Leadership

NRDC's leadership team and board of trustees make sure the organization works to ensure the rights of all people to a livable planet with clean air, clean water, and healthy, equitable communities.

A headshot of Manish Bapna
Manish Bapna
President & Chief Executive Officer
Reem Alamiri
Chief of Strategy
A headshot of Tisha Alfred
Tisha Alfred
Chief Real Estate & Workplace Strategy Officer
A headshot of Robyn Arville
Robyn Arville
Chief People & DEI Officer
A headshot of Mitchell Bernard
Mitchell Bernard
Chief Counsel
A headshot of Susan Casey-Lefkowitz
Susan Casey-Lefkowitz
Chief of Staff
Yamide Dagnet
Yamide Dagnet
Senior Vice President, International
A headshot of Veronica Foo
Veronica Foo
Chief Financial Officer
A headshot of Christy Goldfuss
Christy Goldfuss
Executive Director
A headshot of Ashok Gupta
Ashok Gupta
Chief Program Officer
A headshot of Ticora V. Jones
Dr. Ticora V. Jones
Chief Science Officer
A headshot of Melissa Lin Perella
Melissa Lin Perrella
Chief Equity & Justice Officer
A headshot of Mollie Marsh-Heine
Mollie Marsh-Heine
Chief Development Officer
A headshot of Irina Petrova
Irina Petrova
General Counsel
A headshot of Vivek Sawhney
Vivek Sawhney
Chief Information Officer and International Operations
A headshot of Douglass Sims
Douglass Sims
Managing Director, Green Finance & Economic Development
A headshot of Matthew Tejada
Matthew Tejada
Senior Vice President, Environmental Health
A headshot of Michael Wall
Michael Wall
Chief Litigation Officer
A headshot of Andrew Wetzler
Andrew Wetzler
Senior Vice President, Nature
A headshot of Kristin Wilson-Palmer
Kristin Wilson-Palmer
Chief Communications Officer
Headshot of Jackie Wong
Jackie Wong
Senior Vice President, Climate & Energy
A headshot of Ed Yoon
Ed Yoon
Chief External Affairs Officer

CHAIR
Kathleen Welch
Founder and Principal, Corridor Partners

CHAIR EMERITUS
Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr.
Chief Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School; 
Senior Counsel, Cravath, Swaine and Moore, LLP

TREASURER
Mary P. Moran
Environmentalist; foundation director

Katherine Adams
Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Apple Inc.;
President and Board Member, Beaverkill Valley Land Trust 

Geeta Aiyer
President and Founder, Boston Common Asset Management, LLC

Richard E. Ayres
Environmentalist

Claire Bernard
President, Mariposa Foundation

Sarah E. Cogan
Of Counsel, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, New York office

Nathaniel Dean
Senior Portfolio Manager and Partner, Capula Investment Management
 

Leonardo DiCaprio
Founder and Co-Chairman, Earth Alliance

John E. Echohawk
Executive Director, Native American Rights Fund

Catherine C. Flowers
Founder, Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice

Lisa Hall
Impact Chair, Apollo Global Management

Jeremy Kahan
Managing Partner, North Peak Capital Management, LLC

Jo Ann Kaplan
Environmentalist

Nicole E. Lederer
Chair and Co-Founder, Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2)

Laura Lin
Partner, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Actress; producer

Kelly Chapman Meyer
Co-Founder, American Heart Association Teaching Gardens

Peter Morton
Chairman and Founder, 510 Development Corporation

Frederica P. Perera, Dr.P.H., Ph.D.
Professor, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health;
Founding Director, Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health;
Director, Program in Translational Research

Lynn Price
Senior Scientist (Retired) and Affiliate, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory;
Lead Author and Expert Reviewer, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
 

Diana Propper de Callejon
Managing Director, Cranemere Inc.

Robert Redford 
Actor; Director; Conservationist

Elena Rios, M.D.
President and Chief Executive Officer, National Hispanic Medical Association
President, National Hispanic Health Foundation

Tom Roush, M.D.
Private Investor; Environmental Activist

Tom Soto
Founder and Managing Partner, Latimer Partners, LLC 

Gerald Torres
Professor of Environmental Justice, Yale School of the Environment Studies, Yale Law School

Margret Trilli
Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer, Impact Assets

David C. Vladeck
A.B. Chettle, Jr., Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center

David F. Welch, Ph.D.
Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Infinera Corporation

Daniel Yates
Chief Executive Officer, Dandelion Geothermal

CHAIR EMERITUS
Alan F. Horn
Chief Creative Officer, The Walt Disney Studios

CHAIR EMERITUS
Daniel R. Tishman
Vice Chairman and Principal of Tishman Realty

John H. Adams
Founding Director, NRDC;
Chair, Open Space Institute

Frances Beinecke
President Emerita, NRDC

Anita Bekenstein
Environmentalist; Foundation Director

Anna Scott Carter
Environmentalist; Co-Founder, 'Clean by Design' Initiative

Laurie David 
Producer; Author; Advocate;
Co-Founder, NRDC Los Angeles Leadership Council 

Sylvia A. Earle, Ph.D.
Chair, Deep Ocean Exploration and Research, Inc.

Robert J. Fisher 
Director, Gap Inc.

Charles E. Koob
Partner, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Philip B. Korsant
Member, Long Light Capital, LLC

Ruben Kraiem
Senior Counsel, Covington and Burling LLP

Shelly B. Malkin 
Artist; Conservationist

Josephine A. Merck
Artist; Founder, Ocean View Foundation

Laurance Rockefeller
Conservationist 

Jonathan F. P. Rose
President, Jonathan Rose Companies LLC

Christine H. Russell, Ph.D.
Environmentalist; Foundation Director

William H. Schlesinger
President Emeritus, the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

James Gustave Speth
Professor of Law, Vermont Law School;
Distinguished Senior Fellow, Demos

James Taylor 
Singer/Songwriter

Learn More About a Few of Our Leaders & Trustees

See more stories about NRDC'ers and our work
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A Leader to Meet This Moment

NRDC in ActionBrian Palmer
NRDC president and CEO Manish Bapna, an economist by training, knows that solving the climate emergency will require the global transformation of key economic systems—and that the transformation cannot wait a day longer.
Dr. Ticora V. Jones with a cherry blossom tree blooming behind her

A Chemist Turned Community Builder

NRDC in ActionUnited StatesCourtney Lindwall
Dr. Ticora V. Jones, the new head of NRDC’s Science Office, seeks to deepen the role of science across the organization and beyond.

A Practical Climate Optimist

NRDC in ActionJeff Turrentine
Christy Goldfuss, NRDC’s new chief policy impact officer, believes setting the right goals gives people hope, agency, and the power to make things happen.

A Lawyer That Sees Grassroots Relationship-Building as the Path Toward Social Change

NRDC in ActionCaliforniaKeith Mulvihill
NRDC’s first chief equity and justice officer, Melissa Lin Perrella, believes the way to strengthen advocacy work is to prioritize community partners who are closest to the problem—and often closest to the solution.

This Leader of the (Legal) Resistance Has Never Felt More Ready

NRDC in ActionWashington, D.C., Flint, Michigan, MaineJeff Turrentine
NRDC Chief Counsel Mitch Bernard takes on big polluters, climate deniers, and their powerful allies—including those who sit in the West Wing.
NRDC founding director, former president, and honorary trustee John Adams cheering with a fist pump during a protest in opposition to TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline outside the White House in Washington, D.C.

The Man Behind the Mission

NRDC in ActionUnited StatesPatrick Rogers
How a disgusting sight spurred John Adams to form the nation’s first litigation-focused environmental advocacy group.

Laurie David Is Keeping the Action in Climate Activism

DispatchCaliforniaJeff Turrentine
The producer and author wants people to understand what our planet is up against, but even more than that, she wants to show us how, together, we can make real change.
NRDC trustee Dr. Frederica Perera in sunglasses sitting at a table with other NRDC board members

Toxin Avenger

DispatchUnited StatesSarah Engler
By following hundreds of children from the womb through adolescence, Dr. Frederica Perera has become a public-health superhero.