Before coming to SCS, Richard was a production coordinator and manager for two forest products companies in Ghana, where he oversaw production planning, scheduling, lean manufacturing, quality assurance and export documentation. Richard has five years of experience specific to manufacturing of veneer, plywood and lumber.

As a graduate student at Virginia Tech, Richard helped a local Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Group certificate holder expand the market for locally-produced FSC certified products. In a prior study, Richard analyzed the impacts of eco-labeling on international trade using the ISO 14040 and 14020 series (14021, 14024, and 14025), the environmental Kuznets curve and the WTO/GATT principles. His work resulted in a peer-reviewed article published in the Journal of World Trade. Richard sings in a local community chorus orchestra and plays the piano both by ear and by notation.

Ph.D., Natural Resource Business Development, Marketing and Trade; Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA M.B.A., International Management of Resources and Environment; TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany
B.S., Wood Science and Technology; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Prior to joining SCS, Lien worked for a semiconductor device manufacturing company where she managed daily office operations, shipping and receiving, imports and exports, accounting and company event planning. In her free time, you can find Lien hiking Half Dome in Yosemite, teaching her cat new cat tricks, or trying adventurous activities like skydiving and canopying.

B.A., Business Economics; University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
B.A., Sociology; University of California, Santa Barbara, CA

Before joining SCS, Ed conducted Forest Inventory Analysis (FIA) surveys for the U.S. Forest Service throughout California’s national forests. Ed has also volunteered with Golden Gate National Park Association’s Habitat Restoration Program and the San Francisco Unified School District’s Environmental Science Center at Fort Funston. He has also worked for a number of organizations providing marketing and project management support. Ed enjoys backpacking and has traveled solo for six months through Thailand, Indonesia, and Nepal. He spends his spare time with his son.

B.A., Economics; University of Vermont, Burlington, VT

Prior to joining SCS, Diane worked in production and sales for the graphics, trade show and interpretation business. More recently, she managed a non-profit environmental organization's library and led public workshops. She has also planned two Sustainable Agriculture summits for 250 stakeholders. During Burning Man's "Green Man" year, she managed 250 participants who created art and events for the 2nd largest theme camp on the playa. Outside of work, Diane enjoys fire hoola-hooping and creating art. One of her latest creations is Ms. Ali-Minimum, a can-crushing recycle bin that helped minimize waste at Burning Man.

Sustainable Business Management Certification; California State University, East Bay, Hayward, CA
Technical Certification; Southeastern Center for Photographic Arts, Atlanta, GA
B.A., Political Science; Emory University, Atlanta, GA

Julian is an avid mountain climber and has summited all 54 mountains in Colorado higher than 14,000 feet. He has traveled throughout Asia and has trekked in the mountains of India and Nepal as high as 20,000 feet. Julian also enjoys SCUBA diving, favoring the warm waters of Indonesia. He had perfect attendance in the 5th grade and once played a bit part in a Bollywood film.

B.A., US History; Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN

Liz began her forestry training at Duke University, where she taught Community Based Environmental Management, received a Certificate in Non-Profit Management and was a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow. She has conducted biological field research in the high Colorado Rockies, and worked on rural development policy and land use planning in the inter-mountain West. She is also a member of the Society of American Foresters.

As a Luce Scholar in Indonesia, Liz worked with Indonesian NGOs to develop and implement national forest certification standards and community forest certification projects. She also worked for the Center for International Forestry Research and has conducted numerous sustainable coffee and tea audits throughout Indonesia.

Liz has traveled widely throughout East and Southeast Asia and has lived in Massachusetts, Vermont, Colorado, Montana, Hawaii and California. When not exploring the wild areas and National Parks around her, she enjoys learning to cook the regional specialties of her many homes, from Javanese black rice pudding to San Francisco sourdough bread.

M.F., Master of Forestry; Duke University, Durham, NC
M.E.M., Master of Environmental Management; Duke University, Durham, NC
B.A., Human Biology; Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.

Prior to joining SCS, Ashley worked with the USEPA on the PM 2.5 Air Quality Monitoring Program, in various consulting companies as an environmental chemist, and as a principal designer. She currently participates in standards development processes and has been a member of the EPEAT Television and Office Imaging Equipment working group since 2009. She has made a presentation to the German Environmental Protection Agency on the rapid field screening assessment procedure that she developed for petroleum hydrocarbons.

Ashley is also an accomplished aerial dancer and instructor. She takes great pleasure in extreme unicycling, having won gold medals at the 2010 North American Championships in uphill and downhill mountain unicycling in her age division.

M.S., Environmental Science and Engineering; Oregon Health and Sciences University, Portland, OR
B.S., Chemistry; University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA

Before coming to SCS, Melissa was the Environmental Management System Intern for the City of Denver, Colorado – the first city in the US to develop, implement, and certify a city-wide ISO 14001 Environmental Management System.

Her past work experience includes positions as a Campus Planning Analyst at Cal State University Monterey Bay and an internship at the US Embassy in Thailand as part of the US-Asia Environmental Partnership. Melissa has studied coastal marine policy at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and attended a summer symposium on International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at the Hague University in the Netherlands. She was also a 1st grade teacher in Bangkok.

M.A., Political Science; Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO
M.A., International Environmental Policy; Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA
B.A., International Studies and Geography; University of Oregon, Eugene, OR

Before joining SCS, Ben worked for Avid Center, a nonprofit education firm aimed at helping underserved K-12 students go to college. He previously worked in construction, installing Andersen windows and doors and John Mansville insulation and is certified in Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER). He also worked for seven years as an animal care technician in a veterinarian’s office.

In college, Ben studied International Relations, emphasizing in conflict resolution in the Middle East and Africa while studying Hebrew and Arabic. He has studied abroad in Israel and traveled to Egypt. Ben's hobbies include dodging sharks underneath the Golden Gate Bridge on his surfboard, dodging trees in the Sierra Nevada on his snowboard and skydiving.

B.A., International Relations; Minor in Religious Studies; University of California, Davis, CA

Vanessa’s background is in biodiversity conservation and urban forest management. Her master’s project explored how social marketing techniques can help foster urban forest stewardship. Prior to working at SCS, Vanessa wrote for Genuine Progress Index, a non-profit organization developing a sustainability index as an alternative to the GDP. She contributed to forest management plans for two towns in Ontario and worked for the New York City Department of Parks, Central Forestry Division, where she wrote policies and procedures for the street tree management program.

Vanessa spends her leisure time pursuing interests in film and contemporary art and also sings in the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra.

Master of Forest Conservation, specialization in urban forestry; University of Toronto, Canada
B.S., Environmental Science; McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Prior to joining SCS, Keith worked as an environmental chemist on environmental remediation projects and validated environmental analytical data. He has represented SCS on the NSF 140 Joint Committee where he provided feedback on the Sustainable Carpet Assessment Standard.

Keith’s Master’s thesis reviewed international environmental health and safety practices and product stewardship in the nanotechnology field. Prior to his Master’s studies, he performed laboratory research for four years at various biotechnology and nanotechnology firms.

Master of Environmental Science and Management; University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
B.S., Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; University of California, Santa Barbara, CA

Before joining SCS, Nick was a Sustainability Analyst at Natural Logic Inc., a strategic sustainability consulting firm. He is a co-author of the book The Truth About Green Business (FT Press 2009). His previous work includes positions at UC Berkeley's Forest Pathology and Mycology laboratory and Applied Materials. In graduate school, Nick focused his studies on corporate environmental management and conducted a master's project on scenario planning for transportation in California for Volvo Cars' design center.

Outside of work, you can find Nick SCUBA diving in the tropical reefs of Southeast Asia.

Master of Environmental Science and Management; University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
B.S., Environmental Sciences; University of California, Berkeley, CA

Rachel has a background in natural resources and conducted research under Drs. Ignacio Chapela and David Quist in UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management prior to joining SCS. Her studies focused on non-governmental environmental policy and the efficacy of third-party certification.

Rachel is also proficient in French, having completed part of her undergraduate studies at the Université Michel de Montaigne Bordeaux III. Rachel enjoys baking elaborate cakes and scones for her coworkers and friends and admiring the work of Olivia Giacobetti and Bertrand Duchaufour.

B.S., Conservation and Resource Studies; University of California, Berkeley, CA

Jessica has supported executives in a variety of capacities and organizations throughout her career. She has worked in a non-profit hospital, a toy company, an IT firm, and a financial auditing firm. Jessica spends most of her free time creating colorful geometric paintings. She studied at the historic Art Students League in New York City that once taught Jackson Pollock and Georgia O’Keefe. She enjoys gardening, photography, speaks Polish and types 100 words per minute. She is currently attending Berkeley City College.

Prior to joining SCS, Sripriya served as a Tech Support Associate for 2 years at AnaSpec, Inc., a biotech company where she helped Life Science Research customers design custom and catalog peptides. Priya is a trained Classical Indian dancer and enjoys choreography and teaching dance to students.

M.S., Organic Chemistry; Annamalai University, India
B.S., General Chemistry; Stella Maris College, India

Before joining SCS, Oscar served as a Regional Sales Manager for two different certification companies. His experience covers ISO 9000, ISO 22000, HACCP, Food Safety programs and service certification. He studied Business Administration in Mexico City and speaks Spanish, English, and Italian. Oscar is also an avid salsa dancer.

Dr. Siân Morgan completed her Ph.D. in 2008 at the University of British Columbia. Her research examined dispersal, population ecology and management of small-scale, data-poor fisheries in South East Asia. Dr. Morgan has ten years of experience in the fields of marine ecology and fisheries science with particular expertise in markets-based marine conservation, small-scale fisheries and quantitative methods for decision analysis. She has led projects in non-governmental, academic and consulting settings with stakeholders that range from coastal communities to government agencies. Past projects managed by Siân include developing SeaChoice, a national seafood program for Canada, working to develop pragmatic trade tools for CITES and researching species responses to area-based management for WWF.

Dr. Morgan also serves on both the Global Steering Committee of the Shrimp Aquaculture dialogue and the Freshwater Trout Aquaculture Dialogue, convened by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Her role at SCS will be to develop the aquaculture certification program under the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) which will involve aquaculture farm and chain of custody certification and work towards gaining accreditation for the ASC standards as they become available.

Ph.D., University of British Columbia, Canada

Chris has several years of sales and customer support experience in the financial services industry and has also volunteered with non-profits in habitat restoration, water research, sea otter preservation and technology support. Outside of work, Chris enjoys playing chess, writing fiction, golf and painting.

M.A., International Environmental Policy; Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA
B.A., Anthropology; Denver University, Denver, CO

Christie has over a dozen years of experience in forestry, including ecology research, conservation planning and carbon offset verification. She previously worked for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Center for Tropical Forest Science where she oversaw a network of permanent forest research plots in 14 countries. As a Conservation Planner for the Peru Program of The Nature Conservancy, Christie developed an ecoregional plan for the Andean Cloud Forests of Peru and conservation projects for the lowland forests and coastal ecoystems.

Christie conducted her Master’s thesis on non-timber forest products in Thailand. Fluent in Spanish, Christie also studied abroad at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) where she conducted research on secondary forests in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. Christie is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, the Prytanean Honor Society, and is a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow. An inveterate traveller, Christie is comfortable riding in the back of a pick-up truck, zig-zagging through traffic in a tuk-tuk or speeding through France on a bullet train.

M.S., Forest Science; Yale University, New Haven, CT
B.S. with high honors, Natural Resources and Forestry; University of California, Berkeley, CA

Shanti brings to SCS her expertise in developing office procedures that facilitate efficiency and organization. Before joining SCS, Shanti’s anthropological research focused on labor, gender, geography, and social justice. Despite any synchronicities between her current position and her academic work, Shanti adamantly denies performing social experiments on the SCS staff.

In her free time Shanti is a photographer and builder of things large and small.

M.A., Socio-Cultural Anthropology; University of California, Davis, CA.
B.A., Anthropology; California State University, San Diego, CA.

Before joining SCS, Ken served in several companies in the personal-computer industry, including Adaptec, Unisys, Phoenix Technologies (working closely with Intel to develop mobile technologies) and Lexar Media developing flash drive technology. Most recently he was a web developer for 1185 Design, a Palo Alto web design firm that specializes in developing engaging, dynamic corporate websites.

Ken shares his enthusiasm for all things web-related by teaching web programming at Foothill College. When Ken is not planted in front of a computer monitor, you can find him scuba diving in tropical waters and often relaxing by a campfire. Ken has bicycled thousands of miles to raise funds for cancer research and for programs that benefit the developmentally disabled. He once ate 21 pancakes in a single sitting as part of a pancake-eating challenge, pitted against his arch-nemesis, his elder brother Bill.

B.S., Computer Engineering; California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA

Prior to joining SCS, Ted did web development for a number of businesses including Reed-Elsevier Technology Group, Prospero Technologies and collegepostings.com. Ted’s hobbies include writing and caring for his three Chihuahuas.

Javier has a professional background in agricultural and food safety management. Before joining SCS, Javier worked as entomologist and plant pathologist, where he gained experience in pest detection and monitoring while leading a pesticide application crew. He helped his previous company earn GAP and GMP certification and pass the audit for the Costco standards for social responsibility. Javier speaks English and Spanish and is learning French.

M.S., Agricultural Sciences with emphasis on Plant Protection (Entomology & Phytopathology); Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico
B.S., Agriculture; University of Sinaloa, Juan Jose Rios, Sinaloa, Mexico

Born and raised in the Philippines, Bernadette worked as a VP and controller in a family business before moving to the US. In the US, Bernadette worked for 9 years as an accountant and financial analyst at a Fortune 500 company, Bendix, and as an assistant controller in a non-profit company for 10 years.

Outside of the office, Bernadette is one of the founders and acting head of a small religious charitable group that raises funds for underprivileged children in the Philippines and victims of disasters. She also loves to sing, dance and do interior design for friends.

B.A., Accounting, Centro Escolar University , Manila, Philippines

Adrienne joined SCS from the California Department of Fish and Game, where she worked as a marine field biologist and fisheries manager focusing on finfish species. While with the Department, she managed projects for California halibut, hagfish, and surfperch commercial and recreational catches. She also surveyed abalone and Sebastes species for size and distribution frequency in northern California. Adrienne studied at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Coos Bay, Oregon where she focused on plankton distributions, nutrient densities, estuarine ecology and fisheries management.

Comfortable in the marine environment, Adrienne volunteers her scientific SCUBA diving skills with Reef Check California and the California Academy of Sciences doing field surveys and educational demonstrations. When not underwater, Adrienne enjoys gardening, ballroom dancing, tutoring high school students and improvisational comedy.

B.S., Biology, Minor in Chemistry; University of Oregon, Eugene, OR

Prior to joining SCS, Jennifer was a researcher at Sungene Technologies Corporation, an agricultural biotechnology company where she developed sunflower, corn and soybean tissue culture systems. She has also worked as a freelance science writer for various publications including Genetic Engineering News.

Jennifer is proficient in Spanish, having spent 18 years living in Spain and Argentina. When she is not helping clients with their sustainable agriculture certification, you can find her training for a half-marathon or singing and playing her vintage Harmony Regal guitar.

M.S., Plant Physiology, University of California, Davis, CA
B.S., Botany; University of California, Davis, CA