Michelle Knapik is the president of the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation (EHTF). EHTF funds innovative projects that advance solutions to basic and enduring problems in the fields of arts, environment, and learning differences. Key initiatives include Artists Thr!ve, Sustainable CT, and EHTF’s Early Learning Ecosystem.
In the education space, EHTF has been supporting place-based, systems changing literacy champions in Indian River County, FL (via The Learning Alliance), and in Philadelphia, PA (via Read by 4th, AIM Institute for Learning & Research, and the Pennsylvania Branch of the International Dyslexia Association). EHTF also focuses on early identification of reading challenges, plus teacher professional development and teacher preparation related to structured literacy.
Michelle has 19 years of leadership in the philanthropic sector. Prior to EHTF, Michelle served as the Director of the Sustainable Environments Program at the Surdna Foundation where she developed grant making and program related investment strategies to advance Next Generation Infrastructure. She was also Program Director at the Geraldine R Dodge Foundation. A lawyer by training, Michelle draws on a wide range of program, policy, and organizational development experience. From the activism of Greenpeace to the US Navy to local government to philanthropy, service to the greater good is a through-line in Michelle’s professional journey. Michelle also has deep contemplative practices that help her center empathy and support consciousness and healing from individual through systems level change.