Andrea Bain, Environmental Specialist, Florida Department of Environmental Protection
For the last 8 months, Andrea has worked in the Drycleaning Solvent Cleanup Program in the capacity of a project manager, managing all phases of remedial action activities for dry-cleaning rehabilitation projects. Her community activism experiences have been focused on environmental education and environmental justice issues. As a graduate student at Florida A&M University's Environmental Science Institute, Andrea was an active member of the Environmental Sciences Student Organization, a student chapter of the Ecological Society of America and a team leader for the Environmental Sciences Institute Summer Camp. She also mentored high school students in ocean and environmental sciences for participation in regional and national science bowl competitions. Andrea continues to be actively involved by initiating community involvement through environmental education and hopes to promote environmental stewardship and social change by spearheading programs that target nontraditional populations.

Sarah Gaines Barmeyer, Water Issues Coordinator, Georgia Wildlife Federation (GWF) Sarah has been responsible for building, organizing, and managing the Georgia Water Coalition, a diverse group of interests that advocates for sustainable water management policies. Sarah recently moved to Savannah, where she has begun working on coastal environmental issues, such as marshlands and wetlands protection. Prior to working for GWF, she researched sea turtles with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and the Caribbean Conservation Corporation in Tortuguero, Costa Rica. She performed aerial surveys of right whale calving grounds off the Georgia coast with Wildlife Trust.

Sarah Bellos, co-founder, ASK Apparel
ASK Apparel is an organic clothing company that utilizes natural dyeing and other traditional techniques to create fashion forward apparel. Additionally, she is co-founder of Nashville Urban Harvest, a non-profit focused on promoting sustainable agriculture and increasing food security in Middle Tennessee. Through creation and stewardship of an urban community farm and a producer only farmers' market in downtown Nashville, Sarah seeks to inform and create dialogue and partnerships around economically and environmentally viable farming systems and market outlets. Previously, Sarah worked at the Investor Responsibility Research Center as a research analyst on the food and agriculture industries and interned in the Sustainable Enterprise Program at the World Resources Institute, researching business and biotechnology . While an undergraduate in Natural Resources Policy and Management at Cornell University, Sarah managed the student run organic farm and led an elementary school tutoring program through an Americorps grant.

Ben Gerhardstein, Graduate Student, Emory University
Ben is a Master of Public Health candidate in Environmental and Occupational Health at Emory University, where his research examines the health effects and the environmental justice implications of land use decisions in the Atlanta region. His current focus is informed by a diverse background in sociology, risk perception and communication, environmental law and policy, and youth development. Ben's experience is in both the non-profit and public sector - he has held positions at the Environmental Law Institute, in Washington, DC and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. His work on community medical monitoring in contaminated communities has been published in the Environmental Law Reporter. Committed to environmental health advocacy and education, at Emory he serves as the Vice President of the Rollins Environmental Health Action Committee. An adventurous soul, Ben is an avid rock climber and urban cyclist.

Chris Heaney, doctoral student, Department of Epidemiology at UNC-CH
Chris's primary focus is community-driven research, environmental justice, water quality, and environmental epidemiology. For over 7 years, Chris has been working with the West End Revitalization Association (WERA) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Office of Environmental Justice (OEJ) to address the disproportionate and adverse impacts due to a lack of access to safe water and sanitation infrastructure services in impoverished communities of color in Mebane, North Carolina. He is a project team member of an EPA OEJ Collaborative Problem-Solving (CPS) grant awarded to WERA in 2003. As a doctoral student Chris continues his partnership with WERA and also works as a Pre-Doctoral Trainee at the EPA Human Studies Division, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Office of Research and Development, in Chapel Hill, NC, ( under the direction of Dr. Tim Wade). Chris' research at EPA focuses on exposure to microbial pathogens and contaminants in drinking and recreational water and risk of enteric and other illnesses.

Billie Karel, Program Coordinator, Toxic Free North Carolina
Billie works to strengthen PESTed's connections to communities all across North Carolina, to find and develop activists for pesticide reform, and to help communities win safer local pest management programs and policies. Billie brings a background in education and advocacy to bear in her work, and strives to equip people with the information and skills they need to be confident and effective advocates for change. She serves on the NC State University Integrated Pest Management Committee, and volunteers at the Wake County Boys Club managing a vegetable garden.

Heather Langford, LEED Project Assistant, SSRCx Sustainable Solutions Group
An urban ecologist by training, Heather joined the Sustainable Solutions Group in April 2008 to facilitate clients through the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification process for green building. Prior to joining SSRCx, Heather worked as a consultant providing services of collaborative building, strategic planning, and program design to nonprofit organizations. Heather is a teaching fellow at the Nashville Civic Design Center, a board officer of the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council, and an active member of the Metro Nashville Tree Advisory Committee. Heather's career includes work in urban forestry, social ecology, environmental education, and aquatic resources. Heather has held previous positions at Casey Trees Endowment in Washington, DC, and the Urban Ecology Institute in Boston.

Davina Marraccini, Public Affairs and Environmental Justice (EJ) Specialist, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Davina designs public information campaigns based on an understanding of environmental policy implications and anticipated public response. She writes press releases and editorials primarily for the water and EJ programs, providing information on laws and policies, enforcement actions, local projects, funding and public involvement opportunities. Davina is developing an action plan to institutionalizing EJ in the region. She manages EJ-related grants awarded to nonprofit organizations and coordinates community-based forums to identify and resolve environmental issues impacting minority and low-income communities. Davina transferred from EPA New England in November, 2006, after working for five years in their EJ Program where she became the youngest Acting EJ Coordinator in the country. Davina volunteers as a mentor and helped launch the Boston chapter of Things to Do, a young professionals' networking association.

Ernest Muhammad, Natural Resource Technician, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
Ernest works on two different projects, the Marine Fish Tagging Program and the Trip Interview Program (TIP). His duties with the Marine Tagging Program are to disseminate tagging program information through presentations and workshops, maintain tagging and recapture data, and enter and edit tagging and recapture data. As a Port Agent with TIP, Ernest maintains a good rapport with the public, wholesale dealers, and commercial fishermen. He also collects biological samples, conduct interviews, enter and edit data into the states database and TIP online database. In addition to my duties with the tagging program and TIP, he helps other sections within the Marine Resources Division. He is currently helping MARMAP obtain samples from contracted commercial fishermen and aiding them in collecting fin clippings from Banded Rudderfish, Greater Amberjacks and Lesser Amberjacks. He also helps the Mariculture Section obtain Cobia for research. He is a member of the department's Minority Affairs Committee, a member of the Trident Fishing Tournament Committee, and a member of South Carolina's Chapter of the American Fishery Society.

Esther Obonyo, Assistant Professor, University of Florida
Esther Obonyo is an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida's Rinker School of Building Construction. She offers courses in construction engineering and productivity improvement. Esther's interests are in the area of sustainable design and construction, and in particular, on identifying opportunities for cross-fertilization between the stakeholders in the built environment and other industrial sectors. Her other research interests include continuous business improvement and the effective use of Information Technology to promote knowledge sharing. She is a member of the Powell Center for Construction and Environment and also sits in the College's Sustainability Committee. Previously, she worked as a business improvement analyst within the Balfour Beatty Group in the United Kingdom and a construction project manager in Nairobi, Kenya.

Adam R. Snyder, Executive Director, Conservation Alabama
Adam is also director of the voter education affiliate, the Conservation Alabama Foundation. Most recently, Adam served as Executive Director of the Alabama Rivers Alliance, a river protection and restoration non-profit established in 1997. Prior to joining the Alliance in 2001, Mr. Snyder worked at Operation New Birmingham, a downtown revitalization and race relations non-profit in Birmingham, Ala. He is an honor graduate from the University of South Carolina with a degree in print journalism. A native of Alabama, Mr. Snyder is involved with a variety of civic and volunteer organizations in his hometown. He is married to Dr. Erin Snyder, a member of the internal medicine faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Shereitte Stokes IV, PhD Candidate, Environmental Sciences Institute, Florida A&M University (FAMU)
Shereitte Stokes IV is pursuing his PhD at FAMU in Environmental Sciences with a concentration in Policy and Risk Management. He is examining the role that land-use planning and policies play in the creation of environmental health disparities and how the Community Pollution Threshold Model, a model that he has developed, can be used to mitigate, reduce, and prevent environmental health disparities. He is a member of the FAMU Environmental Sciences Student Organization (ESSO) and, is an environmental justice advocate who hopes that his work will be included in the movement. In addition to academics, Shereitte has interned with WildLaw, a Non-profit Environmental Law Firm, where he worked with several grassroots community organizations (Taylor Residents United for the Environment [TRUE], Environmental Alliance of North Florida [EANoF], Big Bend Climate Action Team/Environmental Forum [BBCAT/BBEF] et al.) against the proposed siting of a coal-fired power plant in a predominantly low-income overburdened community.

Tes Thraves, PhD student, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Tes is a folklorist completing her dissertation in Communication Studies. Her academic work examines Identity and Hope-based community building and is based on an oral history project done with a Monacan tribal youth group. Tes currently volunteers with CIRA, a state-wide collaborative group working on poverty reduction through building local food systems, and she is additionally working with the Abundance Foundation to develop a farm incubator program in central NC. Serving on the board of Chatham Marketplace food co-op since pre-opening, Tes is newly the chair of Producer Relations, plus has plans to create an owner-built cookbook with the co-op chef. Tes worked for Piedmont Biofuels last year, and still does volunteer projects for them. She lives happily in rural NC with her three dogs, and also volunteers in two domestic women's shelters, teaching yoga.

Mark van Soestbergen, President, International Carbon Bank and Exchange and the Coordinator of the Climate Neutrality Working Group of the University of Florida
Mark first became interested in carbon sequestration in 1990 while developing an emmissions reduction scheme for Shin-Idemitsu, a Japenese oil distributor. Mark is a frequent guest lecturer on climate change adaptation strategies and most recently he was co-chair of EPA's 16th Annual International Emissions Inventory Conference.