Board

Cantave Jean-Baptiste serves as Groundswell International’s Board Liaison for Latin America and the Caribbean. Cantave is a Haitian agronomist and rural development practitioner with over 30 years of experience supporting rural development, agriculture and sustainability, as well as strengthening peasant organizations. He is also the Executive Director of Partenariat pour le Développement Local (PDL), Groundswell’s partner organization in Haiti. Before creating PDL, Cantave worked with Caritas (Gonaives and Hinche) from 1981 to 1991 as sustainable agriculture program coordinator, and then from 1995-2009 as the national director of World Neighbors Haiti. Cantave holds a degree from the College of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine, State University in Haiti. He speaks English, Haitian Creole, Spanish and French. Since 2014, Cantave has attended the Opportunity Collaboration annual meeting which convenes global leaders to promote innovative solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

Prof. Elizabeth Kucinich is a Board Member of Groundswell International. Elizabeth is an international consultant and public affairs specialist with a sincere drive to bring social, economic, energy, health, agricultural and ecological systems into balance. She works with public, private and non-profit sectors to advance regenerative, whole-systems strengths-based approaches to human and ecological security. Elizabeth has an extensive background in public policy, politics and international relations. She is a European Commission appointee to the Sino-EU Panel on Land and Soil and was a producer of the award-winning documentaries, GMO OMG and Hot Water.

 

Fatou Batta serves as Groundswell International’s Board Liaison for West Africa. Fatou is one of Groundswell’s co-founders and also the founder of Association Nourrir Sans Détruire (ANSD), Groundswell’s local partner in Burkina Faso. Until 2009, Fatou worked for over 15 years as the World Neighbors’ Area Representative for West Africa, overseeing all aspects of strategy, programs and management for the region. Prior to joining World Neighbors, she held several positions with the government of her native Burkina Faso, where she helped to develop family planning policy and planned and administered projects sponsored by international agencies. Fatou received her MPH from Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. She completed her undergraduate work at School of Technical Education in Paris and holds a diploma in participatory development at the Coady International Institute at St. Francis Xavier University.

Jay Slaughter is a Management Consultant and President of JBS and Associates, based in Alexandria, VA. He is an accomplished executive with extensive experience in finance, management, operations, strategic thinking, governance and fiduciary oversight. Jay held various positions with Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA), Washington, DC, from 1996-2014, and most recently as the Executive Director of Business and Plan Operations (2009-14). In that position, he was responsible for Executive Oversight of the Federal Employee Program’s Project Management Office, responsible for five million lives and related medical insurance claims. Jay lives in Arlington, VA, enjoys travel, and is committed to diversity, inclusion and sustainable development.

Margaret (Peg) Malloy is an associate broker with a residential real estate firm in Oklahoma City and has been in the residential business for over 25 years.  She has been a member of a number of organizations including the Junior League of Oklahoma City, the Oklahoma City Zoological Society, National Society of Colonial Dames of America – where she currently serves as the Oklahoma President, and was president of the Metropolitan Fair Housing Council and sat on the Board of World Neighbors. Peg is also a trained facilitator and has worked with companies and non-profit boards. She is an avid traveler. Long interested in sustainability, Peg is a founding member of the Environmental, Health and Sustainability Commission in her local incorporated town. She is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with a B.A. in English. Peg has one daughter, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Tim LaSalle champions his science-based hope for a regenerative food system that will mitigate climate change by sequestering 100% of the current emissions and provide the most robust ecologically regenerative method to feeding a growing world population.  Tim is currently the Co-founder and Co-director of the Regenerative Agriculture Initiative at Chico State University. LaSalle previously served as the first CEO of Rodale Institute, Executive Director of the Northwest Earth Institute, Executive Director of the Allan Savory Center for Holistic Management, and he was consultant, advisor, and research coordinator for the Howard G. Buffett Foundation in Africa on soils and food security for smallholder farmers. While serving as a professor at California Polytechnic State University, he also started and operated his own dairy farm and became involved with the California Agricultural Leadership Program. As its CEO, he arranged educational leadership programs in more than 80 countries with heads of state, ministers, community leaders, and he personally became exposed to and a student of many of humanity’s global challenges.