OFFICERS
Herman Greene, President
Herman Greene is the founder and president of CES. He is Thomas Berry Scholar-in-Residence of the Earth Law Center and is co-author and co-editor of the legal textbook Earth Law: Emerging Ecocentric Law—A Guide for Practitioners. He serves on the Governing Board of the International Process Network. He is a retired business lawyer and holds graduate degrees in law (University of North Carolina-JD), theology (University of Chicago-MTh & MDiv, and United Theological Seminary-DMin), and political science (Stanford University-MA).
Simon Spire, Executive Director
Simon Spire, MA, MSW is a licensed psychotherapist, contemplative teacher, nature-based quest guide, interdisciplinary researcher, and innovator whose path has been inspired by questions such as, How can we create more life-supporting economic and societal dynamics in our world? And what does it mean to apprentice to life’s ongoing emergence—individually, collectively, culturally, and soulfully? He has held leadership positions in several organizations active in economic and societal innovation, international social entrepreneurship, and mental health, while also founding and developing bodies of work that serve individual and collective wholeness and emergence. Raised in New Zealand, Simon’s career in music led him to the shores of Los Angeles and New York before transitioning to his current life in North Carolina. Simon holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and finance from the University of Auckland, a master’s degree in psychology from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in social work from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His music and writing have been featured on commercial radio and TV networks in New Zealand and the US and in outlets such as MTV, AOL, Voice of America, the Ecozoic Journal, and Kosmos Journal. Simon is thrilled to join the CES community and to have the opportunity to support the expansion of CES’s work and community in 2026. Further info on Simon and his current projects at simonspire.com and airhungerhelp.com
Linda Wendling, Executive Director (SOEL) and Director of Operations
Linda Wendling, JD, LLM earned her BA in French with a minor in political science from Rutgers College, and her JD from Seton Hall School of Law. After leaving the active practice of law in 2001, she turned to academia. She joined the faculty of Union County College in Cranford, New Jersey as the Founding Program Director for Paralegal Studies. Living by the belief that learning never ends, after moving to North Carolina in 2007, she pursued a Master’s degree in Constitutional History at North Carolina State University. Additionally, Linda earned an LL.M. in Environmental Law in January 2016 from Vermont Law School. The culmination of her studies was an appointment to the Paris Climate Change Conference (COP21) as a U.N. delegate to assist Myanmar in preparing their position papers for international negotiations. Linda spent the next 10 years in higher education administration and has authored three legal textbooks on Paralegal Practice, Legal Ethics, and Contract Law. Taking a leap of faith to pursue her true passion for the environment, Linda became a legacy fellow at the Earth Law Center in May 2024, and then fortuitously met Herman Greene. She answered the “Call for the Formation of an Earth Law Society” and, after a year working with Herman, the Center for Ecozoic Studies (CES), and other volunteers answering that same Call, was elected as the Executive Director of the Society for Earth Law (SOEL) in September 2025 and serves as the Director of Operations for CES.
Laura Baldwin, Treasurer
Laura Baldwin was the owner and manager of Garden in the Koop, Inc., which produced the “Incredible Edible Garden in a Box,” and a line of children’s books, including Harry Loves Carrots, in which a lovable dog Harry promoted healthy eating and relationships with nature. She was also the proprietor of Gardens by Laura, Inc., a green landscaping business. She received her BA from University of California, Berkeley ,and her MBA from California State University.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Glenn Astolfi, Chair
Glenn Astolfi is Chair of the Board of the Center for Ecozoic Studies. At CES, Glenn is committed to carrying forward Thomas Berry’s call to “reinvent the human” for an ecological age, helping CES serve as a hub for the telling and living of the New Story of a mutually enhancing human–Earth relationship. He brings decades of experience in strategy, innovation, and organizational leadership to support CES as a center of thought, imagination, dialogue, and action for the Ecozoic.
Glenn has worked as a senior executive and entrepreneur across technology, financial services, and both brick-and-mortar and online retail. He most recently served as CEO and President at Atmospheric Plasma Solutions and today remains a Board Member. Earlier in his career, he led Gateway Bank Mortgage as CEO and he has held executive roles at Barnes & Noble Superstores and Travelocity.com, as well as being a founder and Chief Operating Officer of TravelFest Superstores. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Florida State University and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
Glenn splits his time between Boone and Raleigh, North Carolina, enjoying both places with his wife, three adult children, their spouses, and two grandchildren. Hiking, ice skating, skiing, and yoga are regular parts of his life.
Don Arbuckle, Director
Don began his professional career in 1981 in the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, a White House office of career analysts created to oversee three policy aspects of a president’s Executive Branch responsibilities (at least as they were prior to the Trump presidencies): regulatory affairs; statistical policy; and information collected or required by federal agencies from the public. Don worked there from the beginning of Ronald Reagan’s first term through the middle of George W. Bush’s second term, seven terms across four presidents and 25 years. The last ten years of that tenure he was the civil service head, or Deputy Administrator, of this small office of about 45 career analysts, within what one colleague of his was happy to remind him was “the 17 most political acres on the face of the earth.” Don retired in 2006, still standing, and spent the next 10 years as a professor of public policy at the University of Texas at Dallas. After retiring a second time and moving to Chapel Hill, Don became attracted to the ecozoic movement, and philosophy of Thomas Berry, through the generous gift of time and spirit by Herman Greene. Don brings with him a passion for the continuous learning that thinking ecozoically requires. He has a BA from Harvard and a PhD in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania.
Steven Chananie, Director
After 37 years as a practicing attorney, Steven stepped down as a partner at his law firm to go Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where — in addition to pursuing his theological studies — he was trained as an interfaith hospital chaplain. He ultimately received his Masters of Divinity Degree from Union in 2025. In addition to his part time work as an interfaith hospital chaplain and his continuing legal work, he serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the Interfaith Center of New York and supports on a pro bono basis the work of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing in New York City.
Now, as one of the founding members of the Society for Earth Law (SOEL), he is committed to bringing together his interfaith and theological experience with his legal career to help build a true Jurisprudence of Reverence and a Politics of Compassion that can support a society-wide movement which, in turn, can call for fundamental legal, political, and economic change. This movement, as spearheaded by SOEL, embraces the fact – often ignored and often vehemently denied – that we are one human family, which is an integral part of the community of all life on our planet. Looking to create a hierarchy of values that places compassion, reverence and love as our highest and dearest ideals, the goal of the movement is to develop practical and effective strategies (legal, political, economic and social) to heal our often cruel and destructive relationships with each other and with all of the natural world.
Charles Coble, Director
Charles Coble was Professor of Science Education and later Dean of the School of Education at East Carolina University. He then served as Vice President for University School Programs for the 17-campus University of North Carolina System, Vice President for Policy Studies and Programs for the Education Commission of the States in Denver, Colorado, and Co-Director of the Science and Mathematics Teacher Imperative with APLU in Washington, DC. He has led higher education change initiatives in the United States, Japan, Hong Kong, England, Italy, Germany, and Egypt. He has authored or co-authored ten books and numerous book chapters and articles. He received his BS in Botany from Mars Hill College and his MS in Science Education and EdD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Andrew Niebler, Director
Andrew is a business and securities attorney with extensive experience at the intersection of law, finance, and environmental sustainability. He is Co-Founder and General Counsel of Karner Blue Capital, LLC, recognized as the 2023 Environmental Finance IMPACT Asset Manager of the Year for its pioneering biodiversity-focused investment strategies. At Karner Blue, he helped design an innovative research and portfolio construction process centered on publicly-traded companies and worked with a select group of investment advisers to launch Nature Action 100, a global initiative advancing biodiversity and climate action.
Andrew also co-founded and served on the board of a nonprofit promoting humane business practices, and previously served as General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Calvert Investments, Inc., a leader in sustainable and socially responsible investing. Earlier in his career, he practiced corporate and securities law at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and worked as an economist and foreign exchange trader at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
He earned his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and his A.B. in Economics from Princeton University, and is admitted to practice law in Maryland, New York, and the District of Columbia.
Hal White, Director
Hal is Emeritus Professor of Ethics, Law & Policy at the University of West Florida, where he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer from 2002 to 2011.
Hal holds certificates in Earth Law from the Earth Law Center and in Earth Jurisprudence from Schumacher College, where he was Visiting Fellow (2010) and Visiting Professor (2017) in Earth Jurisprudence and Metalaw. Hal also holds a certificate in International Law, Global Governance, and the Earth Charter Principles, from the United Nations University for Peace.
Previously, Hal served as Chief of International Law and Senior Deputy Attorney General for the Federated States of Micronesia, culminating his service as a Delegate to the United Nations, where he was plenary to the Third Preparatory Conference on Global Warming and Sea Level Rise for the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit).