Our Board Members
Andre Carothers
Board President
Board Chair Emeritus
Audit Committee Chair
Racial Justice & Belonging Committee Chair
Board Recruitment Chair
Governance Committee Member
Board Member since 1991
Andre Carothers has more than 30 years of experience in nonprofit management, philanthropy, program development, and organizational and leadership development. He is currently a partner at an early-stage business incubator and an independent consultant and executive coach for leaders in business, nonprofits, and philanthropy.
He serves on the boards of directors of the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Furthur Foundation, the Weinmann Charitable Trust, the New Place Fund, the Rainforest Action Network, and the Story of Stuff Project.
In 1999, he co-founded the Rockwood Leadership Institute, an international leadership training organization, where he served as executive director until 2008. From 1984 to 1997, he worked at Greenpeace USA as an editor of their national newsmagazine, a campaign manager, and a member of the board of directors.
He received an MA in environmental science from the Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley.
Avi Mahaningtyas
Board Chair
Governance Committee Chair
Audit Committee Member
Board Member Since 2019
Avi Mahaningtyas has been working in the non-government sector in Indonesia for the last 25 years. Her main focuses have been environmental policy and practice, community business development, women’s empowerment, indigenous peoples’ rights, and governance reform.
Avi is an environmental consultant and knowledge facilitator. She served as an advisor to the David and Lucille Packard Foundation and Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA) from 2013 to 2018. She served as advisor for stakeholders’ engagement and strategic communication for the Task Force for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (Satgas REDD+) and the Head of the Presidential Delivery Unit from 2011-2014. She was a fellow with The Samdhana Institute focusing on community-based natural resource management, social transformation, and cultural revival. Prior to that, Avi worked as the National Coordinator of the Governor’s Climate and Forest Task Force (2009-2011); Chief of Cluster, Environmental and Economic Governance with the Kemitraan-Partnership for Governance Reform Indonesia (2010-2012); and the National Coordinator for the GEF Small Grants Program in Indonesia (2002-2009).
Anna Lappé
Vice Chair
Development Committee Member
Board Development Committee Member
Board Member since 2008
Anna Lappé is the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a strategic alliance of philanthropic foundations collaborating to transform food systems and their impacts on climate change and food security. She is also a national bestselling author and an internationally recognized expert on sustainability and justice along the food chain. Before joining the Alliance, she launched the Food Sovereignty Fund of the Panta Rhea Foundation. She was the founder and strategic advisor to Real Food Media, developing a powerful media and communications strategy for the food movement.
Along with her mother, Frances Moore Lappé, Anna also co-founded the Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund, supporting grassroots changemakers around the world. The former co-host of the PBS show, The Endless Feast, Anna has written for The Atlantic, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, among other outlets. She has been featured in or contributed to 16 books and co-authored or authored 3. Her most recent book explores the connections between the climate crisis and food: Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It. Called one of the nation’s Eco-Who’s Who by TIME magazine, Anna is a recipient of the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award. Anna holds an M.A. in Economic and Political Development from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and graduated with honors from Brown University. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Marsela Pecanac
Board Secretary
Development Committee Member
Finance Committee Member
Board Member since 2016
Marsela’s unique career intertwines corporate and private banking experience with substantive human rights and education assignments, over nearly two decades.
Combining her cross-cultural experience with the passion for mission-based organizations and nonprofits, Marsela now serves as SVP of deposit management and heads the Nonprofit & High Impact Investor practices at New Resource Bank (NRB), working with close to 200 nonprofits and foundations. Prior to NRB, Marsela created customized growth strategies for one of the fastest growing European banks, Raiffeisen in Vienna, Austria, working with McKinsey and Boston Consulting across most of Europe.
Parallel with banking, Marsela fights the unworkable status quo for children, education, human rights and the environment. She grew up in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and witnessed the war and siege in 1992-1995. Today, she serves on the Advisory Board of Jericho Foundation, a U.S. founded and run non-profit in Michigan, which for supports bright, underserved Bosnian youth to get a college education and get employed in Bosnia, so that the best and the brightest stay and build the country.
Marsela started her career in education working as Executive Director of U.S. operations for École Française des Attachés de Presse (EFAP), a Paris-based international business communications school, and New York Institute of Technology in NYC. She worked for Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe as expert member on the Committee for Revision of Textbooks and Elimination of Discriminatory Contents in schools throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina (B-H) as well as with Office of the High Representative and Council of Europe including work on B-H Higher Education Reform and related new legislation. Marsela authored Education Segment of the UN and UNDP publication on “Youth in Bosnia and Herzegovina” and contributed to Soros Open Society publications. She worked with Education for Peace and the Landegg International University in Switzerland promoting violence-free and peaceful school environments.
In addition, she owned a consulting firm based in Europe “Recognita” managing relationships with leading international clients, advising CEOs and top management teams. Marsela holds an MBA in Finance from the University of Turin in Italy, a Bachelor of Science in International Business from Marymount Manhattan College in NYC, as well as a First in Class Bachelor degree in Marketing from E.F.A.P. Paris, France.
Scott Price
Board Treasurer
Finance Committee Chair
Governance Committee Member
Board Member since 1994
Scott B. Price obtained a Bachelor of Arts from Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey. He earned the honor of being a Henry Rutgers Scholar and graduated in May of 1979. He obtained his Masters in Business Administration from San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California in December of 1981. Scott has been a certified CPA since March 12, 1982. Scott B. Price and Company was founded in June of 1985.
Scott serves on the Board of Directors for several 501(c)(3) organizations. He is the treasurer for the Rainforest Action Network, Inc and is an active member of the Cedars and Ronald McDonald House – SF advisory boards. Scott is also a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the California Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Asad Rehman
Racial Justice and Belonging Committee Member
Board Member since April 2022
Asad Rehman is the Executive Director of the radical anti-poverty and social justice organisation War on Want. Asad is a leading climate justice activist whose work over the last 20 years has helped to reframe the climate crisis as a crisis of neoliberal capitalism, inequality and racism. Asad helps to co-cordinate the Global Green New Deal Project and was one of the founders of the COP26 Coalition. Over the last 35 years, he has worked with many social movements both globally and nationally including the anti-racist movement, the alter-globalisation movement, and the anti-war movement.
Alberto Saldamando
Racial Justice and Belonging Committee Member
Audit Committee Member
Board Member since 2018
Alberto Saldamando (Xicano/Zapoteca) is an internationally acknowledged expert on human rights and Indigenous rights and has represented Indigenous Peoples, organizations and communities from various countries from most regions of the world before United Nations human rights mechanisms, as well as the International Labor Organization, the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development specific instance procedure.
In 2009 Alberto began his climate change work with the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) at the Copenhagen Conference of Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and in 2012 he accepted the position as counsel to the IEN on Climate Change and Indigenous and Human Rights. In this role he serves as IEN’s head of delegation to UNFCCC Conferences of Parties and related fora. Alberto previously spent 18 years serving as General Counsel of International Indian Treaty Council (IITC), and is very proud of his very active participation in the negotiations leading to the UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, the establishment of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the initial mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. In addition to representing indigenous individuals, tribes and nations in the human rights arena, his work with the IITC included advising on organizational matters and the development and implementation of a Human and Indigenous Rights program, training and activities.
Alberto was accredited as an Expert by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples (2014) and elected by UN-accredited Non-governmental Organizations as their representative to the International Steering Committee of the World Conference Against Racism (1998-2001). Previously, he served as Executive Director of California Rural Legal Assistance, was one of the founders and board member of San Francisco’s Central American Resource Center (CARECEN), and Board Member for Northern California American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). He is bilingual in Spanish and English.
Leila Salazar-López
Development Committee Member
Racial Justice and Belonging Committee Member
Board Member since 2023
Leila Salazar-López, Executive Director of Amazon Watch since 2015, leads the organization in its work to protect and defend the bio-cultural and climate integrity of the Amazon rainforest in solidarity with Indigenous and forest peoples. For 25+ years Leila has worked to defend the world’s rainforests, human rights, and climate through grassroots organizing and international advocacy campaigns at Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action Network and Global Exchange. She is also a Global Fund for Women Advisor for Latin America, a Greenpeace Voting Member and serves on the Advisory Circle of Daughters of the Earth. (amazonwatch.org).
Dan Scales
Development Committee Member
Board Member since January 2024
Dan joins the RAN Board as a senior software architect, bringing a unique experience that blends technological expertise and strong environmental commitment. A long-time supporter of RAN, Dan provided invaluable support for the early tracing of the sources of palm oil in Sumatra, Indonesia. Since earning his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University, Dan has done computer science research at DEC/Compaq Research Labs, was a key early engineer at VMware, and subsequently worked as a principal engineer at Google. Dan is currently a senior engineer at the World Resource Institute working on the Global Forest Watch project. Global Forest Watch provides comprehensive deforestation analysis and alerts for use by stakeholders worldwide, including national park rangers and corporations monitoring their supply chains.
Hana Heineken
Board Member since 2024
Hana Heineken is an attorney at ClientEarth, a nonprofit environmental legal advocacy organization. She specializes in the intersection of environment, human rights and finance, with a focus on climate change and securities law. Hana is also a Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University Law School, where she teaches a course on environmental justice.
Prior to ClientEarth, Hana served as a Senior Attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law, leading efforts on pension fund management of climate risk and the regulation of climate-related financial risk. Her diverse experience also includes roles as a Senior Campaigner at Rainforest Action Network, holding multinational banks accountable for their financing of tropical deforestation, human rights violations, and fossil fuel expansion; and a Senior Policy Advisor at Global Witness, where she led international efforts to stop the illegal timber trade into Japan. Hana has also worked in the Japanese Parliament and has been recognized by the Nikkei financial news agency as a top influencer in Japan on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) issues.
In the DC metro area, she founded the Zero Waste Committee of the Sierra Club DC Chapter and co-led civil society efforts to establish zero waste laws informed by environmental justice.
Fluent in English and Japanese, Hana graduated with distinction from Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University, obtained a research certificate from Tokyo University Graduate School for Law and Politics, and graduated from Princeton University majoring in political science. She is a member of the state bars of New York and Washington, DC.
Eos de Feminis
Finance Committee Member
Board Member since 2024
Eos is a repeat offender when it comes to supporting RAN with her experience in the non profit finance, operations and HR world, having returned to the organization after a hiatus gaining insights elsewhere. She brings with her a love for systems, financial viability and flexibility, all things regarding the digital backoffice, and chinese noodles.
EMERITUS BOARD
- Randy Hayes, Co-founder of RAN
- Mike Roselle, Co-founder of RAN
- Allan Badiner
- Deepa Isac
- Michael Northrop
- Ibrahim AlHusseini
- James D. Gollin
- Anna Hawken
-
Jodie Evans
HONORARY MEMBERS
- Ali MacGraw
- Bob Weir
- Bonnie Raitt
- John Densmore
- Woody Harrelson
- Daryl Hannah