Team
FROM THE FOUNDER
When I created Invoking The Pause in 2007, the heart of the program was two-fold: to provide a “Pause” – an intentional break from our daily routines in a place of natural beauty, and to encourage collaboration among two or more people – to reflect upon and think more deeply about some aspect of the climate challenges we are confronting.
I was hopeful that this “gift of time” would spur innovative ideas across a variety of disciplines – ranging from the arts to sciences, education to technology, documentary film making to policy and advocacy work, among others. In recent years, we expanded our annual “strategic pause” to become a collective group gathering of grant partners and allies from business, education, and non-profit worlds.
Now, the time for accelerating new strategies, engaging in collective actions, and building cross-sector networks addressing climate challenge issues is more important than ever before. In 2022, as these challenges continue to accelerate across disciplines and create even greater global impacts, we have shifted to a 3-year model and selected a number of grant partners to continue their work over a 3-year term, including our annual “strategic pauses”.
ITP remains a small grants organization, and we continue to believe innovation oftentimes occurs in the margins. We accept risk and a level of uncertainty to incubate new ideas and approaches. and continue their development Over the past 17+ years, we have seen a range of projects, some of which have grown to be funded by larger organizations.
Beyond hope and fear, there is a clarity of knowing that this is our work to do, no matter what. And it is my role with ITP to help this consciousness take root, so that each of us remembers and recognizes our power to make a difference.
I welcome your participation with us on this journey…
WHO WE ARE
MAGGIE KAPLAN – ITP FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Maggie oversees the day-to-day operations and drives strategy for ITP. After participation in The Philanthropy Workshop West (Precursor to Forward Global), a nine-month donor education program in 2006-7, Maggie launched ITP to catalyze new strategies to address climate challenges. Born from her desire to sustain the health and vitality of our planet and steward the preservation of its ecological integrity, ITP began as an early-stage incubator that sought to seed new ideas, make connections, nurture networks and spark collaborations. ITP has evolved over the almost 2 decades to include annual gatherings of each years Grant Partners to invoke a collective pause and share their work, encourage new insights and cross collaborations. In 2021, a new iteration shifted to a 3-year Cohort from 2022-2024. with projects selected from those who were prior ITP Grant Partners. Some have continued their prior project trajectories and others are creating entirely new work. We are currently planning another program shift in 2025.
The evolution of ITP has been informed in part by Maggie’s work supporting other non-profit organizations dealing with climate challenges and the environment, women’s economic empowerment, education of the “best and the brightest”, youth change agents, wildlife conservation, and expressive arts and spirit. Prior to launching ITP, Maggie’s professional life included practicing law, serving as general counsel for a real estate development company, and creating art in a variety of media as part of an artist’s collaborative (painting, encaustics, printmaking, mixed media). She is passionate about preserving the beauty of our world for future generations, and spends some of her spare time continuing to create art, as well as enjoying bodily based practices including yoga, pilates, gyrotonics, soul motion dance, hiking, and explorations around the globe.
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
KRISTIN COATES – CEO, REGENERATIVE CALIFORNIA
Kristin Coates is the CEO of Regenerative California, a pioneering nonprofit dedicated to transforming California into a regenerative economy through a place-based strategy. In this role she leads the overall strategy for regional and state project design, with implementation, partner & stakeholder collaboration. Previously, for almost 7 years Kristin was VP of Food and Nature-Based Solutions at SecondMuse, an innovation company that works with visionary corporations, cities, governments, organizations, and startups to create 21st century economies. Within her portfolio was the Food System Vision Prize funded by The Rockefeller Foundation; the launch of a new regional food system initiative called Urban Food Hives in partnership with Oxfam, and the design and implementation of entrepreneurial and innovation accelerators.
BROCK DOLMAN – CO-FOUNDER; PROGRAM DIRECTOR, OCCIDENTAL ARTS & ECOLOGY
Brock Dolman is a wildlife biologist and is nationally recognized as a restoration ecologist and renowned innovator in watershed management and Permaculture design. Brock integrates wildlife biology and watershed ecology with education about regenerative & Just design as a Life Literacy Coach towards illuminating what it is to live in partnership with a living, emergent Earth while engendering societal transformation. Brock co-founded the Sowing Circle, LLC Intentional Community & Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC) where he continues to reside and act as a co-director of OAEC’s Permaculture/Resilient Community Design Program, Wildlands Program and WATER Institute. He has taught Permaculture and consulted on regenerative project design in 15 countries on 5 continents and widely in the U.S. Brock graduated with honors from the University of California Santa Cruz in Agro-Ecology and Conservation Biology.
DR. LISA MICHELI – ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTIST
Lisa focuses her work on accelerating the application of science to meet society’s most pressing global challenges through collaboration. A passionate and dedicated environmental scientist, she has over 20 years of experience in conducting applied research and convening action networks. Her strengths include program design and public-private team-building for sustainability, biodiversity conservation, water resources protection, climate mitigation and adaptation, and wildfire resilience. She has experience working in government, with private corporations including agriculture and technology, with indigenous leaders, and for philanthropic and academic institutions. Lisa is a champion for the resilience of those most vulnerable to climate threats at a global scale.
SHILPA JAIN – LEADERSHIP CONSULTANT & FACILITATOR
Shilpa Jain is currently rooting herself in Oakland/Berkeley, CA. For 11+ years, she served as the Executive Director of YES!, working with social changemakers at the meeting point of internal, interpersonal and systemic change. Prior to taking on this role, Shilpa spent two years as the Education and Outreach Coordinator of Other Worlds and ten years as a learning activist with Shikshantar: The Peoples Institute for Rethinking Education and Development, based in Udaipur, India. She has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings with thousands of multigenerational leaders from over 50 countries. She is passionate about dance and music, organic and natural farming, upcycling and zero waste living, asking appreciative questions and being in community. A focus on healing, forgiveness, compassion, love and wholeness permeates all of her work and life.
MITZI ANDROS – CONSULTANT
Mitzi is a wisdom weaver and cosmic seer of Ancient Wisdom, practicing as a Shamanic Energy Intuitive she joins the path of her ancestors of the Mapuche peoples of the lake region ofChile as well as being an initiate in the lineage and practices of the Andean Medicine Wheel as taught by the Q’ero peoples of Peru. As a bridge between ancient wisdom and the modern world, Mitzi, through her Shamanic point of view, supports all of life’s stages as it is created and as it transitions into its next level of its creation. Mitzi is passionate about weaving into her practice sacred life and death rituals, shadow work and that all parts of us are welcome as well as grief and trauma support. She received a BA in communication from SFSU, she is a certified Shamanic Energy Medicine Coach by The Four Winds Society, and a Certified Shadow Work Coach, and is the co-founder of Soul Grace Mystery School. She is forming a non-profit to support indigenous women who practice traditional medicine.
VICTORIA WOO PH.D. – ADJUNCT PROFESSOR
Vic is a serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in start-ups, international management and in academia. She is an adjunct professor at Stanford University, Management Science and Engineering and at Presidio Graduate School. In Asia, she helped bridging academia and business communities by co-designing custom executive programs at INSEAD and Harvard where she helped Fortune 500 clients curate learning journeys for C-suite, senior leaders and high-potential managers. In these roles, she also has facilitated dialogue and cooperation among world-wide business partners, alumni, and clients. She is a mentor for blackbox.vc, and she advises early stage startups and serves on advisory board of the Artful Method. She founded the Marin Chapter of the Awesome Foundation and continues her research on discovering factors that contribute to sustaining and attaining eudaimonia. Her research has led to development of measurements such as Transformation Quotient â„¢ and Thriving Transitional Experiences. She proposes a formula to improve thriving in the highly complex and dynamic world in which we live and work, IQ*EQ*TQ. A simple formula designed to ground skillsets necessary for success; by harvesting the transformative power of change, through which individuals ability to thrive is enhanced.
KELLY MCVICKER – WORKPLACE EXPERIENCE LEAD, IDEO
As Workplace Experience Lead for IDEO San Francisco, Kelly helps create the best possible conditions for our creative minds to come alive. Whether collaborating with a project team to design an experience that will dazzle clients or leading an unruly group of designers on an urban adventure, she is driven by the desire to connect, inspire, and make life at work (and life in general) more meaningful and fun. Prior to joining IDEO, Kelly founded McVicker Pickles, a small batch pickling company based in San Francisco. A certified Master Food Preserver and author of Essential Vegetable Fermentation, she has developed custom pickles for clients including Shake Shack and hosted hands-on preservation workshops for Google, DocuSign and Credit Karma, among others. A hospice volunteer and advocate for transformation around end-of-life care, Kelly is pursuing her Master’s degree in Gerontology through Kansas State University with a focus on using food-based rituals as a creative and therapeutic activity for older adults. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies from Duke University.
