Cristine Nardi is the Executive Director of Center for Nonprofit Excellence (CNE), a regional nonprofitcapacity-building center based in Charlottesville, Va.  In this role she directs strategy and operations forthe organization and serves as a non-voting member of CNE’s board of directors. A lawyer by training,she also counsels nonprofit staff and boards on a wide range of issues from governance to strategy tooperations to fund development. She facilitates strategic collaboration between nonprofits and theircommunity partners to effect positive community change, and she advocates for a strong nonprofitsector in the region.

Ms. Nardi joined CNE as Executive Director in December 2008. She brings to her work an extensivenonprofit, legal and entrepreneurial background. She started her career as a Peace Corps volunteerteacher in Africa, and went on to manage the Uganda office of Volunteers in Overseas CooperativeAssistance (VOCA), an international nonprofit providing technical expertise to local cooperatives,farmers, and agribusinesses. After returning to the states to attend law school, Ms. Nardi clerked for theHonorable Judge Vanessa Ruiz, now Senior Judge of the D.C. Court of Appeals. She then worked forNARAL Pro Choice America directing reproductive health policy programs and providing legal and policyexpertise to affiliates, legislators, and community organizations across the country.

Prior to joining CNE, Ms. Nardi was in private practice in Charlottesville, Va. providing legal counsel tosmall businesses and nonprofits in Central Virginia. Ms. Nardi has a B.A. in English from the University ofVirginia and received her law degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives with herfamily on a farm in Central Virginia where they raise organic blueberries and try to keep ahead of theweeds.