CPR Staff
Gilonne d'Origny
Gilonne d’Origny currently serves as the Interim co-Executive Director at the Center for Progressive Reform. She is also Translational Advisor to the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, assisting with developing cellular agriculture capabilities. She acts as Principal for Planet A, a cellular agriculture and vegan consultancy for investors.
Her career has focused on bringing climate and social values to the core of business models in finance and business, as well as on systems change, including new technologies, particularly cellular agriculture, which could help transition from extensive intensive agriculture to regenerative agriculture.
Gilonne was the second employee at New Harvest, which advances scientific open research into cellular agriculture. Before then, she worked at Citi, developing bonds for good, in private equity on green tech, at Columbia University on translating climate science for Wall Street and the High Street. She co-produced and co-directed Stealing Klimt, a documentary on the restitution of five paintings by Gustav Klimt, including the famous Lady In Gold.
During school, she published many op-eds and columns for the Providence Journal, Africa Confidential, the Boston Globe, etc. and co-authored a chapter on carbon trading under the Kyoto Protocol for the Royal Society.
Born in France, she moved to the United States to study a BA at Brown University and an MA and an LLM at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Her academic focus was on questions of sovereignty: from decolonization (e.g., Western Sahara) to war crime prosecution and international climate policy.
David Flores
David Flores, J.D., is a CPR Senior Policy Analyst. He joined CPR in 2016 to work on climate adaptation policy and advocacy. Before joining CPR, Mr. Flores spent eight years working for watershed nonprofit Blue Water Baltimore, where he managed water quality monitoring research, legal and regulatory advocacy, and Clean Water Act compliance monitoring and enforcement programming.
Mr. Flores received his law degree from the University of Maryland in 2016, cum laude, with a certificate of concentration in environmental law, and his B.A. from Bard College in environmental science in 2008.
Contact Information: 202.747.0698 email
Matthew Freeman
Media relations consultant Matthew Freeman has worked with CPR for more than 15 years, assisting the organization as it develops its media strategies and online communications.
His media relations experience in Washington spans more than 30 years, and his client list includes a range of organizations active on the environment, education, civil rights and liberties, health care, progressive organizing in the interfaith community, and more.
Contact Information: 202.747.0698 ex. 2 email
James Goodwin
James Goodwin, J.D., M.P.P., is a Senior Policy Analyst with the Center for Progressive Reform. He joined CPR in May of 2008. Prior to joining CPR, Mr. Goodwin worked as a legal intern for the Environmental Law Institute and EcoLogix Group, Inc. He is a published author with articles on human rights and environmental law and policy appearing in the Michigan Journal of Public Affairs and the New England Law Review (co-author with Armin Rosencranz).
Mr. Goodwin graduated magna cum laude from Kalamazoo College, where he received a B.A. with honors in Political Science. He received his law degree (with a certificate in environmental law) from the University of Maryland School of Law, where he graduated magna cum laude, and his master’s degree in public policy (concentration in environmental policy) from the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, where he graduated as class valedictorian. While at the University of Maryland School of Law, Mr. Goodwin was a member of the Moot Court team. He is a member of Order of the Coif and Phi Beta Kappa.
Brian Gumm
Brian Gumm is the Communications Director at the Center for Progressive Reform. Prior to joining CPR in March 2016, he spent nearly a decade in several roles at the Center for Effective Government, including communications director and senior writer.
Mr. Gumm's previous public interest experience includes time with the Alliance for Healthy Homes, American Farmland Trust, and the Center on Wisconsin Strategy at the University of Wisconsin—Madison. He has been quoted by a number of media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal and The Dallas Morning News, and his work has appeared in several publications.
Mr. Gumm earned a B.S. in environmental policy from Northland College and a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School.
Catherine Jones
Catherine Jones assists CPR with general administration, project production, distribution, reporting, and conference planning. Ms. Jones joined CPR in October, 2005. Prior to joining CPR, Ms. Jones worked as a Property Manager in the commercial office field for over 15 years in the Baltimore, Washington and Virginia Real Estate markets. Working for premier commercial office management companies, she developed an extensive expertise in financial reporting and analysis, human resource management, construction management, and project management. She served numerous private and institutional clients, both foreign and domestic. Her favorite aspect of property management was tenant relations and getting the opportunity to work with a wide variety of tenants, both small and very large, and helping them meet their office space needs.
Contact Information: 202.747.0698 ex. 3 email
Darya Minovi
Darya Minovi, MPH, is a CPR Policy Analyst. She is a public health advocate passionate about environmental justice and the use of research to inform policies that protect human health and safeguard the environment.
Before joining CPR, she worked on food policy issues at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and on international rainforest conservation with Health In Harmony in Portland, Oregon. She also worked as an Environmental Justice intern with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Ms. Minovi received her Master's of Public Health with a focus on Sustainability, Health, and the Global Environment at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2019, and her Bachelor of Science in Public Health and Environmental Policy from the College of William & Mary in 2014.
Laurie Ristino
Laurie Ristino is Principal and Founder of Strategies for a Sustainable Future. She is serving as Acting Co-Executive Director of the Center for Progressive Reform, while the organization pursues a nationwide search for its next executive director.
Ristino is a legal and policy expert on food security, the farm bill conservation title, ecosystem services and private lands conservation. Her work is concerned with reforming existing law and policy and developing new policy innovations to address climate change resilience and improve sustainability. Ristino has written law review articles proposing farm bill reforms to address soil and water quality degradation. She is the co-author and editor of a comprehensive book on conservation easements, A Changing Landscape: The Conservation Reader (2016, Environmental Law Institute).
Ristino began her career as an attorney during the George H.W. Bush administration. One of her most vivid memories is watching the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings in the USDA General Counsel’s Office, situated on the nation’s Mall. She continued to serve as a public servant until President Obama’s second term both as a senior counsel and in various administrative leadership roles. Following federal service, Ristino served as the inaugural director of the Center for Agriculture and Food Systems at Vermont Law School and an associate professor of law. Currently, she is a lecturer at The Johns Hopkins University, and the founder and principal of the consultancy Strategies for a Sustainable Future.
Ristino has served in various leadership roles, including editor and columnist for the American Bar Association’s Natural Resources and Environment magazine; Vice Chair of the Government and Private Sector Innovation Committee, American Bar Association; Section Leader, Section of Food and Agriculture Law, American Association of Law Schools; and Steering Committee, University of Vermont Food Systems. She is a member of the Pennsylvania bar, associate member of the Environmental Law Institute, and a member of the federal Senior Executive Service.
Laurie Ristino
email
SSF website
SSRN
Katlyn Schmitt
Katlyn Schmitt, J.D., is a CPR Policy Analyst. She joined CPR in 2020 to work on environmental policy, enforcement, and advocacy.
Before joining CPR, Mrs. Schmitt spent four years working as the Legal and Policy Director for Waterkeepers Chesapeake, where she provided legal assistance to Waterkeepers and advocated for legislative and regulatory priorities in Maryland, D.C., Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
Mrs. Schmitt received her law degree from the University of Maryland in 2015, cum laude, with a certificate of concentration in environmental law, and her B.A. from Messiah College in Political Science in 2011, magna cume laude.
Katie Tracy
Katie Tracy, J.D., is a CPR Senior Policy Analyst focused on workers’ rights policy. Her previous experience includes working for more than two years as a regulatory policy analyst at the Center for Effective Government, where she advocated for strong regulations to protect health, safety, and the environment. She has also produced a report examining OSHA’s whistleblower protection program and proposing model state legislation to protect workers from retaliation.
Tracy received her law degree from American University Washington College of Law in 2012 and her B.S. in Business Administration from College of Charleston in 2008. During law school, she served as a Note and Comment Editor for the Administrative Law Review and as a Senior Editor for the Sustainable Development Law & Policy brief. She also worked as a legal intern in the office of a Maryland state senator, at Public Citizen, and at the Environmental Law Institute.
Contact Information: 202.747.0698 ex. 7 email