Edward Church

Over the past 30 years, Edward Church has had wide-ranging experience in government, nonprofits and private business. Ed has served as the Executive Director of the Institute for Environmental Entrepreneurship since 2007, during which time he also had a part-time appointment with the Green MBA program of Dominican University in San Rafael. He won an award for innovation from the San Francisco Business Times as well as awards from the State of California, the County of Alameda and the City of Oakland. Ed was the Chief of Staff for the Mayor of Berkeley. He also served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Berkeley Chamber of Commerce, and the Mentoring Center and the Workforce Collaborative, both in Oakland. Ed was the founding Executive Director of the Berkeley Community Fund and for 20 years was a consultant and program executive for the Trio Foundation. Adding to his experience in the field of philanthropy, Ed directed the Livable Communities Initiative at the East Bay Community Foundation, a unique project that promoted smart growth and transit-oriented development. This led to his spending a sabbatical year as a Visiting Scholar at the Institute for Urban and Regional Development at UC Berkeley before coming to IEE. Previously, Ed was Program Director at Urban Strategies Council, an anti-poverty think-tank based in Oakland, California. He was the Founding Executive Director of Brighter Beginnings, a maternal and child health organization, going strong since 1984. Ed Church received his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1977.