Jeff Furman, Founder served on the Ben & Jerry’s corporate board for almost 40 years, providing in-house legal counsel and fostering many of the company’s social initiatives. Jeff’s current role is Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors Emeritus, a role he is happy to do alongside being President of the Ben & Jerry’s Foundation. Jeff resides in Ithaca, New York where he is the president of Social Ventures, as well as a co-founder of the Community Dispute Resolution Center and a community micro-finance program. In addition Jeff has also served on the local school board, working to eliminate race and socio-economic status as a predictor of student success, and is an advisor to the Dorothy Cotton Institute, Alliance of Families for Justice, and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. Alongside his other commitments Jeff is on the Board of the Oakland Institute and currently he is helping with the Poor People’s Campaign and developing Rejoice the Vote.
Shira Evergreen, Designer & Advisor (she/they) was the recipient of the 2019 “Artist in Community” Grant from the Tompkins County Community Arts Partnership for her documentary about Ithaca’s social-justice murals. She was the 2018 Ithaca Festival Official Artist. Her film Empowered: Power from the People (2012) screened at environmental film festivals around the country and abroad and was described by author Bill McKibben as “a remarkable ground-up account of the revolution that’s really starting to alter things on this earth.” In the oughts, Shira served as Director of Education and Outreach for Arts Engine, directing the Media That Matters Film Festival (best nonprofit/green website SXSW 2005) and traveling around the country to speak about grassroots film distribution, youth filmmaking and media justice. After moving to Ithaca in 2008, Shira co-founded Share Tompkins, which facilitates sharing culture in Tompkins County, NY and was featured in The New York Times and Yes! Magazine. Shira has designed Education for Liberation’s annual planner, Planning to Change the World, for over a decade. She designed the Ithaca Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Walkway logo, the Ithaca Murals coloring book and map, and she has made videos for Alternatives Federal Credit Union, the National Woman’s Hall of Fame, Civic Ensemble, Bike Walk Tompkins, Village at Ithaca, Hospicare, Mama’s Comfort Camp and many more. She has served on the boards of MIX NYC Queer Experimental Film Festival and Sustainable Tompkins. She lives with her partner and two young kids in a fossil fuel free home. Learn more at www.upliftedithaca.com
