Meet the team
Below is a short presentation of the BeyondGiving team members.
Agni Kalfagianni
Prof. Agni Kalfagianni specializes in the effectiveness, legitimacy, and ethical and justice considerations of private and transnational forms of governance in the sustainability domain.
Agni sits in the Scientific Steering Committee of the Earth System Governance project (earthsystemgovernance.org), and had the rotating co-chair role for the period 2019-2022. She is co-founder of the international Planetary Justice Taskforce, an interdisciplinary group of scholars working on questions of justice in the context of profound transformations of the earth system. Agni is (co)Editor-in-Chief of the Global Environmental Governance book series by Routledge, Editor-in-Chief of International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics and Associate Editor of the Earth System Governance journal.
She is currently leading the BeyondGiving project, on philanthropic foundations and global justice in sustainability governance, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Mark Dehlsen
Mark is a PhD candidate in the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Science working in the BeyondGiving project. His research focuses on the role of philanthropic foundations as agents of justice in sustainable development. He is particularly interested in how philanthropic foundations use the language of justice to legitimize their influence in society and how ideas about justice are translated into action within foundations.
Before starting his PhD, Mark spent 10 years working as a civil servant for the Australian Government in a wide range of policy areas including agriculture, environment, social security, health, finance, natural disaster management, national security, and international relations. During this time he developed a fascination with the unseen influence that bureaucratic rules and unwritten cultural norms had on the operations of government.
Mark has a Master of Arts in Government from Johns Hopkins University, as well as a Bachelor of Arts with Honours and a Bachelor of Laws with Honours from the Australian National University.
Joel Bordeaux
Joel is a postdoctoral researcher at the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences working in the BeyondGiving project, where he focuses on the politics of international philanthropy in postcolonial contexts.
A specialist in South Asian culture and history, his work for Beyond Giving addresses both discursive and practical dimensions of private philanthropy in the Indian subcontinent, including its diaspora and erstwhile colonial metropoles.
Joel holds degrees in Religious Studies from Georgia State University (BA) and Columbia University (MA, MPhil, PhD) and has published work on a wide range of topics including statecraft and caste-based organizing in India/Bangladesh.
Gaélane Wolff
Gaélane is an associate researcher at the University of Geneva in the Department of Political Science and International Relations (SPERI). She is working in different fields like humanitarian aid, disaster governance, post-disaster management and environmental policies, especially in conflict-affected and vulnerable settings. Her academic career has enabled her to develop solid expertise in critical environmental studies. Her work lies at the intersection of the social sciences and ecology, integrating innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to explore socio-environmental dynamics.
Her current research examines the interactions between social and environmental resilience in urban contexts at risk, with a particular focus on urban commons and gender equity.
Michéle Betsill
Michéle has spent the past 6 years conducting research on the role of philanthropic foundations in marine conservation governance. One of the main contributions has been to conceptualize foundations as agents of environmental governance and to articulate the diverse ways they shape governance processes.
In the course of this research, it has been found that foundations, grantees, and broader stakeholders all refer to concepts of environmental justice in reflecting on the legitimacy of foundations in conservation governance.
Carole-Anne Sénit
Carole-Anne Sénit is a political scientist by training, with a career spanning both research on and practice in the civil society sector. She joined the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development in 2019 to explore the impact of the Sustainable Development Goals on discourses and policies related to inclusiveness and justice within and between countries.
Within BeyongGiving, Carole-Anne is specifically interested in critically analyzing the justice discourses and agendas promoted through private foundations in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Earlier in her career, Carole-Anne worked as a research fellow at CEVIPOF and IDDRI; she holds a 5-year integrated MSc in International Affairs from Sciences Po Paris.
Rebecca Gruby
Rebecca is an Associate Professor of human dimensions of natural resources at Colorado State University. She is an environmental governance scholar whose research focuses on contemporary transformations in ocean conservation.
Over the last 15 years, she has worked on issues spanning marine protected areas, small-scale fisheries, marine ecosystem-based management, the blue economy, ocean philanthropy, and justice and equity in the marine conservation field. As lead PI for the Ocean Philanthropy Research Initiative and the Human Dimensions of Large-Scale Marine Protected Areas project, Rebecca has led international research teams in the first social science studies of ocean conservation philanthropy and the world’s largest marine parks. Geographically, most of her work is situated in the Pacific Islands region and at the global level.
Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Science in natural resource conservation from the University of Florida (2006), and a Ph.D from Duke University (2013). She worked as a research associate at the Environmental Law Institute between 2006-2008.
Mandy van Deven
Mandy has directed global and regional portfolios for private and family foundations that redistributed $14.5 million in grants and capacity building support to advance gender, racial, economic, and climate justice movements and build the infrastructure for narrative power.
She has 25 years of experience in participatory strategy development, values-aligned practice, impact assessment, field building, and philanthropic influencing. She is known for designing and implementing integrated initiatives that center the knowledge, lived experience, and solutions of those with an acute understanding of injustice.
Mandy has held leadership roles in several philanthropic initiatives, including Foundation for a Just Society, Multitudes Foundation, Gender Funders CoLab, Grantmakers for Girls of Color, Critical Minded, and the Human Rights Funders Network.
Christy L. Carter
Christy Carter, honored to serve as an advisory board member for the “Beyond Giving” project at Erasmus University, brings more than a decade of experience in facilitating philanthropic funding for global sustainability governance. Drawing from a deep understanding of the impactful force held by foundations and high-net-worth individuals,
Christy has had the privilege of securing significant funding, contributing to sustainability agendas globally. Her journey includes meaningful stints at organizations like Greenpeace and the Global Futures Laboratory at Arizona State University, along with participation in the Future of Philanthropy for Biodiversity Regeneration project at Unearthodox.
Grounded in a sincere passion for understanding the intricate dynamics of philanthropy, Christy envisions supporting the project team by sharing insights and connections to thoughtfully analyze and refine the role of philanthropy in fostering positive social change.
Outside this commitment, Christy also dedicates her time to serving on the boards of Cohort Sistas and the John Adams Institute, further embodying her commitment to community engagement.C
Anna Monier
Researcher, ESSEC Business School Philanthropy Chair Ecole Normale Supérieure Alumna, Anne Monier holds a PhD in social sciences (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales), and is a Researcher at ESSEC Business School Philanthropy Chair (France).
She has published two books on philanthropy in French (Nos chers Amis Américains, 2019; and with Sylvain Lefèvre, Philanthropes en démocratie, 2021), as well as several articles and book chapters. She also teaches at the School of Public Affairs at Sciences Po in Paris. She is developing a research project on environmental philanthropy in Europe, and is looking at the way foundations understand the concept of just transition, linking environmental and social issues.