Living Democracy, Feeding Hope
FOUNDERS
Photo: Michael Piazza
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 a national bestselling author, advocate for sustainability and justice in the food chain, and advisor to funders investing in food system transformation. She is the founder of Real Food Media, co-founder of the Small Planet Institute and Small Planet Fund, and director of the Food & Democracy program of the Panta Rhea Foundation. She has written three books and contributed to others, been translated internationally, and has received recognition including the James Beard Leadership Award and being named one of TIME's "eco" Who's-Who. Anna holds an M.A. from Columbia University, is a frequent public speaker, and conducts research on food and sustainability worldwide.
TEAM
RACHEL MADISON
Managing Director
Rachel graduated Magna Cum Laude from Tufts University with a BA in Environmental Studies and Spanish Cultural Studies, and a minor in Film and Media Studies. After working with the SPI team for two years (first as a Democracy Intern and later as Research and Operations Manager), Rachel was promoted to Managing Director. Throughout her studies and career, Rachel has explored a variety of environmental fields, from campaign advocacy to climate policy to clean energy development. At Tufts, she was engaged in the Sunrise Movement chapter and involved in deepening environmental equity conversations. She also spent a year helping manage an offshore wind coalition working to foster discussions on Northeast development during her time with the Environmental League of Massachusetts (ELM). Amidst it all, writing remains her primary passion. Rachel has been a featured contributor on several of Frances’ published works, including It’s Not Too Late (2021) and Crisis of Trust (2022). She also has journalism experience from her time spent managing ELM’s op-ed program. Rachel is committed to tackling environmental issues in a way that centers on creativity, emotion, and cultural diversity. Using her intersectional educational experience in environmentalism, film and media, and Spanish, she hopes to further develop creative ways of sharing important environmental and cultural conversations, especially through documentary filmmaking – a passion she has come to explore in her free time. Outside of work, you can find the native Texan exploring Boston at all times of the year and working through her growing list of ‘must-read’ books.
MAYA GALBRETH
Democracy Intern
Maya (she/her) is a Small Planet Institute Democracy Intern, and a sophomore at Boston College pursuing a BA in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Environmental Justice and Policy, and a minor in Marketing. She is specifically interested in environmental justice and marketing equitable and sustainable environmental solutions. At Boston College, Maya is active in environmental justice organizations and volunteers with BC’s Habitat for Humanity chapter. Outside of academics and work, she enjoys ceramics, hiking, and coaches youth lacrosse.
LIV MEIER STEEN
Democracy Intern
Liv Steen (She/Her) is a Small Planet Democracy Intern and sophomore at Simmons University studying Political Science and Public Policy. She believes empowering all people with hope is essential to sustaining and improving our democracy. With her time at the Minnesota Youth Council, Liv worked closely with representatives and state commissioner on legislature surrounding youth and youth voice. In her free time, Liv loves dancing, making music, and reading.
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).