Candace Leeds
Advancement Strategy Lead
Candace Leeds (she/her) has decades of experience working in leadership roles for both corporations and non-profit organizations, specializing in branding, marketing/PR and development. Her broad background has enabled her to bring a unique perspective to her clients, helping them to build their capacity and achieve their goals.
Most recently, she has been serving as a development and marketing consultant for non-profit organizations, analyzing needs and overall strategies, working to highlight impact and awareness, and raising funds.
Candace spent four years as Director of Advancement and Donor Relations at the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, leading Major Gifts and successfully raising six figure grants. For the past 30 years, she has served on the Board of the Ronald McDonald House of New York, working on strategic planning and marketing, and heading the Public Relations Committee. She has also generated significant publicity for Music on the Inside, another nonprofit where she serves on the Board of Directors.
Ms. Leeds spent 20 years as Vice President of Public Affairs at Loews Corporation, running PR, crisis communications, financial PR and all other media and communication issues for the multi-billion-dollar company and its top executives. She also worked alongside members of the Tisch family (founders of Loews) on their many philanthropic endeavors. During that time, she had the unique opportunity of consulting with many major charities in which they were involved, often sitting-in on Board meetings while representing the Tisch family interests. Her years dealing with the many Tisch philanthropic interests and more recent work with many charitable initiatives have given her the ability to understand the workings of many successful nonprofits. Additionally, she can anticipate the motivations of high-level donors and communicate with them in language that aligns their interests with the organization’s philanthropic aims.
Prior to Loews, Candace held leadership positions in two major PR firms: The Rowland Company, absorbed by Saatchi & Saatchi (EVP, SVP for 8 years), heading major PR campaigns for McDonald’s, DuPont, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Man Made Fiber Producers, among others; and Grey Advertising ‘s PR arm (AE, SVP, SVP for 4 years ) heading campaigns for No Nonsense Panty Hose, Johnson & Johnson, the Rainbow Room and others.
Early in her career, she segued from a professional music career to become Associate Director of the concert hall, Town Hall, where she ran public relations, solicited corporate partnerships and major donors for musical programs, and produced several widely acclaimed concerts series. She also wrote several book reviews published in the NY Daily News. She retains her interest in music, occasionally performing in cabaret settings. and writing reviews for Cabaret Scenes Magazine.
Candace joins the Geos Institute as an Encore Fellow.
Christina Mills (she/they) is the Deputy Director of the Geos Institute. She currently leads the organizations data systems and communications efforts. Christina worked directly with several communities through the Geos Institute’s Climate Ready Community program and the now-closed ClimateWise consulting services, helping with community engagement efforts, project coordination, and technology needs. 
Patricia handles all aspects of Accounting and Finance for Geos Institute. She has over 40 years of experience in bookkeeping, accounting and finance. Her work experience includes many years in the corporate finance industry and over ten years in the non-profit sector.
Tonya Graham is the Executive Director of the Geos Institute. Over the past 17 years, she has taken a lead role in leading community-based climate resilience programs at the Institute, including leading the Institute’s team in developing the Whole Community Resilience planning framework. This framework takes a holistic approach to help communities understand and address climate change impacts, and develops solutions that are both ecologically sound and socially equitable. She and the Institute’s ClimateWise team have helped community leaders across the country understand likely future conditions, determine vulnerabilities, and develop strategies to address them that care for both people and nature.
Kim Adams is a cutting-edge professional in the field of Living Systems workplace design. Living Systems design supports optimal employee engagement, resulting in high performance and excellent outcomes. She is a registered nurse, as well as an organizational development professional and has worked for over 12 years as a change agent in organizational and operational effectiveness. Her work brings together the insights of human systems analysis & design, Lean process efficiency, change management and importantly, human thriving. Kim’s diverse background includes work in information technology, healthcare systems, coaching, and consulting for a variety of industries and non-profits.
Matthew is a retired high school teacher who was once honored as Oregon High School Social Studies Teacher of the Year. Before his teaching career he was in the restaurant business in Portland. He is also a lawyer who has been a member of the Oregon State Bar Association since 1980. A resident of Oregon since 1975, Matthew serves as Board Secretary and the Chairperson of the Governance Committee for Geos Institute.
Ken works with families and organizations as a mediator, organizational consultant, trainer and facilitator. Along with his passion for helping people prepare for and reduce climate change, Ken also volunteers as a mediator through Mediation Works and is passionate about supporting youth through mentoring with Boys to Men of Southern Oregon. He previously worked for Intel Corp. in strategic planning, marketing, competitive analysis, performance modeling, and product definition. He holds 5 patents in the area of computer systems architecture.
Linda has many years of experience in disaster preparedness and resilience. She has been an elected official on the Linn County Iowa Board of Supervisors, Chair of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, the East Central Iowa Council of Governments, the statewide Mental Health Developmental Disability and the Linn County Board of Health. Langston is a former president of the National Association of Counties (2013-2014). She was named the 2009 Americans for the Arts’ Public Official of the Year Award. She was also named Iowa Public Health Official of the Year and to the Hall of Fame for International Women in Emergency Management. Langston also served on the staff of the National Association of Counties as the Director of Strategic Relations. Langston is the former chair of the Resilient America Roundtable for the National Academy of Sciences and serves on the National Advisory Council for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Andrea is the Resilience Policy Advisor for the North Carolina Office of Recovery and Resiliency. She works across state agencies and with local governments to increase the state’s resilience to the impacts of climate change. Previously, Andrea worked at Indiana University’s Environmental Resilience Institute, where she supported Indiana mayors, county officials, and their staff guiding local climate action. From 2013 to 2017, Andrea worked for Louisville Metro Government’s Office of Sustainability, where she implemented carbon reduction projects in the City’s sustainability plan. Across all of these positions, Andrea has focused on reducing greenhouse gases in the public and private sectors, helping communities access and understand climate projection data, and breaking down barriers to climate action. She earned her undergraduate degree from Indiana University Bloomington, her a Master of Public Administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and her Master of Science in Environmental Studies at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Dr. Quintus Jett is a consultant, educator, and strategist for public causes. He has a doctorate in Organizations & Management from Stanford University, and a two-decade faculty career which spans schools, departments, and programs of business, engineering, liberal studies, divinity, and public and nonprofit management. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Dr. Jett launched a volunteer project in New Orleans, which enlisted residents, students from over a dozen colleges and universities, and hundreds of others to field map the city’s Gentilly district, Lower Ninth Ward, and New Orleans East. Dr. Jett is an innovator in higher education, bridging the divide between academic research and the other priorities of the modern university, including student access and diversity, community engagement, and providing foundations for life-long learning in today’s rapidly changing world.
Briana Carbajal (they/she) was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. In 2019, Briana was an active Youth Climate Councilmember working with the City of Los Angeles. Their purpose was to inform Mayor Garcetti of the concerns raised by young voices in their neighborhood and propose solutions to work toward resolving them. Briana holds a dual BA degree in Political Science and Geography/Environmental Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Michelle Lewis is a community engagement and outreach associate for the Heat Policy Innovation Hub. Before her work at the Nicholas Institute, she served as the Agent of Thriving for Climate and Environmental Justice at the Ormond Center at Duke Divinity School. She earned her doctoral degree from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. Lewis holds a Master of Environmental Science from Yale School of the Environment and a Master of Divinity from Yale Divinity School, along with a certificate from Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Arts. She studied film at Regent University, where she completed a Master of Arts in communication. Lewis has worked in both rural and urban contexts and has led community-based participatory research. Her research has focused on how faith communities connect with the environment through their existing cosmologies, the effects of green space on patient outcomes, and the environmental theologies of Black coastal communities.
Lauren Graham is a strategic ecosystems thinker and cross-pollinator who creates impact in the areas of climate and democracy by transforming how mission-driven organizations are designed, led, and evolved. She holds Master’s degrees from University of Pennsylvania in Nonprofit Leadership, Yale in Environmental Management, and Stanford University in Sociology and teaches Strategic Management and Leadership for Nonprofits among other courses at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice. Lauren is founder of Velvet Frame, a social impact strategy and communications consultancy for mission-driven organizations, and has extensive nonprofit experience including roles as Chief of Staff for Hunger Free America and Director of Innovation for Climate Access.
Robert Macnee, Ph.D. is Deputy Director of Resilience Services at Climate Resilience Consulting, where he helps governments, institutions, and communities reduce climate risk in equitable and practical ways. He holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Management focused on climate change impacts on health and communities, and brings over a decade of experience spanning economic development, resilience planning, and implementation.
Samantha Medlock is President of Climate Risk Advisors, helping communities and organizations advance equity, sustainability, and resilience. Her career began chasing floods as a local official in Texas Flash Flood Alley—a hands-on experience that still shapes her approach to climate and disaster risk management.
Jim is a multilingual world traveler. Based in Bavaria during the 1970s, Jim spent most of this period in India, Afghanistan and Nepal, where he founded and operated a charitable medical clinic serving Tibetan Refugees. He settled in Oregon in 1983 on a forested ranch in the Umpqua National Forest.
Dr. Micah Hahn is an Associate Professor of Environmental Health in the Institute for Circumpolar Health Studies at the University of Alaska-Anchorage. She received her joint PhD in Epidemiology / Environment and Resources from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her MPH in Global Environmental Health from Emory University. Subsequently, she was a postdoctoral fellow for the CDC Climate and Health Program, and in this position worked collaboratively with the CDC Division of Vector-borne Diseases and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Her research focuses on understanding the health impacts of climate change and working with communities to develop locally-relevant adaptation and resilience-building strategies. Dr. Hahn is also on the Management Team of the Alaska Climate Adaptation Science Center.
Michael is a former Founding Principal of Resilient Cities Catalyst, a global non-profit helping cities and their partners tackle their toughest challenges. He is currently the Executive Director of Climate Resilience Academy at the University of Miami.
Dr. Quintus Jett is a consultant, educator, and strategist for public causes. He has a doctorate in Organizations & Management from Stanford University, and a two-decade faculty career which spans schools, departments, and programs of business, engineering, liberal studies, divinity, and public and nonprofit management. Following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Dr. Jett launched a volunteer project in New Orleans, which enlisted residents, students from over a dozen colleges and universities, and hundreds of others to field map the city’s Gentilly district, Lower Ninth Ward, and New Orleans East. Dr. Jett is an innovator in higher education, bridging the divide between academic research and the other priorities of the modern university, including student access and diversity, community engagement, and providing foundations for life-long learning in today’s rapidly changing world.
Scott is Monfort Professor of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. He has written about 100 publications in the peer-reviewed climate literature, is a former editor of the Journal of Climate, and served for five years as founding Science Chair of the North American Carbon Program.
Ken works with families and organizations as a mediator, organizational consultant, trainer and facilitator. Along with his passion for helping people prepare for and reduce climate change, Ken also volunteers as a mediator through Mediation Works and is passionate about supporting youth through mentoring with Boys to Men of Southern Oregon.