The Center for International Environmental Law mourns the passing last week of our dear friend and colleague Sandra Smithey. Sandra was a beloved member of the CIEL family, a keystone in the global fight to make development finance just and sustainable, a strategic partner, board member, mentor, and friend. In her two decades as a program officer at the Mott Foundation, Sandra helped build, resource, guide and sustain the civil society movement for transparency, participation, environmental protection, and accountability at the World Bank and other international financial institutions. In that role, she was a steadfast and essential supporter not only for CIEL itself but for partners in countries around the world.
But Sandra’s partnership and support of CIEL and the wider movement was so much greater than the crucial grant dollars she mobilized. For decades — and for countless people within and beyond CIEL — Sandra was a strategic collaborator, a trusted and candid counselor, and a joyous friend. She continued in all those roles even after retiring from the Mott Foundation in 2020 to take on a new role supporting the development of small-scale solar energy in Africa. Throughout her life, she was a trustee of CIEL in the truest sense of the word. We were privileged to be among the countless beneficiaries of her extraordinary life and work.
Our thoughts are with her family, her friends, and colleagues at the Mott Foundation, the team at Oil Change International where Sandra served as Board Chair. And with all those who were graced by her life and her infectious laughter.
In sorrow, sympathy, and solidarity.
###