Our Team
CAF Staff
Lynn Heller
Founder + CEO
Lynn is a social entrepreneur with extensive experience in the nonprofit sector. Prior to launching the Climate Access Fund, Lynn served as Vice President of the Abell Foundation, where she oversaw the foundation’s operations and managed the Foundation’s environmental grants portfolio. Lynn has worked as a nonprofit strategic planning and management consultant, and has launched political and economic development programs in Baltimore, California and Indonesia. Lynn is Board Chair of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, a past member of the Maryland Climate Change Commission, and a founding member of the Baltimore Sustainability Commission. Lynn earned an M.A. in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and a B.A. from Princeton University, magna cum laude.
Janelle Gendrano
Deputy Director
As the Deputy Director of the Climate Access Fund, Janelle is committed to advancing inclusive clean energy efforts in order to secure a healthy future for all young people. Janelle began her career as an teacher, advisor, and curriculum consultant working in service of children from historically disinvested communities. She later joined the Annie E. Casey Foundation as an education program officer on the Baltimore Civic Site team. Prior to joining the Climate Access Fund, she served as the Chief Operating Officer of Baltimore's Promise, a citywide collective impact intermediary. During her tenure, she oversaw significant organizational growth and led teams of diverse stakeholders in the development, refinement, and implementation of multiple multimillion-dollar citywide systems change and power sharing initiatives. Janelle received a B.A. in Anthropology and American Studies summa cum laude from Rutgers University and a M.A. in Teaching of Social Studies from Teachers College, Columbia University. Through National Urban Fellows, a selective leadership program for people of color and women, she also earned a M.P.A. from the City University of New York, Baruch College.
Steve Levine
Advisor
Steve is an executive, entrepreneur, attorney and investor with 30+ years experience developing energy management and renewable energy projects and technologies. He applies the business skills of governance, strategic analysis; legal and risk management, technology and finance to social change and environmental sustainability nonprofit board positions. Steve has served as corporate and environmental counsel to renewable energy companies and as CEO to a green energy investment fund.
CAF Board of Directors
Jeffrey Schub
Chair
Jeffrey leads Sustainable Finance Integration at Wells Fargo, and is currently also the interim co-head of Enterprise Sustainability for the bank. Jeff leads a range of strategic initiatives, providing subject matter expertise to the lines of business and clients to support the transition to a low-carbon economy. This includes the pursuit of Wells Fargo’s goal to deploy $500 billion of sustainable finance by 2030. And prior to joining Wells Fargo, Jeff led the Coalition for Green Capital, where he drove the creation of more than a dozen state green banks that have mobilized more than $15 billion of clean energy investment, and where he also led the effort to create the EPA’s $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund that was passed through the IRA.
Melanie Santiago-Mosier
Secretary
Melanie serves as the Deputy Director for Clean Energy Group and Clean Energy States Alliance, sister nonprofits that serve as a trusted source of technical expertise and independent analysis in support of communities and government leaders working toward an equitable clean energy transition. In her role, she ensures the organizations pursue their highest strategic goals while embedding principles of equity and justice into all areas of work. Before joining CEG and CESA in 2021, Ms. Santiago-Mosier served as the Managing Director for Access & Equity for Vote Solar, where her work focused on implementing the organization’s vision for diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Melanie has worked to advance clean energy policy for more than a decade, leading regulatory and legislative affairs at a number of organizations. She is an attorney licensed to practice law in Maryland. In 2018, she won the C3E Award for Clean Energy Advocacy. In 2020, she was named one of Maryland's Top 100 Women by The Daily Record.
Franz Hochstrasser
Board Member
Franz is a Senior Advisor at S2 Strategies leading their inclusive climate finance work. He is also the Founding CEO and Co-Founder of Raise Green, the largest and most inclusive climate investment community in the US, and he served as CEO, Chair of the Board and Chief Compliance Officer for 6 years prior to joining S2. Under his leadership, Raise Green grew to a community of 23,000 members and thousands of investors, with a project pipeline of >$250M of dealflow across all types of climate solutions. Franz also has significant experience structuring and raising capital for non-profit and for-profit climate companies and organizations at market rate and concessional rate, blending financing and corporate structures, as well as raising close to $4M of VC investments through multiple rounds. He worked for 9 years for President Obama on climate and clean energy at the White House Council on Environmental Quality to launch the President’s Climate Action Plan, helped negotiate the Paris Agreement at the US State Dept and implement the Recovery Act and Farm Bill at USDA. Franz holds a Master’s in Environmental Management from Yale School of Environment with focus on clean energy project finance, climate policy, and sustainable finance.
Eileen O’Rourke
Board Member
Eileen is the Director of Impact Investing at the Abell Foundation, and she collaborates with local partners to create financing solutions that advance the Foundation’s mission-related goals, including evaluating, promoting, and managing direct investments in local early-stage companies. She actively supports the growing Baltimore innovation ecosystem and participates with management teams in commercializing promising technologies, and leads the Foundation’s green energy investment in OTEC International. Eileen brings over thirty years of experience in building effective teams, problem solving and innovating, elevating financial management, reporting and operations, and managing diverse projects to successful outcomes. A former KPMG Manager and Legg Mason Vice-President, Eileen is a certified public accountant, a registered securities broker, and a certified financial and operations principal. Eileen has deep Baltimore roots; she graduated summa cum laude from Loyola College, and in addition to the Climate Access Fund, she currently serves on boards and committees including Pixelligent, Cooltech, and the Propel Baltimore Funds.
Shurid Sen
Board Member
Shurid is the Head of Sales Enablement for T. Rowe Price’s Individual Investors division. He brings over a decade of experience in asset management, ESG, and impact investing. Shurid has built and overseen teams responsible for business strategy, retail investor products and advisory services, and led a global ESG product strategy team at Morningstar-Sustainalytics. Prior to his career in asset management, he spent five years as a congressional aide to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY). Shurid holds an MBA from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a BA in Political Science and Economics from the University of Arizona.
CAF Supporters
The Climate Access Fund and its projects are powered by the generous support of these organizations:
