Board of Advisors


JOHN ISAAC



John Isaac is an award-winning photojournalist and author from Tamil Nadu, who has traveled to more than 100 countries while capturing the struggles and triumphs of our changing world. From 1969 to 1998, Isaac worked for the United Nations and had a distinguished photography career, retiring as the chief of the UN Photo Unit. Isaac has received numerous national and international awards for his work, including 13 awards from Nikon International Photo Contests. In 2000, the International Photographic Council named him the recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award. John has authored many books including a series called Children in Crisis. Through this series, John gives a first hand account of the daily life of children and their families in troubled regions around the world. He authored Endangered Peoples with Art Davidson and Art Wolff for the Sierra Club. He also co-authored Coorg, Land of the Kodavas with his wife Jeannette, about the Coorg region in Southern India.



JENNIFER SPELMAN



Jennifer Spelman is a freelance editorial and documentary photographer. Sanjhi is lucky to have had her as the key instructor for three of its workshops. Jennifer is an instructor at Santa Fe Workshops and has worked with some of today’s most preeminent photographers: Jay Maisel, Norman Mauskopf and David Alan Harvey. Jennifer is a sensitive photographer of people and strives to create portraits with energy and insight. Her clients have included Village Science, Seven Squared Media, The Heart Gallery, What Moves You, and Sustainable Santa Fe. Jennifer is a patient educator who has co-instructed with National Geographic Expeditions and taught workshops in India, Mexico, and Cuba. Jennifer’s website is www.jenniferspelman.com.



Sudha Padmanabha



Sudha serves as a senior carbon finance specialist for Fair Climate where she works with NGOs to deploy carbon mitigation technologies in rural areas. Sudha worked as a Research Associate for 11 years at Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in Forest Management, Forestry Mitigation Studies, Biomass Studies, GHG Inventory of Land Use Change and Forestry Sector. From 2005 to 2009, she headed the CDM activities of a French Renewable Energy Company and was involved in writing PDDs, Validation, Registration, Monitoring and Verification of Biomass and Hydro Projects for the company in India and Brazil. For the past 10 years, long before the Fair Climate Network was formed, Sudha worked closely with ADATS to develop pro-poor projects that tapped carbon resources for the sustainable development of the poor.



Manuel Toscano



Manuel holds an MFA in photography and related media from the School of Visual Arts, where he also taught as a faculty member, and a BFA in photography from Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC. He serves in the communications advisory board at Human Rights Watch, is a board member of photo agency VII, and acts as National Director of Social Engagement for Design for Good at the AIGA. For the past decade, Manuel has helped his clients bridge business and design by combining a deep expertise in developing and implementing communication strategies with an unmatched ability to craft compelling visual storytelling. In 1998 he joined Zago and helped shape the design consultancy into a world-class corporate identity and visual communication practice. The studio has received several prestigious awards, won international competitions and its work has been accepted into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and the Getty Museum. Manuel has lived in the Soviet Union, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and England, before relocating to the United States in 1988. He is fluent in Italian, Spanish and English.