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founding board members

Board Member bios

Diana Ayton-Shenker
FFF Founder, Diana Ayton-Shenker teaches Social Entrepreneurship at The New School, and is a Senior Fellow at Bard College’s Globalization and International Affairs (BGIA) Program, where she taught “Global Social Entrepreneurship & Strategic Philanthropy”. She has also been an Adjunct Professor at the American University (Paris), and Hunter College, where she directed the first undergraduate human rights program in the U.S. Her publications include: A Global Agenda: Current Issues before the General Assembly of the United Nations (2002, and 2001, Rowman & Littlefield), articles on CSR, human rights & culture, and an original poetry collection, Tumbalalaika (2007, Narcissus Press). As founder of Global Momenta, Ms. Ayton-Shenker brings decades of work with philanthropy, the UN and int'l NGOs aiming for high-impact global social entrepreneurship. She has held senior positions with Mercy Corps, PEN, Human Rights Watch, and served on international, national and local nonprofit boards. Ms. Ayton-Shenker holds an LLM from the Univ. of Essex Law School, and an Honors BA in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jonathan Becker
Jonathan Becker is Associate Professor of Politics and Dean of International Studies at Bard College. He also directs Bard’s academic program in Global and International Studies. He has written extensively on Soviet and Russian media, media and democratization, and US/Russian relations. Recent works include: ‘Lessons from Russia: A Neo-Authoritarian Media System,’ European Journal of Communications, June 2004; Soviet and Russian Press Coverage of the United States: Press, Politics and Identity in Transition (revised and expanded edition, Palgrave: 2003); and ‘Keeping Track of Press Freedom,’ European Journal of Communications, March 2003. In 2004, he served as a consultant for the National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends 2020 project, facilitating workshops of international scholars from Europe and the former Soviet Union, and preparing a report on Eurasia. He was previously Assistant Vice President of the Central European University in Budapest and European Director of the Civic Education Project. He has taught at Yale, Wesleyan and Birmingham Universities. He received his doctorate from St. Antony’s College, Oxford in 1993.

     

Lara Galinsky
Lara Galinsky is the senior vice president at Echoing Green. Lara's portfolio consists of the day-to-day management of Echoing Green, marketing and communications, evaluation, thought leadership, alliances, strategic planning, and internal capacity building. Most recently, Lara Galinsky worked as the director of National Programs at Do Something, Inc., working with over 20,000 educators to inspire 4 million young people to get involved in their communities and develop vital leadership skills. Before that, Lara launched the BRICK Award, which annually honors and funds the most outstanding community leaders under the age of thirty. Lara graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Wesleyan University and has completed executive programs at Columbia University business School and Georgetown University's School of Public Policy. She serves as a board member for the Nonprofit Workforce Coalition, NYC Venture Philanthropy Fund, and the Fast Forward Fund, as well as the board chair of StartingBloc. She recently graduated from Coro's Leadership New York program.

Michele Kahane
Michele Kahane (MBA and MIA, Columbia University) is a professor of professional practice at Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy. She has more than 20 years of experience in the global business, nonprofit, and philanthropy sectors. Kahane was a banker in emerging markets corporate finance and later practiced social investment at the Ford Foundation for a decade. Subsequently, as a senior executive at the Clinton Global Initiative and at the Center for Corporate Citizenship at Boston College, she worked with companies, social entrepreneurs, and the public sector to forge innovative, market-based approaches to global development.

She is co-author of the award-winning book Untapped: Creating Value in Underserved Markets (Berrett-Koehler, June 2006), which provides advice to managers on how companies can both implement profitable business strategies and improve conditions in poor communities. Kahane serves on the board of the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future, the steering committee of the Institute for Responsible Investment, the NY Regional Association of Grantmakers Task Force on Hurricane Katrina, and the Fast Forward Fund.

Miguel Perez LaFaurie

Deborah Leipziger
Deborah Leipziger focuses on supply chain strategy and sustainability standards. She is the author of many books and articles in the field of corporate responsibility, including The Corporate Responsibility Code Book (Greenleaf, 2003), and played a key role in the development of the standard Social Accountability 8000. Widely recognized as a leading expert in these fields, Ms. Leipziger lectures frequently on these topics and has served as a corporate responsibility consultant advising multinational companies, investment funds, and standard-setting bodies. Ms. Leipziger holds an MPA from Columbia University and a BA (magna cum laude) in Economics and International Studies from Manhattanville College. Her native English and Portuguese are complemented by Spanish.

Blair Miller
Blair Miller is the Fellows Manager at Acumen fund where she is responsible for the day to day management and strategic direction of the Fellows Program. Blair's experience in pro-poor market-based solutions is drawn from both business and policy. She has helped develop a social impact assessment framework for base of the pyramid (BOP) business ventures like Scojo Foundation and Hindustan Lever's project Shakti, spearheaded youth-centered policies and education programs at the United Nations, and worked on a micro health insurance project with Ashoka's Full Economic Citizenship Initiative in India. Most recently, Blair worked with CARE in El Salvador to develop the business plan for an investment vehicle aimed at scaling small and medium-sized BOP enterprises. Blair holds an MBA from the University of Michigan and a BA in English Literature from the University of Virginia.

Natalia Oberti Noguera
Natalia, Director of New York Women Social Entrepreneurs (NYWSE), the NY metro area chapter of YWSE, holds a BA in Economics and Comparative Literature from Yale University and a MSc in International Health Care Management, Economics and Policy from Bocconi University.  Although she has lived in several countries in Latin America and Europe, she considers herself a New Yorker at heart.  Her interests include public affairs, public-private partnerships, change management, and CSI (the original TV series set in Vegas).  Natalia is currently pursuing a MA in Organizational Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University.

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