CHRISTINA L. DESSER

Chris Desser is a fellow of On the Commons, a think tank focused on developing the concept of The Commons as an overarching analytical structure organizing across sectors and disciplines. Her current project is The Catalog of Extinct Experience, an art installation exploring extinct and vanishing experiences in the natural world—like sipping water from a stream or seeing stars in the sky—and why such experiences are so important to personal and social evolution. She served on the California Coastal Commission and the San Francisco Commission for the Environment. In 2003, she co-founded Women’s Voices, Women Vote, a project that successfully increased the participation of single women in the electoral process. Chris was the director of the Funder’s Working Group on New Technology, an association of foundations concerned with the environmental, cultural and political implications of emerging technologies such as biotechnology, nanotechnology. She was co-editor of Living with the Genie—Technology and the Quest for Human Mastery (Island Press, 2003). Chris has practiced environmental law has served on the boards of many companies, foundations and progressive non-profits including Women Donors Network, The Rockwood Leadership Program, Patagonia, Mother Jones Magazine, and the Rainforest Action Network.