ELP is delighted to announce the Delaware Valley Regional Network Fellows Class of 2005!

Bob Adams, Director of Stewardship, Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association

Kimberlee Douglas, Founding Partner and Landscape Architect, Studio Gaea

Jeff Farhy, Vice President, Public Finance Department, A.G. Edwards

Ruth Ann Purchase James, Conflict Analyst/Founder, Greenbridge CDC

Lisandra Lamboy, Outreach Coordinator for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Healthy Bodegas Initiative

Emily Bockian Landsburg, Manager of Business Development, The Energy Cooperative

Kelly McNicholas, Conservation Program Coordinator, New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club

Janani Narayanan, Urban Planner, Philadelphia City Planning Commission

Virginia Ranly, Director of Education, Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education

Melissa Ritter, Environmental Scientist, React Environmental Services

CR Robinson, Parks Project Coordinator, Pennsylvania Horticulture Society / Philadelphia Green Program

Michelle Robinson, Founder, Michelle Robinson Architects

Annabella Roig, Assistant Managing Director, Social Services for the City of Philadelphia

Andrew Steiger, Teacher-naturalist, Academy of Natural Sciences

Brett Stevens, Manager, Business Development, Sustainability, for NELSON

Lee Tharps, Bureau of Safe Drinking Water, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

Bob Adams is the director of stewardship at the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association. He has planted over 2,500 native trees and plants in support of WVWA's stream buffer and habitat restoration program. The program is partially funded by the Adopt a Tree program he founded. Bob also sits on the Advisory Board at Philadelphia's Awbury Arboretum and is a member of SER and the ACE Land Manager Network. He is a resident of Sellersville and a member of the City Planning Commission.

Kimberlee Douglas is the founding partner of Studio Gaea, a full service landscape design firm that specializes in educational landscapes. As a landscape architect, Kim produces highly creative residential and commercial design work and facilitates community collaborations for better neighborhoods and schools. She has worked with the Community Design Collaborative located in Philadelphia, providing pro bono design services to non profit organizations and with Cornell University, to further develop structural soils and porous paving systems for urban landscapes. She is an instructor at Temple University and a visiting critic at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jeff Farhy is a vice president in the Public Finance Department of the A.G. Edwards' Philadelphia office. He provides investment banking and financial advisory services for a variety of non-profit, governmental and quasi-governmental organizations. He has helped to manage and structure various healthcare, affordable housing and economic development tax-exempt bond financings. Previously he worked as an attorney practicing in the areas of mergers and acquisitions and securities law. He assisted the outreach and advocacy efforts of Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future by providing debt structuring and credit analysis of the Growing Greener II program which is a major package of environmental initiatives to be financed through a state bond issue.

Ruth Ann Purchase James is a conflict analyst and founder of Greenbridge, CDC where she develops experiential learning processes and mediation techniques using the common need for survival to promote environmentalism. To protect rural towns, land and water resources on the Delmarva Peninsula, she creates networks and designs processes for social change contextualized to specific communities. She advocates for a return to democracy, promotes simplicity and sustainability, and facilitates artistic projects for social change. She is also a mother and mentor to her four children.

Lisandra Lamboy is Outreach Coordinator for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Healthy Bodegas Initiative. She currently works with 300+ bodega owners to increase access to healthy foods in NYC food retail outlets. Previously she served as the Corner Store Campaign Coordinator at the Food Trust in Philadelphia where she developed a youth-inspired social marketing to effectively promote healthier snacks in local corner stores. She was also Research Assistant at Public/Private Ventures, an action-based research, public policy and program development organization where she worked with researchers on health, ex-offender reentry, and after-school programming initiatives. Ms. Lamboy graduated from Swarthmore College with a degree in Sociology/Anthropology. inator at the Food Trust in Philadelphia. She increases the availability of healthy products in inner-city corner stores and assists store owners to market healthier food alternatives to children. Previously she worked with Youth Ministries for Peace and Justice on the Campaign for Police Reform in the South Bronx where she coordinated youth efforts to inform residents about basic human rights and organized the community against police harassment. She was a research assistant at Public/Private Ventures, an action-based research, public policy and program development organization where she worked with researchers on health, ex-offender reentry, and after-school programming initiatives.

Emily Bockian Landsburg is the manager of business development at the Energy Cooperative where she is building a regional biodiesel distribution business. Through Philadelphia Fry-o-Diesel, a subsidiary of The Cooperative, she is also working on commercialization of new technology to produce biodiesel from restaurant trap grease. In addition Emily is founder and owner of DownWind Dockside Services, a yacht maintenance company based in Newport, Rhode Island. DownWind incorporates sustainable practices into its daily operations and collaborates with the RI Department of Environmental Management to prevent boat discharge into local harbors. Previously she participated in mid-sized wind turbine installations with Rhode Island's Lorax Energy and assisted with renewable energy credit sales and marketing for People's Power & Light, a Rhode Island nonprofit.

Kelly McNicholas is currently on assigment with the Peace Corps in Africa. Prior to that she was the conservation program coordinator for the New Jersey Chapter of the Sierra Club. She advanced and enforced environmental protections through educational and legislative campaigns. She also organized grassroots movements through public meetings and events, media coverage, and by providing technical support on laws and regulations. Her focus is to build public support for repeal of the Fast Track law that limits public participation and accelerates issuance of pollution permitting decisions which perpetuate environmental injustices in urban areas. She has also worked to protect old growth redwoods, served as Assistant Director of the Environmental Education program and founded the Friends of HSU Women Athletes, a gender equity watchdog group. She was the liaison to the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, is a member of the Choice NJ Coalition and is a Chemical Assessment Team member at the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association where she did stream monitoring.

Janani Narayanan is an urban planner at the Philadelphia City Planning Commission and worked previously as a planner for the City of Detroit. Her work has included researching planning strategies for eco-industrial development and urban heat-island mitigation. She is currently studying to be an engineer, with interests in alternative energy systems and natural resource management, particularly for coastal areas. Her long-term aims include creating engineering and planning solutions for sustainable urban development, locally and overseas. She volunteers at the local YMCA as a teacher of English as a Second Language.

Virginia Ranly is the Director of Education at the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education in Philadelphia. She works with students in the Philadelphia region monitoring local waterways and leads educational programs on the Schuylkill Center's trails and in the community. She also works with a Pennsylvania Senior Environment Corps monitoring water quality in Wissahickon Creek. She has worked with the city of Philadelphia and area environmental organizations to monitor local waterways and promote stewardship among watershed residents.

Melissa Ritter is an environmental scientist at React Environmental Services in West Philadelphia. Her current focus is performing Phase I site assessments for commercial properties located primarily in the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding areas. Melissa is also pursuing an MS degree in Environmental Policy at Drexel University. Her prior educational background encompasses both energy and environmental science. Previously, she spent 3 years conducting analytical work for an energy consulting firm in Washington D.C. assessing current and future emissions regulations applicable to the electric power sector.

CR Robinson is parks project coordinator for the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society / Philadelphia Green Program. He coordinates projects and activities for park groups. He is a board member for the Bread & Roses Community Fund. He is a committee person for the 11th/ 17th Division of the Democratic City Committee. He is a member of Young America, PAC and a member in good standing at the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of F& AM Pa/Richard Allen No. 30.

Michelle Robinson is owner of Michelle Robinson Architects and is recognized for her ability to infuse transit related projects with ideas consistent with sustainability and the long term vision for self-reliance. The firm presents a balanced understanding of the complexities associated with developing a positive transit experience. She is a 2003 Knight Fellow through the University of Miami School of Architecture and serves on the board of UC Green, co-chairs the Projects Committee for the Community Design Collaborative, and volunteers with the PSU Fast Start program. She spoke at the statewide Preservation Pennsylvania conference, on the Transportation & Heritage and at the Design on the Delaware Conference on the topic of Revitalizing the Company Town. She is an advocate for sustainable design, public transportation, open space preservation and improving the quality of the built environment.

Annabella Roig is Assistant Managing Director, Social Services for the City of Philadelphia. As a Special Assistant to the Deputy Managing Director of Social Services, Annabella works to supervise thirteen operating departments including, the Division of Social Services, the Department of Public Health, the Department of Human Services, the Philadelphia Prison System, the Department of Recreation and the Office of Emergency Shelter and Services. Prior to this position, she served as a program developer for the Hispanic Capacity Project (HCP), Nueva Esperanza Inc., a national project funded by the Department of Health and Human Services Compassion Capital Fund. The HCP provides technical assistance and training for capacity building across the country. Prior to HCP she worked for Philadelphia's Housing Authority, Department of Public Health, and City Planning Commission. She worked on Healthy Cities campaigns for the Salt Lake Valley Health Department Policy and Planning Unit and spearheaded the first ever year-long cultural competence training program for county personnel and the state health department

Andrew Steiger is a teacher-naturalist at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia where he develops and teaches lessons about animals, plants, geology, and conservation to scouts, school groups, and the public. Previously he worked in the Treehouse at the Philadelphia Zoo where he used the zoo's live education animal collection to teach lessons, created games and activities for the public, and worked with the zoo's Explorer Troop. Presently he works with a collection of over 100 live animal ambassadors and assists in their training programs. He has written plays on ecological themes for the Philadelphia Zoo and the NJ State Aquarium's museum theatre corps and as Wild Will White he writes a weekly animal column for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.

Brett Stevens is a LEED Accredited Professional and Manager, Business Development, Sustainability, for NELSON, a global multi-faceted organization specializing in International Strategies, Workplace Services, Interior Design, Architecture, Engineering, and Information Services. He works to identify and pursue opportunities throughout the country where NELSON can help clients become environmentally and socially accountable institutions, including earning LEED certification. Brett serves as Chairman of the Delaware Valley Green Building Council’s marketing/business development committee, and is a member of the Philadelphia Board of Directors of SustainUS, an organization of young people advancing sustainable development and youth empowerment throughout the country. He also serves as a board member for the Greater Philly Environmental Network (GPEN). Previously, Brett was a private international sustainability consultant.

Lee Tharps currently works in the Bureau of Safe Drinking Water at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. His main responsibilities include reviewing permits for additions and alterations to public water systems. His specific work is in water resources. Prior he worked with the Center for Advanced Fuel Technology in Pittsburgh where he compiled kinetic rate data and processed materials for use in experimentation. He participated in an Americorps program with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation as an urban park ranger where he provided environmental and ecological education to the public. He is a member of American Institute of Chemical Engineers and a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity.