Sarah diefendorf - board president

Sarah Deifendorf serves as Executive Director of the Environmental Finance Center West at Earth Island Institute. She has founded and managed numerous nonprofit organizations throughout her career and has specialized in building financial, communications and leadership capacity in the US and abroad. Some of Sarah’s work includes working with indigenous people to promote sustainable business enterprises and improve their capacity for grassroots development and sovereignty. Ms Diefendorf is also training elected officials from small communities across the United States in leadership techniques and climate resiliency to help them reach out to and engage their communities.  Recently, Ms. Diefendorf completed the preparation of the Guidebook on International Environmental Finance for the United Nations Development Program, which explored innovative financing for protected areas, sustainable agriculture, sustainable forestry and pro-poor energy in developing countries. 

Since 2001, Ms Diefendorf has worked as a Grassroots Capacity Building Trainer for the League of Women Voters of the United States and has worked with marginalized communities in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Armenia and Jamaica. Other international work includes developing and leading training workshops on Leadership, Sustainable Enterprise and Grassroots Advocacy in South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mexico and Thailand. Ms Diefendorf currently serves on the board of the California League of Women Voters and the Collaborative Enterprise Exchange. She holds a bachelors in International Relations from San Francisco State University and a masters degree in Environmental Geography from Cambridge University.