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Carolina Balazs
Colleen Callahan
Amy Clipp
Alexa Engelman
Catherine Hare
Lisa Hummon
Jason Jay
Ayana Johnson
Derek Lemoine
Michael Marshall
Amanda Martinez
Frances Moore
Thomas Morrison
Matthew Orosz
Tierra Smiley Wilson
Kathryn Theiss
Randy Turner
Mehana Vaughan
Glenn Yeck
Brenda Zollitsch
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Carolina is a Ph.D. candidate in the Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at UC Berkeley. Her interests are in the fields of environmental health, water policy and environmental justice. Her doctoral research examines drinking water quality problems in California’s Central Valley and the environmental justice implications. In particular, Carolina’s research focuses on burdens faced by communities of color and low income communities in accessing safe water, and how historical, regulatory and financial factors exacerbate these burdens.
Carolina has worked on natural resource management, water policy and environmental justice issues in the San Francisco Bay Area and Latin America—this work has formed the foundation for her current work and future aspirations. As community outreach coordinator at the Natural Heritage Institute, she worked on environmental justice-oriented watershed management and restoration in the Bay Area. She also worked with non profits and government officials in southern Africa on a transboundary water management project. As a Fulbright scholar in Bolivia, she used participatory research methods to assess land use sustainability in indigenous communities. Both her undergraduate and masters theses were conducted in Brazil and focused on the intersection of natural resource use and degradation, equity, and sustainability in marginalized communities. Carolina holds a B.S. in Environmental Science from Brown University and an M.S. from the Energy and Resources Group.
Colleen is pursing a M.A. in urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her interdisciplinary studies focus on transportation planning and environmental policy. Through her role as Manager of Air Quality Policy for the American Lung Association, Colleen advocates for policies that reduce air pollution and global warming emissions from the transportation and energy sectors. She collaborates on diverse coalitions to develop innovative solutions to environmental challenges. For example, she is a steering committee member of the coalition that won the landmark Clean Trucks Program (CTP) at the Port of Los Angeles. Before coming to the American Lung Association, she worked for the Center for Food and Justice, where she helped advance the Farm to School movement. Farm to School programs support local agriculture, reduce truck travel, and improve the health of children. She is a founding Board Member of the Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative, a nonprofit organization that sponsors research to raise awareness on environmental issues and inform policy making in Southern California. Colleen graduated from Occidental College with a B.A. in Urban and Environmental Policy, Phi Beta Kappa. She is an avid runner, hiker, and transit rider.
Amy Clipp is a writer and policy maker whose recent projects have focused on the sustainable restoration of Louisiana's coast. She has written all of the state's major coastal planning documents post-Hurricane Katrina, translating technical information into layman's terms and helping state agencies adapt their policies to a changing climate and landscape. In 2008 she wrote the Louisiana Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast. This document, which outlines a vision for storm protection and wetland restoration in Louisiana, won the National Association of Environmental Professionals' Presidents National Environmental Excellence Award as well as the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation's Outstanding Achievement Award. After 20 years of living and working in New Orleans, she will be heading to Boston in the summer of 2009 to take part in the mid-career master's program at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Her studies will focus on mediation processes that help make complex land use and public policy decisions more inclusive and transparent. Amy received a B.A. in 1986 from the University of Virginia.
Alexa is a joint law/public policy degree student at UCLA's Law School and School of Public Affairs. She is focusing her studies on environmental law and policy, especially as it is applied to climate change and sustainability. Alexa hopes to work at the intersection of environmental issues and social justice. A longtime environmental advocate, Alexa worked for several years before graduate school for the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland, CA where she coordinated public interest litigation around lead in children's products and conducted state and national media communication. She has also worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council in both Montana and Santa Monica on grizzly bear conservation and air litigation, and for the CA Attorney General's Environment and Natural Resources Sections. Her environmental roots harken back to hiking trips to New Hampshire's White Mountains as a child and Alexa has found connecting her love for the outdoors with her legal advocacy has been a natural fit. At Brown University as an undergrad, she focused on environmental policy and the role of environmental communication in public perception of environmental harm. At UCLA, Alexa the serves as a board member of the Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, volunteers at a legal clinic on Skid Row and is in the Public Interest Law Program. She can be found playing ultimate frisbee, poking around farmer's markets and hiking in local mountains in her free time. This fall, Alexa is headed to D.C. to work with the Obama administration at the Council on Environmental Quality.
Catherine Hare is a M.S. Candidate in Biology under Dr. Michael Cohen at Sonoma State University. She has spent much of the last ten years engaged in both humanitarian and environmental grassroots activism. While living in Zambia, she co-founded DeepRoots Zambia, a volunteer-run non-profit organization enabling children in the Southern Province to go to school (please visit www.deeproots.org ). While working for CalPIRG and Greenpeace, she raised funds, engaged in public outreach, and collected thousands of signatures for environmental causes. While volunteering for the Fairfield Osborn Preserve, she gave classroom presentations and led school children on hikes. While working for the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Council, she discovered a love for dancing in the intersection of diverse stakeholders which has continued to serve her well. Under the auspices of the City of Santa Rosa, she is now studying the removal of pollutants from municipal wastewater effluent using a consortium of aquatic plants and algae. Concurrently, she is studying the production of renewable energy from the biomass the aquatic vegetation accrues as it grows. Towards this end, she recently helped develop techniques for biodiesel production from algae in Dr. Michael Haas’s lab at the USDA Eastern Regional Research Center. Methane gas production is the form of bioenergy the Cohen lab is focusing on, and to further this work she is currently facilitating the installation of two research-scale anaerobic digesters at the local wastewater treatment plant. She also works as a student intern in Project Development for the City of Santa Rosa. The Project Development team works to implement solutions such as environmental purchasing policies, bring your own bag initiatives, and solar panel installations. Her long-term goals are to both effectively advocate for the adoption of policies and effectively champion the implementation of projects in the arenas of pollution reduction and renewable energy production.
Lisa is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She studies conservation policy and law, and is focusing her research on a resource that many consider to be the “lifeblood of the west”, water. Our burgeoning western cities are placing heavy demands on water resources, leading to conflicts with farmers, land, and wildlife. The situation will only worsen, as scientists predict that climate change will lead to less snowpack, earlier snowmelt, and more drought in the western U.S. Lisa is concerned that as demands on water intensify, ecosystem function will take a backseat to other uses. She is interested in studying past and present projects to acquire and protect instream flow water rights. She sees this strategy as an innovative solution that will protect riparian ecosystems in the long term.
Prior to attending the School of Forestry, Lisa spent seven years working for the non-profit organization, Defenders of Wildlife. She spent the first half of that period in Washington, DC where she helped advocate for issues such as conservation on farm and ranchlands, organic agriculture, transportation planning, state planning for wildlife, and recovery of the Florida panther. For the last three years, Lisa was a grassroots organizer in New Mexico where she worked with a diverse range of groups including conservationists, hunters, fishermen, farmers, ranchers, faith-based communities, and tribal nations. She worked on national policies including the Farm Bill, climate change legislation, appropriations, and the U.S./Mexico border fence. She also worked on a variety of local issues including protection of the Valle Vidal, recovery of the Mexican wolf, and restoration of riparian systems including Comanche Creek. Lisa earned her B.S. from the University of Maryland in Environmental Science and Policy. After graduate school, she hopes to continue her career in the conservation policy field by either working for a legislative body, such as the U.S. Congress, or a non-profit advocacy organization.
Jason Jay is a doctoral student in the Organization Studies Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and works as a researcher, teacher, writer, and consultant. His passion is in fostering learning and innovation within and across organizations to help realize a sustainable future. His dissertation research examines the challenges of cross-sectoral collaboration in promoting energy efficiency and renewable energy at the municipal level. As a research partner of the Sustainable Food Lab, he has written case studies of company-NGO collaboration to foster sustainable and equitable agriculture in the developing world, and plans to examine the institutional evolution of sustainable food. Jason has consulted on systems thinking, leadership development, and organizational change in international corporations and NGOs including BP, the World Bank, and the Instituto Libertad y Democracia. In 2008, Jason co-developed the MIT Leadership Lab course with Peter Senge and Wanda Orlikowski, combining classroom learning on sustainability and leadership with action learning on real-world projects with partner organizations. Jason now serves as a project coach and teaching assistant for the course. Alongside his research and teaching, Jason has been active in improving the energy and environmental footprint of the MIT campus by founding the MIT Generator and the Greening MIT community engagement campaign, and serving as founding member of the Campus Energy “Walk the Talk” Task Force.
Prior to MIT, Jason ran an Internet startup, traveled around the world, taught kindergarten in a progressive preschool, and worked as a consultant with Dialogos International. He holds an AB in Psychology and Masters in Education from Harvard University, where he focused on technologies to support collaborative learning. He lives with his wife in the South End of Boston, MA.
Ayana is a fourth year marine biology PhD student at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, advised by Dr. Jeremy Jackson. She is interested the science, economics, and policy of marine resource management, and is an interdisciplinary student in the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation. Ayana’s research is focused on sustainable management of coral reef fisheries, and she conducts her fieldwork on the Caribbean island of Curaçao. Last summer she completed an ecological and economic assessment of the island’s trap fishery (responsible for 60% of the catch of coral reef fishes), and found a way to reduce fish trap bycatch by 80%. This fall she will return to Curaçao to assess the gill net fishery and conduct a socioeconomic survey of the island’s two hundred fishermen. Her work aims to produce a gear-based approach to sustainable fisheries management that can serve as a blueprint for any coral reef location in need of straightforward fisheries management strategies.
Prior to enrolling at Scripps, Ayana received a bachelor's degree in Environmental Science and Public Policy from Harvard University. Subsequently, she spent two years as a policy analyst at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, D.C, developing and analyzing marine regulations and policies for their environmental, economic, and health impacts. After finishing her PhD, she hopes return to environmental policy work where she can put both her natural and social science backgrounds to use.
Derek Lemoine's dissertation research investigates how uncertainty, risk management, and
governmental commitment challenges influence climate policy portfolios' optimal balance of emission controls and low-carbon technology funding. He has also analyzed the energy and environmental implications of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and developed real options methods for valuing plug-in hybrids' battery capacity. Work in progress examines the possible transition towards electric vehicles and the pathways available for decarbonizing global transportation. Derek is a Ph.D. candidate in Energy and Resources and a Master's student in Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his M.S. in Energy and Resources in 2007, and he obtained a B.A. in Philosophy and in Integrative Environmental Solutions from the University of the South in Sewanee, TN in 2003. His work experience includes digital mapping of forestry practices in Tennessee, development of a new conservation development land-use option in Alabama, quantifying U.S. material flows for the World Resources Institute, and fieldwork in the rainforests of Costa Rica and the wetlands of upstate New York.
Michael is broadly interested in the impacts of climate variability and change on society. After receiving his BS in physics from UCSD, he served as a United States Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania. Michael managed several projects dealing with soil and water conservation. He received a Fulbright Fellowship after earning his MA in Environmental Science and Policy at Clark University to evaluate the socioeconomic impacts of climate change on the spread of malaria and cholera in communities around Lake Victoria.
He is currently pursuing his PhD in Geography at UC Santa Barbara. His research group develops and distributes seasonal rainfall forecasts to the Famine Early Warning System Network, a group of federal and international agencies combating food insecurity in Central America and sub-Saharan Africa. His dissertation title is "The Influence of Evapotranspiration on Rainfall Variability in sub-Saharan Africa." He has synthesized remote sensing and climate reanalysis to parameterize a low cost and effective evapotranspiration model. It is expected that this model will improve rainfall forecasts for the most food insecure regions in sub-Saharan Africa.
Amanda will pursue a master’s degree in science writing at MIT, starting this fall. There her work will focus on the characterization of critical marine environmental issues for general readers, while specifically pursuing the theme of communicating the finite nature of the ocean. In her writing, Amanda will explore exciting, new discoveries in ocean science, as well as illustrate the perdurable conflict between our need to preserve ocean ecosystems and our constant demand for ocean resources through the investigation of such topics as: marine pollution and harmful algal blooms, coastal development, ocean acidification, industrial fishing and aquaculture, climate change and rising sea levels, geoengineering, and comprehensive ocean conservation strategies. In making these critical environmental issues accessible to general readers, she hopes to inform them as to what is at stake, educate them as to solutions that exist, and empower them to exercise their ability to effect those solutions as advocates, voters and consumers. An award-winning environmental journalist, Amanda has served as environment editor and continues to freelance for the premiere alternative weekly paper of Santa Cruz County in California. Her articles have explored such topics as: the marine debris aggregating in the North Pacific subtropical gyre, nanotechnology, genetically modified crops, microplastic pollution in aquatic environments, sustainable seafood, sea turtle conservation, the relationship between environmental degradation and overpopulation, and global water scarcity. She also serves as technical editor for the environmental engineering departments at Yale University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and has recently completed projects for the Yale Center for Green Chemistry and Green Engineering. She received her B.A. from Yale in 2002. When not parsing the complexities of ocean issues for her readers, Amanda enjoys running, writing plays, singing, and hanging out with marine scientists.
Frances C. Moore is currently a Masters student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Science concentrating on Global Change Science and Policy. Her research focusses on the divergent interests of developed and developing countries around climate change and on ways of overcoming that divergence, particularly in the governance and operationalization of adaptation funding. This summer she will be working on international adaptation issues for the Center for Clean Air Policy and will be attending the climate negotiations in Bonn. Prior to coming to Yale, Fran worked at the Earth Policy Institute in Washington, DC where she compiled and analyzed data on a range of environmental trends and authored updates on climate change science and policy. She has published several articles on the mitigation potential of short-lived greenhouse gases in developing countries and is the co-editor of Sudden and Disruptive Climate Change: Exploring the Real Risks and How We Can Avoid Them. Fran’s background is in paleo-climatology and she has performed geology fieldwork in Turkey and Svalbard in the high Arctic. Fran holds a B.A., summa cum laude, in Earth and Planetary Science from Harvard University and in her free time enjoys travelling, particularly in the Middle East and Central Asia, as well as hiking, sailing, and SCUBA diving.
As a PhD candidate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Dartmouth College, Tom’s research examines the drivers of population decline in migratory wildlife. His dissertation focuses on understanding demographic variability and seasonal movement patterns of a declining wildebeest population in the Tarangire Ecosystem of Northern Tanzania. He became interested in East African conservation while working on a project studying elephant genetic relatedness in Amboseli National Park, Kenya, from 2002-2003. His thesis work involves a combination of computer-assisted individual identification of wildebeest, mark-recapture modeling, satellite-based remote sensing and getting out of muddy ditches. In 2008, he co-led an Earthwatch Institute project which brought over 40 volunteers to the Tarangire Ecosystem to assist with photo identification of wildebeest zebra and giraffe. In 2009, he successfully solicited local conservation organizations and hunting companies to fund and deploy six GPS collars that will be used to help characterize fine-scale movement patterns and larger-scale migratory pathways within the ecosystem. After finishing his PhD, he is committed to continuing to do research on wildlife in Tanzania through a combination of empirical analyses, theoretical modeling and advocacy. He hopes to advance a more-informed dialogue among Tanzania scientists and policy-makers about the conservation and future viability of migratory populations.
Matt has a Masters in Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) and a Masters from the Technology and Policy Program (TPP), both from MIT (2003, 2006). He is currently a candidate for a PhD in CEE at MIT. Matt has four years of field experience in Africa training partners and prototyping solar technology, including two years serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Lesotho (2000-2002). As an engineer with policy training Matt's aim is to design infrastructure that balances global sustainability and the unmet needs and aspirations of the developing world, with a focus on energy and climate change. He is a founder of the non-profit STG International, a group dedicated to providing training for affordable renewable energy technology that can serve clinics, schools, and communities in remote areas.
Tierra is completing her final year of the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program at Tufts University with an emphasis on zoo and wildlife medicine. While she plans to spend her career treating all species, she has a special interest in the conservation of great apes and their habitats. For her certificate in International Veterinary Medicine, her research projects are focused on the conservation of Asian elephants in Nepal and Mountain gorillas in Rwanda. She is currently researching tuberculosis transmission between elephants, humans and water buffalo in Nepal through the development of a PCR diagnostic technique for differentiating Mycobacteria species in trunk wash samples. She is also working on a saliva collection technique as an alternative sample for the identification of respiratory diseases in Mountain gorilla populations within Rwanda. Through fieldwork with both endangered populations in Nepal and Rwanda, she developed an interest in creating more sustainable ecotourism projects for flagship species. Her main interest is in creating programs that increase the prosperity of surrounding communities while also maintaining the health and natural behavior of the species of interest.
Tierra holds a B.S. degree in combined sciences and studio art from Santa Clara University. She spent several years as a research assistant at The Gorilla Foundation, working with Koko the sign-language speaking gorilla. She has given various presentations to middle school through graduate school level audiences about great ape cognitive abilities and the issues affecting their conservation.
Tierra plans to spend her future as a veterinarian treating individual animals as well as researching larger issues that affect endangered species survival.
Kathryn’s PhD research combines two of her favorite things: plants and Madagascar. She is currently pursuing her doctoral degree in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Connecticut. Her research in Madagascar involves local stakeholders in the creation of conservation strategies for the native orchids. To gain a complete understanding of the threats to the native orchids, she combines field techniques such as demographic measurements and reproductive studies with genetic techniques in the lab. She is also involved in surveying orchid sellers in Madagascar to assess the economic incentives for harvesting orchids. Before coming to the University of Connecticut, Kathryn earned a B.A. at Willamette University in French and Biology where she studied abroad for a semester in Madagascar. She also worked as a research intern at the Chicago Botanic Garden monitoring rare plants, including two species of federally threatened orchids, around the Midwest. In her spare time she enjoys reading, dancing and sewing.
With degrees in Biology (marine) and Zoology from Humboldt State University, Randy went on to serve in the AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Program, assisting fishery and watershed restoration non-profits in rural northern California. Afterwards, he was a Fish Biologist for six years at the US Fish and Wildlife Service in Arcata, CA monitoring water quality on the Klamath River. While working as a biologist, Randy was elected to serve on the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District board of directors, where as Vice President, he promoted sustainable management and learned the ropes of local government. During this time, he was appointed to the board of the Redwood Coast Energy Authority which offers innovative programs to support energy efficiency and promote local renewable energy projects.
Randy is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Here he is leading a group project further examining the energy/water nexus. This project partners with Southern California Edison and focuses on how to better integrate water use efficiency within commercial business energy audits in order to achieve greater resource productivity and meet societal goals for energy and water conservation. He is spending his summer and beyond at the Goleta Water District, where he will be a Water Conservation Intern, helping customers use water wisely.
Mehana Blaich Vaughan grew up in Namahana and Kalihiwai on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. She is a teacher, helping to create place based education programs to cultivate students’ interest, and skill in malama aina (caring for the land of their home). Mehana has taught in both Hawaiian language immersion and charter schools, and in Massachusetts, Kenya and Zimbabwe. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (EIPER) at Stanford University. Her dissertation is on community based resource governance; how local level systems of resource management have developed over time and how they continue to change, as communities form co-management partnerships with government. Her research focuses on the rural, fishing community of Haena, and residents’ efforts to care take in-shore marine resources in partnership with state government agencies and a conservation NGO. Mehana holds a bachelors degree from Harvard University, and a Masters in Education from the University of Hawaii. She and her husband, Kilipaki, have one son, born on Election Day 2008. She extends gratitude to her family and to the communities (Kalihiwai, Waianae, Waipa, Milolii, Haena), teachers, students, colleagues, and friends who continually inspire, guide and nourish her work.
After several years in counterdrug operations as an active duty Naval Intelligence officer, Glenn’s passion for the environment led him into wildlife law enforcement, intent on interdicting the black market trade in endangered species. As a game warden with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, he enforced hunting, fishing, boating, diving, and natural resource conservation regulations in the Florida Keys, Gulf of Mexico, Biscayne Bay, and the Everglades. Now at the UCLA School of Law, Glenn is active with the Animal Law and Veterans Law Societies, and is still a drilling Reservist. Recent military mobilizations include service as the US Naval Attaché to several Gulf of Guinea countries, facilitating partner nation interdiction of weapons and human trafficking, high seas piracy, and fisheries poaching. Having interned with the Department of Justice’s Wildlife and Marine Resources Section and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Environmental Crimes Section, Glenn intends utilize a law degree to prosecute wildlife crime and dismantle underworld animal trafficking rings. He believes in an interdisciplinary approach to biodiversity conservation which incorporates public awareness and education, demand reduction, effective law enforcement, corruption deterrence, and responsible economic growth. Long term, Glenn would like to influence public policy by authoring stricter wildlife law violation penalties, and facilitate capacity building programs in developing nations to amplify the efficacy of rangers, magistrates, and public prosecutors. He relishes free time to paint and donate conservation art work through YeckArt.com.
Brenda Zollitsch is a PhD candidate in the Public Policy Doctoral Program at USM’s Muskie School of Public Service, studying environmental policy. She is specifically interested in inter-jurisdictional water pollution issues and collaborative environmental management. Her dissertation research focuses on the growing issue of nonpoint source pollution and the trend towards collaborative implementation of stormwater policy in the United States. She is currently studying interorganizational groups nationwide working to address EPA’s stormwater regulatory requirements, investigating whether these collaborations go through a series of predictable life cycle stages. Her findings will inform the work of collaborative groups, their partners, regulators, and an array of stakeholders. In addition to her doctoral work, Brenda serves as a consultant to numerous collaborative environmental groups in the region that are “joining up” to address challenging water pollution issues. She works as a facilitator, strategic planner, grant writer and manages numerous projects. She has more than 12 years of professional experience in leadership positions. Brenda holds her interdisciplinary Master’s degree from Boston University in Environmental Resource Management and International Relations. Following completion of her doctorate, Brenda plans to pursue a career in higher education that will allow her to teach environmental policy, research transboundary water pollution issues, and assist practitioners working to address environmental issues collaboratively.
