Richard P. Bossi has served as the Vice President and Director of the AED Center for Environmental Strategies since its establishment in 2001. Over the past 20 years, he has personally led, managed, supported, or participated in long and short-term assignments for AED that have addressed institutional, technical, and human resource development, as well as sustainability and related issues that impact national government ministries, municipal agencies, environmental NGOs, research organizations, and local communities. Mr. Bossi has served as project developer, manager, and technical advisor to large-scale, multifaceted, field-based projects in developing countries, with broad expertise in environmental protection, natural resource management, water efficiency, agricultural, and climate change issues.  In particular, he possesses expertise in strategic planning as well as project assessment, design, budgeting, management, and evaluation. Earlier in his career, he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Chad and the Dominican Republic. Mr. Bossi has a Masters of Regional Planning from the University of Massachusetts and a Bachelors of Forestry from Northern Arizona University.  He is fluent in Spanish and has working knowledge of French. 

Chanya Charles, Deputy Director of the AED Center for Environmental Strategies and Director of the Global FISH Alliance since 2008, has dedicated her career to improving community engagement in development processes and collaboration among NGOs, CBOs, government entities, academia, the private sector, and media. With more than 15 years experience in international development, Ms. Charles served as Deputy Director of the AED Center for Civil Society and Governance from 2003-2007, overseeing over 15 projects worldwide, ensuring the infusion of participatory methodologies, high quality deliverables, and compliance with US government directives. From 1996 to 2000, Ms. Charles worked with USAID’s policy bureau to highlight USAID activities that incorporated participatory development approaches and to identify internal policies and processes that hindered the use of such approaches in the field. Prior to working in Washington, Ms. Charles worked in Thailand on a variety of projects, including Healthy Cities in Asia for UNESCAP, and HIV/AIDS programs for Chiang Mai University’s Social Research Institute.  She holds an M.A. in Communication and an M.A. Certificate in Urban and Regional Planning from the East-West Center/University of Hawaii. Ms. Charles has a B.A. in Asian Studies and Anthropology from Pomona College.

Dr. Lynn Mortensen has a career commitment to strategic, systemic, and sustained approaches to communication, social marketing, change management and education.  Her leadership experience in large complex programs requires holistic thinking, creative and timely interventions, vision, and management.  Examples of skill areas include: global climate change education and awareness, capacity building, workforce development, biodiversity conservation, sustainable tourism, natural resource policy development, conservation learning networks, energy efficiency policy development, solid waste management policy development, creative science education, interpretive education campaigns, national and international policy development, and facilitating policy dialogue with senior officials.  These skills combined with her passion for advancing sustainability based on sound science underpins an array of experiences in developing countries such as Indonesia, Egypt, Tanzania, South Africa and Panama.  She has spearheaded multi-stakeholder participation in global, national and regional strategic planning in the U.S. and developing countries and fostered large scale public involvement and advocacy for policy and system reform.  Her work with the U.S. Global Change Research Program, and the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, as Education and Communications Director in the 1990s, exemplify her interest and commitment to Global Climate Change issues. Dr. Mortensen has a Ph.D. in Administration, Curriculum & Instruction and an M.Ed. in Education from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Bette Booth has thirty years experience in the planning, management and evaluation of developmentprojects in the United States, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East.  Ms. Booth works for the AED Center for Environmental Strategies where she recently facilitated the process synthesizing the lessons learned from the USAID GreenCOM project 13-year, 30-country experience.  The result was SCALE – System-wide Collaborative Action for Livelihoods and the Environment -  a communications-driven management process that results in greater impact at scale, creating social capital, strengthening governance, and increasing sustainable economic growth and livelihoods. Ms. Booth was also responsible for developing, testing and packaging SCALE-in-a-Box, training and resource materials that help program managers and technical staff implement SCALE. In addition to her work with AED, Ms. Booth has provided technical assistance to the Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. Peace Corps, Kellogg Foundation, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the World Health Organization (WHO) Diarrhoeal Diseases Control Programme, the WHO Expanded Programme on Immunizations, the WHO Global Programme on AIDS, the Nutrition Institute for Central America and Panama (INCAP) and the United States Information Service. Ms. Booth has an M.S. Ed. in Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University, Bloomington and B.S. in Journalism and Mass Communications from Kansas State University. She is fluent in Spanish.

An accomplished manager and communications specialist, Patrick Papania has worked many years designing and implementing social and economic development programs in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas. He is currently a Senior Communications Strategist for the AED Center for Environmental Strategies (CES). Mr. Papania provides technical assistance on several USAID projects in Egypt, Ethiopia, Mali and the Balkans.  He is one of the lead designers on the AED CES team for its signature management approach, SCALE® (System-wide Collaborative Actions for Livelihoods and the Environment), a communications-driven process that uses multiple communications strategies to motivate diverse, and often conflicting, stakeholders within civil society to accomplish common goals in the pursuit of cohesive advocacy for improved livelihoods. Prior to his work on USAID projects, Mr. Papania worked for Fundación CODESPA, a Spanish organization led by Crown Prince Felipe, as principle delegate to the Arab world. Previous to that, he spent several years working as a cultural and artistic impresario in Tunisia. After completing his undergraduate studies at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, focusing on Middle Eastern Economic Development, Mr. Papania began his career in international development as a Rural Development Extension Agent with the United States Peace Corps in Tunisia in 1985. Fluent in English, Spanish, Arabic and French, he brings to his current position 23 years of experience in project management and program implementation in many regions of the world, demonstrating a professional emphasis on program development through public-private partnerships, civil society mobilization, local initiatives and community investment.

Jennifer Barker, MPA, is the Global FISH Alliance Deputy Director and Senior Program Manager in the AED Center for Environmental Strategies. She has over ten years experience working in the public and private sector on environment, international public health, and international education programs focused mainly in Africa. She has worked at AED for more than five years. Ms. Barker earned her MPA with an emphasis in international development management from The George Washington University.

Ron Brown is a Senior Finance Manager in the AED Center for Environmental Strategies.  He has an MBA from Robert H. Smith School of Business and a certification in government contracts and procurement from the University of Virginia.  He has worked in the development industry for eleven years with six years at AED.

Juan M. Gomez is a finance manager with the AED Center for Environmental Strategies and is currently a graduate student (2010 candidate – M.S. in Finance) at The George Washington University Business School. He has five years of work experience in finance in the U.S. and as a consultant in Colombia with KPMG Advisory Group. A native Spanish speaker, Juan is fluent in English and conversational in German.

Joseph Goodfriend holds a B.A. in International Affairs and Statistics from The George Washington University.  He joined AED in September of 2006 as a Research Associate with the Education Policy and Data Center and has been with the AED Center for Environmental Strategies as a Senior Program Associate since June 2009.  Joseph works on the Global FISH Alliance supporting field projects in Nicaragua and Honduras.

Amee Jankot is a development professional with a Master’s in International Development from the Josef Korbel School for International Studies at the University of Denver.  She was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Jordan and conducted Graduate research on health issues in Romania in 2004. She brings over eight years of experience specializing in capacity development, project management, business operations and the Middle East to her role as Operations Manager for CES.

Roberto Martin is an international environment and development professional overseeing GSTA Country Programs in the Dominican Republic, Uganda and Ethiopia.  Mr. Martin's experience covers the cycle of project design through monitoring and evaluation, with a strong focus on social and economic dimensions of natural resource management and biodiversity conservation, institutional strengthening, and community participation. His field experience includes Central and South America, Sub-Saharan and Tropical Africa, and Southeast Asia. Mr. Martin has a B.S. in International Environmental Studies from Rutgers University, an M.S. in Geography from Penn State University and has completed all course work and comprehensive exams toward a Ph.D. in Forest Resources Management at West Virginia University.  He is fluent in Spanish and English and conversational in French and Portuguese.

Dillon Smith works as the Program Associate on the GSTA projects in Mali, Uganda, and Ethiopia. Last year he returned to the States following a year-long Fulbright-sponsored study in Mali. Dillon examined the cultural and economic impact of tourism in Timbuktu and the Dogon Country, where he coordinated with the GSTA-Mali team. Dillon is a 2007 graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, where he completed his Bachelor’s degree in Culture and Politics, and a certificate program in African Studies. Dillon is fluent in French, and has a working knowledge of Wolof and Bambara.

Carmen Tedesco is an environmental geographer with 10 years of training and experience specializing in human-environmental interrelationships, geospatial conceptualization and climate change.  With CES, she manages the Capitalizing Knowledge Connecting Communities (CK2C) Frameweb.org online peer-network of natural resource management practitioners, facilitating knowledge transfer, relationship building and best practices sharing. She also serves as a climate change specialist for AED. Ms. Tedesco has a B.A. in Geography from Middlebury College and an M.A. in Geography from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Nick Wedeman has 20 years experience in the management and implementation of Washington and field-based international development programs. His technical expertise ranges from the environment and natural resources management sectors to enterprise development programming. Throughout his career, Mr. Wedeman has focused on the provision of technical guidance, program management, evaluation, and budgetary support to numerous environment and natural resource programs. In addition, he has broad experience in the provision of research and information services to the international development community. His field experience includes Central and South America, Russia, East Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, and East Africa. Mr. Wedeman holds an M.S. in Environmental Sciences and Policy from Johns Hopkins University as well as an M.S. in Geography from the University of Wisconsin.

Andrea Wolf is a Program Associate working on the Dominican Republic and Montenegro country programs under the Global Sustainable Tourism Alliance. After receiving her undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and Spanish from Bates College, Andrea moved to Washington, D.C. to pursue work in the field of international development. Prior to joining the AED Center for Environmental Strategies in February of 2009, Ms. Wolf spent the past two years working in program management at Family Health International, assisting in the backstopping of public health programs in Africa and Latin America.

Meg Hendrickson is Coordinator of the Dominican Sustainable Tourism Alliance (DSTA) Program. She has worked on development initiatives in the Latin American and Caribbean region since 1997, including projects in Bolivia, Honduras, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic, where she has been since December 2005. Her experience includes community development, gender, migration and human trafficking, HIV/AIDS, and sustainable tourism development. Ms. Hendrickson holds an M.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, with a concentration in International Development and a Certificate in Development Management.

Nick Keyes is the new communications director for the USAID ECO-Asia Clean Development and Climate Program.  Nick has been working since June as a consultant for the program, which is based in Bangkok and has offices in China, India, Indonesia and the Philippines. Prior to that Nick worked at the United Nations, first as a regional public information officer for the World Food Program in Asia and then as the communications advisor for the UN Resident Coordinator in Thailand.  Earlier, Nick worked in marketing and program management for media and IT companies in the U.S., including Microsoft and Corbis.  He has an MBA and an M.A. in International Studies from the University of Washington.  A native of Seattle, Nick spent part of his childhood in Thailand and has lived in Asia off and on for the past 20 years.

Sunjay Kumar joined the USAID ECO-Asia Clean Development and Climate Program in January 2008. As a Project Officer - Communications, he has been working to help enhance the program websites, coordinate the production of publications, assist in events management, and provide communications support to six country offices. Sanjay brings extensive experience developing and managing public information programs and knowledge management initiatives. Previously, he supported the communications activities of various UN agencies in the Asia Pacific region, including UNESCO, the International Labor Organization (ILO), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP). In India, Sanjay worked for two years with All India Radio (AIR), where he scripted and produced broadcast programs, including a weekly HIV/AIDS-awareness program targeting rural youth. He has a Master of Science (M.S.) in Mass Communications from Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar, India.