CGMF names Dr. Emily Warren Armitano vice president

Emily Warren Armitano, David Monsma, and Katherine Lorenz lead CGMF’s Sustainability Programs

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AUSTIN (July 23, 2026)—The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation (CGMF) announced today that Dr. Emily Warren Armitano will serve as vice president. In this expanded role, she will oversee the foundation’s Sustainability Education Program in addition to continuing to lead its Land Conservation and Water Programs.

Warren Armitano will work closely with David Monsma, director of CGMF’s Clean Energy and Subsurface Energy Programs, and Katherine Lorenz, the foundation’s president, to shape and advance CGMF’s sustainability strategy. Marita Mirzatuny will continue to lead the Sustainability Education Program and manage the Mitchell Innovation Lab, reporting to Warren Armitano.

“George Mitchell challenged us to ask bigger questions, take a longer view, and pursue solutions that match the scale and complexity of the challenges before us,” said Lorenz. “That responsibility is even more relevant today. David, Emily, and I have spent our careers where energy, the economy, and the environment meet, always with communities at the center. George Mitchell never saw that as paradoxical. That is exactly where he believed the real work is, and it is the work this team is built for.”

Warren Armitano brings experience across domestic and international sectors. In 2023, she held dual roles at CGMF and as a senior advisor to the EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Water, supporting implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. She previously held executive leadership positions at the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and she also served on the global management team for a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) initiative, advancing international human rights and environmental health.

David Monsma, an attorney by training, was a vice president of the Aspen Institute and the executive director of its Energy and Environment Program for more than a decade, with earlier roles at BSR, the President's Council on Sustainable Development, Loyola University Maryland, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

Lorenz has led CGMF since 2011, working closely with the foundation’s board and program directors to shape its strategy and carry forward Cynthia and George Mitchell’s legacy. She has held executive leadership positions at several nonprofit and philanthropy-serving organizations, and she currently serves as vice chair of Environmental Defense Fund and leads the Next Gen of the Giving Pledge. In 2025, she was named to the inaugural TIME100 Philanthropy list.

About CGMF

The Austin-based Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation seeks innovative, sustainable solutions at the nexus of environmental protection, economic vibrancy, and human well-being. In addition to its Sustainability Programs, CGMF stewards Cook’s Branch Conservancy, a 7,000-acre field laboratory in the East Texas Pineywoods, and supports an ambitious Galveston Program—George Mitchell’s hometown—and other initiatives that reflect Cynthia and George Mitchell’s legacy and values.

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For more information:
Brett Holmes
The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation
(713) 244-4178
bholmes@CGMF.org

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