THE ELP FELLOWSHIP CLASS OF 2006-2007

Nancy G. Abudu, Staff Counsel, American Civil Liberties Union
Nancy Abudu is staff counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union's (ACLU) Voting Rights Project in Atlanta, GA, where she litigates civil rights cases in federal and state court and provides technical assistance and legal advice to local ACLU affiliates and volunteer attorneys. In addition, Nancy is co-counsel in an environmental whistleblower case with the ACLU's Georgia affiliate and lobbies state and federal governments regarding environmental bills. Previously, Nancy was a student attorney in Tulane Law School's Environmental Law Clinic where she received an Environmental Law Certificate. She is a member of the National Black Environmental Justice Network, has made presentations before the United Nations regarding environmental racism, and has co-authored reports on environmental justice.

Matthew Anderson-Stembridge, Executive Director, Faith In The City
Anderson-Stembridge will be working with and assisting Faith in the City services: a charter school focusing on health careers, a personal finance center designed to help people build financial literacy and a wellness center for refugee families.

Allysia Angus, Landscape Architect/Land Use Planner, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Allysia Angus is the landscape architect/land use planner for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, the first BLM national monument designated by President Clinton in 1996. Allysia is one of eight landscape architects within BLM nationally and is an instructor for BLM's National Training Center Visual Resource Management Course. She works on a variety of planning and design projects within BLM as well as in an outreach capacity to local, regional, and state partners. Allysia serves on the Utah State University Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Advisory Board, the Utah Scenic Byway 12 Foundation's Executive Committee, and the board of the local chapter of the Utah Native Plant Society, and is a coordinator and fund-raiser for No More Homeless Pets-Utah.

Mark A. Calamia, Ecological/Environmental Anthropologist, University of North Texas
Mark Calamia works an assistant professor in applied cultural anthropology at the University of North Texas. He is also the owner of a small consulting firm--Ethnographic Inquiry--that assists conservation NGOs, tribes, and federal agencies with cultural and natural resource management issues. Mark's work emphasizes ethnographic assessments of indigenous cultural landscapes/seascapes, traditional cultural properties, and sacred sites, particularly in the American Southwest. His recent work has involved several Indian tribes residing near the Colorado River. His other applied research focuses on the application of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) for adaptive resource management. In the Fiji Islands of the South Pacific, Mark has been focusing on the institutional dynamics involved in the establishment of community-based marine protected areas and the development of policy for local capacity building. He also is examining how customary systems of sea tenure and associated resource management regimes change due to local and global forces. For part of 2005 and 2006, Mark served as a research scholar with the Macmillan Brown Centre for Pacific Studies in Christchurch, New Zealand. He is currently an associate with the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management, an affiliate with the Center for Heritage Resource Studies, an associate with the International Ocean Institute, and a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy. In 2007 Mark received a 3-year appointment as a Visiting Senior Researcher with the School of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Neil Chambers, Executive Director, Green Ground Zero
Neil is a founder and executive director of Green Ground Zero, an organization that seeks to improve the quality of life in high-density areas through design, education, and policy. In addition, he is an adjunct professor at New York University where he teaches green design and environmental policy, is the CEO of Chambers Design, Inc., and is the host of Built Green TV, a series that brings together experts in green industries to have conversations about environmental issues. Neil has given talks at the First Summit of The Network of Regional Governments for Tsunami Redevelopment in Lake Toba, Indonesia, United Nations World Urban Forum in Barcelona, Spain, the World Congress of Architecture and USGBC Conference and many other events around the United States. Neil has advised elected officials on environmental policy including the New York City Council, New York City Comptroller's Office and New York State Comptroller's Office. Previously, Neil worked to apply sustainable practices to land planning, solar panel design, infrastructure and architectural forms.

Audrey Finlayson, Program Director, Retired and Senior Volunteer Program
Audrey Finlayson is program director for the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program in Great Falls, Montana. Audrey engages citizens ages 55 and older in service in local organizations to meet community needs. Under Audrey's direction, over 900 volunteers annually serve in over 100 local nonprofit organizations in North Central Montana. She has helped develop and expand the Noxious and Invasive Weed Program, Children's Environmental Health and local recycling program. In addition, Audrey is serving on a coalition to increase citizens' active use of public lands and local parks. Through her leadership in 2001 the Weed Whackers received the Achievement Award from the Bureau of Land Management. In 2004, Audrey received the President's Leadership Award from the Environmental Alliance for Senior Involvement. Audrey currently serves as an elected member of the local Neighborhood Council. Previously, she served two terms with AmeriCorps.

Omar Freilla, Director, Green Workers Cooperative
Omar Freilla is the founder and director of Green Worker Cooperatives, a new organization dedicated to the creation of worker-owned and environmentally friendly businesses in the South Bronx. He is working to develop a building materials reuse center and a recycling industrial park in the South Bronx that will create "green collar" jobs and reduce waste. Previously, Omar served as program director for Sustainable South Bronx, where he promoted development projects to improve the environmental and economic health of South Bronx neighborhoods. Omar also has coordinated efforts to promote environmental justice in transportation planning for the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance. His writing on community opposition to transportation racism in New York City was published last year by South End Press in the book "Highway Robbery: Transportation Racism and New Routes to Equity" edited by Robert Bullard.

Shalini Gupta, Senior Energy Associate, Izaak Walton League of America
Shalini is a Senior Energy Associate at the Midwest Office of the Izaak Walton League, a national environmental and conservation nonprofit. At the Izaak Walton League, her responsibilities include conducting regional policy research on renewable energy and energy-efficient technologies, evaluating utility integrated resource plans, and promoting climate neutral energy strategies. She is a Governor appointee to Minnesota's Next Generation Energy Board. Before joining the League, Shalini spent two years at the Minneapolis-based Green Institute developing community energy projects and conducting solar and energy-efficiency policy research. She has been a research fellow at St. Paul-based Fresh Energy, where she authored multiple bioenergy related reports, and has worked at Argonne National Laboratories analyzing dataset sources of atmospheric organic pollutants from urban and industrial sites in China. Shalini is on the Board of Directors of the Headwaters Foundation for Justice and conducts environmental justice and equity workshops with Ananya Dance Theatre, a women-of-color dance company. She holds a B.S. in the geophysical sciences from the University of Chicago and a Masters in Environmental Management from Yale University.

Mary Anne Hitt, Executive Director, Appalachian Voices
Mary Anne Hitt is the executive director of Appalachian Voices, a nonprofit organization that brings people together to solve the environmental problems having the greatest impact on the central and southern Appalachian Mountains. The organization is currently tackling three of the largest threats to the region: mountaintop removal coal mining, air pollution, and the loss of native forests. Previously, she was executive director of both The Ecology Center and the Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project. She was a recipient of the Len and Sandy Sargent Environmental Advocacy Award at the University of Montana, and was a Whittle Scholar and founder of the campus organization Students Promoting Environmental Action in Knoxville. She currently serves on the board of directors of the Fund for Wild Nature.

Chitra Kumar, Outreach and Communications Lead, Environmental Protection Agency
Chitra Kumar is outreach and communications lead and youngest core member of a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency $4 million grant and technical assistance program that supports community-based collaboratives to reduce toxic pollution, Community Action for a Renewed Environment (CARE). Previously, Chitra was a policy analyst for EPA's Office of Air and Radiation in Washington, DC, where she designed and analyzed market-based regulatory programs to improve air quality and served as Special Assistant to the Assistant Administrator of Air and Radiation while she was a Presidential Management Fellow - part of a two-year rotation program in federal government. In addition, Chitra designs, teaches and coordinates volunteers to teach environmental justice and computer courses for Earth Conservation Corps members in Washington, DC.

George Morara Ogendi, Assistant Professor, Arkansas State University
George Morara Ogendi is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Geology in the Department of Chemistry and Physics at Arkansas State University (ASU at Jonesboro. His teaching and research areas include environmental geology and biology, limnology and wetlands, and toxicology. He is a Southern Regional Education Board Senior Scholar. His doctoral dissertation research investigated the impact of metal pollutants on surface water, sediments, and aquatic organisms in Fayetteville Shale-draining streams of north-central Arkansas. George got his M.S. and PGD in Limnology and Wetland Ecosystems from the UNESCO-IHE, Delft, the Netherlands and Austria, respectively. Prior to joining ASU, he taught Environmental Sciences, Natural Resource Management, Aquatic Ecology, and Wildlife Conservation and Management at Egerton University, Kenya. As a student and thereafter as a professor, he worked with environmental organizations in Kenya, including Green Belt Movement, Youth Movement for wildlife and Environment, and Participatory Rural Appraisal, to improve accessibility to potable water for low-income communities.

Joe Pan, Partner, Lang/Pan/Chan (LPC) Public Relations
Joe Pan is a partner at Lang/Pan/Chan Public Relations, a Los Angeles based award-winning agency that specializes in the Asian American demographics. Joe has won several awards for his work in public education and grassroots organizing in the ethnic community, and is recognized for his news talk show at the Cantonese speaking radio station in Southern California. Joe is a current board member of the Public Relations Society of America-Los Angeles Chapter and founder of Asian American Environmental Partnership, a US based non profit dedicated to increasing awareness and involvement of Asian Americans to environmental issues in the US as well as in China. Previously, Pan served as the publisher of Pasadena Weekly, a subsidiary of LA Times. Prior to joining the LA Times, he had worked in community newspapers and Fortune 100 companies.

Toni Parras, Communication Specialist, Locally-Managed Marine Area (LMMA) Network
Toni Parras is a communication consultant focusing on marine conservation, helping organizations to promote awareness and sustainable resource use by effectively communicating their work. She is currently communication specialist for the LMMA Network, working with marine conservation projects in the Asia-Pacific region to gather and disseminate stories, progress and lessons learned. Previously, Toni provided communication services to the Community Conservation Network, a Hawaii-based marine conservation organization; the Avina Foundation, which supports sustainable development projects in Latin America; and the Philippine Coastal Resource Management Project sponsored by USAID. Toni also works as a film producer specializing in nature documentaries, and volunteers at the International Game Fishing Association museum.

Susie Qashu, Doctoral Candidate, University of Arizona
Susie Qashu is a doctoral candidate at the University of Arizona, where she studies human impacts in arid and semi-arid lands and coastal zones and the affects of these impacts on their environment. Currently she is investigating human behavior in marine protected areas in arid coastal zones. She is a TINKER Foundation summer research grant recipient and a US Peace Corps Fellow at the University of Arizona. Previously she worked as a National Park Service ranger, was an active participant in the National Park Service's Intake Trainee Management and International Affairs Programs, and worked with Chilean artisanal fishers.

Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez, Doctoral Candidate, Cornell University
Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez is a doctoral student in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University, where her research focuses on the effects of agricultural land uses on forest bird populations, as well as testing monitoring techniques to determine how land use patterns around protected areas influences their capability to maintain current levels of biodiversity. Viviana is also working with local indigenous communities and The Nature Conservancy in Costa Rica to asses the conservation value of Indigenous Reserves in her study region. She has also served as a research assistant for several avian conservation projects, including a project with the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. Previously, Viviana held numerous volunteer positions at biological stations in Costa Rica, where her work focused on government and community outreach.

Helen Sarakinos, Dams Program Manager, River Alliance of Wisconsin
Helen Sarakinos is the dams program manager for the River Alliance of Wisconsin, a statewide river advocacy group that serves as the voice for rivers in the public arena. She works closely with communities and decision-makers to advocate and build campaigns for dam removal as a river restoration and community revitalization tool. Helen is a former Steering Committee member of the national Hydropower Reform Coalition, a consortium of national, state, and local conservation and recreation organizations working to reform national hydropower policies and to achieve improvements to rivers altered by hydropower dams. Helen has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, and consulted groups and governments on dam issues in the U.S., Japan, Canada and Iceland. She serves on state technical advisory committees for fish passage and water quality standards in Wisconsin.

Joe Sehee, Executive Director, Green Burial Council
Joe Sehee is executive director of the Green Burial Council, a nonprofit organization he founded to encourage sustainability in the deathcare industry and to use the burial process as a means of facilitating ecological restoration and landscape level conservation. The organization recently established the nation's first certifiable standards for cemeteries, funeral providers, and cremations facilities. Joe also works as a consultant bringing together land trusts, park service agencies, open space districts, and disposition companies for the purpose of permanently protecting endangered landscapes throughout the US. A Peabody Award-winning journalist, Joe previously worked as an affordable housing advocate for the Bay Area Council/Association of Bay Area Governments, and as a Jesuit lay minister at the University of San Francisco where he directed the campus peace and social justice program.

L'Tryce Slade, Lawyer, Slade Land Use, Environmental, and Transportation Planning, LLC
L'Tryce Slade, the Managing Partner of Slade Land Use, Environmental, and Transportation Planning, LLC, specializes in environmental consulting and public involvement. She serves clients such as the federal and county government, universities, law firms, nonprofits, transportation consulting firms, and engineering firms. In the past, she was involved in the administration of the Tolbert v. Monsanto PCB Settlement. L'Tryce obtained degrees in Communication Studies, Political Science, Masters in City and Regional Planning, and Juris Doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Previously, she served as a US EPA Community Involvement Conference Presentation Speaker on Environmental Justice and Public Involvement. Currently, she is a member of the Transportation Research Board Environmental Justice Committee, which is a division of the National Research Council. The board serves as an independent adviser to the federal government and others on scientific and technical questions of national importance. Also, she is a member of the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham.

Conan Smith, Executive Director, Michigan Suburbs Alliance
Conan Smith is the executive director of the Michigan Suburbs Alliance and a Washtenaw County Commissioner. Working with the leaders of metro Detroit's inner-ring suburbs, Conan is helping the region create collaborative practices for municipal administration and innovate new techniques to foster infill development. In addition, the Suburbs Alliance's Redevelopment Ready Communities program helps cities integrate Smart Growth principles into their planning and zoning practices and policies. As a county commissioner, Conan focuses on civil rights, economic development and land use issues. He serves as one of the county's parks commissioners and is responsible for advancing one of the nation's first written policies for religious accommodation of Muslim women at public pools.

Nathan Springer, Community Relations Associate, Lee Andrews Group, Inc.
Nathan Springer is a community relations associate at Lee Andrews Group, Inc, a Los Angeles environmental consulting and public affairs firm. Previously, he helped found a non-profit organization called Amigos de los Rios that is dedicated to building recreational areas and natural parks in heavily urbanized underserved Southern California communities. As the outreach director for the organization, he designed the outreach program and raised public and private grant funds for projects. Prior to his work in Los Angeles, he served as an Environmental Education Volunteer with the Peace Corps in Paraguay, where he managed citizen-based projects to assess environmental needs and resources, define community goals, and shape community development projects.