Services

Karabi Acharya

Senior Program Officer, Academy for Educational Development
Washington, DC

Karabi has worked in the field of international health and development for over 15 years throughout Asia and Africa. Trained as a public health anthropologist, she wears several professional hats including researcher, evaluator, trainer (adult educator), and technical expert. Currently, she is serving as the evaluator for the SCALE (System-Wide Collaborative Action for Livelihoods and the Environment) process as it is being implemented in Morocco and Kenya. SCALE seeks to generate system-wide change strengthening relationships among diverse stakeholders and generating social capital in a common issue area. She is also conducting research in the area of gender norms in Ethiopia and conducts training in "Stakeholder Consultation" at the World Bank.

Gabriela Anaya

Executive Director, Sociedad de Historia Natural NiparaLa Paz, Mexico

Gabriela intends to apply the foundation tools and skills addressed in the Fellows Program to a multi-stakeholder process aimed at fostering the sustainable relationship with the Bay of La Paz, one of the largest coastal lagoons in northwest Mexico. Over the past few months her organization has played a key role in creating momentum for this process and has assembled a group of nonprofits, members of the tourism sector, artisanal fishermen, and other community members that are willing to engage in collaborative action. She is particularly interested in using the skills and knowledge gained from the Fellows Program to help create and communicate a compelling vision that would encourage more citizens to participate.  She would also like to incorporate principles of systems thinking in the group’s action agenda, promote effective dialogue among the private, public and nonprofit sectors and foster an organizational learning process among project participants. 

Nicole Betancourt

Producer, Director

New York City, New York

Nicole has been working in media production and nonprofit management for fifteen years. Her work focuses on using media and story telling to shift consciousness, create empathy for the “other”, generate compassion and spark social and environmental change.  Intrinsic to her work is the building of networks between artists, businesses, social change agents and other stakeholders. Her past work includes producing and directing an Emmy award-winning documentary, video art installations, an award-winning short film festival and popular web-based communities.  She is currently a producer and video artist on the Food Theater Project, which includes a play, youth workshops and an activist campaign all focusing on eating and food systems in the US.

Josephine Brennan

Director of African Development, BioAlcohol Fuel Foundation

Johannesburg, South Africa

Josephine works with the Swedish Bio-Alcohol Fuel Foundation (BAFF) which is working to assist in Sweden's shift towards sustainable transport using renewable fuels.  BAFF has spent the last 20 years developing an end-to-end systems chain for ethanol to be adopted in Sweden as a renewable fuel contributing to Sweden's independence from oil.  As a representative of BAFF in Africa, Josephine seeks to support national governments in developing long-term national programs for sustainable biofuels development, to enable them to leverage the opportunity for long term, sustainable economic and social development.  By participating in the Fellows program, Josephine aims to master the art of communicating systems thinking real-time in complex dialogues with key decision-makers.

Laura Freeman

President and CEO, Laura’s Lean Beef Company

Lexington, Kentucky

Laura Freeman started Laura's Lean Beef on her mother's east-central Kentucky farm. She had a passion for natural, healthy, and green food systems, and so in 1983 and 1984 developed an "off the farm market" for beef, lamb, blueberries, and asparagus. Although this initial attempt was mostly unsuccessful, in the summer of 1985 she started selling her beef in mainstream groceries as Laura’s Lean Beef.  Since then, Laura's Lean Beef has expanded to 6000 retail outlets in the United States and Canada. By participating in the Fellows program Laura hopes to gain a broader understanding of change and apply that knowledge in her daily work encouraging change in the food market.

Lena Hansen

Energy and Resource Consultant, Rocky Mountain Institute

Boulder, Colorado

Lena works with the Rocky Mountain Institute’s Energy and Resources Team. She is RMI's project leader for biofuels, and is working to implement the biofuels strategies put forward in RMI's 2004 book Winning the Oil Endgame. She is currently working with the State of Hawaii to assess biofuel's potential and to develop a program to accelerate the development of a biofuels industry within the state. Lena also manages and contributes to consulting projects including demand-side management, renewable energy integration, and greenhouse gas strategies for electric utilities and has done extensive research on methods for managing the variability of wind power.

Danielle Hirsch

Operational Manager, Both ENDS

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Both ENDS is a Dutch foundation that aims to strengthen civil society organizations and key players in change processes towards global sustainable development. Both ENDS is one of the few development organizations in Europe that consistently advocates ecological sustainability as a basic condition for development. The foundation strives to show that civil society has the capacity to develop and implement innovative approaches to sustainable development. As an operational manager of a small organization, Danielle analyzes complex challenges, contributes to developing Both ENDS’ vision, and translates these into balanced and tactically smart actions. By participating in the Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program she hopes to build her capacities to meet both the analytical challenges and the ‘people’ aspects of her work. Danielle holds a Masters in Development and Environmental Economics.

Karin Jakubowski

Coordinator, Northeast Science Center Collaboration Clean Air-Cool Planet

Northford, Connecticut

Clean Air-Cool Planet is dedicated to finding and promoting solutions to climate change.  As coordinator of the Northeast Science Center Collaborative Karin works with more than 70 member organizations, bridging the gap between the public’s understanding of global warming and the science of climate change.  She manages seven programs that help science center educators become familiar with climate science and provide resources, trainings, and solutions.  Karin's goal  is to help members feel comfortable teaching about the topic and implementing solutions in their communities. Prior to this position, Karin held adjunct professorships and worked for more than nine years in museums and science centers.  She has been a naturalist/guide in New York's Central Park, Cape Cod Massachusetts, and Southeast Alaska.  Karin has a master's in environmental conservation studies/marine affairs and a certificate in conservation biology.

Anna Jones-Crabtree

Regional Sustainable Operations Coordinator

US Forest Service
Helena, Montana

As the Forest Service's first Sustainable Operations Coordinator Anna provides both regional and national leadership from the Rocky Mountain Region.  She works to pragmatically reduce the agency’s environmental footprint and clearly connect this footprint with the mission of a land management agency.  Through establishing informal networks of champions throughout the agency and in partnership with other agencies, sustainable operations projects she works to include implementation of alternative fuels programs, waste prevention/recycling efforts, environmentally preferable purchasing teams, energy and water conservation and renewable energy projects. Anna plans to use her Fellow's experience to continue to expand this effort in a way that will be long-lasting and become embedded in the culture of the agency.

Dana Lanza

Executive Director, Environmental Grantmakers Association

New York City, New York

As a 'hub' of environmental philanthropy, EGA strives to facilitate the exchange of strategic information and best practices amongst its members. Tracking the Field, a new project of EGA, intends to track trends in environmental philanthropy and to report these back to the field to provide statistical and analytical resources in a timely, if not serendipitous, manner. Prior to her position at EGA, Dana founded Literacy for Environmental Justice, bringing over 10,000 public school students free environmental education projects throughout the San Francisco area. Dana holds a Masters degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and a BA from Boston College in Psychology and Environmental Studies.

Maria Latumahina

Director, Papua Civil Society Support Foundation/ UK-Department for International Development

Jayapura, Papau, Indonesia

As director and co-founder of PCSSF and regional facilitator of the DFID Forestry Program, Maria is dedicated to advancing a mulitstakeholder dialogue focused on the sustainable management of the tremendous natural resources found in Papua while improving the quality of life for the citizens of Indonesia’s poorest province. Although the Papauan culture reflects their tight relationship with the environment and natural resources, the individual citizen is not the only member at the decision table. Maria and her colleagues strive to bring all stakeholders (government, private sector, parliament, community and military) together to discuss and develop parameters for a definition of sustainable and equitable environment and natural resource management while balancing each individual groups’ interests and concerns.  Some important points of focus include examining the incentives for the community to protect the environment, and the incentives for the military, the private sector and the government to collaborate. What legal, financial and political scenarios should be in place? Developing approaches to these questions is what Maria hopes to apply her newly learned skills from the Fellows Program towards.

Justin Maxson

President, Mountain Association for Community Economic Development

Berea, Kentucky

Justin has been engaged in social change work in Kentucky and across the country for 15 years. He is currently President of the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED), a 30-year old multi-strategy community economic development organization serving central Appalachia based in Berea, Kentucky. MACED creates economic alternatives that work for people and places. MACED employs three major strategies—enterprise development, research for policy reform and demonstration initiatives. Justin’s work is focused on exploring local economic development strategies that increase economic security for people in need and provide regional responses to climate change. Previous to MACED, he was founding Executive Director of the Progressive Technology Project. He holds a masters in anthropology from Boston University.

John Mlade

National Market Sector Research Manager, Perkins + Will Architects

Atlanta, Georgia

John is a green building and sustainability researcher at Perkins+Will, the third largest architecture firm in the country. Hired as part of Perkins+Wills’ corporate commitment to sustainability, John serves as a firmwide sustainability resource to facilitate design, research and education and has worked on sustainable design projects for clients as diverse as Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Homeland Security, National Institute of Health, Georgia Institute of Technology and Texas A&M University.  His expertise in green building is complemented by his participation in his community as an educator and organizer.

Susanne Moser

Director and Principal Researcher, Susanne Moser Research & Consulting

Santa Cruz, California

Susi is an action researcher whose work focuses on the societal impacts of, and responses to, climate change, particularly in coastal areas, and on how to communicate global warming in a way that facilitates the necessary social changes. She just published an anthology on the topic, entitled Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change (Cambridge University Press, 2007).  During the Fellows Program she hopes to develop an action research project with a coastal community where she will apply systems thinking and Donella Meadow’s leverage points concept to engage members of this community in a dialogue on some of the really difficult choices that will have to be made in the process of adapting to the impacts of climate change and sea-level rise.

Nirmala Nair

Director, Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives

Cape Town, South Africa

Nirmala believes in developing heart-centered development initiatives that bridge as well as synthesize deep spirit in a truly transformative process. Her quest has been to search for solutions based on sustainability approaches that are locally designed and rooted in local culture and traditions, while creating global opportunities that challenge current competitive business models.  She believes that external technocratic interventions alone are not going to be sufficient to create a new paradigm shift that is inevitable for the next leap into the future. Her work in this respect will be focused on how to design self organizing, independent bio-regional-zones (working with strong local business, local governments and local communities) to facilitate robust systems and inspired practices sustaining and regenerating the local eco-system that include enabling communities living truly in sustainable abundance.

Brooke Simler Smith

Executive Director, Communication Partnership for Science and the Sea (COMPASS)

Corvallis, Oregon

At COMPASS Brooke has helped build a non-traditional bridging organization that connects ocean scientists and science to the media, public policy discussions, and other scientific discussions. COMPASS works to ensure marine science is synthesized in a manner relevant to society, is strategically communicated to the right people at the right times, and empowers the scientists themselves to be the communicators of their own information. The unique nature of COMPASS' work demands a creative approach to strategic planning, implementation and program management. Brooke is interested in finding synergies among COMPASS' science, policy and communications initiatives in order to increase COMPASS' cumulative impact and the benefit to other marine conservation efforts.

Steven Smith

Coordinator, Iowa Network for Community Agriculture

Marshalltown, Iowa

For twelve years the Iowa Network for Community Agriculture (INCA) has been fostering connections between farmers and community members who are growing sustainable local food systems in Iowa.  Steve works to assure that each system is shaped and owned by all the local stakeholders in the “food flow” from field to table.  Steve is committed with INCA to growing the next generation of farmers and sustainable farms, including helping immigrants and refugees, many farmers in their country of origin, to become successful established farmers in local food systems.  As a fifth generation Iowa farmer who himself has made the transition from industrial scale commodities to small farm organics, it is important to Steve that “everybody is welcome at the table.” Insight into productively engaging multiple and often antagonistic stakeholders in a focused process is one thing he hopes to gain from the Fellowship.  Steve’s work gives shape to his commitment to sustainable farming, a diversified countryside, and the distributed production of healthy, safe, and secure food available to all.

Maria Suarez

Co-Director, Feminist International Radio Endeavour

Co-Coordinator, Wings of the Butterfly

Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica

Feminist International Radio Endeavor (FIRE) is an internet radio station produced by women. Wings of the Butterfly aims to activate social movements though artistic expressions.  Maria has had a long career as women’s human rights, social justice and communication as a human right activist.  She has written several books, including her most recent Se Vende Lindo Pais (Pretty Country for Sale) (2001) and La Tranca (The Spell) (2002), which she co-authored with the Costa Rican activist, Cristina Zeledon.  Both books focus on the struggle to stop oil exploration in Costa Rica.  Maria has recently completed a Ph.D. program in Education from La Salle University in Costa Rica and explains it as a life changing experience.  Her doctoral dissertation was titled “Women: Metamorphosis of a Butterfly Effect” which comprised 26 chapters designed to render visibility to women’s paradigmatic contributions in the sciences, arts, politics, and literature.  She is presently involved in a project to turn her doctoral dissertation into a musical theatre show as part of a proposal to include art in the reactivation of social movements for transformation.

Catharina Any Sulistyowati

Coordinator, Kuncup Padang Ilalang  (KAIL)

Bandung, Indonesia

KAIL (Kuncup Padang Ilalang) is an NGO which does capacity building for youth to increase their awareness of environmental and social problems. Catharina Any uses system thinking elements as part of her training and facilitation modules. She has various training and facilitating experience, ranging from the local level such as facilitating women's group meetings in rural areas to team building for international organizations. She feels her biggest challenge is how to change the mindset of people towards sustainability and is now devoting significant effort towards finding ways to set up a training center for sustainability in Indonesia.

William Young

Director of Operations, 388th Electronic Combat Squadron US Air Force

Oak Harbor, Washington

An accomplished strategist and leader, William is a Lieutenant Colonel with nearly 16 years in the United States Air Force.  In addition to his day-to-day duties leading one of the nation’s premiere Electronic Warfare units, he is working to improve military methods for strategy development in the Information Age by leveraging systems thinking and sustainable design approaches. Outside of his military duties, William assists several non-profit and charitable organizations in developing actionable strategies to address challenging problems through improved problem structuring. William’s work has garnered national recognition, and both Ebony and Black Enterprise Magazine have profiled him in leadership articles.