Whitey Bluestein, Bluestein & Associates Strategic Advisors

Whitey has more than 25 years of experience in telecom and wireless corporate development and strategy. He is a strategic advisor to many early stage technology companies, particularly new mobile applications and servies. In the past he prepared a presidential executive order and a report to Congress on the use of alternate fuels and led a statewide campaign to ban nuclear power and waste storage. He received his B.S. in Business from Indiana University and his Juris Doctor with Honors from the George Washington University Law School. Whitey is married with two teenagers and lives in Larkspur, California.

Jayni Chase, Founder and CEO, Center for Environmental Education
Development Committee Chair

Jayni serves as head of the Center for Environmental Education, a nationally based non-profit organization which advances environmental education. She is also the author of Blue Print for a Green School, an environmental education resource guide. Jayni is the recipient of numerous awards from organizations such as Women For, U.S. Environmental Film Festival, and the Earth Communications Office. She is a member of the advisory boards of NRDC in Los Angeles, Mothers and Others for a Livable Planet, Coalition for Clean Air, and the Rain Forest Alliance.

Harriett Crosby, Cofounder and President of ISAR, Institute for Soviet American Relations
Vice Chair and Audit Committee Chair

ISAR supports the work of environmental activists in the former Soviet Union. Harriett has worked as an instructor for the Colorado Outward Bound School and taught at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, Aspen Community School, and at the Putney School in Vermont. She worked at the White House Council on Environmental Quality for the first five years of the Clinton Administration. Harriett has a Master's degree in Psychology from Temple University and has been trained as a Jungian analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. She attended Pitzer College and just received their distinguished alumni award. She manages Fox Haven, a farm and retreat center in Maryland, and currently serves as vice chair for the board of Friends of the Earth.

Clarence Ditlow, Executive Director, Center for Auto Safety
Secretary and Legal Committee Chair

Clarence is the author of The Lemon Book and The Safe Road to Fuel Economy, and numerous publications on auto safety, air pollution and transportation. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Consumers Union, the Canadian Automobile Protection Association and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. He is a past recipient of the Washington, D.C. Consumer Lawyer of the Year Award and Syracuse University's Salzberg Medallion. Clarence received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University and a law degree from Harvard Law School. Clarence currently serves as Secretary for the board of directors.

Marion Edey, Founder, League of Conservation Voters

Marion Edey is a lifelong environmental and social justice activist. She founded and led the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) from 1970 to 1986, creating the first group to lobby for the environmental movement. In 1977 President Jimmy Carter appointed Marion to the three-person Council on Environmental Quality, however she was denied Senate approval because of her outspoken role with the LCV and her radical environmental values. She spent more than 10 years working with the Threshold Foundation, evaluating grant projects for environmental, social justice, peace and arms control and campaign finance reform. A former educator in the East Harlem district, Marion recently taught a course on activism and philanthropy at the Sandy Spring Friends School in D.C. She is also on the board of Taxpayers of Common Sense and the Fund for Constitutional Government.

Dan Gabel, Chairman and CEO, Hagedorn & Company
Nominating Committee Chair, Search Committee Co-Chair

Dan and his wife, Bunny, have been involved with Friends of the Earth since its early days. He served on the Board of Friends of the Earth Foundation as Director and Treasurer for about 15 years. He joined the Board of Friends of the Earth in 1995 and served as Chairman of the Board for many years. Dan and Bunny graduated from Duke University where he is on the Board of the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment. He is also on the Board of Waterkeepers Alliance. Since 1979 he has been Chairman and CEO of the New York based insurance brokerage firm, Hagedorn & Company.

Jeffrey Glueck, Chief Marketing Officer, Travelocity
Communications and Marketing Committee Chair

Jeff leads marketing and brand strategy for Travelocity, the pioneer online travel agency. In 2007 he was named to Advertising Age’s "40 Under 40" leaders, and won the Gold Effie award from the American Marketing Association in 2005 for most effective retail advertising campaign in America for his Roaming Gnome campaign. He has held positions advising foreign governments on sustainable development and as a White House Fellow in the Clinton Administration working on green trade and renewable energy financing. He has brought his green interests to his work at Travelocity, helping launch the first carbon offset program of any online travel agency in the U.S. and promoting environmental and humanitarian "volunteer vacations". He is married and lives in New York City, and on the weekends enjoys hiking and gardening around his farmhouse in Litchfield County, CT.

Michael J. Herz, Founder, San Francisco Baykeeper
Chair and Search Committee Co-Chair

A research scientist and environmental activist for more than 30 years, Mike was an associate professor in residence at the University of California at San Francisco and has published numerous books and papers on the effects of toxics on the brain and behavior. He co-founded and was Executive Director of the San Francisco chapter of the Oceanic Society and Executive Vice President of the national organization. He was a member of the Alaska Oil Spill Commission following the Exxon Valdez oil spill and has served on numerous technical review committees for the National Research Council, Department of Interior and State of California. He is past-President of the Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association, a Maine land trust that also protects endangered Atlantic salmon, a current board member of Maine Rivers and the Putney School and a former commodore of the Singlehanded Sailing Society. Mike received a Master's degree from San Francisco State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California.

Doug Legum, President, Douglas Legum Development

Doug Legum has been a Friends of the Earth Board Member for eight years.

Russell Long, Founder, Bluewater Network

Russell founded Bluewater Network, a national environmental organization which merged with Friends of the Earth in 2005. Bluewater has helped establish laws and regulations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from passenger cars, reduce air and water pollution from the shipping industry, and curtail thrillcraft use on public lands. In 2001, Mother Jones magazine named Russell a "Hellraiser." He has served on various state, regional, and local advisory boards regulating oil spills, water conservation, and marine transportation in California. Russell holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, a Master's of Business Administration from Columbia University, and a Doctorate in Ecology and Development from the California Institute of Integral Studies. In addition to Friends of the Earth, he also serves on the Board of the Sapelo Foundation in Georgia.

Patricia Matthews, Writer/Producer

Patricia has a long and distinguished career in the communications field, having served as both writer and producer of television news and documentaries, commercial and political image films. She has been the media producer for presidential and congressional Political campaigns. Patricia has been involved with the environmental movement since the early 70s. She has traveled extensively, having lived in Berkeley, New York, Paris, London, and has hiked and canoed through the wilderness of Alaska, Canada and Maine.

Avis Ogilvy Moore, Charter Member of Friends of the Earth

With Friends of the Earth since its founding in 1969, Avis has been a life-long environmentalist, activist, researcher and scholar. She co-founded and chaired the New York branch of Friends of the Earth in 1972 and is a past chair of FoE's board. Avis has served on numerous other boards over the years including Sierra Club's Atlantic Chapter, Zero Population Growth's New York Chapter and the Louisiana Landmarks Society. She is the board chair for Potomac Riverkeeper and the Community and People’s Recovery Association in New Orleans. She received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and M.A. in French literature from New York University.

Arlie Schardt, Founder and Director, Environmental Media Services

Arlie has had a long and illustrious career within the media. He served as national press secretary for Senator Al Gore’s 1987-88 Presidential campaign, Executive Director of the Environmental Defense Fund, southern civil rights correspondent for Time magazine, news media editor at Newsweek, Associate Director of the ACLU, writer and later Chief of the News Service at Sports Illustrated, and editor of Foundation News magazine at the Council on Foundations. He has written features and op-ed pieces in numerous national magazines and leading dailies. He has also contributed to three books on politics and national issues.

Doria Steedman, Director of Partnership Development, YELLOWBRICKROAD Communications

Doria has had a very distinguished career in the advertising field, having been chosen as 1996 Advertising Woman of the Year by Advertising Women of New York. Previously, she worked for Geer DuBois Advertising, where she served on the Executive Committee; produced and directed two award-winning films for People Magazine; was selected as one of Advertising Age’s "100 Best and Brightest"; and was elected to the Board of Directors of Advertising Women of New York (AWNY). She served as president of AWNY from 1993 to 1995, and as chair of the AWNY Foundation from 1995 to 1997. She became Creative Director of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America in 1992, where she was responsible for the quality and the quantity of the Partnership's anti–drug advertising, both the exclusively pro-bono work and the Office of National Drug Policy's paid media campaign. In 2008, she joined YELLOWBRICKROAD Communications, a company whose purpose is to create social change through communications, as Director of Partnership Development.

Rick Taketa, Environmental Advocate
Program and Planning Committee Chair

Rick's environmental work includes serving as Legislative Director for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund's National Forest campaign, as the founding Executive Director of Free the Planet, and Assistant Director for Green Corps, where Rick managed an effort to gather 1.2 million signatures and was a central organizer for Earth Day 1995, attended by over 250,000 people in Washington, D.C. Currently, Rick is the Chief Executive Officer for Southern California Risk Management and President of York Risk Management. Prior to that, he was the founding Managing Director for Eventide Management Corporation and an securities attorney with DLA Piper Rudnick. Rick has a B.A. in Economics and English from Colgate University and earned a J.D. from Stanford Law School.

Peyton West, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

As a Senior Program Associate with the AAAS, Peyton manages a project to educate local school boards about science, math, and technology education. She is also designing a project to that will bring scientists and evangelical Christians together to discuss scientific issues of mutual concern. She is an ardent believer in the importance of science literacy especially as it relates to conservation. Her Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Minnesota placed her in a position to promote science literacy through television shows, documentaries, web sites and museum exhibits, including MTV Network's children's program "Go, Diego, Go!" and the Bell Museum of Natural History, Minneapolis, MN. Peyton is particularly interested in African conservation issues and she spent several years living and working in Tanzania and Kenya.

David Zwick, President, Clean Water Action
Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair

David's work over the past 20 years has focused on helping grassroots citizen organizations form and continue to grow. He founded and is the former President of Clean Water Action, a post from which he stepped down in the fall of 2007. He now works as an advisor for several organizations.  He is the author of Water Wasteland, which helped shape the Clean Water Act, and co-author of the bestseller, Who Runs Congress.  He holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School. David serves as Treasurer for the board of directors.