People - Ecological Health Network

James Aronson

In addition to his full-time efforts devoted to EHN, James is a senior scientist emeritus with Missouri Botanical Garden’s Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development. From 1992 to 2016, he was in the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology (CNRS), in Montpellier, France. For 35 years, he has participated in ecological restoration and rehabilitation projects in many parts of the world. He has published many influential articles and books, and served as Editor-in-chief of the “Science and Practice of Ecological Restoration” Book Series of Island Press and the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) and, for eight years served as a SER Board member.

James Aronson's curriculum vitae

Neva Goodwin

Neva is actively involved in the synthesis and institutionalization of contextual economics – an economic theory that will have more relevance to real-world concerns than the current dominant economic paradigm. In addition to a variety of educational materials, Neva is lead author of the introductory college-level textbook, Microeconomics in Context, whose Transitional Economies Edition was translated into Russian and Vietnamese and published in those countries in 2002. The US version and its companion, Macroeconomics in Context are currently published by Routledge in languages and editions that reach well beyond the English-speaking world.

In other activities, Neva has been involved with efforts to motivate businesses to recognize social and ecological health as significant, long-term corporate goals. A number of her articles and working papers are available on her ResearchGate profile.

Neva Goodwin’s curriculum vitae

Laura Orlando

Laura brings her interests in soil health, water quality, and human health to her work as an Adjunct Professor of Environmental Health at the Boston University School of Public Health and Senior Scientist at Just Zero, an organization advancing community-centered zero waste solutions. She has over 30 years of international experience working on the design, construction, and management of sustainable systems in the built environment, with a special focus on community-led water and sanitation projects. Laura is also a Contributing Editor at Barn Raising Media.

Laura Orlando's BUSPH profile

Adam Cross

Adam is a restoration ecologist and botanist working to improve the recovery of ecosystems impacted by human activities such as mining, particularly in dryland ecosystems. He is particularly interested in seed-based restoration and the determinants of how plant communities assemble after disturbance. He has published many peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, as well as two books. After completing his PhD Adam held several postdoctoral positions until becoming recipient of a Research Fellowship in Restoration Ecology at Curtin University, co-funded by EHN from 2020-2023, before joining EHN’s Steering Committee in March 2023. Adam is also EHN's Science Director.

Adam Cross's Google Scholar page

Phil Weinstein

Phil is an established international leader in researching the relationships between healthy ecosystems and human health, including water-borne, mosquito-borne, and microbiome-mediated disease. He is uniquely qualified for this multidisciplinary work as a public health physician (MBBS, FAFPHM) with a parallel career in native ecosystem ecology (PhD). He has over 350 publications, 14,000 citations, over $10M in research income, and an h-index of 60. Phil was a member of the Board of Review Editors for the global Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, served as Co-Chair of the International Medical Geology Association, is a past President of the Australian Entomological Association, and is Deputy Chair of Nature Foundation (Australia). He has taught zoology, ecology, and public health as Head of several schools of both biological sciences and public health in Australia and New Zealand. He is currently a Professorial Research Fellow in the School of Public Health at the University of Adelaide, and an active mentor to PhD students, researchers, medical registrars, and colleagues.

Philip Weinstein’s Google Scholar page

Lauren Shew, Director of Operations

Lauren is an enrolled citizen of the Pamunkey Indian Tribe and a graduate of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) where she received a Bachelor’s of Science in Psychology with coursework in the American Indian Studies Program.

Previously serving as the Director of the Tribal Resource Center for the Pamunkey Indian Tribe, Lauren adeptly led working groups focusing on cultural and natural resources as well as cultural education. Her primary interest was in wetland protection and restoration. She authored the EPA-Tribal Environmental Plan and collaborated with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science to create a Wetlands Management Plan for the Tribe.

She has directed and managed grants through the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Environment Quality, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and consulted on research projects for Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, William & Mary, and Old Dominion University.

Lauren believes strengthening the relationships between local, state, federal, and tribal governments is vital in order to protect and restore cultural and natural resources.

Eve Allen, Program Director

Eve is the Program Director for the Northeast Bioregion. She is directing multiple efforts related to helping catalyze, coordinate, and build the capacity of two multi-sectoral collaborative partnerships: 1) the Northeast Seed Network focused on strengthening native seed and plant material supply networks to meet the accelerating demand for ecological restoration and allied activities, and 2) the Bioregional Restoration Network focused on connecting physical restoration sites to address critical gaps in science, policy, and practice.

She is a Master in City Planning graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where her research focused on developing practicable solutions to increase native plant diversity in urban ecological restoration projects.

Previously, she has worked on a range of natural resource and environmental planning projects. Some of these include in situ conservation planning of regionally important crop wild relative species in 15 Sub-Saharan African countries; developing strategies to introduce 200 native plant species to an eco-city development in Southwest China; and helping Quechua smallholder farmers establish a community-led wild potato genetic reserve in the high Andean landscapes of Peru.

Eve is a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and Oak Spring Garden Foundation’s inaugural 2021 Plant Conservation Biology Fellowship.

Check out Eve's August 2022 interview on the Native Plants, Healthy Planet podcast about the Ecological Health Network, and her drone footage of Pinelands Nursery's native seed and plant production in New Jersey.

Jessica Stanhope, Research Fellow

Jessica is an epidemiologist and registered physiotherapist, with a broad research background in environmental and occupational health. Jess has published more than 50 first author, peer reviewed papers. She leads the Environmental Allied Health group at The University of Adelaide, investigating the relationship between exposure to nature and health outcomes, and how this relates to allied health practice. Her research spans basic research, exposure science, social science and epidemiology, and brings together multidisciplinary teams including industry partners to ensure meaningful outputs. As an EHN Research Fellow, Jess will continue her work to show how ecosystem restoration improves human health. This includes the publication of quantitative laboratory evidence for health benefits from exposure to biodiverse aerobiomes, as well as an exposure science project linking vegetation, soil microbiome and biogenic volatile organic compound diversity across a restoration gradient in southern Australia.

Jessica Stanhope's curriculum vitae

Katherine Lawless, Research Affiliate

Kate is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Global Studies at Huron University College (Western University, Ontario, Canada). Her research focuses on questions of value and care, human-nature relations, the social dimensions of soil health, food and knowledge systems, and environmental and agricultural history. She is the lead researcher on the national transdisciplinary project and exhibition, (Re)Mediating Soils, and has a burgeoning track record of peer-reviewed publications in diverse disciplines, from art and media studies to the social and natural sciences.

Evan Horne, Research Intern

Evan is a graduate student in the Field Naturalist Program at the University of Vermont. For his master’s project, he has worked with Mass Audubon to extend their forest resilience monitoring on several wildlife sanctuaries, assessing plant diversity and herbivory pressures.

Previously, he worked on forest health restoration projects in the northern Sierra Nevada Mountains and collected ecological data for the National Ecological Observatory Network near the Shenandoah. More recently, at Longwood Gardens, he assisted in establishing and mapping plant communities as a framework for ecological restoration and helped steward their forests, meadows, and wetlands.

Evan is an avid backpacker who has thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail and botanizes whenever he can.

Sefra Alexandra, Northeast Bioregional Education Coordinator

Sefra Alexandra - the Seed Huntress- is the EHN Education Coordinator for the Northeast USA Bioregion. She has been leading The Ecotype Project for the past five years teaching smallholder farmers how to produce autochthonous plant material for ecological restoration. These efforts have led to the formation of the farmer-led Northeast Seed Collective, making ecotypic seed commercially available. In 2020 she began BOATanical.org where she guides ‘backyard’ expeditions to plant native plants by boat along riparian corridors, an experience that contributes to a culture of citizen science and ecological stewardship. Sefra is on the board of the Freed Seed Federation and the steering committee of the newly-formed Northeast Seed Network.

She holds a MAT in agroecological education from Cornell University. She is also a WINGS WorldQuest expedition flag carrier, member of the Explorers Club, former Genebank Impacts Fellow for the Crop Trust and has helped to fortify community seed banks on island nations with Tactivate- the disaster response company she runs with her twin brother.

Thibaud Aronson, Photographer

Thibaud grew up in the countryside of southern France, in a family of biologists and naturalists, and quickly developed a passion for the living things around him, from newts and water snakes that he caught in the nearby ponds, to the wild orchids that grew in the short-grass prairies. That passion stuck with him through his university years, and he eventually earned a Master's in evolutionary biology, studying the love lives of birds. These days, he aims to combine his interest in nature with his two other loves, namely photography and travel, telling stories of natural history from seldom visited corners of the planet. See more of his work on Instagram (@thibaudaronson).

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