Tonya Graham, Executive Director
Geos Institute
Ashland, OR

Tonya Graham is an energetic and committed leader in a field that is trying to solve the world’s most immense and intractable environmental dilemma – global climate change.  At the Geos Institute, Tonya has developed an innovative way to bring the issue home:  helping local communities prepare for climate change. 

Keith Dimoff took on the role of executive director at Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) just three years ago, but his relationship with ICL has been long term.  ICL’s impact on his organization has been consistently present over 20 years.  Now with a $1.5m budget and 16 staff, the OEC is now a state-wide advocacy force for Ohio’s environment.  Keith has led the organization as it has made its mark helping to pass tough clean water and energy legislation in Ohio, and proved its ability to work successfully across the political spectrum. 

Precious rivers across the country face the relentless forces of runoff, pollution and depletion, requiring the sustained effort of 4,000 – 5,000 river and watershed groups. River Network brings these organizations together, most of them small and volunteer-led, to increase their effectiveness at addressing the myriad issues that face our waterways.

“I have hanging on my wall, to this day, the 1991 graduate certificate from ICL,” says Kevin Brubaker, executive director of the Environmental Law and Policy Center.  “The program provided an opportunity to step outside the day to day advocacy world and think more about nonprofit management and a whole set of tools that encompasses.  That has served me well in the two decades since then.” 

Wyoming Outdoor Council has a long history as a conservationist, having co-founded the Student Environmental Coalition at the University of Iowa as an undergraduate. Laurie has 17 years of experience working in the nonprofit and education sectors, including a stint at Westview Press, then a scholarly subsidiary of HarperCollins.

John Lounds took the helm of the Nature Conservancy of Canada in 1997, when the 35-year old organization had a staff of 27 and a budget of $8m.  Under his leadership, the organization has grown to a staff of 200 and a budget of $100m per year. 

Mehrdad Azemun encountered ICL in the first week of his professional life in the early 1990’s as an organizer for National Wildlife Federation’s campus program, ‘Campus Ecology’

“I hold ICL responsible for a lot of my growth as a leader,” says Mehrdad.  “The skills I’ve come away with have paid direct dividends inside the environmental movement, and since then paid dividends in the immigrant rights movement.” 

Dulcie became executive director of Montgomery County Lands Trust back in 1993, motivated by her passion to preserve land in this fast-growing county outside of Philadelphia. 

"Change can happen,” says Kim Leval, executive director of Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP).  “You have to be persistent, you have to be tenacious, and you can never stop.”  She has seen first-hand how building relationships over the long-term can lead to major wins for the environment. 

Cynthia Sarthou, executive director of the Gulf Restoration Network (GRN) in New Orleans, LA, is no stranger to crisis. When the BP oil spill hit the Gulf, Cynthia and her organization were ready for action.