Gail Richardson

Vice President for Programs

On January 1, Gail Richardson joined Energy Vision as Vice President for Programs. She will work closely with EV President Joanna Underwood, with a special focus on program development and implementation.

Richardson first worked with Underwood at INFORM in the 1980s, where she directed a prize-winning irrigation-water conservation program that demonstrated 30 to 50% water reductions and significant yield increases on farm fields in the western US, through the use of an inexpensive soil-moisture monitoring device.

Subsequently, also in the nonprofit sector, Richardson built two international programs that identified excellent education models for use in the US. At the French American Foundation, she built the Early Childhood Program, which has broadly influenced childcare and health care policies and practices in several states and at the federal level. As executive director of Best Practices in Education she created several projects to introduce curriculum models from Russia and Eastern Europe to strengthen mathematics education in the US.

Richardson has extensive grass roots experience. While serving as Program Director of the Child Care Action Campaign, a national advocacy organization, she assisted community leaders and state officials to institute policies and funding mechanisms to improve early childhood education. In Brooklyn, where she lives, she formerly led a block association, spearheaded the development of a neighborhood garden, edited a community newspaper, and founded and directed a Brooklyn-based theater company.

Richardson graduated summa cum laude in English from Cornell University, earned a master’s in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School, and received her doctorate from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She has taught at The City College of New York and the American University in Rome, Italy. Her publications include Winning with Water for INFORM and A Welcome for Every Child for the French American Foundation.