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Our Staff
Sara J. Scherr is an agricultural and natural resource economist specializing in land and forest management policy in tropical developing countries. . She is Director of Ecoagriculture Partners, an international partnership to promote increased productivity jointly with enhanced natural biodiversity and ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes. She also serves as Director of Ecosystem Services for Forest Trends, an NGO that promotes forest conservation through improved markets for forest products and ecosystem services. She is a member of the United Nations Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger, and a member of the Board of Directors of the World Agroforestry Centre. Dr. Scherr's previous positions include: Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA; Co-Leader of the CGIAR Gender Program; Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C.; and Principal Researcher at the World Agroforestry Centre, in Nairobi, Kenya. She was previously a Fulbright Scholar (1976), and a Rockefeller Social Science Fellow (1985-87). Dr. Scherr received her B.A. in Economics at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and her M.Sc. and Ph.D. in International Economics and Development at Cornell University in New York.
Prior to joining Ecoagriculture Partners as a Programme Manager, Claire worked for the London-based NGO, Stakeholder Forum for Our Common Future. With Stakeholder Forum, she was responsible for co-ordinating the Food Security strand of Stakeholder Forum's 'Implementation Conference', a 3 day event immediately preceding the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa (24 - 26 August 2002). Claire received an MSc in Environmental Technology, specialising in Ecological Resource Management, from Imperial College, University of London and a BA in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford.
Jenny Nelson joined Ecoagriculture Partners as communications manager in January 2007. Previously, she was based in Mexico with the Generation Challenge Programme, an initiative of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), where she led the communications unit. She also served as a publications assistant at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). In addition, Jenny has worked in public relations for US-based social causes, book publicity, and product marketing. She graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Urban Studies and Sociology in 2000.
Frank Hicks is President of Sustainable Development International, a Costa Rican organization he founded that provides consulting services on sustainable agriculture, environmental conservation, enterprise development, strategic planning, development finance, monitoring and evaluation, and agricultural certification. The organization's clients include: Sustainable Markets Intelligence Center (CIMS), Rainforest Alliance, TechnoServe, Foundations of Success (for the Global Environment Facility), Business for Social Responsibility, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Ecologic Finance, Consultancy in Environment and Management (CREM), Winrock International, Jungle Products, Inc., World Wildlife Fund, and Ecos Corporation. Mr. Hicks was formerly Director of the Rainforest Alliance's Sustainable Agriculture Program, and, before that, Vice President of Organic Commodity Products, an organic chocolate company, based in San José Costa Rica. He previously worked as the Program Manager for TechnoServe's Ghana office; the Regional Representative for the Biodiversity Conservation Network; a USAID-funded program that supported environmental enterprises in Asia and the Pacific, based in the Philippines; and as a program officer with the Ford Foundation based in Nigeria and New York City. He is currently a board member of the Nature Conservancy's EcoEnterprises Fund. Mr. Hicks has a Master's Degree from Harvard University with a focus on international development and a Bachelor's Degree from Stanford University in Human Biology. He has over 20 years of International Development experience, with more than 16 years based in developing countries. Robin is the Academic Coordinator of CSRD. She is an agricultural and development economist (Ph.D., Food Research Institute, Stanford University 1991), with 25 years of experience in international development. At UC Berkeley, Dr. Marsh helped to launch and develop the Beahrs ELP into a thriving international training and outreach program. She also co-leads with David Zilberman the Population and Environment Program at CSRD, with support from the Packard and Hewlett Foundations. In addition to population-environment linkages, Marsh works on bridging the environment and agricultural divide through support of ecoagriculture and payment for environmental services initiatives. Before coming to Berkeley in 2000, Dr. Marsh worked with the Rural Development Division, Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, leading a global research program on the interactions between household livelihood strategies, food security and local institutions. Previously, Dr. Marsh was socio-economist with the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (CGIAR associate center) in Taiwan and Costa Rica. She conducted research in Asia and Central America on the economic and food security benefits of home and market gardening, and evaluated urban horticulture projects in Africa. Robin has also worked on several major issues related to California agriculture and natural resources such as water and drought management, alternative pest management strategies, organic horticulture, farm labor and NAFTA
Thomas most recently was Project Manager and Senior Scientist at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Colombia. He has experience in research and consulting on soil management in farming systems of Europe and Asia and the development of leadership in multi-disciplinary and multi-partner projects that integrate agronomy and agribusiness in Latin America, Asia and Africa. He received his Project Management Certification from the Crawford Masters Class in Management, his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Western Austria, and his M.Sc. in Agronomy and Soil Science from Leipzig University and the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. Thomas is based in Cali, Colombia.
Most recently, Cosmas worked as a Research Fellow in Organization and Management of African Agricultural Innovation Systems with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and was instrumental in helping start NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development). He has worked extensively with national governments, donors, the private sector and civil society organizations, and has consulted on issues of trade, investment, aid and agricultural issues. He received his Ph.D. in Development Studies from Oxford University, his MPhil in Development Studies from Cambridge University and a First Class Honours Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, History and Literature from Kenyatta University, Kenya. Cosmas is based in Nairobi, Kenya.
Lara Sonti comes to Ecoagriculture Partners as our Administrative Manager, bringing over 10 years of experience in administration, finance and operations, primarily in the non-profit and small business sectors. Most recently, Lara was Director of Operations at the Center for National Policy, a non-partisan public policy non-profit working on America 's national security issues. Prior to joining CNP, she was in operations and accounting at The Cara Program, a Chicago non-profit that assists the homeless and at-risk populations . Previously, she was held positions in administrative management and operations at Lawmatch and Woolco Foods. From 1996-1999, she served as the ACLU assistant to Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU and professor at New York Law School. Lara holds a B.A., in English, from the University of South Florida and a J.D. from New York Law School. Jeffrey C. Milder Jeff is an ecologist and land-use planner with nine years of experience in the field of conservation and sustainable development. In conjunction with his Ph.D. research at Cornell University, Jeff is currently working with Ecoagriculture Partners to develop scientific and analytical tools to document the conservation potential of ecoagriculture systems. Formerly, he founded and managed the community planning practice at Daylor Consulting Group, a Massachusetts design firm. He is also the co-author of Practical Ecology for Planners, Developers, and Citizens (Island Press, 2005). Mr. Milder holds a M.S. in Natural Resources from Cornell University and a B.A. from Harvard University in Earth Sciences.
Seth manages EP’s Policy and Research Mobilization projects. He has studied agroforestry systems in Peru and conservation tillage for small farmers in Ethiopia , and organized Community Supported Agriculture groups in New York City. He holds an M.E.Sc. from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, focusing on policy issues at the intersection of environment and agriculture, and a B.A. from Columbia in Anthropology and Environmental Science. Seth also has experience as an organic farmer and pickler.
Ariela Summit joined Ecoagriculture Partners as a Communications Intern in September, and is now working as Program Associate. Her primary respnsibilities inculde documenting ecoagriculture case summeries, coordininating the DC ecoagriculure working group, helping manage publications and outreach for the upcoming book, and supporting all proram staff. She recently returned from India where she was working to establish seed banks with rural women involved in saving and microcredit groups. Ariela graduated with a degree in Environmental Studies and History of South Asia from Tufts University , where she was involved in the program Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC). Through EPIIC, Ariela helped organize an international symposium based around the theme “Resource Wars: Oil and Water” and wrote her senior honors thesis on development policy in Sri Lanka . Ariela has worked on a variety of organic farms and gardens, and is planning on receiving her yoga teacher certification this year.
Ben is the senior designer and web-application programmer for Dappen Design Studios. He serves as webmaster for several environmental nonprofit organizations (including Forest Trends and the Katoomba Group), as well as several commercial sites. He speciallizes in PHP/MYSQL application programming and Content Management Systems. He both designed and manages the Ecoagriculture Partners web site. Ben graduated with a degree in History from Reed College in 2004.
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