Charles L. Elkins

Chairperson of the Board of Directors

Charles (Chuck) Elkins of Washington, DC, is Chair of the SAEP (USA) Board. A retired official of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), he is now an environmental consultant.  Chuck grew up in Winston-Salem, NC and is a graduate of Yale University and Yale Law School.  As part of his volunteer activities, he founded and currently serves as the Executive Director of the EPA Alumni Association.

Send Chuck an email -- Chuck@SAEP.org

Inge Heckel

Vice-Chairperson of the Board of Directors

Inge Heckel retired recently as President of the New York School of Interior Design. She is a graduate of UNC: Chapel Hill. Before joining NYSID, she had her own management consulting firm, specializing in institutional planning and development for educational and cultural organizations. Clients included Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies, Balliol College of Oxford University, the Fay School, the French Institute/Alliance Francaise, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, and the Studio Museum in Harlem. Earlier, she served as president of Bradford College in Bradford, MA; was manager of development and promotion at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; and held senior administrative posts at Channel 13/WNET and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She is a former director of the Tocqueville Trust of mutual funds, and is a member of the advisory councils of the Institute for Classical Architecture, and the Olana Partnership.

Norton Tennille

Treasurer

Norton Tennille is the founder of SAEP and lives in Cape Town, South Africa. A former Rhodes Scholar, he practiced environmental and federal regulatory law in Washington, DC for twenty-five years before moving to Cape Town to establish SAEP in 1994. He is a native of Winston-Salem, NC and holds degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Harvard University, Oxford University, and Harvard Law School. He was a founding Director of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham and served on the General Alumni Board of UNC: Chapel Hill. During his career as an environmental lawyer he received numerous awards from environmental organizations and headed the Balliol College Alumni Association in the United States.

Send Norton an email -- Norton@SAEP.org

Jane Keen

President and Executive Director of SAEP

Jane Keen is Director of South African Education and Environment Project. She is a graduate of the University of Cape Town and a social worker with 30 years experience working with street children, farm workers' children, and the victims of domestic violence. She helped establish and run the first shelters for street children in Cape Town while working at Child Welfare Society, including The Homestead, Ons Plek, Margaret’s House, Patrick’s House and others. She then co-founded the NICRO Women's Support Centre in downtown Cape Town, and managed the domestic violence programme for 7 years. She has served on the Management Committee of St. Anne’s Homes for a number of years, and provides supervision to a number of social workers and lay counsellors through Catholic Welfare and Development and other organisations.

Send Jane an email -- Jane@SAEP.org

Thomas Ray McKinney

Member of the Board of Directors

Ray McKinney is a retired executive of the Wealth Management Division of Wachovia Bank.  Mr. McKinney is involved in his community as a member of the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust Executive Committee, is President of the Winston-Salem Symphony Board of Directors and a member of the local Rotary Club.  He has held leadership positions with the boards and capital campaign committees for the local Arts Council, Family Services, Second Harvest Food Bank of NW North Carolina, Catholic Social Services, Industries for the Blind and his church. Mr. McKinney currently chairs the SAEP USA Advisory Committee.

Mr. McKinney is a graduate of Emory University and a veteran of the Vietnam War. He is a resident of Winston -Salem, NC and is married with three children and nine grandchildren.