Happy Hour Speakers

A best-selling author, successful entrepreneur, sought-after public speaker, and long-time conservationist, Diane encourages women to green the marketplace by choosing products whose use or manufacture offer the greatest environmental benefit. Through her new book, as well as her articles and speeches, she hopes to motivate women to take actions that will make a difference. She helps environmental organizations engage more women as members, activists, and donors. She also encourages companies to green their products to appeal to more women consumers.

The BigGreenPurse.com website was named "2007 Best Green Website" by FutureNow. The site offers eco-lifestyle tips and shopping suggestions, as well as opportunities to join One in a Million, a campaign to encourage one million women to shift $1,000 of their household budgets to eco-friendly products and services.

As the co-founder and president of an award-winning communications company based in Washington, D.C., Diane's clients included the World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, World Wildlife Fund, Earth Day, the National Wildlife Federation, Earth Share, the League of Women Voters, and the Women's Environment Development Organization.

Diane played an integral role in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's campaign to educate the public about global warming. She also worked with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance to establish the Grand Staircase/Escalante National Monument during the Clinton Administration.

As a nationally syndicated Washington Post Writer's Group newspaper columnist, Diane wrote weekly “Tips for Planet Earth,” answering readers' questions on a wide variety of environmental topics. She has produced numerous award-winning publications for members of Congress, the media and the public at large. Her writings have been featured in MoveOn's best-selling 50 Ways to Love Your Country and The Cousteau Almanac on the Environment, as well as Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Self, Christian Science Monitor, Ladies Home Journal, Reader’s Digest, First for Women, Baltimore Sun, Country Living and many more.

A frequent speaker on women and the environment, Diane serves as the vice-chair of the board of directors for the Alaska Wilderness League. She has been called a 'trendsetter' by Sierra Club and has been cited for her Distinguished Service as a board member of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Diane lives with her husband and their two children in the energy-efficient home they helped build more than 20 years ago. She received her Master of Science Degree from the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan.

Susan Harris began a second career teaching sustainable gardening as president and newsletter editor of the Takoma Horticulture Club for many years, but with the launch of her first gardening blog in 2005, her audience suddenly became worldwide. That blog lead to a monthly columm in the Takoma and Silver Spring Voice newspapers and the invitation to co-create with writers in New York and California the award-winning team blog GardenRant.com. Its success has helped to promote her new website Sustainable-Gardening.com and the monthly Sustainable Gardening News.

On the local front, she became a DC Master Gardener and then, learning out that upon graduation there was no Master Gardener organization in DC to educate the public about environmentally responsible gardening or to support community and school gardens, she started the DC Urban Gardeners. It's now going strong and she continues to write its website, co-write its news blog, and do public speaking about gardening sustainably.

At an even more local level, she's in her fifth year of teaching gardening one-on-one in people's gardens, a service she calls coaching. She's also mentoring new garden coaches across the country and promoting them through her worldwide directory and TheGardeningCoachBlog.com.

On the home front, she recently removed all the lawn on her property and is now "trialing" an assortment of groundcovers for their drought-tolerance and ability to take a little traffic, and will be reporting the results widely. For people who need or desire a lawn, she encourages them to practice organic lawn care.

Crystal Mario is the founder of Rivanna Natural Designs. The company was started in 2001 with a simple objective: to provide safe, meaningful, and rewarding employment for recently-arrived refugees and others in our community who need a second start or an opportunity to learn new skills. Rivanna Natural Designs manufactures FSC-certified wood products, including plaques, awards, and gifts.

As the Sierra Club's National Communications Director, Kim Haddow oversees the Club's branding efforts, strategic communications planning, message development, and earned and paid media. Her duties include coordination and management of the Media Team, Sierra Magazine, the Web and Publishing Services Teams and Sierra Club Productions.

Haddow joined the Sierra Club after working nine years as its media consultant and advertising agency. Other Haddow Communications, Inc., clients included the Apollo Project – a joint environmental/union initiative, Ocean Champions, Public Campaign, the National PTA, the U.S. State Department, the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, and The Trust for America’s Health.

Before starting her own business, Haddow worked for eight years at Greer, Margolis, Mitchell, Burns, a consulting firm where she worked on 22 statewide candidate and initiative campaigns. At Greer, Haddow won a number of awards for her work – including a National Silver Anvil for Johnson and Johnson’s National SAFEKIDS public relations campaign.

Before working at Greer, Haddow worked for seven years as an editor, reporter and ultimately news director for WWL-AM, a 24-hour all news station in New Orleans. While there, Haddow received more than 30 local, state and regional awards for her writing and reporting.
Haddow is a graduate of Washington College in Maryland and Loyola University of the South’s Institute of Politics. She lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, with her husband and two sons, Douglas and Owen.

Bernadine Prince
Co-Director and Treasurer/Secretary
FRESHFARM Markets
March, 2008

Bernadine (Bernie) Prince is a Founder, Co-Director and Treasurer/Secretary of the FRESHFARM Markets, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, dedicated to educating the public about food and farming issues, providing vital economic opportunities for farmers, and celebrating the Chesapeake Bay watershed region's agricultural heritage and bounty. For 2007, FRESHFARM Markets operated six producer-only farmers' markets in the District of Columbia (Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom, H St, NE and Penn Quarter) and Maryland (St. Michaels and Silver Spring) and directed a local foods and gardening program (FoodPrints) at Rudolph Elementary School (Ward 4) in Washington, D.C.

FRESHFARM Markets was originally sponsored by American Farmland Trust, a conservation organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. Bernadine Prince was the Trust's first director of public education, where she created compelling educational materials like the "Apple as Planet Earth" video and "Farming on the Edge" Map Talk that are used nationally to inform general audiences about the need to stop the loss of over one million acres of farmland annually in the USA.

Bernadine Prince has been a development and fundraising professional helping to raise over $300 million for Penn State University’s first comprehensive campaign, $60 million for Colorado School of Mines first capital campaign and over $38 million for American Farmland Trust’s first major fundraising campaign. She also served as a fundraising consultant to the New American Schools Development Corporation.

Bernadine Prince has written articles for Farmland Magazine and the Mid-Atlantic Restaurant Digest. She has been a guest speaker at direct marketing conferences throughout the USA. In November 2002, she was the keynote speaker at the inaugural conference for farmers’ markets in Australia, where she helped to set that country's standards for producer-only farmers’ markets. In July 2006, she was the guest of New Zealand's Farmers' Marketing Association where she was the keynote speaker at the first farmers' market conference in New Zealand. Conference organizers said she "inspired farmers' markets throughout the north and south islands." She serves on the Board of Directors of the H Street Community Market. She is a member of Slow Food, Capitol Hill Merchants and Professionals, the Capitol Hill Restoration Society and Les Dames d'Escoffier.

Bernadine Prince lives in the Capitol Hill neighborhood of Washington, D.C., where for eight years she and her husband Ray operated a bed and breakfast (Doolittle Guest House) where fresh foods and flowers grown by local farmers were always featured. The guest house was featured in the Michelin Green Guide and the Lonely Planet Guide to Washington, DC.

Bernadine Prince is a graduate of Ohio University where in the 1970's she organized a food cooperative that purchased directly from local farmers, a bakery and dairy. She spent two years doing graduate work in anthropology at Penn State University, spent a summer doing field work at Monticello near Charlottesville, VA and directed field archaeology projects in Virginia.

Brennan Van Dyke is the Senior Advisor to the CEO of the Global Environment Facility. Her work focuses on providing policy guidance to the CEO, strengthening relations with donor governments, and developing multifocal, multistakeholder initiatives.

Brennan is being seconded to the GEF for two years by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Previously, she served as Director of the Regional Office for North America of the United Nations Environment Programme since 2000, where she successfully encouraged US government and civil society engagement with UNEP.

Ms. Van Dyke came to UNEP from the office of United States Senator Carl Levin, where she served as Legislative Assistant. Prior to that, Ms. Van Dyke was Director of the Trade and Investment Program of Center for International Environmental Law and worked for the New York law firm, Hughes Hubbard and Reed and as Issues Director of a gubernatorial campaign.

Ms. Van Dyke has taught as an adjunct professor of law at American University's Washington College of Law and has published numerous articles, primarily addressing the environmental impacts of international trade and investment rules.

She has a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from University of California, Berkeley.

Leslie Carothers is President of the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), an independent, non-partisan education and policy research center focused on advancing environmental protection by improving law, policy and management. ELI publishes the Environmental Law Reporter; the Environmental Forum, a policy journal; and the National Wetlands Newsletter.

Before her election as ELI president in June, 2003, she served for 11 years as Vice President, Environment, Health and Safety at United Technologies Corporation (UTC) a multi-national aerospace and building systems company. She also served as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection from 1987-1991 and Senior Environmental Counsel for PPG Industries from 1982-1987. She began her environmental career with the federal Environmental Protection Agency in the air pollution program in Washington in 1971 and later served as Enforcement Director, Deputy Regional Administrator, and Acting Regional Administrator of EPA’s New England Region in Boston. She is a graduate of Smith College and Harvard Law School and also holds a Masters Degree in environmental law from George Washington University. In 1991, she was an adjunct lecturer on environmental regulation at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Jessy is a rock star of youth voting and empowerment. She got her start as a student activist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she earned her degree in Political Science and African-American Studies. While at UW-Madison her work included organizing student vote coalitions in 2000 and 2002, helping to elect Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin to office, and engaging students in local politics through her own bid for the Madison City Council at age 19. After graduation, Jessy worked as the Wisconsin State Director for the New Voters Project, registering over 130,000 18-24 year old voters across the state and helping to produce one of the highest youth voter turnout rates in the country, a historic 11% increase in youth voter turnout in the US, the largest increase since 18 year-olds got the right to vote. Jessy was recently named one of the "Real Hot 100."

She has just coordinated Energy Action Coalition's organizing efforts for PowerShift, the first national youth summit to solve the climate crisis. This event brought in over 5,000 youth to the DC area in order to organize and educate congress on the importance of making climate change a priority.

Areas of Expertise: Wildlife biology, endangered species and the Endangered Species Act, land and habitat conservation, national environmental policy

Jamie Rappaport Clark joined Defenders of Wildlife as executive vice president in February 2004. Jamie oversees a staff of 145 in Washington, D.C. and in field offices across the country and in Mexico and Canada.

Jamie came to Defenders after a 20-year career with the federal government, mostly with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1997, she was appointed director of the Service by President Bill Clinton, a post she held until 2001. During her tenure as director, Jamie oversaw the addition of two million acres to the National Wildlife Refuge System, including the establishment of 27 new refuges, and presided over the recovery of key endangered species such as the bald eagle, gray wolf, and peregrine falcon.

Jamie's tenure as director of Fish and Wildlife Service was also marked by the adoption of innovative policies to encourage landowners to voluntarily conserve wildlife, including the safe harbor program and expanded habitat and candidate conservation programs. Also under her leadership, the Fish and Wildlife Service worked with Congress to pass the landmark National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, which established wildlife conservation as the primary purpose of all refuges within the system.

Prior to her appointment as director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Jamie served the agency as chief of the division of endangered species, southwest deputy assistant regional director, and senior staff biologist.

Jamie Clark holds a B.S. in wildlife biology from Towson State University in Towson, Maryland, where she also did post-graduate work in environmental planning. She holds an M.S. in wildlife ecology from the University of Maryland.

Anja S. Caldwell is an architect born and trained in Germany. Since she relocated to the United States in 1997, sustainable design has been her professional focus of choice.

Caldwell established the Green Building Program for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) in Maryland in 2003 and received the Board of Educations “Distinguished Service to Public Education Award” of 2006, given annually to three of the school systems twenty thousand staff members. She introduced and implemented a plan for high performance design and the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) rating system for school construction at MCPS, and coordinates the greening of the MCPS Architectural Design Guidelines.

Her most recent projects include Maryland’s first LEED certified school, Great Seneca Creek ES in Germantown, which was awarded the Gold rating from the US Green Building Council.
In 2006 Caldwell initiated a national design challenge for a green portable classroom for National School Building Week involving students and the modular building industry.

She is a member of the US Green Building Council’s core committee for LEED for Schools and member of several green building committees in Montgomery County and Washington, DC working on green building legislation. She was appointed to the Green Building Task Force of DC Council Member Jim Graham in 2006 to help draft the DC Green Building Act.

She is also an active member of the Intergovernmental Green Building Group (IGBG) that coordinates green building policies, training and events for the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG).

Anja Caldwell was one of the first five to become accredited as LEED Professionals in Washington DC in 2001 and has applied LEED to all her projects ever since. She has worked as an architect on commercial and institutional projects in Germany and the US for clients like Marriott, Intelsat, Proxicom and the University of Maryland University College (UMUC). She was the project architect for a green addition to the Inn and Conference Center of UMUC, the first LEED certified Marriott in the United States.

In Germany she was editor of the German quarterly architecture magazine “Architektur + Wettbewerbe – AW” and has published a book about efficient starter homes, “Starterhäuser”, in 1998.

Caldwell was trained as an architect in Stuttgart, Germany, and holds a Masters degree from the University of Miami, where she studied traditional neighborhood and urban design under Duany and Plater-Zyberk as a Fulbright scholar. She is a licensed member of the German Institute of Architects (Deutsche Architektenkammer) since 1994.

Dr. Jamie K. Reaser is the founder and President of Eco Systems Institute, an organization that builds the capacity of individuals and organizations dedicated to environmental conservation and sustainable development. She also has a private life coaching practice known as Transformational Counciling.

She is a conservation ecologist and ecopsychologist with a passion for the arts and helping people achieve their full potential. Jamie holds a doctorate in Biology from Stanford University and a B.S. in Field Biology from the College of William and Mary, as well as Trainer and Master Practitioner certification in the field of communication psychology known as Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP). In addition, she has studied and teaches traditional knowledge and healing practices with community and indigenous leaders of various cultures. She has more than 15 years of experience in leadership development, and is a graduate of Leadership America, the Center for Creative Leadership, and Outward Bound professional leadership programs.

Jamie has worked around the world as a biologist, international policy negotiator, environmental educator, and trainer. Former employers include the Smithsonian Institution, U.S. Department of State, National Invasive Species Council, and the Global Invasive Species Programme, where she was Executive Director. She serves on the Newsweek Global Leadership and Environment Advisory Committee, Conservation Value Advisory Committee, as well as The World Conservation Union – IUCN’s Species Survival Commission and Commission for Education and Communication. Jamie was awarded science and policy fellowships by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1998 and 2003, and in 2004 she received the NLP World Community Award for her contributions to environmental conservation.

She is the author or editor of more than 100 publications, including Bring Back the Birds: What You Can Do to Save Threatened Species. Her photographs, illustrations, and poems appear in books, magazines, and calendars.

Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of The Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest citizens’ advocacy organization with members and chapters across Canada, as well as the co-founder of the Blue Planet Project which works to stop commodification of the world’s water. She is also a Director with the International Forum on Globalization, a San Francisco based research and education institution opposed to economic globalization. Maude is the recipient of numerous educational awards and has received honorary doctorates from six Canadian universities for her social justice work as well as the recipient of the “2005/2006 Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship”.

Most recently she received the prestigious “2005 Right Livelihood Award” given by the Swedish Parliament and widely referred to as “The Alternative Nobel.” She is the best-selling author or co-author of fifteen books. Her most recent publications are Too Close For Comfort: Canada’s Future Within Fortress North America; and Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop Corporate Theft of the World’s Water (with Tony Clarke), now published in 47 countries. Currently, Maude is writing a new book on the global fight for the right to water entitled Blue Covenant.

When much of the world’s biodiversity is found in or around agricultural landscapes, how can we support agricultural production and rural livelihoods while still protecting biodiversity and crucial natural ecosystem services? In 2004 members of the ecoagriculture sector met in Nairobi, Kenya, to develop a strategy to promote and support ecoagriculture development around the world. At this month’s EcoHour, Dr. Sara J. Scherr, a leader in the field, will discuss her career and the ecoagriculture movement.

Sara J. Scherr is an agricultural and natural resource economist specializing in land and forest policy in tropical developing countries. She is President of Ecoagriculture Partners, an NGO that supports agricultural communities who manage landscapes both to increase production and incomes, and to enhance wild biodiversity and ecosystem services. She is a member of the United Nations Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger, and a member of the Board of Directors of the World Agroforestry Centre, The Katoomba Group, and REBRAF-USA.

Dr. Scherr was until recently also the Director of Ecosystem Services of Forest Trends, an NGO that promotes forest conservation through improved markets for forest products and ecosystem services. There she analyzed the development of “payments for ecosystem services” including carbon sequestration, watershed protection, and biodiversity conservation, including their potential benefits and risks for low-income communities. Dr. Scherr’s former positions include: Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA; Co-Leader of the CGIAR Gender Program; Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C.; and Principal Researcher at the World Agroforestry Centre, in Nairobi, Kenya. She was previously a Fulbright Scholar (1976), and a Rockefeller Social Science Fellow (1985-87). Dr. Scherr received her B.A. in Economics at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in International Economics and Development at Cornell University in New York.

Dr. Scherr has published over 30 articles in refereed journals and 11 books, including Ecoagriculture: Strategies to Feed the World and Save Wild Biodiversity (with Jeff McNeely) and A New Agenda for Forest Conservation and Poverty Reduction: Making Markets Work for Low-Income Producers (with Andy White and David Kaimowitz).

Bettina Poirier
Staff Director
Committee on Environment and Public Works, U.S. Senate
April, 2007

Last month former Vice President Al Gore testified before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on the climate crisis. The top ranking staff member of the committee, and the first woman to hold this position, Bettina Poirier, will speak to EcoWomen about the possibilities for legislation to combat global warming. She’ll also discuss her career on Capitol Hill and answer your questions about the 110th Congress.

Bettina Poirier made history on November 14, 2006, when Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the first woman to chair the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, named Poirier the first woman to serve as its Staff Director and Chief Counsel. Poirier began her service in 2001 as an advisor to California’s junior senator for environmental and agricultural issues. Her time with Boxer, and her nearly two-decade-long career as an environmental lawyer, gives Poirier a deep understanding of environmental and infrastructure issues and the laws that provide the foundation of protection for clean air, clean water, wildlife, and other environmental matters.

Poirier has also served as Minority Counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee under Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich. A graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, and NYU Law School, Poirier was an environmental associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. She also served as Deputy Assistant General Counsel for Pollution Control in the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the eight years of the Clinton Administration.

Kara S. Strong
Sr. Project Manager
Sustainable Design Consulting
March, 2007

Ever wondered if there are other housing options in DC than the drafty old rowhouse or the marble-counter-topped high-end condo building? In fact, there are, and our March speaker, Kara Strong, lives in one of the region's green condo buildings. Kara will discuss green residential projects in DC, her career as a green design consultant, and tips for greening your own living space. She'll also answer your questions about green design.

Kara S. Strong, AIA, LEED, is a Project Manager at Sustainable Design Consulting, providing green building consulting for a wide variety of project types. She received her B.Arch. degree from the Boston Architectural Center and her M.S.A.S. degree from the University of Florida, researching sustainable design and materials. Prior to joining SDC, Kara accumulated over twelve years experience working as an architect throughout the east coast. She currently lives in a LEED-Silver cohousing community in Silver Spring, Maryland. Kara is an active participant in the AIADC Committee on the Environment and Montgomery County’s Energy and Air Quality Advisory Committee.

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Deb Callahan
Founder
North Star Strategy
February, 2007

Deb Callahan is the founder and president of North Star Strategy, a consulting firm based in the Washington, DC, area that serves progressive non-profits and foundations by providing strategic services in the areas of politics, policy, and philanthropy.

She is the immediate past president of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), where she served as president for ten years. During that time, LCV ran numerous successful independent campaigns, investing millions in 445 endorsed candidates, with 358 of them winning—a success rate of about 80 percent. Additionally, LCV established effective programs like the Dirty Dozen and Environmental Champions, and strengthened its policy and lobbying advocacy as well as increased recognition of its National Environmental Scorecard and other reports. Under her leadership, the LCV Education Fund directly strengthened the capacity of more than 500 environmental, conservation, and other advocacy organizations in 30 states, and its non-partisan voter education programs have helped mobilize millions of voters to engage in civic environmental causes, successfully using on-the-ground partnerships with allied groups. Prior to her work at LCV, Deb served as the founding executive director for the Brainerd Foundation and was a Program Officer for the W Alton Jones Foundation, both environmental grant-making foundations.

Her other organizational work includes the National Toxics Campaign, and she has worked for numerous electoral campaigns and elected officials, including Al Gore, Senator Kent Conrad and Walter Mondale.

Deb graduated in 1981 from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a degree in Environmental Studies.

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Martha Honey
Executive Director
The International Ecotourism Society
Center for Ecotourism and Sustainable Development
January, 2007

Martha Honey is Executive Director of The International Ecotourism Society and Center for Ecotourism and Sustainable Development (a joint project of the Institute for Policy Studies and Stanford University). She has written and spoken widely on ecotourism as a tool for development and conservation and on certification, including Ecotourism and Certification: Setting Standards in Practice (2002), Ecotourism and Sustainable Development: Who Owns Paradise? (1999), and Protecting Paradise: Certification Programs for Sustainable Tourism and Ecotourism (2001, with Abigail Rome). In 2000, she organized the first ever-international conference on “green” tourism certification that took place at the Mohonk Mountain House in New York. For twenty years she worked as journalist, based first in Tanzania and then in Costa Rica. She holds a Ph.D. in African History from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and is a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies.

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Debbie Sease
Campaign Director
Sierra Club
November, 2006

Debbie Sease is the Sierra Club’s National Campaign Director. She is responsible for overseeing the Sierra Club's legislative, public policy and political programs, and manages its Washington, D.C. office.

Sease has been with the Sierra Club for more than 25 years. As National Campaign Director, she has coordinated Sierra Club campaigns on energy, clean air, clean water and wild forests. Prior to becoming the National Campaign Director, she directed the Sierra Club Public Lands Program, and in that capacity, led the Club’s efforts on a variety of wilderness and park protection measures.

Sease takes a hands-on approach to leading the National Campaign Office, applying her strategic skills and years of political experience to help senior staff and volunteer leaders develop, design and implement effective lobbying, grassroots and public education campaigns.

In addition to work with the Sierra Club Sease has had a distinguished record of environmental activism and leadership. Before coming to Sierra Club she worked for a coalition of environmental organizations (including the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society, and Friends of the Earth) to lead a joint effort on the Bureau of Land Management’s wilderness review of the public lands.

During her years at the Sierra Club, Sease has contributed to successful campaigns to protect millions of acres of wilderness and parks and forests and gain stronger standards to protect public health from soot and smog. Sease led the Sierra Club’s successful campaign to protect more than 8 million acres in the California Desert in 1994, and led the launching the Sierra Club’s Building Environmental Community Program in 2003. Her current focus is working with Club volunteers and staff to develop and implement the Conservation Initiatives.

Debbie grew up in New Mexico where she developed a love of deserts, wilderness and wild rivers. To balance her conservation and political work, she paints, builds furniture, kayaks, gardens and cooks.

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Michele has over twenty years experience of working for a more just environment with an emphasis on community involvement. Her background includes: working as an Environmental Scientist in regulatory agencies; in the transportation sector she worked as a Community Liaison focusing on Title VI; as an Environment and Health Specialist she worked for a more sustainable approach to brownfield re-development; and former Campaign and Organizing Director with the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. In 1999, she was key in the creation of the Community Involvement Advisory Council, a process used to increase community involvement for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Michele holds a Bachelors degree in biology from Morgan State University (1983) and a Master degree from the University of Delaware School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy (2000), where she focused on creating a broader framework for environmental justice by incorporating sustainable community building practices.

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Mishkat Al Moumin
Former Minister of the Environment in the interim Iraqi government and
Current Futrell Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute
September, 2006

Dr. Mishkat Al Moumin is a well-known Iraqi lawyer and a lecturer of human rights at the University of Baghdad - College of Law. Dr. Al Moumin designed the entire structure of the Department of Environment in Iraq from the previous Department of Health.

While serving as the Minister of the Environment, Dr. Al Moumin also developed new environmental law, led campaigns to support Iraqi people living in environmentally dangerous situations, and initiated awareness and clean-up projects.

Prior to joining the government Dr. Al Moumin served as the women's issues director for the Free Iraq Foundation, where she successfully advocated for women to hold 25% of the seats in the new Iraqi
Parliament.

Dr. Al Moumin graduated as a Mason fellow at the Kennedy school of Government at Harvard University where she earned a Master's degree in public administration. This degree was in addition to her MA and PhD in public international law from the University of Baghdad.

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Personal experience informs her style. Dr. Mamie Parker is people-oriented in her manner of management. She knows that behind successful partnerships with government agencies or private endeavors, people make them happen. To that end, she advocates employee development; she encourages her employees to plow new ground in the field of opportunity – to cultivate news experiences. Dr. Parker has behind her, 28 years of experience in the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and still looks boldly into the future.

Armed with degrees in wildlife and fisheries biology, Dr. Parker has plied the trade at a number of Service facilities, starting as a fish health practitioner at the Genoa National Fish Hatchery in Wisconsin. From there she went to the New London National Fish Hatchery and then a stint at the Green Bay Ecological Services Field Office before returning to the National Fish Hatchery at Lake Mills, Wisconsin. Never one to shy from something new, Dr. Parker worked in the Section 404 program and the Partners for Wildlife Program out of Columbia, Missouri, helping private landowners improve wildlife habitat.

The north had its pull again on this native southerner; she eventually became the Regional Division Chief of Habitat Conservation and the ecosystem and NEPA coordinator for the Great Lakes – Big Rivers Regional Office in Minneapolis. Opportunity knocked to return south in 1996 to the Southeast Regional Office in Atlanta, where Dr. Parker served as the Deputy Geographic Assistant Regional Director, and Deputy Assistant Regional Director – Fisheries where she supervised Ecological Services, Fisheries offices and National Wildlife Refuges in Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The road to leadership eventually wended its way to Washington in 1998. Dr. Parker served the Director’s Office as the Special Assistant, providing expert advice and analysis on national policies. In 1999, she became the Deputy Regional Director and eventually the Regional Director for the 13-state Northeast Region, in Hadley, Massachusetts.

Dr. Parker returned to Washington in 2003 to serve as the Assistant Director - Fisheries and Habitat Conservation. She has taken the Division to new heights, growing new partnerships, creating new Friends groups, and pushing habitat restorations, coastal and marine mammals protection, fish passage, wetland mapping, planning on military lands, strategic planning and outreach. As the co-chair of the Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force, she has led the group through planning and into action. Under her guidance, the Fish Technology Centers are thriving and the Aquatic Animal Drug Approval Partnership is getting new drugs approved by the FDA – benefiting conservation, commerce, and people.

Dr. Parker stands at the fore of habitat conservation, marshalling the National Fish Habitat Plan into action, a plan that will create an unparalleled opportunity to set national goals for cooperation and communication among all levels of interested parties, in the interest of conservation.

Dr. Parker’s successes were recently recognized by her home state; she was inducted into the Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame, by Governor Mike Huckabee. She also received the Service’s distinguished Ira Gabrielson Award given to one outstanding leader in the Service each year. Dr. Parker is a member of the Links, Inc. Rotary Club, International, and Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Relevant experiences pre-date Dr. Parker’s Service career. She is the youngest in a family of 11 children, and no matter how high she may rise, she will always look up to her employees and but also her older siblings. It was only natural then that she should make mentoring a significant part of her management methods. Dr. Parker owes the greatest debt of gratitude to her favorite mentor, her mother Cora, the avid angler. She and her husband Artist make a home in the Washington, D.C. area.

Barbara was recently featured in “Buyer, Be Fair,” a film that explores the potential overlap for free and fair trade through examining product certification for timber and coffee products. Barbara is no novice at certification issues. She was involved in the development of Forest Stewardship Council from its early years and is now the FSC-US Board Chair.

Barbara also has a long and distinguished track record working on international trade and environmental conservation issues. She was a key organizer of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and the Rio + 5 Conference in 1997. Also, Barbara was a U.S. representative on a tri-national team of authors reporting on the operations of a commission created a NAFTA environmental side agreement. At the Society for Environmental Journalists conference in 2005, she spoke on a panel titled: “10 Years Later: Is NAFTA delivering?”

Barbara is currently the Senior Program Advisor for International Affairs at NWF. She is also an environmental lawyer. She received her juris doctorate degree at George Washington University.

Mayor Ellen O. Moyer's election as the first woman Mayor of the City of Annapolis culminates a career in public service spanning more than 35 years. She came to Annapolis as a district coordinator for the Girl Scouts of America. Later, as first lady of the City, she spearheaded a number of initiatives in beautification, recreation and the arts. As a community activist, she was the founder of Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, served as president of the Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, and developed the Parks and Paths for People program. She represented Ward 8 on the City Council since 1987. During her tenure as alderman, she was responsible for founding GreenScape and the Maryland Maritime Heritage Festival, initiating the Street End Parks, promoting the Barge House Museum and the Eastport Historic Walking Trail, developing an innovative zoning overlay to protect the maritime industry, and bringing the world famous Whitbread yacht race to Annapolis.

Elizabeth Shogren came to NPR in February 2005 to cover environmental issues on the National Desk. Prior to NPR, Shogren spent 14 years as a reporter on a variety of beats at The Los Angeles Times. For the last four years she reported on environmental issues in Washington, D.C., and across the country. From 1993 - 2000, Shogren worked from The Los Angeles Times' Washington bureau covering the White House, Congress, social policy, money and politics, and presidential campaigns. Starting in 1988, Shogren worked as a freelance reporter based in Moscow, publishing in a variety of newspapers and magazines, including Newsweek, The Dallas Morning News, the San Francisco Chronicle, and The Washington Post. During that time, she covered the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful revolution in Prague.

Mary Frances Repko serves as a Senior Policy Advisor on the minority staff of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, working for retiring U.S. Senator James M. Jeffords (I-VT). The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is the primary Committee of jurisdiction in the Senate for our nation's environmental laws, including: the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Resource Conservation Recovery Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (Superfund).

Prior to her work in the Senate, Ms. Repko worked in the policy program at World Wildlife Fund on marine conservation, climate change and pollution prevention issues. Ms. Repko also worked for the Great Lakes Commission, an eight-state interstate compact agency that focuses on resource management issues in the Great Lakes region.

Ms. Frohardt, is the Executive Director of Flora & Fauna, International (FFI). She joined FFI, Inc. as its first Executive Director in the US in October of 2003. She has had a productive career in the international conservation arena from both the U.S. and Africa, most recently as Program Technical Director for the African Wildlife Foundation. Before that, she was based in Kigali as Rwanda Director of the International Gorilla Conservation Program (IGCP), of which FFI is a founding coalition member.

While Assistant Director of Conservation Programs for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in the U.S., Ms. Frohardt was responsible for an $86 million grant portfolio; she has also worked in the private sector and on land use planning. Ms. Frohardt holds a Master's degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and prior to that majored in Environmental Science at the University of Virginia, where she also completed a minor degree in French language.

Ms. Frohardt is focused on further developing FFI's US presence, with the US Board and with an extended program and management team based in FFI's UK office and in field locations around the world.

Juliet Eilperin
National Staff Writer/Environment
The Washington Post
October, 2005

As a Washington, D.C., native, Eilperin grew up immersed in politics. After graduating from Princeton University in 1992, she spent the next 10 years covering politics. Before joining the Washington Post in 1998, she covered politics and economics for an English-language magazine in Seoul, South Korea, on a Luce Scholarship and wrote for States News Service and Roll Call newspaper. After having covered a political beat, she decided that she needed a change, which led her to focus on environmental issues.

Forty-five years ago, as a student at Vassar College, Elizabeth Titus Putnam proposed as her senior thesis a student conservation corps to protect and preserve our nation's natural resources. Liz contended this volunteer work would benefit both the land and the individual, and history has proven her right. In 1957, the then-Student Conservation Program dispatched its first crews a total of 53 students in Olympic National Park and Grand Teton National Park. Today, the Student Conservation Association annually places more than 2,500 volunteers, who provide more than one million hours of conservation service in our national parks, forests, refuges and urban spaces. SCA has more than 40,000 alumni from coast to coast and each can personally testify to the SCA adage of "changing lives through service to nature."

Nora Pouillon, a true believer in healthy living, is a longtime advocate for increasing the quality and nutritional value of our food supply. She is a pioneer who first introduced organic dining to the Washington area over twenty two years ago. In April 1999, Restaurant Nora became the first certified organic restaurant in the nation, proving you can successfully run an upscale restaurant that is good for ourselves and the environment. Nora's commitment to a healthy lifestyle extends beyond the kitchen. Nora has consulted for Fresh Fields Wholefoods Market and Walnut Acres, where she has developed a number of product lines. She is a founding board member of Chefs Collaborative 2000 and leading spokesperson for the NRDC/SeaWeb "Give North Atlantic Swordfish a Break" campaign.

Trained as an architect and with hands-on experience in carpentry, Bambi Tran has been working in the field of sustainable development for over a decade. She is currently an Associate with Steven Winter Associates--a well-known architecture, engineering, and building research firm specializing in sustainable, or "green," design. Bambi concentrates much of her work on improving the overall quality of residential, commercial and institutional buildings by providing technical assistance, developing policies/standards, and conducting training using a "whole building" approach. Bambi will talk about the emerging approach to design called "whole building" and show examples of sustainable design projects and features throughout the country. She will discuss the growing green building field and the opportunities for women. In addition, Bambi will lead an interactive discussion on the practices that you can do at home to make your dwelling more healthy, environmentally-friendly, and energy- and resource-efficient.

Margie Brand is an internationally-experienced trainer, facilitator, curricula developer, activist, development consultant, and entrepreneur. Most recently, she founded Eco-Ventures, a non-profit organization that helps young leaders understand sustainable development issues through the creation of environmentally-focused microenterprises. Born and educated in South Africa with a degree in Business Science, Margie has worked extensively with organizations throughout the world in building the capacity of their microenterprise, self-sustainability and livelihood projects. Come and hear about the many projects and programs she has initiated around the world, and hear her take on the prospects for sustainable development through microenterprise!

Anna is one of our movement's very best environmental lobbyists. As Legislative Director (LD) for U.S. PIRG, she's advocated for environmentally-sound energy strategies and against subsidies that prop up anti-environmental industries. With her experience testifying before Congress and meeting with Members, she's got a pulse on the latest developments on the Hill. Prior to her work as LD, she's been the Staff Scientist at U.S. PIRG and the National Environmental Law Center. Anna's also no slacker when it comes to academics with a Bachelor's in Physics from University of Massachusetts at Amherst and a Master's in Environmental Engineering from MIT. And, Anna's a new mom! So, she may have a thing or two to say about juggling new responsibilities.

One of the foremost campaign communications experts in the country, Kristen is a preeminent communications advisor for advocacy organizations, foundations and other institutions. If you've heard that swordfish are in danger, it is largely thanks to Kristen. She crafted the communication strategy for this issue, winning the Silver Anvil award for her work. The SeaWeb's 'Give Swordfish a Break' campaign successfully mobilized hundreds of chefs across the country to stop serving swordfish until the U.S. government adopted a sustainable fisheries management plan. Kristen is a powerful and sought-after speaker who has recently addressed Independent Sector, Environmental Grantmakers Association, the Council on Foundations, the Communications Network, and the National Association of Children's Hospitals. She helps social change organizations use their voice in a strong, clear and compelling way to articulate their vision of a better world. She produces excellent communications tools for non-profits. And, she conducts capacity building communications trainings for nonprofits, foundations, and corporations (such as the Open Society Institute, Pew Charitable Trusts, Arsalyn Foundation, World Wildlife Fund, and National Association of Children's Hospitals). Hear Kristen once, and you may find an entirely new way of talking about the environment.

Many of us shop for organic food. In DC, however, some neighborhoods don’t have access to supermarkets, let alone organic produce. Community Harvest rights that wrong. Washington, D.C.-based Community Harvest works to provide access to good, healthy food, regardless of neighborhood or income level. Tosha ran Community Harvest from 2002-2004. Prior to working at Community Harvest, she was the Director of Development at a mentoring organization for high school students in Washington,DC. Tosha was also a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana,West Africa for two years as a Small Enterprise Development Advisor working primarily with widowed farmers. Tosha has a BBA from Howard University and is studying for a graduate degree at Johns Hopkins University.

In 1978 Lois became concerned about reports of leaking chemical waste in her Niagara Falls neighborhood, wondering if her children’s unusual health problems were connected to it. Lois later discovered that her neighborhood sat on top of 21,000 tons of buried chemical waste, the now infamous Love Canal. With no prior experience in community activism, she led her community in a battle against the local, state and federal governments. After years of struggle, more than 800 families were eventually evacuated, Love Canal cleanup began, the U.S. EPA’s “Superfund” program was created, and national press coverage made Lois Gibbs a household name. After winning the federal relocation of Love Canal residents, Lois and other local activists were inundated with calls from people around the country who were facing similar threats and wanted help. CHEJ was founded in 1981 to address this need.