Virginia Clarke is the executive director of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders (SAFSF), a network of grantmakers working to strengthen connections, build capacity, and foster collaboration of the philanthropic and investment communities in support of vibrant, healthy and just food and farm systems. She has led the network in its growth and impact since starting with SAFSF in 2003 as a part-time coordinator. Prior to SAFSF, she worked with a variety of international education programs including the University of California’s Education Abroad Program as the regional director assistant for Asia and Africa, and the Salzburg Seminar in Austria where she was a program director and led outreach efforts in Latin America. Other life/work opportunities involved a stint at the World Bank; leading a management reorganization for a private clothing manufacturer; assisting immigrants in their efforts to secure legal residency in the U.S.; and creating/running a restitution project for juvenile offenders in Western Massachusetts. Her fluency in Spanish stems from living and working in Spain, Bolivia and Mexico. Virginia has a Masters in International Administration from the School for International Training and a B.A. with honors in Spanish from the University of California, Santa Barbara. A TEDx Manhattan alumni (2014), Virginia lives in Santa Barbara, CA and has two daughters.

Sarah Kelley serves as Consultant/Project Director to SAFSF for its Special Project on Sustainable Fiber and Textiles. She is the Principal of Common Threads Consulting, working with philanthropic clients to provide strategy development, research, impact assessment, and facilitation. Other recent work includes interview-driven analysis for the Guidelight Strategies/Patagonia regenerative agriculture landscape assessment, with a focus on racial equity in regenerative ag, and strategy development for a family foundation seeking to defend environmental health progress from libertarian and corporate influence. Sarah is the author of Common Threads: U.S. Foundation Opportunities in Sustainable Fiber and Textiles, published by SAFSF and recently cited in Vogue Business. Previously, Sarah served for 10 years as Senior Program Officer at Island Foundation, where she directed the Environment portfolio and managed $1.2 million in annual grants. In that role she developed and implemented a program on equity, inclusion, and environmental justice, including an innovative cohort-based model for grantee equity training. She is a Board member and Treasurer of New England Grassroots Environment Fund, and she was selected as a 2018-19 RSF Integrated Capital Fellow, focusing on integrating investment and grantmaking strategies to drive change. Sarah holds an M.S. in Plant and Soil Science from UMass Amherst and a B.A. in History from Yale.