Board of Directors

  • Sam's career has been dedicated to sustainability in education.

    He has most recently stepped back from his role as Semester Director at The Island School, an experiential semester school on Eleuthera, Bahamas, which puts sustainability at the forefront of academic and campus life. He spent three years there as Director, having previously been instrumental in its establishment in the late 1990s including all aspects of starting an international program.

    Many years of Sam's career as an educator has been spent at his alma mater, The Lawrenceville School, where he was the inaugural Director of Sustainability for thirteen years. This followed from five years working there as a teacher, admissions associate, coach, and dorm parent. Sam has additional teaching, coaching and administrative experience at a turning point education school in Newark, NJ, as well as at McDonogh School outside Baltimore, MD.

    Sam earned his BA in English from Hamilton College, and his MA in Liberal Arts from St. John's College. He is excited to take on this new role with the Green Schools Alliance to continue to connect schools with opportunities for best practice, learning opportunities for students and communities, and to serve as a conduit for schools and communities to come together to improve our world through education and action.

  • Activist, Social-Capitalist, and Cross Pollinator

    Veronique C. Pittman is an Advisory Board Member of the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, and Board member of The Rainforest Foundation, Global Goods Partners, Bedford2020, and LessCancer. She also serves on Audubon's Rachel Carson Awards Council. She is a community organizer and activist in the areas of indigenous rights, biodiversity conservation, green solutions, waste & recycling, women's reproductive health, and participatory art. A web designer by profession, she is also a writer, mountaineer and professional cook. She graduated with a BS in Cultural Anthropology from University of Pennsylvania.

  • Former Head of Fisheries, US Fish and Wildlife Services

    Mamie Parker is a leader in Nominating and Governance in various nonprofit organizations and serves on the Board of Directors of The Nature Conservancy (Virginia Chapter), the National Wildlife Federation, Center for Large Landscape Conservation Board, Duke University NSOE, Northland College, Student Conservation Association, the National Wildlife Refuge Association, Brown Advisory Sustainable Investment, Marstel-Day Consulting Company, the Potomac and the Chesapeake Conservancy. As an Aspen Institute Fellow, she was awarded the Council of World Women Leaders' exchange fellowship to work in the Kingdom of Lesotho, and in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa. She received great accolades in China while speaking at the World Fisheries Congress on the impacts of climate change and development in coastal cities and communities of color.

  • Jan is President of Blue J Strategies, a strategic advisory business that she founded with Jimmy Chamberlin (Smashing Pumpkins), that provides access, connectivity and strategic direction to companies across the media, entertainment, technology and non-profit sectors, creating opportunities that accelerate growth, time to market, and value. Jan is a partnership builder, focused on harnessing the power of digital media and technology to make the world a better place. She has held senior positions at AOL, Yahoo, Topspin Media (acquired by Apple), The Find (acquired by Facebook) and Backplane. Jan is also a Venture Partner at venture capital firms StudioVC and Correlation Ventures, as well as Savano Capital Partners, providing interim liquidity to founders, employees and former employees at high growth private companies. She speaks frequently on digital media, women’s empowerment, entrepreneurship, philanthropy and the intersection thereof. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center and her A.B. in English and American Literature from Brown University.

  • CEO, RePower Inc

    Chris McCutcheon provides sustainable portable power banks at large events, with Certified B Corp RePower.

  • Arlae is the Executive Director of the Green Schools Alliance.

    Before the Alliance, she worked at a New York-based nonprofit where she helped develop the "Green Track”, a program geared to teach STEAM to disadvantaged and immigrant youth through project-based learning, with a focus on solar for the developing world and sustainable architectural design.

    She brings over a decade of experience in education, school engagement programs, development, and growth. Having studied environmental economics and spent extensive time in Africa developing and implementing entrepreneurship and permaculture programs has given her a unique perspective and out-of-the-box approach to problem-solving and addressing sustainability obstacles.

  • Principal, Upland Road; Founder of LEED™

    Rob Watson is one of the pioneers of the modern Green Building Movement. An international leader in market transformation and green buildings, Watson is known as the “Founding Father of LEED” and was its Founding Chairman through 2006. Under Rob’s direction, LEED became the largest and fastest-growing international standard by which green buildings are measured. Author Thomas Friedman calls Rob "one of the best environmental minds in America." Watson is at the forefront of technical innovation in green buildings, energy efficiency, and circular economy. A Senior Scientist with the NRDC for 21 years, Rob directed the International Energy and Green Building programs and worked extensively on five continents improving the environmental performance of buildings, utilities and transportation.

    Among numerous international awards for his work, Watson was the only foreigner honored for Green Building Innovation by the Chinese Ministry of Construction and received the first lifetime achievement award from the U.S. Green Building Council in 2002. In 2019, Dartmouth College named him one of the 25 Most Influential Alumni in the college’s 250 year history. His work on green buildings and related technology has been featured in numerous publications. Mr. Watson is a graduate of Dartmouth College and has an MBA from Columbia University and a MSc from UC Berkeley.

  • Founder and former President, Green Schools Alliance

    As Founder of the GSA, Peg spearheaded GSA’s  growth to help mitigate climate and conservation challenges through education and action. Formerly a green architect and building materials specialist, in 1993 Peg was selected as one of 60 experts to participate in the 1993 “Greening of the White House” initiative of the Clinton Administration. She has worked with multiple organizations and agencies including the Natural Resources Defense Council and White House Council on Environmental Quality.  In 1994, Peg founded Global Environmental Options (GEO) to transfer and scale green solutions. Through GEO, she launched national and international collaborations that convened regional stakeholders with private and public sector partners for green master planning. This included the Japan Charrette for post-earthquake Kobe, and greening charrettes in the National Parks including Grand Canyon, Denali and Yellowstone where she lived intermittently during the Greening of Yellowstone. She also participated in the Habitat for Humanity, Mississippi Flood Plains, and Presidio greening projects. The conservation ethos of the Parks and US Fish and Wildlife Service inspires her to activate the next generation of stewards.  She has a BA from Smith College and an MARCH from Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. 

Strategic & Educational Advisors

International Ambassador

Bob Weir

Musician & Environmental Activist
GSA International Ambassador and Advisor

Bob began his musical journey at the age of thirteen playing guitar. After a series of club gigs and contact with musicians including Jerry Garcia, David Nelson, and Jorma Kaukonen, a band called The Warlocks was formed, which eventually transformed into the iconic group we know now as the Grateful Dead. Bob has received quite a few notable awards over the course of his successful career spanning over 50 years. These accolades include induction into the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 and a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

However, Bob’s accomplishments reach beyond his musical prowess. For his commitment and dedication to environmental activism, he received the honor of appointment to United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, where he is focusing efforts to fight climate change and end global poverty. In an interview with Billboard, Bob stated, “I’d like to see climate change and the ongoing diminishing of biodiversity arrested and dealt with to the point where the sustainability of life on earth isn’t threatened. I’d also like to see people reflexively consider the good of the planet in the choices they regularly make.”

Bob Weir’s passion for impactful change to protect our planet perfectly aligns with the Alliance’s vision of a world in which every person is aware of and accountable for the impact they have in creating an environmentally, economically and equitably sustainable future. Read the full announcement.

International Advisors

*In memoriam, with great respect and gratitude for their contributions to the GSA as Board Members, advisors and friends.