ELP's Mission

The Environmental Leadership Program inspires visionary, action oriented and diverse leadership to work for a just and sustainable future.

ELP's primary goal is to train and support the next generation of environmental and social change leaders both within and beyond its flagship national initiative, the ELP Fellowship. We define emerging leaders as newly established environmental practitioners with fewer than 10 years of experience in the field. ELP's Regional Networks enable us to build on our national fellowship to serve a broader constituency of emerging leaders and spark new ideas and solutions to pressing environmental and social problems in regions across the country.

Recognizing that every sector plays a critical role in environmental progress, ELP recruits participants for its programs from across the field, including nonprofits, academia, government, and the private sector. ELP also strives to create a community comprised of individuals from different racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds and to work with emerging leaders who can strengthen partnerships with public health, religious, labor, and civil rights organizations. Nearly fifty percent of the ELP fellows are people of color. They live and work in all regions of the continental United States, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Alaska.

top

PROJECT DETAILS

In 2004, ELP brought its unique approach to leadership development to the Eastern Region, and expanded the ELP community, by launching the ELP Delware Valley Regional Network. The geographic scope of the Eastern Regional Network includes the following: in PA - Berks, Bradford, Bucks, Carbon, Chester, Columbia, Delaware, Dauphin, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Monroe, Montgomery, Montour, Northampton, Northumberland, Philadelphia, Pike, Schuylkill, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Wayne, Wyoming, York; DE, NJ and NY.

The Eastern region was the first area selected, and serves as a model, for ELP to establish regional networks in other regions across the country to connect, train, and support up-and-coming environmental leaders to build the capacity of each region's environmental community and its professionals, volunteers, and institutions. Through regional networks, emerging leaders from business, government, higher education, and non-profit sectors will bring their diverse issue expertise to create new relationships, forge collaborations, and advance their individual and collective skills and leadership. Emerging leaders (with fewer than 10 years of experience in the environmental field) were selected as ELP Regional Fellows to receive targeted leadership development and skill training.

In 2008, the Eastern Regional Network will continue to further develop local emerging leaders to strengthen environmental efforts from center city neighborhoods and the suburbs to rural areas in the Eastern region. Through ELP, emerging leaders have new opportunities to develop their skills, build alliances among organizations in the region, and spur diverse, more comprehensive, approaches to environmental work across the region. In addition, we hope to support regionalism, increase the retention of talented up-and-coming environmental and social change leaders in the metropolitan area, and create new forums to bring together the Eastern area environmental community.

Through the Eastern Regional Network, ELP:

• Selects emerging leaders as ELP Regional Fellows who participate in community building, skill training, and professional development through our Regional Fellowship Program.
• Sponsors networking events to bring together environmental professionals and volunteers across the region.
• Convenes Regional Issues Forums to discuss key environmental issues facing the Eastern region.

top

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Richard Bazelon, Bazelon, Less & Feldman
Mr. Bazelon's law practice since 1969 has been commercial litigation, as an associate and partner at Dilworth, Paxson, Kalish, Levy & Kauffman, and since 1983 as a founder, partner and now shareholder of Bazelon Less & Feldman. Mr. Bazelon has also represented clients in a number of successful and precedent setting cases concerning business torts, good faith and fair dealing in commercial contract, securities, zoning, condemnation and civil rights. Mr.Bazelon also served as the Chairperson of the Redevelopment Authority for the City of Philadelphia from January, 1984 to 2001.

Blaine Bonham, Executive Vice President, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
Mr. Bonham serves as Executive Vice President for The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society and leads its urban greening program, Philadelphia Green. Under Bonham's direction, Philadelphia Green has moved to the forefront of urban greening efforts in the nation, and has served as a model for programs in other cities. Bonham is a founding member of the Neighborhood Gardens Association/A Philadelphia Land Trust, an organization that assists communities in making gardens a permanent part of the neighborhood fabric. He currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council's Greenspace Alliance, a regional effort to preserve open space and natural resources; and on the board of the City Parks Alliance, a national coalition of urban parks advocates. He is the author of several articles and produced Urban Vacant Land: Issues and Recommendations published in 1995.

John Byrne, Professor, University of Delaware
Dr. John Byrne is a Professor at the University of Delaware and Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy (CEEP). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Delaware in 1980. He specializes in political economy; sustainable development; environmental justice; technology, environment and society.

Kara Coats, Senior Assistant City Solicitor, City of Wilmington, Delaware
Kara S. Coats is the senior assistant city solicitor of the City of Wilmington, Delaware where she is the legal counsel for the City of Wilmington's administration on environmental matters. Kara focuses on the promotion and coordination of brownfields redevelopment within the City and works to improve protection of the City's source water. In addition, she provides advice on regulatory compliance, minimizing City's exposure to environmental liability, and on managing environmental litigation cases. She is a board member of the Brandywine Valley Association, a watershed organization with a mission to protect the water quality of the Brandywine River. Kara is a Senior Fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program.

John Cusack, Executive Director of the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (NJHEPS)
Mr. Cusack is the founder of Gifford Park Associates, a management and policy consulting firm specializing in the areas of strategic environmental/sustainability management and implementation, climate change risks, environmental finance risks and disclosure, energy, and the relationship between the environmental and financial performance of publicly traded companies. Additionally, Mr. Cusack is the executive director of the New Jersey Higher Education Partnership for Sustainability (NJHEPS). He has a MCE in Environmental Engineering & Science from Manhattan College, an MBA with concentrations in finance and management from New York University, and is a registered Professional Engineer in New York State.

Tali Engoltz, Coastal Rsource Scientist with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protections Coastal Management Program in Trenton, NJ.
Tali serves as the NJ Clean Marina Program Coordinator. This educational initiative encourages marina owners to implement best management practices to protect NJs coastal water quality, resources, and habitat. Tali is also the Hudson River Waterfront Walkway Coordinator. She assists with the planning of this long term initiative to develop a publicly accessible multi-use walkway and open space corridor along the along the Hudson River and adjacent to the highly urbanized landscape directly across from the spectacular New York City skyline. Tali facilitated a partnership with the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, NJ to create a non-point source pollution education program. She currently manages a grant program for Boat Shrink Wrap Recycling in New Jersey. Prior to joining the NJDEP, Tali was a NOAA Coastal Management Fellow at the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. Talis long term goal is a career in environmental dispute resolution in order to facilitate compromises between parties that can be characterized as win/win rather than win/lose such as so often happens when disputes end up in the court system. When disputing parties are able to negotiate a solution that, in at least some way, benefits both, the solution is far more likely to also benefit the community at large and the natural environment. Tali received her Bachelor of Science at the University of South Carolina and her Master of Marine Affairs at the University of Washington. Tali is a Senior Fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program.

Medard Gabel, CEO of BigPictureSmallWorld, Inc.
Medard develops a wide variety of educational programs, web movies, and simulations dealing with the environment, globalization, and leadership. Medard is also the CEO of BigPicture Consulting that develops and delivers strategic planning simulations to corporations and organizations. He also developed and runs the Design Science Lab that is held each summer at the UN International School where students from around the world develop strategies for reaching the UN Millennium Development Goals. Medard is the author of six books on topics ranging from global energy and food to economic development. He worked with Buckminster Fuller and has been a consultant to UNEP, UNITAR, the U.S. State Department, Department of Agriculture, USAID, numerous international governments, the Governor's Energy Council of Pennsylvania, and the Food Task Force of Philadelphia. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Energy Development Authority.

Heather McCall is the Assistant State Coordinator for the Main Street New Jersey and Main Street Meadowlands Program with the NJ Office of Smart Growth, Department of Community Affairs. Using the National Trust for Historic Preservation's four point approach to downtown revitalization, Heather works with New Jerseys 23 with local Main Street communities providing training, mentoring, and technical resources to strengthen central business districts through the organization of local citizens and resources. Prior to her promotion to the state level, Heather was the executive director of Main Street Mount Holly, a volunteer driven non-profit whose mission is to promote, protect, and enhance historic Mount Holly's downtown. Heather worked in real estate finance before catching the Main Street fever, and is currently a member of the Congress for New Urbanism, the American Planning Association, and a board member with Downtown New Jersey

Patrick M. Starr, Vice President and Director, S.E. PA Office.
Patrick Starr is Director of the Pennsylvania Environmental Councils southeast regional office (covering Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton, and Philadelphia Counties). He heads projects on brownfield redevelopment, redevelopment of the Delaware River waterfront and transit-oriented development and oversees project managers who deal with issues including watershed protection, land conservation and sprawl. He also has served on numerous committees, including the Eastern Regional Planning Commissions Regional Citizens Committee, Regional Infrastructure for Sustaining Agriculture (Steering Committee 1997 to present), the Philadelphia Urban Resources Partnership (Executive Committee 1997 to 1999) and the Philadelphia City Council Select Committee on the Reuse of Vacant Land.

Kristen Sykes, Mid-Atlantic project manager at the Appalachian Mountain Club
The Appalachian Mountain Club, America's oldest conservation and recreation organization located in Bethlehem, PA. Her focus is on land preservation in the Pennsylvania Highlands, a million acre greenbelt for the Philadelphia metro region. Previously, she worked for Friends of the Earth in Washington, D.C. Her work there, investigating ethics violations by top Bush Administration environmental officials, was profiled on the PBS program, "Now with Bill Moyers." Kristen is vice chair and legislative committee chair of the Highlands Coalition Regional Board. She lives with her fiance on an organic farm in New Jersey where her hobbies include knitting, swimming and brewing beer. Kristen is Senior Fellow of the Environmental Leadership Program.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT

FOUNDATION SUPPORT

We are grateful to the William Penn Foundation, Surdna Foundation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation for their generous support for ELP's Eastern Regional Network.

INDIVIDUAL DONORS

Invest in Eastern's next generation of environmental leaders! Make a gift online through our secure online donation page or mail your tax-deductible contribution to:

 Environmental Leadership Program
 1609 Connecticut Ave, NW 
 Suite 400 
 Washington, DC 20009

top