Josh Tewksbury

Global Hub Director, USA: Executive Team

Josh was trained as an ecologist, evolutionary biologist, and conservation biologist. He has 20+ years of active research focused on climate impacts on plants and animals; the influence of fragmentation, connectivity, invasive species and mutualism loss on populations and communities; the evolution and functional significance of chemical defense in plants; and other topics. Before joining Future Earth as the Director of the Colorado Global Hub, Josh was the founding director of the Luc Hoffmann Institute, a global research center integrated within the International Secretariat of the World Wide Fund for Nature in Geneva Switzerland. While there, Josh started the Luc Hoffmann Fellows programme and launched over a dozen research projects, including work on the Food-Energy-Water nexus in Southeast Asia, Development corridors in East Africa, global mapping of threats to biodiversity and the development of regionally-appropriate low-carbon sustainability targets for urban areas. Prior to his work at the Luc Hoffmann Institute, Josh was the Maggie and Doug Walker Endowed Professor of Natural History at the University of Washington, with appointments both in the Department of Biology and the College of the Environment, which he worked to create.

Craig Starger

Research Enabling Lead

Craig Starger is the Research Liaison Officer at the Colorado Global Hub of Future Earth. He is based at the School of Global Environmental Sustainability at Colorado State University. Craig Starger is a marine biologist who works to advance science for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Craig has spent over fifteen years conducting primary research on coral reef conservation biology. His research focused on questions related to corals’ adaptive response to climate change, coral recovery, and coral population connectivity with a focus on Southeast Asia. Craig recently served as an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science & Technology Policy Fellow where he represented the U.S. State Department’s Office of Marine Conservation in international fisheries treaty negotiations. Just prior to joining Future Earth, Craig spent two years as a AAAS Overseas Fellow at USAID’s Regional Development Mission for Asia (RDMA) in Bangkok where he lead the design and procurement of the Oceans and Fisheries Partnership which is now the US Government’s largest investment in combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing overseas.

Lakshmi Muralidharan

Finance Manager, USA

María Fernanda Enriquez

Administrative Officer and Global Sustainability Scholars Coordinator, USA

Maria Fernanda supports the logistics, administration and coordination needs of Future Earth and the Global Sustainability Scholars Program. Her professional career has been focused on the environmental sector. Before joining Future Earth, she worked for five years at ISET-International, a Boulder-based international environmental organisation. Previously she worked with the United Nations Global Environment Facility-Small Grants Program in Ecuador, where she managed grants afforded to hundreds of local grassroots organisations. She earned a Ph.D. in Political Science in 2014 from the University of Connecticut, and her research focused in environmental social movements and indigenous peoples.

Laurel Milliken

Information Technology Officer

Laurel Milliken maintains the IT assets and infrastructure at the Future Earth secretariat. She is a graduate of Colorado State University with degrees in political science, business, and computer information systems. Prior to joining Future Earth, she worked in software, banking, and teaching English.

Kathy Kohm

Editor-In-Chief, Anthropocene magazine

Kathryn Kohm is an editor, designer and entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in environmental media. She is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Anthropocene magazine, a print, online and live magazine published by Future Earth and based at the University of Colorado Boulder. From 1999-2016, she was the founding editor of Conservation magazine, from which Anthropocene evolved. She has also edited several books, including “Balancing on the Brink of Extincition,” and “Creating a Forestry for the 21st Century.” There’s an equation on a slip of paper pinned above her desk that neatly captures her editorial ambitions: Surprise + Clarity = Delight.

Kelsey Simpkins

Digital and Engagement Editor

Kelsey Simpkins is a multimedia storyteller with a background in journalism, art history and environmental science, with more than a decade of experience in digital content management. She received her Master of Arts in environmental journalism from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2018. While completing her studies in Boulder, she worked at the Center for Environmental Journalism. Her work there comprised of reporting on environmental health and scientific research, clean energy, and sustainable cultivation and disposal of legal cannabis in Colorado. Additionally, she received grants from the Royal Norwegian Embassy, University of Colorado Boulder, and the Nevada Museum of Art to travel around the world and report on the intersection of arts and the environment in the Arctic. Before joining Future Earth and Anthropocene Magazine, she worked as an Editorial Fellow for Nature Conservancy Magazine and served as part of the Public Information team at the American Geophysical Union.

Alfredo Giron

Postdoctoral Researcher, PEGASuS 2: Ocean Sustainability

Alfredo Giron is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis at UC Santa Barbara and for Future Earth. He received his Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, where he developed new methods to inform fisheries management, with focus on the Gulf of California, Mexico. In 2014, along with members of the Gulf of California Marine Program, he created dataMares, a science communication and data sharing platform. Today, dataMares is of the leading outlets in Mexico for socio-environmental science communication, with a strong presence in social media and national newspapers. As a career goal, Alfredo is interested in communicating the results of this research to the general public and to international bodies and panels, such as the United Nations Oceans Decade, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Food and Agriculture Organization. While working for Future Earth, he expects to expand his participation in these bodies and panels and help to bring scientific knowledge to action.

Judit Ungvari

AAAS STP Fellow at NSF

Erin Satterthwaite

Postdoctoral Researcher, PEGASuS 2: Ocean Sustainability

Erin Satterthwaite is a marine ecologist who works at the interface of applied marine research, policy engagement, and science communication to advance ocean conservation for sustainable development. She is interested in ocean sustainability issues related to marine biodiversity, fisheries management, social-ecological systems, citizen science, and biological oceanography. Prior to joining the Future Earth and NCEAS partnership, Erin was a California State Sea Grant Fellow with the Environmental Research Division, a research unit of the National Marine Fisheries Service's Southwest Fisheries Science Center. In this fellowship, Erin worked on projects ranging from assessing the social and ecological vulnerability of California fisheries to the use of environmental DNA to assess patterns of marine biodiversity along the California coast. Erin Satterthwaite received her Doctor of Philosophy degree in applied marine ecology and conservation in the Environmental Science and Policy Department at the Bodega Marine Laboratory, University of California, Davis. Her work there consisted of research related to spatial marine management, such as marine protected areas. She focused on understanding the movement of marine young, also known as marine larvae, to better identify habitats that are priority marine conservation areas and ensure that areas will maintain healthy populations. In addition, she used participatory research methods to assess groundfish populations, such as rockfish and lingcod, inside and outside of marine reserves to understand changes their populations. Erin is passionate about bringing together ocean sustainability research, policy engagement, and education in novel and creative ways. She has participated in COMPASS science communication trainings, engaged in state and national policy briefings, and developed trainings to provide early career scientists with practical skills to link science and policy. In addition, Erin has developed and taught numerous courses and outreach programs. She helped to develop an outreach program at Bodega Marine Laboratory, which exposes students to observation-based learning techniques, and has created a Coastal and Marine Science Pre-College Program at UC Davis. In addition, she has developed a marine science short course for journalism graduate students and an undergraduate course on the science and policy of global change. Erin is especially passionate about linking art and science as a novel form of science communication, and has displayed her own photography at science and art fusion events.

Veera Mitzner

Network Lead

As the Future Earth Network Lead, based in the Future Earth U.S. Global Hub, Veera is the general lead for the global development of Science, Research and Innovation 2020 (SRI2020) and the establishment of a new professional society for sustainability scholars and practitioners. Before joining Future Earth, she was an International Director and a Roman Macaya Hayes Global Science Diplomacy Fellow at the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), responsible for designing NCSE’s first international program. Previous to this work, she held a competitive fellowship from the American Council of Learned Societies and worked for Rare, launching the European office and expanding the European development operations of this rapidly growing global conservation non-profit focused on behavior change and sustainability. Veera holds a PhD in History and Civilization from the European University Institute, and she has considerable academic experience in science policy and diplomacy, European affairs and international relations. Through her scholarly work, she has been affiliated with Columbia University, Princeton University, the University of Helsinki, the University of Turku, and the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. She is currently finishing a book manuscript on European Union research policy.

Makyba Charles-Ayinde

AAAS STP Fellow at NSF