Fellows are undergraduate
or graduate students who assist in ESI programs and collaborate
with ESI on one or more academic projects that investigate the
"human dimensions" of conservation and sustainable development.
Jeanine M. Canty, California Institute
of Integrative Studies
Diane
Lynch, University of Minnesota
Jeanine
M. Canty is currently a faculty member of the University of
Naropa. 
She has an MA in Cultural Ecopsychology and received her Ph.D.
in Transformative Learning and Change at the California Institute
for Integral Studies (CIIS). Simultaneously, she served as core
faculty at Prescott College, working with both education and liberal
arts students in the community-based programs and teaching Ecopsychology
in the residential program. Her doctoral work focused on
how we can shift Western Cultures' thinking from one of poverty
consciousness to one that perceives and celebrates abundance.
She is passionate about both environmental and cultural issues,
focusing on the role culture plays in developing a sustainable
worldview and the process individuals go through to reach heightened
awareness.
Gabriela
Chavarria, Ph.D., was born in Mexico City. She received her
undergraduate degree in Biology from the Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México and a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology
from Harvard University. She is currently the Director of Science
Centers for the Natural Resources
Defense Council. She has a strong interest in the conservation
of threatened and endangered species, invasive species prevention
and management, and pollinator conservation. Her Ph.D. research
focused on the systematics, behavior, and biogeography of pollinators,
especially Neotropical bumble bees. Her work has taken throughout
Americas and into Europe and Asia. She provides leadership to
the Canada/Mexico/U.S. Trilateral Committee for Wildlife and Ecosystem
Conservation and Management, the Black-footed Ferret Recovery
Implementation team, the Native Seed Trade Association, the Wildlife
Center of Virginia, the Mexico-North Research Network, the Darwin
Project, and the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign.
Susan
Chernak McElroy is
a teacher, master storyteller, and writer. 
She
is a nationally recognized, passionate,
and original voice on the subject of our emotional, biological,
and sacred relationships with animals and wild nature. Through
her teaching and writing, Susan helps restore people to themselves,
and to the living world. She guides transformational retreats
through MorningSage.
Susan's writings have been published in more than twenty languages
worldwide.
Among her many books are the classic New York Times Bestseller,
Animals as Teachers and Healers: True Stories and Reflections
and ESI's Courting the Wild: Love Affairs with the Land,
which she co-edited with Jamie K. Reaser. She resides in
the hill country of Indiana. See:
http://www.susanchernakmcelroy.com.
Paul
R. Ehrlich, Ph.D., is the Bing Professor of Population Studies
and Professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University where
he established the Center
for Conservation Biology. Paul founded the field of co-evolution
with Peter Raven and is well known in the scientific community
for his long-term studies of butterfly populations. He has a special
interest in cultural evolution, especially environmental ethics.
However, he is most widely recognized as a pioneer in alerting
the public to the problems of overpopulation, and in raising issues
of population, resources, and the environment as matters of public
policy. He is the author of many books, including the 1968 best-seller,
The Population Bomb, and Human Natures: Genes, Cultures,
and the Human Prospect. He is a fellow of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of the Arts
and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society, and a member
of the National Academy of Sciences. He has received numerous
awards, among them, a MacArthur Prize Fellowship, the Crafoord
Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (given in areas
where the Nobel is not given), and the United Nations’ Sasakawa
Environmental Prize.
Alexis
Gutierrez is the National Marine Fisheries Services’
International Coordinator for the Office
of Protected Resources. Recently, as a Fellow of the Smithsonian
Institution's National Museum of Natural History, she completed
an assessment of the linkages between development assistance and
biological invasion into freshwater systems in Southeast Asia.
She has worked as Project Manager for the Global Invasive Species
Programme and a staffer at the U.S. National Invasive Species
Council. She received a B.A. in International Studies, with a
minor in Environmental Studies, from the Johns Hopkins University.
She subsequently completed her M.A. in International Relations/International
Economics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International
Studies. She is interested in building the capacity of developing
countries to address conservation issues at the interface of ecology,
economics, and international policy.
Donald Kennedy, Ph.D., is the Editor-in-Chief
of Science
Magazine and Bing Professor of Environmental Studies, Emeritus,
at Stanford University. He is a former Commissioner of the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration, and served as Provost and later
President of Stanford University. His present research program,
conducted partially through Stanford’s Institute of International
Studies, entails interdisciplinary work on the development of
policies regarding such trans-boundaryenvironmental problems as:
major land use changes; economically-driven alterations in agricultural
practice; global climate change; and the development of regulatory
policies. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences,
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical
Society.
Jason
Kirkey is a poet, independent publisher, and practitioner
of earth-based Irish spirituality. He is the founder of
Hiraeth Press where
he published Courting the Wild: Love Affairs with the
Land, an anthology of essays edited by Jamie K. Reaser and
Susan Chernak McElroy for ESI, as well as three collections of
his own poetry; Portraits of Beauty, Songs from a
Wild Place, and The Ballad of the Sea-Sweet Moon and
Other Poems. He graduated from Naropa University with
a bachelor's degree in Interdisciplinary Studies with concentrations
in Environmental Studies and Contemplative Psychology. He
has recently taken his first steps into the field of facilitating
workshops and retreats based on the ecopsychological themes found
in the Irish druidic tradition. Currently, he is writing
a book about nature, myth, and initiation into the soul through
Celtic spirituality. See: http://www.jasonkirkey.com.
Thomas
Lovejoy, Ph.D., is the Director of the H.
John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment.
He is the former Chief Biodiversity Adviser to the President of
the World Bank, Senior Advisor to the President of the United
Nations Foundation, Vice President of the World Wildlife Fund-US,
Assistant Secretary for Environmental and External Affairs and
Counselor to the Secretary for Biodiversity and Environmental
Affairs for the Smithsonian Institution, and Science Advisor to
the U.S. Secretary of Interior. He founded the public television
series, Nature, and is the conceptual father of the dept for-nature-swap.
Tom is one of the most highly regarded conservation biologists
in the world today, and is especially well known for his innovative
problem solving and commitment to the needs of developing countries.
For his expertise and dedication he has received numerous awards,
including the Brazil’s Grand Cross of the Order of Scientific
Merit, John & Alice Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement,
and the Lindbergh Award. Tom serves on numerous boards and committees,
and is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the
American Philosophical Society, among others. He is the author
and editor of numerous articles and books.
Diane Lynch
has dedicated the last fifteen years of her professional and personal
life to understanding the dynamics of environmental protection
and helping people integrate their lives with the needs of the
environment. Frustrated with the win-lose nature of law-making
that often trades environmental protection for political power,
she transitioned from a career in governmental affairs to dispute
resolution. In that arena, she provides planning, facilitation,
conflict management/mediation and communications services for
local, regional and state governments on critical environmental
issues. Her passion regarding wildlife issues coupled with her
own spiritual practice led her back to the University of Minnesota
to pursue a master's degree in conservation biology. Her thesis
work focused on the beliefs of indigenous tribes and assimilated
peoples in Peru and their relationships with the amazon/pink river
dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) and how those relationships
affect the conservation of this Appendix II CITES species.
Jamie
K. Reaser, Ph.D., is the founder and President of ESI. She
is a conservation ecologist and ecopsychologist with a passion
for the arts and helping people achieve their full potential.
She is a certified Trainer and Master Practitioner in Neuro-linguistic
Programming (NLP), and has studied traditional knowledge and healing
practices with community and indigenous leaders of various cultures.
She has more than 20 years of experience in leadership development
and has worked around the world as a biologist, international
policy negotiator, environmental educator, wilderness rites-of-passage
guide, 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 is currently a free-lance consultant and writer,
life coach through Transformational
Counciling, trainer for NLP
Comprehensive, and guide for Animas
Valley Institute. Jamie serves on the World Conservation Union
– IUCN’s Species Survival Commission and Commission
for Education and Communication, as well as the Board of Advisors
for Conservation Value.
She is the author or editor of more than 100 publications, including
Bring Back the Birds: What You Can Do to Save Threatened Species,
Courting the Wild Love Affairs with the Land, and Courting
Reptiles and Amphibians: Love Affairs with Herps and Their Habitats
(in prep). Her photographs, illustrations, and poems appear in
books, magazines, and calendars. She has received numerous awards
and competative fellowships, including the NLP World Community
Award for her contributions to environmental conservation.
Jamie homesteads on 85 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
Erick
Vargas spent his early life in a coffee-growing town in Costa
Rica. Thanks to a Fulbright-CAMPUS Scholarship Program, he completed
a B.A. in History at Louisiana State University. Later, he received
his M.Sc. in Ecological Tourism at San José-based Latin
American University for Science and Technology. He is a certified
Master Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). In
1993, he became the Ecotourism Coordinator at Carara National
Park, in the Central Pacific Coast of Costa Rica. Following that
position, he dedicated three years to training young men and women
from rural communities as nature guides. From 1997-2005, Erick
worked at Costa Rica’s National Biodiversity Institute INBio
as the Training Unit Coordinator. With a mission to share knowledge
and information so as to empower other people, he organized courses,
workshops, seminars, field trips, and in-service training in a
wide range of subjects, including biodiversity conservation, sustainable
development, protected areas, ecotourism, guiding and interpretation,
environmental services, bioprospecting, intellectual property
rights, and NLP. Erick is now an environmental consultant
and professional speaker working at national and international
levels on issues related to biodiversity conservation, ecotourism,
and sustainable development. He contributed an essay to ESI's,
Courting the Wild: Love Affairs with the Land.
