Women’s Earth Alliance Launches Senior Fellowship, Names Cynthia Nimmo as Inaugural Fellow
Philanthropic leader and former Women’s Funding Network CEO joins WEA as a strategic advisor, marking a new chapter in the organization’s twenty-year history
BERKELEY, CA — Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA), a global organization that equips frontline women leaders with resources, training, and networks to protect land, water, and community wellbeing, today announced the launch of its Senior Fellowship and the appointment of Cynthia Nimmo as its inaugural Senior Fellow.
The Senior Fellowship is a new initiative through which WEA intentionally engages seasoned allies to walk alongside its team, partners, and global alliance — deepening relationships and expanding the reach of the organization’s work at a pivotal moment.
“As WEA marks twenty years of organizing, we are deepening, rather than widening, our path. Cynthia brings exactly the kind of grounded wisdom and relational leadership this moment calls for.”
— Amira Diamond, Melinda Kramer and Kahea Pacheco — WEA Co-Executive Directors
A New Model for Seasoned Alliance
As Women’s Earth Alliance enters its third decade, the organization is focused on exponentially growing women-led solutions to meet the urgency of the current moment — strengthening the “mycelial” web of community leaders who keep people safe, resourced, and ready. The Senior Fellowship formalizes a model for engaging experienced allies as strategic partners rather than advisors at arm’s length.
In her role, Nimmo will partner with WEA’s Co-Executive Directors as a strategic advisor on U.S. and global engagement; help expand WEA’s circle of values-aligned partners; support delegations and convenings in Indonesia, Kenya, Ireland, Mexico, and the United States; and amplify WEA’s model through thought leadership and her extensive networks.
About Cynthia Nimmo
Cynthia Nimmo is a widely respected leader in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, with a career built on connecting resources to grassroots impact. A Peruvian American who grew up in a bi-national family, she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Santa Clara University before serving as a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate, where she developed expertise in policy and cross-sector collaboration.
Nimmo subsequently held pioneering roles in the early internet sector, including helping to build iVillage — the first major online network for women — from a 30-person startup to a 300-person company with millions of members, culminating in a public offering in the late 1990s. She then shifted her focus to philanthropy. As President and CEO of the Women’s Funding Network (WFN), she led a global network uniting more than 100 organizations investing in gender equity and systems change. During her six-year tenure, she expanded WFN’s membership across sectors, grew its social media reach from 3,000 to 90,000 followers, and developed cross-state funder collaboratives that became models for the field.
Nimmo also played a key role in developing a widely used social change measurement tool and has led workshops on it internationally. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of Women Strong International and has provided strategic counsel to organizations including She the People, the Advancing Girls Fund, Ignite, and Rise Up — bringing deep experience in strategy, external communications, board development, and national network leadership.
“I’m deeply honored to have been invited to serve as Senior Fellow for WEA. For over 25 years I have led and worked in networks of organizations that convene the power of women to create strong communities. The climate crisis is only growing — it requires the most innovative solutions to bring back a healthy, life-giving planet. WEA is supporting thousands of women who have the ideas to do this, coming directly from their communities, from rural to urban. They are reaching millions of people, and I am excited to help make this a reality.”
— Cynthia Nimmo, WEA Senior Fellow
About Women’s Earth Alliance
Women’s Earth Alliance is a global organization that equips women on the frontlines of environmental crises with the resources, training, networks, and funding they need to protect their land, water, food, and communities. For over twenty years, WEA has trained and funded more than 59,000 women environmental leaders across 31 countries, building a powerful, interconnected alliance of women-led grassroots organizations and solutions. Learn more at womensearthalliance.org.
MEDIA CONTACT
Kahea Pacheco
Co-Executive Director, Women’s Earth Alliance
info@womensearthalliance.org
