Vermont's Green Mountains provide the perfect backdrop for a typical fall pre-Halloween harvest scene. © Photo by Cheryl Dorschner / The University of Vermont.

Alphabetical Speaker List
(a work-in-progress)
A-C
D-F
G-J
K-M
N-Q
R-S
T-Z

A-C
Ackland, Len
Adler, Jonathan
Allen, Frank
Bazilchuk, Nancy
Beeman, Perry
Bendrick, Lou
Blakemore, Bill
Bowden, William
Bradford, Peter
Brooks, Richard
Bruggers, James
Brynn, David
Cappiello, Dina
Clark, Delia
Clifford, Hal
Cohen, Ben
Cohn, Art
Cortesi, Lafcadio
Costanza, Robert

Back to the top

D-F
Davis, Joseph
Dillon, John
Donovan, Richard
Dorschner, Cheryl
Douglas, James
Dunn, David
Fagin, Dan
Fisher, Linda
Fogel, Daniel Mark
Folsom, Jackie
Friesen, Ron

Back to the top

G-J
Garcia, Dawn
George, Christy
Goss, Richard
Grubinger, Vernon
Grumbles, Benjamin
Hamilton, Joan
Hansen, James
Haseltine, Susan
Heinrich, Bernd
Helmuth, Laura
Hopey, Don
Hudson, Dana
Huff, Richard
Inkley, Doug
Judy, Martha

Back to the top

K-M
Kamen, Dean
Karpinski, Gene
Kitman, Jamie Lincoln
Klinkenborg, Verlyn
Kolan, Matt
Kolbert, Elizabeth
Kovacs, William
Kovarik, Bill
Kunstler, James Howard
Kupchella, Rick
Latham, Mark
Leahy, Patrick
Leslie, Jacques
Levine, Andrea
Livingston, Gil
Lord, Peter
Lyman, Francesca
Magdoff, Fred
Marsden, Ellen
McClure, Robert
McKibben, Bill
Miller, Peter
Milne, Janet
Moore, Patrick
Morano, Marc
Morse, Kathryn
Motavalli, Jim

Back to the top

N-Q
Neme, Laurel
Neuzil, Mark
Overholser, Geneva
Page, Candace
Patton, Vince
Perkins, Timothy
Piltz, Rick
Poleman, Walter

Back to the top

R-S
Raap, Will
Rensberger, Boyce
Revkin, Andrew
Riccio, Jim
Rosenzweig, Cynthia
Rosner, David
Ross, Sean
Ruben, Andy
Sample, Alaric
Schaberg, Paul
Schleifstein, Mark
Seabright, Jeff
Shields, Geoffrey
Singer, Peter
Smith, Kristine

Back to the top

T-Z
Valenti, JoAnn
Vogelmann, Hubert
Ward Jr., Ken
Watkiss, Dan
Watzin, Mary
Wheeler, Tim
Wiles, Richard
Willman, Dale
Wilmot, Timothy
Wishart, Ian
Woodside, Christine
Woodward, Mark
Wroth, Kinvin

Back to the top

Len Ackland
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE CRAFT: The Well-Educated Writer: Journalism Fellowships and Continuing Education

Len Ackland is an associate professor of journalism and founding director and current co-director of the Center for Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Len was a former reporter for the Des Moines Register and Chicago Tribune and former editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists magazine. He is author of "Making a Real Killing: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear West."

Back to the top

Jonathan Adler
Events:
Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. — THE INDUSTRY: Money Talks: But What Price Sustainability?
Saturday, Lunch and Plenary Session, 12:15 p.m. — Government Secrecy: What We Don't Know Can't...

Jonathan H. Adler is Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Center for Business Law & Regulation at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where he teaches courses in environmental, regulatory, and constitutional law. Prior to joining the faculty at Case Western, Professor Adler clerked for the Honorable David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. From 1991 to 2000, Professor Adler worked at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market research and advocacy group in Washington, D.C., where he directed CEI's environmental studies program. Professor Adler is the author or editor of three books on environmental policy, including "Environmentalism at the Crossroads" (1995), and several book chapters. A contributing editor for National Review Online, his articles have appeared in numerous publications, ranging from Environmental Law and Supreme Court Economic Review to The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. His television and radio appearances span an even broader spectrum, from CNN World News and NPR's Talk of the Nation to the Fox News Channel's O'Reilly Factor and Entertainment Tonight. He holds a B.A. magna cum laude from Yale University and a J.D. summa cum laude from the George Mason University School of Law. In 2004, Professor Adler was awarded the Paul M. Bator Award, given annually by the Federalist Society for Law and Policy Studies to an academic under 40 for excellence in teaching, scholarship, and commitment to students.

Back to the top

Frank Allen
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. —
THE CRAFT: Telling Environment Stories Better

Frank Edward Allen is president and executive director of the Institutes for Journalism & Natural Resources. For more than 25 years he has been a reporter and editor, having worked for dailies and news services in Oregon, Arizona, Minnesota, New York and Pennsylvania. Frank spent 14 years at The Wall Street Journal, as an editor for Page One and for the Second Front in New York, as chief of the Philadelphia bureau for nine years and later as the paper's first environment editor. Many of the journalists hired and coached by Frank have since distinguished themselves as award-winning reporters, foreign correspondents, bureau chiefs and senior editors.

Back to the top

Nancy Bazilchuk
Events:
Wednesday, Welcome to Vermont, 8:00 p.m.
Friday, Welcoming Remarks, 9:00 a.m.

Nancy Bazilchuk is a freelance science and environmental writer based in Trondheim, Norway. Before moving overseas in 2002, she was environmental writer at The Burlington (VT) Free Press from 1986-1988 and 1990-2002. She has been honored with a AAAS/Westinghouse Science Journalism Award, as a finalist for the Edward J. Meeman Award, and with the Vermont Press Association's Mavis Doyle Award for Investigative Reporting. She was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1996-1997 and is the co-author of a natural history guide to Vermont, published by the Longstreet Press.

Back to the top

Perry Beeman
Events:
Friday, Network Lunch, Table 16, 12:30 p.m. — SEJ: Coming Attractions
Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, 2:15 p.m. — THE NATION: The U.S. Farm Bill: It's Not Just Crop Payments

SEJ president Perry Beeman has reported for The Des Moines Register since 1981. Beeman began covering environmental issues full time in 1991. His work at The Register has included a number of award-winning investigative pieces, including a water-sampling effort that prompted the state's first comprehensive testing of state-park swimming areas. Beeman has documented widespread concerns about pollution and health threats from livestock confinements. In 2003, he won first place for outstanding beat reporting in the independently judged SEJ Awards for Reporting on the Environment and was a finalist for the Oakes Award after reporting about political pressure on and censorship of scientists studying the effects of agricultural pollution. He was part of a team that won first place for special projects in the 1998 National Association of Agricultural Journalists' national competition. In 1999, he won a science-writing fellowship at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA., where he studied environmental science before working with scientists in the field in Brazil's Amazonia region. In 2004, he studied tropical ecology in Belize with a team from Loyola University New Orleans and the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg. Beeman is a graduate of Iowa State University in journalism and environmental studies.

Back to the top

Lou Bendrick
Event: Sunday, Breakfast Café, 10:00 a.m. —
New England's Nature Writing Legacy: From Thoreau to Burroughs to McKibben

Lou Bendrick holds the oxymoronic title environmental humorist. She is a former humor columnist with the Aspen Times, High Country News and Northern Sky News. Her work has appeared in various and sundry green publications such as Utne Reader, Grist, Plenty, Whole Life Times and Orion Online.

Back to the top

Bill Blakemore
Events:
Friday, Breakfast Session, 7:00 a.m. —
The Biggest Story, the Biggest Challenge: Capturing Climate Change
Friday, Evening Plenary, 5:30 p.m. — And Now a Word from Our Critics...

Bill Blakemore is a senior domestic and foreign correspondent for ABC, covering stories in conflict and politics, the arts, nature and science. He has covered 12 wars since he joined ABC News in 1970, including both Iraq wars, two Arab-Israeli wars and the Palestinian intifada, the Iranian Revolution, the Beirut civil war, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the Indo-Pak Bangladesh war. He was the first television correspondent to win the Edward R. Murrow Fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations, and once spent a year reporting for ABC Radio while traveling around India by motor scooter. He is currently ABC's lead reporter on climate change.

Back to the top

William Bowden
Event: Thursday Tour — Lake Champlain: Ecosystem at Risk

William "Breck" Bowden is professor of watershed science and planning at the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. He is the director of the Vermont Water Resources and Lake Studies Center and a member of the Arctic Long-Term Ecological Research program.

Back to the top

Peter Bradford
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. —
THE FUTURE: Cradle to Grave: New Nukes and Old Radioactive Waste

Peter Bradford is president of Bradford Brook Associates, and board vice chair of the Union of Concerned Scientists. He advises and teaches on utility regulation and energy policy in the United States and overseas. A former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and former chair of the New York and Maine utility commissions, he has advised many states on utility restructuring issues. He has taught energy law and policy at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and the Vermont Law School. He served on a panel advising the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on how best to replace the remaining Chernobyl nuclear plants. He was also part of an expert panel advising the Austrian Institute for Risk Reduction on issues associated with the opening of the Mochovche nuclear power plant in Slovakia.

Back to the top

Richard Brooks
Event: Wednesday, VLS Environmental Law Workshop for Journalists, Closing Plenary: "Where's My Next Environmental Law Story Coming From?" 2:10 p.m.

Richard O. Brooks is the founding director of the Vermont Law School's environmental law center, from 1978 to 1990. He also served as the coordinator of the school's foreign, international and comparative law program. Since 1980, Richard has served as visiting professor in environmental studies at Dartmouth College and as visiting professor of law at McGill University in Montréal, Québec, Canada, and at the University of Trento in Italy.

Back to the top

James Bruggers
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, 2:15 p.m. — THE CRAFT: Bye, Bye TRI?

James Bruggers covers the environment for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal and served as SEJ president from October 2000 through October 2002. He's worked as a journalist in Montana, Alaska, Washington, California and Kentucky, and has been an SEJ board member since 1997. He was a founder of the SEJ First Amendment Task Force, and frequently uses the Toxics Release Inventory in his reporting. He also writes a blog, Watchdog Earth.

Back to the top

David Brynn
Event: Thursday Tour — Keeping a Patchwork Forest from Unraveling

David Brynn set up his office and classroom in the Jericho Forest in 2005 when he helped the University of Vermont's Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources launch its Green Forestry Education Initiative. As director, David is exploring new directions for forestry, "to integrate sustainable design, land ethics, and real-world learning in community-based forest conservation." He is also founder, in 1995, of Vermont Family Forests, a nonprofit organization aiming to conserve forest health.

Back to the top

Dina Cappiello
Events:
Saturday, Breakfast Session, 7:30 a.m. — Covering the Big Stories: Up a Creek, Without a News Hook
Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE CRAFT II: Visualizing Your Stories: Moving Beyond Words When Covering the Environment

SEJ board member Dina Cappiello is the environment writer for the Houston Chronicle, where she has been on staff since 2002. Her 2005 investigative series "In Harm's Way," which documented the risk industrial pollution poses to fence-line communities, won SEJ's Kevin Carmody Award for Investigative Reporting, Print, last year. It was also recognized by the National Association of Environmental Professionals for environmental education. Prior to moving to Houston, Cappiello reported on environmental issues for the Albany Times Union in upstate New York. Her work on acid rain and dredging PCBs from the Hudson River there resulted in her being named a finalist for the John B. Oakes Award twice, and a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists. In 2001, Cappiello was named the Young Journalist of the Year by the New York State Associated Press Association. Cappiello holds masters degrees in environmental science and journalism from Columbia University, and a bachelor's degree in biology from Georgetown University.

Back to the top

Delia Clark
Event: Saturday, Mini-Tour #3, 2:30 p.m. —
A New Approach to Reading Landscapes: A Handy Journalist's Tool (Shelburne Farms)

Delia Clark is director of the Center for Place-based Learning and Community Engagement, a partnership project of Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park and Shelburne Farms. She also co-directs Project CO-SEED through the Antioch New England Institute, and she serves on the National Park Service Conservation Study Institute. Delia is the co-author of "Questing: A Guide to Creating Community Treasure Hunts" (University Press of New England, 2004).

Back to the top

Hal Clifford
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE CRAFT: Editors' Pitch Slam: Instant Feedback on Your Freelance Ideas

Hal Clifford has been executive editor of Massachusetts-based Orion magazine since 2003. He's been a journalist since 1984, though, working in America's smallest daily newspaper war at The Aspen Daily News. From 1992 to his position at Orion, Hal actually made a living as a freelance writer in the West. He is the author of three books and has worked as a freelance journalist for more than 60 publications, many of which you've never heard of.

Back to the top

Ben Cohen
Event: Wednesday, The "Real Scoop" on Vermont, 8:15 p.m.

Ben Cohen is co-founder of Ben and Jerry's Homemade, Inc. — the ice cream guys. The company grew out of an ice cream scoop shop in a renovated gas station in Burlington, Vermont, in 1978. He now runs TrueMajority and Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, activist nonprofit organizations whose aim is to shift government spending away from the military.

Back to the top

Art Cohn
Events:
Thursday Tour — Lake Champlain: Ecosystem at Risk
Saturday, Mini-Tour #6, 2:30 p.m. — Afloat on Burlington Bay

Art Cohn is executive director of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum at Basin Harbor in Vermont, and director of its Maritime Research Institute, which oversees much of the current research on Lake Champlain shipwrecks. A professional diver and nautical archaeologist, Art has served as coordinator of the state of Vermont's Underwater Historic Preserve Program since 1985. Art is the author of "Lake Champlain's Sailing Canal Boats: An Illustrated Journey from Burlington Bay to the Hudson River," and other works.

Back to the top

Lafcadio Cortesi
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, 2:15 p.m. —
THE LAND: Greening up the Forests: Sustainable Forestry in the 21st Century

Lafcadio Cortesi is boreal markets and solutions director for ForestEthics, based in San Francisco, Calif. He has been working in Canada's Boreal Forests from the California office for the last four years. Before that he had 15 years' experience working in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and the Asia-Pacific region. As a specialist in biodiversity conservation and natural resources management, Cortesi has helped pioneer market-based approaches and advocacy that have prevented logging in more than one million acres worldwide and strengthened many indigenous and civil-society organizations. He has co-authored "Stories from the Forest Edge," and "Collaborative and Community Based Coral Reef Management."

Back to the top

Robert Costanza
Events:
Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. —
THE INDUSTRY: Money Talks: But What Price Sustainability?
Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE BORDER: Invasives: Global Trade Brings Local Costs

Robert Costanza is a professor of ecological economics and director of the Gund Institute for Ecological Economics in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont. Robert is co-founder and past president of the International Society for Ecological Economics (ISEE) and is founding editor of the society's journal, Ecological Economics. His research has focused on ecological and economic systems, including landscapes, energy and dysfunctional incentive systems.

Back to the top

Joseph Davis
Events:
Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, 2:15 p.m. — THE CRAFT: Bye, Bye TRI?
Friday, Beat Dinner #6, 7:00 p.m. — Dinner with SEJ's FOI Task Force
Saturday, Lunch and Plenary Session, 12:15 p.m. — Government Secrecy: What We Don't Know Can't...

Joseph A. Davis is SEJ WatchDog Project Director, EJToday Editor, TipSheet Editor and a free-lance writer/editor in Washington, D.C. He directs the WatchDog Project, an activity of SEJ's First Amendment Task Force that reports on secrecy trends and supports reporters' efforts to make better use of FOIA. He also edits EJToday, SEJ's daily selection of new and outstanding stories on environmental topics in print and on the air, and TipSheet, a biweekly electronic newsletter of story ideas and sources co-published by SEJ and the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation.

Back to the top

John Dillon
Event: Thursday Tour —
From Cow Power to Urban Farms: Sustainable Agriculture in the 21st Century

John Dillon covers the environment, politics and other beats for Vermont Public Radio. Previously, John was a staff writer for the Sunday Times Argus and the Sunday Rutland Herald, was communications director for the Vermont Health Care Authority and bureau chief for UPI in Montpelier.

Back to the top

Richard Donovan
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, 2:15 p.m. —
THE LAND: Greening up the Forests: Sustainable Forestry in the 21st Century

Richard Z. Donovan is deputy director, chief of forestry and director of SmartWood, part of the Rainforest Alliance, an international non-profit conservation organization. The Rainforest Alliance Forestry Division, of which SmartWood is a part, is headquartered in Richmond, Vermont, 20 minutes from Burlington. Richard has field experience in over 50 countries in all forest types (tropical, temperate and boreal), including resident experience in Mexico, Costa Rica and Paraguay. He speaks Spanish (fluent), Portuguese (working knowledge) and an Amazonian basis Indian language called Guarani (working knowledge).

Back to the top

Cheryl Dorschner
Event: Saturday, Mini-Tour #3, 2:30 p.m. —
A New Approach to Reading Landscapes: A Handy Journalist's Tool (Shelburne Farms)

Cheryl Dorschner directed the University of Vermont's effort to bring SEJ's 16th annual conference to Vermont. UVM co-hosted the conference with Vermont Law School. She is senior communications specialist for UVM's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, after more than 25 years in journalism.

Back to the top

James Douglas
Events:
Wednesday, Welcome to Vermont, 8:00 p.m.

James Douglas is the governor of Vermont. He was the first governor to agree to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cooperative effort by northeastern and mid-Atlantic states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and he was recently selected by the Coalition of New Eastern Governors (CONEG) to serve as the lead governor for energy policy. He recently signed into Vermont law new energy standards for commercial buildings and appliances; has also strongly supported the expansion of the biofuels market; and has been increasing the use of biofuels in state buildings and vehicle fleets.

Back to the top

David Dunn
Event: Thursday Tour —
From Cow Power to Urban Farms: Sustainable Agriculture in the 21st Century

David J. Dunn is a senior energy consultant who led the team that developed CVPS Cow Power and the CVPS Renewable Development Fund which, through grants, is focused on developing new renewable energy systems on farms in Vermont. David holds a 1998 U.S. Patent for a milking system control, and speaks on farm energy efficiency and farm renewable energy.

Back to the top

Dan Fagin
Events:
Wednesday, SEJ's Journalism Awards Presentation, 9:00 p.m.
Friday, Evening Plenary, 5:30 p.m. — And Now a Word from Our Critics...

Dan Fagin is associate director of the Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) at New York University. Previously, he was the environment writer at Newsday for 14 years, where he was a principal member of two reporting teams that were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. His stories on cancer epidemiology in 2003 won both of the best-known science journalism prizes in the United States, from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Association of Science Writers. He is also the co-author of the book "Toxic Deception" (1997), which was a finalist for the Investigative Reporters and Editors book-of-the-year award. Fagin has been a Templeton-Cambridge Fellow in Science and Religion at Cambridge University and is a former president of the Society of Environmental Journalists.

Back to the top

Linda J. Fisher
Event: Friday, Opening Plenary, 9:15 a.m. — Corporate Green

Linda J. Fisher is vice president and chief sustainability officer at DuPont. She has works on the company's sustainable growth, environmental, health and stewardship programs, and global regulatory affairs. Before joining DuPont in 2004, Linda served as deputy administrator and in several other positions with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Linda is also a board member of the Environmental Law Institute, The National Parks Foundation, and RESOLVE.

Back to the top

Daniel Mark Fogel
Events:
Wednesday, Welcome to Vermont, 8:00 p.m.
Friday, Welcoming Remarks, 9:00 a.m.

Daniel Mark Fogel took office in 2002 as the 25th president of the University of Vermont. Under his leadership, UVM swiftly embarked upon a 10-year strategy of investment and growth designed to solidify the institution's rank as one of the nation's top small public research universities. The founding editor of the Henry James Review, he is also an authority on the literature of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

Back to the top

Jackie Folsom
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE FUTURE: The Future of Farming: Can Traditional Crop and Livestock Farming Be Sustained?

Jackie Folsom is president of the Vermont Farm Bureau. She is also president of Vermont Farm Bureau Service Company and has previously served as vice-president of Vermont Farm Bureau, Women's Chair of Vermont Farm Bureau and a member of the American Farm Bureau Dairy Advisory Committee. In addition to all her Farm Bureau activities, Jackie is currently chair of the advisory council for the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, a director of the Champlain Valley Exposition, a trustee of the Eastern States Exposition, a member of the Vermont Dairy Task Force and an executive committee member of the Northeast Dairy Leadership Team. Jackie and her husband Roy operate a 100-cow dairy farm with land in Washington and Caledonia counties. They have two children and two grandsons.

Back to the top

Ron Friesen
Events:
Friday, Network Lunch, Table 17, 12:30 p.m. —
The U.S. Farm Bill: Farm Supporter or Trade Distorter? A Canadian Perspective
Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE FUTURE: The Future of Farming: Can Traditional Crop and Livestock Farming Be Sustained?

Ron Friesen writes for The Manitoba Co-operator, a weekly farm newspaper published in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He has been an agricultural journalist since 1988. His diverse beat includes livestock, grain, agricultural policy, international trade and, of course, the environment. Ron is a member of the Canadian Farm Writers Federation and the Canadian Association of Journalists, and has previously served on the national boards of each organization. He also belongs to the North American Agricultural Journalists and is currently the Canadian regional vice-president. Ron received his second SEJ Canadian fellowship this year, having won previously in 2004. Ron lives in Winnipeg with his wife Gail, a certified accountant, and two cats, who are more work than any baby.

Back to the top

Dawn Garcia
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE CRAFT: The Well-Educated Writer: Journalism Fellowships and Continuing Education

Dawn Garcia was a newspaper reporter and editor for 18 years before being appointed deputy director of the John S. Knight Fellowships for Professional Journalists at Stanford University in 2000. Dawn was a Pulitzer Prize juror in 1998, 1999 and 2006. She is an adviser for students in Stanford's Graduate Program in Journalism in the Department of Communication, and is currently serving on the boards of the Journalism and Women Symposium and the California First Amendment Coalition.

Back to the top

Christy George
Events:
Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. —
THE GLOBE: Shrinking Globe, Growing Bugs: The Avian Flu and Other Diseases
Friday, Evening Plenary, 5:30 p.m. — And Now a Word from Our Critics...

Christy George, SEJ's Second Vice President of the Board and Membership Chair, produces documentaries at Oregon Public Broadcasting. She started at OPB in 1997, creating a bureau covering the intersection of business and the environment for the Los-Angeles based national business show, "Marketplace". Before that, George edited foreign and national news for The Boston Herald and covered politics for WGBH-TV, where she won a New England Emmy for an investigative documentary about Massachusetts political corruption. She started out in 1976, covering noise and air pollution and neighborhood encroachment by Logan Airport for The East Boston Community News — a dream beat that led to jobs in print, radio and television. George shared in "Marketplace's" Peabody Award in 2001 and her special "Liquid Gold," on how water is being bought, sold and marketed like any other commodity, was part of "Marketplace's" 1998 winning submission for a Columbia-DuPont Silver Baton award. A high school graduate, she was a 1990-91 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.

Back to the top

Richard Goss
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, 2:15 p.m. —
THE INDUSTRY: High-Tech Trash: E-Waste and Toxic Wastes

Rick Goss is the director of environmental affairs for the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) in Washington, D.C. Before joining EIA, Rick worked as an environmental consultant and supervised projects involving Superfund and brownfield sites, and has worked as a legislative director in the New York State Assembly.

Back to the top

Vernon Grubinger
Event: Thursday Tour —
From Cow Power to Urban Farms: Sustainable Agriculture in the 21st Century

Vernon Grubinger is the state coordinator for the USDA's Northeast Sustainable Agriculture and Research Education program at the University of Vermont. Vernon was formerly director of UVM's Center for Sustainable Agriculture. He is a technical advisor to the Vermont Organic Farmers certification program, a vegetable and berry specialist for UVM Extension and a member of the board of trustees for the Vermont Land Trust and the Windham County Farm Bureau. He has been a Vermont Public Radio commentator on farming and food issues since 1997. These commentaries were published in 2004 in a collection called "With an Ear to the Ground."

Back to the top

Benjamin Grumbles
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE NATION: Blowout: America's Aging Water and Sewer Infrastructures

Benjamin H. Grumbles was confirmed by the United States Senate on November 20, 2004, as assistant administrator for the office of water at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Prior to his confirmation, Benjamin served as deputy assistant administrator for water and acting associate administrator for Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations. For more than fifteen years, he served in various capacities on the House transportation and infrastructure committee staff, and was an adjunct professor of law at the George Washington University Law School, teaching a course on the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Ocean Dumping Act, and Oil Pollution Act.

Back to the top

Joan Hamilton
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE CRAFT: Editors' Pitch Slam: Instant Feedback on Your Freelance Ideas

Joan Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Sierra, a bimonthly environmental magazine published by the Sierra Club. She has also been the top editor at Climbing magazine, and at High Country News. Her freelance work has appeared in Audubon, Defenders and National Wildlife.

Back to the top

James Hansen
Event: Saturday, Lunch and Plenary Session, 12:15 p.m. — Government Secrecy: What We Don't Know Can't...

Dr. James Hansen heads the NASA Institute for Space Studies in New York City, which is a division of Goddard Space Flight Center's (Greenbelt, MD) Earth Sciences Directorate. He was trained in physics and astronomy in the space science program of Dr. James Van Allen at the University of Iowa. His early research on the properties of clouds of Venus led to their identification as sulfuric acid. Since the late 1970s, he has worked on studies and computer simulations of the Earth's climate, for the purpose of understanding the human impact on global climate. Dr. Hansen is best known for his testimony on climate change to congressional committees in the 1980s that helped raise broad awareness of the global warming issue. Dr. Hansen was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1995 and he received the prestigious Heinz Environment Award for his research on global warming in 2001.

Back to the top

Susan Haseltine
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. —
THE GLOBE: Shrinking Globe, Growing Bugs: The Avian Flu and Other Diseases

Susan Haseltine is associate director for biology with the U.S. Geological Survey, working in research administration at the regional and national level for the National Biological Service and the USGS. In recent years she has provided executive leadership to USGS studies of chronic wasting disease and West Nile virus as they emerged in wildlife, and led the Department of Interior effort in partnership with federal and state agencies to provide wildlife surveillance and research for Asian strain highly pathogenic avian influenza.

Back to the top

Bernd Heinrich
Event: Sunday, Nature Writers: A Breakfast Café, 10:15 a.m.

Bernd Heinrich is professor emeritus of biology at the University of Vermont and a wildlife biologist. His 15 books include the natural history classic and National Book Award nominee, "Bumblebee Economics." His at-home aviary inspires many of the detailed drawings and photos for his articles in magazines including Scientific American and Smithsonian. Bernd is also a record-breaking long-distance runner.

Back to the top

Laura Helmuth
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE CRAFT: Editors' Pitch Slam: Instant Feedback on Your Freelance Ideas

Laura Helmuth is the science editor for Smithsonian magazine. She edits and helps select most of the magazine's stories about the environment. She previously worked for Science magazine's news department as a writer and editor. She has written for Science News, California Wild, National Wildlife, various other magazines and web sites, and a travel guide to Eastern Europe.

Back to the top

Don Hopey
Events:
Friday, Beat Dinner #1, 7:00 p.m. —
Fish or Cut Bait: Frank Talk about the Future of Conservation with USFWS Director Dale Hall
Sunday, Nature Writers: A Breakfast Café, 10:15 a.m.

SEJ board member Don Hopey has covered the environment for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette since 1992. He has written series about an 80-mile canoe trip through the Wild & Scenic sections of the Allegheny River, the "Wise Use" movement in Pennsylvania and problems with the nation's hazardous waste incinerators. He participated in an end-to-end hike of the Appalachian Trail by five eastern newspapers in 1995, hiking more than 500 miles from Virginia through Pennsylvania. Reports on the hike were reprinted in a book, "An Appalachian Adventure." He is co-author of "Exploring the Appalachian Trail: Mid-Atlantic States," one of five guide books in a series that highlights the trail's social and natural history. He teaches an environmental issues and policy class at the University of Pittsburgh.

Back to the top

Dana Hudson
Event: Saturday, Mini-Tour #1, 2:30 p.m. —
Beyond Artisanal Cheese and Micro-Greens: Ensuring Local Food Reaches Everyone (Shelburne Farms)

Dana Hudson is coordinator of Shelburne Farms Farm-to-School program and the Food Education Every Day program.

Back to the top

Huff, Richard
Event: Saturday, Lunch and Plenary Session, 12:15 p.m. — Government Secrecy: What We Don't Know Can't...

Richard Huff is the former co-director of the Office of Information and Privacy, U.S. Department of Justice. His public service career entailed more than 36 years with the federal government, the last 24 as a founding director of OIP. During that time, he became a pioneer in the administration of the Freedom of Information Act and made unprecedented contributions to the development and implementation of sound information policy throughout the executive branch. Huff, a graduate of Stanford University with B.S. and law degrees, held primary responsibility for adjudicating the many thousands of FOIA and Privacy Act administrative appeals filed with the Justice Department each year.

Back to the top

Doug Inkley
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE FUTURE: Global Warming: Reporting on What's Going to Be Changing in Your Backyard

Doug Inkley is senior scientist at the National Wildlife Federation. A wildlife biologist, Inkley helped write the National Wildlife Federation's individual fact sheets on global warming impacts for all 50 states and two territories.

Back to the top

Martha Judy
Event: Thursday Tour —
The Historic Hudson River: Cleanup Controversy at a Superfund Mega Site

Martha Judy is an associate professor of law at Vermont Law School, where she has taught on CERCLA (Superfund), RCRA (the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) and a unit on environmental problem solving. She organized the research for the National Commission on Superfund, a group of environmentalists, corporate CEOs, citizens, and government leaders seeking consensus on ways to improve the cleanup of Superfund sites. Martha serves as a member of the Brookfield (Vermont) Planning Commission.

Back to the top

Dean Kamen
Event: Friday, Opening Plenary, 9:15 a.m. — Corporate Green

Dean Kamen is an inventor, entrepreneur, and a tireless advocate for science and technology. He is the founder of DEKA Research & Development Corporation, where he develops internally generated inventions and provides research and development for major corporate clients. He holds more than 440 U.S. and foreign patents for innovative devices that have expanded the frontiers of health care worldwide. Some of his notable inventions include the first wearable insulin pump for diabetics, the HomeChoice, a portable peritoneal dialysis machine, the INDEPENDENCE® iBOT® Mobility System, and the Segway® Human Transporter. Among Mr. Kamen's proudest accomplishments is founding FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), an organization dedicated to motivating the next generation to understand, use, and enjoy science and technology. Mr. Kamen was awarded the National Medal of Technology in 2000, the Lemelson-MIT Prize in 2002, is a member of the National Academy of Engineers and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May 2005.

Back to the top

Gene Karpinski
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE NATION: Whither Congress? Midterm Elections and the Environment

Gene Karpinski became president of the League of Conservation Voters and the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund in April, after spending the last 21 years as Executive Director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in Washington, D.C. In that time, Mr. Karpinski also served over 12 years on the board of directors of LCV and LCVEF. The independent political voice of the environment, LCV in 2004 mobilized 18,000 volunteers who knocked on over 1.3 million doors in six states in support of environmental issues.

Back to the top

Jamie Lincoln Kitman
Event: Thursday, Talk Back to Your Car, 8:00 p.m.

Jamie Lincoln Kitman, New York bureau chief for Automobile Magazine, won an investigative reporting award from Investigative Reporters and Editors for his Nation article on leaded gasoline. A member of the Society of Automotive Historians, Jamie Lincoln Kitman drives a 1966 Lancia Fulvia and a 1969 Ford Lotus-Cortina, both of which run fine on unleaded.

Back to the top

Verlyn Klinkenborg
Event: Sunday, Nature Writers: A Breakfast Café, 10:15 a.m.

Verlyn Klinkenborg comes from a family of Iowa farmers and is the author of "Making Hay" and "The Last Fine Time." Verlyn is a member of the editorial board of The New York Times, and his most recent book is "Timothy; or, Notes of an Abject Reptile."

Back to the top

Matt Kolan
Event: Saturday, Mini-Tour #2, 2:30 p.m. —
Wildlife Tracking as Scientific Research, Ecosystem Management and Engaging Your Community (Shelburne Farms)

Matt Kolan is the phenology project director for PLACE (Place-based Analysis and Community Education), a cooperative program between the University of Vermont and Shelburne Farms. Matt teaches in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at UVM.

Back to the top

Elizabeth Kolbert
Event: Friday, Breakfast Session, 7:00 a.m. —
The Biggest Story, the Biggest Challenge: Capturing Climate Change

Elizabeth Kolbert is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of "Field Notes from a Catastrophe." Last year she received the American Association for the Advancement of Science's magazine writing award for the series of articles on which the book is based. Before moving to The New Yorker in 1999 she was a reporter for The New York Times. She is also author of "The Prophet of Love," a collection of profiles from The New Yorker.

Back to the top

William Kovacs
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE NATION: Whither Congress? Midterm Elections and the Environment

William Kovacs, vice president, Environment, Technology and Regulatory Affairs, is the primary officer responsible for developing U.S. Chamber policy on environment, energy, natural resources, agriculture and food safety, regulatory, and technology issues. Kovacs spent nearly 20 years in private law practice before joining the Chamber and is a recognized expert on environmental policy.

Back to the top

Bill Kovarik
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE CRAFT: The Well-Educated Writer: Journalism Fellowships and Continuing Education

Bill Kovarik, SEJ's Board Representative for the Academic Membership, is a professor of Media Studies at Radford University in southwestern Virginia where he teaches science and environment writing, media history, media law and web design. He has also served on the faculty at Virginia Tech and the University of Maryland. Kovarik's professional experience includes reporting and editing for Jack Anderson, the Associated Press, The Charleston (S.C.) Courier, The Baltimore Sun, Time-Life Books, Latin American Energy Report and Appropriate Technology Times. His books include "The Forbidden Fuel" (1982), "Mass Media and Environmental Conflict" (with Mark Neuzil, 1996), and "Web Design for the Mass Media" (2001). He is a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University (1974), the University of South Carolina (M.A., 1983) and the University of Maryland (Ph.D., 1993).

Back to the top

James Howard Kunstler
Event: Sunday, Looking Forward, Looking Back, 9:00 a.m.

James Howard Kunstler says he wrote "The Geography of Nowhere," "Because I believe a lot of people share my feelings about the tragic landscape of highway strips, parking lots, housing tracts, mega-malls, junked cities, and ravaged countryside that makes up the everyday environment where most Americans live and work." His latest book, "The Long Emergency," published by the Atlantic Monthly Press in 2005, is about the challenges posed by the coming permanent global oil crisis, climate change, and other "converging catastrophes of the 21st Century." He is also known for his online writings, speeches and appearance in the film "The End Of Suburbia."

Back to the top

Rick Kupchella
Event: Friday, Breakfast Session, 7:00 a.m. —
The Biggest Story, the Biggest Challenge: Capturing Climate Change

Rick Kupchella is the weekend anchor at KARE, where he has also served as a general assignment reporter and on the investigations and special projects teams. He has also served as president of the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. This past winter he produced a three-part series on the science and local impacts of climate change.

Back to the top

Mark Latham
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE NATION: Whither Congress? Midterm Elections and the Environment

Mark Latham teaches corporations and environmental law and has served as defense counsel in state and federal, civil and administrative enforcement actions under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, CERCLA (Superfund), RCRA (hazardous waste handling), and EPCRA (protection of public health, safety, and the environment from chemical hazards).

Back to the top

Patrick Leahy
Event: Saturday, Lunch and Plenary Session, 12:15 p.m. — Government Secrecy: What We Don't Know Can't...

Patrick Leahy was elected to the United States Senate in 1974 and remains the only Democrat elected to this office from Vermont. At age 34, he was the youngest senator elected from the Green Mountain State and is now serving his sixth term. Sen. Leahy is the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee and is a senior member of the Agriculture and Appropriations Committees. He ranks seventh in seniority in the Senate. He has been a champion of open government and of the Freedom of Information Act and in 1996 was installed in the FOIA Hall of Fame in recognition of his efforts. Sen. Leahy also led several initiatives to assist farmers in meeting environmental objectives without reducing income, preserve Vermont farms and implement the national organic standards and labeling program, which took effect in October 2002.

Back to the top

Jacques Leslie
Events:
Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE GLOBE: James Bay II and Beyond: Is the Era of Big Dams Back?
Sunday, Nature Writers: A Breakfast Café, 10:15 a.m.

Jacques Leslie began his career as a Los Angeles Times war correspondent in Vietnam, and over decades shifted from newspaper stories to magazine pieces to narrative nonfiction books and essays. His most recent book is "Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005). It's a product of Jacques' current interest, writing narrative nonfiction about the world's most pressing environmental issues. His July 2000 cover story for Harper's magazine, "Running Dry: What Happens When the World No Longer Has Enough Freshwater?," was included in The Best American Science Writing 2001.

Back to the top

Andrea Levine
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE INDUSTRY: Sticker Spin: The Murky World of Green Labeling

Andrea Levine is the director of the National Advertising Division (NAD) and a vice president of the Council of Better Business Bureaus, part of the advertising industry's voluntary self-regulation system. During the ten years that she served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York, Andrea worked closely with the Federal Trade Commission, Attorneys General nationwide, the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission on a wide variety of advertising issues.

Back to the top

Gil Livingston
Events:
Thursday Tour —
From Cow Power to Urban Farms: Sustainable Agriculture in the 21st Century
Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE LAND: Protecting the Land: Land Trusts and Conservation Easements

Gil Livingston is vice president and counsel for the Vermont Land Trust. He is also affiliated with other land trusts: Gil was a member of the national Land Trust Alliance board of directors and board member of the Richmond Land Trust. He remains on the board of the Center for Whole Communities in Waitsfield and the Black Family Land Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting landownership and promoting economic growth in African American communities.

Back to the top

Peter Lord
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE CRAFT: The Well-Educated Writer: Journalism Fellowships and Continuing Education

Peter Lord is the environment writer at The Providence Journal and, since 1997, the journalism director of the Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting. Based at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography, Metcalf supports three major programs: a week-long, hands-on seminar on environmental reporting each summer, fellowships in environmental reporting for minority journalists, and the $75,000 Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment.

Back to the top

Francesca Lyman
Events:
Friday, Network Lunch, Table 6, 12:30 p.m. — Coffee: How Green Are Your Beans?
Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, 2:15 p.m. —
THE LAND: Greening up the Forests: Sustainable Forestry in the 21st Century

Francesca Lyman is a freelance writer and investigative reporter who, for the last years, has been a contributing writer to Seattle Metropolitan magazine and Ms. For five years she regularly wrote the "Your Environment" column for MSNBC.com, and has also contributed to The New York Times, L.A. Times, Washington Post, This Old House and such environmental periodicals as Land and People, The Green Guide, Organic Style, Sierra, Orion and Orion Afield.

Back to the top

Fred Magdoff
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE FUTURE: The Future of Farming: Can Traditional Crop and Livestock Farming Be Sustained?

Fred Magdoff is finishing a 33-year career at the University of Vermont, where he is professor of plant and soil science. The Magdoff nitrate test has become the standard from Nebraska to Vermont and in nearly all the corn-growing states. His recent work on the critical subject of phosphorous has helped clarify mechanisms of phosphorus movement from soils and the methods needed to assess this movement. It has been said that as the nation grapples more than ever before with soil and water quality issues, the name "Magdoff" will be to soil what the name "Rodale" is to organic.

Back to the top

Ellen Marsden
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE BORDER: Invasives: Global Trade Brings Local Costs

Ellen Marsden, a University of Vermont professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, specializes in the science of Great Lakes fisheries restoration and ecology, with particular emphasis on native species restoration and impacts of exotic species. Current work includes tracking lake trout spawning in Lake Champlain, sea lamprey population dynamics, and effects of zebra mussels on soft sediment fauna and predators.

Back to the top

Robert McClure
Event: Friday, Breakfast Session, 7:00 a.m. —
The Biggest Story, the Biggest Challenge: Capturing Climate Change

SEJ board member and First Amendment Task Force liaison Robert McClure, a 17-year veteran of the environment beat, has focused on natural-resource issues including fisheries, timber and mining since joining the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1999. There he has produced major projects on the Endangered Species Act, the environmental tailspin of Puget Sound and the 1872 Mining Law. He also covers climate change regularly in his blog, Dateline Earth, and occasionally in the newspaper. McClure previously worked at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, where he covered several government beats and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist before focusing on the environment and writing extensively about the need for restoration of the Florida Everglades. McClure, a University of Florida graduate, also spent an academic year in the Knight Wallace Fellows program at the University of Michigan. His professional career began at United Press International's Miami and Tallahassee bureaus. McClure is the recipient of numerous state, regional and national journalism awards including the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism.

Back to the top

Bill McKibben
Events:
Friday, Opening Plenary, 9:15 a.m. — Corporate Green
Sunday, Nature Writers: A Breakfast Café, 10:15 a.m.

Bill McKibben is an American environmentalist who frequently writes about global warming, alternative energy, and the risks associated with human genetic engineering. McKibben's writing often has a spiritual bent, which is not surprising as he is active in the Methodist Church. He is a visiting scholar at Middlebury College. McKibben is a board member and contributor to Grist Magazine.

Back to the top

Peter Miller
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE CRAFT: The Well-Educated Writer: Journalism Fellowships and Continuing Education

Peter Miller is Vermont Law School's director of media relations and this year's SEJ conference co-host. Peter earned his master of studies in environmental law degree from VLS.

Back to the top

Janet Milne
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. —
THE INDUSTRY: Money Talks: But What Price Sustainability?

Janet E. Milne is an expert in environmental tax policies and charitable giving, and an instructor at Vermont Law School. She teaches on corporations, environmental tax policy, income tax, land use law, land and takings, and property. Janet has served as a member of the American Bar Association tax section's environmental taxes committee (now the natural resources and environmental taxes committee) since 1994 and is the committee's vice chair for important developments.

Back to the top

Patrick Moore
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. —
THE FUTURE: Cradle to Grave: New Nukes and Old Radioactive Waste

Patrick Moore is a co-founder of Greenpeace and served for nine years as president of Greenpeace Canada and seven years as a director of Greenpeace International. In recent years, Patrick has been focused on the promotion of sustainability and consensus building among competing concerns. He is now a director of NextEnergy Solutions, the largest distributor of geothermal systems in Canada. Patrick also currently serves as chair and chief scientist of Greenspirit Strategies Ltd., a consultancy focusing on environmental policy and communications in forestry, agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture, mining, biodiversity, energy and climate change.

Back to the top

Marc Morano
Event: Friday, Evening Plenary, 5:30 p.m. — And Now a Word from Our Critics...

Marc Morano joined the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee as the majority Communications Director in June 2006 after a decade and a half as a working journalist, documentary maker and national television correspondent. Morano has held both White House and Capitol Hill Press credentials and was a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He has attended and reported on numerous international climate conferences and the 2002 UN sponsored Earth Summit in Johannesburg South Africa. He was the first reporter in May 2004 to report that the Swift Boat Veterans were organizing to oppose John Kerry. Morano was the investigative reporter for Cybercast News Service in Washington, DC., a reporter/producer for the nationally syndicated television newsmagazine American Investigator, and the television reporter/producer for the nationally syndicated Rush Limbaugh, the Television Show.

Back to the top

Kathryn Morse
Event: Sunday, Looking Forward, Looking Back, 9:00 a.m.

Kathryn Morse is an environmental historian at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont, and the author of "The Nature of Gold: An Environmental History of the Klondike Gold Rush."

Back to the top

Jim Motavalli
Events:
Thursday, Talk Back to Your Car, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, Mini-Tour #7, 2:30 p.m. — Vermont's Green Fuels of the Future

Jim Motavalli is the editor of the Norwalk, Connecticut-based E Magazine, the only independent national environmental bi-monthly. He is the author of "Breaking Gridlock: Moving Toward Transportation That Works" (2002) and "Forward Drive: The Race to Build 'Clean' Cars for the Future" (2000), both published by Sierra Club Books/Random House. "Feeling the Heat: Dispatches From the Frontlines of Climate Change," edited by Motavalli and based on reporting in E Magazine, was published by Routledge in 2004. "Green Living: The E Magazine Handbook for Living Lightly on the Earth" (published by the Plume division of Penguin) was released for Earth Day 2005. He writes regularly for The New York Times' Automobiles, Connecticut and Metro sections, and produces a weekly auto column, which appears in The Philadelphia Review and five other papers. He also writes the "Green Living" column for "Solutions," the Environmental Defense newsletter. Jim hosts a bi-weekly public affairs and music radio show on listener-supported WPKN-FM in Bridgeport, Conn.

Back to the top

Laurel Neme
Events:
Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE BORDER: Wildlife Trafficking in North America
Saturday, Mini-Tour #2, 2:30 p.m. —
Wildlife Tracking as Scientific Research, Ecosystem Management and Engaging Your Community (Shelburne Farms)

Laurel Neme is a freelance writer based in Shelburne, Vermont. She works as a writer for Earth Negotiations Bulletin, covering international environmental meetings and negotiations. She is writing a book, "Wildlife's Scotland Yard," that follows three true cases of the only forensic lab in the world devoted to wildlife. She was editor for FRAMEgram, an electronic newsletter of USAID's FRAME, a program designed to help environmental professionals around the world share information.

Back to the top

Mark Neuzil
Events:
Thursday Tour —
Green Sneakers and Blaze Orange: Can Traditional Conservation and Environmentalism Coexist?
Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. —
THE CRAFT II: Teaching Environmental Journalism Through Experiential Education
Sunday, Looking Forward, Looking Back, 9:00 a.m.

Mark Neuzil is an associate professor of journalism and mass communication at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn. He is the author or co-author of several books, including most recently "A Spiritual Field Guide: Meditations for the Outdoors" with the theologian Bernard Brady.

Back to the top

Geneva Overholser
Events:
Saturday, Breakfast Session, 7:30 a.m. — Covering the Big Stories: Up a Creek, Without a News Hook
Saturday, Lunch and Plenary Session, 12:15 p.m. — Government Secrecy: What We Don't Know Can't...

Geneva Overholser is a media critic, and works at the Missouri School of Journalism at its Washington, D.C. bureau. She was editor of The Des Moines Register from 1988 to 1995, and recently co-edited the book "The Press as an Institution of Democracy." She also wrote a blog for the Poynter Institute Website and a regular column for the Columbia Journalism Review. She serves on the steering committee of the Committee of Concerned Journalists and on the Journalism Advisory Committee of the Knight Foundation. Geneva was for nine years a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board, serving the final year as chair.

Back to the top

Candace Page
Events:
Thursday Tour — Lake Champlain: Ecosystem at Risk
Saturday, Mini-Tour #6, 2:30 p.m. — Afloat on Burlington Bay

Candace Page covers the environment, land use and agriculture for The Burlington Free Press, where she has worked for more than 20 years. Her series on the human costs of battles over Act 250, Vermont's development-control law, was a finalist for the National Journalism Award for environmental reporting in 2004.

Back to the top

Vince Patton
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE CRAFT II: Tools for Broadcast Journalists: Get Your Stories Aired — Even During Sweeps!

SEJ board member Vince Patton is the environmental reporter for KGW-TV, the NBC affiliate in Portland, OR. Patton moved to Portland in 2000 after spending 11 years as a reporter at WFAA-TV (ABC) in Dallas, Texas. He began his professional, on-air career as a reporter at KAKE-TV (ABC) in Wichita, Kansas. Patton also interned at KUSA-TV (NBC) in Denver, Colorado as a photographer and editor. Once he realized the weight of the cameras, he decided to go into writing, beginning as a Field Producer at KCNC-TV (CBS) in Denver. Patton has been honored with more than two dozen awards throughout his career including a national Best Program award from SEJ, a Regional Emmy for Best Beat Reporter in the Northwest and three other Regional Emmys for Journalistic Enterprise, Feature Reporting and Spot News. He has also been given two Texas Headliner Awards for Feature Reporting and five regional Dallas Press Club Katie Awards for Business, Government and Feature Reporting. He was awarded a Knight Wallace Fellowship for 9 months of study of environmental law at the University of Michigan in 2003. Born in Littleton, Colorado, Patton graduated Kappa Tau Alpha from University of Missouri with a Bachelor degree of Journalism in 1985.

Back to the top

Timothy Perkins
Event: Saturday, Mini-Tour #4, 2:30 p.m. —
The Sweet Science of Maple Syrup: UVM's Proctor Maple Research Center

Timothy Perkins is director of the University of Vermont Proctor Maple Research Center, and an associate professor of botany and agricultural biochemistry. His research interests include long-term monitoring of forest health, and the relationships among tree health, growth, stress, and nutrition. He is investigating the effects of air pollution and global climate change on forests, as well as improving maple sap and syrup production.

Back to the top

Rick Piltz
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE FUTURE: Global Warming: Reporting on What's Going to Be Changing in Your Backyard

Rick Piltz is founder and director of Climate Science Watch, which observes how the science of climate change and related research is used and misused by public officials and special interest groups. From 1995 until his resignation in March 2005, he served in senior positions in the office of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, the program that coordinates support for climate and global change research by 13 federal agencies.

Back to the top

Walter Poleman
Event: Saturday, Mini-Tour #3, 2:30 p.m. —
A New Approach to Reading Landscapes: A Handy Journalist's Tool (Shelburne Farms)

Walter Poleman, senior lecturer in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, serves as the faculty director of the new GreenHouse Residential Learning Community. He teaches courses in field natural history, measurements and mapping, and ecological literacy. Walter also serves as the director of the Place-based Landscape Analysis and Community Education program, a partnership of UVM and Shelburne Farms, which provides local residents with a forum for exploring and understanding the natural and cultural history of their town landscape.

Back to the top

Will Raap
Event: Thursday Tour —
From Cow Power to Urban Farms: Sustainable Agriculture in the 21st Century

Will Raap is founder and chairman of the Gardener's Supply, one of the largest online and catalog gardening companies in the country. Will is also the founder and chairman of the Intervale Foundation, which develops farm- and land-based enterprises that generate economic and social opportunity while protecting natural resources. He also currently sits on the boards of the UVM School of Natural Resources, Champlain Valley Greenbelt Alliance, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility Policy Committee, Vermont Sustainable Agriculture Advisory Council and El Centro Verde, an agro-forestry and restoration project in Costa Rica.

Back to the top

Boyce Rensberger
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE CRAFT: The Well-Educated Writer: Journalism Fellowships and Continuing Education

Boyce Rensberger is director of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships at MIT. This is a mid-career program designed for experienced journalists who cover science, medicine or the environment or journalists who wish to prepare themselves to cover these fields. Before taking over the fellowships in 1998, Boyce was a science writer or science editor for more than 32 years, beginning in 1966 at the Detroit Free Press. From there he went to The New York Times from 1971 through 1979. He left The Times to freelance and to become head writer of a PBS science series for children, "3-2-1 Contact!" He also teaches science journalism in MIT's graduate program in science writing and is co-director of the Science Journalism Program at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole.

Back to the top

Andrew Revkin
Events:
Friday, Evening Plenary, 5:30 p.m. — And Now a Word from Our Critics...
Saturday, Breakfast Session, 7:30 a.m. — Covering the Big Stories: Up a Creek, Without a News Hook

Andrew Revkin has spent a quarter century covering subjects ranging from Hurricane Katrina and the Asian tsunami to the assault on the Amazon, from the troubled relationship of science and politics to climate change at the North Pole. He has been reporting on the environment for The New York Times since 1995, a job that has taken him to the Arctic three times in three years. In 2003, he became one of the first journalists to file stories and photos from the sea ice around the North Pole. He conceived and helped create a three-part Times series and award-winning one-hour documentary last year on the transforming Arctic. He recently exposed efforts by political appointees to rewrite government climate reports in the White House and prevent NASA scientists from conveying their views on warming. He has been a pioneer in multimedia journalism, shooting still and video imagery for stories from far-flung places. He filed the first daily podcasts for The Times from a running news event, the climate-treaty talks in Montreal last December. Revkin's first book for young people, "The North Pole Was Here: Puzzles and Perils at the Top of the World," tells the story of the once and future Arctic. He has written two other books. "The Burning Season" chronicles the life of Chico Mendes, the slain leader of the movement to save the Amazon rain forest. "Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast" accompanied the first museum exhibition on climate change, created by the American Museum of Natural History.

Back to the top

Jim Riccio
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. —
THE FUTURE: Cradle to Grave: New Nukes and Old Radioactive Waste

Jim Riccio is Greenpeace's nuclear policy analyst, joining the organization after September 11, 2001. He has also worked in Washington, D.C., with the Nuclear Information and Resource Service and the critical mass energy project at Public Citizen, one of Ralph Nader's citizen activist groups.

Back to the top

Cynthia Rosenzweig
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE FUTURE: Global Warming: Reporting on What's Going to Be Changing in Your Backyard

Cynthia Rosenzweig is research scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and leader of the climate impacts group at NASA. She is the lead author of a chapter on climate impacts in the upcoming report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and wrote the assessment for the New York region.

Back to the top

David Rosner
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. —
THE NATION: Conflicted Science: History and Present Problems

David Rosner is professor of history and public health at Columbia University and director of the Center for the History of Public Health at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. He and Gerald Markowitz have recently authored "Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution" (University of California Press and the Milbank Memorial Fund, 2002). He is author of several books and articles on public health and American history. His newest individually written book is "Are We Ready? Public Health after September 11."

Back to the top

Sean Ross
Event: Thursday Tour — Keeping a Patchwork Forest from Unraveling

Sean Ross is forestry operations manager for the Lyme Timber Co. in New Hampshire. He analyzes potential forestland acquisitions for the company, and manages its current property. Sean is a licensed New Hampshire Forester and a member of the Society of American Foresters.

Back to the top

Andy Ruben
Event: Friday, Opening Plenary, 9:15 a.m. — Corporate Green

Andy Ruben is vice president of Corporate Strategy/Sustainability for Wal-Mart's worldwide operations, a position established in Summer 2005 as part of Wal-Mart's drive to incorporate social and environmental sustainability into its business strategies. Ruben began his career with Wal-Mart in 2002 as director of Corporate Strategy. He became vice president of U.S. Strategy in 2003. Ruben holds a bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and an MBA — both from Washington University in St. Louis. He sits on the MBA advisory board of the Sam M. Walton School of Business at University of Arkansas, where he also served as Executive in Residence in the school's management department.

Back to the top

Alaric Sample
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, 2:15 p.m. —
THE LAND: Greening up the Forests: Sustainable Forestry in the 21st Century

Al Sample has served as president of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation in Washington, DC since 1995. A fellow of the Society of American Foresters, and a research affiliate with Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Sample is author of numerous research papers, articles and books on topics in national and international forest policy. His most recent book is "Forest Conservation Policy," with Antony Cheng, published in 2004. Sample earned his doctorate in resource policy and economics from Yale University (1989). Sample has served on numerous national task forces and commissions, including the President's Commission on Environmental Quality task force on biodiversity on private lands, and the National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry. He served as chair of the National Capital Society of American Foresters, and as chair of the board of directors for the Forest Stewards Guild.

Back to the top

Paul Schaberg
Event: Thursday Tour — The Acid Test: Camel's Hump

Paul G. Schaberg is a research plant physiologist with the USDA Forest Service in Burlington, Vermont. He studies the human effects on forest health. Recently, Paul's work has focused on acid, nitrogen pollution and climate change. His research may also show how red fall leaf coloration is linked to stress on the trees.

Back to the top

Mark Schleifstein
Events:
Friday, Breakfast Session, 7:00 a.m. — Covering Disasters...Without Becoming One
Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. — Negawatts: Managing Electricity Demand To Reduce Emissions and Maximize Profits

Environment reporter Mark Schleifstein, an SEJ board member, has worked at The Times-Picayune since 1984. He is the co-author with John McQuaid of “Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms,” published by Little, Brown & Co. His reporting during and after Hurricane Katrina was among the newspaper's stories honored with 2006 Pulitzer Prizes for Public Service and Breaking News Reporting and the George Polk Award for Metropolitan Reporting. Stories prior to Katrina on coastal science issues were honored in 2006 with a special award from the American Geophysical Union. The 2002 series he co-authored, "Washing Away: How south Louisiana is growing more vulnerable to a catastrophic hurricane," won the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2003 Excellence in Media award and the 2003 National Hurricane Conference media award. He also was a co-author of the 1996 series, "Oceans of Trouble: Are the World's Fisheries Doomed?," which won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Back to the top

Jeff Seabright
Event: Friday, Opening Plenary, 9:15 a.m. — Corporate Green

Jeff Seabright is vice president for environment and water at The Coca Cola Company in Atlanta. Jeff has held several positions in government and business, including as a foreign service officer in the U.S. State Department and as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senators Timothy E. Wirth and John D. Rockefeller IV. In 1999, he took a position as executive director of the climate change task force and later joined Texaco as vice president for policy planning. Jeff serves on the Boards of the American Council for Renewable Energy, the Keystone Center, Conservation International's International Leadership Council, World Environment Center, the Georgia Conservancy, and the Nature Conservancy.

Back to the top

Geoffrey Shields
Event: Friday, Welcoming Remarks, 9:00 a.m.

Geoffrey B. Shields is president, dean and professor of law of Vermont Law School since August 2004. Geoffrey has edited four books and written over 30 articles on foreign policy issues, health care financing, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring, and environmental issues. He has served as vice chair and treasurer of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and is an active member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Back to the top

Peter Singer
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. —
THE LAND: Eating as an Environmental Act

Peter Singer was born in Melbourne, Australia, in 1946, and since 1999 he has been professor of bioethics in the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University, and in addition, since 2005, Laureate Professor at the University of Melbourne, attached to the Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. Peter Singer was the founding president of the International Association of Bioethics, and founding co-editor of the journal Bioethics. Peter is also the co-founder and chair of The Great Ape Project, an international effort to obtain basic rights for chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. He is also President of Animal Rights International. In 2005 TIME named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Peter first became well-known internationally after the publication of his book "Animal Liberation." Since then he has written several other books, and articles on ethics in the current edition of Encyclopedia Britannica.

Back to the top

Kristine Smith
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. —
THE GLOBE: Shrinking Globe, Growing Bugs: The Avian Flu and Other Diseases

Dr. Kristine Smith obtained her veterinary medical degree from Tufts University, School of Veterinary Medicine, in Massachusetts. She then practiced at a specialty hospital in Los Angeles California before completing a 3-year residency in zoo and wildlife medicine and surgery at the Bronx Zoo in New York. Dr. Smith is now employed as an international field veterinarian for the wild bird Global Avian Influenza Network for Surveillance, also known as the GAINS Program, run by the Wildlife Conservation Society's Field Veterinary Program.

Back to the top

JoAnn Valenti
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE CRAFT: The Well-Educated Writer: Journalism Fellowships and Continuing Education

JoAnn Valenti facilitates an annual one-week environment/science journalism fellowship program for the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kauai, Hawaii. JoAnn serves on the editorial board of SEJournal and was the first academic representative on SEJ's executive board. Currently living between Utah and her home state Florida, she serves on the editorial boards of several peer-reviewed journals, and is the review editor for the international journal Science Communication.

Back to the top

Hubert Vogelmann
Event: Thursday Tour — The Acid Test: Camel's Hump

Hubert "Hub" Vogelmann, botany professor emeritus at the University of Vermont, may be best known for his 1982 article in Natural History called "Catastrophe on Camel's Hump," one of the first non-scientific articles to show how acid rain affects the soil and thus the entire ecosystem. Hubert led the Nature Conservancy's acquisition of nearly 30,000 acres including bogs, ponds and wilderness.

Back to the top

Ken Ward Jr.
Events:
Friday, Breakfast Session, 7:00 a.m. — Covering Disasters...Without Becoming One
Friday, Lunch Breakout Session #1, 12:30 p.m. — Lunch with the FOIA Lawyer
Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, 2:15 p.m. — THE CRAFT: Bye, Bye TRI?
Friday, Beat Dinner #6, 7:00 p.m. — Dinner with SEJ's FOI Task Force

Ken Ward Jr. is an investigative reporter for the Charleston (WV) Gazette, and chairman of SEJ's First Amendment Task Force. In 2006, he received an Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellowship for the project titled "The Curse of Coal." A native of West Virginia, he reports on strip mining, logging, and other environmental ravages of the Appalachian region. He has specialized in public-records reporting, frequently on toxic chemical pollution, using the Toxics Release Inventory.

Back to the top

Dan Watkiss
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
Negawatts: Managing Electricity Demand To Reduce Emissions and Maximize Profits

Dan Watkiss is a partner with Bracewell & Giuliani, a law firm specializing in energy representation, and a contributor to Electric Light & Power magazine. Watkiss represents clients in utilities and other energy related industries in lawsuits, regulatory cases and permitting issues. He also represents government agencies and regulators. From 1982-86, he worked for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as the general counsel's special assistant for litigation and as senior litigation attorney.

Back to the top

Mary Watzin
Events:
Thursday Tour — Lake Champlain: Ecosystem at Risk
Saturday, Mini-Tour #6, 2:30 p.m. — Afloat on Burlington Bay

Mary Watzin, professor of natural resources in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont, specializes in ecology and management of lakes and streams and the impact of water pollution and exotic species on ecosystem health. In 2006 she received the Teddy Roosevelt Award for work in Lake Champlain conservation. Mary also monitors cyanobacteria in Lake Champlain and the Great Lakes.

Back to the top

Tim Wheeler
Events:
Wednesday, SEJ's Journalism Awards Presentation, 9:00 p.m.
Friday, Opening Plenary, 9:15 a.m. — Corporate Green
Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. — THE INDUSTRY: Money Talks: But What Price Sustainability?

Tim Wheeler, SEJ's First Vice President of the Board and Programs Chair, covers growth for The Baltimore Sun. He has written about the environment frequently in his 30-year journalistic career, which included a decade as the beat reporter for The Evening Sun and then The Sun after the two papers merged. He spent two years as an editor helping to coordinate The Sun's medical, science, religion and environmental coverage, during which reporters for the paper won an SEJ award for spot-news coverage of a chemical-laden train fire in downtown Baltimore. His reporting on the Chesapeake Bay, childhood lead poisoning and other environmental topics also has won multiple awards. Before coming to Baltimore, he worked for newspapers in Richmond and Norfolk, VA., and for Media General News Service in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of the University of Virginia, with a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University.

Back to the top

Richard Wiles
Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, 11:15 a.m. —
THE LAND: Eating as an Environmental Act

Richard Wiles is research director of the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Working Group. He is a former senior staff officer at the National Academy of Sciences board on agriculture, where he directed scientific studies, including two that resulted in the reports "Regulating Pesticides in Food: The Delaney Paradox" and "Alternative Agriculture."

Back to the top

Dale Willman
Event: Sunday, October 29 - Wednesday, November 1, Post-Conference Tour — The Wild, Wild East

Dale Willman runs his own radio production company, Field Notes Productions, and reports on environmental issues for a number of outlets. He was managing editor for the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, where he expanded news coverage to 135 public radio stations in 20 states and Canada. During the Gulf War he provided hourly newscasts from London, and was also the only environmental correspondent in the history of CNN Radio.

Back to the top

Timothy Wilmot
Event: Saturday, Mini-Tour #4, 2:30 p.m. —
The Sweet Science of Maple Syrup: UVM's Proctor Maple Research Center

Timothy Wilmot, a botanist, is a University of Vermont Extension maple specialist whose work sheds light on the interactions among temperature, pressure and the rate of sap flow. He conducts experiments on the effects of vacuum collection and the optimal timing of tapping trees. Timothy also explores the relationship between forest nutrition and sugar production in maple woodlands.

Back to the top

Ian Wishart
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, 10:45 a.m. —
THE FUTURE: The Future of Farming: Can Traditional Crop and Livestock Farming Be Sustained?

Ian Wishart and his wife Leslie operate Agasea Farms near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, about an hour's drive west of Winnipeg, the provincial capital. Ian is first vice-president of Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP), Manitoba's provincial farm organization. He currently chairs KAP's environment and assessment and taxation committees. Ian is the architect of Alternative Land Use Services (ALUS), an innovative conservation program that emphasizes farmers' contribution to the environment. Recently, the first ALUS pilot project was launched in Manitoba. Others are planned for Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Prince Edward Island. The Wishart farm has a 200-head cow-calf operation and grows forages, potatoes and specialty crops. Ian and Leslie have two daughters.

Back to the top

Christine Woodside
Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE CRAFT: Editors' Pitch Slam: Instant Feedback on Your Freelance Ideas

Christine Woodside is a writer and editor who lives in Deep River, Connecticut. Her book, "The Homeowner's Guide to Energy Independence: Alternative Power Sources for the Average American," was published in 2006 by the Lyons Press. Her essay "Rage on Grassy Ridge" appears in the anthology "Soul of the Sky" (Mt. Washington Press, 1999), a book about people's experiences with the weather. Chris is the editor of Appalachia, a conservation and mountaineering journal, and the former environmental reporter for The Day, a daily newspaper in New London, Connecticut. She hiked the entire Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in 1987.

Back to the top

Mark Woodward
Event: Friday, Breakfast Session, 7:00 a.m. —
The Biggest Story, the Biggest Challenge: Capturing Climate Change

A. Mark Woodward is the executive editor of the Bangor Daily News, where he previously spent 20 years as the paper's editorial page editor. This past winter Mark oversaw the production of a 16-page special section in the paper titled "Our Changing World: Understanding the Science of Climate Change."

Back to the top

Kinvin Wroth
Events:
Friday, Network Lunch, Table 20, 12:30 p.m. —
Takings Backlash and the Environment: States Respond to Kelo vs. New London
Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, 9:00 a.m. —
THE LAND: Protecting the Land: Land Trusts and Conservation Easements

L. Kinvin Wroth is professor of law at Vermont Law School, and director of Vermont Land Use Institute. At the school, he has taught on comparative law, the Canadian legal system, race and the law, and civil procedure, and will teach land use law in 2007. He is a member of the American Law Institute and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.

Back to the top

The Society of Environmental Journalists
P.O. Box 2492 Jenkintown, PA 19046
Telephone: (215) 884-8174 Fax: (215) 884-8175
sej@sej.org

© 1994 Society of Environmental Journalists
The SEJ logo is a registered trademark ® of the Society of Environmental Journalists. Neither the logo nor anything else from the sej.org domain may be reproduced without written consent of the Society of Environmental Journalists.