Pat Abbott, Ph.D., is a native San Diegan who earned his doctorate degree in geology from the University of Texas at Austin. Abbott is a Professor Emeritus of Geology at San Diego State University and is the author of the widely used textbook Natural Disasters published by McGraw-Hill. His book The Rise and Fall of San Diego describes the geologic history of San Diego. Pat also is the producer and narrator for the developing TV series Written in Stone.

Don Albright, retired high school geography teacher and former geologist for the state of California. Albright has been trekking Baja California and the Southwest for 45 years.

J. David Archibald is Professor of Biology and Curator of Mammals at San Diego State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1977. He has written 150 articles, essays, reviews, and monographs on the systematics and evolution of early mammals, biostratigraphy, faunal analysis, and extinction. His extensive field work has taken him from the American West to Middle Asia. His 1996 book, Dinosaur Extinction and the End of an Era: What the Fossils Say (Columbia University Press), documents what we know of the fossil record at the time of dinosaur extinction at the K/T boundary. His edited book with Ken Rose, The Rise of Placental Mammals: Origins and Relationships of the Major Extant Clades (Johns Hopkins University Press), appeared in 2005. He is completing another book updating the information about the K/T boundary and how these extinctions lead to the explosive radiation of mammals. He is also a collector of Darwin’s works and has more recently turned his attention to the history of evolutionary thought.

Leslie Barnes is the Compost Program Coordinator at the Solana Center for Environmental Innovation, a nonprofit organization offering environmental education throughout San Diego County. Barnes coordinates the Master Composter Volunteer Program, providing compost education to adults and children through events, workshops, school presentations, and compost demonstration sites. Leslie holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and has been involved with nonprofit organizations for over seven years.

Jim Berrian, zoologist and teacher, has been associated with the Museum since 1976. His career has included research in herpetology, entomology, arachnology, and teaching high school biology.

Frank Canziani has worked as a photographic assistant, operated his own photographic business, and been both an advisor to professional photographic organizations and a guest lecturer at numerous schools. Canziani has worked in the photographic business for almost 30 years and has been published in several national publications. Currently, he teaches digital photography classes for Nelson Photo Supply. He has traveled worldwide.

Cindy Christ is a San Diego native, naturalist, and educator. She is also an herbalist, master soapmaker, and owner of Following Seasons Botanicals where she specializes in handmade herbal soap, organic herbs, aromatherapy and botanical traditions. Cindy has been involved with herbs for health and pleasure the majority of her life, and has been making handmade soap for more than 15 years. She is an instructor at the San Diego Natural History Museum, and an active member of the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild, The Herb Society of America, International Herb Association, American Botanical Council, and The San Diego Herb Club.

Tom Deméré, Ph.D.

Frans de Waal, Ph. D. is a Dutch-born ethologist/biologist known for his work on the social intelligence of primates. His first book, Chimpanzee Politics (1982), compared the schmoozing and scheming of chimpanzees involved in power struggles with that of human politicians. Ever since, de Waal has drawn parallels between primate and human behavior, from peacemaking and morality to culture. His scientific work has been published in hundreds of technical articles in journals such as Science, Nature, Scientific American, and outlets specialized in animal behavior. De Waal is C. H. Candler Professor in the Psychology Department of Emory University and Director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Center, in Atlanta, Georgia. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences. In 2007, Time magazine selected him as one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People Today.

Margaret "Margi" Dykens

Heather Fenney is the Associate Directory of Development with Community Services Unlimited, Inc. in Los Angeles and former director of the California Food and Justice Coalition, a statewide membership-based coalition committed to the basic human right to healthy food while advancing social, agricultural and environmental justice. She is an experienced organizer and policy advocate and has worked with grassroots food-justice advocates to pass public policy that supports sustainable, local and just food systems nationally and at the state level. She has done extensive speaking and training on social and political issues impacting the food system.

Utilizing a blend of aerodynamics and composite aircraft construction, Fambro’s former garage start-up has produced a low-drag, uniquely shaped, three-wheel vehicle that has already been featured in USA Today, National Geographic, and the New York Times, as well as on 60 Minutes and Good Morning America. Aptera has grown into a company with over 70 employees and has raised three rounds of funding from outside investors. The 2e will hit the market with the promise of getting the equivalent of well over 100 miles per gallon at a price most American consumers can rationalize into their personal budgets.

Anne S. Fege, Ph.D., a Botany Research Associate at the Museum, and co-owner of Business and Ecology Consulting in El Cajon. She served as Forest Supervisor of the Cleveland National Forest from 1991–2004, where she was responsible for managing 450,000 acres in Orange, Riverside, and San Diego counties for watershed values, habitat for native plants and animals, recreation and other uses, wildland fire management, and open space. Fege is widely known as a co-founder of the San Diego Partners for Biodiversity and San Diego Fire Recovery Network, and co-curator of the recent Earth, Wind & WILDFIRE exhibition at the Museum.

Aaron French is the chef of The Sunnyside Café in Albany, CA. He is a published author, writing both popular and peer-reviewed scientific articles; his EcoChef column can be read in various Bay Area News Group newspapers. He spent years as a tropical ecologist, working with rare and endangered species and studying how animals help re-grow rainforests through seed dispersal. French has won numerous awards from both the scientific and culinary communities, including fellowships from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, and the National Institutes of Health.

Stephen Grealy manages the City of San Diego Recycling Programs, Solid Waste Code Enforcement and Field Operations Waste Abatement Sections. He holds a M.S. in environmental science from the University of London. He was President of the California Organic Recycling Council in 2001–2006 and has belonged to the City of San Diego, Recycling Section since 1991. Grealy has also provided solid-waste consulting services to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Republic of Marshall Islands.

Mary Ann Hawke holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in plant sciences and Bachelor’s degrees in ecology and evolution, and environmental education. She has 15 years of experience in project management and environmental consulting. Trained as a plant ecologist, her interests include arid-land ecology, soil/microbe/plant interactions, and assessing ecological health in arid environments. She is the former Director of the San Diego County Plant Atlas project at the Museum.

Rose Hayden-Smith serves as Director of the University of California’s Cooperative Extension in Ventura County. Her work focuses on providing gardening and food-systems education to youth, educators and community audiences. Hayden-Smith uses historical examples to influence current public policies relating to food systems and nutrition. She holds Master’s degrees in education and U.S. history, and is a Ph.D. candidate in U.S. history and public historical studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. A practicing U.S. historian, she is a nationally recognized expert on Victory Gardens, wartime food policies, and school garden programs. She is a 2008–2009 Kellogg Foundation/IATP Food and Society Policy Fellow (FASP). The creator of UC’s Victory Grower website and blog, her work can be found at http://groups.ucanr.org/victorygrower. She blogs for the Huffington Post and Civil Eats.

Dave Henson is a co-founder and the Executive Director of the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center (OAEC), an 80-acre organic farm and training center in western Sonoma County, Northern California. Henson also directs OAEC’s Ecological Agriculture Program and its Sustainable Communities Program. Over 15 years, OAEC’s programs have helped establish more than 150 school gardens in the Bay Area, trained and certified more than 600 individuals in Permaculture Design, and helped establish 45 community watershed organizations along the north coast. OAEC’s Horticultural Biodiversity Program curates a living collection of more than 3000 heirloom and open-pollinated food and medicinal crop varieties. Henson has co-founded a number of national and California advocacy coalitions, including Californians for GE-Free Agriculture, the Wild Farm Alliance, the Program on Corporations, Law and Democracy, the California Climate and Agriculture Network, and the Movement Generation Justice and Ecology Project. See www.oaec.org, www.oaecwater.org, www.wildfarmalliance.org and www.movementgeneration.org.

Bradford Hollingsworth, Ph.D.

Ralph Lee Hopkins ttravels to the world’s wild places as expedition leader and photographer with Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic. His photos have been featured in numerous publications by National Geographic and appear regularly in magazines including Arizona Highways, National Geographic Traveler, and Outdoor Photography. An inspiring teacher, Hopkins leads workshops and photo expeditions for Lindblad and National Geographic Expeditions, Arizona Highways, and Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. Hopkins is author of the popular guidebooks Hiking the Southwest’s Geology and Hiking Colorado’s Geology. To view his online portfolio visit RalphLeeHopkins.com.

Marie Humphrey has been kayaking for more than 12 years, leading local kayak nature tours and multi-day kayak camping trips. She is a certified kayak instructor with the American Canoe Association and is certified in Advanced Wilderness First Aid. In 2002, she left the corporate world behind to start her business, Family Kayak Adventure Center. Humphrey enjoys sharing with people of all ages the excitement of exploring nature by kayak. A native San Diegan, Humphrey brings her knowledge of birds, marine mammals, and local history to all of her kayaking tours.

Ellee Igoe is the Food Security and Community Health Program Manager at the San Diego International Rescue Committee (IRC) regional resettlement office. She oversees four programs designed to increase access to culturally desirable food for newly arrived refugees including the New Roots Community Farm (a 2.3-acre urban farm that serves 80 new immigrant families), City Heights Farmers Market (San Diego’s first food-stamp accessible farmers market), Food Secure Resettlement Program (distributes more than 5,000 lbs. of emergency food to IRC clients and low income community members each month) and Crawford High School Food Justice Team (offers hands-on internships to 40 youth each year at the IRC-run Crawford School Garden). She has a M.A. in community and regional planning from the University of Oregon and a B.A. in journalism from Arizona State University. Igoe is also the co-founder of San Diego Food Not Lawns, a member of the Mid-City Community Action Network Coordinating Council and serves on the Advisory Committee for the California Food and Justice Coalition.

Amy Lerner is an avid gardener and foodie. She has led organic farm educational tours and workshops for children and adults of all ages at Hidden Villa in Los Altos, Slide Ranch in Marin County, and in the city of Long Beach, with Long Beach Organic and various schools. Amy is currently getting a Ph.D. in geography at the University of California, Santa Barbara, focusing on urbanization and food production in Mexico, where she is conducting her fieldwork. Upon completion of her doctorate, Lerner hopes to continue teaching university courses in sustainable-food systems and international development and agriculture. In addition to her farm education and doctoral work, Lerner holds an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a M.A. in Environmental Studies from Brown University.

Erika Lesser is the Executive Director of Slow Food USA, a nonprofit organization with over 18,000 members and 200 chapters nationwide. She has worked for Slow Food USA since its founding in 2000, and also spent a year working at Slow Food’s international headquarters in Italy for the University of Gastronomic Sciences, before returning to New York in 2004 to take on her current position. A native of Boston, Lesser graduated from Brown University with a B.A. in Italian studies and art history, and worked in the food and nonprofit sectors while earning an M.A. in food studies from New York University. Lesser also serves on the boards of the Community Food Security Coalition and Slow Food International.

Paul Maschka is a compassionate naturalist. He also writes, lectures, and teaches courses on a number of environmental topics. Paul is a lead gardener in the Horticulture Department at the San Diego Zoo and has been with the San Diego Zoological Society for the past 13 years. Paul has been recognized by The Royal Horticultural Society and awarded The Royal Horticulture Society Award for his natural landscape designs. His interests include bio-intensive gardening, alternative energy studies, sustainable landscaping, mycology, beekeeping, and permaculture.

Bob Miller is an Imperial Valley native who enjoys exploring all aspects of the southwest desert. His interest in birding and desire to share his knowledge of the region have made him one of the Valley's best-known birders.

Esther Mitrani was born in Ensenada, Baja California. She graduated with a degree in psychology at the Universidas Autónoma de Baja California, then worked in a professional employer organization in San Francisco. She has worked as a tour guide for over five years and joined Andiamo in 2002. Esther is an eager traveler and loves sports and languages.

Maria Mitrani lives in Ensenada, Baja California, and since 1985 has conducted specialized tours of Baja California. Mitrani has a B.A. in Italian and art history from the University of California at Berkeley.

Barbara Moore is co-author of Walking San Diego and Vice President of San Diego Audubon Society. She has been teaching birding classes for over 25 years.

Craig Moritz is Director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology and professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and President of the Society for the Study of Evolution at the University of California, Berkeley. He is an evolutionary biologist with interests spanning historical biogeography, speciation, molecular ecology and systematics, as well as application of concepts from these fields to conservation. Major studies over the past 20 or so years have included analyses of chromosomal speciation in gecko lizards, evolutionary origins and consequences of parthenogenesis in reptiles, historical biography of a rainforest fauna, and conservation genetics of a variety of organisms. Since moving from University of Queensland, Australia, to UC Berkeley, he has developed interests in the use of the web to share information from museum collections and in using these unique historical collections to understand how humans are affecting biodiversity.

Aniruddh Patel is the Esther J. Burnham Senior Fellow at The Neurosciences Institute in San Diego. His research focuses on how the brain processes music and language, especially what the similarities and differences between the two reveal about each other and about the brain itself. He recently published Music, Language, and the Brain (2008, Oxford University Press), and is president-elect of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition.

Nuri Pierce is a Research Associate in the lab of botanist Dr. Michael Simpson at San Diego State University. Her research focus includes the taxonomy of Chenopodium in the family Amaranthaceae and pollen morphology of the genus Conostylis of the family Haemodoraceae.

Elizabeth Podsiadlo, has been a personal chef and cooking instructor in San Diego for ten years. She has studied opera since here twenties and performs as a vocalist regularly downtown in different hotels and restaurants. When you attend one of her cooking classes you will not only get a sample of her delicious food, you will also get a sample aria or two and an intimate look into the world of this passionate artist.

Kesler Randall

Jon Rebman, Ph.D.

Fred Roberts has worked previously as the assistant curator at the Museum of Systematic Biology at University of California, Irvine, and as a botanist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He is currently working as an independent botanist conducting rare plant surveys in Orange, San Diego, and Riverside Counties. In addition to being a botanical illustrator and painting water colors, he has published several books including An Illustrated Guide to the Oaks of the Southern Californian Floristic Province, Plants of Orange County (an illustrated checklist), and co-authored Plants of Western Riverside County (an annotated checklist). His current projects include an illustrated guide to the lilies of southern California and Baja California, and rare plants of western San Diego County.

Jim Rocks,M.S. biological sciences, has 10 years of experience in California, primarily exploring and documenting the flora and fauna of southern California in San Diego County. Rocks works primarily as an independent biological consultant and is a museum Research Associate in the Botany Department. Rocks is an active contributor to the San Diego County Plant Atlas and other Museum research efforts.

Phillip C. Roullard has been a professional photographer since graduating from Brooks Institute in 1993, with a B.A. in photography. Roullard’s background as a park ranger and naturalist contributes greatly to his understanding of the outdoor subjects he enjoys photographing. Roullard has taught photo clinics and led workshops for Adventure-16, a San Diego outdoor recreation store. His photographs have been used extensively in exhibits, publications and websites for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Tijuana Estuary National Estuarine Research Reserve. His photographs have appeared in National Audubon Field Guides, National Geographic books, National Wildlife, Ranger Rick and My Big Back Yard, Canadian Garden, and American Home and Gardening.

Michael Simpson, Ph.D. is a professor at San Diego State University, where he teaches Economic Botany, Taxonomy of California Plants, and Plant Systematics. His and his student's research focus on phylogenetic relationships, species and infraspecies taxonomy, and floristics. He is a co-author (with Dr. Jon Rebman) on Checklist of the Vascular Plants of San Diego County and has written a new college textbook, Plant Systematics.

Neil Solomon was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He is a long-time San Diego resident whose passionate interest in bird photography has become an equally passionate interest in introducing bird photography to others. To this end, Solomon has conducted workshops and presented slide shows of his images to the San Diego Field Ornithologists, the Photonaturalist Photo Club of San Diego, the North County Photographic Society, the Palomar Audubon Society and the Rancho la Puerta Resort in Tecate, Mexico. In 2009 and 2010, Solomon will lead bird photography workshops at the Museum as well as at the Rancho la Puerta Resort. View his images on his website www.nsolomonphoto.com.

Larry Stein is a professional printer and photographer. Owner of Warp-9 Imaging in El Cajon, Stein creates fine-art prints for artists, photographers, and himself. He offers personalized training for photography and “Photoshop for Photographers.” He specializes in art and landscape photography utilizing digital and film, DSLR-to-view cameras.

Nan Sterman is an award-winning garden communicator, horticulturist, garden designer, and gardening coach who lives in Encinitas, California. Sterman writes about beautiful and unique gardens. Her expertise includes drought-tolerant plants for California’s Mediterranean climate, sustainable gardening, low-water landscape design, edible gardening, and general gardening knowledge. Nan contributes to regional and national publications such as the Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union Tribune, Sunset, Organic Gardening, and Better Homes and Gardens. In the 1990s, she was garden editor for San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles Magazine. Nan is author of California Gardener’s Guide VII, a book about low-water gardening in California’s Mediterranean climate. For further information, visit www.plantsoup.com.

Margie Stinson has a master’s degree in biology, and is well-known as the Museum’s whale watching excursion naturalist. She continues to study Baja California and its coastal island’s wildlife. Currently, Stinson is writing a book on Baja California’s natural history.

Jim Stone is the Museum’s Vice President of Public Programs; he is the senior executive responsible for Museum exhibitions, education programs, volunteers, marketing and the website. Previously the Director of Education, he brings experienced leadership to the position. Stone served as Vice President of Programs and Director of Exhibitions at Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut. He frequently leads ecotourism expeditions, and has been to Ecuador, Bermuda, Costa Rica, Culebra Island, Puerto Rico, Sea of Cortés, Galapagos Islands, Gulf of Saint Lawrence, and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. He has a special interest in marine mammals and environmental stewardship. He holds a BS in Biology from Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU), a Rhode Island Teaching Certificate for Secondary Level Biological Sciences, and is currently studying nonprofit management at the University of San Diego’s School of Leadership and Education Sciences.

Nan Sterman is an award-winning garden communicator, horticulturist, garden designer, and gardening coach who lives in Encinitas, California. Sterman writes about beautiful and unique gardens. Her expertise includes drought tolerant plants for California’s Mediterranean climate, sustainable gardening, low water landscape design, edible gardening, and general gardening knowledge. Nan contributes to regional and national publications such as the Los Angeles Times, San Diego Union Tribune, Sunset, Organic Gardening, and Better Homes and Gardens. In the 1990s, she was garden editor for San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyles Magazine.

Angie Tagtow is a Food and Society Policy Fellow with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy working to educate consumers, opinion leaders and policy-makers on food systems that promote good health, vibrant communities and environmental stewardship. In addition to serving as fellow, Tagtow is a registered dietitian, environmental-nutrition consultant and international speaker dedicated to assuring all eaters have access to “good food.” Her business, Environmental Nutrition Solutions, takes an ecological approach to food and health by focusing on the public-health benefits of sustainable food systems. Her “Good Food Checklist” series has been distributed to audiences across the U.S.

Tagtow serves as the managing editor of the Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, a publication she helped launch in affiliation with the Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group of the American Dietetic Association. She is a guest co-editor of a special issue of the Journal devoted to sustainable food systems.

She has held several leadership positions in dietetics and public health at the state and national levels. Tagtow served as a member of the American Dietetic Association Sustainable Food Systems Task Force of which she co-edited the primer Healthy Land, Healthy People: Building a Better Understanding of Sustainable Food Systems for Food and Nutrition Professionals. For ten years, Tagtow worked with the Iowa Department of Public Health and co-facilitated the statewide Community Health Needs Assessment and Health Improvement Planning process.

Scott Tremor received a B.S. in biology and is the Museum’s field associate mammalogist. He has developed mammal-identification keys and is experienced with live-mammal trapping throughout southern California and Baja California. Tremor is a co-investigator for the San Diego County Mammal Atlas project, and since 2000, he has conducted mammal surveys throughout San Diego County for the project. He serves as the primary field coordinator for the project and will help produce the Atlas, which is intended to become the definitive reference on mammals in this hotspot of biological diversity. The Mammal Atlas team has now grown to over 25 contributors.

Phil Unitt

Michael Wall, Ph.D.

Ken Weaver is a high school biology teacher in Temecula, California. He is a past president of the Palomar Audubon society and served on the advisory committee for the San Diego County Bird Atlas Project. He is familiar with many of the excellent birding spots in northern San Diego and southern Riverside counties.

Dave Wyman has conducted photography workshops and family camping trips since 1983. He founded the travel photography program and directed the wilderness outings program at the University of Southern California for 14 years. Wyman is the author and photographer of the guidebook, Backroads of Northern California.

Herb Young became interested in birds soon after he moved to San Diego in 1962. Except for a brief period, he has been a member of San Diego Field Ornithologists and San Diego Audubon Society since 1972. About 1985, he became interested in gulls when he discovered that they usually stand still while you study them rather than disappear into foliage or simply fly off.

The San Diego Natural History Museum’s education programs are funded in part by the City of San Diego’s Commission for Arts and Culture and the San Diego County Community Enhancement Program. Proceeds benefit the Museum’s education and research missions.

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