Alumni Association Board September 2011 - 2012

President

Holly Welles M.F.S. ’88 (2^nd term ends 2014)
Princton, NJ hwelles@princeton.edu

Holly Welles is Communications & Outreach Manager at the Princeton Environmental Institute at Princeton University. She held previous positions at Pacific Gas and Electric Company; USAID; Council on Environmental Quality; and Capital Hill. She earned her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley and was a Switzer Environmental Fellow and a Morris K. Udall Dissertation Fellow.

Exec. Comm., Nom. Comm., Univ. Eng. Comm.

Vice President

Brian Goldberg M.E.M. ’03 (1^st term ends 2012)
Alexandria, VA brian.goldberg@aya.yale.edu

Brian is an environmental planner at AECOM, a global design and engineering firm. He focuses on both sustainable approaches to landbased planning and the AECOM corporate social responsibility program, which engages the firm's 45,000 employees. His volunteer efforts with the Alumni Association Board have helped launch the F&ES Branches Initiative. Brian is a former Hixon Center for Urban Ecology Fellow.

AYA 3rd Year, Exec. Comm., Chair, Prog. Comm., Univ. Eng. Comm.

Secretary

Georgia Silvera Seamans M.E.M. ’01 (1^st term ends 2014)
New York, NY seatulip@hotmail.com

Georgia worked as a community forester with the Urban Resources Initiative in New Haven, followed by a three-year tenure as the Boston Park Department’s urban forester. She received her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley and served as a board member of the Berkeley Partners for Parks, volunteering with the California Habitats Indigenous Activists to plant native vegetation along the rails-to-trails Ohlone Greenway. Georgia is now a stay at home mother and edits localecology.org when he naps.

Exec. Comm., Prog. Comm.,Univ. Eng. Comm.
Yale Alumni Fund Board of Directors

Alexander R. Brash M.F.S. ’85 (2^nd term ends 2013)
New York, NY abrash@npca.org

Alex is Northeast Regional Director of the National Parks Conservation Assoc. He formerly served with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation as Director of the Management Planning Division; Chief of the Urban Park Service (the Agency’s Rangers); and Chief of the Natural Resources Group. He is a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History, has lectured for Columbia University’s CERC program, Yale’s Urban Resource Institute, and at Hunter College, and authored dozens of articles, largely on conservation and the natural history of New York City. He received his B.A. from Connecticut College. Alex has worked at the World Wildlife Fund, the Nature Conservancy, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Forest Service.

Immediate Past President, Chair, Nom. Comm.

Mohamad Chakaki M.E.M. ’06 (1^st term ends 2014)
Cambridge, MA mchakaki@yahoo.com

Mohamad has worked in parks and gardens across the United States, with the Peace Corps in Central Africa, and the United Nations in Syria. He has also consulted on environment and community development projects in both the U.S. and the Arab Middle East. He holds undergraduate degrees in Religion and Biology from George
Washington University. He is currently a Ph.D. student in the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT.

Nom. Comm., Prog. Comm.

Starling Childs M.F.S. ’80 (2^nd term ends 2012)
Norfolk, CT eecostar@aol.com

Star works as a private forestry consultant with EECOS, Inc. He oversees the management of the Great Mountain Forest lands in Norfolk, CT, home to the Yale Forestry Camp, where he teaches a summer module for incoming F&ES students. He serves as Chair of the E A B of the Global Institute of Sustainable Forestry.

Nom. Comm.

Javier Dominguez M.F. ’94 (2^nd term ends 2013)
New York, NY javier.dominguez@dominguestein.com

Since moving to New York, Javier has worked as a consultant for GEF, in the back office of a day trading firm, and for one of the finest jewelry companies in New York. His next adventure is opening an online store, Shadony.com, to sell fine jewelry. He will use at least 10% of the profits for sustainable development and biodiversity conservation.

Melissa Grigione M.E.S. ’90 (1^st term ends 2014)
Brewster, NY mgrigione@pace.edu

Melissa is an associate professor and Director of the Graduate Program in environmental science at Pace University in Pleasantville, NY. She earned her Ph.D. in ecology at UC Davis and concentrates her research in mammalian spatial ecology, emphasizing conservation biology for species whose populations have been seriously altered as a consequence of habitat degradation and fragmentation. She is coauthor of numerous peerreviewed papers and articles, and the recipient of more than a dozen prestigious grants and fellowships.

Prog. Comm., Univ. Eng. Comm.

Sarah Matheson M.E.M. ’05 (1^st term ends 2014)
Washington, DC sarahkmatheson@gmail.com

Sarah is a manager in the Deloitte’s Sustainability & Climate Change practice in Washington, DC. She holds a B.S. from James Madison University in Environmental Science and works with private sector clients (consumer and industrial products, and retail) to manage their environmental resources, with a focus on carbon. Sarah also worked at the World Bank, ICF Consulting, GHD Consulting and Brown Forman.

Co-Chair, Univ. Eng. Comm.

Jen Molnar M.E.M. ’04 (1^st term ends 2014)
Washington, DC jen.molnar@gmail.com

Jen leads The Nature Conservancy’s Analysis Team, which develops and tests approaches to improve how conservation benefits both nature and people. She was editor and co-author of the recent Atlas of Global Conservation and has led global analyses of habitat conditions and threats, with a focus on marine and freshwater systems.

Eugene Peck M.E.S. ’96 (1^st term ends 2014)
New Haven, CT epeck@aol.com

Gene Peck is a specialist in coastal zone/watershed policy, sediment management and the restoration of urban estuaries. His work focuses on developing sustainable integrated cross-program solutions to regional and local sediment challenges that utilize watershed management, ecological restoration, decontamination technologies, beneficial use of sediment and economic drivers to manage sediment as a resource rather than a waste.

Prog. Comm., Univ. Eng. Comm.

Diane Renshaw M.F.S. ’75 (2^nd term ends 2013)
Los Altos, CA diane.renshaw@aya.yale.edu

Since 1975 Diane has had a private ecological consulting practice in California. Her specialties include endangered species surveys and consultations, jurisdictional wetlands, restoration work, management plans, and technical writing and editing. She is affiliated with Jasper Ridge, Stanford’s biological research preserve, and teaches workshops on birds and wildflowers. She earned her A.B. at Brown University and is a Certified Senior Ecologist.

AYA 1^st Year, Univ. Eng. Comm., West Coast Whip

Al Sample M.F. ’80, Ph.D. ’89 (2^nd term ends 2013)
Washington, DC alsample@pinchot.org

Al has served as President of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation in Washington, DC, since 1995. He is a Fellow of the Society of American Foresters, and a Research Affiliate on the faculty at F&ES. Author of numerous research papers, he has most recently published Common Goals for Sustainable Forest Management: Divergence and Reconvergence of American and European Forestry, with Steven Anderson. His professional experience includes assignments with the U.S. Forest Service, Champion International, The Wilderness Society, and the Prince of Thurn und Taxis in Bavaria, Germany. He was a Senior Fellow at the Conservation Foundation in Washington, DC, and later Vice President for Research at the American Forestry Association.

AYA Board of Governors 2nd year, Univ. Eng. Comm.

Heather Wright M.E.Sc. ’04 (2^nd term ends 2014)
San Francisco, CA heather.wright@aya.yale.edu

Heather has participated in extensive field research with a variety of conservation-related organizations, including Conservation International, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Chicago Field Museum/CIMA and Friends of the Osa. She works in the Environment Program at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation where she manages a suite conservation science grants and continues to develop her interest in the links between science and policy.

West Coast Whip

Mark Ashton ‘85, Ph.D. ’90

Mark is the Morris K. Jesup Professor of Silviculture and Forest Ecology and Director of School Forests. He conducts research on the biological and physical processes governing the regeneration of natural forests and on the creation of their agroforestry analogs.

Patrick Hook, M.F. ’13, M.B.A. ‘13
San Diego, CA patrick.hook@yale.edu

Prog. Comm.

Andrew Zingale, M.E.M. ’12
Albuquerque, NM andrew.zingale@yale.edu