BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Ben Ptashnik, Chairman, Co-Founder
Ben-Zion Ptashnik, born in Israel, is a lifelong environmental and social justice activist, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Ben graduated from the Bronx HS of Science, studied history at CCNY, and political science at Goddard College in Vermont. At Antioch University, New England, his postgraduate studies were focused in ecology and natural resources management.

Early in life Ben experienced cooperative agricultural life working on an Israeli kibbutz (similar to Mexican Ejido) and was an early organizer in the anti-war, civil rights and organic food coop movements. He served as the first Director of NOFA, the Northeast Organic Farmers Association, now over 5,000 members. Ben also co-founded Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility (VBSR), served on the Vermont Governor’s Judicial Nominating Committee, and as Chair of the Board of Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG), Vermont’s largest environmental organization

In the 1990s Ben was elected for two terms as a Vermont State Senator, serving on the Government Operations, Economic Development and Agriculture Committees, where he spearheaded legislation for campaign finance reform, renewable energy, and sustainable agriculture. As Co-Chair of the Vermont Senate Health and Welfare Committee, Ben sponsored a lawsuit against the tobacco industry, and legislation to stop Monsanto GMO hormone injections for cows. He was also a co-sponsor of the landmark Vermont Civil Union Bill, the first state law in the US codifying LGBT couples’ legal rights.

In his entrepreneurial life Ben was co-founder and President of Via Vermont, Ltd, an international fair-trade company working with over a hundred independent artisan families in San Miguel de Allende. Ben also pioneered renewable energy in Mexico, installing thousands of solar and wind systems in eight Mexican states from 2003 to 2013. He also worked in cooperation with the San Miguel Ecology Department to build solar systems for campesinos in remote off-grid villages, and to establish solar net metering in all 32 states through Mexican Congressional legislation.

Ben founded the Stopnitz Family Fund, a philanthropy endowed in memory of his immediate family and over 3,000 Jews of the Polish town of Stopnica who perished at Auschwitz or were forced into Nazi slave labor camps. In 2008 the Stopnitz Fund established the Centro Por Ecologia y Economia Sustentable de San Miguel de Allende, A.C. and began developing the Tikkun Eco Center. Today Ben continues to live, grow food and organize to heal the environment at Tikkun, with his partner Victoria.­­

Victoria Collier, Sec/Treasurer, Co-Founder
Victoria is a life-long activist and advocate for people and planet. Beginning her career at 16 as a door-to-door fundraiser for the New York Public Interest Research Group, Victoria has worn most hats in the non-profit field. For three decades she has been building organizations from the ground up, at the community and national level.

In the early 2000s, Victoria learned the philosophy and design systems of Permaculture as director of Tierra Lucero, a non-profit organization in Taos, New Mexico, located on a demonstration site designed by Permaculture co-founder Bill Mollison. The site included a Community Supported Agriculture program, and hosted internships and Service Learning groups from around the world. Their Home Gardens Project installed backyard gardens for low-income families and schools, and they helped launch the Red Willow Sustainable Education Center on the Taos Pueblo.

Though ecology is her passion, Victoria recognizes that healthy democracy is foundational. In 2013 she and her partner Ben Ptashnik co-founded the National Election Defense Coalition (NEDC) where, for ten years, she directed development, websites, communications and fundraising to secure U.S. voting systems and protect voting rights. The work of NEDC resulted in over $1.4 billion in federal funding to states to upgrade election security, and the ability of states to verify the results of the 2020 election.

Today Victoria is the co-founder and director of the Tikkun Eco Center where she oversees project development, grant writing, publishes the Tikkun website, and manages the community gardens. She is mother to four dogs, five cats, and a large flock of chickens.

Barbara R Arnwine, Esq
Barbara R. Arnwine, president and founder of Transformative Justice Coalition, is internationally renowned for contributions on critical justice issues including the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the 2006 reauthorization of provisions of the Voting Rights Act. She was the head of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, one of the most prominent civil rights NGOs in the US from 1989 until June of 2015. She holds the honorific title of President Emeritus. Arnwine’s work also includes women’s rights, immigrant rights, judicial diversity, criminal justice reform, racial profiling, and LBGTQ rights.

A prominent leader in the civil and human rights community, she continues to fight for the preservation of affirmative action and diversity programs. She has received numerous national, regional, and local awards. In 2015, Arnwine received the prestigious Charles Hamilton Houston Medallion award, along with co-honoree Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In 2013, she received the Feminist Majority Foundation’s Fearless Trailblazer Award and during the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s 2013 Annual Legislative Conference, she was awarded the Sojourner Truth, Woman of Truth award. In May 2013, she received the Leadership Conference on Civil andHuman Rights’ coveted Hubert H. Humphrey Civil and Human Rights Award.

Arnwine is a graduate of Scripps College and Duke University School of Law.

Jeff Wolfe
Jeff Wolfe is a lifelong environmentalist and renewable energy pioneer and solar energy entrepreneur. As a renowned climate crisis mitigation advocate Jeff has organized and presented on the issue of climate change and climate action at multiple conferences, institutions and public venues.

Jeff brings to Tikkun his in-depth renewable energy and environmental background as former Chair of the Solar Energy Industries Association (the association representing the US Solar Energy Industry) and as a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists National Advisory Board. He also served on the Board of the National Election Defense Coalition.

He is a recognized leader in grid transformation and a pioneer in creating the US solar photovoltaic industry, consulting on solar and utility strategy, policy, regulation, programs and product development.

A serial entrepreneur with broad experience and success, he is founder and Chairman of GroSolar, one of the larger solar energy companies in the US, with operations in the Americas, Asia and Africa. Jeff has advised and collaborated with many solar energy companies, and steered Shell Connected Energy (Shell Energy) into its current strategy.

Jeff worked in Mexico with Solar San Miguel International S.A. de C.V. as a project development expert and consultant

Reverend Rodney Sadler
Rodney S. Sadler, Jr. is an ordained Baptist minister and presently serves as Associate Pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church and as Associate Professor of Bible at Union Presbyterian Seminary. A passionate social justice activist and environmentalist, he is long time member and organizer in the NAACP, and currently serves as the North Carolina NAACP chairperson of their Healthcare Committee. He has also been active in election protection and voting rights.

Reverend Sadler is a widely published author and editor. Among his research interests are the intersection of race and Scripture, the development of African American biblical interpretation in slave narratives, the enactment of justice in society based on biblical imperatives, and the intersection of religion and politics.

A graduate of Howard University (1989, B.S. Psychology/Philosophy), Howard University School of Divinity (1992, M.Div.), and Duke University (2001, Ph.D. Hebrew Bible and Biblical Archaeology), Rodney has also studied at Hebrew University (1990) in Jerusalem.

Dr. Sadler resides in Charlotte NC with his wife, Dr. Madeline McClenney‐Sadler (president of the Exodus Foundation.org) and his daughter Ariyah Sadler.

Jan BenDor 
BenDor is a county elections administrator and a founding member of the Michigan Election Reform Alliance (MERA). Its mission is to ensure "the realization of election processes that consistently uphold the principles of democracy to ensure the confidence of voters and maximize representation of all citizens of the United States of America."

BenDor is currently the MERA statewide coordinator and grants chair, and the election specialist for the Dearborn-based political advocacy group Michigan Rising. As the Operations Manager for the Eastern Michigan University Career Services Center, BenDor was involved in the United Auto Workers-Technical Office Professionals Local 1976 in the 1980s and early 1990s, serving as vice president of the local. 

Nancy Price
Nancy Price is a member of the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom’s Earth Democracy Committee and writes for WILPF’s Peace & Freedom magazine. She is Co-chair of the Alliance for Democracy working to build a just society with a sustainable and equitable economy. She edits and writes for AfD’s magazine, most recent issue titled, The People’s Vote Must Count. She is a founding member of  Move to Amend, is on the board of the Liberty Tree Foundation, and the Advisory Council of California Trade Justice Coalition.