Board

Michael Shepard: Chairman of the Board, ISET; Vice-President and co-founder of E-Source, a growing company providing energy conservation information to utilities throughout the U.S. and Europe. Mr. Shepard has extensive experience with approaches to energy conservation and information dissemination in the private sector. Prior to founding E-Source, Mr. Shepard worked as a senior research scientist at the Rocky Mountain Institute and before that at the Electric Power Research Institute.

Marcus Moench: President of ISET. Dr. Moench has extensive experience working with communities, non-government, government and international organisations on water, energy and forest management in South Asia, the Middle East and the Western United States. He combines a strong technical background in environmental science, hydrogeology and forestry with training and experience in the design and initiation of management institutions. He led the India Water Sector Review, Groundwater Component and Yemen Decentralised Management Study for the World Bank. Dr. Moench received his Ph.D from the University of California at Berkeley in 1989. He has published numerous articles and papers on natural resources management.

Dipak Gyawali: Vice-President, ISET; Member of the Board, ISET-Nepal; Member of the Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology and the New York Academy of Sciences. Nepal's former Minister for Water Resources (2003), Mr. Gyawali is also member of the International Advisory Board of the US-based Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, which produced the study on Human Choice and Climate Change and member of the International Research Committee of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies in Colombo. Mr. Gyawali has served on several government commissions related to Himalayan water and energy resources development in Nepal. He has published extensively both academically and in the popular press on water resource, environment and development issues. He helped found Nepal Water Conservation Foundation. Until 1996, he served as Chairman of Grameen Swabalamban Bikas Kendra, a grassroots NGO working for rural poverty alleviation with 800 income generating groups in 14 districts of Nepal. He has served as Chairman of Duryog Nivaran, a South Asian initiative promoting alternative perspectives on disaster mitigation, particularly floods, droughts and conflict-related stress.

David Brooks: Founder and Director of Research, Friends of the Earth, Canada. Dr. Brooks recently retired from the International Development Research Centre, Canada, where he was Senior Program Officer. Dr. Brooks has worked and written extensively on water management and biodiversity in many countries. He co-authored the book Watershed chronicling the role of fresh water in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ajaya Dixit: Founder and Director, Nepal Water Conservation Foundation; Editor, Water Nepal, a journal addressing Himalayan water and development; Chairman of the Board of Directors, Nepal Water for Health (NEWAH), a Nepali NGO that has built water supply schemes serving over 350,000 people in Nepal. Mr. Dixit taught hydraulics at Tribhuvan University's Institute of Engineering until 1989 and recently authored the current leading textbook in hydraulics, published in 2002, Basic Water Science. He has worked extensively as a consultant on water resources and environment for bilateral and multilateral organisations in Nepal. Mr. Dixit served as a member of the National Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Rio Conference (1992). He also represented the private sector in His Majesty's Government of Nepal Water and Energy Commission from 1994 to 1997.

Arlene Blum: A well-known mountaineer and writer, Ms. Blum's first book, Annapurna: A woman’s place is a mountaineering classic and her new book, Breaking Trail: A climber’s life is certain to be as well. In addition to many other ascents, Ms. Blum led the first American and only women’s expedition up Annapurna and joined the second American expedition up Everest. Although Ms. Blum is widely recognized as one of the first women to achieve international prominence as a mountaineer, what is less widely known are her abilities as a scientist, activist, consultant and cross-cultural leadership trainer. As a scientist and activist, Ms. Blum’s work has led to the banning of carcinogenic fire-retardants in clothing. As a leadership consultant and cross-cultural trainer, Ms. Blum has helped many companies identify strategies for working across cultures and achieving business goals in an increasingly globalized world. In addition to the above experiences, Ms. Blum brings two key assets to the Board. First and foremost is her vision and, through her own example, her ability to encourage others to take on interesting, complicated challenges. Second, she has extensive connections and is often able to offer advice on key contacts able to help with ISET’s mission.

David Bonnett: Owner of CIO Works, a technology service company. Mr. Bonnett has a strong background in geography and environmental science and has worked closely with Global Green Grants, Global Response and other organizations working on the nexus between environmental and international development issues. Mr. Bonnett brings direct knowledge of key technology and communication options and can offer particular advice for a networked organization such as ISET.

Brian Underhill: Mr. Underhill has worked with local nonprofits for several years. He has been on the boards of the Chinook Fund, a Colorado progressive foundation, and the Funding Exchange, a national umbrella organization. He has worked extensively with Boulder's Friendship City Projects doing water and other development work in Nicaragua, and has spent time in other Central American countries. Mr. Underhill is currently managing a small high tech company in Boulder. He is an avid mountaineer and has climbed in many countries, including Nepal.

Michael (Mickey) Glantz: Director of the Consortium for Capacity Building at INSTAAR (the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research), Dr. Glantz is a Senior Scientist and was the Director of the Environmental and Societal Impacts Group for 17 years. Dr. Glantz is interested in how climate affects society and how society affects climate, especially in how the interaction between climate anomalies and human activities affect quality of life issues. His research relates to:

• African drought; desertification; food production problems and prospects
• Societal impacts of climate anomalies related to El Niño events; the use of El Niño-related teleconnections to forecast these impacts
• Developing methods of forecasting possible societal responses to the regional impacts of climate change
• The use of climate-related information for economic development

Dr. Glantz has also coordinated joint research in the Central Asian Republics of the former Soviet Union , with a special interest in the Aral Sea basin. In 1999, Cambridge University Press published a book he edited on "Creeping Environmental Problems and Sustainable Development in the Aral Sea Basin". He has edited several books and is the author of numerous articles on issues related to climate, environment, and policy. He organizes multidisciplinary, multinational workshops on climate-related issues. Dr. Glantz used to write a column for the Boulder Planet. He maintains those columns and new ones on his Fragilecologies web site. Prior to that, he wrote a biweekly newspaper column, "Environmental Minute" for the Boulder Daily Camera.

Seema Bhatt: Ms. Bhatt is an independent consultant (based in India) working on issues related to biodiversity. Her particular focus of work is on strengthening the links between conservation of biodiversity and livelihoods of local communities. She has also worked extensively on ecotourism issues in South Asia. Seema views ecotourism as one such link and has coordinated two projects on ecotourism as the South Asia Coordinator for the USAID supported Biodiversity Conservation Network. She has recently co-authored a book on Ecotourism Development in India published by the Cambridge University Press. Seema is a graduate from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Seema is at present a Fulbright Research Scholar in Washington DC based at the Center for Responsible Travel (CREST), formerly the Center on Ecotourism and Sustainable Development (CESD).

Shiraz Wajih: Dr. Wajih is President of Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group (established 1975, Uttar Pradesh, India) and Associate Professor-Ecology in Gorakhpur University (MGPG College). His doctorate was in Plant Ecology, and his areas of specialization are: participatory development, sustainable (ecological) agriculture, community institution building, floods management and climate change adaptation. He has also worked for organizing small-marginal and women farmers for their rights and natural resource management, engaged in research, training, networking and field interventions and policy advocacy at state, national and international levels. Dr. Wajih has been Chairman of International Youth Federation for Environmental Studies and Conservation (1985-89), Board member of Oxfam India (2000-2009), Voluntary Health Association of India (1999-2003), South South Solidarity and several such organizations working on issues related to poverty reduction and empowerment of  marginalized communities. Dr. Wajih has been collaborating with ISET  since 2001 and is part of the South Asian research collaboration on Climate Change and Livelihood Resilience.

Saleemul Huq: A Senior Fellow with the International Institute for Environment and Development, Dr. Huq is a recognised international expert on adaptation funding and community based  adaptation.  He has extensive experience in providing climate change and development advice to political leaders, in establishing and developing research centres in climate change and adaptation that inform the policy debate and in working in the most vulnerable countries (in particular Bangladesh).  He is familiar with the UNFCCC negotiating process and provides technical advice to a number of national negotiating teams.

Officers

Elisabeth Caspari: ISET Associate and Corporate Secretary. Ms. Caspari was a partner in the formation of ISET in 1997 and has taken on many roles in the organization including assistant director from 2006 to 2008. In the past her professional focus within the organization has been on administration and the production of ISET’s publications. Ms. Caspari has substantial experience working throughout South Asia, is multilingual and has expertise in translating the results of scientific writing, particularly from South Asian countries, for the general public and policy audiences. Since 2008 she has been closely involved in planning the restructuring of the rapidly growing institute.

Sonam Bennett-Vasseux: Grants Manager and Treasurer, ISET. Ms. Bennett-Vasseux has extensive experience working in Nepal within the UN system, with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development and in the tourism industry in the Nepal and India Himalaya and National Parks. She is multilingual and has assisted in the production of research and policy documents on environmental issues in Nepal and elsewhere.