THE ELP FELLOWSHIP CLASS OF 2002-2004

Ruben Aronin, Director of Communications, Global Green USA
Ruben Aronin is the director of communications at Global Green USA, the American affiliate of Green Cross International where Ruben heads up their overall messaging strategy including promoting their Oscar-week Celebrity Hybrid campaign. Previously, Ruben was the executive director of the Earth Communications Office (ECO), an international nonprofit organization that uses the power of Hollywood and the communications industry to improve the global environment. Ruben oversaw the production and distribution of ECO's annual communications campaigns reaching over a billion people in more than 50 countries. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of ECO India; the California League of Conservation Voters; Interlock Media Inc.; and Ciceana, a nonprofit environmental communications organization based in Mexico.

J.Kyle Bryant, Environmental Scientist, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Region 4, Atlanta, GA
J. Kyle Bryant is an Environmental Scientist working in the Integrated Geospatial Analysis Section at the EPA – Region 4 Headquarters in Atlanta, where he supports strategic planning initiatives, new collaborative technologies research, and GIS marketing and integration projects. Previously, Kyle worked at the U.S. Department of Energy's Nevada Operations Office where he was a regulator for radiological operations and environmental health and safety issues supporting the U.S. Nuclear Weapons Testing Program. Kyle also serves as a technical resource for several environmental justice organizations based in Georgia, focusing on targeted proposal development, fundraising, and grants management training as well as strategic partnering between environmentally impacted communities of color and Historically Black Colleges & Universities and Minority Institutions.

Cassandra Carmichael, Director, Eco-Justice Programs, National Council of Churches
Cassandra Carmichael is the eco-justice program director for the National Council of Churches where she helps serve the environmental ministries of the NCCís 36 member denominations, which represent 120,000 churches nationwide. Previously, she was director of faith-based outreach at the Center for a New American Dream, where she worked to encourage communities of faith to take action to conserve resources and protect the natural environment. Cassandra has worked as an environmental consultant with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and A Rocha USA, and was a teacher educator, university instructor, and environmental education specialist at the University of Maryland - Baltimore County and the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. Cassandra also is a member of the City of Annapolis (Maryland) Environmental Commission.

Kari Carney, Rural Community Organizer, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement
Kari Carney is the Training and Leadership Development Coordinator for Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, a grassroots organization that works for environmental, social, and economic justice. She has developed the Iowa Leadership School, a place where everyday Iowans can receive training, gain knowledge, and develop their leadership skills to better equip them to address the issues that impact their lives. Kari has worked with communities across Iowa to stop the construction of polluting industries, such as factory farms and coal fired power plants; ensure better enforcement of existing environmental laws; and strengthen environmental laws.

Richard Cudney Bueno, Director of the PANGAS Project at the University of Arizona
Richard was born and raised in Mexico City and has lived in northwestern Mexico and the southwestern U.S. since 1992. He holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Natural Resources and Cultural Anthropology from the University of Arizona. Richard's academic interests and studies range from marine ecology, zoology, conservation biology and fisheries to analyses of the effects of marine reserves and factors leading to the evolution of cooperation and governance of common-pool resources. Most recently, he co-directed the Gulf of California Estuary Initiative for the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum to define the state of knowledge and conservation priorities of wetlands in the Sea of Cortés. Previously, Richard acted as coordinator of fisheries programs for the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans (CEDO). In this position, he worked with commercial fishers to establish and monitor the first network of marine reserves in the Gulf of California, an effort that led to Mexico's National Conservation Recognition in 2003. Richard currently is the Director of the PANGAS Project at the University of Arizona, a multi institutional initiative for ecosystem-based research and management of coastal fisheries. He is a member of the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita, an endangered marine porpoise; a Research Associate of CEDO; an adjunct professor of Prescott College for the Liberal Arts and the Environment; and is on the Board of Directors of Comunidad y Biodiversidad, a Mexican community-based marine research and conservation NGO. Richard has led and participated as a naturalist guide in more than 30 ecotourism trips in the Gulf of California and the Copper Canyon for Lindblad Expeditions and the Smithsonian. He lives in Tucson, Arizona with his wife and two boys, finding an excuse to play some music whenever possible.

Felicia Davis, Program Manager, Georgia Conservancy
Felicia Davis is the Mothers and Others Program Manager at the Georgia Conservancy. Previously, Felicia served as the Senior Policy Analyst for the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples' Agenda where she was responsible for environmental programs, public relations, and community outreach for a wide range of civil rights and justice issues. She was also responsible for outreach to African-American and other communities of color on air quality and environmental justice issues and coordinated outreach for a national campaign to clean up coal-fired power plants. Felicia represents the People's Agenda in the Georgia Airkeepers Coalition, Georgia Environmental Enforcement Project, National Clear the Air Campaign, and Climate Justice Initiative, and is co-convener of the Black Leadership Forum's National Environmental & Climate Justice Task Force.

Hannah Doress, Independent Consultant
Hannah Doress is an independent consultant on social justice events, community outreach, and marketing for socially responsible businesses. Until recently, Hannah was marketing coordinator for Working Assets, where she contributed to the Arctic Refuge, anti-arsenic, and global warming/energy campaigns. Previously, Hannah founded Hanarchy Now Productions, a progressive events producer, to unify Lesbian Bisexual Transgender (LBT) and activist communities in the Greater Boston and San Francisco Bay Areas. With Dis-Scenting Opinion, produced in 2000, Hanarchy spearheaded discussion of environmental health in LBT communities. Hannah also is a member of Sustainable Fairfax, organizing against wireless antennas in populated areas and for pesticide neighbor notification legislation.

Christian Freitag, Doctoral Candidate, University of Indiana-Bloomington School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Christian Freitag is a doctoral student in public affairs at Indiana University-Bloomington's School of Public and Environmental Affairs where his research focuses on national parks management and the implementation of the National Fire Policy on public lands. Concurrently, Christian is development director for the Sycamore Land Trust where he works on private land conservation in south-central Indiana, and is executive director of the Ohio River Conservancy. He is also a research associate for the Indiana Biodiversity Initiative where he works to preserve and promote biological diversity in Indiana; is commissioner for the City of Bloomington Environmental Commission; and is an environmental columnist for the Bloomington NPR affiliate radio station. Previously, Christian was a senior law clerk for the Chief Justice of the Indiana Supreme Court.

Antoinette Gomez, Youth Outreach Director, Kennett Area YMCA
Antoinette Gomez is youth outreach director with the Kennett area YMCA, where she conducts outreach to the Hispanic community and workers in the mushroom industry, and acts as a liasion with the Cooperative Extension Service and the Chester Gardening Association. She also is working to establish an Earth Service Corps for her YMCA branch. Prior to joining YMCA, Antoinette was an environmental consultant; educational coordinator for the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation; and internship program coordinator for the Environmental Careers Organization. Previously, Antoinette was a graduate assistant to the Carter Center's Global 2000 Agricultural Program, and was a member of AmeriCorps Natural Resources Conservation Service. Antoinette recently joined the Board of the Penn State Chester County Cooperative Extension Service.

Simeon Herskovits, Staff Attorney and Acting Director, Western Environmental Law Center
Simeon Herskovits is a staff attorney and acting director of the Western Environmental Law Center's southwest office where he is currently representing a coalition of national, statewide, and local citizens' groups fighting the Cadiz Project, an attempt by Southern California's Metropolitan Water District to drain the aquifer underlying a large area of the Mojave Desert including the Mojave National Preserve and five federal wilderness areas. Simeon has worked on cases on timber harvesting, forest management plans, mining, low-level military overflights, and local land use regulation. Previously, Simeon clerked for Judge Robert Kelleher of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles and spent several years with Skadden, Arps, in New York.

Renee Hoyos, Executive Director, Tennessee Clean Water Network
Renee Hoyos is executive director of the Tennessee Clean Water Network, where she helps state watershed groups influence public policies that protect and restore Tennessee's waters. Prior to TCWN, Renee was special assistant for watersheds and outreach to Secretary Mary Nichols of the California Resources Agency where she managed a statewide watershed group to restore California's natural resources. Previously, Renee was a watershed analyst at the Information Center for the Environment at the University of California-Davis, where she created web-based decision support tools for watershed management and won the EPA Region IX Regional Administrator's 2000 Innovation Award.

Matthew Klingle, Assistant Professor of History and Environmental Studies, Bowdoin College
Matthew Klingle is an assistant professor of history and environmental studies at Bowdoin College. His research and teaching focuses on the connections between environmental history and social inequality, and the history of American consumer culture and environmentalism. He has received fellowships and awards for his work from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Science Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, National Endowment for the Humanities, and American Society for Environmental History. He has also worked as a public historian, taught high school, and volunteered for environmental and political organizations in Seattle and Maine's mid-coast region. Matthew has published academic articles in History and Theory, Journal of Urban History, and Journal of the West as well as general interest articles for Grist Magazine and High Country News. His book, tenatively titled Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle and an Evolving Ethic of Pl ace, is forthcoming from Yale University Press.

Michelle Lapinski, Founding Principal, SustainBiz
Michelle Lapinski has over a decade of sustainability experience working within and with Fortune 500 companies and their supply chains. She recently founded the SustainBiz consultancy to advise companies on more sustainable business strategies and operations, particularly in food and agricultural supply chains. Previously at Business for Social Responsibility she served as Director of the consulting teams for Food & Agriculture, Consumer Products, and Transportation following her role as Senior Manager, Environment & Climate Change. She also was the Global Environmental Health and Safety Manager at Gap Inc. Michelle holds an M.S. in Environmental Management from the University of San Francisco – where she has served as an Adjunct Professor – and a B.A. from Johns Hopkins. Michelle co-founded the non-profit Young Women Social Entrepreneurs and continues as its National Co-Director.

Stephen Moret, President/CEO, Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce
Stephen Moret is President and CEO of the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce. Previously, Stephen was an associate at McKinsey & Company, a management consultancy, in their Washington, DC office. He has also been a public policy fellow with the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana, where he focused on economic development policy. Stephen was also strategy consultant to Harvard Business School's Executive Education division, where he studied marketing and product strategy issues associated with the School's general management programs for executives. Stephen helped develop a procurement, distribution, and treatment strategy for HIV/AIDS drugs for Malawi; was a project supervisor with Trinity Consultants, where he advised industrial clients on air quality issues; and served as assistant to the chancellor of Louisiana State University.

David Ngwenyama, Doctoral Candidate, University of Florida, Natural Resource Economics Department
David Ngwenyama is a doctoral student in food and resource economics at the University of Florida's Natural Resource Economics department where his research focuses on developing a model for shared/international river basins. David is also a volunteer environment and sustainable development editor for the African Studies Quarterly, an online peer-reviewed journal dedicated to research on Africa. Previously, David has consulted on a number of studies related to wetland ecology; was principal investigator for the Sustainable Lusaka Program, in Lusaka, Zambia, where he assessed sanitation methods for low-income urban households; and served on Zambia's National Economic Advisory Council.

Lula Odom, Labor Liaison and Public Policy Director, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists/Community Action and Response Against Toxic Teams
Lula Odom is labor liaison and public policy director for the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists/Community Action and Response Against Toxic Teams, where she trains and develops teams based on labor-community alliances to promote environmental justice. Lula is also an appointee to the Detroit City Council Brownfield's Citizens Advisory Board where she recently made recommendations that stalled the development of the Minergy Waste Incinerator Plan, board chair of ICON of Youth and Family Services, and a volunteer with the Transition Team. Previously, Lula was senior account executive for Wordsmith's Professional Training and state of Michigan health and safety director for the Service Employees International Union.

John Parks, International Affairs Specialist, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
John Parks is an International Affairs Specialist within NOAA's National Oceans Service. In his role with NOAA, he works to address coastal management and coral reef conservation issues in the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere around the world, leading technical efforts abroad on marine protected area support and research, as well as helping decision makers in the U.S. understand how international coral reef and other marine conservation issues relate to US interests and the public. Previously, John worked as a marine scientist with the Community Conservation Network in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he specialized in community-based marine conservation and co-management in the Indo-Pacific, including direct protection, policy reform, alternative income generation, conservation impact evaluation, and adaptive management. John has also served as the director of the Hawaii Program for the International Marinelife Alliancea, a marine researcher at the Biological Resources Program of the World Resources Institute, South Pacific program officer for the World Wildlife Fund, and an environmental consultant in Hawaii.

Paul Phifer, Fish and Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Paul Phifer is a fish and wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service where he works in the West Coast Regional Office on issues related to the implementation of the Northwest Forest Plan (NFP). The NFP establishes an interagency process to manage over 24 million acres of federal land. The goal of the plan is to protect the long-term health of Northwestern forests and wildlife, including threatened species like the northern spotted owl, while producing a sustainable level of timber and non-timber resources. Previously, Paul worked with the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., crafting and negotiating international environmental agreements related to the transboundary movement of invasive species and genetically modified organisms.

John Roanhorse, Planner,City of Phoenix Development Services Department
John Roanhorse is presently a planner for the City of Phoenix Development Services Department. Previously, John worked for the Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals at Northern Arizona University where he worked on projects including Tribal Wastewater Training Center, Tribal enforcement and compliance, and solid waste management. John has worked for the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona and served as a member of the Federal Advisory Committee on Total Maximum Daily Loads (§303(d) of the Clean Water Act). He also has worked with the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency and the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. John is a lieutenant in the United States Navy Reserve, and is currently working on a Master's of Public Administration at Northern Arizona University.

Julie Sze, Assistant Professor of American Studies, University of California, Davis
Julie Sze is an Assistant Professor in American Studies at the University of California at Davis. Her research focuses on the intersection of three interdisciplinary fields: environmental, urban and ethnic studies. Julie works primarily on the culture and politics of environmental justice activism and the link between racial politics and environmentalism. She is also interested in risk & health, social movements and community activism. Julie has worked on environmental justice issues and with environmental justice organizations in New York City and nationally for the past decade.

Kim Todd, Environmental Writer
Kim Todd is an environmental writer whose essays and articles have appeared in Orion, Sierra, and California Wild. Kim's most recent book, Chrysalis, Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis will be published by Harcourt in January, 2007. Her previous book, Tinkering with Eden, a Natural History of Exotic Species in America, published in 2001 by W.W. Norton & Co., won the PEN/Jerard Award and the Sigurd Olson Nature Writing Award for the book that best "captures the spirit of the human relationship with the natural world." She has taught environmental writing at the University of Montana, the Environmental Writing Institute, and the University of California at Santa Cruz extension.

Alejandra Tres, Executive Director, Association of Environmental Health Academic Programs and the National Environmental Health Science and Protection Accreditation Council
Alejandra Tres is executive director of the Association of Environmental Health Academic Programs and the National Environmental Health Science and Protection Accreditation Council. Alejandra works to promote environmental health education by advancing educational opportunities in domestic and international settings, collecting and disseminating information about education and research in environmental health and by promoting awareness of future educational needs in environmental health education. Previously, Alejandra served as a research analyst at the Department of Environmental Health at the University of Washington and consulted for several organizations including the Washington State Board of Health, the March of Dimes, Ford Foundation, and Mercy Corps International on issues such as environmental justice, housing, public participation, and civil society.

Tara Wesely, Manager of Affinity Marketing,
Aveda Corporation
Tara Wesely is Manager of Affinity Marketing at Aveda Corporation where she is responsible for the company's cause-related and environmental marketing. She manages Aveda's Earth Month campaign that last year raised $1.5M for NGO's working to protect endangered species. Tara has acted as an editor for the Twin Cities Green Guide: A Handbook for Sustainable Living, and co-founded the Twin Cities Green Drinks chapter.

Mark Wishnie, Mark Wishnie, Director of Project Management, Equator Environmental
A forester with seven years of Latin American project management experience, Mark oversees the development and management of Equator Environmental's land management projects, including technical review and due diligence of investment opportunities and coordination of Equator's timberland acquisition and management services. Mark previously served as Program Director of the Yale Tropical Resources Institute, Director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's Native Species Reforestation Project, and as a silviculture and restoration consultant to forestry companies, universities, government agencies, and NGOs in Latin and North America.