ISTF 2018 Leadership

Ethan Miller (Co-chair)

Ethan Miller is a second-year Master of Forestry candidate at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Ethan spends his time at the intersection of social forestry, tropical landscape ecology, geospatial analysis, and stakeholder engagement. His research focuses on understanding how collaborative spatial planning and multi-stakeholder engagement can improve landscape-scale forest management in the tropics. Ethan has worked for CIFOR in Kenya, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, and at the Tiputini Biodiversity Station in Yasuni, Ecuador. He holds a B.S. of Environmental Science and a minor in Geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Follow him @ethanfmiller.

Liz Felker (Co-chair)

Liz Felker is a Master of Environmental Science candidate from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She is currently the Program Manager for The Forests Dialogue Land Use Dialogue Initiative. With interests in multi-stakeholder governance and land and resource tenure, Liz conducts research on local perceptions of land degradation and restoration in the Ethiopian Rift Valley. Prior to Yale, Liz worked as a research consultant for CIFOR in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, and on an organic vegetable farm outside her hometown of Nashville, TN. She received her B.S. in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from UC Berkeley with a minor in Forest Management.

Gyan de Silva (ISTF Student Chapter Leader) 

Gyan is a second-year Masters in Environmental Management student at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Ecological Science with Management from the University of Edinburgh in the UK. Prior to studying at Yale, Gyan worked for two years for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Sri Lanka. Here, he was involved in a range of projects related to the conservation of endangered species and critical ecosystems, watershed management and national biodiversity and environmental policy. At ISTF, Gyan hopes to expand his experience and knowledge on tropical forests and to meet and interact with other professionals in the sector so that he can apply what he has learnt on tropical forests in Sri Lanka. In his free time, he enjoys travelling and playing soccer.

Abby Snyder (Conference Panels Coordinator) 

Abby is a 2018 Master of Environmental Management candidate with a focus on international food security. Abby served as a U.S Fulbright Fellow in Indonesia, a Natural Resource Management U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, and has led food security projects in her home region of central Appalachia and while working for an environmental non-profit in Washington, DC. Most recently, Abby worked with the Environmental Defense Fund as a Climate Corps Fellow where she partnered with the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy and International Dairy Foods Association to support sustainable supply chain initiatives. Abby is a graduate from Dickinson College with a BA in Environmental Studies and Sustainable Agriculture.

 
Brittany Williams (Conference Panels Coordinator)
 

Brittany is a 2019 Master of Environmental Management candidate at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies with a focus on climate-smart agriculture and agroforestry. Brittany served as an Agroforestry Volunteer with the Peace Corps in Guinea where she led several projects including community reforestation and capacity building among beekeepers. She most recently worked on a DC-based Feed the Future program increasing food security among smallholder farmers. Her portfolio of partnerships in that program included projects in Haiti working in the mango supply chain, in Guatemala working on youth capacity building, in Benin working on Fair-trade cashew processing, in Kenya working on small agricultural loans, and in Bangladesh working on mechanized rice harvesting. She holds a B.A. in International Development and a B.S. in Environmental Policy and Management from University of California, Berkeley.

Monica Nuñez Salas (Innovation Prize Coordinator)
 
Monica is a 2018 Masters of Environmental Management candidate with a focus on Policy Analysis and Evaluation. Her past experience includes working for the Peruvian Government on capacity building and performance evaluation of environmental authorities at the local, regional and national levels; and acting as legal counsel for projects in the energy, infrastructure and agricultural sectors, among others. Monica has extensive experience in the mining sector, most recently collaborating with WWF Beijing on the implementation of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce’s (CCCMC) Guidelines for Social Responsibility in Outbound Mining Investments. She holds a J.D. from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, and is Fulbright Scholar at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
 
Erica Engstrom (Logistics Coordinator)
 
Erica is a 2019 Master of Environmental Management candidate at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies focusing on wildlife conservation and habitat connectivity.  Her previous experience includes training and caring for lemurs at the Lemur Conservation Foundation and teaching about sustainable agriculture and development at Heifer International. Most recently, she worked at The Nature Conservancy in Arkansas supporting a variety of land and water conservation projects and working with a coalition of partners to develop wetland reserve easement policy recommendations for the 2018 Farm Bill.  Erica holds a B.A. in International Development Studies from the University of California at Los Angeles. 
 
 
 
 
Andy Lee (Flash Talks Coordinator)
 
Andy is a 2019 Master of Environmental Science candidate at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, with a focus on wildlife conservation and conservation policy. His previous experience in wildlife research include studying African elephants in South Africa, snow leopard in the Tibetan Himalayas region, as well as wildlife trafficking in Asia. Before coming to Yale, he worked in the Cetacean Ecology Lab in the University of Hong Kong as a research assistant to study the population structure, socio-behavioural ecology and spatial movement of the endangered population of Indo-pacific humpback dolphins in the coastal city. He holds a B.Sc. in Ecology & Biodiversity from the University of Hong Kong.
 
 
Caroline Tasirin (Poster Coordinator)
 
Caroline is a 2019 Master of Forest Science candidate at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies focusing on carbon stocks and sequestration in terrestrial tropical ecosystems. Her previous experience includes community engagement and environmental education for forest and wildlife conservation in Indonesia. Before coming to Yale, Caroline was the Education Assistant in Selamatkan Yaki, a local NGO that focused on protecting the crested black macaque endemic to North Sulawesi, Indonesia, through holistic approaches that brought together government, law enforcement, and communities living around forests. She holds a B.Sc. in Forestry from Sam Ratulangi University in Manado, Indonesia, and is a CIFOR-USAID scholar at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.