Our Board of Directors
Matt Brown most recently Co-Founded of Global Zero, the leading international movement for the elimination of nuclear weapons that includes 300 world leaders and half a million citizens worldwide. Many political leaders have endorsed Global Zero, with President Obama declaring,“Global Zero will always have a partner in me and my administration.” Brown is an executive producer of "Countdown to Zero", a feature film about the nuclear danger. He is the former Secretary of State of Rhode Island (2002-2006) and Executive Director of City Year Rhode Island, a national service program. As Secretary of State, Brown developed Rhode Island's first Central Voter Registration System and developed new e-Government tools to increase the transparency of government. Brown has taught at the University of Rhode Island, and has given legislative testimony on election reform, government reform, health care, and other policy issues. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. Matt is Treasurer of the Ecological Citizen's Project
Dahni-El Giles is passionate about climate change, sustainable impact, and creating opportunity for others. In 2000, he co-founded DonorsChoose.org, a crowdfunding platform directing over $850M in donations to U.S. public school classrooms. In 2017, he co-authored a Sustainability KPI Calculation Methodology paper calculating the impacts of a plant-based food company's product ingredients for greenhouse gas emissions and fresh water consumption. In the past, he served as Senior Commercial Counsel at Kraft Foods providing award winning business counsel to the sustainability, supply chain, corporate affairs, and R&D functions. Currently, he provides thought partnership, strategy, and public speaking services about sustainability and the climate crisis to businesses, non-profits, community groups, and government agencies, especially those pursuing regenerative environmental and social impact. Dahni-El graduated from Georgetown University Law Center and Harvard University (where he received the John D. Barnwell Award for leadership and exemplary citizenship). A 1995 Oliver Scholar, a 2004 Coro Fellow, and a 2016 Bleeker Fellow, he also serves as board director at CodeNation.org and board trustee at St. Paul's School. Dahni-El served as Board President from 2017-2020.
Betsey Nevins-Saunders is currently a professor of law at Hofstra University. Her scholarship focuses on the intersection of criminal law and mental health law, examining how criminal justice norms fail to account for differences in defendant populations, particularly among those with mental illnesses or mental retardation. Previously she was a senior fellow for the Center on Research in Crime and Justice and was an Acting Assistant Professor of Lawyering at NYU. During her time at the Justice Center, she oversaw a team of policy analysts as well as the publication, distribution, and implementation of the landmark Report of the Re-Entry Policy Council. She spent four years as a trial attorney for the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia, including one year in the office’s Mental Health Division. Betsey graduated cum laude from Harvard Law School and magna cum laude from Amherst College. Betsey joined the ECP Board in 2020 and now serves as the Board Vice President and Secretary.
Michael Rauch is a project management and business development professional with more than a decade of experience in renewable energy and public policy. His experience includes development of utility-scale wind energy projects, financing commercial solar energy projects, and developing community energy savings initiatives. He currently works as a consultant in the energy sector with a focus on distributed generation, community choice aggregation (CCA), and municipal energy policy. Michael earned a Masters of Public Administration from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and a Bachelors of Science from the School of Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. Michael is Board President of the Ecological Citizen's Project.
Jason Angell (Co-Director) currently serves as a Board Member.