Convening Leadership

A diverse and trans-partisan community of citizens are coming together to support the initial development of Earth Voice. The initial Earth Voice Advisory Community includes those listed below, with more soon to come.

Duane Elgin: Duane is providing initial convening leadership for Earth Voice. He is an internationally recognized speaker, author, educator and social entrepreneur. In the early 1970s, Duane worked as a senior staff member of the Presidential Commission on the American Future. He then worked as a senior social scientist with the think-tank SRI International where he coauthored numerous studies of the long-range future for government agencies such as the President’s Science Advisor. In 2006 he received the Peace Prize of Japan—the Goi Award—in recognition of his contribution to a global “vision, consciousness, and lifestyle” that fosters a “more sustainable and spiritual culture.” Duane is a long-time activist working for trans-partisan, citizens-voice initiatives. In 1981, he co-founded the nonprofit organization, “Bay Voice” working for media accountability and a citizen’s voice through televised “Electronic Town Meetings” in the San Francisco Bay Area. Earth Voice is a global expression of work begun nearly four decades earlier with Bay Voice. His books include Voluntary Simplicity, Awakening Earth, and The Living Universe.

Key Advisors for Earth Voice

Monica Sharma: Monica was trained as a physician and worked with the United Nations for 22 years. Formerly, as the director of Leadership and Capacity Development, United Nations, she designed and facilitated programs for whole systems transformation and leadership development around the world with a focus on the 50 least developed countries, with measurable results. Monica designed and directed large programs globally, and lived and worked extensively in both developing and developed countries – in Africa, Asia, Arab States, Eastern Europe, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America. In 2009, she received “The Spirit of the United Nations Award.” Currently, she engages worldwide as an International Expert and Practitioner on Leadership Development for sustainable and equitable change. 

  • Shilpa Jain: Shilpa serves as the executive director of YES!, an international organization dedicated to connecting, inspiring and collaborating with youth and intergenerational changemakers.  Shilpa has researched and written numerous books and articles, and facilitated workshops and gatherings on topics including globalization, creative expressions, ecology, democratic living, innovative learning and unlearning. Shilpa has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings in India, Jordan, Senegal, Lebanon, Egypt, Thailand, Canada, Peru, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Turkey, and the US, working with hundreds of young leaders from over 80 countries. Her publications include Reclaiming the Gift Culture, Other Worlds of Power, Paths of Unlearning, Unfolding Learning Societies.

  • Bill Melton: Bill is an internet entrepreneur, building global technology companies, and is also an Asian scholar. In the early 1980’s, Bill founded VeriFone, the transaction automation company that has made credit authorization terminals ubiquitous on retail merchant counters throughout the U.S. Then, in the early 1990’s, Bill joined as an early investor and as director of the board of America Online. Bill has also held positions as chairman and CEO of Cybercash, a pioneer in e-commerce transaction systems, and, in 1994, he co-founded Transaction Network Services, a nationwide network dedicated to efficient transportation of financial transactions. Bill is very knowledgeable in the field of block-chain technologies. He is the co-founder of the Melton Foundation which promotes global citizenship as a way for individuals and organizations to work together across boundaries of place and identity to address global challenges.

  • Emanuel Kuntzelman is a philosopher, writer, public speaker and social entrepreneur who has dedicated his life to raising environmental awareness, promoting cultural understanding and advocating for world peace through social action. He is the founder and president of Greenheart International. Founded in 1985, Greenheart International works for cultural understanding across the globe while promoting environmental initiatives, personal and social transformation and fair-trade practices. As a result of Greenheart International’s efforts, each year over ten thousand students and young adults have opened their eyes to new countries and cultures while logging over 50,000 volunteer hours across the globe. Emanuel is also co-founder and president of the Foundation for the Future based in Madrid, Spain, created to promote cultural understanding and environmental consciousness.

  • Jean Houston, PhD., is a scholar, philosopher and researcher in human capacities, and is one of the foremost visionary thinkers and doers of our time. Drl Houston combines a deep knowledge of history, culture, new science, spirituality and human development into her teaching and work. A prolific writer, Jean is the author of 26 books including Jump Time, The Possible Human, and a Manual of the Peacemaker. As Advisor to UNICEP in human and cultural development, she has worked around the world helping to implement some of their extensive educational programs. In 2008, the Jean Houston Foundation was formed to teach Social Artistry in the United States and overseas. This training has been conducted in Albania, the Eastern Caribbean, Kenya, Zambia, Nepal, and the Philippines.

  • Sandy Wiggins: Sandy has been working at the intersection of environmental sustainability, equitable economic development, impact investing and spiritual transformation for over two decades. He is a pioneer in the green building movement and was Chair of the U.S. Green Building Council. He has also served as a senior advisor for RSF Social Finance, whose purpose is to transform the way the world works with money, and he has served for six years as Chair of BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), working to identify, connect and nourish the leaders for a new economy across North America.

  • Roger and Brenda Gibson are co-chairs of “Gibson Capital.” Roger is best known as the author of the investment classic, Asset Allocation: Balancing Financial Risk published in German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Indian, and Russian editions. Roger has been a frequent speaker at national and international conferences for investment professionals for 30 years. He earned his MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. Brenda is the CEO and co-chairman and, for over twenty years, has been the architect of the company’s strategic vision. Combined with her accounting background and experience managing and leading people in the non-profit world, Brenda focused her efforts on developing corporate culture and building an enduring, independent organization. In 2002, they founded the Gibson Foundation which is committed to making the World a better place for children with their programs to advance education, music and the arts, the environment, and health & welfare causes.

  • Scott Elrod:  Was previously a Vice President of Research at the famed Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, and Scott is now co-director of Stanford’s Office of Technology Licensing. He has worked in broad areas of technology, including ubiquitous computing, inkjet, displays, energy systems and water purification. Scott has served in many volunteer capacities, including teaching science and math to disadvantaged youth, anti-nuclear organizing and hospice work. Scott was an early contributor to Duane Elgin’s non-profit Bay Voice, a predecessor of Earth Voice that was aimed at improving the quality of prime-time, reality-based TV, as well as advocating for community engagement through interactive, “Electronic Town Meetings.” 

  • Jude Currivan: PhD., is a cosmologist and previously one of the most senior business women in the UK. She has journeyed to nearly seventy countries around the world. Jude integrates leading edge science, research into consciousness and wisdom teachings into a wholistic worldview. This underpins her work aimed at discovering solutions to collective planetary issues, empowering fundamental change and seeking sustainable solutions to global problems. She holds a PhD in Archaeology and a Masters Degree in Physics from Oxford. Her international corporate career culminated in her being the Group Finance Director of two major international businesses. She has extensive experience and knowledge of world events, international politics and global economic and financial systems and has spoken on transformational reforms in the UK, US, Europe, Japan and South Korea.

  • Jeff Vander Clute is a veteran entrepreneur, consciousness coach, and consultant committed to restoring the balance between human systems and Earth’s ecosystems, and to regenerating natural capital. Over two decades of building companies in the technology, medical imaging, and social enterprise spaces, Jeff has developed unique methods for collective decision-making that enable teams to operate with greater wisdom and achieve world-changing results. Jeff graduated summa cum laude in 1995 with a BA in Mathematics from Williams College. In 2006, he co-founded Avanoo, an R&D company where he created an application for gathering “wisdom of communities”, a social network for authentic interactions, and a cause-marketing platform. Since 2013, Jeff has been consulting to high-potential organizations and coaching executives.

Organizing Earth Voice

If the Earth Voice organization is to be regarded as fair and legitimate, then it must reflect the diversity of the people of the Earth. To accomplish this, we will look for leaders primarily in four major areas of representation in six geographic regions of the Earth to create the founding organization for Earth Voice. The voices of these diverse leaders can bring different insights into understanding a promising pathway into the future.

  1. Youth leaders: To challenge humanity to collaborate and co-create a promising future into which we can thrive
  2. Indigenous leaders: To give a voice for the Earth and all her creatures and forces of nature in this time of planetary transition
  3. Women leaders: To build social bridges for pulling together for a sustainable and meaningful future
  4. Evolutionary Elders: To bring the wisdom of higher possibilities and of action tempered by experience