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.
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.
Arsum is the Senior Adaptation and Coastal Resilience Specialist for the National Wildlife Federation’s Southcentral Region. In this role, she advances climate adaptation efforts, with a focus on nature-based approaches to address the impacts of climate change and extreme events across the Gulf region. She has authored and co-authored numerous publications on climate impact assessments and adaptation solutions. Additionally, she regularly participates in state-based coastal resilience and hazard mitigation planning across the Gulf, collaborating with regional and local stakeholders.
Frank is the former President of the Reinsurance Association of America. Frank currently serves on the Advisory Board of the OECD’s International Network for the Financial Management of Large-Scale Disasters, the RAND Center on Catastrophic Risk Management and Compensation, and the University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner III Center for Insurance and Risk Management Advisory Board.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.