Advisory Board

Stephanie Clohesy

Working in the non-profit and philanthropic sector since 1971, Ms. Clohesy has substantial experience in public policy, systemic social change, national and international leadership. Since 1993 she has owned her own consulting practice (Clohesy Consulting) serving foundations and non-profits throughout the U.S. and globally. She provides strategic planning, research and strategic program design, organizational development and structural design of organizations and teams.

Recent clients include:

• Philanthropic families and private foundations, e.g. The Schott Foundation, The Omidyar Foundation/Network, The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, California Wellness Foundation
• Women’s foundations, e.g. The Women’s Funding Network, Nokomis Foundation, The California Women’s Foundation, The Mama Cash Foundation (Netherlands), The Sister Fund, Girls Best Friend Foundation, The Dallas Women’s Foundation, Chester County Fund for Women.
• Non-profit organizations, schools, and institutions: The Tides Center, BoardnetUSA, Rutgers University, DSHA School.

Internationally she has consulted in Latin America, particularly Argentina; in South Africa; and in Eastern Europe (Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia, the Ukraine); and Asia (Hong Kong). 

Earlier in her career she was the Executive Director of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund (now Legal Momentum) for five years and also was a program officer for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation from 1987-1992. She was a Kellogg Foundation National Leadership Fellowship recipient 1983-87. During her fellowship and staff time with the Kellogg Foundation she worked on civic engagement projects in Latin America and global civil society programs with the Salzburg Seminar in Salzburg, Austria.

Among other duties, she currently chairs the Tides Center, which is an incubator for social nonprofits and the nonprofit sector’s leading sponsor of social innovation.

Fred Kirschenmann

Frederick L. Kirschenmann, a longtime leader in national and international sustainable agriculture, is Distinguished Fellow for the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. From July 2000 to November 2005, he served as the Center’s second director since its creation in 1987. Kirschenmann came to the Center from south central North Dakota where he operated his family’s 3,500-acre certified organic farm. He continues to oversee management of the farm and has an appointment in the ISU Department of Religion and Philosophy. He holds a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Chicago, and has written extensively about ethics and agriculture. He has held national and international appointments, including the USDA’s National Organic Standards Board. He is a board member for the Food Alliance, Silos and Smokestacks National Heritage Area, The Nature Institute, and the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture at the Rockefeller Center in New York. He also chairs and is a charter member of the Whiterock Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that manages a 1,300-acre conservation area in west-central Iowa. Kirschenmann’s academic credits include several years teaching and as administrator, culminating in a position as academic dean at Curry College in Boston, Massachusetts.

In 1976 he returned to the family farm when his father became ill. By 1980, the farm was certified organic, one of the early operations to make the transition. The farm is a natural prairie livestock grazing system that combines a nine-crop rotation of cereal grains, forages, and green manure. Kirschenmann Family Farms has been part of a number of research studies. It also has been featured in national publications including National Geographic, the Smithsonian, Audubon, Business Week, the LA Times and Gourmet magazine. In 1995, Kirschenmann was profiled in an award-winning video, “My Father’s Garden,” by Miranda Productions, Inc.

In 1978, Kirschenmann helped organize North Dakota Natural Farmers that later became the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society. He helped found and for 10 years was president of Farm Verified Organic, Inc., an international private certification agency.
 In 2001, Kirschenmann received the Seventh Generation Research Award from the Center for Rural Affairs for his work in sustainable food and farming systems. He also was named a 2002 Leader of the Year in Agriculture by Progressive Farmer publications. His essay, “Ecological Morality: A New Ethic for Agriculture,” appears in Agroecosystems Analysis, a monograph published by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America and the Soil Science Society of America.

The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture was created by the Iowa Legislature to develop sustainable agricultural practices that are both profitable and conserve natural resources. Since his appointment to the Center, Kirschenmann has been a frequent speaker, engaging audiences to help shape a new vision for agriculture. New Center directions include research initiatives in marketing and food systems, ecology and policy.

Carolyn Raffensperger, M.A., J.D.

Carolyn is founding Executive Director of the Science and Environmental Health Network. In 1982 she left a career as an archaeologist in the desert Southwest to join the environmental movement. She first worked for the Sierra Club where she addressed an array of environmental issues including: forest management, river protection, pesticide pollutants, and disposal of radioactive waste. She began working for SEHN in December 1994. As an environmental lawyer she specializes in the fundamental changes in law and policy necessary for the protection and restoration of public health and the environment.

Carolyn is co-editor of Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle, published by Island Press (1999). This volume is the most comprehensive exploration to date of the history, theory, and implementation of the precautionary principle. Carolyn coined the term “ecological medicine” to encompass the broad notions that both health and healing are entwined with the natural world. She serves on editorial review boards for several environmental and sustainable agriculture journals, and has served on USEPA and National Research Council committees. In addition, she writes the Science for Lawyers column for the Environmental Law Institute’s journal Environmental Forum.

Carolyn has been featured in Gourmet magazine, the Utne Reader, Yes! Magazine, the Sun, Whole Earth, and Scientific American. Along with leading workshops and giving frequent lectures on the Precautionary Principle, Carolyn is at the forefront of developing new models for government that depend on these larger ideas of precaution and ecological integrity. The new models include a vision for the courts of the 21st century and the public trust doctrine.

Alan Scarfe

Alan Scarfe was elected 9th Bishop of the Diocese of Iowa at a special diocesan convention in November 2002. He was ordained In Des Moines on Saturday, April 5, 2003 and seated at St. Paul’s Cathedral the following day. Prior to his election Bishop Scarfe served as rector of St. Barnabas’ Episcopal Church in the Eagle Rock area of Los Angeles. Bishop Scarfe earned a Master of Arts in Theology degree from Oxford University, Oxford, England in 1972. From 1973 through 1975 he completed post-graduate studies at the Romanian Orthodox Institute in Bucharest, Romania. He is a 1986 graduate of The General Theological Seminary. Scarfe was ordained to the priesthood in 1986.

Prior to his call to the ministry, Scarfe was chief executive officer of Keston College USA, an independent research institution advocating freedom of religion in communist countries. He was a visiting lecturer at Wheaton College in Illinois.
He and his wife Donna have four children. Scarfe was born in Bradford in Yorkshire in England.

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