Team

Together, Transforming Vulnerable Communities through Nature-based Solutions

Creating climate resiliency and confronting climate change.

Our Experts

With decades of experience, working in over 70 countries – in environmental science, conservation, natural resource management, economic development, and social inclusion as well as communications, finance, and technology – our team brings domain expertise and a deep passion for the purpose of our work. Read our Mission Statement.

Our Values

These are rooted in deep respect, care, and concern for indigenous communities as well as for each contributor to our mission. N4J is composed of individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds and life experiences to create better outcomes for the communities we serve and for our investors and partners as well.

Our Global Presence

Our advisors, staff, contributors, and partners live and work all around the world —just like the partners we work with and the local, at-risk communities we serve. Visit our Initiatives page to learn where our partners and Nature-based Solutions are currently making an impact.

We’re Growing

If you would like to contribute to our mission to help vulnerable, indigenous communities address the impact of climate change, please reach out to Hank Cauley, CEO, on LinkedIn.

Board

Lisa Thomas, N4J board member — Board Member
Lisa Thomas

Chairwoman

Kate Thompson

Kate is a transformational leader, an international development expert, a former management consultant, and a thought leader on business strategies that deliver triple bottom-line results — such that businesses are more profitable, governments are more effective, and civil society organizations are able to scale services more efficiently.

Board Member

Jeff Rose

Jeff has four decades of senior and executive experience in bank management providing team leadership for the development of various credit approval and risk management models. He is grounded in middle-market commercial finance, regulatory compliance, and risk management. He has provided leadership for non-profits serving animal welfare, homelessness, and higher education. Former National Bank Examiner. Graduate of Rice University and former Board of Trustee Member.

Board Member

Debbie Cohen

Debbie has over 35 years of broad experience in finance, management, marketing, communications, and personnel at for-profit and nonprofit organizations and as an independent consultant and a real estate agent. Her current and past Board and other volunteer positions are consistent with her interests in environmental and social issues.

Board Member

Melissa Dann

Melissa has 25 years of experience in international environmental policy and program strategy. She currently advises foundations, NGOs, and the private sector on strategies to achieve transformative and effective change. She has served on a variety of boards and has deep governance expertise.

Board Member

Lisa Thomas

Lisa has over 25 years of project and operations management experience working in corporate America. She is passionate about eradicating adverse issues affecting the African American community.

Leadership

CEO

Hank Cauley

Michael O'Brien-Onyeka — Executive Vice President – Global Partnerships
Michael O’Brien-Onyeka

Director, Africa Nature-based Solutions Program
Nicci Mander

Acting Managing Director, USA
Zoraya Hightower

Co-Founder & Managing Director - Finance and Innovation
Frank Hicks

CEO

Hank Cauley

Hank has a mix of corporate, academic, and NGO experiences over his 35-year career. He has started or turned around seven organizations/major projects. Typically, he has worked to find common ground on social, environmental, and business issues. He thrives in an environment requiring urgent, thoughtful action that documents results.

Executive Vice President – Global Partnerships

Michael O’Brien-Onyeka

Michael brings a wealth of expertise and more than 25 years of experience to this position. Most recently, he was the Senior Vice President – Africa Field Division at Conservation International. In addition, Michael has held senior positions at Greenpeace Africa, Oxfam, the National Democratic Institute, the African Child Policy Forum, and Amnesty International.

Director, Africa Nature-based Solutions Program

Nicci Mander

Nicci is an environmental scientist with over 25 years of experience working at the nexus of nature, climate change, and social justice across sub-Saharan Africa. She’s provided strategic-level advisory services and planning support to several African governments, as well as designed, developed, and managed the delivery of large-scale community and climate change-focused programs in both urban and rural settings.

Managing Director - Canada

Steven Nitah

A former tribal chief and negotiator for the Łutsël K’é’ Dene First Nation and a specialist in Aboriginal and Treaty Constitutional Rights, Negotiations, and Relationship Building with indigenous peoples.

Acting Managing Director, USA

Zoraya Hightower

Zoraya has worked on environmental and social justice issues for over ten years – from renewable energy finance in Kosovo and fishery sustainability in the Philippines to curtailing no-cause evictions in Vermont. Zoraya also works as an equity consultant with the Creative Discourse Group and serves on the Burlington Vermont City Council after winning a seat as the first woman of color in 2020.

Co-Founder & Managing Director - Finance and Innovation

Frank Hicks

Frank has over 30 years of broad expertise in international development as a senior manager, board member, and consultant with leading NGOs, foundations, and impact investing funds. He is based in Costa Rica, and formerly in West Africa, Asia, and the U.S.

Chief of Staff

Tess Zakaras

Tess has over 12 years of experience in global development, focused on private sector engagement, partnership development, and natural resources management. She has designed, built, and managed cross-sector partnership initiatives with donors, international and local companies, and civil society organizations; developed new partnership tools and training materials; and written extensively about impact-driven collaboration.

Staff

Farmer Outreach Coordinator
Jasmine Gibson

Khulile Lamula — Program Manager – Africa NbS
Khulile M. Lamula

Angelina Varela — Program Development - LATAM
Angélica Varela

Farmer Outreach Coordinator

Jasmine Gibson

Jasmine is an environmental justice advocate with a background in stormwater infrastructure and horticulture science. Using her background as an integrated force, Jasmine brings attention to communication barriers and the social exclusion of green infrastructure in POC communities.

Creative Director

Lisa Cloete

As the Creative Advisor and Lead Storyteller, Lisa comes to N4J passionate about restoring and protecting our natural world and with a wide range of experience in the creative world of storytelling. She has worked in the art industry, publishing, education, and literary fields. She has also worked in Communications for an ocean-based NGO and runs her own small social media campaign for beach clean-ups in her city in South Africa.

Program Manager – Africa NbS

Khulile M. Lamula

Khulile is a South African citizen, living in Durban. She is a skilled program manager with over 20 years of demonstrated experience in the development and management of complex nature-based solutions, and community-based programs in South Africa. She brings expertise in local economic development in the environmental sector, including SMME and co-operative development and incubation, and business skills training and capacity building in both urban and rural settings.

Chief People Officer

Missy Rosen

Results-driven HR professional in leading tactical and strategic consulting to create organizational development strategies to support key business objectives. Background includes leadership and development of globally positioned teams.

Senior Advisor

Robert Kabera

Robert Kabera is a refugee, engineer, and entrepreneur. He has accomplished transformative breakthroughs, from bringing credit scoring to unbanked farmers to designing power systems to prepare humanity for natural disasters. Trained in Energy Resources Engineering at Stanford University, Robert has focused his work on using AI to predict risk across energy, climate, agriculture, and financial services.

Executive Assistant

Sunny Bain

Sunny has more than 28 years working as an Executive Assistant and 21 working as a Professional Virtual Assistant in her own business supporting her clients virtually. Typically, she works with entrepreneurs and small business owners handling, among many things, office administration.

Program Development - LATAM

Angélica Varela

Professional in ecology, with a postgraduate degree in International Cooperation and Project Management for Development and a specialist in environmental planning and conservation of natural resources. More than 15 years of experience in managing development projects with international cooperation. Specific experience in productive projects, such as production in agroforestry systems of cocoa and coffee with rural communities and in strategic ecosystems in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, in addition to practical experience in other agricultural projects. Experience in the management of the technical and financial side of projects with international organizations and governments for rural development, alternative development, and conservation of natural areas.

Advisors

South Asia Senior Advisor
Ganesan ‘Bala’ Balachander

Senior Advisor - Marketing
Astrid Coleman

CEO, Green Heffa Farms

Clarenda Stanley

Clarenda is an award-winning fundraiser, communications professional, and CEO/Founder of Green Heffa Farms, the nation’s first Certified B Corp Black-owned farm.

South Asia Senior Advisor

Ganesan ‘Bala’ Balachander

Bala has over three decades of experience at the global, regional, and national levels in corporate banking, international development, applied ecological research, and social enterprises. He brings an interdisciplinary perspective to addressing challenges at the intersection of ecology, economy, and equity. He has lived and worked in Europe, the U.S., Asia-Pacific, and India, where he is currently based.

Philanthropy Advisor

Isabelle Blanco

Isabelle provides research consulting services to non-profits in the development of fundraising and strategic plans. She currently consults with Focus Fundraising and for the development team at the Center for Policing Equity, an organization using data science to measure police bias. Isabelle has also worked for USAID, the UN, Catholic Relief Services, and Care International in Africa and Asia.

Finance Systems Advisor

Edith Mebiama

Edith has 24 years of non-profit financial and operations management experience. Her specialty is in the management of financial systems and in creating business processes that fit to purpose.

Senior Advisor - Marketing

Astrid Coleman

Astrid brings broad experience in marketing, planning, product, management consulting, and community development to global enterprises, lean startups, consultancies, and NGOs. She is based in Northern California, where she is actively engaged with technology companies, Harvard alumni, Stanford University, and climate-focused organizations.

Contributors

Communications Advisor
Elizabeth Delaney Moore

Impact Advisor

Barlin Hassan Ali

Barlin has more than two decades of experience dealing with international development and global disaster response. In 2018, she received the Humanitarian Ambassador for International Women Achievers Award.

Impact Advisor

Mohamed Hassan Nur

Mohamed is a civil and environmental engineer with 30 years of professional experience in energy conservation, environmental impact assessment, management, and sustainability. He has managed multimillion-dollar projects for various US Government agencies, private industries, and international organizations.

Policy Specialist

Doug Seip

Doug is a conservation and sustainability practitioner who focuses on using responsible economic solutions to protect global environments in the face of climate change.

Communications Advisor

Elizabeth Delaney Moore

Elizabeth comes to N4J after years crafting positioning strategies in pre-IPO companies. For equally many years, she’s dedicated herself to grassroots environmental and social justice issues. She spends much of her free time translating court documents for and serving as a mentor to asylum seekers, many of whom have fled situations caused in part by climate change.

Strategy Advisor

Lynne Manrique

Lynne has 20 years of experience as a strategy and implementation leader for nonprofits, public-private partnerships, and local, state, and national governments, spanning 10 US states and about 20 countries. She has served as director of program planning for a $6B public charity, associate director of science, technology, and economic development for a nonprofit research and consulting firm, and executive director of a small foundation focused on expanding women’s leadership opportunities.

Team

Together, Transforming Vulnerable Communities through Nature-based Solutions

Creating climate resiliency and confronting climate change.

Board

Leadership

Staff

Advisors

Contributors

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