TEAM
Board of Directors
Katharina Breme
Board Director & Vice Chair
Katharina is the Founder of an international consulting firm providing strategic advisory to academic and corporate clients in the United States, Europe and Asia. As the Managing Director she engages as an entrepreneurial consultant, lecturer, investor and board member. Prior to starting her company in 2007 she was a senior executive at Deutsche Post DHL group. Katharina holds a JD and a global corporate degree in leadership and management.
Brett Melone
Board Director & Treasurer
Brett Melone works with farmers in California and Latin America to support their business and natural resource management and leading nonprofit organizations that serve farmers. He currently serves as Director of Lending at California FarmLink, where he oversees a $6M loan portfolio and lending activities to farmers throughout California. Brett has been advisor to Team El Salvador and serves as a board member for MEarth, Feed the Hunger Foundation and the Oak Heights Road & Water Co.
Nathan Weller
Board Director & Secretary
Nathan has 15+ years of experience in rural development and policy in the United States and abroad. At California FarmLink he assists this agricultural Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) in fundraising strategy, program delivery and policy strategy. Nathan worked in El Salvador for 8 years serving over 100 coastal farming and fishing communities. As Program & Policy Director at EcoViva, Nathan was instrumental in establishing policies in El Salvador toward coastal restoration and fisheries management.
Tate Miller, PhD
Board Director
Dr. Miller's professional life spans both the private sector and higher education. In addition to being a successful entrepreneur, he was the founding Dean of the Center of Careers and Academic Advising (CACS) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, after a successful commercial diplomacy career in China where he lived for five years. He holds a bachelor's degree in Economics, a master's in Commercial Diplomacy and a PhD in Educational Leadership.
Adele Negro
Founder, Executive Director & Board Chair
Adele is a conference interpreter, a certified Federal and State of California court interpreter and a State Department translator. She holds a bachelor's degree in French Language and Literature from the University of Michigan and a master's degree in Conference Interpretation from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS), where she directed the immersive learning, graduate-level practicum, Team El Salvador, for ten years. She co-authored the study, Mozambique and Tanzania: Asking the Big Questions (IFDP, San Francisco, 1980) and is the president of the Western Regional Chapter of the national Italian American Studies Association.
Acting Staff
Eric Chávez
Acting Director, Operations & Communications
Eric is a Team El Salvador alumnus (‘15), earning his MPA in International Policy and Development and MA in International Education Management from the Middlebury Institute ('16). As an applied researcher and service designer, his work since has been instrumental in helping ECOPA successfully launch. As one of its founding team members, he ensures everyday activities run smoothly, empowering the organization to facilitate positive community transformations for its partners.
Amy Moore
Acting Director, Strategy & Development
Amy is a Team El Salvador alumna (’09, ‘10), earning her MA in International Environmental Policy from the Monterey Institute of International Studies in 2010 and BS in Business from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio in 1998. Amy brings 15 years of sales, development and cross-cultural experience, working in both the for-profit and non-profit spaces. She has a special place in her heart for El Salvador, sea turtles and connecting with new people and places around the world.
Advisors
Ed Laurance, PhD
UNDP Consultant, Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the Middlebury Institute (MIIS)
Dr. Edward J. Laurance is Professor Emeritus at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS). He spent 10 years as a professional soldier and was a teacher of graduate students in public policy for 46 years: 20 at the Naval Postgraduate School and 26 at MIIS. Ed was a consultant to the United Nations for 26 years, focusing on the impact of armed violence on human rights and development.
Gerald Hildebrand
Founder and Executive Director of the Social Impact Lab, Lynn University
Gerald (Jerry) Hildebrand has an extensive background in public service, international and domestic community development, microfinance and social entrepreneurship. He was a pioneer Peace Corps volunteers in the 1960s and developed the first rural Economic Development Corporation in the U.S. Jerry directed the Center for Social Impact Learning at Middlebury Institute, was the founder of the Global Center for Social Entrepreneurship at the University of the Pacific and today is the founding director of the Social Impact Lab at Lynn University.
Ana Luisa Ahern
Executive Director and Program and Policy Director, EcoViva
Ana Luisa completed her master’s degree in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the UC San Diego, and worked there as a researcher on a collaborative project with the Gulf of California Marine Program monitoring fish spawning activity in Cabo Pulmo National Park, Mexico. She is also a co-founder of the Organization for Youth Empowerment (OYE), a youth leadership initiative in Honduras.
Max Rohm
Landscape Architect and Professor of Architecture, University of Buenos Aires
Max Rohm is an educator, architect and landscape architect. He received his Diploma of Architecture from the University of Buenos Aires and his master's degree in Architecture & Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is a professor at the Universities of Buenos Aires and Torcuato DiTella as well as Visiting Professor at Harvard and the Roger Williams School of Architecture, Art and Preservation. Max co-authored the book ‘Urban Interrelations’ in 2012.
Werner Romero
Acting Ambassador of El Salvador to the United States
Ambassador Romero obtained a law degree from the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas (UCA) and later, as a Fulbright Scholar, earned an MA in International Policy from the Middlebury Institute (MIIS). He went on to serve in El Salvador’s Ministry of Economy and later held a leading role at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Before his current post as Deputy Chief of Mission at the Embassy in D.C., he served as Ambassador to Israel, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Pilar Beccar-Varela
Inquiry Facilitator for Mills Teachers Scholars
Pilar is a National Board Certified Teacher with expertise in literacy development in the elementary grades. She holds a teaching credential from Cal State Hayward, and certification with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards as an Early Childhood Generalist. In 2016, she received her master's degree in Education from Stanford University where she focused on inquiry-based models for teacher professional development and now works with teachers and school leaders through Mills Teacher Scholars.
Trevor Tomkins, PhD
Founder and President of Venture | Dairy
Dr. Tomkins is President & Founder of Venture | Dairy Enterprises LLC, focusing on bringing investment capital, technology and providing operational expertise in milk processing and production to emerging markets. Prior, he was CEO of Milk Specialties Global and Chairman of the Heifer International Foundation. In 2013 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the American Feed Industry Association. Born and educated in the UK, Trevor holds a Ph.D. in Animal Sciences from the University of Reading.
David Hopkins
Director of Business Development, Sustainable Brands | Sustainable Life Media
David is a conscious business consultant, speaker and author. He met Adele at a social impact conference and immediately became a champion of her vision for ECOPA. At that time, David served as Managing Partner and Founder of Creative Expansion, a communications and business development consulting agency, which helped to launch ECOPA as a 501c3. Creative Expansion provides growth consulting for early-stage social entrepreneurs and for-benefit business leaders committed to generating profits with purpose to address systemic social and environmental issues.
We are a 501(c)(3)
EIN: 81-3398239
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