The Board
Our Board of Directors
Miranda Nayyar
Miranda is a Manager at EY’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services (CCaSS) practice focusing on ambitious target setting and long-term decarbonization strategies. Miranda has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies, supporting their corporate sustainability teams in understanding and reacting to evolving best practices in the sustainability and climate change space.
Prior to joining EY, Miranda holds almost a decade of experience guiding companies and financial institutions in taking ambitious action to achieve a net-zero economy. She is the former Head of Operations at the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), where she led a 15-member-strong department to deliver record levels of in-depth technical assessments of targets, develop new services and processes to meet growing market demand, and build infrastructure necessary to support organizational growth. In her role, Miranda consulted on the development of many of the SBTi’s technical guidance documents and methodologies for companies.
Miranda also has experience working at the UN Global Compact and in various grassroots non-profits and has conducted academic research on corporate responsibility and responses to climate change. She holds a BA in International Sustainable Development from New York University.
Kyle Gracey
Kyle takes an interdisciplinary approach to advancing sustainability. His past positions have spanned private sector consulting, research and advocacy nonprofits, the federal government (civil service and White House) and the military. His academic training is a mix of social and natural sciences. Outside of his paid positions, Kyle serves or has served on nearly a dozen nonprofit boards of directors, often as the chair of the board. He has also founded or co-founded organizations that help young people advance progressive causes, including co-founding the youth constituency at the United Nations climate change negotiations. Kyle is a proud veteran of several computer science hackathons.
Dr. Barbara Martinez
Barbara Martinez is the Open Innovation Director for Conservation X Labs. She leads the Grand Challenges and Make for the Planet competitions, including the Artisanal Mining Grand Challenge, the Microfiber Innovation Challenge, and the Blue Economy Challenge to re-engineer aquaculture. She was a science policy fellow in the Office of the Science Advisor and the Office of Research and Development at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, where she led the creation of a policy to streamline the implementation of citizen science projects for federal scientists. Previously, Barbara spent much of her time in a laboratory or remote field sites studying endocrine disruption in prairie voles, seed dispersal by lemurs, seed dispersal by hornbills and monkeys, and songbird behavior. Barbara has her PhD in Conservation Biology from the University of Minnesota with a minor in Development Studies and Social Change and a BS in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
Desirée M. Bartosiak
Desirée M. Bartosiak has over 20 year-experience working in complex, cross-sectoral programming and leading multi-disciplinary teams at the field, regional and global levels. Her experience spans development and humanitarian aid programs in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe, North America and the Middle East. Highlights of key leadership roles include: country director leading various programs through significant change management; humanitarian crisis programming in Nepal; Chief of Party in Sri Lanka focusing on post-conflict reconciliation/reconstruction, leading a $100M disaster response effort in North America and establishing ethics functions for major INGOs.
Desiree is notably passionate about the intersection of innovation, process improvement and ethics in the vision of driving greater impact (and more joy at work!). She is currently the Senior Director of World Vision International leading the strategy design and roll-out of operations to prevent violence and abuse against children and adults in over 100 countries. Her work focuses on both the compliance and culture aspects that are critical for success. This cross-functional role requires her to effect a global strategy that takes into account all of the organization’s different lines of business at differentiating levels (field, HQ, etc.), gain buy-in from key internal and external stakeholders, incorporate risk management and protect the communities served. Additionally, Desirée is working with sector partners in the international aid field to support the research and advanced development of the emerging field of Safeguarding and ensure collective efforts in protecting people from harm or damage.
Desirée holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Bradley University, a Master’s degree in International Social Development from University of Sussex and a certification in non-profit management from the University of Chicago. She is also a visiting faculty member at Emory University and sits on the board of Healthy Babies: A Georgia Milk Bank, a NGO focused on providing nutritional support and advocacy for infants in need.
Dr. Cvic Innocent
Cvic has piloted academic-industrial partnerships, worked in the VC spaces evaluating investments in pre-seed and series A companies, transitioned research facilities to scientific hubs, and initiated numerous strategic alliances. A competitive intelligence professional, her data insights have assessed products/solutions in multiple climate tech, deeptech & edtech spaces, with a persevering focus on 1) disruptive CCSU initiatives and 2) initiatives mobilizing the next generation of researchers to continue supporting and adopting green technologies. She advises on several startup boards, is a 2022 SPIE Woman of Optics, is a 2019 CZI Innovation Scientist, & currently is VP of Strategic Initiatives & Partnerships for the Jacksonville Black Chamber of Commerce. Previously, Dr. Innocent was research faculty at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, completed her postdoctoral training at the University of Oxford, completed her doctoral training at Cornell University, and began her scientific career at NASA.
Dr. Stephen Fong
Stephen fosters interdisciplinary sustainability opportunities and research with a particular focus on connecting science, engineering, sociology, and health. Work in this area includes hackathons, design sprints, ongoing research, and community partnerships. Dr. Fong is a professor in chemical and life science engineering and also co-leads a VCU initiative on Sustainable Food Access and is the Director of the Center for Integrative Life Sciences Education.
Our Advisory Board
Melissa Lee
Melissa Lee is the Founder and CEO of The GREEN Program (TGP), an award-winning experiential education program for young leaders in sustainable development. For her work with TGP, Lee was recognized by the National Association of Women Business Owners as the Environmental Advocate of the Year, Philadelphia magazine's Best of Philly® Expander of Frontiers, and the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Education. Lee has served as a U.S. Global Schools Ambassador for the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, and a Heinz Distinguished Lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh.
Lee is driven by a desire to reshape higher education curricula to include purposeful, hands-on experience for students. As CEO, Lee has expanded TGP beyond its roots as an experiential education program, partnering with the United Nations and leading universities to create a global, socially-conscious, public benefit company. TGP represents university students from 470 universities and 70 countries around the world, who are now employed at organizations such as General Electric, SpaceX, Tesla, Boeing, NASA, The Environmental Defense Fund, The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and more.
Under Lee’s leadership, TGP has been ranked Best Education Abroad Provider by the Global Youth Travel Awards, #1 Summer Study Abroad Program by StudyAbroad101, Company of the Year by The Stevie Awards, Philadelphia’s Green Innovator of the Year by the Clean Air Council, Top Young Companies Driving Social Change at the United Nations Social Innovation Summit, and more. Lee also serves as a Board Member for various non-profits, and is a Mentor to Veterans who are transitioning into the civilian workforce.
A first-generation Chinese-American, Lee was born in Queens, NY. Today, she resides in Philadelphia, PA, where TGP is headquartered. As an enthusiast for our oceans and purposeful travel, Lee is passionate about the management and sustainability of these industries.
Gayu Chakkangal
I started my career as a conflict resolution specialist, and in the past two decades, I have worked with organizations in the UK, the US, West Africa, and India. I am a trained Mediator and specialize in Environmental Conflict Resolution and work actively in interculturality, intersectionality, and inter-identity issues.
Over the years, I have gained interest in solutions journalism and civic engagement, seeing how they are interconnected. Reading some books and taking courses on the intersection of conflict resolution, environment, geopolitics, psychology, and digital transformation confirmed something very real for me. That there was a possibility to bring all of this together by consolidating my skills. For these reasons, I started Inner Oak, a start-up venture that is bringing together environmentalists, conflict resolution specialists, and subject matter experts to have multistakeholder engagement dialogues on climate change and environmental issues. At Earth Hacks, I support as an Advisor in Environmental Conflict Resolution. Feel free to reach out to me at gayu@earthhacks.io.
Yusuf Suleiman
Yusuf is a GeoData enthusiast and an advocate of open and free data who is very passionate about the environment, climate change, and public policy. He was both a YouthMappers Leadership fellow and UN Local Pathways fellow and has extensive experience in research and data analysis. He has led several advocacy campaigns that leverages open data and technology to raise awareness about environmental and sustainability issues.
In his previous role with Visualization for Social Good - a Stanford-based data viz non-profit organization, Yusuf served on the community team and helped to grow the volunteer-base, and increase engagements with partners and supporters. He is currently the Regional Ambassador with the YouthMappers network - a global network of students who are defining their world through mapping and open innovation.
When not mapping, Yusuf is found coding and supporting other organizations to organize workshops, seminars and conferences. He also mentors other aspiring data enthusiasts.