CAL is extremely proud to welcome seven wonderful new board members to our team! Zamira Djabarova, Raphael Hoetmer, Kish Parella, Kaitlin Cordes, Jillian Tuck, Erin Essenmacher, and Elisabeth Mabus each bring unique skills, qualifications, and energy to our board. At an in-person retreat earlier in October with our four returning board members, Ed Vogel, Laura Vilim, Lupita Aguila Arteaga, and Jenna McElroy, we saw firsthand how well the group works together. We’re certain big things are to come, and we’re thankful to have the guidance of this special group of people. Read on to get to know them a bit more! Cheers to creating the world we want, together.
ELISABETH MABUS
Elisabeth Mabus is Deputy Legal Counsel to the Governor of Colorado. Prior to joining the Governor’s office, she managed and fundraised for federal, state, and local political campaigns and worked with the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic. She has a law degree from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor’s in American History and Literature from Harvard College. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Friends of the Denver Library Foundation.
ERIN ESSENMACHER
Erin Essenmacher is a content strategist and corporate governance expert. As President and Chief Strategy Officer for the NACD (National Association of Corporate Directors), Erin transformed the organization into a leader on the board's role in oversight of a broad range of issues from ESG, diversity, and culture to digital transformation, cyber risk, and competitive disruption. Erin also co-wrote and produced the feature documentary MINE, which won multiple accolades including the Audience Award at the prestigious SXSW film festival. She’s produced over 100 shows for outlets like the PBS, the History Channel, and Discovery Channel and created content for both a range of non-profits including the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and the SEIU and brands like Acura, Sony, The Gap, and Apple. As board member at EILEEN FISHER, Erin used her expertise to shape conversations around brand identity, strategy, and the customer of the future. She chaired the People and Culture (Compensation) Committee and led initial succession-planning efforts for the founder-led, iconic brand. She has also served on several non-profit boards and advisory boards and chaired three, including Women in Film, Gandhi Brigade, and Docs in Progress. Erin is a regular contributor to Directors and Boards magazine and has served as a judge for multiple film festivals, award panels, and innovation competitions. She also serves on the boards of Sustainable Innovations and The New Community Transformation Fund, and on the advisory boards of the Future Directors Institute and the Athena Alliance.
JILLIAN TUCK
Jillian Tuck is a movement builder, facilitator, and human rights lawyer. She has lived and worked in Guatemala, Southeast Asia, and the U.S., engaging in a diverse range of social change strategies, from grantmaking to policy advocacy to grassroots organizing. She currently serves as Assistant Director of the Office of Public Interest Advising at Harvard Law School, where she advises law students to find meaningful careers and develop professional identities that align with their personal values and theories of change. Jillian has a J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law, a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, and is a certified Executive Coach from the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. She lives in Boston but her heart is deep in the woods of Maine.
KAITLIN CORDES
Kaitlin Cordes is a lawyer and researcher who has dedicated her career to human rights, sustainable development, and climate action. She is the creator of 31 Days of Climate Action, an initiative that encourages taking simple and effective climate actions. Prior to that, she spent 8 years leading the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment’s work on investments in land, agriculture, and food systems, as well as the Center’s crosscutting work on human rights and investment. Kaitlin has also worked with the Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, served as an advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food (Olivier De Schutter), and clerked for Justice Virginia A. Long of the Supreme Court of New Jersey. She holds a B.A. in Political Science and International Studies from Northwestern University and a J.D. from Columbia Law School, where she was a James Kent Scholar, Harlan Fiske Stone scholar, and recipient of the Valentin J.T. Wertheimer Prize.
KISH PARELLA
Kish Parella is the Class of 1960 Professor of Ethics and Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law, where she teaches a variety of courses in law and business. One area of her research focuses on the transnational regulation of corporate conduct, with a particular focus on corporate human rights compliance in global supply chains. Another area of her research explores the idea of "negligent contracts" and the responsibilities of contracting parties for negative externalities that harm third parties. She has used her research to advise government officials, corporate executives, and others on various issues of business and human rights. She serves on the Board of Directors for the Global Business & Human Rights Scholars Association and is a member of the Editorial Board for the Business & Human Rights Journal. Prior to joining the legal academy, Professor Parella practiced international arbitration and litigation in Washington, D.C.
RAPHAEL HOETMER
Rapha is a researcher, organizer, and popular educator specialized in social movement and democratic theory, political ecology, interculturality and indigenous rights, and in participatory and intercultural processes of (strategic) planning, learning, evaluation and research. Now at Amazon Watch, Rapha was previously a Regional Advisor for Strategy and Impact in the Americas at Amnesty International. He has also collaborated closely with the National Confederation of Communities Affected by Mining and local communitarian organizations in Piura, Cajamarca, Cusco, and Cotabambas in Peru. He coordinated the editorial fund of the Programa Democracia y Transformación Global and is a member of the Permanent Discussion Group on Alternatives for Development, the Political Ecology working group of the Latin American Council for Social Sciences, and the On Protest research initiative coordinated by Sonia Alvarez. Raphael has facilitated participatory workshops and processes all over the Americas and Europe, combining different methodologies from human-centered design to reflect-action. He firmly believes in peoples’ power and capacity to transform our realities, as long as we are bold, creative, and work collaboratively among different forms of knowledge and expertise.
ZAMIRA DJABAROVA
Zamira Djabarova is a Senior Legal Advisor for Labor Rights and Corporate Accountability at the American Bar Association’s Center for Human Rights Justice Defenders Program. Previously, she worked as Human Rights Attorney for EarthRights International, where she litigated cases seeking corporate accountability for human rights abuses committed by corporations with ties to the United States. Earlier, she was a Program Manager for Europe and Central Asia from 2007-2012 at the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and its successor organization, UN Women. Zamira has taught on issues of Access to Information, Freedom of Expression and Human Rights at New School University in New York and the Faculty of Law of Union University in Belgrade, Serbia. She enjoys playing ping-pong.
The CAL team is thrilled to welcome these new board members who will help us in our mission to unleash the creative potential of the law to protect people and the planet from corporate abuse.
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