Dr. Charlie Clements, Chairman
Executive Director, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC)
Charlie Clements is a public health physician and human rights activist. As a young Distinguished Graduate of the Air Force Academy, he refused to fly further missions in support of the invasion of Cambodia. After graduating from medical school and believing another Vietnam was unfolding in El Salvador, he volunteered his medical services in a community that would become a 'free fire zone' -- bombed, rocketed, or strafed almost daily by American supplied aircraft. As president of Physicians for Human Rights, he represented that organization in both the treaty signing and the Nobel prize ceremonies for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. As a man who has squarely faced moral dilemmas in his life, he is well qualified to lead the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee as CEO and President.
Rebecca Rockefeller, Vice Chairwoman
Graduate student in Natural Resources at UVM
Rebecca is currently a graduate student in Natural Resources at the University of Vermont, concentrating in Environment, Society and Public Affairs. She has worked with various groups and foundations in support of socially progressive work, including with America Coming Together (ACT), which sought to organize, inform and empower voters in the lead-up to the 2004 election. Most recently, she promoted renewable energy and land conservation through two small non-profits in Maine. She is a significant and enthusiastic supporter of ERI's work. Having researched community and environmental issues in Latin America and traveled in Burma, she is not only familiar with the work being done by EarthRights – she is also familiar with the places where that work is being done. Rebecca graduated with honors in anthropology from Brown University in 2003.
David Hunter, Esq., Treasurer
Professor of International Environmental Law, American University's Washington College of Law
David Hunter is assistant professor and director of the Program on International and Comparative Environmental Law at WCL. He is also the director of the Washington Summer Session on Environmental Law. He is the former executive director of the Center for International Environmental Law and was previously an Associate with the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom. In addition to the Board of EarthRights International, he also currently serves on the Boards of Directors of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide-US, the Project on Government Oversight, the Bank Information Center, and Greenpeace-US.
Toshiyuki Doi, Member of the Executive Board
Senior Advisor, Mekong Watch-Japan
Kate Tillery, Member of the Executive Board
International Human Rights Attorney
Katherine (Kate) Tillery is a lawyer with the law firm of Korein Tillery LLC, with offices in St. Louis, MO and Chicago, IL. She has served on a variety of non-profit boards, including: the Illinois Bar Foundation, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Southwestern Illinois, and Trailnet, Inc.. In addition to the ERI Board, she currently serves on the Board of Trustees for Illinois College and the Center for the Arts in Crested Butte, Colorado.
Pursuing her life-long interest in human rights and environmental issues, Ms. Tillery resumed her formal education in 2000, when she entered the International Affairs Program at Washington University, from which she earned a master’s degree in 2003. She has served as a pro-bono lawyer for Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation and has written and lectured on the subject of the Alien Torts Claims Act and Sustainable Globalization. She is particularly interested in ERI’s school in Thailand, where she has taught International Human Rights Law for the past two years.
Marianne Manilov
Founder, Center for Commercial-Free Public Education
Marianne Manilov is a grassroots organizer, campaign and media strategist, and author. Currently, she is working on a book about personal stories about EarthRights International co-founders, Ka Hasw Wa and Katie Redford and the landmark Unocal case. She is also the national outreach coordinator for “Luna,” a feature film about Julia Butterfly Hill.
Manilov’s 20-plus year career began with youth organizing for the 21st Century Leadership Project, a program she came up in as a youth leader. Since that time, she has run national campaigns and programs for groups such as Amnesty International and Greenpeace International. She was the co-founder and former Executive Director of The Center for Commercial-Free Public Education. Under Manilov’s direction, the Center was credited with a bi-partisan coalition of local groups in 22 states that brought the issue of corporate influence and advertising in schools onto the national agenda, including congressional hearings.
She has appeared in a host of media outlets, including: The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. Good Housekeeping, Business Week. She has also appeared on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Good Morning America, and the BBC. She also serves on the board of directors of the Movement Strategy Center and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.
Kumi Naidoo
Honorary President, CIVICUS: the World Alliance for Citizen Participation
Kumi is Honorary President of CIVICUS: the World Alliance for Citizen Participation, an international alliance of organizations dedicated to strengthening citizen participation and civil society worldwide. He was founding director of the South African NGO Coalition and served on the task team that drafted new NGO legislation. He has worked extensively in adult education and on social and economic justice issues, and has been an African National Congress activist. After spending some years in exile he was centrally involved in the first democratic elections in South Africa, in 1994. He has a doctorate in political science from Oxford, where he was a Rhodes scholar, and currently serves as chairperson of the Partnership for Transparency Fund, which supports civil society efforts to eradicate corruption. He is also the Co-Chair of GCAP (Global Call to Action Against Poverty) and the Chair of GCCA (Global Call to Climate Action). Kumi was appointed by the UN Secretary General to the Panel of Eminent Persons on UN Civil Society Relations, and is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Governance Initiative. Kumi will take on the role of Executive Director of Greenpeace International in November 2009.
Neil Popovic
Partner, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP; Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley, School of Law
Neil A.F. Popovic is a partner at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP, where he practices complex litigation, with an emphasis on international disputes. He also has a pro bono practice in international environmental law. He has taught International Environmental Law and Resolution of Private International Disputes at the University of California, Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall), and has published numerous articles on international environmental law, including human rights and the environment. Mr. Popovic previously worked as an attorney in the International Program of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund (now Earthjustice), and continues to work with Earthjustice as a consultant. Mr. Popovic has served on the board of ERI since its inception. He also sits on the board of directors of the Center for Youth Development through Law, and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment at Berkeley Law.
Education: University of California, Berkeley (A.B., Political Science, 1983); University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law (J.D., 1987); Note and Comment Editor, California Law Review; Tufts University, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (M.A., International Relations, 1992), Ford Foundation Fellow in Public International Law; Academy of European Law, Summer Session 1995.
Mr. Popovic served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alicemarie H. Stotler of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and Santa Ana, and was a judicial extern for Justice Joseph R. Grodin of the Supreme Court of California.
