JGI-USA Board of Directors
JGI -USA Senior Management
JGI-Global Board of Directors
International Advisory Council
Jane Goodall, PhD, DBE
Founder
UN Messenger of Peace
In June 1960, Jane Goodall began her landmark study of chimpanzees in what is now Tanzania under the mentorship of famed anthropologist and paleontologist Dr. Louis Leakey. Her work at Gombe Stream would become the foundation of future primatological research and redefine the relationship between humans and animals.
In 1977, Dr. Goodall established the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI), which continues the Gombe research and is a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats. Today, the Institute is widely recognized for establishing innovative, community-centered conservation and development programs in Africa, and Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots, JGI’s global environmental and humanitarian youth network, which has almost 150,000 members in 110 countries.
Dr. Goodall travels an average 300 days per year, speaking about the threats facing chimpanzees, other environmental crises, and her reasons for hope that humankind will solve the problems it has imposed on our planet. She continually urges her audiences to recognize their personal responsibility and ability to effect change. “Every individual counts,” she says. “Every individual has a role to play. Every individual makes a difference.”
Dr. Goodall’s scores of honors include the Medal of Tanzania, the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal, Japan’s prestigious Kyoto Prize, Spain’s Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research, the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science, and the Gandhi/King Award for Nonviolence. In April 2002, Secretary-General Kofi Annan named Dr. Goodall a United Nations Messenger of Peace, and she was reappointed in June 2007 by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. In 2004, in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, Dr. Goodall was invested as a Dame of the British Empire, the female equivalent of knighthood. In 2006, Dr. Goodall received the French Legion of Honor, presented by Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, as well as the UNESCO Gold Medal Award.
Dr. Goodall’s list of publications includes Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species are Being Rescued from the Brink, Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating, two overviews of her work at Gombe — In the Shadow of Man and Through a Window — as well as two autobiographies in letters, the best-selling autobiography Reason for Hope and many children’s books. The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior is the definitive scientific work on chimpanzees and is the culmination of Dr. Goodall’s scientific career.
Keith Brown
JGI-USA Interim President and Chief Executive Officer
Keith Brown is a veteran international development executive who is leading the Institute’s efforts to ensure a healthy future for Africa’s great apes.
With 30-plus years of experience in Africa, the Middle East, Far East and Washington, he is acting as JGI's interim president and oversees the Institute’s Africa programs, which include the renowned chimpanzee research station at Gombe National Park in Tanzania, community-centered conservation programs in eastern, western and central Africa, and Africa’s largest sanctuary for orphaned chimpanzees (Republic of Congo).
Prior to joining JGI, Mr. Brown worked at the US Agency for International Development (USAID). He served as deputy assistant administrator for Africa from March 1999 to April 2004, guiding a $1.5 billion operation with a Washington and overseas staff of 2,000. He managed the activities of USAID’s Bureau for Africa, which included 22 country and three regional field offices. In this capacity Mr. Brown also served as liaison with major U.S. governmental and multilateral organizations including the National Security Council, State Department, U.S. Congress, World Bank, United Nations, African Development Bank, UN Economic Commission on Africa, and International Monetary Fund.
He led US government consultations with the Ethiopian government on the design and implementation of a famine prevention program and also led USAID teams in the design of Presidential Initiatives on Nigeria and Liberia, as well as in Trade, Education, Agriculture, Anti-Corruption and Conflict (totaling more than $500 million).
From September 1997 until February 1999, Mr. Brown served as USAID’s mission director in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. As head of the largest USAID program in sub-Saharan Africa, he reestablished the US government as a leader in the donor community and USAID as trusted development partners to Ethiopia. Mr. Brown also served as director of USAID’s Regional Economic Development Services Office for East and Southern Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was responsible for providing management, financial and administrative support for small USAID missions, and implementing President Clinton’s Greater Horn of Africa Initiative. And as director of the Office of Southern Africa Affairs, he helped shape US government development assistance policy on support of the political and socio-economic transformation in South Africa.
Mr. Brown earned his BA in business administration from Lincoln University in Pennsylvania and holds an MBA in finance from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Mr. Brown is also a 1995 graduate of the State Department’s most prestigious training program, the Senior Seminar.
Susan L. Sakmar, J.D., LL.M.
JGI-USA Board Chair
Susan Sakmar was elected chair of the Jane Goodall Institute Board of Directors in November 2008. A JGI Board Member since 2003, she’s has also served as chair of the audit committee and a member of the Executive Committee and Development and Finance Committees.
Prior to joining the JGI Board, Ms. Sakmar was the San Francisco Chair of the “Gombe 40” Committee and planned a number of events in San Francisco to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Dr. Goodall’s chimpanzee research at Gombe National Park.
Ms. Sakmar is licensed to practice law in California and received her LL.M. (Masters in International Law) from the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC and her J.D., cum laude, from the University of San Francisco School of Law. She also has a business degree (B.Sc.) from the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Ms. Sakmar is an adjunct professor of law at the University of San Francisco Law School, where she teaches a seminar on International Trade Law and the Environment. Prior to teaching, Ms. Sakmar was a litigation associate at a major San Francisco law firm.
Originally from Detroit, Michigan, Ms. Sakmar lives in Tiburon, California with her husband and two young sons.
