John Nordgren

Managing Director
Bainbridge Island, WA

John has spent his career working at the intersection of science and policy and in pursuit of durable solutions that bring people and nature together for the mutual benefit of both. John has expertise in conservation science, policy, and climate change adaptation. He is a nationally recognized leader and champion for the climate adaptation and resilience field.

John developed and launched the Climate Resilience Fund (CRF) in 2017 and currently serves as its Managing Director. John is also Principal of Foresight Partners, Inc., a consultancy focused in part on helping foundations more effectively incorporate climate considerations into their grantmaking programs and the work of their grantees. He previously served as Senior Advisor, Climate Change (2015) for the Michigan-based Kresge Foundation and as Senior Program Officer (2009-2014) for Kresge’s Environment Program, where he developed and implemented Kresge’s strategies for advancing the field of climate change adaptation, facilitating over $60M in investments over a seven-year tenure.

John has served on the National Academy of Sciences Board on Atmospheric Science and Climate (BASC) and was a founding member of the Board of Directors for EcoAdapt, Inc. He currently serves as board member and treasurer for the American Society of Adaptation Professionals. He has also served for ten years as a member of the Advisory Committee for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Climate Adaptation Fund, a project of the Doris Duke Foundation focused on wildlife habitat conservation in a changing climate, which he helped to develop.

Prior to joining Kresge, John was Program Officer for the Henry P. Kendall Foundation in Boston, where he led the Foundation’s Northeastern Landscape Conservation Program and developed and led Kendall’s Climate Adaptation Program (2006-08). He was previously Director of Programs for the Massachusetts-based Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences and worked in the Legislative Program of the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C.  John earned his B.A. in public policy from The American University in Washington, D.C. and M. A. in environmental policy from Tufts University in Medford, MA. John was raised in NJ and called New England home for many years, but currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with his family with whom he spends as much time as possible hiking, kayaking and growing vegetables.

Darren Long

Associate Director
Washington, DC

Darren has worked as a grantmaker and non-profit executive for the past 21 years. He specializes in building investment strategies for impacting public policy, increasing sustainability, and creating social, economic and ecological resilience to climate change. Darren has a long track record investing in communications strategies to leverage resources, build constituencies, and increase social ROI. As a practicing organic farmer and livestock grower, he brings the principles of ethical stewardship, leadership, and long-term sustainability to his work in the agricultural sector, as well. Previously, Darren served as Global Lead and Director for Climate Change Adaptation and as Managing Director of the Climate Adaptation Fund at the Wildlife Conservation Society. There he was responsible for all management, strategic communications and grantmaking activities for a program which has invested more than $15 million to support nonprofit conservation organizations, and administered a portfolio of science, planning and applied conservation across more than 50 countries. He holds a finance degree from The George Washington University and a Masters of Public Administration from Montana State University. Darren currently serves as a board member of the Catoctin Land Trust.

Kerry Hastings

Coordinator, Wildfire resilience funders
Bellingham, Washington

Kerry has over 20 years of nonprofit experience serving as a volunteer, fundraiser, program staff, Executive Director, consultant and Board member of various organizations. She began her career as a community organizer with the PICO National Network, where she learned how to lead by listening, and worked alongside residents to use their voices for sustainable change in their neighborhoods and cities. After a decade of organizing, Kerry began consulting for nonprofits working with diverse communities to advance racial and economic justice through housing and education reform, criminal justice reform, voter engagement and climate resilience, among other issues. She began her work in the philanthropy-serving space in 2016 with The Funders Network’s (TFN) Smart Growth California initiative. At TFN, she became Coordinator of the San Joaquin Valley Funders’ Collaborative and facilitated the development of a $4.4 million, 3-year initiative to advance the equitable implementation of water policy across the region, as well as organizing funder collaboration on equitable land access issues. She became Coordinator for TFN's Urban Water Funders working group in 2021 where she facilitates collaboration amongst national and place-based funders working to advance progressive water policy. In 2020, through her work with Smart Growth California, she helped in building an informal funder network working on wildfire issues in the Western US. When the need became clear for increased support to launch a more formal network, she began working with the Climate Resilience Fund in 2022 to help launch the Wildfire Resilience Funders. Kerry lives in Bellingham, Washington where she serves on the Board of Directors for the Whatcom Community Foundation.

Douglas Meyer

Director of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement
Saratoga springs, NY

Douglas is a marketing and communications specialist who for more than 20 years has helped nonprofit and philanthropic organizations identify and develop inclusive and effective ways to engage their audiences and increase their impact. Though his experience as an independent consultant and as a principal at Bernuth & Williamson, he has developed a depth of knowledge on a range of issues related to strategic planning, nonprofit management, project evaluation, human health, environmental sustainability, and economic development. Prior to starting his career as a consultant, Douglas worked extensively in film and television production and was on staff at The Nature Conservancy, where he managed media relations for the organization’s international programs and led outreach efforts for priority initiatives. Douglas has been a featured speaker at various national and international conferences, a contributor to National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition, an instructor in nonprofit marketing at Skidmore College, and has served on the board of the rare cancer research fund, ACCRF. Fluent in Spanish and conversant in Portuguese, Douglas graduated with a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature and Spanish from Indiana University and later received a master’s degree with honors from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Kate Barnes

Program Officer, The MacArthur Foundation
Chicago, Il

Kate joined The MacArthur Foundation in 2007. Previously, she worked in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago supporting research on marine and aquatic ecosystems of the Pacific Northwest. Through a fellowship with the Department of Energy, Kate worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration evaluating and responding to threats to the US Great Lakes. As a graduate student, she worked with Oceana to develop and advocate science-based policies for reducing fisheries by-catch and protecting threatened marine species. Kate holds a master’s degree in Environmental Management from Duke University, and a bachelor of arts in Biological Science from Smith College.

Joel Clement

Senior Program Officer, The Lemelson Foundation
Wayne, ME

Joel Clement is a Senior Fellow with the Center for Science and Democracy at the Union of Concerned Scientists. In his role, Mr. Clement works to expose political interference in science from the Trump administration and Congress, fight attacks on federal science, and promote public understanding of the importance of independent science in policymaking. Mr. Clement is also the public face of the UCS Science Protection Project, through which federal scientists may confidentially report political interference in government science.

Before joining UCS, Mr. Clement served as director of the Office of Policy Analysis within the US Department of the Interior (DOI), working to help Native Alaskan communities in danger of losing their lands and livelihoods because of climate change. Under Secretary Ryan Zinke, Mr. Clement and dozens of his colleagues were reassigned to different DOI positions for which they were frequently ill-suited; Mr. Clement was no longer able to work on climate policy to benefit vulnerable populations. Mr. Clement first blew the whistle on his politically motivated reassignment in The Washington Post, and later resigned.

Mr. Clement earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, and a Master of Environmental Studies degree from The Evergreen State College. He has been quoted in Bloomberg, HuffPost, Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, NPR, The New York Times, Outside Magazine, and The Washington Post, and has appeared on CBS, CNN, Democracy Now!, Mic, MSNBC’s Morning Joe, NBC, and the PBS NewsHour.