Ben Collins, Treasurer

Ben first discovered responsible investment issues as an undergraduate at Harvard College as a co-founder and student leader of a Sudan divestment campaign at Harvard University. As part of the campaign, he worked with student groups, alumni, faculty, and Harvard's Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility to secure Harvard's divestment from the PetroChina Company in 2005. Ben has previously worked with the microfinance organization, FINCA in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Since 2006, he has conducted Sudan divestment research and analyzed corporate social responsibility issues at KLD Research & Analytics (recently acquired by the Riskmetrics Group in November 2009), an investment research firm based in Boston that focuses on the environmental, social, and governance practices of publicly-traded companies. Ben is also involved as a board member of the Investor Suffrage Movement, which works towards improving corporate accountability through shareholder proxy voting.

Jenifer Grady, MSLS, MBA, CAE, is the first Director of the American Library Association – Allied Professional Association: the Organization for the Advancement of Library Employees (ALA-APA). ALA-APA was established by the American Library Association to fulfill two missions: supporting salary and status improvement initiatives and certifying library workers in specializations beyond their initial degree through certification; salary surveys; an e-newsletter, and conference programs.

She attended Oberlin College, where the goals of REC were practiced, and took her Masters in Information and Library Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jenifer practiced librarianship in several sectors and cities and completed an MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University in her home city of Cleveland, Ohio. In her personal life, she is enamored with her toddler daughter.

Hannah McMeekin

Hannah McMeekin is a student representative on the board and became involved in SRI during her first semester at Middlebury College. She is currently a member of Middlebury’s Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investment and is working to create a Social Choice fund for the college. Hannah is also a member of REC’s Student Steering Committee and she is very excited about being an active member in the REC organization. She is currently a sophomore “Feb” at Middlebury and is majoring in Geography with a minor in Arabic.

Sarah Pralle, Chair Elect

Sarah Pralle is an associate professor of political science at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. Her research and teaching interests are in the areas of public policy processes and environmental politics. In particular, she studies the strategies and tactics of environmental advocacy groups, including market-based tactics like shareholder activism. She is the author of Branching Out, Digging In: Environmental Advocacy and Agenda-setting (Georgetown University Press, 2006) as well as several articles on environmental policy processes.

Before attending graduate school at the University of Washington, Sarah worked for Greenpeace USA as a fundraiser and activist. She has continued to be active in campus environmental groups as well as community groups in central New York.

Maura Rendes, Chair

Maura Rendes began working with REC as a freshman at Seattle University when she helped form the Committee on Responsible Investment. She was the Northwest Student Organizer and a Steering Committee member from 2008-2010 and set up a community investment program and a revolving fund for energy-saving sustainability projects.

Currently, Maura is working on a USAID agro-tourism project in the Dominican Republic and has studied in Ecuador and Costa Rica. She has worked on environmental policy issues locally, nationally and internationally and worked for a Washington state non-profit land trust, which preserves organic farmland. In 2011, Maura will graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Public Affairs and Spanish, a minor in Environmental Studies and a specialization in International Development. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, gardening, cooking, playing soccer, and soaking up the people and places around her.

Mary Schellentrager

Mary Schellentrager is a recent graduate of American University in Washington, DC where she studied anthropology.  While at AU, she was active with the Community Action and Social Justice coalition and helped win union recognition for her school's shuttle bus operators.  She started working with REC in 2008 while organizing around responsible investment practices and headed a community investment campaign while she was Mid-Atlantic Student Organizer from 2009-2010.  Mary is also a member of REC's Student Steering Committee.  She currently resides in Chardon, Ohio.

Alisa Valderrama is a Financial Policy Analyst at NRDC’s Center for Market Innovation.  Prior to joining NRDC, Alisa worked on the finance team at the Clinton Climate Initiative. Previously, Alisa helped launch the World Bank's first program geared toward corporate responsibility in environmental, social, and governance issues. She has consulted on securities law reform for the United Kingdom Treasury, and assisted in fraud investigations conducted by the United Nations Oil-for-Food Independent Inquiry Committee.  She also advises social entrepreneurs as a member of Echoing Green's Social Investment Council. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics (LL.M.), the University of Southern California (J.D.), and the University of Pennsylvania (B.A.).

Steve's vocation is grandparenting. His commitment is to sustainability, working to leave options open for our children and grandchildren. Presently he focuses on broadening the definition of sustainability in general, and more specifically on sustainable investing (future-oriented, risk-adjusted and opportunity-directed), increasing institutional investors’ involvement, and fiduciary duty. For 30 years he has been involved in philanthropy, initiating one of the first programs in impact investing as President of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation in the early 1990s. Since ‘retirement’ in 2000 he has continued this work on the boards of the Needmor Fund and presently the Christopher Reynolds Foundation. Steve is an active speaker and writer in the sustainable and responsible investment space. He currently serves on the advisory boards of Inflection Point Capital Management, Ethical Marketplace and Strategic Philanthropy and is the consulting editor of the Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment and a Fellow of the Governance and Accountability Institute. His work has been featured in the New York Times and Forbes and a wide range of publications in the US and abroad.