Staff

Founders

Van Jones | Founder & President

Van Jones is working to combine solutions to America's two biggest problems:  social inequality and environmental destruction.

Van recently founded Green For All, a national organization dedicated to building an inclusive green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty. 

Launched at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2007, Green For All grew out of Van’s work creating a ‘Green Job Corp’ in Oakland, California, as part of a program at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.  Van founded the Center in 1996, which promotes alternatives to violence and incarceration, including its successful “Books Not Bars” campaign that has helped reduce California’s overall youth prison population by more than 30 percent.

An advocate for the toughest urban constituencies and causes, Van has won many honors, including: the 1998 Reebok International Human Rights Award; the International Ashoka Fellowship; selection as a World Economic Forum “Young Global Leader;” the Rockefeller Foundation "Next Generation Leadership" Fellowship; Elle Magazine Green Award 2008; George Lucas Foundation’s “Daring Dozen 2008;” Hunt Prime Mover Award 2008; Campaign for America’s Future “Paul Wellstone Award 2008;” and Global Green USA “Community Environmental Leadership” Award. 

Van has served on the boards of the National Apollo Alliance, Social Ventures Network, Rainforest Action Network, Bioneers and Julia Butterfly Hill's "Circle of Life" organization.  He is also a Senior Fellow with Center for American Progress (CAP) and a Fellow at IONS (Institute of Noetic Sciences).
 
A 1993 Yale Law graduate, Van is a husband and father.

Majora Carter | Advisory Council Chair & Co-Founder

Majora Carter is connecting poverty alleviation and the environment in ways that benefit both concerns, demonstrating Clean-Tech solutions for our most persistent urban public health and global climate concerns. By creating positive physical environments, demonstrating cool and green roof technologies, working to replace an under-utilized expressway with local-value driven development, and the Bronx Environmental Stewardship Training program - creating a skilled green-collar workforce with personal & economic stakes in their urban environment.

Majora Carter was born, raised, and continues to live & work in the South Bronx, an environmentally challenged community. She founded Sustainable South Bronx in 2001 to fight for Environmental Justice through innovative, economically sustainable projects that are informed by community needs. She earned a 2005 MacArthur Fellowship for her vision, drive, and tenacity as an urban revitalization strategist.

Staff

Mahogany Barnes | Administrative Assistant

Mahogany is an Oakland native and came to Green For All with a background in Residential Real Estate. She supports the Managing Director and Operations Manager as well as offers general office assistance to the entire GFA staff. Mahogany has an Associate's Degree in Business Management and is currently working towards her BA in Human Resources Management.

Ariane Conrad | Senior Researcher

Ariane Conrad has facilitated the creation of Van Jones' forthcoming book, The Green Collar Economy, and edited a collection of his writings, entitled The Future's Getting Restless. A San Francisco-based freelance writer and editor, Ariane's work appeared in an anthology of radical political writings called Tipping the Sacred Cow, as well as in various online and print magazines. Before joining the Green For All staff, she served as the Director of Development and Communications for a national public foundation called Changemakers, which works to make philanthropy more accountable and equitable. Ariane is also a hoopdance performer who is writing a book about achieving total body wellness with the help of a hula hoop.

Diana Frappier | Finance & Management Consultant

Jeremy Hays | Field Director

Jeremy manages Green For All’s efforts to identify, connect, support, and engage people around the country that are working on green-collar jobs issues. He was previously the National Organizing Director at the Apollo Alliance where he helped state and local coalitions of environmentalists, labor unions, civil rights groups, and businesses advocate for good jobs and clean energy. Jeremy has broad experience organizing multi-stakeholder efforts to address poverty, environmental issues, and economic development. He has worked a program director for Urban Strategies Council—a community building organization in Oakland, California; as a project manager for the Governor’s Oregon Solutions program; as a policy researcher for the Assistant Secretary of Environmental Justice at Cal/EPA; and as an organizer or technical assistant in a variety of other community development and environmental justice initiatives. He has master’s degrees in City Planning and in International Development from the University of California—Berkeley, and is a co-author of Green-Collar Jobs: Building Pathways out of Poverty and Careers in the Clean Energy Economy (2008).

Nikki Henderson | Research Fellow

Nicole "Nikki" Henderson hails from Los Angeles, with Bachelor's and Master's degrees in African American Studies. During her graduate career, Nikki's research interests included theater, sustainability, environmental justice and political ecology as it relates to African Americans, and she lectures across California. Beyond academics, Nikki mentors at-risk youth through the foster system and has worked with the California Student Sustainability Coalition in lead roles for the past four years. She joins Green for All with a passion for ecology and social justice.

Mahfam Malek | Operations Manager

Julian Mocine-McQueen | Field Organizer

Melinda Morris | Bookkeeper

Melinda’s background as a bookkeeper for over 20 years with a client base of non-profit organizations, homeowner associations and law firms will serve Green For All well, with her strong accounting skills to set up, clean up and maintain computerized bookkeeping records. Melinda received her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix and was recognized as “Entrepreneur of the Year.” She is a member of the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers and a former Board Member of Women’s Initiative for Self Employment. She also owns and operates a pay telephone business and is starting an Independent Elderly Living Facility.

Kristin Rothballer | Managing Director

Kristin is leading the effort to build Green For All's structure and strategy. In this capacity, she is responsible for designing programs and managing operations, finance and HR. Formerly the Director of Programs for Bioneers, Kristin developed leading-edge work there, including the youth, satellite conference, and diversity programs. She is a social change leader with strong communication, program development and management skills. She has over ten years of professional experience in strategic partnership building, organizational development, project management and marketing. Kristin’s passion is bridging and building inclusive networks for positive change.

Parin Shah | Local Policy Director

Parin was Chief Policy Aide for the Mayor of Richmond, CA where he drafted legislation and initated citywide programs on a variety of urban issues from environment and equity to public safely and education. Prior to working for the City of Richmond Parin founded the Urban Accords Institute, which in 2005 co-hosted the UN World Environment Day in San Francisco out of which was developed the Urban Environmental Accords that have been signed by 103 cities worldwide. Over the past ten years as the President of the Commission on the Environment for the City and County of San Francisco he co-authored legislation on climate change, environmental justice, wetlands conservation & restoration, zero waste, green buildings and food security. Parin has also developed and managed habitat restoration projects, horticultural education and job-training programs for formerly incarcerated youth and adults. And has worked in Tunisia as a Peace Corps Volunteer where he led community development projects, taught, and supported the organization of a local women's weaving cooperative.

Miles Smith | Director of Development

Miles' background includes fundraising, sales and marketing in the renewable energy sector, leadership coaching, philanthropic advising, family philanthropy, and non-profit board leadership. Prior to his work with Green For All he served as the Craigslist Foundation’s Interim Development Director, Chabot Space and Science Center’s (Oakland, CA) Major Gifts Manager, and consulted to the East Bay Community Foundation (Oakland, CA). Miles earned his MBA from Thunderbird, the Garvin School of International Management in Arizona.

Ladan Sobhani | Program Manager

Alli Chagi-Starr | Business Partnerships Manager

Alli Chagi-Starr is Green For All's Business Partnerships Manager and the Event Chair of the Dream Reborn Conference. She worked previously at Ella Baker Center, where she helped implement the Solutions Salon series and other large convenings, including the Social Equity track at the United Nations World Environment Day. Alli is also the co-founder of the 8-year old Art in Action Youth Leadership Program, which offers uplifting programs for young, urban artists. Her essays about innovative activism appear in Democratizing the Global Economy, Global Uprising, Voices from the WTO, The Political Edge and How to Stop the Next War Now. She facilitates seminars on developing creative tools for global/personal transformation and movement building.

Jason Walsh | National Policy Director

Jason was previously State Policy Director for The Workforce Alliance, a national coalition advocating for public policies that invest in the skills of America's workers, where he worked on a range of federal and state workforce development legislation, including the Green Jobs Act. Jason has also been the Director of the Affirmative Options Coalition, a Minnesota-based anti-poverty coalition, as well as a union organizer with SEIU and UNITE, and a policy fellow for the late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone. He’s a graduate of the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute and holds a Masters in Public Policy from the University of Minnesota.

Board of Directors

Van Jones

Diana Frappier

James Rucker

Rachel Bagby

Lea Endres