Directors

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Michael Washburn - President

Stephan Hiroshi Gilchrist - Vice President & Secretary

Travis Vail Betz - Secretary

Henry Clark - treasurer

Judi Holley

Michael Washburn – president

Michael Washburn is Senior Director for Eastern Forests at the Wilderness Society. He has been involved in environmental work for years, having served as executive director of the Residents’ Committee to Protect the Adirondacks, vice president of the Forest Stewardship Council/US, director of the Program on Forest Certification and a Research Scholar at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and national coordinator of the Sustainable Forestry Partnership. He has also served as an advisor to the USDA Forest Service.

Mr. Washburn received a BS in environmental studies and an MS in forest resource management from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University, and a Ph.D. in forest resources from Penn State. His research includes work on forest recreation in the Adirondack Forest Preserve in New York, and doctoral research on private forest landowners in the US. He is widely published on topics of forest certification and forest management in the US and globally.

Legally blind, Mr. Washburn founded the Learning Enhancement Organization in 1989 at the State University of New York College at Oneonta.  The group provides mentoring and support for disabled students.  Mr. Washburn has served on university committees addressing accessibility issues at both Oneonta and at the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University.  He has mentored countless students and individuals with physical and other disabilities for two decades.

Mr. Washburn serves on the boards of two other national CFC federations: He lives in Arizona with his wife Natanya and their two children.

Stephan Hiroshi Gilchrist – vice president & secretary

Stephan Gilchrist is the Chief Diversity Officer for the University of Wisconsin Colleges and University of Wisconsin Extension. The University of Wisconsin Colleges is composed of 13 two-year liberal arts campuses around the state. The University of Wisconsin Extension operates several statewide programs including: cooperative extension, economic development, continuing education, and public radio and TV.

From 2006 to 2009, Gilchrist was the Director of Institutional Diversity at Wells College in Aurora, NY.

Gilchrist received his doctorate in educational leadership and master’s degree in conflict resolution from Portland State University. He taught courses at Portland State University in the areas of multicultural education and interethnic conflict resolution, and researched community-based interethnic dialogue models. Gilchrist also has an M.S. in environmental education and B.A. in international business and Japanese. He spent several years living and working in Japan.

Gilchrist is deeply committed to the practice of tai chi to promote mental and physical health for all people, and has taught tai chi classes for several years.

Travis Vail Betz – Treasurer

Travis Betz is a member of the USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance within the Department of State. In the wake of an earthquake or other disaster, Betz is responsible for ensuring that emergency supplies reach designated partner NGOs in the affected country. Based in Washington DC, he is often posted to a disaster site as part of the government’s rapid initiation of humanitarian assistance.

Betz joined the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance after serving for five years with the American Red Cross. During his first four years, he was Director of Logistics with the Greater New York Chapter of the American Red Cross.  During this period he managed a large volunteer staff, a fleet of 70 vehicles and a 10,000 square-foot warehouse with emergency disaster supplies for up to 20,000 people.

In 2007, he moved to the national headquarters of the American Red Cross to become a Field Operations Officer, responsible for international disaster response activities pertaining to logistics and IT and Telecommunications.  He also played a key role in coordinating, maintaining and training staff and volunteers for relief activities, including needs assessments and distribution of essential relief supplies following international disasters. 

Betz received a B.S. in Biology and Psychology from Excelsior College, and has a Certificate in Managing Disasters and Complex Humanitarian Emergencies from Boston University School of Public Health. He has completed graduate work through the Cambridge Overseas Medical Training Programme and studied infectious diseases at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He is published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine and continues to lecture on disaster relief and preparedness. Over the last few years, he has been deployed to Nepal, Sumatra, and Uganda, among other locations.

Henry Clark - treasurer

Henry W. Clark joined the law firm of Clark, Hunt & Embry in March of 1996.  A partner in the firm, which is based in Cambridge MA, Mr. Clark focuses his practice on the representation of not-for-profit education and human service corporations and families of individuals with disabilities.

Mr. Clark has advised numerous organizations providing special education and human services in Massachusetts and the Northeast. Prior to practicing law, Mr. Clark served for thirteen years as the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Association of Chapter 766 Approved Private Schools.  This organization is comprised of over one hundred licensed private facilities providing services to mentally and physically challenged children in Massachusetts.

Mr. Clark serves as a member of the board of directors for numerous human service and educational organizations in Massachusetts.  A 1967, phi beta kappa, graduate of Illinois College and a Fulbright Scholar, Mr. Clark graduated from Harvard Divinity School in 1971.  In 1984, Mr. Clark received his Ph.D. in Ethics from Boston College, and in 1989, graduated cum laude, from Suffolk University Law School.  Mr. Clark was admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and to the United States District Court, District of Massachusetts.

Judi Holley

Judi Holley is president of Village by Village, a CFC federation for U.S. organizations providing humanitarian, educational, economic, and other forms of support in developing nations in Latin America and elsewhere. For several years in the 1990s and early 2000s, she was a board member and the president of Do Unto Others (DUO) – another federation representing international emergency relief, development and humanitarian charities.

A retired federal employee, Ms. Holley has been involved in the Combined Federal Campaign for nearly 30 years. In addition to her extensive work with CFC federations, she has been a CFC donor and a local CFC volunteer. During her tenure as DUO's president, she participated in the National CFC Committee as the designated representative of her federation 

Ms. Holley is a long-time participant in nonprofit organizations in her home state of Washington. These activities include: The Governor's Advisory Council for Vocational Rehabilitation, the Criminal Justice Training Commission, South Puget Sound Cultural Diversity Coalition, several local charities focusing on immigrant education, employment and housing, and the Pierce County Sheriffs Advisory Board. She is currently leading a Pierce County pilot program for community involvement originally sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.