David Korten
President, Bainbridge Island, Washington. David is co-founder of YES! Media, president of the Living Economies Forum, a member of the Club of Rome, and the author of influential books, including When Corporations Rule the World and Change the Story, Change the Future: A Living Economy for a Living Earth. His work builds on lessons from the 21 years he and his wife, Fran, lived and worked in Africa, Asia, and Latin America on a quest to end global poverty. See more of David’s story here…
Roberto Vargas
Secretary, Ventura, California. Roberto is principle consultant for New World Associates and founder of the Provida Council. He has a Doctorate in Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley and brings together indigenous wisdom and contemporary knowledge on leadership and organizational development to tailor consultations for organizations wanting to optimize their ability to serve community and improve the world. He is the author of Family Activism: Empowering Your Community, Beginning with Family and Friends.
Frances Moore Lappé
Treasurer, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Frankie is the author or coauthor of 21 books, many focusing on themes of “living democracy”—suggesting not only a government accountable to citizens but a way of living aligned with the deep human need for connection, meaning, and power. She has received 20 honorary doctorates from distinguished institutions across the country, mostly recently Indiana University in 2021, has been a visiting scholar at MIT and U.C. Berkeley and, in 1987, received the Right Livelihood Award, often called the “Alternative Nobel.” She is co-founder of Oakland-based Food First and the Cambridge-based Small Planet Institute, which she leads with her daughter Anna Lappé.
Fran Korten
Vice President, Bainbridge Island, WA. Fran Korten is currently active with local and state groups focused on actions to reduce carbon emissions. Starting in 1998, she served for 19 years as executive director, publisher, and author at YES! Magazine. Previously she was a grantmaker for 20 years with the Ford Foundation’s offices in Manila, Jakarta, and New York. She taught at Harvard University and holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from Stanford University. She lives on Bainbridge Island with her husband, David Korten. She has two daughters, a son-in-law and two grandchildren.
Harry Pickens
Harry PickensMember, Louisville, Kentucky. A pianist, composer, teacher and organizational consultant, Harry has worked as a classroom teacher on elementary, middle, high school and collegiate levels, as well as an organizational consultant, blending many interests and talents into a multi-faceted career devoted to teaching and sharing. As a jazz pianist, he has performed in 17 countries throughout Europe, the Americas and Japan, collaborating with many stellar names in the jazz world such as Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard and Milt Jackson of the Modern Jazz Quartet. Harry uses his music as an entry to his community activism. His current passion is developing a youth leadership program for his local school district that will use music and the arts to help kids become aware of what it means to be a leader and that real happiness is found in service.
Puanani Burgess
Puanani BurgessIn memoriam, December 12, 1947 – September 6, 2024
Former long-time, beloved board member and Vice President, Waianae, Oahu, Hawai’i. Puanani was a former board member of YES! Magazine and a community building facilitator, trainer, and consultant in Hawai’i, the U.S., and the Pacific. She was also a poet, cultural translator and a lecturer with the Department of Urban and Regional Planning of the University of Hawai’i, a Weinberg Fellow, and the Myles and Zilphia Horton Chairholder for the Highlander Research and Education Center in New Market, Tennessee. She is noted for her experience in community, family, and values-based economic development, mediation and storytelling processes as part of conflict transformation, and in developing community-based organizations.