Kinship Faculty
Our faculty's achievements and mentoring skills are as impressive as their credentials.
Our faculty are chosen for their achievements in their fields of conservation, as well as in academia, economics and business. A quick look at their bios will show that these are leaders you'll be excited to have access to and interact with. Throughout the month, you'll be challenged, encouraged and inspired by their ability to convey concepts and mentor your progress.
Kinship Fellows Director
Kinship 2010 Faculty
About Kinship Faculty
James Tolisano
Jim Tolisano brings 25 years of professional experience in the design and implementation of biodiversity conservation projects to his responsibilities as Director of Kinship Conservation Fellows. He has held a wide variety of professional positions in field biology, ecological monitoring, conservation project planning and management, scientific, technical and creative writing and communications and environmental education.
He has worked in more than 30 countries as a senior advisor on conservation projects with the World Bank, USAID, Inter-American Development Bank, World Wildlife Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society and other international, national, local and tribal organizations; with a particular focus on integrating economic and business development measures into conservation practice. Jim formerly served as an Associate Professor of Conservation Science at the College of Santa Fe, where he helped create an innovative undergraduate conservation science degree program and directed an outreach and education program for teachers and educators.
He has published widely in both technical and creative periodicals and books, and has lectured at many universities. Jim graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, earned his Master of Science in forest ecology and watershed sciences at the University of Arizona and conducted doctoral research in parks, conservation science and environmental education at the University of New Mexico.
In addition to his duties as Director of Kinship Conservation Fellows, Jim is leading the development of several forest-based carbon emission reduction projects with rural communities in Africa, South America and Papua New Guinea. He also continues to assist rural communities in East and West Africa in their development of small business and sustainable land use strategies to support chimpanzee conservation and is supporting several South American institutions in the implementation of stakeholder driven trans-boundary conservation programs.
top↑
Christine Ageton
Christine Ageton is an independent consultant who assists non-profits with program development, facilitation, natural resource and strategic planning. She has extensive domestic and international experience in the fields of drinking water protection, conservation planning and community-based planning. Since 2004, she has designed and implemented programs in economic development (Clinton Foundation-Peru), drinking water protection (New Mexico Rural Water Association), conservation planning (IDB, World Bank –Belize, Honduras and Guatemala) and community-based conservation planning (UNDP-Panama). Christine is currently working on a child nutrition and drinking water project program for the non-profit organization, Project Healthy Children. She is also developing a peer-to-peer leadership program for The Business Alliance for Local Living Economies (BALLE). Christine received her Bachelor's degree from Skidmore College and holds two masters’ degrees from the University of New Mexico, one in Community and Regional Planning and another in Latin American Studies. She has published papers on co-management park initiatives in Belize and in land use and cultural preservation planning in northern New Mexico.
top↑
Doug Banner
Doug Banner is a twenty five year veteran of public education and has been a leader in the storytelling community and a promoter of the storytelling revival in Northwest Washington for twelve years. He co-founded the Bellingham Storytellers Guild in 1998 and received the 2001 Mayor’s Arts Award. The Mayor’s Arts Awards honor Bellingham citizens who have significantly contributed to the arts in the community.
Doug has been an advocate for positive change during his entire career as an educator and advocate for youth. Now retired, he continues this work in his teaching at Western Washington University and in community groups such as the Bellingham Compassion Movement, The Indigenous Studies and Honor Day Foundation, The Bellingham Storytellers Guild and the Nu Wa International Peace Delegation. As an Educator, Keynote, and Professional Storyteller, Doug understands the power of story to hinder or promote change. Doug’s knowledge and understanding of the application of story to promote change at all levels of our lives is well recognized.
Doug’s workshops on STORYTRAPS are fast paced, informative, and immediately applicable to those that attend. Once participants become familiar with the concept of STORYTRAPS they will have a tool to assess the obstacles to positive change in their lives, business, or community and their awareness of STORYTRAPS will continue to grow long after the workshop. Doug’s keynotes are meaningful, motivational, and crafted to the specific audience.
Doug is recognized as a world folklorist. His repertoire includes hundreds of stories from cultures around the world. His uses of imagery, voice and music have made his performances memorable to children and adults alike. His application of folklore and mythology, both ancient and contemporary, to his workshops brings to light the critical importance of story in our lives. It is said that wisdom is gained through the sharing of experience and experience is shared through our stories. Doug believes that there is nothing more potent to bring people together than a good story well shared.
top↑
Virginia Bartholomew
Virginia “Ginny” Bartholomew is a New York based classical stage actoress, director and teaching artist. She specializes in teaching speech and effective communication using lessons from the classical stage. Her techniques facilitate clear communication using text analysis, improvisation, listening skills, voice and diction techniques as well as eye contact and effective body language. Ginny has designed Shakespeare outreach programs for students, teachers and seniors and is currently developing classical text workshops for persons with early Alzheimer’s Disease. She has taught and coached speech, acting, Shakespeare and dialect with Open Stage, The Powel Crosley Theatre, Shakespeare on the Bay, York Little Theatre and Mount Hope's Classical Stage Series. She has performed and directed classical and contemporary theatre professionally nationwide for the last eighteen years and holds a comprehensive degree in Theatre Arts and Speech/Communications. Virginia is a founding member of The Oxford Shakespeare Center’s Company, The Boar, where she recently played Lady Macbeth and Rosaline in Love’s Labour’s Lost. Recent directing credits include: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mary Zimmerman’s Metamorphoses.
top↑
Bonnie G. Colby
Bonnie Colby is professor of natural resource economics at the University of Arizona and previously worked with the State of California and the University of Wisconsin. She specializes in designing and implementing new incentive-based conservation tools to address regional conflicts over human and ecosystem needs. She develops and provides innovative hands-on training in this arena for governments, NGOs, international working groups and the private sector. Dr. Colby has served as faculty at the Kennedy School of Government’s Executive Training Program in Environmental Economics at Harvard University, as well as President Clinton’s US Commission on Sustainability and a variety of professional training programs in over a dozen countries. Her ongoing projects include nonmarket evaluation of natural amenities, economic adaptation to climate change, assessing how scarce water and energy resources are allocated across economic sectors, resolving environmental conflicts, natural resource management among indigenous peoples and efficient allocation of risk across resource users. The Western Agricultural Economics Association named Bonnie Distinguished Scholar, their highest honor. Bonnie has produced an extensive and diverse list of publications, with eight books including: Risk and Resilience: Adapting to Climate Change, Water Policy for Urbanizing Arid Regions, Negotiations over Tribal Water Rights, Braving the Currents: Resolving Conflicts over the Rivers of the American West and Water Markets in Theory and Practice. Dr. Colby has a Ph.D. in Natural Resource Economics from the University of Wisconsin, with an undergraduate degree from the University of California. Dr. Colby, in her free time, can be found on the rivers, trails and beaches of favorite wild areas worldwide.
top↑
Karen Lehman
Karen Lehman is an accomplished leadership consultant, multi-stakeholder process facilitator and advocate. Her passion is working with people to promote sustainability in system change, particularly focused on food systems. A systems thinker by training and inclination, she has focused her career on the nexus between business, government and civil society. She got her hands dirty starting an urban youth farming non-profit and worked internationally with the policy wonks on food and agricultural policy. Her training and expertise in Adaptive Leadership are extensive. A graduate of the Kennedy School of Government with a concentration in leadership studies, she served as Ron Heifetz’s teaching assistant in two of his Harvard courses. She has taught the Adaptive Leadership framework and served as a Senior Associate with Cambridge Leadership Associates. In addition to her work with Adaptive Leadership, she directs Fresh Taste, a funder collaborative committed to increasing the availability of food that is green, fair, affordable and healthy in the Chicago region.
top↑
Ruth Norris
Ruth Norris is a consultant in organizational effectiveness, whose clients throughout the world include philanthropic foundations, bi-lateral and multi-lateral development assistance agencies and social change organizations, particularly in the field of environmental conservation. She designed and was the first coordinator of the Skoll Foundation’s Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship (2004-2007); served as senior program manager for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s Organizational Effectiveness program (2000-2003) and during the 1990s, provided extensive leadership and technical assistance to global programs funded by the World Bank/Global Environment Facility and USAID/Enterprise of the Americas Initiative, establishing national environmental endowments in developing countries. She also was the architect of The Nature Conservancy’s program for organizational development assistance to its partners in developing countries.
Holding a bachelor’s degree in political science and mass communications and a master’s degree in journalism, she has also completed extensive non-degree academic and practical studies in human and organizational psychology and behavior, as well as organizational management and leadership. She is fluent in Spanish and English.
top↑
Francis Pandolfi
Francis P. Pandolfi is a Partner in the consulting firm Social Enterprise Strategies Group, LLC, which assists NGOs in improving their focus and efficiency.
In 1997 Mr. Pandolfi was designated as the first-ever Chief Operating Officer for the USDA Forest Service in Washington, D.C. Previously he was the President and CEO of Times Mirror Magazines. The company's magazines included Golf, Yachting, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life, and many others. Mr. Pandolfi was also with CBS Publications as Vice President, Group Publisher of the Special Interest Magazine Group including Road & Track, World Tennis, Audio, and over 40 newsstand periodicals and annuals.
He received his BSE degree in chemical engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Mr. Pandolfi is an Honorary Trustee of the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation and a Trustee and Officer of The National Recreation Foundation. In the past, he has also served as a Trustee of the National Audubon Society, a member of the National Council of the World Wildlife Fund, a Trustee of Trout Unlimited, The Aldo Leopold Foundation, the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology, and he was on the Advisory Council of the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. He was also on the Board of Trustees of the Recreation Roundtable, the Direct Marketing Association, the Magazine Publishers of America and the Advertising Council.
In 1993, Mr. Pandolfi received the Chevron Conservation Award, the nation's oldest and most prestigious conservation award. He also received the annual Distinguished Service Award of New York's South Street Seaport Museum and the 1993 Colorado Ski Country President's Award recognizing his leadership in the environmental arena. In 1999 he was honored by the National Ski Areas Association for his work in conservation.
top↑
Nejem Raheem
Nejem Raheem is currently a professor of economics at Emerson College in Boston. This is his fourth year as core economics faculty at Kinship. He has been working in the field of environmental conservation more or less full-time since 1999, starting out at an Integrated Pest Management and watershed protection program in New York State. From there, he worked with forest conservation issues in New Mexico and then proceeded to get his Ph.D. in economics from the University of New Mexico, all the while consulting on conservation projects in that state and farther afield in Brazil and in Alaska.
His areas of expertise include the incorporation of ecosystem service values into cost benefit analyses. A particular focus within that area is cultural values for indigenous or traditional communities that are affected by infrastructure projects. He has worked with Inupiat Eskimo communities in Alaska; Innu, Inuit and Metis peoples in Canada; the White Mountain Apache Nation in Arizona and Hispanic irrigators in northern New Mexico. He is currently working on an ecosystem services valuation framework for the Californial Ocean Protection Council and on several ES papers, including one with Heather Webb, 2009 Fellow.
Nejem is an avid hiker, climber, runner, rower and cook.
top↑
Sebastian Teunissen
Sebastian Teunissen runs the Programs in International Management Education, encompassing the International Business Development Program and the Seminars in International Business at the Haas School of Business. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Wildlife Friendly Enterprise Network, the advisory board of Community Markets for Conservation (CoMaCo) in Zambia and at Ashesi University in Ghana. He is a founder and director of the Rapa Nui Heritage Foundation on Easter Island, Chile. He works closely with the Wildlife Conservation Society and other environmental organizations to bring managerial skills to protected area and country managers in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In addition to advising companies across a range of industries and countries, Sebastian also lectures regularly at universities in Australia, Chile and Hungary. He also serves on the Board of Directors of a Portuguese company. Prior to joining Haas, Sebastian managed a company in Japan, served in the Finance Department of the Government of Papua New Guinea and taught in the business schools of Duke and Wake Forest Universities. Sebastian completed his undergraduate training in economics and mathematics at the University of Guelph in Canada and his graduate work in economics at Duke University.
top↑
Ray Victurine
Ray Victurine is the Director of the WCS Conservation Finance Program and the WCS Natural Resources Team Leader. Ray heads WCS’s global efforts to develop sustainable financing opportunities that explore market mechanisms to meet conservation objectives and contribute to sustainable development in global areas of biodiversity importance. Additionally, he leads WCS’s initiatives to engage with companies and governments in an effort to balance conservation and development interests through mitigating and compensating for impacts. He is actively involved in the emerging markets for ecosystem services, including work on REDD, biodiversity offsets and water, as well as exploring development of other innovative financial mechanisms for conservation.
Ray has contributed to the design and development of a variety of endowment funds and conservation funding institutions around the world, including creation of the first land trust in East Africa. Ray's Ph.D. studies were in economics and geography and he also holds a Masters degree in agricultural economics, emphasizing natural resources and with a research focus on water resources management.
Ray lives on Bainbridge Island where he enjoys bicycling, kayaking and hiking in the mountains of the Northwest.
top↑
Steven Yaffee
Steven Yaffee is the Theodore Roosevelt Professor of Ecosystem Management and Professor of Natural Resource and Environmental Policy at the University of Michigan. He also directs the School of Natural Resources and Environment’s Ecosystem Management Initiative, a research, teaching and outreach center focused on landscape-scale conservation and sustainable management of natural resources. Steven Yaffee has worked for more than 25 years on federal endangered species, public lands and ecosystem management policy. He is the author of Prohibitive Policy: Implementing the Federal Endangered Species Act (1982) and The Wisdom of the Spotted Owl: Policy Lessons for a New Century (1994). His research, tracking the on-the-ground progress at more than a hundred collaborative ecosystem management initiatives, was first documented in Ecosystem Management in the United States: An Assessment of Current Experience (1996). The lessons from this research are summarized in Making Collaboration Work: Lessons from Innovation in Resource Management (2000), a book co-authored with Julia Wondolleck. He has facilitated collaborative processes in more than twenty places across North America. Steven Yaffee also is a founding member of the Editorial Advisory Board for “Conservation” magazine. He received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in environmental policy and planning. His undergraduate and master’s degrees are in natural resources from the University of Michigan. Steven Yaffee has been a faculty member at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a Senior Fellow at World Wildlife Fund.
top↑
|
"I can't say enough great things about the faculty: they were amazing, dedicated, generous with their knowledge and so ready to take on anything we threw at them."
-
Heather Webb,
BedsLife-Bedfordshire & Luton Biodiversity Partnership,
2009 Fellow
|
