Rachel’s Network is pleased to announce Katie Frohardt as an Environmental Leadership Liaison and Paula DiPerna as a member of our Circle of Advisors. Katie Frohardt is the executive director of Fauna & Flora International, Inc. (FFI), and Paula DiPerna is an expert on environmental and philanthropic policy, as well as widely-published author.  In these roles, both women will share their distinctive expertise with Rachel’s Network members.

“We know that Paula and Katie will make strong additions to our already impressive community of Advisors and Environmental Leadership Liaisons,” Thu Pham, Rachel’s Network co-director, says. Environmental Leadership Liaisons are female CEOs of environmental and philanthropic organizations, including Jamie Rappaport Clark of Defenders of Wildlife, Stephanie Meeks of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Tensie Whelan of Rainforest Alliance.  Advisors, such as Dr. Sylvia Earle, Alice Waters, and Terry Tempest Williams, are influential women from the business, scientific, arts, and faith communities with a demonstrated interest in environmental issues.

Katie Frohardt

Katie Frohardt has over 20 years’ experience in conservation, and is both a seasoned field practitioner and well-respected international conservationist.  Throughout her career, a focus on the critical role of women in conservation has been a priority. She assumed her leadership role at FFI as its first executive director in the United States in 2003, and has substantially grown the U.S. constituency for the work of FFI globally through a strategic focus on endangered species and habitat as flagships. Katie draws strongly from years spent living in Rwanda, where she was Director of the International Gorilla Conservation Program from 1995 to 1997.  Following her time in Rwanda, Katie spent six years as Program Technical Director for the African Wildlife Foundation, where she provided leadership for the design and implementation of its landscape level conservation program.

Paula DiPerna

Paula DiPerna is a strategic environmental and philanthropic policy advisor and writer. Currently, she is Special Advisor to Carbon Disclosure Project-North America (CDP).  She also serves on the Advisory Board of the NTR Foundation, an environmental and leadership development foundation with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, as well as Global Kids, based in New York City.  Paula formerly served as president of the international division of the Chicago Climate Exchange, with special responsibility for China, India, Korea, and other emerging markets.  She was previously president of the Joyce Foundation and vice president for international affairs for the Cousteau Society.  Paula has also served as a consultant to the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility, and LEAD-International among other organizations.  In 2001, she founded the Jobs and Environment Initiative, which quantifies jobs creation benefits of environmental activities in the United States.  She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and Women’s Executive Forum.

Advisors and Environmental Leadership Liaisons provide high-level expertise from their individual fields to Rachel’s Network members, in addition to being active at a national level and bringing public attention to issues affecting the earth. Several Advisors and Liaisons recently contributed to this article on Rachel Carson’s legacy on Forbes.com.