FOUNDERS
FRANCES MOORE LAPPÉ
CO-FOUNDER,
DIRECTOR
Frances Moore Lappé is a writer, speaker, and activist. She has authored or co-authored 20 books and is a recipient of 20 honorary doctorates. Her first book, Diet for a Small Planet, has sold over 3 million copies. Lappé has been a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and MIT and taught at various universities and colleges. She frequently appears in media and contributes to publications like Yes! Magazine and Common Dreams. Her works have been translated into 15 languages and are used in university courses. Lappé has won awards for her work and has been featured on Today Show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Fox & Friends, NPR, and the BBC, among others.
ANNA BLYTHE LAPPÉ
CO-FOUNDER
Anna Lappé is the Executive Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food and, along with the Small Planet Institute, co-founder of the SmallPlanet Fund and Real Food Media. From 2017 to 2023, she developed and ran the Food Sovereignty Fund of the Panta Rhea Foundation. A national bestselling author, Anna has written or co-written three books and contributed to or been featured in 19 others, including Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It and Hope’s Edge. A James Beard Foundation Leadership Awardee, Anna was named one of TIME's "eco" Who's-Who and is a respected advocate for sustainability and justice along the food chain.
TEAM
CORINNA (Coco) RHUM
Senior Writing Associate and Institute Manager
Corinna (Coco) Rhum (she/her) graduated with a BA in Critical Theory from Williams College. She is a passionate advocate for a more just world. Leading the fight to get Williams to publicly commit to divesting from fossil fuels, co-running a mutual aid group, and fighting for integrated public schools in New York City have been some of her most proud accomplishments. She also has a background in zero-waste policy and systems on college campuses. She loves to read and write about issues of politics and power. Her undergraduate thesis was titled “What's the Deal With All of Those Books About Fungus?: The New Discursive Project of Interconnectedness.” It explores the emergence of texts that emphasize interconnectedness between humans and the natural world. It seeks to situate these discourses in our political-economic context by discussing their relationship to neoliberal subjectivity, the rise of the therapeutic state, and changing concepts of nature. Outside of work, she loves to play ultimate frisbee, hike, bake, and make art!
MADELEINE GUILIANO
Democracy Intern
Madeleine Guiliano (she/her) is a Democracy Intern at Small Planet Institute. She pursues a BA from Villanova University, majoring in English and minoring in Sustainability Studies and Art History. With strong interests in social change and the environment, she is a member of Villanova's Student Sustainability Committee. As a member, she promotes environmental responsibility through advocacy, education, and student-driven projects focused on waste reduction, energy efficiency, and sustainable living. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors with her dogs and reading.
RESTON KAUFMAN
Democracy Intern
Reston Kaufman (he/him/his) is a Democracy Intern at Small Planet Institute. He is currently a student at Wesleyan University studying for his bachelor’s degree is Social Studies and Economics. He has an interest in the ways political systems work and the varying effects of an increasingly globalized world on all different sorts of people. He also enjoys Boston sports, sit-com television, and being outside.
SONJA COLFORD
Democracy Intern
Sonja Colford (she/her) is a Democracy Intern at Small Planet Institute. She is a student at McGill University pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Political Science with a minor in Economics. Her interests lie at the intersection of politics, law, and the environment. As a member of the McGill Energy Journal, she writes about topics spanning many areas of sustainability. In her spare time, she enjoys music, running, and spending time with her dog.
JACK LAUB
Democracy Intern
Jack Laub (he/him) is a rising senior at UMass Amherst with a double major in Political Science and Resource Economics. He is a writing tutoring intern at UMass as well. Jack is passionate about preservation and proper application of core American values such as liberty, freedom and compassion. He keeps up to date with current events and legal disputes resulting from government action and loves to learn more about the world. In his free time, Jack loves to play sports like hockey and football, and he likes to cook, spend time outside and with friends and family.
ADVISORS
ADAM EICHEN
ADVISOR
Adam Eichen, Democracy Policy Advisor for Small Planet institute & co-author of Daring Democracy, is a writer, researcher, and organizer, working to build a democracy that represents and empowers all voices in society. Adam is currently the Executive Director at Equal Citizens working to fix democracy by establishing truly equal citizenship. He spent a year as a Maguire Fellow researching comparative campaign finance policy at the French research institute Sciences Po, and, in April 2016, he served as deputy communications director for Democracy Spring, a historic national mobilization for campaign finance and voting rights reform. Since 2015, he has sat on the Democracy Matters Board of Directors. Adam received his B.A. from Vassar College with general and departmental honors in Political Science and French. Over the past several years, his research has focused on campaign finance, comparative election policy, and social movement theory. His articles have appeared in Salon, Huffington Post, Billmoyers.com, and Common Dreams. Adam began collaborating with Frances Moore Lappé at the International IDEA Global Conference on Money in Politics in September 2015. Since then, the two have been working to develop new ways to think and write about campaign finance reform and the democracy movement more broadly.
ANTHONY LAPPÉ
ADVISOR
Anthony Lappé, Media Advisor for Small Planet Institute, is a New York-based writer, producer and director. He began his career in journalism as a freelance contributor to The New York Times and a producer for MTV News. He went on to produce the award-winning Showtime documentary about the Iraq war, BattleGround. As the executive editor of the Guerrilla News Network, he helped create a pioneering citizen journalism web site and production company specializing in telling important global stories to a young audience. He has written for Details, ESPN: The Magazine, New York Magazine, and the South China Morning Post, among many others and has produced TV programming for PBS, National Geographic Channel, and the Discovery Science Channel. He is the author of the graphic novel, Shooting War (Grand Central). He was the writer on Robert Redford’s documentary >Cathedrals of Culture: The Salk Institute, which premiered at the 2014 Berlin Film Festival. He is currently the showrunner of Black Market, a new global docu-series for VICE Media.
BRUCE T. BOCCARDY
ADVISOR
Bruce T. Boccardy, Economics & Labor Advisor for Small Planet Institute, served as president of the Massachusetts Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 888, represented labor on the Massachusetts Joint Labor-Management Committee (JLMC), serving firefighters and police and consulted to the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE).