategic Studies, and the Israel Policy Forum. She is also on the board and the Executive Committee of UJA/Federation of New York, and is serving a two year term as General Campaign Chair. In the past, she has served on the boards of the Jewish Women's Foundation of New York (of which she is a founder) and Prep for Prep, among others.

Betty Schafer is a writer, editor and the Principal of New Futures: coaching for people in transition. In addition to Earthjustice, she serves on the boards of Brandeis Hillel Day School, The Coro Center for Civic Leadership, and SEO Scholars (Sponsors of Educational Opportunity). She graduated from Radcliffe, has a Master's Degree in English Literature and Coaching certification from New Ventures West.

Fern Shepard currently manages international wilderness conservation campaigns for the Pew Charitable Trusts. From 1986 to 1997, she was a staff attorney with Earthjustice in our Alaska, Rocky Mountain, and Washington, D.C. offices. Ms. Shepard litigated cases to protect children from the toxin lead in drinking water, farm workers from dangerous pesticides, and African American communities from highway construction in neighboring parklands. Her cases also stopped oil and gas drilling adjacent to Arches National Park and leasing in grizzly bear habitat adjacent to Yellowstone National Park.

Patrice Simms is currently an Assistant Professor at Howard University School of Law. From February 2010 until August 2011, Professor Simms served in a political appointment with the Obama administration as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and over the course of his career he has served as a staff attorney in the EPA's Office of General Counsel (Air and Radiation Law Office), as a legal counsel to EPA's Environmental Appeals Board, and as a Senior Attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. He received his J.D. from Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., and a B.S. in Psychology from Northeastern University in Boston, M.A.

Michael Sonnenfeldt is currently Chairman of Sol, Inc., the leading manufacturer of industrial and commercial outdoor solar lighting systems which are sold in over 60 countries. He has spent most of the first 20 years of his career in real estate. He conceived and eventually sold (along with a partner) the country's largest commercial renovation, the Harborside Financial Center, in the early 80's and then later built a billion dollar portfolio of distressed real estate assets which were successfully redeployed as the markets retuned to more normal levels in the early 90's. Mr. Sonnenfeldt is also the Founder of Tiger 21, the premier network of learning groups for high net worth investors with over 200 members spread across North America.

Dianne Stern is a teacher, writer and lifelong conservationist. She has served on the Earthjustice Board for over 15 years.

Elizabeth Sutherland has been committed to the environmental movement since the late 1960s and is currently on the Board of Earthjustice and Rachel's Action Network. Formerly an educator and fundraiser, she was on the Power of Choice Council of NARAL for 12 years. She received her B.A. from UCLA and completed graduate school in education at UC Berkeley.

Kevin Toner was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1964 and graduated from Columbia University in 1986 with a B.A. in Economics, Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude. In 1997 he, with two partners, founded Aristeia Capital which invests in alternative strategies for U.S. and offshore individuals and institutions. In 1994, Mr. Toner endowed The Isdell Foundation which currently has substantial programs supporting environmental programs and also Tibetan self-determination.

Stephen Unfried was an investment banker with Credit Suisse First Boston from 1969 to 1999, mostly based in New York but including 6 years in London. He is actively involved in conservation issues in the Northern Rockies, having served from 1998 to 2006 on the board of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, including two years as chair, and also from 2005 to 2010 on the board of the William D. Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming. He has a B.A. in economics from Princeton and an M.A. in economics and an LL.B. from Yale.

Marc Whitehead is a retired partner of Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal LLP (now SNR Denton), where he focused primarily on toxic tort, life sciences and environmental cases, and on international environmental law. Prior to his Chicago career, Mr. Whitehead was the chairman of the international Minneapolis based law firm of Popham, Haik. Mr. Whitehead was the founding director and CEO of Global Liability Management (GLM), an international management consultancy established in 1993, for which he is an active consultant in environmental and human health related issues.