Ann B. Friedman is an educator, conservationist and philanthropist who has lived all over the world and understands the relationship between human well-being and biodiversity conservation.
Currently a teacher with the Montgomery County (Md.) Public Schools, Ann and her husband, author and New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman, lived in London, Beirut and Jerusalem before making their home in Bethesda, Md., in 1988.
Ms. Friedman is currently on the board of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and of public television station WETA. She is also a trustee of World Learning, formerly known as the Experiment in International Living, in Brattleboro, Vt., and of the Aspen Institute. She is vice-chair of the board of the SEED Foundation, which runs public, inner-city college prep boarding schools. She has a Master’s degree in International Relations from the London School of Economics and a Master’s in Teaching from American University.
Ms. Friedman joined the Board of Directors of Conservation International in June 2002. She is Chair of the Nominating Committee and also serves on the Corporate Partners Committee and the Communications Committee. She served as co-chair of the 2003, 2005 and 2007 Washington, D.C., dinners.
In January 2007, Ms. Friedman helped launch the Women’s Conservation Forum in an effort to introduce her friends and colleagues to CI’s work and cutting-edge solutions to the most urgent environmental challenges. To achieve this, she helped create a panel of leading women who have orchestrated six inspiring events and introduced CI to numerous women in the Washington, D.C., area.
In dedicating his latest book to Ann, Tom Friedman described how they set about building a green residence, installing a geothermal HVAC system and two large solar arrays. “As a CI board member,” he wrote, “Ann has helped to fund CI’s Center for Environmental Leadership in Business, which works on greening companies, and CI’s operation in Peru, which is working to prevent deforestation caused by roads being built through ecologically sensitive rain forest areas.”
Ms. Friedman has traveled with CI to Indonesia (Sumatra and Bali) and, despite an aversion to large insects, to Tambopata and Machu Picchu in Peru, where she tramped deep into the jungle.
Ann is Iowa-born and, as co-chair of her synagogue’s architecture/design committee, is planning a new LEED-certified building. The Friedmans have two daughters.