Cohort 4 (2020-2021)

Tory Read specializes in coaching, advising and connecting high-net-worth people who want to use their wealth to build a just and regenerative world. She has worked at the intersection of philanthropy and activism for decades, most recently as program director at Climate Emergency Fund, where she led fundraising and grantmaking to amp up public protest calling for transformational action to meet the climate crisis. Prior to this, Tory was senior global strategist at Greenpeace and led the development of the organization’s global campaign for a plastic-free future, including recruiting donors to fund the Greenpeace campaign and the Break Free From Plastic movement. Tory has also worked extensively for foundations, government aid agencies and international NGOs to evaluate their efforts to halt ecological degradation, uphold indigenous rights and foster local regenerative enterprises. She is a creative systems thinker with expertise in social movements, community organizing, storytelling, mass mobilization and legal, finance and culture campaign strategies. She holds an MA in journalism from the University of Missouri and a BA in humanities from Stanford. Tory has studied design thinking and the business of start-ups at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and she is a certified executive coach. Based in Oakland, CA, she speaks Indonesian and French, and she loves hiking, camping, dancing to live music and working in her garden while her kitties eat grass and chase bugs.

Sydney took a circuitous path to Impact Investing, spending four years after she graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in Government and French to train and compete for the opportunity to represent the US in sailing at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Having participated in the Occupy Wall Street movement while in college, it had never crossed her mind to work in finance, an industry that she perceived to be extractive and the cause of much of the social, environmental and economic injustice in the world. Four years later, she was introduced to impact investing and intrigued by the opportunity to harness the financial system and channel it to create a better world. Having experienced the mainstreaming of impact investing and the proliferation of impact funds that seek to “do well by doing good,” she became somewhat disillusioned with the industry and began asking, “What could it look like to truly transform our economic system rather than support incremental change within the system as it exists today?” Sydney has supported high net-worth individuals and foundations in building impact investment portfolios using a total portfolio activation approach, integrating ESG and impact across all asset classes. Most recently, she developed and currently co-leads the Catalytic Impact Investing program at Tiedemann Advisors, through which we seek to deploy patient, flexible and creative capital into alternative investment and business models that demonstrate a new economic system based on solidarity and sustainability. A California native, she is currently living nomadically throughout the Western US during this time of physical distancing and finds joy in meditation, spending time in nature, and reading historical fiction.

Sharon Dowdell is a social impact investor and philanthropist with a deep passion for the restoration of disempowered identities and the integration of all of our diverse parts to enable greater self-actualization, both individually and collectively. She is especially focused on bringing the secret wisdoms of the feminine forward and supporting women as they cross the chasm of motherhood to bring their gifts to the world. Prior to her personal transformation journey, Sharon had a successful corporate career in marketing and product management, as a consultant with Accenture, and in-house with pharmaceutical and financial services companies. With her experience in driving transformational change in complex ecosystems, developing innovative strategies, digital capability building, redesigning operating models, and aligning cross-functional departments toward collective vision, she now turns her attention towards working with trailblazers who promote racial & gender equity and sustainability. Leading the social impact investments and philanthropy for her family office, she is paving the way for more conscious and mission aligned investing/granting that creatively navigates sectors to organize for collective impact that can scale and last. Sharon is a member of Toniic, NEXUS Global, and the Golden Seeds angel group. She holds an MBA from ESADE Business School (Barcelona) and a B.A. in Sociology and Mathematics from the University of Notre Dame. To connect with her mother’s roots, she taught English in Korean high schools for 2 years on a Fulbright Grant.

Rosie Kissel leads the ecosystem building and land management work at Armonia, a group supporting the regeneration of soil, soul, and society. Since joining Armonia in 2017, Rosie has focused on regenerative land management, collaborative initiatives, and investment partnerships. Her work has ranged from leading the audit process for one of the first Regenerative Organic Certified farms in the US to coordinating the HERD Fellowship, a sponsorship program that brings young farmers and ranchers to regenerative conferences. Rosie is a founding Steering Committee member of the Funders for Regenerative Agriculture (FORA), an initiative of funders and investors working together to accelerate the emergence of regenerative agriculture, healthy soils, and working lands. Within FORA, she helps lead the Promoting Economic and Ecological Resilience (PEER) Fund, a pooled fund launched in response to COVID-19 to serve producers and BIPOC groups in the regenerative food and fiber system. Rosie serves as a board member of the Grassfed Alliance and a board advisor for the American Grassfed Association. Rosie received her BA in Environmental Science from Brown University. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her partner, Kate.

Rachael K. Richards is the Executive Director of the Arthur B. Schultz Foundation (ABSF), working collaboratively with grassroots organizations to advance opportunities for women and people with physical disabilities in East Africa and Central America. Dedicated to the concept of local solutions to local issues, Rachael collaborates with ABSF’s partners to support holistic and equitable education, entrepreneurship, and inclusive practices which lead to sustainable and thriving communities. Currently, Rachael is working with her investment team to transition ABSF’s traditional endowment to a 100% impact and values-based portfolio. She is excited to expand her network and knowledge base as an Integrated Capital Fellow while continuing to learn creative approaches to financial capital management leading to a sustainable and balanced planet. Rachael graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Wildlife Biology. For many years she explored remote mountain ranges around the globe as a mountain guide and senior mountaineering instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School. She later received a nursing degree from Georgetown University and taught for the Wilderness Medicine Institute before settling down in Lander, Wyoming with her husband and two children. Almost as passionate about women’s soccer as she is about our beautiful and wild planet, Rachael coaches her daughter’s competitive all-girls soccer team and takes every opportunity to explore the mountains and waterways of her backyard in the Rocky Mountains.

Myia Batie is an affordable housing practitioner and works with the Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing (OCCH) where she leverages her experience in housing policy, philanthropy, and financial underwriting to bring capital to high-impact and catalytic community development projects and initiatives. Before joining OCCH, Myia worked as the Program and Policy Manager for the Ohio Housing Finance Agency where she was responsible for program planning, policy development and resource allocation that helped to facilitate affordable housing production statewide. She holds a Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from Virginia Commonwealth University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Community and Regional Planning from Iowa State University, and was a 2011 L. Douglas Wilder Graduate Fellow with the Virginia Housing Development Authority in partnership with the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs. In 2018, Myia was recognized by Affordable Housing Finance Magazine as a young leader and impact maker for her work in the field of affordable housing development and finance. Myia is an adjunct professor with the City and Regional Planning section of the Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University, serves on the Board of Directors for the Ohio Poverty Law Center and the Columbus Landmarks Foundation. She resides in Columbus, Ohio with her family.