Donna Goodman, ECI Founding Director Emerita

Donna Goodman has been innovating participatory, values-based water and environmental education through the involvement and empowerment of children, adolescents, their families and teachers for over 25 years. Donna served as Programme Advisor, Climate Change and Environmental Education for UNICEF and as a consultant to different organizations within the United Nations system, including UN DPI, UNEP, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and World Health Organization.

Before joining the United Nations, she was named as one of the top 100 women in global franchising for her work as co-founder of a company called: Little Scientists – A Hands-On Approach to teach science to young people. She is author of a number of United Nations and UNICEF publications, including Every Body Counts, Every Drop Matters: United Nations Classroom Resource Guide on Water and was coauthor of five titles geared to hands-on science education which were published by McGraw-Hill in 1999-2000.

Lindsey Lee Cardella

Lindsey was a child delegate to the UN Conference on the Rights of the Child in 2009. Interacting with kids from around the world sparked Lindsey’s interest in cultural diversity. She went on to join a high school service project, building toilets and houses in Nicaragua. In college, Lindsey studied in a Semester at Sea program, to experience 14 different countries while visiting schools, and local governments as part of her university study.

Lindsey graduated from the University of New Haven with a bachelor’s degree in International Justice and Security. After college, she continued to travel with a focus on sustainable development and children. She lived in India for six months working with the WASH education program, and Raja Ji Tiger Reserve.

Ann Smith, ECI USA

Ann Smith is co-director of Circle Connections, Inc and Chair of International Connections for the Sophia Women’s World Conference, in Sofia, Bulgaria, 2010. She serves locally and globally as a community and global organizer, mentor, coach, facilitator, educator, consultant, professional speaker, director of worldwide transformational leadership programs, and author.

“We, the two-leggeds, have finally realized we have made a mess of things and that now is the time to engage our children in finding solutions and actions that will bring lasting peace and prosperity for all creation. I pledge to work with people of all ages in waking them up to the problems and inspiring them to act both locally and globally. When we truly listen to the children and engage them in finding solutions and actions that make dreams a reality, we will succeed. Earth Child Institute is the heart and soul of bringing us together in harmony with the four-leggeds, winged, scaled, and leaves.” – Ann Smith

Bruno Maia, ECI Brazil

Bruno holds a Master’s degree in Education for Sustainability from Griffith University in Australia and a bachelor degree in Social Communication from PUC-Rio in Brazil. His areas of speciality include education, social communication and sustainable tourism. He has 20 years of experience working with NGOs, private companies, governmental organizations, academic institutions an international agencies in more than 30 countries.

Karim Mumuni, ECI Ghana 

Karim Mumuni has a degree in Social Work and is currently pursuing a B.S. in Psychology at University of Cape Coast. He worked with the Coalition of NGOs in Water and Sanitation (CONIWAS), monitoring and evaluating the performance of NGOs in this sector and assisting in the provision of portable drinking water, empowerment of rural women with skills, and promotion of girl-child education. As the research assistant of the Ghana MDGs/GCAP Secretariat, Karim coordinates the activities of the platform members representing various goals of the MDGs and organizes capacity-building workshops. In 2011 Karim established ECI Ghana, which has since engaged in projects such as empowering students to plant trees, conducting clean-up exercises (WASH), and organizing forums to educate students about the need to keep our environment green and sustainable.

Lee Frankel-Goldwater

Lee Frankel-Goldwater is a professional environmental educator, writer, project manager, media producer, poet, and musician. A recent graduate of NYU’s Environmental Conservation Education masters program, Lee also studied in Israel at the Center for Creative Ecology on Kibbutz Lotan. At Earth Child Institute he has been leading development of the Global Action Classroom—an initiative focused on global youth environmental cooperation. Outside of ECI, Lee is developing mobile applications for encouraging social action, creating mixed media video design, leading peace and environmental education workshops, and doing his best to live a life in connection with the Earth and helping others to do the same.