Board

Henry Scott Wallace

WGF Co-Chair

Scott Wallace, grandson of Henry A. Wallace, is Co-Chair of Wallace Global Fund. An attorney since 1978, Scott has specialized in criminal law, constitutional law, legislation, and public policy. He has served as Counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, General Counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, Legislative Director for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and Director of Defender Legal Services at the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. He has acted as an advisor on criminal law reform to several East African governments and is a founding partner of the Democracy Alliance. He was the 2018 Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in Pennsylvania’s first congressional district.

Scott Fitzmorris

WGF Co-Chair

Scott Fitzmorris has served as board co-chair of the Wallace Global Fund for more than two decades. As a philanthropist and impact investor, Scott is committed to supporting grassroots-led solutions for economic and environmental justice, including in the area of agroecology. Scott is currently the owner and operator of two integrated businesses in North Lake Tahoe, CA founded to promote community wellness through physical and mental health. He is an accomplished freestyle mogul ski competitor, outdoor photographer, and trail runner, as well as being a lifelong recreational birder and ecology enthusiast. Scott’s bachelor’s degree from Hampshire College focused on the subject of peak performance relative to ski competition, and he continues to be interested in the underlying psychology and physiology of motivation.

Erica Peiser Fitzmorris

Board of Directors

Erica Peiser Fitzmorris is a graduate of Eugene Lang the New School for Liberal Arts, New York, with a concentration in music. Her music studies included vocal performance and ethnomusicology, while simultaneously developing a passion for literature, sociology and sustainability. Born in Northern California, she has spent most of her life in the Bay Area where she was influenced by the tech boom. She began her career as an executive assistant which led to sales enablement for supply chain technology. She is currently a project director focused on sustainability and has become the most recent board member of Wallace Global Fund.

Christy Wallace

Treasurer

Christy Ann Wallace is Treasurer of the Wallace Global Fund. She is a retired career diplomat, with two decades of service in the U.S. Information Agency, including service in the US Diplomatic Missions to Panama, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Hungary, Kenya (where she met her husband Scott) and Bonn, Germany, as a senior executive officer specializing in finance, management and intercultural affairs. Through her previous service on the Wallace Global Fund board, Christy’s particular commitment is to women’s rights and empowerment, and the eradication of the harmful traditional practice of female genital mutilation in many countries in Africa and around the world.

Robert Wallace

Board of Directors

Robert Wallace is a classically trained pianist and composer, now a film scorer in Los Angeles, CA. He has contributed extensively to projects like Allen v. Farrow (episode 4 which was nominated for an Emmy), Nightbooks, Beauty, Chevalier, Landscape with Invisible Hand, and The Burial and Breaking. Robert was the lead composer on the international-award winning animation Don’t Drop The Goose. He has won multiple national and international awards for piano performance and composition, including performing twice at Carnegie Hall and at Vienna’s Ehrbar Hall. In October 2022, he was a winner’s finalist for the Sabam Award for Best Original Composition by a Young Composer, where the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra performed his original composition, Nosferatu at Sea, at the World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent.

He started his classical and theory training in Washington DC. When his family moved to South Africa in 2005, he added a focus on jazz piano (while continuing working with Dr. Maican via Skype), studying with pianists like Jason Reolan and Bokani Macha. After completing high school in South Africa, he attended Berklee College of Music, graduating magna cum laude in 2020, with concentrations in Film Scoring, Conducting, and Jazz Composition (and a commencement performance with John Legend). Robert now serves on the board of the Wallace Global Fund.

Annie Leonard

Board of Directors

Annie Leonard is the Executive Director of Greenpeace USA, an independent environmental organization which uses research, creative communication, non-violent direct action and people-power to advance environmental solutions. She has worked on national and international environmental health and justice issues for 30 years. Prior to Greenpeace, she created The Story of Stuff, a hit 20-minute webfilm and book that takes viewers on an eye-opening tour of the often hidden environmental and social costs of our consumer driven culture. The Story of Stuff film has generated over 40 million views in more than 200 countries and territories since its launch, making it one of the most watched online environmental-themed films to date and sparking a much-needed conversation about patterns of consumption today. She is currently partnering with Jane Fonda on their Fire Drill Fridays project to inspire more people to join climate activism.

Emira Woods

Board of Directors

Emira Woods is a global justice strategist and advocate who brings an intersectional lens to her work as an environmentalist and political activist specializing in social impact and innovation. As the Executive Director of Green Leadership Trust, Emira works at the nexus of race, governance, and climate justice. Prior to this, Emira served as Senior Advisor at the Shine Campaign, a community of practice with philanthropists, faith and values-driven agencies catalyzing investment in women-led, community based renewable energy initiatives. There, she established Shine’s Energy Access Women Leadership Council and co-created Shine’s Energy Access COVID Recovery Fund. Emira previously worked at ThoughtWorks, where she led efforts to bring more robust technology solutions to the Ebola crisis and other global initiatives. Emira is an Ambassador for Africans Rising for Justice, Peace, and Dignity, a network of African social movements on the continent and the diaspora, and an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.  She completed her undergraduate studies in Political Science at Columbia University and her graduate studies in Political Economy and Government at Harvard.

Investment Committee

Scott Fitzmorris

WGF Co-Chair and Investment Committee Member

Scott Fitzmorris has served on the board of the Wallace Global Fund for more than two decades. As a philanthropist and impact investor, Scott is committed to supporting grassroots-led solutions for economic and environmental justice, including in the area of agroecology. Scott is currently the owner and operator of two integrated businesses in North Lake Tahoe, CA founded to promote community wellness through physical and mental health. He is an accomplished freestyle mogul ski competitor, outdoor photographer, and trail runner, as well as being a lifelong recreational birder and ecology enthusiast. Scott’s bachelor’s degree from Hampshire College focused on the subject of peak performance relative to ski competition, and he continues to be interested in the underlying psychology and physiology of motivation.

Julie Gorte

Investment Committee Member

Julie Gorte is Senior Vice President for Sustainable Investing at Impax Asset Management LLC, where she oversees environmental, social and governance-related research and the firm’s shareholder engagement and public policy advocacy. Prior to joining the firm, Julie served as Vice President and Chief Social Investment Strategist at Calvert. She spent nearly 14 years as Senior Associate and Project Director at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and has worked at The Wilderness Society, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Northeast-Midwest Institute.  Julie received a Ph.D. and Master of Science in resource economics from Michigan State University and a Bachelor of Science in forest management at Northern Arizona University.

Wayne Silby

Investment Committee Member

Wayne Silby was the Founding Chair of several organizations working to give money and investments a conscience. These include Calvert Funds, the largest US-based socially responsible investment firm (assets $30B); Calvert Impact Capital, a $1B non-profit directing monies to underserved communities; and ImpactAssets, a $1.6B donor advised fund.  Wayne is also a Co-Founder of the Social Venture Network, Syntao, a CSR consultancy in China, and ZenFlo, a mindfulness center in Beijing. Wayne is a graduate of the Wharton School and Georgetown Law Center.

Henry Scott Wallace

WGF Co-Chair and Investment Committee Member

Scott Wallace, grandson of Henry A. Wallace, is Co-Chair of Wallace Global Fund. An attorney since 1978, Scott has specialized in criminal law, constitutional law, legislation, and public policy. He has served as Counsel to the US Senate Judiciary Committee, General Counsel to the US Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, Legislative Director for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and Director of Defender Legal Services at the National Legal Aid and Defender Association. He has acted as an advisor on criminal law reform to several East African governments and is a founding partner of the Democracy Alliance. He was the 2018 Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives in Pennsylvania’s first congressional district.

Staff

Robby Rodriguez

Executive Director

Robby started his career as a community organizer, working for workers’ and voting rights, youth development, corporate accountability, environmental justice, and immigrant & Indigenous rights. During his six years as the Executive Director of the Albuquerque based SouthWest Organizing Project (SWOP), Robby helped the organization achieve key policy changes related to economic development and environmental protection at the state and local level. During this time, he co- authored a book on generational change in the non-profit sector titled Working Across Generations: Defining The Future of Non Profit Leadership (Jossey Bass, 2008).

He has also been a part of national and international social movements linked to ending racial discrimination and economic inequality. He represented the United States at the United Nations World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, where he documented and testified on issues of environmental racism in the United States and abroad. He also served on the national planning committee for the United States Social Forums held in Atlanta and Detroit. For over ten years, Robby worked at two of the largest private foundations in the US, and was a part of teams responsible for stewarding nearly $200 million in philanthropic dollars to help poor and communities of color build power for racial and gender equity and social, environmental, and economic justice. Robby holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of New Mexico, and serves on the boards of Greenpeace USA, Greenpeace International, and New Mexico Voices for Children.

Allison Barlow

Director, Democracy and Media Program

Allison Barlow serves as the Program Director for Democracy & Media at Wallace Global Fund. Prior to joining WGF, she served as program advisor and consultant to the HKH Foundation, the Quixote Foundation, Beldon Fund, Open Society Foundations, and other funders interested in catalyzing social change across issue areas. Allison chairs the Heartland Fund, a WGF-seeded initiative dedicated to fostering civic engagement and progressive priorities in rural places, and is an advisor to the Board of the Democracy Alliance. Allison is a graduate of Tufts University.

Heather Coleman

Director, Environment Program

Heather serves as Environment Director at Wallace Global Fund. Prior to joining WGF, she served for more than a decade at Oxfam America, providing strategic leadership and management on climate and energy policy and advocacy for the international poverty and development organization. Earlier in her career, Heather advised and influenced state air agencies on the development and implementation of climate policies and programs at the US state and regional level. She received a Masters of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 2004, where she was named a Switzer Environmental Fellow, and was the inaugural recipient of the ‘Prospect Street’ Leadership Award in 2015.

Susan Gibbs

Director, Women’s Rights Program

Susan Gibbs serves as Director of the Women’s Rights program at Wallace Global Fund and has worked in philanthropy for almost 30 years. She held prior positions with the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Pew Global Stewardship Initiative, and the Summit Charitable Foundation, as well as consulting roles at various US grantmaking foundations and donor advisory firms. Early in her career, she worked on international relief, education, and development in India, Pakistan, Egypt, and Switzerland. She holds an M.A. degree from Columbia University and a B.A. magna cum laude from Brown University.

Tina Kroll-Guerch

Administrative Director

Tina Kroll-Guerch has been with Wallace Global Fund in a variety of positions since WGF’s inception in 1995. Before her time at WGF, she worked in varying capacities at the Special Projects Fund at Population Action International, in government affairs at a Fortune 500 company, and as a travel agent. Tina has a BA in French from the University of Virginia and a Masters in International Commerce and Policy from George Mason University.

Isabel Salas

Program Associate, Women’s Rights and Agroecology

Isabel serves as the Program Associate for Women’s Rights and Agroecology. Prior to joining Wallace Global Fund, she held positions at the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Social Justice and the Equal Justice Center, where she worked primarily on worker’s rights and immigration issues. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where she majored in Middle Eastern and Latin American Studies.

Amal Abdikarim

Grants Administrator and Assistant to the Executive Director

Amal serves as the Grants Administrator and Assistant to the Executive Director. She graduated from George Mason University with a B.A degree in Global Affairs with double concentrations in Global Governance and the Middle East/North African region. Prior to joining Wallace Global Fund, she held operational and administrative positions at Mercy Corp and Charities Aid Foundation America (CAF America). During her free-time, Amal enjoys listening to audiobooks while on her weekly scenic walks at Algonkian Regional Park, and spending quality time with her large family. Amal currently resides in Northern Virginia, where she was born and raised.

Rachel Bagley

Program Associate, Democracy and Media

Rachel Bagley serves as a Program Associate for the Democracy and Media program. Prior to joining Wallace Global Fund, she worked as a Program Associate for the Rebuild Congress Initiative. She received her Master of Public Administration and a bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies: Communications, Legal Institutions, Economics, and Government from American University in Washington, D.C.

Owen Mutiganda

Program Assistant, Corporate Power and Just Transitions Africa

Owen serves as Program Assistant to the Corporate Power and Just Transitions Africa programs. Prior to joining Wallace Global Fund, he held positions at Benvenuti Arts, Flit Invest, and The Borgen Project. He is a graduate of LaRoche University in Pittsburgh, where he majored in International Studies.

Nahla Sturm-Wang

Program Assistant, Environment Program

Nahla serves as a Program Assistant for the Environment Program. Prior to joining Wallace Global Fund, she was a climate fellow with Climate Corps AmeriCorps. She is a graduate of the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, where she majored in Biological Sciences.

Ellen Dorsey

Senior Advisor

Ellen Dorsey is an activist and partner to movements advancing economic, environmental, racial, and gender justice. From 2008 through 2024, she served as Executive Director of Wallace Global Fund, a private foundation recognized for its creative philanthropic strategies and mission-related investing to address climate change, advance human rights, and hold corporations accountable to the public good. She has championed transformative change within philanthropy to give more, invest differently, and support and scale movements.

Under her leadership, WGF helped seed and grow the global fossil-fuel divestment movement and launch Divest-Invest Philanthropy, a group of 200 foundations committed to deploying their investments to address the climate crisis and accelerate the clean energy transition. For this work, Ellen was awarded the 2016 inaugural Nelson Mandela – Graca Machel Brave Philanthropy Award. She has also received other recognition and awards for her leadership in the philanthropic sector.

Ellen has held a series of academic, philanthropic and non-profit leadership positions, including launching the Human Rights and Environment program at Amnesty International, serving as Associate Professor and Executive Director of the Rachel Carson Institute at Chatham University, and as Senior Program Officer in the Heinz Endowment’s Environment Program.  Additionally, she has been a board member of numerous non-profit organizations promoting human rights and environmental change, including Greenpeace USA, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the United States Human Rights Network, and Amnesty International USA, where she served as chair of the board.

Ellen holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Pittsburgh.  She was a Fulbright Research Fellow in South Africa during that country’s historic transformation. She served on the faculty of several Universities, teaching human rights and environmental sustainability. She has written extensively on effective strategies of non-governmental organizations, the power of social movements, and critical trends in philanthropy. Dorsey is co-author, with Paul J. Nelson, of New Rights Advocacy: Changing Strategies of Development and Human Rights NGOs, Georgetown University Press.

Investment Advisors

Catherine Chen

Investment Advisor

Catherine Chen serves as a Managing Director and Financial Advisor of the SRI Wealth Management Group of RBC Wealth Management. Before joining RBC, she worked at Piper Jaffray where she advised foundations, non-profit organizations and high-net-worth individuals on ESG investments. She has previous experience at J.P. Morgan and Chinatrust Commercial Bank in Taiwan. Catherine was recognized as a 2019 Financial Times Top 400 Financial Advisor in 2020 and 2021. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and has a BA in both Economics and History, and is a Certified Investment Management Analyst from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Thomas Van Dyck

Investment Advisor

Tom Van Dyck has been a leader in the field of socially responsible investing for more than 35 years. He currently serves as a Managing Director and Financial Advisor of the SRI Wealth Management Group of RBC Wealth Management. In 1992, he founded As You Sow, a shareholder advocacy organization, which engages corporations on environmental, human/labor rights and corporate social responsibility initiatives. In 2014, Tom was a featured guest on Bill Moyers and Company, where he discussed the Divest/Invest movement. He was twice recognized as one of the Financial Times’ Top 400 Financial Advisors. Tom graduated from Duke University in 1980 with a B.A. in Political Science.