Board of Directors

Group photo of five people; one sitting in front, four standing behind — Members of the Population Connection Action Fund Board of Directors at the June 2024 meeting in Washington, DC. Photo by Shauna Scherer

Aaron S. Allen, PhD

Director of the Environmental & Sustainability Program, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Aaron S. Allen, PhD

Director of the Environmental & Sustainability Program, University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Aaron S. Allen, Ph.D., F.A.A.R., is director of the Environment & Sustainability Program and associate professor of musicology. A native of rural Appalachia, he earned his B.S. (environmental studies) and B.A. (music) at Tulane University. Dr. Allen then earned a Ph.D. in music at Harvard University. He received the Paul Mellon Post-Doctoral Rome Prize for 2011-12 and is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (see this interview about his time at the AAR). Dr. Allen published Current Directions in Ecomusicology: Music, Culture, Nature (Routledge 2016), which won the 2018 Ellen Koskoff Edited Volume Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology; UNCG Now provides a short article about the book, and here and here are interviews about the Prize.

Before being appointed Program director in 2015, Dr. Allen served as UNCG’s first Academic Sustainability Coordinator. He worked with faculty to increase and improve sustainability throughout UNCG, especially through workshops on how to incorporate sustainability into the curriculum. Dr. Allen worked with the Office of Sustainability to bridge academic and operations efforts, created the “Introduction to Sustainability Studies” (then ENV 110, now GES 162) and “Sustainable Campus Operations” (ENV 350, GES 360) courses, established the Sustainability Faculty Fellows Program, and helped to institutionalize the UNCG Green Fund. Dr. Allen also co-lead the effort to create the new Department of Geography, Environment, and Sustainability. His environmental leadership began with three years as president of the student environmental organization at Tulane, where he led efforts to institutionalize sustainability. As an undergraduate, he was twice selected as a Udall Scholar in part for his work to green Tulane via his undergraduate honors thesis, “Greening the Campus: Institutional Environmental Change at Tulane University.” Dr. Allen continues to serve on the executive committee of the UNCG Sustainability Council. He is also a member of the board of directors of Population Connection.

Dr. Allen co-founded and for five years chaired the Ecocriticism Study Group (ESG) of the American Musicological Society, and he co-founded and chaired the Ecomusicology Special Interest Group (ESIG) of the Society for Ethnomusicology. These two organizations co-host and co-established the “Ecomusicologies” conferences and the Ecomusicology Review. Dr. Allen’s conference presentations on ecomusicology include venues in music scholarship (e.g., the American Musicological Society and the Society for Ethnomusicology), interdisciplinary studies (e.g., 19th-Century Studies Association), and environmental studies (e.g., American Society for Environmental History, Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences). He has given invited lectures at institutions in North America, Europe, and Asia.

A number of Dr. Allen’s publications are publicly available here.

After completing a dissertation on Beethoven reception in nineteenth-century Italy, Dr. Allen has continued to develop this unusual field of reception studies. He has delivered conference presentations and invited talks and has published papers on the topic. He is slowly working on a book tentatively entitled Fidelio in Italy: Beethoven Reception, Historiography, and the Crisis of 19th-Century Opera. Dr. Allen travels to Italy frequently and offers a unique travel class that combines music and sustainability studies.

Aaron is originally from rural West Virginia, and his interests as an outdoorsman, environmentalist, and woodworker result from his time on the family farm, where he recently hand built a solar-powered log cabin with and for his parents.

Alexandra Behette, MA

Director of Partnerships, Girl Scouts of the USA

Alexandra Behette, MA

Director of Partnerships, Girl Scouts of the USA

Donna Crane

Lecturer, Department of Political Science, San José State University

Donna Crane

Lecturer, Department of Political Science, San José State University

Donna joined the Population Connection Action Fund Board of Directors in October 2023, bringing with her 26+ years of experience as a political strategist and lobbyist. With expertise in women in politics, political campaigns, and laws pertaining to reproductive rights, Donna is often consulted by the press, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, MSNBC, and C-SPAN.

Donna has worked at NARAL Pro-Choice America and the American Public Health Association, among other organizations. She currently lectures on politics and government at San José State University and at Menlo College in California.

Donna has a BA in Political Science from San José State University and an MA in Legislative Affairs from the George Washington University. She speaks Spanish, has lived abroad, and is an avid traveler.

Kerry Haynie, MPIA, PhD, Treasurer

Dean of the Social Sciences, Professor of Political Science and African & African American Studies, Duke University

Kerry Haynie, MPIA, PhD, Treasurer

Dean of the Social Sciences, Professor of Political Science and African & African American Studies, Duke University

Kerry L. Haynie earned B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Master’s degree from the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. Before joining the faculty at Duke in 2003, he was a member of the faculty at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Haynie’s research examines how the underlying theory, structures, and practices of American political institutions affect African Americans’ and women’s efforts to organize and exert influence on the political system. In addition to articles in various academic journals, his publications include, New Race Politics in America: Understanding Minority and Immigrant Voting (co-edited with Jane Junn, Cambridge University Press), African American Legislators in the American States (Columbia University Press), The Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics, Volume I: African Americans and Asian Americans(Oryx Press); The Encyclopedia of Minorities in American Politics, Volume II: Hispanic Americans and Native Americans (Oryx Press), and Race, Gender, and Legislative Representation: Toward a More Intersectional Approach (with Beth Reingold and Kirsten Widner, Oxford University Press), winner of the 2021 Richard F. Fenno, Jr. Prize from the American Political Science Association for the best book in legislative studies. Haynie and Beth Reingold previously won the American Political Science Association’s Women and Politics Research Section’s Best Paper Award (2012). Professor Haynie is the founder and director of the Summer Institute on Tenure and Professional Advancement (SITPA), a national junior faculty mentoring initiative supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Estelle M. Raboni, MPH, MCHES

Director, Sexual & Reproductive Health, Bureau of Maternal, Infant & Reproductive Health NYC Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene

Estelle M. Raboni, MPH, MCHES

Director, Sexual & Reproductive Health, Bureau of Maternal, Infant & Reproductive Health NYC Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene

Estelle’s work includes the citywide adolescent sexual health program, New York City Teens Connection, which has contributed to a 70% decrease in unintended teen pregnancy rates in New York City. She also works on the first municipally-run New York City Abortion Access Hub, providing pregnant people with referrals to certified abortion providers and supportive services in New York City.

Estelle is a public health professional with 20+ years of experience in reproductive and sexual health programming. She has been recognized by NBC Latino as a “Top 20 Innovator” for her work with Latino and African American youth. She received her BA in Women and Gender Studies/Pre-Med from Columbia University and her MPH in Community Health Education and Human Sexuality from CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy.