Vermont Global Exchange Core Members
Colin Anderson
Associate Director, University of Vermont’s Institute for Agroecology; Associate Research Professor, University of Vermont’s Plant and Soil Department
Colin Anderson serves on the Institute for Agroecology leadership team as Associate Director and is an Associate Research Professor in the Plant and Soil Department. His work focuses on community- and people-led transformation processes for resilience, social justice, and well-being. He works with communities, networks, and organizations in social movements organizing to confront current intersecting crises and reimagining and building alternatives. Colin is committed to engaged and participatory research, learning, and action in his methodology and pedagogy. This is anchored by a commitment to knowledge mobilization, which involves a political and social process of co-producing and deploying knowledge in processes of social transformation. He is a co-convenor of the international platform Agroecology Now. He is always eager to connect with potential collaborators to exchange, learn, and dream up projects, programs, and new lines of work.
Jeffrey Ayres
Director
Saint Michael’s College Center for Global Engagement
www.smcvt.edu/academics/center-for-global-engagement/
The Center for Global Engagement serves as the collaborative hub of international activity at Saint Michael’s College, promoting global learning and literacy, deepening intercultural competency and inclusion, and supporting opportunities for global engagement for students, faculty, staff, alums, and local community members. From international student advocacy and support, study abroad programs, international internships, scholarships, a Peace Corps Prep program, internationally oriented student clubs, c and a curriculum that includes a variety of globally themed majors and minors, we provide a wide array of opportunities to celebrate global citizenship and actively engage in a global community.
Megan Camp
Vice President and Program Director
Shelburne Farms
www.shelburnefarms.org
Megan works in promoting Education for Sustainability. Heads up international network of Sustainability Centers for IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature). Current collaborative projects in China, Japan, Hungary, Italy, South Korea, the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
Marta Ceroni
Director of Programs
Academy for Systems Change
www.academyforchange.org
Marta develops programs and research initiatives to foster the Academy’s mission of advancing the field of awareness-based systemic change in order to accelerate ecological, social, and economic well-being. The Academy’s lead initiative is “the next generation leaders” fellows group, a group of accomplished system change leaders in their thirties and early forties whose work includes indigenous reconciliation in Canada, conservation economy in Costa Rica, fishery and community building in Baja California, MX, digital, and women digital literacy in 150 countries.
Roger Clapp
Associate Director for Program and Fund Development
PH International
www.ph-int.org
Roger Clapp works as Associate Director for Program & Fund Development for PH International, a non-profit based in Waitsfield, VT that has been advancing societies and connecting people since 1985. Roger is a graduate of Tufts University and UVM Graduate School with interests in rural development, education and training. Internationally, he has worked with Peace Corps, World Learning, CARE International, Institute for Sustainable Communities and Himalayan Cataract Project. In Vermont, he served as Deputy Commissioner for Agricultural Development and directed the Vermont Chapter of the March of Dimes. He lives in Waterbury with his wife Pam, a dog, two boys in college and enjoys tennis, hiking, skiing and serving as chair of the Waterbury Select Board.
Tobey Clark
Co-director
WHO Collaborating Center for Health Technology Management at UVM
https://www.uvm.edu/research/tsp/who-collaborating-center-health-technology-management
Projects include coordination of virtual training on respiratory equipment with WHO staff, over 100 contributors from 20 countries, and digital production teams. The COVID-19 Respiratory Equipment course on OpenWHO has enrolled 16,921 individuals from 187 countries. Videos are also available on YouTube and have been translated into French. Work for the Pan American Health Organization currently is focused on the Caribbean. Webinar training was conducted along with formal courses, e.g., Haiti, and policies were developed and implemented in Belize and Jamaica in 2021 and 2022. The next intervention with the PAHO team is scheduled for Suriname October 23-27. Over 25 years of experience, including faculty for on-site HTM workshops for WHO and an international internship program at Instrumentation & Technical Services. He is currently an adjunct lecturer in CNHS and CEMS at UVM.
Peter Clavelle
Consultant
Peter has more than 40 years of experience in local government and decentralization in both the U.S. and international arenas. He served seven terms as Mayor of Burlington, Vermont. Upon leaving the Mayor’s office in 2006, Peter went on to join Tetra Tech ARD. For three-and-a-half years, he served as Manager of the firm’s Democracy and Governance Sector. He also served as Chief of Party of the USAID Planning and Local Governance Project in Albania. Prior assignments have included work on local governance projects in Macedonia, Jordan, Uganda, and Afghanistan.
James Cross
President, Education Vermont USA; President, Vermont International Academy; Associate Provost and Senior International Officer, Champlain College
www.vermont.org/education www.vermontia.org www.champlain.edu
James works with Education Vermont USA, a consortium of Vermont colleges, secondary schools, State and Federal agencies that promote Vermont as an educational destination for overseas students. Vermont International Academy in Shanghai partners with Burlington High School and Champlain Valley Union School to provide an in-China educational experience for Vermont students. Champlain College offers four study abroad opportunities in Ireland, Canada, China and Morocco.
Kristen DeStigter, MD, FACR
Co-Founder and President
Imaging the World
www.imagingtheworld.org
Kristen is Professor and Chair of Radiology at the Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. With a career focused on medical education, leadership, and international advances in maternal/child health, she focuses on the provision of integrated medical imaging services in under-served communities. Operating since 2010, Imaging the World trains medical providers at rural health clinics in sub-Saharan Africa to perform ultrasound scans, primarily directed at early identification of complications of pregnancy. By integrating affordable and sustainable ultrasound solutions into routine care, close to home for many patients, countless lives have been impacted.
Major Patrick “Gene” Enriquez
Lead
Vermont National Guard Partnership Program
The program directly supports Department of Defense objectives by building relationships that enhance global security, understanding, and cooperation. The program fosters long-term relationships across all levels of society and encourages the development of economic, political, and military ties between the states and partner nations. Vermont’s Partner nations are North Macedonia, Senegal, and Austria.
Megan Epler Wood
Principal
Epler Wood International
www.eplerwood.com
Megan is the author of the book, Sustainable Tourism on a Finite Planet. She is the Director of the International Sustainable Tourism Initiative at the Center for Health and the Global Environment, at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University where she leads an international research program on tools to mitigate tourism’s growing global impacts. She is Managing Director of the new Sustainable Tourism Asset Management Program (STAMP) at the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise in the SC Johnson College of Businesst at Cornell University launched in April 2017, and she is Principal of EplerWood International.
George Hamilton
Former President
Institute for Sustainable Communities
www.isct.org
George has headed the Institute for Sustainable Communities since its creation in 1991. With offices in the United States, Bangladesh, India, Thailand and Vietnam, ISC focuses on climate solutions, sustainable development, citizen participation, community development and environmental protection. George has a varied background working as a wilderness backpacking outfitter and guide in Alaska, an energy efficiency auditor, community organizer, and policy analyst for the State of Vermont.
Sustainable community projects in 80 countries.
Ann Martin
Executive Director
PH International
www.ph-int.org/us
Offers leadership development and exchanges to promote ethics in governance, restorative justice, domestic peace in Armenia, Russia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia. PH International specializes in digital organizing.
Edward McMahon
Adjunct Associate Professor
University of Vermont
www.uvm.edu/~emcmahon
International development professor at UVM, with a particular focus on governance institution-building, democracy and human rights. Considerable consulting experience, especially in Africa, with USAID, UNDP, World Bank, Carter Center and other organizations. Research interests include the UN Human Rights Council and other multilateral human rights initiatives.
Carolyn Meub
Executive Director
Pure Water for the World.
www.purewaterfortheworld.org
Creates pure water projects in remote areas. Now have 21 in Haiti and 6 in Honduras. Projects include education on benefits of clean water cooperative work with local governments and community partners, and follow up to make sure technologies are used correctly.
Nina Meyerhof
President
Children of the Earth
www.coeworld.org
Offers leadership skill development, educational workshops and attendance at distinguished conferences to young people to instill concepts of global cooperation, multicultural understanding, spiritual values and ethical living. Has worked in fifty countries in Africa, Asia, North America, Europe. Nina is also Co-Founder, One Humanity Institute.
Rick Peyser
Senior Relationship Manager
Coffee & Cocoa
Lutheran World Relief
Helps Lutheran World Relief make connections in the coffee and cocoa industries at the farm level and roasting/processing ends of the supply chain. Author, Brewing Change: Behind the Bean at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters” (2012). Founder and Board Member: Food4Farmers, a nonprofit working in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Colombia. Former Director of Social Advocacy and Coffee Community Outreach, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters.
Premila Peters
President
Data Innovations
www.datainnovations.com
Data Innovations (DI) is a software company that is passionate about excellence in patient care everywhere in the world. Through innovative solutions and world-class service, DI is the market leader in enterprise management of hospital and independent laboratories. Founded in 1989, DI serves more than 6,000 hospitals and laboratories in 85+ countries. The company is headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont with satellite offices in Belgium, Brazil and Hong Kong. DI is proud of its employees who share a cultural commitment to lifelong learning, diversity of thought, and continuous improvement.
Marcela Pino
Director
Food 4 Farmers
Food 4 Farmers helps coffee-farming families put nutritious food on the table every day and ensures they have the necessary tools and resources to build food independence and new economic opportunities independently.
Coffee farmers are now leading the way, producing healthy, fresh food for their families and rural communities. They earn income by growing food alongside coffee, bolstering ecosystem health and climate resilience, and improving nutrition.
This is ‘transFARMation:’ farmers transforming monoculture farms into thriving, diversified local food and economic hubs, while continuing to produce coffee.
Jody Prescott
Lecturer, Computer Science and Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources
Jody is a class of '83 grad. He was an active duty military attorney in the Army for 25 years, with operational tours in Bosnia and Afghanistan. He was also stationed in Germany, Alaska, and Norway, and he taught at the Army Command & General Staff College and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Since he retired from the Army in 2011, he has been working for the Department of Homeland Security doing commercial litigation and environmental law. He researches and writes about military ethics, the law of armed conflict, and the intersection of gender, armed conflict, and climate change.
Patricia Preston
Executive Director
Vermont Council on World Affairs
www.vcwa.org
Promotes international understanding through interchange of ideas and visits between Vermonters and overseas professionals. Operates an international youth leadership exchange, international visitors program, the Ambassador Series (public talks), the Fulbright program, and international travel opportunities.
Bill Ryerson
President
Population Media Center
www.populationmedia.org
William N. Ryerson is Founder and President of Population Media Center (PMC) (www.populationmedia.org), an organization that strives to improve the health and wellbeing of people around the world through the use of entertainment-education strategies. He also serves as Chair of The Population Institute in Washington, DC (www.populationinstitute.org. PMC creates long-running serialized dramas on radio and television, in which characters evolve into role models for the audience resulting in positive behavior change. PMC educates people about the benefits of small families, use of family planning methods, girls’ education, children protection, and environmentally sustainable behaviors.
Ryerson received a B.A. Amherst College and an M.Phil. Yale University. He served as Director of the Population Institute's Youth and Student Division, Development Director of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania, Associate Director of Planned Parenthood of Northern New England and Executive Vice President of Population Communications International before founding Population Media Center in 1998.
Steve Schmida & Nazgul Abradazakova
Co-Founder, CIO & Co-founder, CEO
Resonance
www.resonanceglobal.com
Resonance is a consulting and implementation firm that helps companies, governments, and NGOs address urgent climate and social challenges. They help define challenges and opportunities, design scalable solutions, and innovate and resource the initiatives that deliver transformative impact.
Steve Shepard
President
Shepard Communications Group
www.shepardcomm.com
Provides consultative education in global telecommunications. Specializes in international telecommunication issues with an emphasis on strategic technical sales, services convergence, social implications of technological change, development of multilingual educational materials, effective use of multiple delivery media.
Gail Stevenson
Director of Open Burning Program
International Cryosphere Climate Initiative
www.icci.org
The focus of ICCI is to collaborate with other organizations to create new and integrated solutions to rapid climate change in the cryosphere, those regions covered by ice and now. ICCI is working in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Poland, Sweden and the United States, Ukraine, Chile, Peru, India, and Nepal. Gail works on special projects for ICCI and is Former Executive Director of Vermont Council on World Affairs.
Brenda Torpy
Former CEO
Champlain Housing Trust
www.getahome.org
The major focus is to create affordable housing units in the Champlain Valley. Brenda is on the board of the National Community Land Trust Network and is currently focused on making international work a part of its charge. They make tools and documents accessible on the website and connect by phone and Skype. They hope to develop their model for applications in different cultural, policy and economic environments. Brenda now networks with affordable housing projects in eight countries.
VGE Support Team
Fran Stoddard
VGE Coordinator
Media Producer
www.orton.org
Fran is a journalist, media producer, facilitator and communications consultant. In her work for the Orton Family Foundation and others she is assisting small U.S. towns to create viable futures. She also is producing a VPR series called Global Vermonters that profiles Vermonters effecting change on a global level.
Bob Lawson
VGE Tech Advisor
Founder, Sustainable Digital
www.sustainabledigital.com
Bob is founder of Sustainable Digital, a consulting firm offering technology and digital communication services to Vermont nonprofits and international NGOs. Bob assists VGE with its website and other technical projects.
In Memorium
Will Raap
Founder
Restoring Our Watershed
www.ourwatershed.org
Founder Intervale Center (www.intervale.org) and Gardener’s Supply (www.gardeners.com ). Led the conversion of Burlington’s Intervale from dump to a fertile, productive and profitable resource for local food, community gardening, and sustainable farm businesses. Now involved with Restoring Our Watershed, a US 501c3 that teaches sustainability, soil restoration, and farm management and helps to restore Costa Rica’s 25,000 acre Nandomojo River watershed, creating a model of watershed restoration and sustainable enterprise. Developed Pueblo Verde and Tierra Pacifica, green development and sustainable living communities in Guanacaste, Costa Rica.