Benjamin M. Vauter

Benjamin Vauter is an International Environmental Program Specialist with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of International Affairs where he focuses on international mercury issues, including support for global implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Ben is the EPA’s lead for efforts to reduce mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining. Before joining the EPA eight years ago, Ben served as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Guatemala where he spent 1.5 years living and working in an indigenous Mayan community. During his time with the Peace Corps, Ben supported community driven programs to address local environmental issues ranging from natural resource conservation to solid waste management. Ben received his bachelor’s degree in Finance & International Business from The University of Pittsburgh and is currently completing a Master of Science degree in Environmental Sciences and Policy at Johns Hopkins University with a focus in Sustainable Business.

Sissy Spacek

Sissy Spacek has been one of the film industry’s most respected actresses for more than three decades. Her many honors include an Academy Award, five additional Oscar nominations, three Golden Globe Awards and numerous critics awards. In 1980, Spacek starred as Loretta Lynn in the acclaimed biopic‚ Miner’s Daughter, winning the Oscar and Golden Globe Award for her performance. Her most recent Oscar nomination came for her portrayal of a mother grieving for her murdered son in the drama, the Bedroom, for which she also won a Golden Globe Award, an Independent Spirit Award, and an AFI Film Award for Best Actress. Spacek most recently starred in Low alongside Robert Duvall and Bill Murray and recently received an Emmy nomination for her guest role on HBO’s series Big Love. She also played in the film adaptation of New York Times best-seller‚ The Help. Throughout her career, Spacek has balanced her career in entertainment with supporting organizations that help animals, support family farms, advocate for the protection of free speech, and educate people on environment.

Bill Stetson

Bill Stetson, Director of External Affairs at the Environmental Film Festival, is a film producer, as well as an environmental and political adviser. He has produced several documentaries, including the PBS AIDS feature, “A Closer Walk” (2006), and, most recently, the award-winning “Wisconsin Rising” (2014).

In 1996, he established the Vermont Film Commission and served as its president for a decade. Bill currently advises Vermont’s Governor Peter Shumlin on issues of energy and environment.

In April 2011, he was appointed by the White House as a member of the President’s Advisory Committee on the Arts (PACA).

Bill has served on several media, foundation, and environmental boards, including the founding board of the Harvard University Center for the Environment, where he received a bachelor’s degree and subsequently studied at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (energy economics and policy).

Enrique Ortiz

Enrique Ortiz was born and raised in Lima. He is trained as a tropical ecologist (San Marcos University, Lima, Princeton University, New Jersey), with a long history of research on species and ecological systems in coastal/marine, deserts, highlands and tropical forest ecosystems.

His specialty is on community ecology (plant animal interactions) and has authored several research papers and popular articles on a variety of themes, mainly on species biology, and management of non-timber forest products, particularly on Brazil nuts. Enrique has a solid knowledge of tropical forests (locally and regionally), from biological, social, economic and political perspectives.

Apart from his biological background, Enrique is perhaps better known for his activism and leadership in Peru and Latin America in conservation of biodiversity and ecosystems. He has worked with several Peruvian, Amazonian and North American non-governmental organizations. He is a founder and board member of the Amazon Conservation Association and President of the Asociacion para la Conservacion de la Cuenca Amazonica, a leading peruvian NGO. For over a decade he has worked for funding agencies in efforts to support conservation in the Andes-Amazon region. Together with Adrian Forsyth, Enrique is the founder of the Andes Amazon Program of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Since 2010, he is s Senior Program Officer for the Amazon Program at the Blue Moon Fund, working in a team with A. Forsyth and Bruce Babbitt supporting local and international groups in efforts to protect amazon rainforests. In addition to it, he is currently serving in the board of directors of the National Protected Area System of the Environment Ministry of the Peruvian Government.

Enrique is also an active outdoorsman. Enrique now drives his motorcycle in the roads of Eastern USA. He lives in Washington DC, and travels frequently to Amazonian counties and other unpredictable wilderness spots.

Susan Keane

Susan Egan Keane is the Senior Director of Global Strategies, in the International Program of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Susan is a public health specialist with over 30 years of experience working on domestic and international environmental health issues. Her work has covered a range of topics, including control of toxic chemicals, air pollution regulation, pesticides management, and water quality standards and criteria, as well as several regions of the world, including Africa, East Asia/ Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East. Most recently Susan has focused her advocacy on reducing global mercury pollution, particularly in artisanal and small-scale gold mining. She was directly engaged with governments during the negotiations of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which entered into force in August of 2017. She is now working with the UN agencies, countries and NGOs to put the Convention into action. In particular, she is working with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UNEP on the GEF-funded planetGOLD programme to reduce mercury use in artisanal and small-scale gold mining in eight countries. She is also the co-leader of the ASGM Area of the United Nations Environment Program Global Mercury Partnership. Susan holds a Master’s degree in environmental health management from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Jupta Itoewaki

Jupta Itoewaki lives in Suriname, South America. She is an Indigenous woman from the Wayana People living in the remote southern region of the country. She has served her community for more than a decade as a facilitator, trainer, interpreter and assistant of the Paramount Chief. She is the president of Mulokot Foundation, a community-based organization set up to support the Wayana People and help achieve their development aims.

Itoewaki has a background in social cultural education and has received additional training on biodiversity, sustainable forest management, human rights, primary health care and gender mainstreaming. In 2018, she was the first Wayana to be selected as a fellow by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nation and participated in the annual Indigenous Fellowship Program. In 2020, she was the recipient of the Golden Gavel Award for her work in the field of environmental protection.

Mark Hanna

Chief Marketing Officer, Richline Group Inc., a Berkshire Hathaway Company

Mark has worked over 50 years in the jewelry industry with experience in all facets of management, manufacturing, marketing, sales and corporate responsibility.

He graduated Manhattan College in Science and NYU Stern with an MBA in Marketing.

In 2015 and 2018, Mark was honored as CMO of Year, Corporate Social Responsibility, by the CMO Club. In 2019, he was the recipient of the Women’s Jewelry Association Mentorship Award.

Mark is an active speaker and advocate on responsible issues. He has served as a board member of Richline, Special Olympics, Resolve, Mercury Free Mining and the Responsible Jewellery Council.

Adrian Forsyth

Adrian Forsyth is the President and co-founder of Amazon Conservation Association, has a Harvard PhD in tropical ecology and 30 years of conservation experience in the region. He has served as the Director of Biodiversity Science at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and as Vice President at Conservation International. He is currently VP for Programs at the Blue Moon Fund and research associate at the Smithsonian Institution.

He also serves as president of the Board of Friends of the Osa, a nonprofit in Costa Rica. Adrian has supported his fieldwork by serving as a university professor, professional conservationist, and consultant. He is also one of North America’s finest writers on the subject of natural history and has authored nine books.

Wade Davis

An ethnographer, writer, photographer, and filmmaker, Davis holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany, all from Harvard University. Mostly through the Harvard Botanical Museum, he spent over three years in the Amazon and Andes as a plant explorer, living among fifteen indigenous groups in eight Latin American nations while making some 6000 botanical collections.

In 1974, at the age of 20, he crossed the Darien Gap on foot in the company of the celebrated English author and amateur explorer, Sebastian Snow. His work later took him to Haiti to investigate folk preparations implicated in the creation of zombies, an assignment that led to his writing Passage of Darkness (1988) and The Serpent and the Rainbow (1986), an international best seller later released by Universal as a motion picture.

His other books include Penan: Voice for the Borneo Rain Forest (1990), Shadows in the Sun (1993), Nomads of the Dawn (1995), The Clouded Leopard (1998), Rainforest (1998), Light at the Edge of the World (2001), The Lost Amazon (2004), Grand Canyon (2008), Book of Peoples of the World (ed. 2008) and One River (1996), which was nominated for the 1997 Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction. His books have been translated into fourteen languages, including Basque, Serbian, Japanese and Malay.

A native of British Columbia, Davis, a licensed river guide, has worked as park ranger, forestry engineer, and conducted ethnographic fieldwork among several indigenous societies of northern Canada. He has published 180 scientific and popular articles on subjects ranging from Haitian vodoun and Amazonian myth and religion to the global biodiversity crisis, the traditional use of psychotropic drugs, and the ethnobotany of South American Indians. Davis has written for National Geographic, Newsweek, Premiere, Outside, Omni, Harpers, Fortune, Men’s Journal, Condé Nast Traveler, Natural History, Scientific American, National Geographic Traveler, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, and numerous other international publications. Davis is a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP).

His photographs have appeared in some 20 books and more than 80 magazines, journals and newspapers, including National Geographic, Time, Geo, People, Men’s Journal, Outside, and National Geographic Adventure. They have been exhibited at the International Center of Photography (I.C.P.), the Marsha Ralls Gallery, Washington, D.C., the United Nations (Cultures on the Edge exhibition 2004), the Carpenter Center of Harvard University, and the Utama Center, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Select images are part of the permanent collection of the U.S. State Department, Africa and Latin America Bureaus.
Davis is the co-curator of The Lost Amazon: The Photographic Journey of Richard Evans Schultes, first exhibited at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and currently touring Latin America.
A first collection of Davis’ photographs, Light at the Edge of the World, appeared in 2001 published by National Geographic Books, Bloomsbury and Douglas & McIntyre. A second collection is under contract for fall 2011 publication with Douglas & McIntyre.

Davis’ research has been the subject of more than 800 media reports and interviews in Europe, North and South America and the Far East, and has inspired numerous documentary films as well as three episodes of the television series, The X-Files.
A professional speaker for over twenty years, Davis has lectured at the American Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, California Academy of Sciences, Missouri Botanical Garden, Field Museum of Natural History, New York Botanical Garden, National Geographic Society, Royal Ontario Museum, the Explorer’s Club, the Royal Geographical Society, the Oriental Institute, the Chattaugua Institute, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank as well as some 400 renowned educational institutions, including Harvard, M.I.T., Oxford, Yale, Stanford, U.C. Berkeley, Duke, Vanderbilt, University of Pennsylvania, Tulane, Georgetown, and St. George’s School.

Angel Camacho

Angel Camacho is a criminal analyst with over 10 years of experience working transnational organized crime matters. He specializes in diversification of criminal activity in the Western Hemisphere, tracking the evolution and complexity of criminal networks traditionally only associated with narcotics trafficking. Since 2015, his focused has been the exploitation of illegal mining operations by transnational criminal organizations in Latin America, both as a profitable illicit revenue stream and as an effective money laundering vector. His on-the-ground experience in the region covers the hemisphere having worked with law enforcement in Canada, Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Chile, and the Dominican Republic. The foundation provides him with an opportunity to use an amalgamation of his criminal justice degree from Florida Atlantic University and Film degree from theMiami International University of Art & Design. Angel was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Mark Bauman

Mark Bauman has been recognized with numerous broadcast, web and print journalism honors, including an Emmy, more than a dozen CINE Golden Eagles, and various film festival awards. Before launching a series of startups, he oversaw the Smithsonian Institution’s commercial media units, including Smithsonian and Air & Space magazines, Smithsonian Books, Smithsonian.com and the Smithsonian Channel partnership with Showtime, which grossed more than $60 million dollars per year.

Previously, Bauman served as Chairman of National Geographic’s Cross Platform Committee. He was also Executive Vice President of National Geographic Television, where he oversaw more than 400 hours of programming, and National Geographic’s Digital Studio, which tripled the Society’s YouTube traffic, garnering more than a billion streams.

Before National Geographic, Bauman, who is fluent in Spanish, Russian, Czech and Italian, was based in Eastern Europe and Latin America for ABC News. He has covered war and genocide in Central Africa, Lebanon, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq for some of the best broadcast and print media outlets in the world.

Bauman serves on a number of NGO Boards, including: The Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands Board; The Antarctic & Southern Ocean Coalition Board. The Marine Fish Conservation Network Board; Chairman: Advisory Board for the Washington Youth Summit on the Environment.

Fiorella Herrera Salas

Fiorella “Fiochi” Herrera Salas is from Lima, Peru, She is currently a 2nd year student at Universidad Científica Del Sur pursuing a B.S. degree in marine biology. Fiochi’s interest in marine biology is specific to marine conservation of species including the whole ecosystem from the smallest zooplankton to seaweed, cetaceans, and whales.

Fiochi is the founder of the organization “WE CAN BE HEROES” (WCBH), which is an organization focused on environmental and social projects. The mission of WCBH is to train students of different backgrounds in techniques to sustain the environment. In training these students, they can raise further awareness by sharing their knowledge with others. In WCBH we are normal people with special skills, achieving incredible things.

WCBH community outreach initially began with a workshop about the marine world for children, which evolved into an organization that runs year round beach cleaning events in Lima. In the past 3 years, WCBH has organized over 50 cleanings with 10 or more volunteers each. These cleanings resulted in the removal of thousands of kilograms of plastic and trash. The plastic is then recycled and used in awareness programs about the degradation of plastic.

Since the beach cleanings, WCBH has expanded its efforts into other areas of conservation and education. One of the primary issues the organization works on is the conservation and adaptation to climate change. One of our current projects takes place in Loreto, which is located in the jungle of Peru. This project aims to improve the performance of community maintenance of the environment and to respect the biodiversity in the jungles of Loreto. WCBH plans to achieve these goals by raising awareness of environmental conservation and the science behind it through educational formats.

WCBH is also working with the Andean community of Huacaybamba. WCBH is teaching the community skills to build, manage, and integrate a system of potable water, to plant Quinoa for better nutrition, and to enhance the capabilities of mothers to effectively care for themselves and their children. In order to carry out this pilot project in more communities in the highlands of Peru, WCBH enlists in the young people they train to serve as examples for the other communities to be committed to the environment and society.

One of the primary things Fiochi wants to do when she finish her studies is to continue to apply her knowledge to help the environment and focus on marine conservation. When she is not cleaning beaches or teaching communities about the environment, Fiochi enjoys are traveling, playing ukulele and singing along, watching sunsets and documentaries, and spending time with her friends and family.

Kirk T. Schroder

Kirk T. Schroder is an experienced entertainment and arts law attorney. He has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® for the field of entertainment law and is currently rated an “AV Preeminent” lawyer by Martindale-Hubbell, its highest rating for lawyers.*

Kirk’s national peers in the entertainment and sports law profession elected him the current chair of the American Bar Association’s Entertainment and Sports Law Section. His law practice draws entertainment and arts-related clients from around the world.

Kirk serves as counsel for film, television, publishing, music, interactive games, the visual arts and theater, and carries an in-depth working knowledge from production, to publication, sales and distribution.

Kirk is very active in and passionate about education and children’s issues. While maintaining his private law practice, Kirk served as president of the Virginia Board of Education from 1998–2002 during a period of major K-12 education reform in Virginia.. He has also served on boards of other distinguished education institutions such as the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) in Atlanta. He is the first president of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Public Education Fund and served as the chair of the education policy committee for the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. While he does not promote himself as an education lawyer, Kirk has substantial education policy and legal experience. So much so that Kirk is named in the current edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for the field of education law.. He holds a Ph.D in Education from the University of Virginia. Kirk has taught courses in education policy and school law at graduate level institutions of higher education.

Kirk lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Jon Golden

Media Specialist

Jon Golden has been working as a professional photographer for 25 years. His assignments have taken him to over 40 countries and required him to sail more than 20,000 miles at sea. Jon has produced stunning images, documenting some of the worlds most remote and harsh places including Baffin Island (Canadian Arctic), Gobi and Patagonia deserts of Mongolia and Argentina, the Amazon (Peru), and northwest Iceland. His images have been published in many major U.S. magazines including Newsweek, Sports Illustrated and Virginia Quarterly Review. Jon is also a founding member of “LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph”. Much of Jon’s career has been focused on promoting the work of nonprofits, which include the Building Goodness Foundation in Haiti, Guatemala and Louisiana, Firefly Kids in Russia, Impossible2Possible, The Nature Conservancy and the Amazon Aid Foundation. Jon studied Environmental Science and Computer Science at the University of Virginia. He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia and loves to travel and cook.

Blanca Botero

Blanca is an artist who strives to cultivate an understanding of relationships between humans and the natural world through works that sparks discussion. Her focus is on the patterns of human settlement, and the human appropriation and exploitation of natural resources. Blanca‘s artwork, including drawings, photography, and installation and expresses a personal, poetic and critical point of view inspired by her previous experience as a corporate and financial attorney.

Blanca holds a Law degree from Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá and a Masters degree in Law (LL.M) from the University of Virginia. Blanca has worked as an independent consultant to the World Bank, has been an advisor to the Desk of the Superintendencia Financiera of Colombia, and was also a member of the technical team that negotiated the Financial Chapter of the USA-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. She is married to Marc Eichmann, Darden ‘99, has 2 children and lives in Bogota, Colombia.

www.blancabotero.com

Valeria McFarren

Valeria is a connector and entrepreneur who uses strategic communications and data for social impact. Her multi-cultural upbringing and experience in 68 countries allows her to connect with companies and individuals to share their stories and to use data for storytelling and sustained impact. As the president and founder of Chaski Global, Valeria instills her strengths of communications, strategy, training, project management, and her love for improving people’s lives, in every project Chaski comes across. She previously spent eight years at the U.S. Government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation overseeing communications in 24 countries and creating the agency’s results portfolio.

Valeria has a Masters in Corporate Communications from Georgetown University and a Bachelors in International Development and Hispanic Studies from Trinity College. She is a board member at Amazon Aid Foundation and the Tanga Tanga Foundation. When she is away from the office, you can find her teaching at the Federal Executive Institute, or exploring the world with her husband and 2 year-old twins. She was born and raised in La Paz, Bolivia.

Daniel Growald

Daniel Growald serves as a partner to people and organizations working to align the power of capital with the wisdom of nature. He is the founder of climate finance consultancy GoodClimate; and an Advisor to Amazon Aid Foundation and Pentatonic, a circular economy design and consulting firm that helps leading global brands accelerate their sustainability agendas. Formerly, Daniel cofounded and led the nonprofit climate campaign BankFWD, built startups in digital media and carbon-negative power finance, and worked for a safe drinking water company in rural India. He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a BA in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology focused on the nexus of bioenergy, land use, and climate change in Latin America, and has served as Trustee for the Growald Climate Fund and his late grandfather’s charitable foundation the David Rockefeller Fund. Daniel’s current work is centered on business strategies to incentivize major banks to end financing for fossil fuels, and the design of products, financial vehicles, and legal structures that place business in service to the future of life on Earth.

Saleem H. Ali

Saleem H. Ali was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts but grew up in Lahore, Pakistan until his college years, receiving his Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Tufts University, and his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in environmental policy and planning at Yale and MIT, respectively. He currently holds the Blue and Gold Distinguished Professorship in Geography and Spatial Sciences at the University of Delaware(USA) and is Honorary Professor at the University of Queensland (Australia).

Dr. Ali’s laurels include being a National Geographic Explorer (having traveled for research to over 150 countries); being chosen as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and serving on the seven-member science panel of the Global Environment Facility (the world’s largest multilateral trust fund for the environment held in trusteeship by the World Bank).

Marley Watson

Intern

Marley Watson is a third year university student at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she studies dual degrees in Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness and International Relations, and is minoring in Environmental Studies. Environmentalism has been a part of Marley’s academic journey. While Marley interns at Amazon Aid, she also is conducting original research on the effectiveness of waste management policy on the reduction of plastic pollution in ocean waters. This research is crucial in understanding how to better protect and create policy that benefits our marine ecosystems.

Previously, she collaborated with professors at the University of Virginia on a project to develop sustainable solutions for transporting and cleaning grey water in Cairo, which enhanced her problem-solving skills in real-world scenarios, and her passion for environmental reform. Marley is passionate about environmental sustainability and eager to learn more about effective policies and practices in this field. She hopes to get her masters degree in Environmental security and eventually work for the EPA.

Olga Krasilnikova

Intern

Olga is a recent graduate with a MA degree in International Humanitarian Cooperation and a BA in Linguistics and Crosscultutal Communication. She currently resides in St. Petersburg, Russia. Before joining Amazon Aid, Olga took part in numerous international volunteer projects and worked in many multicultural teams.

Olga wants to use her research, writing and communication skills to help save the Amazon and try to secure a sustainable future for our Planet. She believes that biodiversity and cultural diversity are immensely valuable and should be protected at all costs. Apart from languages and travels, Olga is passionate about music, social dances, and yoga.

Katherin Alfonso

Project Manager, Amazon Gold Alliance (AGA)

Katherin is an International Development Specialist with more than eight years of experience doing policy analysis, advocacy strategies, project management, project drafting, monitoring and evaluation, strategic planning, and communications, mostly focused on money laundering, beneficial ownership transparency, natural resource integrity, environmental crime, illicit trade, virtual assets, and anticorruption standards for development.

Before joining Amazon Aid, she was the Program Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean at Global Financial Integrity, a US-based think tank. There she analyzed environmental crimes and corporate transparency issues in the region and coordinated different advocacy strategies and projects to promote beneficial ownership transparency regulation in Colombia, Ecuador, and Belize.

Katherin has been a speaker for different important AML/CFT conferences and constantly provided technical support and training to different government agencies and journalists in Latin America and the Caribbean.

She has also worked on development issues in non-governmental organizations related to forced migration and economic analysis. She has also worked as a rural development researcher, agriculture and environmental policy analyst, and economic journalist in Latin America and South Asia.

Jennis Warren

Fundraising Strategist

Jennis Warren has spent her adult life working to protect the environment and the communities that rely on environmental efficacy work to live safe, clean, and green lives. Through her work forging relationships and connecting people to ideas, she has achieved meaningful and lasting impact while inspiring transformational giving. Throughout her youth in Alabama, Jennis was always constantly moved by both the beauty of the natural world around her and its fragility in the face of unfettered human impact. Prior to her work with Amazon Aid, Jennis served as Senior Development Officer for 13 years at the Southern Environmental Law Center, a celebrated non-profit dedicated to protecting the environment of the American Southeast through the lens of social justice. While there, she originated and led the Next30 Committee, an engaged board of 30 rising environmental philanthropists and leaders, creating and nurturing a culture of ongoing philanthropic support for generations to come.

Jennis holds a BA from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the University of Alabama. When she’s not talking to anyone who will listen about the dangers of illicit gold mining in the Amazon, you can find her hiking up mountains, trying new recipes in the kitchen, or getting lost in the lush landscapes of South America. Jennis is fluent in Spanish and is currently traveling the world.

Cecilia Echeverri-Velasco

Institutional & Network Capacity Lead

Cecilia strengthens Amazon Aid’s internal operations and backbone systems while leading AGA’s internal communications strategy. She coordinates cross-team processes, supports the AGA Hub functionality and purpose, and maintains key compliance workflows for Amazon Aid.

Charlie Espinosa

Lead Research Consultant

Charlie Espinosa is a researcher and writer specializing in gold mining in the Amazon basin. He has published numerous articles, including a series funded by Amazon Aid for Mongabay on such topics as Indigenous rights, mining law, and the use of blockchain to trace gold. With Amazon Aid, Charlie supports the Amazon Gold Working Group and leads the development of technical content. He is the lead author of Tracking Amazon Gold, a report series covering the impacts and solutions to gold mining in the Amazon.

Previously, Charlie served as Project Officer for the NGO Pure Earth, where he helped miners in the Peruvian Amazon transition to cleaner techniques. He holds a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from Columbia University and was a U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellow for Portuguese. In his spare time, Charlie writes poems, essays, and stories, which can be found in literary magazines. A native of Charlottesville, Virginia, he is thrilled to be working at the local and global level for the Amazon and planet.

Jessie Nagel

Director of Communications

Jessie Nagel is a communications specialist who brings decades of experience along with a passion for the environment, sustainability, and the arts, to her work as Chief Strategist with Amazon Aid Foundation. Nagel is the co-founder of communications agency Hype,
which offers public relations, marketing, and social media services to creative content providers in entertainment as well as select non-profit and independent business clients.

As the Chair of the Care Committee for the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), Nagel helped create the organization’s Sustainable Production Guidelines. She also helped develop and launch Green The Bid, an initiative aimed at shifting the
production industry to zero-waste, carbon neutral, sustainable and regenerative practices, and is a founding member of the professional organization Women In Animation. Nagel holds a B.A. in Film with a minor in Fine Arts and Anthropology from San Francisco
State University.

Christina T Miller

Amazon Gold Alliance (AGA) Network Director

Christina has spent over two decades advocating for ethical practices in the gold and jewelry industries. Her journey began with a deep curiosity about the origins of gold and the power people attach to it—curiosity that evolved into a career focused on transforming these industries from within. While working to build the jewelry sector’s capacity for responsible sourcing through education and consulting, Christina encountered River of Gold, the powerful documentary by Amazon Aid. The film sparked a deeper connection, and she has since supported the organization in a range of capacities.

Trained as an artist and jeweler in both the U.S. and Italy, Christina holds an MFA, the highest academic credential in the field. She brings a creative and thoughtful approach to the social and environmental challenges posed by gold mining in some of the world’s most biodiverse rainforests. A natural connector able to identify, activate, and guide collaborations, she brings academic expertise and international perspective to her work developing more sustainable practices. Her expertise in community organizing, education, and systems change has been shaped through university teaching, co-founding the Community for Ethical Jewelry (Formerly Ethical Metalsmiths), and leading a consultancy focused on sustainable jewelry practices.

As Network Director of the Amazon Gold Alliance (AGA), Amazon Aid’s multistakeholder collaborative innovation network working to address the social, environmental, and economic impacts of gold mining in the Amazon, Christina leads the strategic coordination and relationship management of the network. She ensures the AGA functions as a collaborative, cohesive, and values-driven community. Her work centers on network governance, internal engagement, and aligning initiatives to position the AGA as a powerful force for systemic change.

Nina Bessa

COO and Lead for LATAM

Nina is an impact-driven economist, with a passion for solving complex problems and a penchant for promoting change through the power of collaboration.

Originally from Brazil, she has lived in 6 countries across the globe and worked in the UK for ten years, where she pursued a degree in Economics – allying a deep-rooted curiosity for human behavior with an affinity for numbers. Her early career led her to banking, where she specialized in foreign exchange and financial analysis, in addition to leading game-changing projects.

The return to her roots in Brazil was fuelled by the drive to promote positive change through entrepreneurship. As the co-founder of a food startup, she wore multiple hats, running the financials, shaping product strategies, and orchestrating effective marketing initiatives while supporting the local food supply chain.

Now, as COO and Lead for Latin America at Amazon Aid, she embraces our mission to protect the Amazon from illegal gold mining, while setting up operations in Latam. She relishes challenges, leveraging her multilingual abilities to forge global connections and nurture powerful collaborations, while working towards a thriving planet for future generations.

Rachael McGowen

Executive Director

Rachael McGowen has long worked on environmental sustainability issues, inspired initially by environmental health inequity in her home state of WV. Prior to starting her own sustainability consulting firm, re:SHIFT, to help companies get on board with mitigating the worst of climate change, she served as director of strategy for a San Francisco based start-up that recommended sustainable products and services across many markets. She has worked in fundraising, event production, education, and community and government relations for environmental and arts organizations in Miami,
New York, San Francisco, and Charlottesville. She spent many years working in external affairs in the contemporary art world, notably serving as Director of Communications and Marketing at MoMA/PS1 and Director of External Relations at The Kitchen, both in NYC. When she’s not working to save the planet and its inhabitants, she’s practicing and teaching yoga, running, cooking overwrought meals, and enjoying time with her husband Shawn and two kids Benji and Sylvie.

Sarah duPont

Founder

Sarah duPont is an award-winning humanitarian, educator, and filmmaker, and a passionate advocate for ecological preservation. She is the Founder of Amazon Aid, where she collaborates with leading Neotropical scientists to study Amazonian biodiversity and develop awareness and education initiatives, innovative conservation practices, and on-the-ground solutions.

A systems thinker, Sarah has spent 30 years working to expose and address the root causes of environmental destruction in the Amazon, particularly focusing on illicit and unregulated gold mining. She has helped build frameworks that connect science, policy, industry, media, and education in order to shift global awareness and drive change. Her solutions based approach has led to seeding the concept for the Center for Innovation in the Amazon( CINCIA) in Peru, as well as help develop and launch the Cleaner Gold Network and the Amazon Gold Alliance (AGA)—a groundbreaking collaborative innovation network facilitated by Amazon Aid. Comprised of over 90 members from 17 countries, the AGA takes a systemic approach to the complex challenges of the gold supply chain in the Amazon.

Sarah is the producer and co-director of the acclaimed documentary River of Gold, as well as the short film Mercury Uprising—both of which expose the human and environmental toll of illicit gold mining in the Amazon Rainforest. Her other media projects include Kids Against Malaria, an award-winning music video PSA that raises awareness for malaria prevention and treatment in Africa, and Anthem for the Amazon, a global music video featuring the voices of over 500 children calling for protection of the Amazon.

A pioneer in educational innovation, Sarah has helped create interdisciplinary programs that integrate global environmental issues into core academic subjects. She helped develop curricula for middle and high school students based on River of Gold. In 2010, Sarah co-founded CIAMO, an arts and music school in Benin, Africa, with Gigi Hancock, wife of jazz legend Herbie Hancock.

Her board service reflects her deep commitment to health, the arts, and the environment. She has served on boards including the University of Virginia Children’s Medical Center, UVA Council for the Arts, Amazon Conservation, Upton Foundation, Rachel’s Network, Wake Forest University’s Board of Visitors, the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, and the D.C. Environmental Film Festival.

Sarah’s humanitarian work has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Charlottesville Village Award, the Dorothy Corwin Spirit of Life Award, the Global Syndicate Humanitarian Award, the Worldwide Children’s Foundation of New York Humanitarian Award, the Hawaii International Film Festival Humanitarian Award and the Ponga Award.

Dr. Luis Fernandez

Executive Director Center for Amazonia Scientific Innovation

Luis E. Fernandez is the Executive Director of the Wake Forest University’s Center for Amazonian Scientific Innovation (CINCIA), a research initiative that examines the impacts of artisanal gold mining, mercury contamination, and deforestation on natural and human ecosystems in the Peruvian Amazon. Luis is also a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Biology and a Fellow at Wake Forest University’s Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability (CEES). Trained as a tropical ecologist, Luis is an expert on the environmental impacts of artisanal scale mining on tropical landscapes, particularly on the effects of mercury contamination on wildlife and indigenous communities. Luis has led research efforts to study and address mining-related mercury contamination in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Madagascar. He has held professional positions at Stanford University, Carnegie Institution for Science, US Environmental Protection Agency, Argonne National Laboratory, and the University of Michigan. His research and policy work has been profiled in Nature, CNN, NPR, PBS Newshour, Washington Post, Mongabay, Le Monde, and the Associated Press. Luis serves on the governing and advisory boards of the Amazon Aid Foundation, Environmental Health Council, OroEco, and the UNEP PlanetGold programme. In 2009, the USEPA awarded Luis the agency’s highest award, the EPA’s Gold Medal for Outstanding Service, for his work on the dynamics of mercury in the Amazon Basin.a research ecologist at the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Global Ecology, and is the director of the Carnegie Amazon Mercury Project (CAMEP), a multi-institution research initiative that examines the impacts of artisanal gold mining, mercury contamination and deforestation on natural and human ecosystems in the Peruvian Amazon. His research focuses on improving understanding of the global mercury cycle, particularly emissions from the artisanal gold mining sector, and its regional and global effects on forests, ecosystems and human populations.

Miles Silman

Dr. Silman is a Professor of Biology. His work centers on understanding biodiversity distribution and the response of forests ecosystems to past and future climate and land use changes.

His current projects also address Andean and Amazonian carbon cycles and biodiversity controls for use in innovative, private- and public-sector, ecosystem services projects that change land use by generating revenue for conservation and creating economic and social value for local participants.

He has 20 years of experience in the Andes and Amazon and is coordinator and founding member of the Andes Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research Group. Silman has authored 56 papers and received 16 grants totaling $2.2M.

Dr Miles Silman’s association with the Amazon Aid Foundation runs deep. Miles has been a constant supporter since its inception and has assisted the organization with his expertise and knowledge of the Amazon. Mile’s was a primary consultant for the documentary Amazon Gold and was critical for helping promote and create our Acre Care donation platform.

Miles is an Associate Professor of Biology and Director of the Center for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability at Wake Forest University. “My primary interests are community composition and dynamics of Andean and Amazonian tree communities in both space and time. The lab’s current research focuses on combining modern- and paleo-ecology to understand tree distributions and plant-climate relationships in the Andes and Amazon. The work is focused on the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes and the adjacent Amazonian plain, with a particular emphasis in distributions along environmental gradients, be they in space or time, and includes both empirical work and modeling.”

Tom Lovejoy

Thomas E. Lovejoy is a Senior Fellow at the United Nations Foundation and Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University. Lovejoy, a tropical biologist and conservation biologist, has worked in the Amazon of Brazil since 1965. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. in biology from Yale University.

From 1973 to 1987 he directed the conservation program at World Wildlife Fund-U.S., and from 1987 to 1998 he served as Assistant Secretary for Environmental and External Affairs for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and in 1994 became Counselor to the Secretary for Biodiversity and Environmental Affairs. From 1999 to 2002, he served as chief biodiversity adviser to the President of the World Bank. In 2010 and 2011, he served as Chair of the Independent Advisory Group on Sustainability for the Inter-American Development Bank. He is Senior Adviser to the President of the United Nations Foundation, chair of the Yale Institute for Biospheric Studies, and is past president of the American Institute of Biological Sciences, past chairman of the United States Man and Biosphere Program, and past president of the Society for Conservation Biology.

Thomas Lovejoy developed the debt-for-nature swaps, in which environmental groups purchase shaky foreign debt on the secondary market at the market rate, which is considerably discounted, and then convert this debt at its face value into the local currency to purchase biologically sensitive tracts of land in the debtor nation for purposes of environmental protection. Critics of the ‘debt-for-nature’ schemes, such as National Center for Public Policy Research, which distributes a wide variety of materials consistently justifying corporate freedom and environmental deregulation, aver that plans deprive developing nations of the extractable raw resources that are currently essential to further economic development. Economic stagnation and local resentment of “Yankee imperialism” can result, they warn. In reality, no debt-for-nature swap occurs without the approval of the country in question.

Thomas Lovejoy has also supported the Forests Now Declaration, which calls for new market-based mechanisms to protect tropical forests. Lovejoy played a central role in the establishment of conservation biology, by initiating the idea and planning with B. A. Wilcox in June 1978 for The First International Conference on Research in Conservation Biology, that was held in La Jolla, in September 1978. The proceedings, introduced conservation biology to the scientific community. Lovejoy serves on many scientific and conservation boards and advisory groups, is the author of numerous articles and books. As often mis-associated, he is not the founder but served as an advisor in the early days of the public television series NATURE, which he’s no longer part of the creative team.

He has served in an official capacity in the Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Clinton administrations.

Lovejoy predicted in 1980 (see quote below), that 10–20 percent of all species on earth would have gone extinct by the year 2020. In 2001, Lovejoy was the recipient of the University of Southern California’s Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement. Thomas Lovejoy has been granted the 2008 BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in the Ecology and Conservation Biology category (ex aequo with William F. Laurance). In 2004, a new wasp species that acts as a parasite on butterfly larvae was discovered on the Pacific slope of the Talamanca mountain range in Costa Rica by Ronald Zúñiga, a specialist in bees, wasps and ants at the National Biodiversity Institute (INBio). INBio named the species polycyrtus lovejoyi in honor of Thomas Lovejoy for his contributions in the world of biodiversity and support for INBio.

On October 31, 2012, Dr. Thomas Lovejoy was awarded the Blue Planet Prize for being “the first scientist to academically clarify how humans are causing habitat fragmentation and pushing biological diversity towards crisis.” He has served on the Board of Directors since 2009 for the Amazon Conservation Association, whose mission is to conserve the biological diversity of the Amazon. He is also on the Board of Directors for Population Action International.

Julian Freeman

Operations Coordinator

Julian Freeman is the operations coordinator for Amazon Aid Foundation and has worked in the similar field for the last 3 years, most recently with the Charlottesville based company CoConstruct. In her downtime she loves hiking, mountain biking and playing with her two dogs.

Susan Wheeler

Board Chair

Susan Wheeler is a responsible jewelry advocate, she works to bring together people across the global jewelry supply chain to participate equally within the jewelry industry. As founder of The Responsible Jewelry Transformative, she works on the mission of uniting and transforming the jewelry industry around responsible practices so that it may help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Susan works through education, initiatives and community. She brings to the Clean Gold Campaign a passion for collaboration and outreach. Susan is also a jewelry designer who uses her jewelry to highlight jewelry industry initiatives and positive narratives from miners and laborers whose work, community and environments are integral to her jewelry creation.

Ben Eppard

IT Manager

Ben is a writer and designer with more than fifteen years experience in the nonprofit sector. Ben holds a Master of Public Policy from the University of Virginia’s Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. He previously served as Director of Communications for Madison House, the student volunteer center at the University of Virginia.

Kathleen Rodgers

Communications Strategy Consultant, “River of Gold”

Kathleen is an experienced Communications Strategist working in the human rights sector across issues such as global health, international anti-genocide efforts, poverty alleviation, women’s empowerment and education reform, among others.

She works with for profit and nonprofit organizations to design and execute human rights and social impact campaigns aimed at alleviating human suffering and uplifting the dignity of every human being. She develops social media strategies, sets goals and builds campaign content plans in service of building awareness about issues, mobilizing people toward advocacy, and arming them to take action in support of these goals. She has worked on several film impact campaigns including The Promise, Bending the Arc, The Heart of Nuba, Birthright: A War Story, Cries from Syria, and Intent to Destroy.

She has a Master’s Degree in Communication Management from University of Southern California and Bachelor’s Degree in International Relations and World Politics from Vanderbilt University.

Bonnie Abaunza

Social Impact Campaign Director, “River of Gold”

Bonnie Abaunza has dedicated her life to humanitarian work, human rights and social justice advocacy. Through the Abaunza Group she works closely with filmmakers, artists, production companies, distributors and non-governmental organizations to develop and execute social impact campaigns for films and documentaries. Bonnie’s work has addressed myriad human rights and civil rights issues as she has brought hard-hitting campaigns and major celebrity engagement to issues as diverse as child slavery, campus sexual assault, human trafficking, genocide, environmental justice, girls education, food safety and animal rights.

Her campaigns have moved the needle on critical issues including genocide awareness with the Hotel Rwanda campaign, conflict diamonds with Blood Diamond, abuses by the food industry with Food, Inc., campus sexual assault with The Hunting Ground, online sex trafficking with I Am Jane Doe, animal rescue with Harry and Snowman, the plight of refugees with Cries From Syria and girls’ education with The Breadwinner. Bonnie designed and executed the social impact campaigns for the feature film The Promise by Oscar winner Terry George, and the documentary Intent to Destroy, both about the Armenian genocide. Presently, she is running the impact campaigns for The Heart of Nuba, Birthright: A War Story, River of Gold about illicit and informal gold mining in the Peruvian Amazon, and the upcoming documentary Cracked Up. She is a consultant to National Women’s Law Center. She has worked on over 30 campaigns, with 14 of the films being nominated for numerous awards, including Oscar and Emmy Awards.

Bonnie spearheaded the campaign on Diane Warren and Lady Gaga’s song Til it Happens to You from The Hunting Ground’s soundtrack. The song was nominated for an Oscar and won an Emmy. Lady Gaga performed the song at the 2016 Oscars. The music video has been viewed over 42 million times and has been embraced as the anthem for the movement to end sexual assault on college campuses.

As a consultant for the United Nations agency, the International Labour Organization, she assisted with outreach to the entertainment community. She launched the ILO’s artist engagement program, Artworks (http://www.iloartworks.org) and spearheaded their End Slavery Now , 50 for Freedom, and Red Card to Child Labour campaigns.

From 2009-2014, Bonnie led the Special Projects & Philanthropy division for Academy Award winning composer, Hans Zimmer. Her initiatives included raising humanitarian aid for Haiti, Pakistan and Japan for International Medical Corps, and working with Madeleine Albright and the National Democratic Institute to advocate for the disenfranchised Romani people in Europe. She launched a successful online advocacy effort with Elizabeth Warren for passage of the Dodd-Frank Bill and the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Prior to joining Hans Zimmer’s company in 2009, Bonnie served as Vice President, Social Action and Advocacy at Participant Media, where she developed social action campaigns to promote the documentaries and feature films produced by Participant Media. From 2001 to 2007 she served as Director of the Artists for Amnesty program for Amnesty International from 2001 to 2007, raising Amnesty’s profile in the entertainment industry and the visibility of human rights campaigns with the public. She co-produced four film festivals, four Academy Awards viewing parties to benefit Amnesty, produced quarterly entertainment industry salons and more than 50 feature and documentary screening events, fundraisers and art exhibits. She worked on numerous high profile campaigns including human trafficking and slavery, ending rape as a tool of war, rehabilitation of child soldiers, justice for the murdered women of Juarez, ending small arms trafficking, protecting the rights of indigenous peoples, and other global issues.

Artists for Amnesty ambassadors and supporters included: Salma Hayek, Jennifer Lopez, Nicolas Cage, Halle Berry, Mira Sorvino, Patrick Stewart, Benicio del Toro, Don Cheadle, Leonardo diCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou, Ryan Gosling, Oliver Stone, Hans Zimmer, Paul Greengrass, America Ferrera, Charlize Theron, Tom Morello, Gregory Nava, Patricia Arquette, Yoko Ono, Geoffrey Rush, Phillip Noyce, Martin Sheen, Antonio Banderas, Emma Thompson and others.

Her Artists for Amnesty events were covered by the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, London Telegraph, Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, TIME, People Magazine, US weekly, Variety, Billboard, Hollywood Reporter and international publications and news networks.

Bonnie has received commendations for her human rights work from the United States Congress and from the City of Los Angeles. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the organization, Unlikely Heroes, Women in Leadership Award from the City of West Hollywood, Global Champion Award from the International Medical Corps., KCET’s Local Hero/Hispanic Heritage Award, and was named Goodwill Ambassador to the Government of East Timor (appointed by President and Nobel Peace Laureate, Jose Ramos-Horta). She is a Senior Non-Resident Fellow for Enough Project, Board member of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Chairman of the Advisory Board of thecommunity.com’s Human Rights Campaign, Board member, Not On Our Watch and Board member of the Mgrublian Human Rights Center.

River of Gold Curriculum: Education That Saves Lives

Lesson One: Gold Mining