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Clara D. Steele
M.S., Organization Development & ChangeLinkedIn ↗Clara is an organizational development and philanthropic leader with 15 years of experience helping foundations, nonprofits, executives, trustees, and community partners turn ambitious ideas into clear strategies and effective action.
She spent nearly a decade with the Roy and Patricia Disney Family Foundation, managing a $6–8 million annual grantmaking portfolio and helping it grow from a two-person office into a more strategic, equitable, and systems-oriented institution. She strengthened governance systems, streamlined operations, and facilitated board meetings, retreats, site visits, and learning experiences.
Clara also designed and launched participatory grantmaking and leadership-development initiatives, including a Youth Funding Board and a philanthropy fellowship. She is particularly skilled at bringing clarity to complexity, building alignment, and translating strategy into practical systems and action.
M.S., Positive Organization Development and Change Management, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University · B.A., History, Occidental College
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Nancy L. C. Steele
D.Env., Environmental Science & EngineeringLinkedIn ↗Dr. Nancy Steele has spent her career working for the betterment of the planet, humanity, and wildlife. She creates lasting solutions through innovation, collaboration, strategic thinking, and good governance.
Nancy founded Arroyos & Foothills Conservancy and served as its volunteer President and CEO for 11 years. She later led the Council for Watershed Health in Los Angeles for a decade and served six years as the first paid Executive Director of Friends of the Verde River in Arizona.
Her government career focused on reducing the environmental and public-health effects of pollution, including writing the nation's first regulations to reduce diesel emissions from in-use heavy-duty trucks and buses. Nancy brings deep expertise in nonprofit management, organizational transitions, governance, environmental policy, fund development, and executive leadership.
Doctor of Environmental Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles