Instruction Team

YSE Faculty & Experts

Faculty from the Yale School of the Environment and other experts integrate theory and practice from multiple disciplines and perspectives.

Mark Ashton, PhD

Tropical Forest Restoration & Silviculture, Yale School of the Environment

“It is exciting to be part of a program that provides such a rich educational experience built around the needs of professionals, landholders and others engaging in tropical forest restoration, conservation and community development."

Dr. Mark Ashton is a Professor of Silviculture and Forest Ecology and Director of School Forests at the Yale School of the Environment. His research focuses on the biological and physical processes governing the regeneration of natural forests and the mechanisms underlying the diversity of forest ecosystems and their adaptability to climate change. He conducts his long-term research in both temperate and tropical forests and has worked in forests from New England to Sri Lanka and from Canada to Panama. He holds a Ph.D. from the Yale School of the Environment.

Luke Browne, PhD

Tropical Forest Ecology, Yale School of the Environment

Dr. Luke Browne is an Associate Research Scientist at the Yale School of the Environment and Conservation Director for Fundación para la Conservación de los Andes Tropicales (FCAT). His research focuses on how tropical forests respond to climate change and deforestation, using approaches from community ecology and population genetics. His work with FCAT aims to conserve biodiversity and promote the social and economic well-being of local communities in the Chocó rainforests of northwestern Ecuador.

Carol Carpenter, PhD

Social Science of Conservation & Development, Yale School of the Environment

Dr. Carpenter is a Senior Lecturer and Associate Research at the Yale School of the Environment. Her teaching and research interests focus on theories of social ecology, social aspects of sustainable development and conservation, and gender in agrarian and ecological systems. She spent four years in Indonesia engaged in household and community-level research on rituals and social networks. She then spent four years in Pakistan working as a development consultant, primarily on social forestry issues, for USAID, the World Bank, and the Asia Foundation, among others. Her current interests involve the invisibility of women’s economic activities in agrarian households and the implications of this invisibility for sustainable development.

Liza Comita, PhD

Tropical Forest Ecology & Conservation, Yale School of the Environment

Dr. Liza Comita focuses on the ecological mechanisms driving patterns of diversity, dynamics, and species distributions in both pristine and human-altered tropical forests. Her research combines extensive field studies of forest dynamics with cutting-edge statistical techniques to produce novel insights into the processes driving tropical forest regeneration and structuring these diverse ecological communities. Dr. Comita earned a BA in Biology and MA in Conservation Biology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999 and a PhD in Plant Biology from the University of Georgia in 2006. She joined the faculty of the Yale School of the Environment in July 2014.

Amity Doolittle, PhD

Social Justice & Natural Resource Management, Yale School of the Environment

“A wonderful aspect about being involved in a certificate program like this, with such talented conservation practitioners from around the world, is that I get to learn from your experiences about the amazing work being accomplished on the ground."

Dr. Amity Doolittle’s research focuses on property rights and how control over and access to natural resources is defined, negotiated and contested by different stakeholders. She is interested in understanding the social and political processes that result in centuries of social inequities and unequal distribution of the benefits and burdens of natural resources. Her research often takes on a historical approach focusing on issues of legal and cultural pluralism. Her research approach is interdisciplinary, combining perspectives from anthropology, political science, environmental history and political ecology to explore environmental histories, property relations and conflicts over resources use. Her research has been primarily in Southeast Asia, but she has also worked on projects in Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and Peru. Current research is focused on history of land use change in New Haven, Connecticut.

Eva Garen, PhD

Social Sciences & Conservation, Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative, Yale School of the Environment

Dr. Eva Garen has spent almost twenty-five years working on the social aspects of conservation and development in the tropics. Prior to becoming the Director and Principal Investigator of ELTI in 2012, she was a technical advisor on the social aspects of REDD+ with Conservation International's Science and Knowledge Division. She also worked with USAID’s Forestry and Biodiversity Teams in Washington D.C. as a Science and Technology Policy Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For her postdoctoral research in Panama at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, she worked with cattle ranchers and smallholders on issues of native species reforestation and land restoration in human-dominated landscapes. She completed her Master of Environmental Science and Ph.D. at the Yale School of the Environment, with a concentration in social ecology.

Bradford Gentry, JD

Private Investment & the Environment, Yale School of the Environment

“Forest restoration will be a key part of a more sustainable and resilient future – finding ways to fund those efforts at scale is a key challenge.”

Brad Gentry is the F.K. Weyerhaeuser Professor in the Practice at the Yale School of the Environment and the Yale School of Management, Senior Associate Dean for Professional Practice at the Yale School of the Environment, and a Director of the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. Trained as a biologist and a lawyer, his work focuses on strengthening the links between private investment and improved environmental performance. He has worked on land, water, energy, industrial and other projects in over 40 countries for public (UNDP, World Bank, Secretariat for the Climate Change Convention), private (GE, Suez Environnement, Working Lands Investment Partners), and not-for-profit (Land Trust Alliance, The Trust for Public Land, the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation) organizations. He holds a Bachelor of Arts from Swarthmore College and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School.

Namrita Kapur, MEM/MBA

Private Investment & the Environment, Yale School of Management

Namrita Kapur combines a unique mix of traditional finance skills from her time in investment banking with environmental, social and governance impact assessment experience as a senior leader in the nonprofit space. Currently, she is Lecturer in the Practice at the Yale School of Management and Resident Fellow at the Yale Center for Business and the Environment; advises the National Geographic Society on its philanthropic impact investing strategy; and, consults to several philanthropists, including founders of one of the oldest venture capital firms and of a Fortune 500 company. Namrita began her capital markets focus by launching and leading the alternative energy franchise at the investment bank Adams, Harkness & Hill, now Canaccord Genuity. She is best recognized for being second-in-command in developing the products and platform of Root Capital – an early leader of the impact investing space. As former Managing Director at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), she built and led EDF’s Sustainable Finance strategy.

David Meyers, PhD

Biodiversity & Conservation Finance, Conservation Finance Alliance

Dr. David Meyers is an environmental finance expert and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience in sustainability, business strategy, and management, environmental economics, international conservation and development, environmental impact assessment, training, education and research in ecology and evolution. David has launched and managed various companies including a financial services company providing online marketplaces for impact investing and environmental assets, a triple-bottom-line bamboo-flooring manufacturer in Madagascar, and a technology incubator. David has spent well over a decade in Madagascar and has worked in 46 countries. In Madagascar, he helped the country plan and execute a tripling of the area under conservation, including establishing the Makira Natural Park 370,000 hectare protected area using REDD+ financing. He holds a Doctorate in Biological Anthropology and Anatomy from Duke University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

Florencia Montagnini, PhD

Agroforestry, Restoration & Biodiversity, Yale School of the Environment

“I am excited about being involved in this certificate program, as it represents an opportunity to share my knowledge and experience with a broad audience of qualified professionals around the globe, in manners that transcend the standard, conventional classroom teaching. On-line teaching opens up new and exciting possibilities of closely interacting with students that otherwise would be difficult to reach. It also offers flexibility to accommodate needs and tight time schedules of each.”

Dr. Florencia Montagnini has over 30 years of experience researching and teaching about the sustainability of managed ecosystems in the tropics, such as forest, tree plantations and agroforestry systems, with a special emphasis on Latin America. Her work encompasses sustainable land-use systems that integrate ecological principles with economic, social and political factors; the principles and applications of forest landscape restoration; the reforestation of degraded lands with native species; identification and quantification of ecological services (biodiversity, carbon sequestration and watershed protection); organic farming using indigenous resources; biodiversity conservation in human-dominated landscapes; biodiversity islands. She received her doctorate from the University of Georgia and, since 1989, has worked as a professor and researcher at the Yale School of the Environment, as well as the Tropical Agriculture Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE). She has written 11 books and around 200 scientific articles about the ecology of tropical forests, agroforestry systems, native species reforestation and forest restoration.

David Neidel, PhD

Environmental Anthropology, Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF)

Dr. David Neidel has been with ELTI since its Asia Program launched in 2008. He lived in Southeast Asia for a total of 18 years while holding a variety of teaching, research, and program management positions based at or affiliated with CIFOR-ICRAF, the International Rice Research Institute, Visayas State University, Yale NUS College, National University of Singapore, Andalas University, and others. David holds a B.A. in political science and history from Northwestern University, a M.S. in geography from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a M.Phil. and Ph.D. from the joint program in forestry & environmental studies and anthropology at Yale University. In addition to his work with ELTI, David is a founding board member of a US-based nonprofit, Reforest our Future. He is currently based in Portugal.

Oswald ‘Os’ Schmitz, PhD

Biodiversity & Ecosystem Ecology, Yale School of the Environment

“This represents a wonderful opportunity to advance science-based conservation and management of tropical ecosystems.”

Dr. Os Schmitz is the Oastler Professor of Population and Community Ecology, in the Yale University School of the Environment. His research aims to make sense of nature’s complexity that comes from interdependencies among the variety of carnivore, herbivore, decomposer and plant species within ecosystems. The insights are used to teach about stewardship to enhance the sustainability of ecosystem functions and services. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Amy Vedder, PhD

Ecology & Applied, Field-Based Conservation, Yale School of the Environment

“It is great to be part of the ELTI certificate program team: I enjoy contributing my practical experience from the field of forest conservation, but at the same time I am fortunate to learn constantly from the diverse group of practitioners who enroll in the program.  They – you  - are our future."

Dr. Amy Vedder has worked in applied conservation for more than 30 years, integrating ecological and social science as a basis for conserving wildlife and wildlands. She has conducted ecological research, launched wildlife and forest conservation projects, managed large field programs, consulted for the Global Environment Facility & USAID and served in senior positions at the Wildlife Conservation Society and The Wilderness Society. Dr. Vedder currently teaches in the graduate program of the Yale School of the Environment, focusing on the practice of international conservation. During her free time she hikes & kayaks the forests of the Adirondack mountains with three generations of her family.

Student Fellows and Post-graduate Associates

Our student fellows and post-graduate associates assist in many aspects of the certificate program, including course delivery, alumni engagement, and communications.

Fredrick Addai

Post-graduate Associate Environmental Leadership & Training Initiative, Yale School of the Environment

Fredrick is a recent Master of Forestry graduate from the Yale School of the Environment. His studies at Yale were focused on Tropical Forest Restoration and Agroforestry. He was born and raised in Kumasi, Ghana, West Africa, and attended the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Prior to attending Yale, Fredrick worked with Perseus Mining Ghana Limited as a Reclamation Officer. He currently has a chapter, “The Contribution of Agroforestry to Biodiversity and Food Sovereignty in Ghana,” which will be published in the latest edition of the book “Integrating Landscapes: Agroforestry for Biodiversity Conservation and Food Sovereignty.”