David Ciulla
David
received an M.A. in International Relations, with a
concentration in International Development, from the Johns Hopkins
School of Advanced International Studies. He received his B.A. from
Stanford University in 1990, majoring in Political Science and English.
In 1998 David Co-founded the Sportsbasement and Sportsbasement.com retail stores in San Francisco, CA. Previously David had analyzed and supported medium-sized companies in New York, as a Senior Credit Analyst with Chemical Bank’s Middle Market Banking Group, as well as taught and coached at the junior high school level. He now works at Chartwell Education, which provides education-related consulting services to state and local government, foundations, corporations, and even countries seeking American education as a model. They are passionate about reforming the education system in the U.S. and with taking best practices from overseas to the U.S. and vice versa.
David worked on the Navajo Nation, in Shiprock, NM as a volunteer small business consultant and was a volunteer consultant to the Native American Community Academy, supporting the founder of this new charter school in Albuquerque, NM, which opened in 2006.
During the summer of 2005 David served as an intern for the Community Empowerment Network by spending nearly 2 months in the Santarém region, where he was successful in mentoring the communities on a number of initiatives, including holding a series of community driven and managed workshops on HIV and sexually-transmitted diseases, advancing a micro-hydro-electric project and many others. After returning to New York, David helped coordinate the first sales of handmade jewelry to the US market. He continues to serve as an advisor for CEN.
Christopher Clark
Chris
Clark first came to the Amazon in 1984, and one of the first places he
visited was the Rio Jauaperi. He became well acquainted with the people
of Rio Jauaperi, and in 1990 they asked for his help in providing
health services and an education system for their children. They
discussed the ways this could be achieived and came upon the idea of
creating Amazon Association. This association was formed around the
idea of preserving a part if this richly biodiverse area in exchange
for funding to improve their standard of living. Everyone became
members of the association and the locals sold their land holdings to
it. Since then they have extended the reserve to cover 178,000
hectares. In 2001 work begain with the Environment Ministry to extend
the area to where the Rio Jauaperi joins the Rio Negro and up the Rio
Branco.
This extended area is becoming the Reserva Extractivista do Baixo Rio Branco - Rio Jauaperi. It is in its final stages of implementation and Chris is in constant contact with Marina Silva and Carlos Vicente, the environmment minister and her deputy. The decree now only awaits the signature of President Lula to become effective. This is being financed by the ARPA programme, Amazon Region Protected Areas of the G7 Pilot Project for the Amazon. This area falls into the planned Central Amazonian Ecological Corridor being financed by the World Bank, the partners are IBAMA, the Brazilian Environment Institute, CNPT, The National Centre for Traditional Populations and the Roraima Rural Workers Union, as well as the local communities which will become part of the new reserve. The local people of this area are the owners and beneficiaries. Their reward for maintaining the most intact and biodiverse parts of the Amazon is hosting film makers, photographers, researchers and other supporters who come to work and experience the region. The association's aim is now to extend the benenfits enjoyed by the local people to other communities which will become part of the new Extractivist Reserve.
amazonia@gol.grosseto.it xixuauxiparina@hotmail.com
Jetta
works for the US Department of Commerce in New York City helping US
companies expand their international sales. As an International
Trade Specialist she counsels US companies on exporting their products
and services abroad. Prior to this, she worked for three years as
a knowledge management specialist for the Commerce Department.
Jetta’s long term professional goal is to work in Trade Capacity
Building. Trade capacity building aims to level the playing field
in the global commercial arena by working with developing countries to
develop infrastructure, increase the competitiveness of companies, and
help officials negotiate effectively in international trade
agreements. The key to successful development of any kind is
sustainability. Therefore, all objectives should be achieved by
empowering people to ensure they will truly become
self-sufficient. Jetta enjoys contributing to CEN as they operate
under this same capacity building principle.
Jetta graduated from the University of Washington with a BA in
Economics and a certificate in international trade. She speaks
Italian and is learning Portuguese.
Frederick De Worken
Fred was born on Ellsworth Air Force Base in Rapid City, South Dakota
and raised on a three-acre farm in a redneck neighborhood of Amarillo,
Texas. He and his world-class afro attended Alamo Catholic High School
before being expelled for various pranks and concise criticism of the
staff and its procedures. Having turned his afro in for something more
up to date, Frederick finished high school at Truckee North Tahoe High
School in Truckee, California. There, he found himself in the midst of
a budding culture war as country parents tried comically to insulate
their children from the east bay gangster rap brought in by the tourist
snowboarders. From there he majored in Politics and Legal Studies at
the University of California Santa Cruz where he joined a fraternity
and rose to the esteemed office of vice-president, earning himself a
seat at the right hand of the keg and an unlimited supply of pledge
slave labor to fuel his ever expanding plans as chairman of fraternity
philanthropy.
Fred claims that he was compelled to leave his position upon his sudden and unexpected graduation in 1999 and to seek a position that paid in something other than beer and bragging rights. State Farm Insurance recognized his brilliance immediately and brought him on with a hefty signing bonus. He used his newfound access to vast corporate resources to further expand his philanthropic endeavors. In 2001 Fred was admitted to Santa Clara University School of Law and in 2006 he graduated Santa Clara's Leavey School of Business with a Master's of Business Administration, but not before starting a campus organization focused on the issues of corporate responsibility, environmental health and international development through business. Though at times irreverent and irascible, Fred has always placed an utmost importance upon service to community as the responsibility of all it was for these reasons that he decided to lend his efforts to the Community Empowerment Network and the concept of enabling people rather than patronizing them. In late October of 2006 Fred became a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in the district of Mariato in the province of Veraguas, Panamá, where he has been focusing on small business development.
Charles Gay
Charlie Gay is the
co-founder of Greenstar, a company that delivers solar power to
villages in the developing world. His expertise includes solar cell
manufacturing and international business.
He began his industrial career in 1975 designing solar power system components for communications satellites at Spectrolab, Inc. a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft Co. He joined ARCO Solar in 1978 where he established the research and development program, and was project leader for the commercialization single crystal silicon wafer technology from laboratory to mass production. He served in various leadership positions ranging from Director of Research to President of the company.
In 1990 he became President and Chief Operating Officer of Siemens Solar Industries where he was responsible for increasing company sales into 110 countries and expanding the development of thin film solar technology to three continents.
From 1995 to 1997, Gay served as Director of the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. NREL is the world's leading laboratory for energy efficiency and renewable energy research and technology. His responsibilities included management of an annual budget of more than $235 million and 1,000 employees.
In 1998, Dr. Gay served as President and Chief Executive Officer of ASE Americas, the third largest solar cell manufacturer in the United States. He was responsible for commercializing silicon ribbon as a starting material in the manufacture of photovoltaic solar panels. The success of this has led to the establishing the world's largest factory for solar cell production at 60 megawatts in size.
Charlie Gay co-founded Greenstar in late 1998, a company that develops multi-function solar-powered community centers in small villages in the developing world. He serves as President of Greenstar Foundation, and as a senior executive with Greenstar Corporation, which develops, distributes and licenses digital products produced by people in these solar villages. Greenstar communities, which deliver solar power, wireless communications, health, education and environment resources in an integrated package, include the West Bank, Jamaica, India and Ghana, with new sites planned for Tibet and Brazil. Dr. Gay has personally supervised much of the design and field work connected with this program, which has been recognized for its innovation by the World Bank, the Stockholm Challenge, the Technology Empowerment Network and the Tech Innovation Awards.
Dr. Gay has a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of California, Riverside. He is holder of numerous patents for solar cell and module construction and winner of the Gold Medal for Achievement from the World Renewable Energy Congress.
Erica Martling
Erica Martling graduated from Middlebury College in 2003 with an International Relations and Political Science degree. She then decided to follow her passion for the outdoors and pursue an adventurous career as a naturalist guide and professional skier. This led her all the way from Alaska down to central Mexico, guiding and skiing in such places as Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park. She also became involved in various nonprofit ventures while in Mexico such as helping launch a women's empowerment organization in Puerto Vallarta called Mujeres con la Tierra.
Deciding that her future was in international aid work and
environmental education Erica attended the Johns Hopkins Univesity
School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), from which she
obtained a Masters in International Development specializing in
environment and energy studies. She was attracted to Community
Empowernet Network because of its focus on community development in the
Amazon, one of the world's richest areas for biodiversity areas. During
a summer internship with CEN, Erica travelled to the region and
helped organize women's groups for the villages of Suruaca and Maguari,
as well as helped the communities put together educational seminars on
income generation through Ecotourism.
Since graduating from SAIS in 2006, Erica has been working for a clean
energy development company called Econergy International, based in
Boulder, CO. Econergy Project Investment & Development is building
a worldwide portfolio of clean energy assets that will generate both
power and carbon credit sales. She is mostly working with projects in
Bolivia right now but says that they have offices in Brazil as well,
that she hopes to get back there again in the future!
elmbdr@gmail.com
Alan Weiss
Alan Weiss received a Bachelor of Music degree from Miami
University, Oxford, Ohio and taught in Ohio
for 15 years. After teaching, he worked at Roxane
Laboratories as a DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) Auditor and Trainer, where he earned the Vice-President's award for saving the company
over $275,000.00 in a loss-prevention
program. Alan developed the DEA training and auditing
programs for Roxane and during this period he earned his MBA from
Franklin University, Columbus, Ohio. Alan
moved to Seattle to work with ICOS Corporation,
Bothell, as a Sr. Clinical Trainer, where he worked until they were bought out
by Eli Lilly. Alan is currently a Clinical
System Trainer with Providence Hospice of Seattle.
Alan has been active in nonprofits. He was the
Moderator of his church board; a member of the Community Advisory Board
for
Fred Hutchison; a member of the AIDS care team of Multifaith Works of
Seattle. Alan was also a founding member of the CEN Board, where he
served as both Vice President and Treasurer. Alan left the board in
2007, but remains a valued advisor.
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