 |
 |
Water Fight!
Fracking, Food, Art & Economy
May 16, 2011
Speaker Biographies
Hilary Baum
Founder and Executive Director, Baum Forum
As president and founder of Baum Forum/Public Market Partners, Hilary Baum produces educational conferences and special events focusing on critical food and farming issues. She was the founding coordinating director of Food Systems Network NYC and The Public Market Collaborative. Hilary has been involved in the development of farmers’ and public markets, agricultural marketing programs, and community supported agriculture, and is a co-author of Public Markets and Community Revitalization.
Paul Bermanzohn, M.D.
Dr. Paul Bermanzohn has been a lifelong political activist. Since retirement, he has been working to strengthen the movement to ban hydrofracking in NY State. He recently started a new blog, Squeezing Blood From Stone about this struggle.
Wendy E. Brawer
Founder and Director, Green Map System
Wendy E. Brawer’s brainchild is Green Map System, an organization that uses mapmaking as a medium to promote inclusive participation in sustainable community development. Under her leadership since 1995, 740 cities in 55 countries have joined the movement, and Wendy has published a dozen Green Maps of NYC as seen at GreenMap.org. An eco-designer, public educator and consultant since 1990, Wendy has taught at NYU, Cooper Union and presented at many universities and conferences.
Tracy Carluccio
Deputy Director, Delaware Riverkeeper Network
Tracy Carluccio has worked as an environmental advocate since 1989 throughout the Delaware River Watershed in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware. She is the Deputy Director of Delaware Riverkeeper Network, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to defending the Delaware River and its Watershed. A resident of New Jersey, serves as an appointed member of the New Jersey Highlands Council and several government boards and community organizations.
Cecil Corbin-Mark
Deputy Director/Director of Policy Initiatives , WE ACT for Environmental Justice
A life-long resident of Hamilton Heights in Harlem, NY, Cecil Corbin-Mark has served on various boards, including the New York State DEC Urban Air Toxic Committee, the New York City DEP Water Quality Citizen Advisory Committee, and the Manhattan Solid Waste Advisory Board. Cecil has lectured extensively on the environment and environmental justice.
Severine von Tscharner Fleming
Director, "The Greenhorns" National Young Farmers Coalition
Farmer, activist and organizer, Severine von Tscharner Fleming is based in the Hudson Valley, NY and over the past two years has produced and directed a documentary film about the young farmers who are reclaiming, restoring, retrofitting and respecting this country. The film, titled “The Greenhorns” grew into a small nonprofit organization whose mission is to “recruit, promote and support” the growing tribe of new agrarians. Severine attended Pomona College and University of California at Berkeley where she graduated with a B.S. in Conservation/AgroEcology.
Jean Gardner
Professor of Social-Ecological History and Design,
The School of Constructed Environments, Parsons The New School for Design
Jean Gardner is an activist, writer, teacher, and consultant on sustainable design issues. She co-authored Cinemetrics: Architecture Drawing Today with Brian McGrath and wrote the first book on Urban Wilderness: Nature in New York City. Her graduate course on architecture and urbanism has received special recognition for eco-literacy teaching from the national AIA Committee on the Environment, and the New York City Chapter of the AIA awarded her a special citation for her work as an urban ecologist.
Lois Marie Gibbs
Executive Director, Center for Health, Environment & Justice
Lois Marie Gibbs is the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ). She has been recognized extensively for her critical organizing and technical assistance to communities engaged in their own environmental struggles through the USA.
Wes Gillingham
Program Director, Catskill Mountainkeeper
Wes Gillingham is one of the founders and the Program Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper, an environmental advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the Catskill Region in New York State. Wes serves on the New York Sate Forest Preserve Advisory Committee, the Sullivan County Farm Bureau and The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY). Wes and his wife, Amy, are raising their two children on land that has been in his family for 55 years along with their Scottish Highland Cattle, Icelandic and Scottish Blackface Sheep.
Wenonah Hauter
Executive Director, Food & Water Watch
Having worked extensively on energy, food, water and environmental issues at the national, state and local level, Wenonah Hauter has experience in developing policy positions and legislative strategies. Formerly, Wenonah has served as Director of Public Citizen’s Energy and Environment Program, Environmental Policy Director for Citizen Action, and as a Senior Organizer at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Ken Jaffe
Slope Farms
A Brooklyn doctor turned upstate beef farmer, Ken Jaffe, and his wife, Linda, are the owners of Slope Farms in Meredith, NY where grass fed beef is raised on the hilly pastures of their farm in the Western Catskills. Just beyond NYC’s watershed, the farm is on the high ridge that divides the waters flowing into the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers.
Anna Lappé
Author, Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund
Widely respected author and educator, Anna Lappé is renowned for her work as a sustainable food advocate and was named one of Time’s “eco” Who’s-Who. Anna is a founding principal of the Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund and has for more than a decade been a key force in the growing international movement for sustainability and justice in the food chain. Her latest book is Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About It (Bloomsbury).
David Levine
Co-Founder and Executive Director, American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC)
David Levine has helped build ASBC into a growing coalition of business networks and businesses committed to advancing a new vision, framework and policies that support a vibrant, equitable and sustainable economy. Today, the organizations that have joined in this partnership represent over 100,000 businesses and more than 200,000 entrepreneurs, owners, executives, investors and business professionals and other individuals.
Miriam MacGillis
Director, Genesis Farm
Miriam Therese MacGillis is the director of Genesis Farm, which she co-founded in 1980 with the sponsorship of her Dominican congregation in Caldwell, NJ. In 2005 she received the Thomas Berry Award and in 2007, Grist magazine named her one of the world’s top 15 green religious leaders. She has conducted workshops in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Leo Miller
Student Leader, Eugene Lang College
As a senior in Eugene Lang College, The New School, Leo Miller has been involved in multiple efforts regarding industrial hydro-fracking, having written numerous papers and given presentations on the process and its economic and ecological implications. He helped organize a water tasting event to highlight the dangers of fracking. He has also studied the chemistry of water and understands the enormously ambitious efforts that go into securing a clean water supply for New Yorkers.
William Morrish
Dean, School of Constructed Environments, Parsons The New School for Design
William Morrish is a nationally recognized urban designer whose practice encompasses inter-disciplinary research on urban housing and infrastructure, collaborative publications on human settlement and community design, educational programs exploring integrated design which are applied to a wide range of innovative community based city projects. He is the author of Civilizing Terrains, and co-authored “Building for the Arts, Planning To Stay,” and “Growing Urban Habitats.”
Laura Simms
Storyteller
Remarkable performances of traditional stories interwoven with personal narrative have earned Laura Simms worldwide recognition and honors since 1968. Laura has created a performance style that bridges ancient oral tradition and performance art. Simms’ storytelling is meaningful and uncannily entertaining for her international audiences.
Kate Sinding
Senior Attorney and Deputy Director of the New York Urban Program,
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Specializing in New York urban and regional issues, including a variety of solid waste, land use, and energy matters, Kate Sinding is a board member of the New York Product Stewardship Council and the Manhattan Citizens’ Solid Waste Advisory Board. She has taught Environmental Law at Columbia University and Fordham University Schools of Law and is a graduate of New York University Law School, the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and Barnard College. To learn more about her efforts, visit SWiTCHBOARD, the NRDC staff blog.
Joel Towers
Executive Dean, Parsons The New School for Design
Joel Towers came to Parsons in 2002 as the Director of Sustainable Design and Urban Ecology. Towers then became the first Director of the Tishman Environment and Design Center and the Associate Provost for Environmental Studies. From 2007 - 2009, Joel Towers was the Dean of the School of Design Strategies and Associate Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design at Parsons. He received a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Michigan and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University.
> Return to Top
> Return to Program Archives Index
Waterfight! Archive links:
Summary • Agenda • Speaker Bios • Presentations • Resources