Who We Are


Maggie Kaplan -  ITP Founder and Executive Director
Maggie oversees the day-today operations and drives strategy for Invoking The Pause.  After participation in The Philanthropy Workshop West, a nine-month donor education program in 2007, Maggie launched ITP to catalyze new strategies to address climate challenge issues.  Born from her desire to help sustain the health and vitality of our planet and steward the preservation of its ecological integrity, ITP is an early-stage incubator that seeks to seed new ideas, nurture networks, and spark collaborations.

The evolution of ITP has been informed by Maggie's work supporting several environmental projects, women's economic empowerment, scientific and technological research, wildlife conservation, expressive arts and spirit, and education of "the best and the brightest".  Prior to launching this small grants organization, Maggie was a corporate attorney and then a social change agent.  She is passionate about preserving the beauty of our world for future generations, and spends some of her spare time creating works of beauty (painting, encaustics, printmaking and mixed media), a few of which can be found throughout the website.


Advisory Committee:


Joshua S. Fouts - Executive Director, Bioneers
Josh is a veteran non-profit and philanthropic executive, academic and public servant, with deep passions for cultural relations, arts and education, technology for good, and social and environmental justice. He is a collaborator and connector who has spent his career committed to public service and impactful partnerships. Since 2013 Josh has been Executive Director of Bioneers, a 30-year-old social and environmental justice nonprofit. Fouts was a 2012 and 2013 Grant Partner of Invoking The Pause.  Joshua was raised in the world of arts and social good. His parents spent their entire career running a non-profit dedicated to defend the rights of non-human animals. He has deep familial roots focused on social justice and the courage to rethink a better future for the world as a whole.





Kristin Coates - Chief Experience Designer, Coates Consulting
Kristin is a program and brand strategist and experience designer dedicated to solving the most pressing social and environmental issues of our time. Her background began in the environmental nonprofit sector at Global Green USA, the Executive Director for Global Possibilities, and Project Director for the American Land Conservancy.  In 2004, Kristin founded Coates Consulting, that creates award winning, sustainable tourism destinations such as the Post Ranch Inn, Cavallo Point, Patagonia Park, and Belcampo Belize.  In 2015, Kristin joined a social impact agency as the Director of Experiences where she designed an experience platform for 21st Century philanthropy. Today, Kristin has one foot in creating sustainable tourism destinations and another in developing strategy and high touch experiences for social change.




Lisa Micheli - Executive Director, Pepperwood Preserve Foundation

Lisa has over 26 years applying her technical, policy, and fundraising expertise to the design and implementation of ecological restoration, research and education programs.  She is the co-principal investigator of Water's Edge, the 2007 Pilot Program for Invoking The Pause,  a regional climate adaptation initiative in partnership with the California Academy of Sciences.  She joined Sonoma County's Pepperwood Foundation in October of 2009 as its first Executive Director.




Nina Simons - Co-Founder, Bioneers

An award winning social entrepreneur and visionary thinker, Nina co-founded Bioneers with her husband and partner Kenny Ausubel in 1990.  As co-CEO, she has helped to lead the organization through 28 years of identifying, gathering and disseminating breakthrough innovations that reveal a positive and life-honoring future that's within our grasp, today. Her work currently focuses on writing and teaching about women, leadership, diversity, systems thinking and resorting the feminine in us all.




Peter Mattair - Environmental Consultant

Peter Mattair has served in grantmaking as program officer and executive director of The Fund for Folk Culture, board director of the New Mexico Association of Grantmakers, grants chair of the Santa Fe Arts Commission, and panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition, he currently volunteers on the awards committee for Mesa Refuge, a writers’ residency in Pt. Reyes, California. Newly in private practice as a consultant, he recently conducted a feasibility study for the Trust for Public Land, and a study of writers’ retreats.




Shilpa Jain - Executive Director, YES!

Shilpa has facilitated dozens of transformative leadership gatherings inIndia, Jordan, Senegal, Lebanon, Egypt, Thailand, Canada, Peru, Pakistan,Puerto Rico, Turkey, and the US, working with hundreds of young leaders from over 80 countries. She was founding coordinator of the Global Youth Leadership Collaborative, a network of 15 Jam facilitators from 14 countries that has collectively produced dozens of international gatherings for young changemakers, and distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to small-scale grassroots social change innovations worldwide. Shilpa has researched and written numerous books and articles, and facilitated workshops and gatherings on topics including globalization, creative expressions, ecology, democratic living, innovative learning and unlearning.


Staff:

Kelly McVicker -

   ITP Grants Administrator

Arlene Hilliard -

   ITP Executive Assistant