Alison M. Jones has photographed for over 20 years in Africa, mostly for conservation and development programs. As she copiloted over thousands of miles of Africa’s rivers and lakeshores, she saw them as ribbons of life, and became immersed in studying global issues of water. She founded No Water No Life, LLC, as a nonprofit project using the power of photography to help disseminate scientists and conservationists’ warnings of watershed degradation and to publicize successful stewardship programs. Her images are found in magazines, television, books, workshops, lectures, and exhibits. Granted an honorary Masters Degree in Photography from Brooks Institute, she is a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photography, on the Board of North American Nature Photography Association and member of ASMP, the Explorers Club and TechnoServe (a development NGO). She is a founding supporter of Kenya’s Mara Conservancy and currently enrolled at Columbia University’s Center for Environmental Research and Conservation. Her web site is alisonjonesphoto.com.

Robin MacEwan is a restoration ecologist who specializes in wetland, riparian and upland environmental restoration and mitigation. Robin’s background includes development of environmental resource assessments and management plans, restoration and mitigation site design, wetland delineation, nonnative invasive species management, and mitigation site maintenance and monitoring. Robin has an M.S. in Resource Management from Antioch University New England and an M.A. in Landscape Design from the Conway School of Landscape Design.

After a childhood spent combing the beaches and woods of Massachusetts, Erin was inspired by a truly remarkable high school biology teacher to enter the life sciences. She graduated from Boston University in 2001 with a BA in Biology and initially pursued a career in molecular and cellular biology. However, after two internships with the Student Conservation Association involving Pacific salmon research in Sitka, AK and Eugene, OR, Erin found her true calling in ecology and conservation biology. She recently completed her Masters degree in Conservation Biology at Columbia’s Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology. She now works at the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation at the American Museum of Natural History. Erin is very excited to continue her work as a research consultant for No Water No Life.

Lynn Hamlen, Project Educational Outreach Coordinator

Lynn Hamlen is currently serving her 14th year as Executive Director of the Darien Nature Center, which, under her leadership, designed and opened a new state-of-the-art environmental education center in 2002. Prior to the Nature Center, Lynn served as Chairman of the Darien Board of Education from 1988–1993. While living in New York City in the early 1980s, she worked as a Promotion Writer for Newsweek Magazine and the Direct Mail Advertising Association. Lynn’s understanding of how to package and promote No Water No Life to nature centers, land trusts, schools and environmental groups around the country, will be a most valuable asset to the project.

Laurel Dodge, Project Curriculum Writer

Laurel Dodge has a Master’s Degree in Environmental Studies and has been an environmental educator, artist, and naturalist for fifteen years. She has written curriculum for the Darien Nature Center in Darien, CT, and Prospect Park Wildlife Center in Brooklyn, NY. She runs Nature Strollers nature study workshops for the Orange County Audubon Society in New York, and is currently writing a book entitled Nature Study for the Whole Family.

“Painting and drawing had always been a part of my life growing up in Wisconsin. Four years of study in Illustration and Advertising at Art Center College of Design for a Bachelor of Arts led to work at McCann Erickson-Hakuhodo and the Koedi Studio in Japan. Back in Santa Barbara I have designed 30 large format landscape photography books for David Muench Photography Inc. Photography became a large part of my life with photo trips to mountains, deserts, forests and oceans. Travels to the Antarctic, Africa, Asia and India have deepened my knowledge of our planet’s limited resources. I focus my work on communicating the interconnected landscape of earth, air and water.” Her web site is www.bonniemuench.com

Jane Baldwin is a fine art photographer, working exclusively with black and white film. Her work has appeared in individual and group shows, most recently the Center for Photographic Arts (Carmel CA). Jane was on Alison’s 2004 “Over the Waters of Africa” expedition flying over waterways of 9 sub-Sahara countries and her 2005 “Waters of Ethiopia and Kenya” safari to water sources of Ethiopia and deserts of Kenya. Originally from Seattle, Jane’s connection to the natural world from an early age reflects itself in her life and work. She began traveling to Africa in the early 1990s, forming an immediate attachment to its land, people and environment. The natural world, taken for granted as a child, became a preoccupation. In Africa the elaborate interdependence of environment, people, water, and dams seems more obvious than in developed cultures, which serves as a reminder to those in developed continents to care for these fragile elements. Jane serves on the Board of Directors of PhotoAlliance in San Francisco, where she has lived since 1994. When not photographing in Africa, she spends time in Sonoma County CA raising olives and producing olive oil using sustainable and organic horticultural practices.

Jennifer Weinberg
Contributing Photographer

Jennifer Weinberg received her B.A. from Brooks Institute of Photography in 2001 while also interning with Alison Jones. Following a second internship in Seattle with Art Wolfe and developing her portfolio of western landscapes and flora, Jennifer returned to New Orleans in 2004 to focus on photography and be near family. After Hurricane Katrina and the devastating effects to her home and hometown, Jennifer moved with her new husband to North Carolina. Jennifer specializes in portraiture and nature photography. She is a member of the North American Nature Photography Association and was awarded the Russ Kinne Grant in 2004. Jennifer’s work has been exhibited in New York, Washington DC, Seattle, New Orleans, and Raleigh NC, and is published in magazines and nature journals. Currently, Jennifer owns a portrait studio in Cary, NC, and teaches digital photography and nature workshops at Duke University and North Carolina State University.

Fritha Pengelly received her M.F.A. in dance from the University of Washington and her B.A. in dance from Hampshire College. Fritha spent seven years (1994–2001) performing and teaching nationally and internationally as a member of the New York City-based Doug Elkins Dance Company. In addition to her work with the Elkins Company, Fritha has performed with The Chamber Dance Company, David Neumann, and Wire Monkey Dance. Her own work has been shown at several venues in New York City, The Five Colleges in Massachusetts, Darien Arts Center (CT), Seattle, and at the Inside/Out Series at Jacob’s Pillow. She is the Artistic Director of Pengelly:Projects, which presented its first full evening of work in Northampton, Massachusetts in July 2004. Her current artistic focus is exploring issues related to earth, environmental ethics, and our modern predicament through dance and video. Fritha was a visiting assistant professor of dance at Hampshire College from 2002-2004. She is also a certified Pilates Instructor and is currently a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Anne L Doubilet, Project Photographer

Anne L. Doubilet is an underwater explorer, writer and photographer recently named to the Women Diver's Hall of Fame (www.wdhof.org). She has logged over 5000 dives worldwide in areas including the Red Sea, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Japan, Galapagos, Australia, and throughout the Caribbean, teaming up with National Geographic Magazine on over 30 stories about the sea. She serves as Board Member of Wings Worldquest (www.wingsworldquest.org), an organization that awards grants to extraordinary women explorers for support of their fieldwork. In March of 2007 she was elected to the Board of Directors of the Explorers Club (www.explorers.org), an international group with a hundred year legacy of the who's who in exploration. Author and contributing photographer of the children's book, Under the Sea from A to Z, her work has also appeared in the Explorers Journal and various National Geographic Society publications. In May 2007, Anne will carry flags from both Wings Worldquest and the Explorers Club on a diving expedition to Papua New Guinea to study the poisonous catfish, Plotosus lineatus. Ms. Doubilet is the founder of ALD Consulting in Manhattan specializing in book editing, photo exhibits and video-media projects.

Robin Sears, Ph.D., Project Science Advisor

Robin R. Sears is a forest ecologist and dean at the School for Field Studies, an environmental field study abroad program based in Salem, Massachusetts. She has fifteen years’ experience working with smallholder farmers in tropical rainforest countries on issues related to agriculture and forestry production, development, and biodiversity conservation. Her research is on ecological and land use dynamics at the aquatic-terrestrial interface in seasonally flooded environments along the Amazon River and its major tributaries. Having climbed four glacial peaks in the Andes and Mexico, kayaked on the coasts of Canada and the US, and hiked along and fished in innumerable mountain streams around the world, Robin appreciates the critical and complex nature of freshwater services.

Thomas Stoneback, Ph.D.

As a scientist, publisher and entrepreneur, Tom Stoneback was Chief Environmental Officer for Rodale, Inc., for 25 years. A national environmental leader, Dr. Stoneback focuses on economics, the environment and its sustainability. Dr. Stoneback is a communications industry leader and a direct/interactive marketing expert who has established seven successful non-profit organizations focused on community impact, civic health, and quality of life.

Milbry Polk

“Exploration has informed most of what I have done in my life. I am a Fellow of The Explorers Club and of the Royal Geographic Society and honorary Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. I have authored/edited 10 books, including Egyptian Mummies. With Mary Tiegreen, I co-authored Women of Discovery on the accomplishments of women explorers over the past two thousand years; and with Angela Schuster I co-edited The Looting Of The Iraqi Museum. I founded the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History, co-founded the Film Festival of the Museum of the American Indian and judged numerous festivals. I have traveled extensively, led expeditions, lectured worldwide and created educational programs. Currently, I am a contributing editor for The Explorers Journal and executive director of Wings WorldQuest, a nonprofit I founded to celebrate women explorers and promote scientific exploration and education. Having offered $250,000 in grants, Wings has 29 Fellows, a Flag Program, and soon a website on women’s contributions to the world through exploration. I am married, have 3 daughters and live on the Hudson River where I try to row as often as possible.”

Laly Lichtenfeld, PhD

Dr. Laly Lichtenfeld is the executive director and co-founder of the People & Predators Fund, an international non-profit based in Tanzania and New Jersey. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies for her unique work describing human-lion relationships and conflict in Tanzania. Laly lives in northern Tanzania in the village of Loibor Siret on the boundary of Tarangire National Park with her partner and PPF co-founder, Charles Trout.

She has worked extensively with the Maasai and Hadzabe to reduce human-wildlife conflict and is an African lion specialist. Last year, PPF made history when it was the first non-profit in Tanzania to be donated village land for a field center. A passionate conservationist, Laly spends every possible moment working in the bush in the Tarangire and Selous-Niassa ecosystems. She has been featured in a program aired on Discovery Channel Canada, is a recipient of the Fulbright Award, and is currently working on writing her first book. Laly feels fortunate to be living her life’s dream every day that she wakes up.

Cristina Mittermeier

Cristina Mittermeier is a Mexican marine biologist, conservationist and photographer. As a photographer and writer since 1996, Cristina has co-edited 8 books, including a series published with Conservation International and Cemex. Megadiversity: Earth’s Wealthiest Countries for Biodiversity (1996), Hotspots: Earth’s biologically richest and most endangered ecoregions (1998), Wilderness Areas: Earth’s Last Wild Places (2002), Wildlife Spectacles (2003), Hotspots Revisited (2005), and Transboundary Conservation: A New Vision for Protected Areas (2005), and Pantanal: South America’s Wetland Jewel (2005) are all part of that series. Her latest book project, The Human Footprint was produced with the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York in conjunction with her own organization, the ILCP. Cristina serves on the Advisory Board of Nature’s Best Magazine, is a Board Member of the WILD Foundation and a member of Conservation International’s Chairman’s Council. She is also the Executive Director of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP), a prestigious consortium of some of the best photographers in the world.

Alison M. Jones, Project Director   ·   330 East 79th Street   ·   New York, NY 10075 USA
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