Dana Bourland

Co-Founder, Soils and Vessels

Dana Bourland is a visionary leader advancing collaborative solutions for a thriving planet and  equitable well-being for all. She is the co-founder of Soils and Vessels, a bold initiative dedicated to cultivating land reunion and ecological restoration by returning land, restoring relationships, and repairing harm.

Previously, Dana served as Senior Vice President for Environment and Strategic Initiatives at The JPB Foundation, where she designed and led a groundbreaking Environment Program that directed more than $1 billion in grants toward building resilient communities. Her work focused on driving a just and clean energy transition, expanding access to nature, detoxifying built and natural environments, and resourcing grassroots environmental justice movements.

Before her philanthropic leadership, Dana was Vice President for Green Initiatives at Enterprise Community Partners, where she led the organization’s national environmental strategy and launched the $555 million Green Communities program. She co-created the Green  Communities Criteria, the first national green building standards for affordable housing now adopted in over 187,000 certified units nationwide. Under her leadership, the program exceeded its five-year goal in under four years, catalyzing a movement to green all affordable housing in the U.S.

Dana is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and holds a Master of Planning from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. She also completed Harvard’s Advanced Management Development Program in Real Estate and executive education at MIT and Harvard Kennedy School. Her Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio residency sparked the writing of her book, Gray to Green: A Call to Action on the Housing and Climate Crises, published by Island Press.

Named one of Fast Company’s Most Influential Women Activists in Technology, Dana is a widely respected thought leader and public speaker. Her work has been featured in The Economist, Fast Company, and Stanford Social Innovation Review, and she has contributed to major publications on climate resilience, green building, and social equity.

Beyond her professional work, Dana is an Ironman finisher, potter, and avid traveler. Whether shaping policy, funding community-led climate solutions, or throwing vessels from wild clay, Dana is guided by a lifelong commitment to healing our relationship with the Earth and with one another. Dana is based in New York, New York.