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BOARD
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Staff Biographies
Edie Farwell
Program Director, Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows: New Initiatives
Edie Farwell directs the Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows New Initiatives Program. As the number of graduates of the Fellows Program grows, Edie is launching a social networking project to significantly increase the ongoing impact the Fellows make to global sustainability. This will be done by joint think/do tanks; projects across sectors; and by expanded interactions between Fellows, their networks and Sustainability Institute partners, colleagues and networks. Edie also co-designs the curriculum, workshops, and coaching methodology and serves as a leadership coach for the Fellowship.
In 2009 Edie will serve on the jury for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge to award a $100,000 prize to support the development and implementation of a solution that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems.
Edie has a M.A. in Cultural and Social Anthropology from the California Institute of Integral Studies; and a B.A. in anthropology and environmental studies from Dartmouth College. Previously she was director of the Association for Progressive Communications where she coordinated the early adoption of information and communication technology by an international network of civil society organizations, including several United Nations world conferences in the 1990’s. She lives with her two sons and husband at Cobb Hill Cohousing – an ecovillage that is an experiment in sustainable living – in Hartland, Vermont.
Nancy Gabriel
Program Director, Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program
Nancy directs the Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program, where she co-designs the curriculum, workshops and coaching methodology and serves as a leadership coach. Nancy is an experienced designer and facilitator of multi-stakeholder learning and action environments for people engaged in the movement to create a sustainable world. Nancy works with a diversity of stakeholders to design projects working towards the twin goals of social justice and environmental sustainability and has brought people together to create change in fields that include higher education, youth leadership and global communications on health and the environment.
At SI she was co-leader of the Meadowlark Project Leadership Laboratory, a partnership with the nonprofit organization Northern Great Plains aimed at regional economic and cultural transformation and initiative manager for the Sustainable Food Lab.
Previously Nancy was Director of Community Partnerships at Tufts’ Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, Director of Education and Training at Second Nature and Director of Operations at SatelLife. Nancy also worked for several years in the high tech industry. She holds a master’s degree in urban and environmental policy from Tufts University and a B.S. in business administration from the University of Vermont.
Nancy lives with her husband and two sons at Cobb Hill Co-housing in Hartland, VT.
Andrew P. Jones (Drew)
Program Director
Andrew Jones is a system dynamics modeler, facilitator, trainer, and designer of simulation-based learning environments.
Currently his primary commitment is contributing to breakthroughs in climate change strategy internationally and within the U.S., an effort one can track on the blog and the project website.
Trained in Environmental Engineering and System Dynamics modeling through a B.A. at Dartmouth College and a M.S. in Technology and Policy at MIT, he worked as a research assistant in the System Dynamics Group at MIT and at Rocky Mountain Institute. Since 1996, he has focused his practice on helping individuals and teams solve problems by applying system dynamics modeling and systems thinking in the areas of corporate sustainability, diabetes and public health, global climate change, and land use policy.
In 2008, as part of the CDC System Dynamics team, he accepted the "ASysT Prize" for “a significant accomplishment achieved through the application of systems thinking to a problem of US national significance in the area of national security, homeland security, energy, environment, health care or education."
He works out of SI's southeast office, in Asheville, North Carolina and teaches system dynamics and sustainability at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and at the University of North Carolina - Asheville.
Stephanie McCauley
Project Specialist
Stephanie McCauley is a web developer and project manager who is working to create and maintain interactive online climate models and an associated community of contributors as part of Climate Interactive, the Sustainability Institute's collaborative effort to provide an open source forum on climate change research.
Before joining the Sustainability Institute, Stephanie was a statistician and project coordinator with the State of South Carolina Office of Research and Statistics, a planner for the SC Energy Office, and a GIS analyst for Arcadis Geraghty & Miller. She has a M.S. in Economics from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of South Carolina Honors College.
Stephanie works out of SI's Asheville office and lives in South Carolina with her husband, two Corgis, and two cats.
Ellen Moran
Director of Operations
Ellen is a business management generalist and entrepreneur with strength in corporate finance, human resources, and small business development.
Having held positions ranging from Business Manager to Vice President to Chief Financial Officer, Ellen's career path has improved the operations, earnings, and public images of several small to mid-size corporations. Additionally, Ellen is the co-founder of a nationally acclaimed multimillion-dollar child safety organization. She holds degrees in both journalism and political science from Rutgers University.
Having spent much of her life as a volunteer activist for social and environmental causes, Ellen moved away from her career path and consulting business within the private sector to offer her practical corporate abilities and entrepreneurial work ethic to The Sustainability Institute. In Ellen's words, "I wanted to devote my passion and energies to an organization that more readily reflects my personal ideals and goals."
Philip Rice
Our Climate Ourselves Program Co-Director
Workshops and Consulting
Phil develops materials and leads trainings for the Our Climate Ourselves program with a particular focus developing tools and approaches that allow leaders to communicate the complex and sometimes counter-intuitive dynamics of climate change and the breadth of possibility for solutions. He offers briefings on emerging climate science, the range of solutions available to climate change, and the many opportunities for building a better world while addressing climate change. He has lead trainings for leaders on climate change for community groups, grassroots groups, educators, and faith communities.
Phil also conducts trainings and workshops on applying the tools of systems thinking to the challenges of sustainability. He co-developed a train-the-trainer workshop on systems thinking for sustainable development practitioners, and often leads workshops on the subject for clients that range from colleges and universities, to NGOs, to businesses. Phil works with clients on applying systems thinking to strategic analysis for change. In the past he has worked on topics ranging from forest issues, to marine hypoxia, to healthcare outcomes.
Phil has a Ph.D. in physiological chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, and lives in Hartland, Vermont with Beth Sawin and their two daughters.
Elizabeth Sawin
Program Director Our Climate Ourselves
Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program
Writing, Teaching and Coaching
Beth is a scientist, writer, teacher, and public speaker who brings systems analysis together with an attention to vision, values, and human purpose.
In the Our Climate Ourselves program, Beth creates trainings and tools for effective leadership on climate change. Her work includes translating the most recent climate science into non-technical terms, sharing solutions for creating vibrant lives and communities with less reliance on fossil fuel, and tools for community conversation and action.
Beth is a writer who focuses on the systemic leverage points for a sustainable society. Her writing is focused on climate change in the Our Climate Ourselves Essay series which focuses on the ways in which the act of facing the reality of climate change can open us to understand our place in the Earth community and orient us towards life-giving choices.
Beth's writing is available here and has appeared in a variety of publications including, Utne Reader, Timeline, Population Press, Grist, and Annals of Earth. She was also a lead writer of Sustainability Institute’s report on Commodity Systems.
Beth teaches the tools of systems thinking, reflective conversation, and visioning within the Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows Program, and in other workshops and trainings. She is an experienced coach of leaders in environmental sustainability. Her coaching emphasizes systems analysis, attention to personal effectiveness, and orientation towards one’s vision of a sustainable world. Most of her coaching occurs within the context of the Fellows Program but she is also available for personalized coaching in these areas.
She is a biologist with a degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and learned much of what she knows about systems dynamics and sustainability from her mentor and SI’s founder, Donella Meadows. Beth lives at Cobb Hill Co-housing with her husband, Phil Rice, and their two daughters.
Dominic Stucker
Fellows Network Coordinator, Donella Meadows Leadership Fellows: New Initiatives
Dominic started working as SI’s first Fellows Network Coordinator in early 2009. He is responsible for increasing connectivity and collaboration among the Fellows’ network. Dominic comes to SI from Earth Charter International, based in Costa Rica, where he was the International Youth Coordinator for over 2 years. In this role, he connected and catalyzed a global network of university students and young professionals in over 70 countries. Dominic has led workshops at major international conferences, including ones organized by the United Nations, IUCN, and CIVICUS.
Dominic earned his M.A. in Environmental Security and Peace from the UN-mandated University for Peace in Costa Rica. An elaboration of his thesis, which focused on environmental security in rural Tajikistan, was published by MIT Press in Environmental Justice and Sustainability in the Former Soviet Union. Dominic also holds an M.A. in Teaching from Brown University and a B.A. in Comparative Literature from Stanford University.
For 3 years, Dominic served as a Peace Corps Volunteer and subsequently worked with humanitarian and educational organizations in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. He also has 2 years' experience working as an education and community service program manager at CooperRiis, a healing farm community in North Carolina, United States for adults suffering from mental illness.
Dominic was born in Germany and raised in the United States. He loves hiking and mountain climbing and is a trained Wilderness First Responder. He is married and the father of young twin boys.
Sustainability Institute Board
Jay Bragdon, General Partner, Conservest Management, Woodstock, VT.
Jeanne Veatch Bragdon, Attorney, Land Use and General Practice, Bragdon Law Office, Woodstock, VT.
Jim Lyneis, Professor of Practice, WPI, Worcester, MA.
Mark W. McElroy, Ph.D, Executive Director, Center for Sustainable Innovation, Thetford Center, VT.
David Peart, Professor of Biology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH.
Gregory Prince, President, Educational Services Associates, Norwich, VT.
Vicki Smith, Town Planner, Hanover, NH