Staff
Island Resources Foundation works with small tropical islands. Staffing and structure of the Foundation are based on the need for personnel with highly specialized skills and extensive experience with small island systems. These specialists often are needed on short notice, for only short periods of time. Competencies of core staff include management, development planning, information management, and publication production. In addition, core staff have great breadth of knowledge about development activities and actors in the small tropical island community.
We are encouraging staff, Program Associates and former interns to let us mount full-fledged resumes for them in the Resumes pages of this site. You might want to check there for more details.
Bruce Potter, President
Mailing Address: 1718 "P" Street NW, Suite T-4
Washington, DC 20036
Telephone: 202/265-9712
Fax: 202/232-0748
e-mail bpotter@irf.org
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| Bruce Potter, President of Island Resources Foundation since 1998 |
Bruce Potter has been President and Chief of Information Systems at Island Resources Foundation since 1998. He has been associated with the Foundation since 1978, and has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 1980. Bruce is an expert in small island sustainable development and has been the principal mover in building the Foundation’s capabilities for environmental information management and in supporting strategies for using the Internet to increase islanders’ access to decision-making tools for improved management of sustainable development. Bruce has 30 years experience, in both the public and private sectors, in international development, information system design and implementation, economic planning and institutional development. He is a charter member of GIN (Global Islands Network), a prototype for a world-wide, Internet-based information network for and about islands.
Judith A. Towle, MPA, Founding Vice President
Mailing Address: 1718 "P" Street NW, Suite T-4
Washington, DC 20036
Telephone: 202/265-9712
Fax: 202/232-0748
e-mail at jtowle@irf.org
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With a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from American University , Judith Towle has served as the chief administrative and financial officer of Island Resources Foundation since the organization’s establishment. She co-founded the Foundation with her husband, Edward Towle, and shared with him its management and development for more than three decades. Her 30 years of Caribbean experience have focused on institutional development, non-governmental organizations, public policy and financial management. Judith is IRF’s senior writer and editor and is recognized for editing the eight-volume Country Environmental Profile series for the Eastern Caribbean . From 1991-2004, Judith served as a member of the Board of Trustees (Chair from 1997-2004) of the Mukti Fund, a private U.S. philanthropic foundation whose grantmaking focused on St. Kitts and Nevis. In 2003, the Judith A. Towle Environmental Studies Fund was established in recognition of her work in the Caribbean . The $70,000 endowment funds annual internships, research, workshops and publications in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis .
Sandra Tate, St. Thomas Office Manager
Mailing Address: 6292 Estate Nazareth No. 100
St. Thomas, VI 00802-1104
Telephone: 340/775-6225
Fax: 340/779-2022
e-mail at state@irf.org
Sandra Tate (also proprietress of Sandra's Office Services, and the fastest Notary Public in Red Hook) is the meeter and greeter for most of our visitors to the Island Resources Offices in St. Thomas.
Jean Pierre Bacle, Senior Natural Resource Analyst
Mailing Address: 1718 "P" Street NW, Suite T-4
Washington, DC 20036
Telephone: 202/265-9712
Fax 202/232-0748
e-mail at dcbacle@aol.com
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| Jean Pierre Bacle and Kevel Lindsay where they most like to work—in the field |
As the Foundation’s senior natural resource specialist, Jean-Pierre has facilitated and coordinated IRF’s applied research and field activities for over 15 years, primarily in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands . A Canadian national with a degree in geography from the University of Ottawa, Jean-Pierre has been a part of IRF since 1986, where he has specialized in resource management studies, environmental impact assessments, endangered species research, air-photo interpretation and natural resource mapping of coastal and terrestrial environments in both the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, as well as the wider Caribbean. He also is a champion Duathlon competitor and has participated in competitions in Canada , the United States , the Caribbean , and internationally.
Kevel Lindsay, Coordinator, Eastern Caribbean Biodiversity Conservation Program
e-mail: klindsay@irf.org
A national of Antigua , Kevel Lindsay is a trained forester and biologist, with a degree in biodiversity conservation from Columbia University . He has been attached to the Foundation’s regional Biodiversity Conservation Program (initially based in Antigua ) since 1995, currently serving as regional coordinator. He also manages the Foundation’s Caribbean Biodiversity electronic mailing list < caribbean-biodiversity-subscribe@egroups.com> Kevel is a principal contributor to several key biodiversity planning documents prepared by the Foundation, including a vegetation classification system for Antigua-Barbuda, St. Kitts-Nevis, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In 1996 he was recipient of a major award for young professionals from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). He is also a recipient of the Euan P. McFarlane Award for Outstanding Environmental Leadership in the Insular Caribbean (1993).
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| Carlos Ramos at road erosion study site in La Parguera, Puerto Rico |
Carlos Ramos Scharrón, Ph.D., Coordinator, Watershed Science Program
email: cramos@irf.org
Carlos is a regionally recognized expert on erosion and sediment control processes in the northeastern Caribbean , particularly Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands , where he has carried out research studies for over a decade in affiliation with Island Resources Foundation and other partner institutions. His doctoral dissertation from Colorado State University (2004) was based on extensive sediment monitoring at dozens of sites on the island of St. John , including at Fish Bay where the Foundation owns 45 acres of protected green space. Carlos’s research resulted in development of a model for measuring and predicting erosion and sediment yield. His ongoing investigations are designed to provide science-based best management practices for small islands looking to identify improved methods for protecting and restoring critically endangered coral reefs.
Barbara J. Lausche, J.D., Environmental Lawyer
email: blausche@irf.org
An experienced international environmental lawyer, Barbara Lausche holds a law degree from Catholic University in Washington , DC and has enjoyed a distinguished environmental law career with The World Bank, World Wildlife Fund-US, the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment, International Institute for Environment and development, Natural Resources Defense Council, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She is the author of a forthcoming book on the history of the IUCN-World Conservation Union Environmental Law Program. Barbara is an experienced legislative drafter and technical adviser to developing countries, including the Caribbean , where she first worked in the late 1980s as a consultant to the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States to prepare detailed inventories and assessments of environmental legislation in eight OECS states. With Island Resources Foundation, in the late 1990s Barbara built on this earlier work, this time in the British Virgin Islands, where she has served as the Foundation’s legal consultant to assist the BVI in drafting new national parks legislation, rules and regulations for that legislation, and operational procedures for the National Parks Trust Board, thus significantly strengthening the institutional framework for protected area management in the Territory.
Michael E. O'Neal, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow
email: moneal@irf.org
Michael E. O'Neal is Senior Research Fellow at Island Resources Foundation, an organization with offices in Washington, D.C. and the Caribbean, whose central mission is to assist small islands to meet the challenges of social, economic and institutional growth while protecting and enhancing their environments. An academic and former higher education administrator, Dr. O'Neal served as third President of the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (British Virgin Islands), having previously also served as Vice President of the institution, a tenure, altogether, of some fifteen years (1993-2008). Dr. O'Neal stepped down from the presidency of the College on 31 December 2008 to take up an active engagement in a directorship in the private sector, returning to that arena after an interval of some twenty years in higher education. Before joining the College, Dr. O'Neal served as the first Resident Tutor/Head of the University of the West Indies, BVI Centre. In addition, from 1997-2004, he held appointment as Core Professor at the Graduate College of the Union Institute in Ohio, where he supervised Ph.D. students in interdisciplinary studies. Prior to his academic career, Dr. O'Neal was a managing director of the business enterprises of J.R. O'Neal Ltd (BVI). He has served on numerous boards and commissions, including the Public Service Commission and the Development Bank of the Virgin Islands, and is currently a director of JOMA Ltd, a closely-held, family-owned real estate management and development company. He also currently serves as Chairman of the BVI National Parks Trust. An anthropologist by training, Dr. O'Neal's primary area of academic research is concerned with the political economy of development. His other research interests include medical anthropology and family business studies. Dr. O'Neal is a member of several professional associations and learned societies, and is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute (U.K.) and of the American Anthropological Association. |
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