Board of Advisors
Changing The Present is operated by ImportantGifts, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Our Board of Advisors includes more than 100 leaders with expertise across the entire spectrum of causes.
Basic Needs
Disaster Relief
Mohammad Akhter
Executive Director | National Medical Association
Steven Denne
CEO | Evidence Action
Ken Hackett
Ambassador | US Department of State
Neal Keny-Guyer
CEO | Mercy Corps
Education
Maya Ajmera
President & CEO | Society for Science & the Public
Founder | The Global Fund for Children
Board Co-Chair | Echoing Green
Carol Bellamy
Chair | Global Community Engagement and Resilence Fund
Former Executive Director | UNICEF
Former Director | United States Peace Corp
Former President | New York City Council
Former Senator | New York State Senate
Edward de Bono
World Thinker | The de Bono Group, LLC
Nominee | Nobel Prize for Economics
Gary E. Knell
President & CEO | National Geographic Society
CEO | Sesame Workshop
Wendy Kopp
Board Chair | Teach For America
Former CEO & Co-Founder | Teach For All
Benno C. Schmidt Jr.
Co-Founder | Avenues
Former President | Yale University
Dean | Columbia University Law School
Former CEO chairman | Edison Schools (Now Edison Learning)
Kyle Zimmer
Co-Founder, President, CEO | First Book
Homelessness
Dennis P. Culhane PhD
Senior Fellow | Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics
Helen Dunlap
Independent Real Estate Professional | Dunlap Consulting
Judith Hermanson PhD
Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer | Pan American Development Foundation
Bill Kelly Esq
Strategic Advisor | Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future
Erika Poethig
Institute Fellow and Director of Urban Policy Initiatives | The Urban Institute
Nan Roman
President and CEO | National Alliance to End Homelessness
Jeff Schaffer
Vice President of Client Services | JMC Philanthropic Advisors
Lillian Murphy
Former CEO | Mercy Housing
Hunger
Monty Jones PhD
Minster | Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security of Sierra Leone
World Food Prize Laureate - 2005 | World Food Prize
Fellow | TWAS The Academy of Sciences for the developing World
Fellow | African Academy of Sciences
Insignia of the Grand Officer of the order of the Rokel| Sierra Leone Presidential National Honours and Awards
Peter McPherson
President | The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities
Water
Margaret Catley-Carson
Patron | Global Water Partnership
Jonathan Greenblatt
CEO and National Director | Anti-Defamation League
Special Assistant to the President and Director, Office of Social Innovation & Civic Participation | White House
Co-Founder | Ethos Water
Roberto Lenton PhD
Founding Executive Director | Water For Food
Ravi Narayanan
Chair | Asian Development Bank
Community
Aging
Carol A. Farquhar
Manager | Bradmet
Member | National Issues Forums Institute
Member | National Council on Aging's Leadership Council
John Feather PhD
Chief Executive Officer | Grantmakers in Aging
James P. Firman EdD
President and CEO | The National Council on Aging
Nancy A. Whitelaw PhD
Program Consultant | Practice Change Leaders
Arts and Culture
Laurie Beckelman
Co Founder | Beckelman & Capalino, LLC
Marilyn Perry
Founder & Artist | Marilyn Perry Art
David Resnicow
President | Resnicow Schroeder Associates
Joan Shigekawa
Senior Deputy Chairman | National Endowment for the Arts
Children and Youth
Maya Ajmera
CEO | Society for Science & the Public
Founder | The Global Fund for Children
Board Member | Echoing Green
Board Member | Washington Area Women's Foundation
Board Member | Youth Philanthropy Worldwide
Carol Bellamy
Chair | Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund
Former Executive Director | UNICEF
Former Director | United States Peace Corp
Former President | New York City Council
Former Senator | New York State Senate
Anthony Lake
Executive Director | UNICEF
Charles MacCormack
Executive Chair | Millennium Development Goal Health Alliance
William Reese
President & CEO | International Youth Foundation
Civil Society and Democracy
Kenneth Anderson JD
Professor of Law | American University
Anthony Barnett
Founder | openDemocracy
Shulamith Koenig
Founder and President | PDHRE, Peoples Movement for Human Rights Education
Kumi Naidoo
Launch Director | Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity
Human Rights
Anthony Barnett
Founder and Editor-in-Chief | openDemocracy
Alice Tepper Marlin
President | Social Accountability International
Aryeh Neier
President | Open Society Institute
Andrew Park Esq
International Program Director | Williams Institute
Peace
Johanna Mendelson
Former Director - Peace, Security and Human Rights | United Nations Foundation
Adjunct Professor | School of International Service
Stephen Jackson PhD
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Information Science | Cornell University
Katherine Magraw PhD
Executive Director | Peace and Security Funders Group
Aaron David Miller PhD
Former President and Advisor | Seeds of Peace
George Perkovich PhD
Vice President for Studies | Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Public Broadcast
Charlie Firestone
Executive Director | Communications & Society Program at The Aspen Institute
Harlan Mandel
Deputy managing director | Media Development Loan Fund
Pam Meyer
Chief Executive Director | Calibrate
Alisa Miller
Board Member and Chair | Lumina Foundation
Marita Rivero
Vice President and General Manager | WBGH Radio Station
Women
Kathy Bonk
Co- Founder and Executive Director | Communications Consortium Media Center
Patricia Ellis
Co-Founder and President | Women's Foreign Policy Group
Eve Ensler
Playwright, Activist, Performer and Founder | V-Day
Geeta Rao Gupta PhD
Deputy Executive Director of Programs| UNICEF
Ranjana Kumari PhD
Director | Centre for Social Research
Chairperson | WomenPowerConnect
Member | National Mission for Women's Empowerment, Government of India
Michaela Walsh
Founder | Women's World Banking
Environment
Climate Change
Steve Howard
Business Leader and Campaigner | IKEA Group
Environment
Terry L. Andreas
Founder & Board Chair | The School for Field Studies
Trustee | Boston University
Member | Council on Foreign Relations
Board of Directors | Coalition for the Homeless
Leslie Carothers
Scholar-in Residence & Law Professor | Environmental Law Institute- Harvard Law School
Melinda Kimble
Senior Vice President | United Nations Foundation
Geeta Rao Gupta PhD
President | International Center for Research on Women
Carl Pope
Principal Advisor | Inside Straight Strategies
Former Executive Director & Chairman | Sierra Club
Nina Simons
Co-Founder | Bioneers
Robert B. Stang
Third generation real estate developer
Founder | Living Earth Realty
Former Managing Partner | ReNEWal Realty, LLC
Co-Founder | Columbia River Business Alliance
Lloyd Timerlake
Freelance writer on environment, development and sustainable development
Former Director | Word Business Council for Sustainable Development in North America
Jack Vanderryn
Former Senior Fellow, Enviroment and Development | Moriah Fund
Tensie Whelan
Director, Professor for Business & Society | NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business
Fromer Executive Director | Rainforest Alliance