Sam Coppersmith

Sam Coppersmith represented Arizona's First Congressional District, serving on the Transportation and Science committees, during the 103rd Congress (1993-95). He chaired the Arizona Democratic Party during 1995-97—when the Democratic ticket carried the state, for the first time since 1948— and led the state's delegation to the 1996 Democratic National Convention. Since 1999, he has written an opinion column each Sunday for The Tribune newspapers in suburban Phoenix, which he also posts at his blog, http://liberaldesert.blogspot.com.

Sam also serves on the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee of the Devereux Foundation (www.devereux.org), the nation's largest nonprofit behavioral health care provider. In his day job, Sam practices transactional law, including real estate and land use, business organization, nonprofit governance, and planning issues at Coppersmith Gordon Schermer Owens & Nelson PLC in Phoenix, Arizona (www.cgson.com), where he is "Managing Member" of the firm, which sounds more important than it is. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, and also is a former Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State.

Nancy Gamble

Nancy Gamble is a Masters Candidate in Environmental Education within the Environmental Studies program at Antioch University New England. Nancy held various management positions within the pharmaceutical industry prior to taking time off to demonstrate social responsibility through parenting. Disillusioned with Corporate America, she was drawn to environmental causes, participating in a number of community activities including Earth Day planning, sustainability education in her local community, and Community Supported Agriculture. Her academic interests include educating for sustainability, Interpretation, and the development of connections with nature through artistic expression. Her professional interests include writing to educate, alternative energy, and sustainable campuses. To pursue the latter interest, she is currently working with Clean Air-Cool Planet in their Campus program, helping campuses in the northeast work toward climate neutrality. Clean Air-Cool Planet is the northeast region's leading organization dedicated to finding and promoting solutions to global warming. Nancy is also a silk-painter, and is looking forward to opportunities to use her work to inspire an appreciation of the natural world.

Coppy Holzman

Coppy is one of the founders of charitybuzz and considers himself very fortunate to be involved in such a compelling and growing business. With over 25 years in conventional retailing with Federated Department Stores and R.H.Macy, he made the jump to e-commerce when he co-founded webvan- which was the largest Internet IPO at the peak of the dotcom boom. With more humble and realistic expectations, he is now looking forward to prudently building charitybuzz with his co-founders and team into a brand that is synonymous with upscale cause marketing and user friendly new technology. He is a graduate of The University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business with three socially conscious and technically savvy children who keep him on his toes.

Ian Manheimer

Ian has held various positions in public interest advocacy and journalism. He has managed media reform campaigns for Common Cause/NY and US PIRG. He has published advocacy and local interest pieces in The Gambit Weekly (New Orleans), The Hullabaloo (New Orleans), and The Gotham Gazette (New York). Manheimer graduated with dual degrees from Tulane University in New Orleans. Currently he works for The Democracy Alliance in Arlington, VA.

Cindy Thomashow

Cindy is the Director of the Masters program in Environmental Education within the Environmental Studies Department at Antioch NE Graduate School. She is Director of the Center for Environmental Education Online which is an international electronic resource center for educators. Academic interests include the formation of ecological identity, educating for sustainability, human and conceptual development, learning theory and environmental literacy, educational reform, interpretation and exhibit development. Cindy teaches courses in the Foundations of Environmental Education, Developmental Theory, Curriculum Design for Non-formal Education, Interpretation, and Exhibit Development.

With support from the National Science Foundation and National Public Radio, Cindy coordinated the Living on Earth Radio project training high school students to program radio shows about the environmental character and issues of their regions, communities and neighborhoods. She has also served on the Appalachian Mnt. Club Board of Directors for five years and has worked with the National Association of Independent Schools as a faculty member for the 2005 Sustainability Institute.

Her most recent publication is "Adolescents and Ecological Identity: Attending to Wild Nature", Children and Nature; Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Investigations, edited by Peter Kahn and Stephen Kellert, MIT Press, 2002.