Our Staff
Manvi Drona-Hidalgo
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Marketing and Communications Manager
Manvi brings her experience in creative direction, global communications and branding to her role as the marketing and communications manager at Carbonfund.org. Prior to her position at Carbonfund.org, Manvi worked for companies like Yves Saint Laurent and FedEx in addition to non-profit associations where she was responsible for managing brands, creating innovative promotions and developing marketing materials. She owns and authors a successful lifestyle design blog wwww.mochatini.net with a focus on sustainable living. Manvi went to school for economics and entrepreneurship at London School of Economics and Political Science. She loves to travel with her husband and has lived in London, New York, Dubai and New Delhi. In her spare time she enjoys photography, decorating and scuba diving.
Jim Wyerman
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Chief Program Officer
Jim is a 25-year veteran of national conservation organizations, specializing in communications, program development and fundraising at the executive level. Most recently he was Vice President, Communications, for American Forest Foundation, a network of private landowners committed to sustainable forestry practices and also home to Project Learning Tree, an award-winning environmental education program. Previously he was Director of Communications and Development for the Land Trust Alliance, where he spearheaded a campaign to engage farmers and ranchers in using conservation easements. As Vice President for Program at Defenders of Wildlife, he launched international initiatives and was a lead author of the Wild Bird Conservation Act of 1982. His team led the successful reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park. He served as Executive Director of two grassroots groups, MaryPIRG and 2020 Vision. Jim is also an attorney who specialized in environmental and real estate law. For fun, he enjoys gardening, hiking, travel and dancing.
Maia Davis
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Senior Program Manager
Maia is a Senior Program Manager responsible for creating, implementing and managing new program initiatives for Carbonfund.org. Prior to Carbonfund.org, Maia was Principal Environmental Planner at the Atlanta Regional Commission where she created the Green Communities Program and managed the Regional Water Supply and Water Conservation Management Plan. Maia has a master’s degree from Georgia Institute of Technology in City and Regional Planning with specializations in Environmental Planning and Geographical Information Systems. Her bachelor of science is from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. In her spare time, Maia enjoys spending time with family, reading, traveling, sports, hiking and the outdoors.
Cameron Lane
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Web Development & Marketing Specialist
In his role at Carbonfund.org, Cameron manages the optimization of our online marketing and communications. He joined Carbonfund.org with experience in web project management, marketing, design and development. He has worked with a range of companies, including technology startups, trade associations, and several non-profit organizations during his career. Cameron was drawn to Carbonfund.org by its direct action approach to combating climate change. In his free time he enjoys sailing, pursuing projects, and the great outdoors.
Greg Taylor
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Climate Change Specialist
Having served as Carbonfund.org’s Partnerships Intern for the past half year, Greg is excited to join the partnerships team as a Climate Change Specialist. A long-time environmental enthusiast, Greg had trouble reconciling his fear of climate change with his love of traveling. He discovered carbon offsets while he studied abroad in Barcelona, Spain. He quickly purchased enough offsets to travel carbon neutrally throughout Europe and on subsequent trips to Israel and South America. In addition, Greg worked as a canvasser for US PIRG, building the grassroots organization needed to lobby for political action on climate change. Now he’s moved onto encouraging private as well as nonprofit sector change with Carbonfund.org and its partners. Greg is currently working on his Masters in Public Policy, focusing on environmental policy. He got his dual undergraduate degrees at the University of Maryland in Economics and Government & Politics. He enjoys politics, chocolate, exercising, traveling, and exploring DC.
Paul Burman
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Special Projects Manager
Paul joined Carbonfund.org as the Special Project Manager with a focus on strategic organizational development. During his time with Carbonfund.org, Paul has overseen the development of new carbon calculators, managed the redevelopment of the Carbonfund.org website, authored and produced the 2008 & 2009 Annual Reports, forged strategic partnerships, supported partnership development, and has played an integral role in organizational management, decisions and strategy. In 2009, Paul co-authored the Responsible Purchasing Guide for Carbon Offsets with the Responsible Purchasing Network. Currently, Paul is helping to promote and advance the CarbonFree® Certified Products program by building partnerships and alliances with businesses and trade associations.
Prior to joining Carbonfund.org, Paul worked on regional global warming policy issues through advocacy, lobbying and grassroots organizing in Maryland and Virginia.
Paul graduated from the University of Toronto with a specialist degree in Environment and Resource Management with a focus on sustainable urban development.
Brian McFarland
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Carbon Projects Manager
Brian began at Carbonfund.org as an intern and upon recently finishing a dual graduate degree in Business Administration and Global Environmental Policy from American University, is now Carbonfund.org’s Carbon Projects Manager. While finishing his Psychology and International Development undergraduate degree from Clark University, Brian conducted environmental fieldwork in Mexico, Costa Rica, Kenya and Brazil. During graduate school, Brian also volunteered for the Smithsonian Institution, the United Nations Global Compact, and the U.S. Department of State. In addition, Brian is currently a member of the Leonardo Academy’s Emissions Inventories, Offsets and Reduction Credits Standard Committee and a CSA Standards Certified GHG Inventory Quantifier.
Ivan Chan
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Director of Marketing & Communications
Ivan joined our team with experience in integrated marketing, public relations and advertising. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies and nonprofit organizations in his work experience & consulting. He served as a director on the board of a nonprofit organization where he worked on strategic communications and co-developed for another a mentoring initiative that has expanded from coast-to-coast. Ivan enjoys the outdoors (kayaking, biking, landscape photography) and the arts, and has a graduate degree. Ivan was drawn to Carbonfund.org because of its motto, “Reduce What You Can, Offset What You Can’t,” and is one of its many individual supporters.
Kris Tobey
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Chief Financial Officer
Kris Tobey is Carbonfund.org's Chief Financial Officer. In this role, she oversees and directs all aspects of the organization’s accounting, treasury, risk management and compliance operations. Kris joined Carbonfund.org with a diverse business operations background primarily working with businesses that rely on the web as a platform for doing business and spreading their message. In her personal time, Kris enjoys travelling and actively embraces the outdoors including hiking and kayaking with family, friends and her dog.
Claire Douglass
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Partnerships Director
Before joining Carbonfund.org Claire was the Maryland and DC Director for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. She was one of the leading advocates for the Healthy Air Act of 2006 and Clean Cars bill of 2007 in Maryland and most recently for the DC Clean Cars bill. She is a founding member of the Alliance for Global Warming Solutions based in Maryland and the Capital Climate Coalition in DC. Claire studied environmental science, public policy and philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Claire loves to travel and has traveled extensively in Latin America, Europe and South East Asia. In her free time she participates in a billiards league.
Lesley Carlson
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Director of Human Resources
Lesley is also a founder of Carbonfund.org with her husband, Eric. Lesley’s background includes several senior positions in nonprofit organizations, including serving as the director of operations and finance chief for the National Democratic Institute’s Serbia office, a $2 million a year operation with 25 staff. Lesley also managed regional democracy programs for Freedomhouse in Hungary, including the effort to overthrow Slobodan Milosevic. Lesley and Eric both witnessed firsthand the environmental and human destruction caused by war, dictators and failed economic policies. Lesley is also the co-founder of another nonprofit, the Refugee Assistance Program, in Debrecen, Hungary. Prior to this, Lesley spent nine years with the State Department managing cultural, environmental and political exchange programs. In her spare time, Lesley sometimes gets very close to bears. She can be reached at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Eric Carlson
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President
Eric is a founder, with his wife Lesley, and President of Carbonfund.org. Eric has more than fifteen years experience promoting cost-effective solutions to climate change, with an extensive background in energy efficiency and renewable energy. Prior to Carbonfund.org, Eric managed voluntary partnerships at the US EPA’s Energy Star Homes and Buildings programs. There he advised companies such as Gillette, IBM and Johnson & Johnson. Eric also spent six years managing programs for the Alliance to Save Energy in Central and Eastern Europe. He advised ministers of energy and environment on energy policy and climate change, testified before parliaments, advised the World Bank and IFC on major energy efficiency investments and trained municipal leaders.
Eric and Lesley founded Carbonfund.org to make it easy and affordable for any individual or business to reduce their climate impact while hastening our transition to a low-carbon future. The organization has grown to become the leading nonprofit climate solutions organization with over 450,000 individual supporters and 1,400 business partners, and reducing over 5 billion pounds of carbon emissions globally. Carbonfund.org also offers the first and leading carbon neutral product certification program and label in the US, CarbonFree® Certified, now used on products in 15 countries on five continents.
Eric has been a presenter and speaker at numerous conferences and forums including the National Press Club and the National Academy of Sciences, and interviewed in Newsweek, The New York Times, USA Today, Seed Magazine, National Public Radio and other leading media on climate change policies and strategies, the carbon market, and Carbonfund.org. He has been presented the Avis Spirit Award and other recognition for his dedication to solving climate change.
Lesley and Eric have two beautiful young daughters and want to pass on to them a cleaner world. Eric is also an avid hockey player in his free time.
