Elizabeth (Lise) Strickler ’86

Lise Strickler '86 is co-founder and managing principal of Three Cairns Group, a mission-driven investment and philanthropic firm focused on accelerating scalable climate action and advancing the transition to a clean energy economy.

At Three Cairns Group, she and her husband, co-founder Mark Gallogly '86, champion investments and philanthropic grantmaking in advocacy, talent, communications, and strategic initiatives. Three Cairns also supports efforts across New York city and state to advance clean energy, infrastructure, and transportation goals, protect parkland and natural areas, expand clean water access, and preserve the Adirondacks.

Over the past two decades, Lise has worked with local, state, and national organizations to advance effective climate policy and build momentum for lasting climate solutions. She played a key role in advancing congestion pricing in New York City, a landmark climate and transportation reform decades in the making — believing that reducing traffic, improving public transit, and cleaning the city’s air are essential to New York’s economic vitality, public health, and long-term sustainability. As an early and steadfast supporter of the program, she helped sustain the effort by organizing grasstops engagement of environmental, transportation, business, and civic leaders who pushed the policy forward. She also coordinated with other funders to catalyze strategic investments in a coalition of advocates, directing attention and resources at pivotal moments to keep the initiative on track. Her leadership reflects her conviction that transformative urban policy depends on collaboration, persistence, and vision. Lise’s efforts were recognized when she was honored as a 2025 Climate Action Leader by the New York League of Conservation Voters. 

Lise is a trustee of the Environmental Defense Fund and serves on the board of its political advocacy partner, EDF Action. As former co-chair of EDF Action, she helped expand the organization’s reach and impact while tripling its annual budget, and played a key role in federal advocacy efforts leading to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act.

She also serves on the advisory boards of Environmental Advocates of New York, Columbia University’s Climate School, the Tamer Institute for Social Enterprise and Climate Change at Columbia Business School, the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy, and the leadership council of the Yale School of the Environment.

Before devoting herself fully to advancing climate progress, Lise worked in the entertainment industry’s financial sector — as an investor relations expert at Columbia Pictures, as a financial analyst at Tri-Star Pictures Inc., and as an executive consultant for new technologies for Sony Pictures.

Lise holds a BA from Yale and an MBA from Columbia Business School. A native New Yorker, Lise’s passion for the environment was sparked by a lifelong love of hiking in the Adirondack Mountains.