Simone N. Sneed

Simone N. Sneed is a writer, donor organizer and professor whose work centers on environmental conservation, racial justice and gender equity in the arts. Over the course of her career she has used her skills to raise and deploy $25M in philanthropic capital, develop and lead high performing social impact teams and influence the next generation of non-profit leaders.

Currently, Simone is the Board Liaison for the Environmental Defense Fund where she ensures the effective governance, engagement and strategic relationship management of the c3 and c4 boards. In addition, she is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Prior to EDF, she was the Chief Relationship Officer for Van Jones’ social enterprise, Dream Corps where she helped to launch a campaign based social enterprise working to close prison doors, open doors of opportunity into a green economy. Simone has also worked for The Astraea Foundation, Community Access and Inwood House.

As a writer and public speaker her work has appeared in Blavity, The Huffington Post, CNN, Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Journal of Governmental Finance and Public Policy. Levo League, Policy Mic and Cosmopolitan Latina. She has presented at the Center For Non-Profit Management, New York University’s Social Enterprise Bootcamp, SoapBox Feminist Camp, The NYS Society of CPAs and the New Leaders Council. Simone has also received numerous awards and fellowships including the University at Albany’s “30 Under 30” award, NYU Wagner’s IGNITE Fellowship, New Leaders Council Fellowship, Center For Women in Government Fellowship and participated in the George Washington Graduate School of Political Management Semester in Washington program.

In her personal life, Simone spends her time developing Uptown Upstate Arts Exchange, a regional arts advocacy organization working to advance the influence and appreciation of female visual, literary and performing artists from New York City to the Catskills. She also sits on the board of the Ms. Foundation and Be:More America.