Our Core Team: Steering Committee & Staff

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee is the founding group, the strategic planning and governing body for the Ecological Health Network, which is an independent, nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. EHN is registered with the state of Massachusetts and the IRS as the EcoHealth Network, a 501-c-3 organization. Our EIN is 85-3484507.

James Aronson

James was a restoration ecologist at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s Center for Conservation and Sustainable Development from 2016-2022. From 1992 to 2016, he was head of a small Restoration Ecology group at the CNRS Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology in Montpellier, France.

Over the past 30 years, James has participated in many projects, planning exercises, and publications on ecological restoration and related fields. His work has included the large-scale restoration of natural capital and sustainable development in arid and semi-arid lands.

• View 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.

• View 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 Science Advisor 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.

• View Laura Orlando's BUSPH profile

Staff

Adam Cross, Science Director

Adam received his PhD in Botany from the University of Western Australia. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, as well as two books, and has extensive experience in the study and restoration of ecosystems around the world. A recipient of the Research Fellowship in Restoration Ecology at Curtin University, his work focusses primarily on improving the ecological and sociocultural outcomes of restoration, particularly in the semi-arid and monsoon tropical regions of Australia and in landscapes disturbed by mining activities. Adam is also Restoration Manager for Gelganyem Limited, an indigenous trust aspiring to return ecologically and culturally resilient landscapes to the Traditional Owners of the East Kimberley region in Western Australia. His other areas of research interest include seed biology and its application to ecological restoration, plant community ecology in drylands and ephemeral wetlands, and the ecology and biology of carnivorous plants.

Carolina Murcia, Regional Ambassador for Latin America

Carolina is a Colombian restoration ecologist, certified by the Society for Ecological Restoration.

She is an independent consultant and adjunct faculty at University of Florida. Her consulting work bridges the science-practice-policy gaps, by generating and synthesizing scientific information, proposing new conceptual developments, assessing  how policy and institutional factors affect the development and implementation of country-level restoration initiatives, evaluating large-scale restoration projects, training students and professionals, formulating policy recommendations or programs, advising program design and evaluating project implementation. Some of her clients include: CIFOR, Helvetas, IUCN, UNEP, UNDP, and CBD. She has published 40+ peer-reviewed papers and authored 10+ policy documents. She has served as Regional Editor for Conservation Biology (4 yrs), and member of the Board of Directors of the Society for Ecological Restoration (11 yrs), and SER´s Professional Certification Committee (2 yrs). She received her Ph.D. from University of Florida, and her training includes zoology, ecology and conservation.

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).

Eve Allen, Program Director

Eve is the Program Director of the Seed and Plant Supply Chain Program. She is directing an effort to develop a northeastern U.S. native seed & plant supply chain strategy plan, an outcome of which is the Northeast Seed Supply Network. The Network will facilitate collaboration and coordination among federal, tribal, state, local, and private partners to strengthen native seed and plant material supply chains in the US Northeast.

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.

Jackie Anderson, Intern

Jackie is an intern for the Northeast Seed and Plant Supply Chain Program at EHN. She is a student at Northeastern University graduating with her MS in Environmental Science and Policy in May 2023. She also holds a bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering from Northeastern and has previously worked in urban farming and landscape restoration in Boston.