Meet new board members Vaibhav Sharma and Elaine Tanimura

CivicStory is honored to welcome two new members to our board of trustees. We’d like you to get to know Vaibhav Sharma and Elaine Tanimura, who joined the board on November 30, 2021.

Meet Elaine Tanimura

Elaine Tanimura has had a twenty-year career as a professional project manager with ADP, a global human capital management company. She is currently nonprofit program director at SheTek, whose mission is to increase the number of women in the technology industry. She is a community leader and board member with various organizations including the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell, NJ; Interfaith Caregivers of Greater Mercer County; and Anchor House. She is also a career coach.

What inspired you to join the CivicStory board of trustees?

I am an Associate with the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell NJ, and a member of their Universe and Creation Committee. We study climate change and sustainability and educate our community on these issues. When I learned about CivicStory’s mission, I recognized another way to continue spreading the word about these issues to a broader audience.

How do you see yourself contributing to CivicStory's mission?

As a professional project manager and relationship manager, I envision myself “behind the scenes”, using my skills to drive CivicStory’s mission and grow our donor base.

Which career experience are you most proud of?

I was with ADP for about 20 years and held a variety of project manager roles. My last position was working directly with our largest clients as a relationship manager. This was a new opportunity for me and forced me out of my comfort zone. I learned to take more risks and acquire new skills that helped grow my career.

Meet Vaibhav Sharma

Vaibhav Sharma is a fintech leader, advisor and consultant, offering digital transformation thought leadership for the banking industry. He is the co-founder of Sustainable Agriculture Initiative (SAI), a social purpose corporation. He provides business and impact planning for social enterprises. He completed a social entrepreneurship from MIT ( Massachusetts Institute of technology ) through its "solve" program, and a fintech certification on transformation of financial services and strategy from Wharton. He received a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering from the University of Mumbai.

What inspired you to join the CivicStory board of trustees?

I was inspired by CivicStory's commitment to accurate journalism, bringing forth solutions on sustainability, and also the New Jersey Sustainability Reporting fellowship program. To me, intent and content both are important, along with the topic of sustainability.

How do you see yourself contributing to CivicStory's mission?

My experience in running organizations at an executive level within the banking and technology industry, and as well running my own social purpose corporation that promotes sustainability, provides me experience and insights twofold: 1) an organization-level understanding, especially of finance and operations, and 2) a personal commitment to the topic of sustainability and creating awareness around it, aligning with the goals and missions of CivicStory. In addition, I’ll apply my entrepreneurial mindset to my work with CivicStory.

Which sustainability issue are you most passionate about?

I am passionate about sustainability as an overarching theme, and I’m interested in all the areas covered in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). I have been working to provide sustainable livelihoods to marginalized farmers through an agroforestry model, and it has helped me realize that one aspect of sustainability leads into another. Ensuring the people can have a sustainable livelihood, through sustainable finance and agriculture, leads to improvement of soil quality, air quality, gender equality, and carbon sequestration, and provides other benefits as well.