Robert & Patricia
Switzer Foundation Fall/ Winter Newsletter
Vol.1 Number 1
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elcome to the new Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation newsletter! We hope to publish this newsletter twice yearly and share with you news of our annual Fellowship and Leadership Awards, stories about the on-the-ground work of our Fellows and the results of their leadership in promoting a cleaner, healthier, more sustainable environment. Founded in 1988 by Robert and Patricia Switzer, the Foundation supports emerging leaders who have the commitment and creativity to solve complex environmental problems. Our constellation of programs – the Switzer Environmental Fellowship and Leadership Programs and the Fellowship Network have matured and now serve as models for many new fellowship programs. Since its creation, the Foundation has granted 300 Fellowships and 85 Leadership grants. The Switzer Foundation Environmental Programs are administered in partnership with New Hampshire Charitable Foundation and San Francisco Foundation. What makes the Switzer Foundation programs unique, is our tangible support of early career development for environmental professionals. In addition to the $13,000 academic fellowship, individuals are matched with a mentor, often a non-academic advisor, who can guide their research and career choices. Later, a Fellow may partner with a non-profit organization or public agency to seek support from the Switzer Environmental Leadership Program for funding a new position, Fellow-led project or initiative that will result in significant environmental improvement. Finally, the Switzer Fellowship Network, through the annual fall California and New England retreats, this newsletter, our web site (www.switzernetwork.org), and ongoing professional networking support (through the indefatigable energy and enthusiasm of Anne Fitzgerald as Network Coordinator) create a true partnership with our fellows inspiring their contributions back to our programs as interviewers, mentors and even Board members and staff! Robert Switzer and his brother were founders of the Day-Glo-Paint Corporation in Cleveland, Ohio. As members of a highly regulated industry, they believed in resolving the underlying challenges of protecting environmental quality and sought out the technical expertise to do so. In the early years of environmental regulation, such expertise was rare. When the company was sold, the Foundation was established to create an incentive for young people to enter environmental fields and be leading problem-solvers. Today, Bob Switzer’s legacy includes not only the Foundation, but also his spirit of tackling challenges to improve the environment and believing that individuals can make a difference in the world if given resources, mentoring and skills. We continue to honor that intent.
Lissa Widoff Executive Director
Switzer Fellows in the News
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s our recent fellows pur sue graduate studies and professional careers, they achieve other significant honors and accomplishments. Here are a few highlights: E RIKA Z AVALETA (2000) and M AILE NEEL (1996) have each received a David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellowship through the national office of The Nature Conservancy. The Smith Fellowships provide funding for critical conservation-related post-doctoral research. Neel’s 2-year research project will be focused on reserve design and she will be based at the University of Massachusetts Dept. of Natural Resources. T HOR H ANSEN 1998 Switzer Fellow from the Vermont Field Naturalist Program recently published the book The Impenetrable Forest. This account recalls his Peace Corps years when he helped establish a gor illa tour ism project in Uganda which became a target of the brutal war between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes in that region. Two Switzer Fellows attending Yale University, ROBERT KLEE and J USTIN RUBEN, were selected this year as Teresa Heinz Scholars for Environmental Research. These grants will support their current research projects.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Debbie DePonce Seattle,WA Cynthia Robinson Boston, MA Patricia Switzer Cleveland, OH Paul Switzer New Bern, NC Thomas Wessels, Chair Putney,VT STAFF Lissa Widoff Executive Director Anne Fitzgerald Switzer Fellowship Network Coordinator Judy McMahon Administrative Assistant CONTACT INFORMATION Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation PO Box 293 ■ Belfast, ME 04915 (207) 338-5654 ■ rpsf@prexar.com
Switzer Environmental Fellowship Awards 2001
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he cor nerstone of the Switzer Foundation’s Environmental Programs is the Fellowship Program. Each year, 20 fellows are selected from New England and California environmental graduate programs. The Fellows come from a variety of backgrounds and scientific fields, but all share a commitment to improving environmental quality. This year’s fellows exemplify the diversity of approaches and venues in which science, policy and practice intersect to achieve environmental goals.
CHRISTOPHER BACON: UC SANTA CRUZ (PHD) Bacon is investigating linkages between agro-ecology and global markets by evaluating the impacts of fair trade certification on small-scale farmers and coffee production. He was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nicaragua, worked for the World Resources Institute and consulted on coffee and international development projects.
BARBARA BAMBERGER: YALE SCHOOL OF FORESTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES (PHD) Bamberger’s research is using satellite imagery and GIS techniques to determine whether deforestation occurs more rapidly in federally-protected areas or in reserves inhabited by indigenous peoples in the Amazonian Rainforest in Brazil. Bamberger was environmental manager for Chula Vista, California, conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club in San Diego and has consulted internationally with the United Nations Development Program.
California Retreat—2001 Fellows. From left to right: Jeremy Hayes, Betsy Herbert, Chris Bacon, Karen Levy, Bonnie Becker, Martha Matsuoka, Leslie Ferguson, Steve Rasmussen-Cancian.
BONNIE BECKER: SCRIPPS INST. OF OCEANOGRAPHY/ UC SAN DIEGO (PHD) Becker is the mar ine biolog ist for Cabr illo National Monument, where she designs research and monitoring programs and advises on science policy for park managers. Becker’s research focuses on the design of marine reserves in southern California. Becker helped establish a marine protected area in Madagascar.
CYBELE CHANG: MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (MA) Chang’s focus is on sustainable tourism issues in China's biosphere reserves. Previously, she worked as an energy-efficiency consultant, as an intern for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on pollution prevention and Superfund community relations, and then served as recycling coordinator for the San Francisco City Government. New Hampshire Retreat—2001 Fellows. Front row left to right: Andrew Kulmatiski, Amber Pairis, Matthew Morrison. Second row: Dinah Koehler, Cybele Chang, Carol Tucker, Robert Klee. Back row: Justin Ruben, Elena McCarthy, Barbara Bamberger.
LESLIE FERGUSON: UC DAVIS (MS) Ferguson is focusing on stream restoration methods to improve summer rearing habitat for Coho salmon. Ferguson served as a licensed civil engineer for the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board for 12 years in watershed management and restoration and worked in Napa County on sustainable viticulture and watershed management.
Switzer Environmental Fellowship Awards 2001 JEREMY HAYS: UC BERKELEY (MA) Hays is researching environmental justice protocols for the Asst. Secretary for Environmental Justice at California EPA and is interested in working with low-income communities to build capacity to achieve environmental justice and sustainable community development. Hays also worked with the Pacific Institute for Studies in Environment, Development, and Security.
ELIZABETH HERBERT: UC SANTA CRUZ (PHD) Herbert is focusing on community participation and forest management policy in the coastal watersheds of central and northern California, Oregon, and Washington. Herbert is analyzing local environmental policy capacity, forest practices of community water agencies, and the relationships between forest management and water quality.
ROBERT KLEE: YALE SCHOOL OF FORESTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES (JD-PHD) Klee is investigating the measurement of sustainability through materials flow analysis of industrial systems, using Antarctica and the 14 countries operating scientific research stations as a case study in which to understand the movement and eventual fate of materials from industrial society.
Hugh Hogan (1998 Fellow) conducting a workshop with children from the United Community Centers of East New York in Brooklyn. They are mapping local parks, gardens and vacant lots in their community.
DINAH KOEHLER: HARVARD OF PUBLIC HEALTH (PHD)
SCHOOL
Koehler's focus is developing a method for analyzing human toxicity associated with various industries to aid financial analysts in determining the toxicity of investment opportunities. Previously she worked in Budapest, Hungary where she organized the first office paper recycling system and served as environmental manager for Tetra Pak Corporation.
ANDREW KULMATISKI: DARTMOUTH COLLEGE (PHD) Kulmatiski’s research is exploring a soil-based method of invasive weed control in central Washington State. He has worked for the Nature Conservancy and an environmental consulting firm and plans to work with landowners and federal agencies on ecologically based methods of mediating invasive species effects.
KAREN LEVY: UC BERKELEY (PHD)
Jessica Hamburger (1997 Fellow) of Pesticide Action Network North America asks women in Sichuan Province, China about their farmer field school training experience. The women said they had learned how to identify pests and natural enemies of pests, like spiders, and how to manage insect populations using Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), a beneficial organism used in organic farming.
Levy is researching links between upstream activities in a watershed and downstream ecosystems and communities, addressing methods to incorporate resource users and social science methods into the analysis and management of natural resources.
MARTHA MATSUOKA: UC LOS ANGELES (PHD) Matsuoka is examining brownfields redevelopment in Southeast Los Angeles Co. She currently conducts research and training through the Center for Justice, Tolerance and Community at UC Santa Cruz and the Center for Labor Education and Research at UCLA.
Switzer Environmental Fellowship Awards 2001 REBECCA QUINONES: HUMBOLDT STATE U (MS) Quinones’ research focuses on estuarine habitat use by endangered juvenile salmon species in the Smith River Estuary, California. Her habitat research will help managers advance estuarine restoration and assist citizen groups in using scientific information.
STEVEN RASMUSSEN-CANCIAN: UC BERKELEY (MA) As a landscape architect, Cancian is helping low-income communities create sustainable environments that nurture individual lives, families and neighborhoods without prompting gentrification. He worked for 11 years as an organizer for the Coalition for Economic Survival and Coalition Los Angeles. New Fellow Leslie Ferguson (front) snorkeling to identify fish communities present in areas where there has been habitat restoration (specifically for salmonids – coho salmon and steelhead) to determine if the habitat restoration work is actually achieving its desired results.
ELENA MCCARTHY: UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND (PHD) McCarthy is developing an approach to address ocean noise pollution and marine mammal conservation using physics, international and domestic law, and sound ecosystem management. McCarthy is a sonar and ocean acoustics engineer at the Naval Sea Systems Command Lab in Newport, RI.
MATTHEW MORRISON: YALE SCHOOL OF AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES (PHD)
FORESTRY
Morrison’s research combines scientific analysis of trace and heavy metals—from both point and non-point sources— with policy analysis that focuses on the quality of data needed to assess water quality at the watershed scale. His work will help local communities use scientific information to protect and restore environmental health.
JUSTIN RUBEN: YALE SCHOOL OF FORESTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES (MS) Ruben is working with the United Electrical Workers (UE) to build a coalition of environmental, labor, community, and student groups that will oppose the new Free Trade Area of the Americas and push for more sustainable alternatives. Ruben completed the Green Corps leadership program and worked with Pesticide Watch in CA, helping communities impacted by agricultural pesticide pollution.
CAROL TUCKER: MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (MS) Tucker’s research focuses on the redevelopment of contaminated Superfund and brownfield sites. Tucker is an environmental engineer with the US EPA where she worked on air emissions, Superfund sites, hazardous material emergency response, and brownfields. She is currently Brownfields Coordinator in the City of Lowell, MA.
AMBER PAIRIS: ANTIOCH NEW ENGLAND GRADUATE SCHOOL (PHD) Pairis is researching the role of fire ecology and human pressures in the coastal sage scrub community (CSS) in CA and its impacts on populations of the threatened California Gnatcatcher, an umbrella species for this endangered habitat. Prior to her studies, Pairis conducted biological research on the remote Hawaiian islands.
SIMONE PULVER: UC BERKELEY (PHD) Pulver is investigating the role of non-state actors in international environmental governance, focusing on oil corporations and the climate change negotiations. Previously, Pulver worked for the Environmental Careers Organization in San Francisco and as a high school math and science teacher in Namibia.
Andy Cohen (1988 fellow) conducting a survey for exotic marine organisms in Washington. In a week of sampling near Seattle and Olympia and in Willapa Bay we collected 40 exotic species. Two of these had not been reported on the Pacific Coast before.
Leadership Grant Awards 2001
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he Switzer Environmental Leadership Program was designed to create new professional opportunities for Fellows interested in the public and non-profit sector. While the Program gives many Fellows a jump-start to their careers, it also builds the capacity of non-profit organizations by adding new expert staff to advance their environmental goals. This year, many new science, policy and executive positions were created with Switzer Environmental Leadership Grants. (Original fellowship year is noted in parentheses).
CLEAN WATER FUND, SAN FRANCISCO, CA ■ KARL LINDEN (1993) $15,000/1 year for Delta Blueprint Dr. Linden will provide technical support to the environmental community on drinking water treatment technology options for utilities using water from the San Francisco Bay/Delta Estuary. CWF and other groups are developing a Blueprint for achieving drinking water quality objectives that will protect public health and restore ecosystems.
ISLAND CONSERVATION AND ECOLOGY GROUP, DAVENPORT, CA ■ BRAD KEITT (1997) $40,000/2 years for Restoration of Guadalupe Island Keitt will develop and implement a conservation strategy for Guadalupe Island, the most biologically significant island in the Baja islands region. Additionally, he will work to establish a Mexican Island National Park in the region.
SUSTAINABLE CONSERVATION, SAN FRANCISCO, CA ■ MARK SCHLAUTMAN (1988) $30,000/1 year for the Brake Pad Partnership Schlautman’s efforts with the Brake Pad Partnership will help reduce water pollution from heavy metals contained in debris from brake pad wear. This voluntary partnership has achieved agreement by the brake pad industry to evaluate environmental effects when designing new products.
THE NATURE CONSERVANCY OF WASHINGTON, SEATTLE, WA ■ MARCIA SUMMERS (1999) $50,000/2 years for Puget Trough Ecoregional Conservation Plan Summers will serve as Project Coordinator for the Puget Trough Ecoregional Conservation Plan, and expand the partnership model to a North Cascades Ecoregional Conservation Plan. The latter will help coordinate conservation approaches.
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, SAN FRANCISCO, CA ■ HEALY HAMILTON (1991) $50,000/2 years for Education Director position Hamilton will assume the role of Research and Education Director and guide the growth and direction of the Center for Biodiversity Research and Information. She will help the Academy translate and communicate research results to a broad audience of educators, students, conservation organizations, the media and general public.
YELLOWSTONE TO YUKON CONSERVATION INITIATIVE, CANMORE, ALBERTA, CANADA ■ MARCY MAHR (1992) $40,000/ 2 years for Rocky Mt. Ecosystem habitat restoration Mahr will serve as the Conservation Science Coordinator for far-reaching conservation biology effort within the Yellowstone to Yukon (Y2Y) ecosystem, an area encompassing five states and two Canadian territories.
THE CULTURAL CONSERVANCY, SAN FRANCISCO, CA ■ MELISSA NELSON (1996) $25,000 for 1 year for Executive Director Position As Executive Director, Nelson will work to increase understanding between National Parks and indigenous peoples regarding biodiversity. The grant will support strategic planing and new programs including a guide for biodiversity agreements with local tribes and a Native American Leadership Training Program.
STELLWAGEN BANK NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY (NMS), SCITUATE, MA ■ DAVID WILEY (1999) $51,000/ 3 years for new Marine Mammal Specialist position Stellwagen Bank NMS is in the Gulf of Maine and home to several rare and endangered marine mammals including right, humpback and fin whales. Wiley will design and conduct research aimed at assessing and mitigating human/marine mammal interactions and will collaborate with non-governmental research groups and stakeholder communities.
TELLUS INSTITUTE, BOSTON, MA ■ KAREN SHAPIRO (1988) $24,000/1 year for Chemical Management Services Case Study Shapiro will work with the Chemical Strategies Partnership (a 2000 Switzer Leadership grantee) to research new consumer models that align incentives of both seller and buyer to reduce chemicals used in manufacturing production processes. Shapiro will use financial and materials use analyses to determine the true profitability of pollution prevention in a case study.
The mission of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation is to improve the quality of our natural environment by identifying and nurturing those individuals who have the ability and determination to make a significant environmental impact and supporting projects which will have direct, early and measurable environmental results.
Switzer Environmental Programs—Guidelines and Deadlines The guidelines and deadlines for Switzer Environmental Programs are available in several ways. First, check our web site: http://www.switzernetwork.org It is currently undergoing a major upgrade, but contact information and links to our administrators, the San Francisco Foundation and New Hampshire Charitable Foundation can be found there. Important dates to note for the 2002 programs are:
CALIFORNIA AND WESTERN U.S. PROGRAM: Fellowship nominations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .December 7, 2001 (California only) Fellowship application deadline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .January 31, 2002 (California only) Leadership Grant Program proposal deadline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .February 15, 2002 San Francisco Foundation contacts: Fellowship Program - Cedric Brown, email to clb@sff.org or call 415-733-8500 Leadership Program - Angela Quon, email to acq@sff.org or call 415-733-8542
NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN U.S. PROGRAM Fellowship nominations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .February 1, 2002 (New England only) Fellowship application deadline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .April 6, 2002 (New England only) Leadership Grant Program proposal deadline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .February 1, 2002 New Hampshire Charitable Foundation contact: Fellowship and Leadership Programs - Judy Burrows, email to jb@nhcf.org or call 603-225-6641
THANKS to all who sent photos and captions for this newsletter. We have archived unused photos for future use. Our Spring newsletter will focus on an environmental theme. If you would like to submit ideas, news, or photos with captions for use in future newsletters or the website please send to: Judy McMahon, Robert & Patricia Switzer Foundation, P.O. Box 293, Belfast, Maine 04915 rpsf@prexar.com
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