Alicia Wittink is vice president of the left-of-center Park Foundation and the daughter of Adelaide Park Gomer, heiress to the Duncan Hines fortune and president of the Park Foundation. ^[1] In additional to her activism with the foundation, Wittink has sat on the board of directors for many prominent left-of-center environmentalist groups. Wittink is also a regular donor to left-progressive political causes and Democratic candidates.

Background

Wittink is the daughter of Adelaide Park Gomer, president of the Park Foundation, a funder of environmentalist and anti-natural-gas causes and groups, and heiress to the Duncan Hines and Park Communications media fortunes. ^[2] Wittink is a 1997 graduate of Cornell University, to which her family and the Park Foundation have made substantial gifts. ^[3] Wittink has been vice president of the Park Foundation since 1998. ^[4]

In 2000, Wittink was named to the board of directors for Center for a New American Dream, a left-of-center group that promoted environmentalist and liberal social policies. ^[5] Winnick was appointed to the board of directors of Friends of the Earth in 2002. ^[6] In addition to advocating for left-wing environmental policies, Friends of the Earth pushes economic redistribution, restricting campaign speech, and opposition to free trade. ^[7]

From 2004 through 2009, Wittink was on the board of directors for Mother Jones – Foundation for National Progress. ^[8] From 2005 through 2012, Wittink was co-founder of the nonprofit DC EcoWomen, a group of environmentalist-activist women in Washington, D.C., that hosted speakers, hikes, and networking events. ^[9] For four years beginning in 2007, Wittink sat on the board of directors of Environmental Working Group. ^[10]

Park Foundation

Since graduating college, Wittink has been vice president of the board of trustees at the left-of-center Park Foundation, based in Ithaca, New York. ^[11] As of 2020, the Park Foundation had over $400 million in assets ^[12] that it uses to fund left-of-center environmentalist organizations. ^[13]

Among its activities, the Park Foundation funds efforts to end the extraction of natural gas and supports media interests sympathetic to this issue. ^[14] As vice president, her mother and president touted that the Park Foundation “helped fuel an army” of environmental activists for bans on natural gas drilling. ^[15] The Park Foundation states it will continue to promote the decline of fossil fuel production, oppose all pipelines and oil and gas infrastructure, and stop all new drilling. ^[16]

Other Activities

Wittink is a regular donor to left-of-center and left-progressive organizations, such as Moveon.org, Let America Vote, Progressive Turnout Project, End Citizens United, ActBlue, DNC Services Corp., Stop Republicans PAC, Occupy Democrats Election Fund, and America Coming Together. ^[17] Wittink has also donated to left-of-center politicians including Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden; U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Raphael Warnock (D-GA); former New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon (D); and New York State Senate candidate Leslie Danks Burke (D). ^[18]

In 2020, Wittink and her family attempted to travel to seven continents and 20 countries in 6 months until the trip was cut short due to COVID-19. ^[19] Wittink justified the “pollution” from her travels by donating to the Finger Lakes Climate Fund to offset her carbon footprint. ^[20]