Women’s Earth Alliance, founder and director

Welcome to Women’s Earth Alliance.  I believe we’re onto something here, and I hope you’ll be a part of it.  Our work is about the possibility available in connection.  There is something profoundly powerful about a coming together of people, a breaking of isolation, a tapping of collective wisdom.

My vision for WEA was inspired by multiple encounters over the years with women activists who were mobilizing their communities toward environmentally sustainable solutions—often in the face of incredible odds.  In my work with citizen-based environmental NGOs-- whether in East Africa, China, the Russian Far East, rural Missouri or here in California-- I witnessed the tremendous leadership of women who were launching campaigns, lobbying government officials, and shifting mindsets.

At the same time, I also saw many of my sister activists struggling to access needed resources, information, and networking opportunities that would empower them to be even more effective.  I began to realize that a groundswell of energy would be available to these dedicated and resolute women activists if they had a "space" to build a powerbase, share best practices, and model the solutions on the global stage.

Prior to my work with WEA, I was taught by grassroots NGOs I worked with from around the world, who were pursuing environmental justice, sustainable local economies and indigenous rights.  I worked for CARE Kenya in East Africa on sustainable agriculture and health projects, and traveled throughout the North Pacific Rim nurturing the emergence of grassroots environmental movements with environmental organization, Pacific Environment.

I worked with Chinese government, industry, scientists, and media to convene multi-stakeholder dialogue with citizen groups.  I worked on sustainable fisheries issues in Alaska and the Russian Far East, facilitating a long-term collaborative initiative of Russian and Alaskan scientists, policy makers, fisherman, NGOs, and indigenous leaders, called the International Bering Sea Forum.  And I worked with U.S. based environmental organizations, Colorado Public Interest Research Group - CoPIRG , and the Sierra Club helping groups build capacity through campaign strategy, coalition-building and media trainings.

Above all, I''ve received my most valuable lessons in nature.  I like to go deep into a forest, quiet my mind, and listen to the earth whisper everything I need to know.

Welcome to Women’s Earth Alliance.  I hope you’ll join us in creating a story of hope, collaboration, and world-changing practices.

Our International Advisory Board
 
Rosemary Enie, President, Women International Coalition Organization

Claire Greensfelder, Director, INOCHI/Plutonium Free Future International Women''s Network

Paul Hawken, Author, Founder of Natural Capital Institute

Catriona Macgregor, Founder, Awen Grove

Joanna Macy, Eco-Philosopher, Author

Avon Mattison, Co-Founder and President, Pathways to Peace

Anuradha Mittal, Founder, Oakland Institute

Kirsten Moller, Executive Director, Global Exchange

Libby Roderick, Singer/songwriter

Dr. Vandana Shiva, Author, Director of Research Foundation of Science, Technology, and Natural Resources
 
WEA Team
 
Amira Diamond: Organizational Development, WEA''s Weaving the Worlds Program

Amira Diamond is a musician and spiritual activist devoted to issues of environmental justice and democracy.  She has served with Julia Butterfly Hill as Circle of Life’s Associate Director in Oakland, CA.  Amira has served on the Board of Democracy Matters where she worked as the West Coast Director, educating college students and organizing around election reform on the West Coast and in Arizona.  Born into a musical family, she began formal training on the violin at age 3 and has performed as a singer throughout her life.  Amira incorporates her background as a performing artist, healer and musician into all aspects of her work.

Rachael Knight: Fundraising and WEA''s Inspirational Narratives Project

Rachael Knight is an attorney with expertise in the areas of land tenure security and legal empowerment of the poor. A graduate of the UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), Rachael worked for seven years founding and running medical-legal partnership programs to increase low-income families'' access to justice within hospitals in the San Francisco Bay Area and fostering replication of the model throughout California.  She was a Fulbright Scholar from 2001-2002 and an Equal Justice Works fellow from 2005-2007. She has been a consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) since 2004, working both for the Legal Development Service and the Land Tenure division of the Natural Resources Management and Environment department.

Melinda Kramer: Founding Director

Melinda has worked around the world with organizations pursuing environmental justice, sustainable local economies and indigenous rights. She has worked with CARE Kenya in East Africa on sustainable agriculture and health projects and worked throughout the North Pacific Rim, nurturing the emergence of grassroots environmental movements with international organization, Pacific Environment. Melinda led Pacific Environment’s China and Marine programs, conducting trainings in media, organizational development, and campaign strategy for grassroots NGOs and university groups throughout China. She worked with Chinese government, industry, scientists, and media to convene multi-stakeholder dialogue with citizen groups. Melinda also worked on sustainable fisheries issues in Alaska and the Russian Far East, facilitating the International Bering Sea Forum, a long-term collaborative initiative that involved Russian and Alaskan scientists, policy makers, fisherman, NGOs, and indigenous leaders. Melinda is a trained facilitator, and speaks Kiswahili, Spanish, and Mandarin.

Arielle Moinester: Transformative Advocacy India Program

As the Transformative Advocacy India Coordinator, Arielle brings to Women’s Earth Alliance her experience and passion for designing, implementing and managing development and business projects that seek new intersections between traditional approaches to sustainable agricultural development and free market economic efficiency.  Arielle has collaborated with AVRDC, The World Vegetable Center in Arusha, Tanzania and the International Food Policy Research Institute, IFPRI, in Washington, DC researching African indigenous vegetables and sustainable productivity growth of horticulture in sub-Saharan Africa.  She also worked in coffee production, cooperative development and women’s income generation in Honduras.  Arielle is co-founder of Manos de Madres, a non-profit organization building sustainable women’s businesses around the world.  She also serves on the Strategic Advisory Board for BioDimensions.  Arielle earned her M.S. in Agricultural and Resource Economics and an M.S. in International Agricultural Development from the University of California, Davis.  Currently, Arielle lives in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where she is a 2008/2009 International Development Fellow in Agriculture with Catholic Relief Services.

Shannon Laliberte Parks: WEA''s Transformative Advocacy Program

Shannon received her bachelor''s degree in Religious Studies with an emphasis in Hinduism and Buddhism from the University of New Mexico. Five years ago she moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and received her masters in Humanities and Leadership with a focus in Activism and Social Change from the New College of California. The sum of her educational and activist experiences has provided the foundation for her deep commitment to the larger progressive movement for human rights, gender, race, environmental and socio-economic justice. She has had the privilege to work side-by-side with grassroots organizations throughout the country, including SAGE Council (Sacred Alliances for Grassroots Equality), Seva Foundation, UNM African American Studies Mentorship Program, Healthcare for the Homeless Harm Reduction Center, Tibetan Aid Project, Oakland Institute, Circle of Life, Rainforest Action Network and San Francisco Women Against Rape as a Rape Crisis Counselor. She is also a member of D2K, an organization dedicated to skill sharing and inspiration for those working in the diversity and anti-oppression field.

Caitlin Sislin: WEA''s Transformative Advocacy Program

A public interest environmental attorney in Oakland, CA, Caitlin has worked with NRDC, Earthjustice, the California Center for Environmental Law & Policy, and the Center for Human Rights and Environment in Argentina.  At U.C. Berkeley''s Boalt Hall School of Law, Caitlin chaired the Environmental Law Society and coordinated the first annual Environmental Justice Symposium.  Her article “Exempting Department of Defense from Federal Hazardous Waste Laws: Resource Contamination as ''Range Preservation” was published in Ecology Law Quarterly, one of the nation’s foremost environmental law journals.  Caitlin''s poem entitled “The Nation Waits” appears in Imagining Ourselves, an anthology of women''s art and writing published by the International Museum of Women. Caitlin is the Transformative Advocacy director at Women''s Earth Alliance, where she works to convene women attorneys and other professionals with women leaders working on environmental justice issues for international journeys of conscious dialogue, experiential learning, and appropriate advocacy.