By: Jennifer Hetterly, Green Foothills Governance Committee Co-Chair

Last fall, with several Green Foothills’ directors terming off the board, we published an article inviting the community to apply. We are deeply grateful for everyone who expressed interest and patiently went through our first open recruitment process. COVID-19 might have eliminated our in-person meetings for now but it has not limited Green Foothills from continuing to connect and grow our wonderful community.

And grown we have! We are pleased to welcome four new board members in the past two months and twelve new advisory board members over the past year. Each brings important skills, experience, and a commitment to uplifting the critical work we do to give nature a voice.

Welcome New Board Members, Thank You To Those “Departing”

Our board of directors actively support the day to day work of Green Foothills, establishing the long-term vision and stability for the organization with a focus on planning, policy development, and fundraising. Terms are two years and can be renewed up to four times.

To that end, we have recently welcomed into the fold four amazing new board directors: Ian Bain, Margaret Laffan, Nancy Federspiel, and Brian Glazebrook. Find out more about them by visiting the “Meet Our Team” webpage. While new to our board, they are already rolling up their sleeves and making meaningful contributions on our board committees and out in the community.

And we are very thankful for that as eight wonderful people recently transitioned off our board: Joan Sherlock, Larry Ames, Tate Cohn, Bryan Beck, Edmundo Larenas, Kris Lanning Lang, Violet Saena, and Nancy Reyering. Collectively, they served Green Foothills a total of fifty years!

• Each of these individuals contributed a great deal to the organization Green Foothills is today. They oversaw some critical changes including:
  Launch of our our new name, logo, mission, vision, and values statements
• Approval of our 2020-2025 strategic plan
• Reimagining of our Leadership Academy’s curriculum, model, and impact
• Launch of our equity and inclusion work
• Creation and launch of the Protect Coyote Valley brand
• Formation of the Lennie Roberts Advocacy Fund
• Scanning and inclusion of over 40,000+ pages of the organization’s documents into our digital archives (done exclusively by Bryan Beck)
• Publication of our first Annual Report
• Release of our 50 year vision, Deep Roots Green Future
• Investment in and expansion of our staff from 6 to 10 employees

Luckily for Green Foothills, these now former board members have chosen to stay involved in our organization in new ways by serving on our advisory board, on board committee, and as on call volunteers when we need an extra hand.

Welcoming New Advisory Board Members

Our Advisory Board is a close circle of expert advisers who expand our reach in different communities,serve on some of our board committees and we turn to them before moving forward with big decisions. The 12 amazing individuals who joined our advisory board in the past year include: Manjeet Bhamra, Alexii Sigona, Jasvir Zonobi, Ray Mueller, Violet Saena, Nancy Reyering, Jane Packard, Mel Sarmento, Ron Valenzuela, Jerry Hearn, and Jeff Hosea.

We value our Board and Advisory Board and are grateful for their service!