Staff Directory

Pesticide Action Network North America is endowed with the commitments and capabilities of its staff of scientists, campaigners, writers, interns and support specialists. Here you can get contact information for and learn a little about some of the people behind PANNA's work for pesticide reform.

Internet Developer and Webmaster
paul@panna.org
Business Management and Computer Science, St. Mary's College

Paul has worked with nonprofit organizations to develop their Internet presence and outreach programs since 1995. Before joining PANNA, Paul served as the I.T. and Web Manager for International Rivers Network, where he utilized technology and the web in support of communities working to protect their rivers and watersheds. Prior to that, Paul co-founded a national Internet Service Provider. At PANNA, Paul is responsible for managing and improving our on-line program, including our range of public web sites as well as our on-line mobilization and advocacy systems.

Laura Baldez
Network and Intern Coordinator
laura@panna.org
B.A., Anthropology, Columbia

In addition to working at PANNA, Laura is Native Foods Project coordinator at The Cultural Conservancy. Before joining PANNA in early 2006, Laura was executive assistant at ForestEthics, teacher in residence at Slide Ranch (a working ranch where school children learn about agriculture and the environment), development assistant with Natural Resources Defense Counsel in New York, and video coordinator for community-based health and environmental justice projects in post-9/11 lower Manhattan. At PANNA she coordinates our North America Affiliates program as well as our intern, volunteer and youth programs; and provides support to our board of directors. Laura speaks Spanish.

Beverly Becker
Director of Donor Relations
bev@panna.org
B.A., Political Science, University of California, Berkeley; Post-graduate research in Natural Resource Management, University of California, Riverside

Bev came to PANNA in 2006 from the Center for Land-Based Learning in Winters, California, where she was their first development director and continues as a board member for this statewide environmental organization that teaches the importance of secure, sustainable food systems. Previously, she was Director of Development at the San Francisco Zoological Society and a consultant in fundraising for the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Zoo, America India Foundation, and San Francisco Art Institute. Bev’s first career was communications and marketing, including directorships at the Museum of New Mexico in Santa Fe, the Oakland Museum, the Koret Foundation and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund in San Francisco. Bev leads PANNA’s individual giving program.

Clint Boerner
Information Technology Manager
clint@panna.org Digital Video, Vista Community College, Berkeley, California

Clint had over ten years experience as a network technician, webmaster and consultant to business and home users, specializing in Mac systems, prior to joining PANNA in 2006. He served as Network Coordinator for Vista College in Berkeley, consultant to the advertising industry with Mann Consulting in San Francisco, and as Webmaster and Network Administrator for macHOME magazine where he also wrote the “HotTips weekly eNews letter”. Clint maintains PANNA’s computing systems, network and telecommunications services and supports media production for the Communications Department.

Megan Buckingham
Program Assistant
megan@panna.org
B.A. Philosophy, Gustavus Adolphus College

Megan is a full-time volunteer at PAN through the Lutheran Volunteer Corps. As an undergraduate, she helped organize the 2007 MAYDAY! Peace Conference on the theme of community food security. She also chaired Gustavus’ social justice organization and helped found a program to teach Spanish to English-only-speaking elementary school students in an increasingly diverse school district. After graduating from Gustavus in May 2007, she spent the following year working at Holden Village, a remote retreat center and community in North Cascades, organizing for the Obama campaign in Iowa and apprenticing at Easy Bean Farm, an organic CSA in western Minnesota.  At PAN Megan works with the SafeAg team. Megan speaks Spanish.

Medha Chandra
Campaign Coordinator
medha@panna.org
Ph.D., Environment and Social Justice, University College London

Medha had eleven years experience in urban design, environmental protection, international development and social justice work in India, the UK, and as a volunteer in the U.S. when she joined PANNA as a full-time volunteer in September 2005. Medha has written for academic journals as well as NGO publications, and at PANNA she has done research for the UN’s International Agriculture Assessment and lindane campaign and edited our magazine. In October 2007, Medha became a regular PANNA staff member, serving as coordinator of the Organochlorines Campaign and PAN International’s Working Group on Pesticides and Corporations. Medha is trilingual in Bengali, English and Hindi.

Kathryn Gilje
Executive Director
kathryn@panna.org
B.S., Environmental Science, University of Minnesota College of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences

Kathryn joined PAN in 2005, bringing ten years of organizing, fundraising, program planning and organizational development experience with food, agriculture and social justice organizations. Prior to being named executive director, Kathryn was PAN’s campaigns director. Before coming to PAN, Kathryn co-founded and co-directed Centro Campesino, a membership organization of migrant agricultural workers, rural Latino/as and allies in southern Minnesota. She was senior associate with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, where her work focused on marketing sustainable agriculture and reforming U.S. farm policy. She spent several years on small farms in Minnesota, raising chickens, milking goats and coordinating local foods projects. Her community organizing training comes from the Organizing Apprenticeship Project, Center for Third World Organizing and Farm Labor Organizing Committee. Her non-profit management training was provided through Hispanics in Philanthropy at the Kellogg School of Management. Kathryn speaks Spanish.

Brian Hill
Director, Science Department
bhill@panna.org
Ph.D., Theoretical Physics, Harvard University

Before joining PANNA as a staff scientist in September 2004, Brian was working in the Energy Analysis Department of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory. Prior to that he did software engineering, including working at NeXT and Apple on the development of Mac OS X. His doctoral and post-doctoral research included Monte Carlo calculations to calculate the properties of particles known as "heavy mesons." At PANNA Brian has done software development for the PesticideInfo website, statistical analyses, and environmental modeling. In February 2007, he became director of the Science Department which is home to PANNA's physical scientists, including its two chemists: Susan Kegley and Karl Tupper. He also leads the Drift Team's work which integrates environmental monitoring, engagement with multiple regulatory processes and campaigning to protect people from exposure to airborne pesticides, including the highly hazardous class of fumigant pesticides.

Marcia Ishii-Eiteman
Senior Scientist and Coordinator, Just Transitions Program
mie@panna.org
Ph.D., Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell

Before joining PANNA in 1996, Marcia worked in Asia and Africa for much of the previous 15 years. She facilitated government-farmer-NGO collaborations on sustainable agriculture in Southeast Asia, and developed a farmer-based pest management education project in Thailand. Previously she worked on agricultural projects in Somali refugee camps and on women's health and literacy projects with Khmer refugees. Her doctoral research focused on Thai farmers' rice cultivation practices and biological control of rice insect pests. At PANNA, Marcia has directed our World Bank Accountability program and is currently Coordinator of our Just Transitions Program and a lead author with the UN's International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology in Development. She speaks Thai and French.

Susan Kegley
Senior Scientist
skegley@panna.org
Ph.D., Organic and Inorganic Chemistry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Postdoctoral in Organometallic Chemistry, Colorado State University and University of California, Berkeley

Before joining PANNA in 1998, Susan taught at Middlebury and Williams Colleges, where she began doing environmental research on PCB-contaminated soils. She came to UC Berkeley in 1992 and developed an Environmental Chemistry course focused on methods to evaluate environmental contamination, including pesticides and heavy metals. Susan directed PANNA's Science Department from 2002 to 2007, during which time she oversaw development of the PAN Pesticide Database, www.pesticideinfo.org; our program of technical engagement with pesticide regulatory agencies; and our environmental monitoring program, for which she developed PAN's Drift Catcher air monitoring device. Her current work focuses on the science and policy related to airborne pesticides.

Gunther Korshak
Membership Coordinator
gunther@panna.org
B.S., Natural Resources, University of Vermont; Master of Nonprofit Management, Regis University

Gunther did marketing for Seventh Generation, U.S. leader in nontoxic household products, before moving into environmental and computer skills education with low income, at-risk youth in Denver. He interned with Colorado Environmental Council and served as trainings coordinator for the Continental Divide Trail Alliance before joining PANNA as Membership Coordinator in September 2006.Gunther collaborates with the Campaigns and Communications Departments on member relationships, activism and network building.

Monica Moore
Founding Director and Advisor to the Executive Director
mhm@panna.org
M.S., Environmental Science Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley

Monica has been engaged with pesticide issues since 1980, including working with NGO coalitions in Brazil, staffing the Food First Pesticide Project, organizing the PAN international founding conference in Malaysia in 1982, and co-founding PAN North America in 1984. She served as executive director until 1991 and then as co-director through 2006, overseeing all PANNA programs. During a leadership transition in 2007, she served as PAN North America Regional Coordinator within PAN International, and continues as advisor to PAN North America's executive director. She also serves as an advisor and/or board member to many local, national and international organizations, is active in international consultations on sustainable agriculture, preservation of biodiversity and genetic resources. Monica speaks Danish, German and Spanish.

Margaret Reeves
Senior Scientist and Coordinator, Organophosphates Campaign
mreeves@panna.org
Ph.D., Agricultural Ecology, University of Michigan; Postdoctoral in Agronomy, Ohio State

Before joining PANNA in 1996, Margaret spent most of nine years in Central America, teaching and conducting research in tropical agricultural ecology. She worked with university colleagues and NGOs to improve productivity of low-input ecologically sound agricultural methods. Margaret has published her work in Spanish and English in professional and educational journals as well as popular venues. Since the early 1980s, she has worked in support of farm worker rights and has been a member of New World Agriculture and Ecology Group. At PANNA, Margaret focuses on environmental health and justice, particularly farmworker health and safety, and she heads the organophosphates campaign. Margaret speaks Spanish.

Erika Rosenthal
Consulting Attorney
erika@panna.org
J.D., New College School of Law; M.A., Environmental Law and Policy, Vermont Law School

Erika has over 18 years experience in environmental law, and coordinated Nicaraguan and Mexican field investigations for the landmark DBCP products liability case litigated in Texas. She was PANNA's Latin America Program Coordinator in 1993-96, and has been an active consultant on environmental policy and sustainable agriculture in Central America, Eastern Europe and Russia, working with Earth Island Institute, EarthJustice and PAN, among others. She currently works at the Center for International Environmental Law in Washington, DC. Erika speaks Spanish.

Kristin Schafer
Director, Campaigns Department
kristins@panna.org
M.A., Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Before joining PANNA in 1996, Kristin worked for the World Resources Institute's Sustainable Agriculture program, as a communications specialist for the U.S. EPA, and as an agro-forestry extension officer with the Peace Corps in Kenya. Prior to heading PANNA's Campaigns Department, she coordinated the Organochlorines Campaign and before that the international persistent organic pollutants (POPs) campaign under the Stockholm Convention. She was also Co-Coordinator of our successful methyl bromide campaign under the Montreal Protocol. Kristin has been lead author on several PANNA reports, including Chemical Trespass: Pesticides in our Bodies and Corporate Accountability (2004) and Nowhere to Hide: Persistent Toxic Chemicals in the U.S. Food Supply (2005). She also authored several studies on methyl bromide, including a pamphlet in Spanish for farm workers on methyl bromide hazards, and two reports for the U.N. Environment Programme designed to help developing nations phase out this hazardous fumigant. Kristin speaks Spanish.

Stephen Scholl-Buckwald
Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer
steveatpan@panna.org
Ph.D., History and American Studies, Indiana

From 1969 to 1985, Steve taught and served as a dean at colleges in Ohio and California. From 1985 to 1991, he and his partner owned and operated a restaurant in Davis, California, and he worked in restaurants and organic foods retailing in the Bay Area. He served as co-director of PANNA from 1991 through 2006. Today, Steve is responsible for administration, finance and communications, and serves on the executive committee for Californians for Pesticide Reform, of which PANNA is the primary fiscal sponsor. He has also served as treasurer on the boards of the Institute for Food and Development Policy (Food First) and Earth Share of California.

Gar Smith
Editor and Staff Writer
gar@panna.org
BA, English, University of California, Berkeley

Gar is a peace activist, journalist and media provocateur whose investigative articles have appeared in newspapers, magazines and on Websites around the world. He founded the first environmental group on the UC Berkeley campus, co-organized Berkeley’s first Farmers’ Market, and worked with David Ross Brower at Friends of the Earth and Earth Island Institute. At FOE he scripted the award-winning PBS documentary, “Cry of the Condor.” He edited Earth Island Journal for 16 years, winning nearly a dozen Project Censored Awards, and, as editor emeritus, he continues to host The-Edge.org. He is Web editor of Environ­mentalists Against War, an international organization he co-founded in 2003.

Leticia Tirrez
Office Manager
leticia@panna.org
Leticia was born, raised and graduated from high school in Mexico, moving to San Francisco in 1973. Her previous work experience includes nursing and manufacturing. Before coming to PANNA as receptionist in June 2002, she completed a computer and office skills training program, and she has been Office Manager since 2004. Leticia is bilingual in Spanish and English.

Karl Tupper
Staff Scientist and Coordinator, Environmental Monitoring Program
karl@panna.org
M.S., Inorganic Chemistry, University of California, Berkeley

Karl joined PANNA in 2006 to support the Drift Catcher program, training community groups to collect air samples and analyzing these samples for pesticides by gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. He comes to PANNA after holding analytical jobs at Pfizer Inc and Abbott Laboratories and conducting research on the organometallic chemistry of scandium at UC Berkeley. Immediately prior to joining PANNA, Karl worked for Sun Light & Power installing roof-top solar electric arrays and making biodiesel out of waste vegetable oil collected from local restaurants. He has also worked with Redefining Progress advancing the science of Ecological Footprint Analysis.

Chela Vazquez
Campaign Coordinator
chela@panna.org
Ph.D., Environmental Science, Ohio State

Chela coordinates PANNA's Phase Out Fumigants! campaign and our work to ban all domestic uses of lindane. Before coming to PANNA, Chela most recently worked as a community organizer and development coordinator with Centro Campesino, a farmworker organization in Minnesota focused on labor justice, youth leadership, health promotion and immigration reform. She has done international campaigning as a Senior Policy Analyst at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and received campaigning and media training through the Organizing Apprenticeship Project, Center for Third World Organizing, Institute for Justice, Farm Labor Organizing Committee, and Progressive Technology Project. She serves on the boards of the Minnesota Water Alliance and the Women's Environmental Institute, and on the environmental justice grantmaking committee of the Headwaters Foundation for Justice. Chela is from Ecuador and bilingual in English/Spanish.

Brenda J. Willoughby
Bookkeeper, Systems Administrator and Desktop Publisher
bjwill@panna.org
B.A., Biology and Spanish, Manchester College

From 1990 to 1993, Brenda volunteered full-time with Brethren Volunteer Service, working two years with the Church of the Brethren Latin American/Caribbean Office in Elgin, Illinois, then with PANNA, assisting with Regional Coordination and doing research for the PAN international Dirty Dozen Pesticides campaign. She was hired as office manager and bookkeeper in April 1993. Today, Brenda maintains our management information and contacts database system, provides desktop publishing and design services for PANNA and Californians for Pesticide Reform, and remains our bookkeeper. Brenda speaks Spanish.