The Board also receives input on governance from regular meetings of RRI Partners, which often take place simultaneously with meetings of the Board.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Margaret Anne (Peggy) Smith
Chair of the BoardBiography
Margaret Anne (Peggy) Smith
Peggy is a Registered Professional Forester with the Ontario Professional Foresters Association. She has taught Policy and Legislation in Natural Resources, Environmental Assessment, Aboriginal Peoples and Natural Resources and Natural Resources Development and Aboriginal Peoples in the Faculty of Law. Her research interests have focussed on the social impacts of natural resources management, especially Indigenous peoples’ rights, community forestry, public participation, northern development, and forest certification. Peggy is a member of the Forest Stewardship Council’s Policy and Standards Committee and a member of FSC Canada’s Standards Development Group. Peggy continues her longstanding affiliation as Senior Advisor with the National Aboriginal Forestry Association, an Indigenous-controlled non-profit organization with the goal of increasing Indigenous participation in the forest sector.
Emma Norrstad Tickner
SecretaryBiography
Emma Norrstad Tickner
Emma Norrstad Tickner is a Sustainability Consultant, advising and supporting organizations and other actors with assignments related to environment, climate change, biological diversity and beyond. Before becoming a consultant, she held the position of Program Officer for the global portfolio on land rights and sustainable agriculture at the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Earlier in her career, she worked and lived for many years in Mozambique, mainly with We Effect on issues of land rights, natural resource management and agriculture, but also at the Embassy of Sweden in Maputo as a controller. She holds a master’s degree in sustainable development.
Humberto Campodónico Sánchez
TreasurerBiography
Humberto Campodónico Sánchez
Humberto Campodónico Sánchez is an industrial engineer and has a Master in Economic Development at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University. He is currently working as a professor at the Faculty of Economics at the National University of San Marcos. He has been linked to the Center for Studies and Promotion of Development (DESCO) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), as a researcher since 1984 and as a consultant in 2001 and 2002 respectively. In 2010 he was elected Dean of the Faculty of Economics of the University San Marcos. Between July 2011 and December 2012 he served as chairman of Petroperu. Humberto has been working with RRI since 2013 in supporting the coalition in Peru, Latin America and globally. He has written books and scholar articles about privatization, the public sector, hydrocarbons, and state reforms.
Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet
MemberBiography
Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet
Cécile Bibiane Ndjebet is an agronomist and social forester from rural Cameroon who specializes in women’s leadership. Her extensive experience includes work that addresses gender’s intersection with land tenure, climate change, and reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries (REDD+). She was recently named a Champion of the Earth for Inspiration and Action by the United Nations Environment Programme following three decades of advocacy for women’s land rights in Africa. Cameroon Ecology, an organization she co-founded in 2001, has restored over 600 hectares of degraded land and mangrove forest. In 2009, she founded the African Women’s Network for Community Management of Forests (REFACOF), which encourages the representation of women’s interests in environmental policies across 20 African countries. Cécile was elected Climate Change Champion of the Central African Commission on Forests in 2012 and serves as a member of the advisory board of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
Emily Kinama
MemberBiography
Emily Kinama
Emily Kinama is a human rights lawyer and an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. She is a litigation and research counsel at Katiba Institute, a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization based in Nairobi, Kenya. She undertakes public interest and strategic litigation cases for individuals and marginalized communities in Kenya. Over the years, Emily has built her expertise researching and litigating in domestic and regional courts on the rights of Indigenous and marginalized communities, land and environmental rights of communities, socioeconomic rights, and women’s rights. Before that, she worked as a judicial law clerk to the Supreme Court Judges of Kenya and the Constitutional Court of South Africa. She has an LLM (International Law) and an LLB Degree.
Gam A. Shimray
MemberBiography
Gam A. Shimray
Gustavo Sánchez Valle
MemberBiography
Gustavo Sánchez Valle
Gustavo is a member of the Executive Committee of the Mesoamerican Alliance for People and Forests and President of the Executive Council of the MOCAF Network, a Mexican Network of Forest Peoples’ Organizations that has contributed greatly to the development of the country’s rural regions. Gustavo also participates in many global forums (FCPF, DGM, etc.) to bring the voice of local communities and has recently been working with RRI and PCN (Proceso Comunidades Negras, Colombia) to influence the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s Platform of Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples regarding the participation and representation of local communities.
Mike Bryan
MemberBiography
Mike Bryan
Peter “Mike” Bryan is a seasoned financial executive with 40+ years of experience leading in the contract project sector worldwide. His experience ranges from small to large contractors across all United States government agencies and foreign project awards. He has been a Chief Financial Officer and Controller, leading small and large teams in competitive and difficult environments. In the last 10 years, he completed an LLC for successful and stressed/challenged companies related to audit issues, helped rebuild organizations, provided support and training for board members in financial matters and basic understanding, and surged support for close-downs or growth situations. Mike is a Virginia, US-based CPA.
Patrick Saidi Hemedi
MemberBiography
Patrick Saidi Hemedi
Patrick is the National Coordinator of the Dynamics of Indigenous Peoples Groups (DGPA in acronym) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a network of 45 Indigenous organizations and those working to secure the rights of Indigenous Peoples and improve recognition of their role in protecting forests. He has expertise in advocating for protecting the rights and culture of Indigenous Peoples at the national, regional, and international levels. Under his leadership, DGPA received the 2015 Equator Prize for its successful lobbying for a legal framework in the DRC that promotes and protects the rights of the Indigenous Pygmy Peoples. He also serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Network of Indigenous and Local Peoples for the Sustainable Management of Forest Ecosystems of the DRC (REPALEF-RDC/REPALEAC) and co-president of the DGM Mechanism in the DRC. Patrick holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Security and Global Warming.
Solange Bandiaky-Badji
MemberBiography
Solange Bandiaky-Badji
Dr. Solange Bandiaky-Badji is Coordinator of the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI). She also serves as President of the Rights and Resources Group, the nonprofit coordinating mechanism of the RRI Coalition based in Washington, D.C. Bandiaky-Badji previously led RRI’s strategy for engagement in Africa with a focus on tenure rights reform. She built synergies around new strategic analyses, giving local and global actors a more strategic understanding of trends, issues, options, and gender in Africa. She also spearheaded RRI’s Gender Justice thematic program, and ensured the implementation of a global gender strategy on women’s tenure rights. Before RRI, she was with PartnersGlobal, where she led programs on access to justice, security sector reform, and peace-building. She has also worked as a regional expert on gender and climate change for the Africa Adaptation Programme (AAP) and the UNDP/ BDP Gender Team in New York. As Coordinator of RRI, Solange advises policy research, advocacy, and engagement in Asia, Latin America, and Africa and leads initiatives and networks to advance RRI’s mission. Bandiaky-Badji holds a PhD in Women’s and Gender Studies from Clark University, Massachusetts and an MA in Environmental Sciences and in Philosophy from Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal. She has published and contributed extensively to research in relation to natural resource management, decentralization, local forest tenure reforms, and women’s participation in climate solutions and peace-building.
To learn more about governance of the Rights and Resources Initiative, see the Memorandum of Understanding signed by all Partners and visit our institutional information page.