Staff

Ray Simmons is the president and a founding director of the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability (FESS). Mr. Simmons is a noted environmental scientist, and prior to FESS, worked extensively in both the public and private sector in the field of environmental security, including assignments as an oceanography officer in the United States Navy, where he served in a number of scientific, operational, and policy tours, including Executive Assistant to the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Director of the multi-agency United States National Ice Center; U.S. Department of Defense lead to the Environmental Working Group of the U.S.-Russia Gore/Chernomyrdin Commission; and as a Brookings Institute Fellow in the Office of the Majority Leader of the United States Senate. Mr. Simmons has directed and participated in a number of international studies, consulted widely for the U.S. government on policy and implementation issues, and authored a number of papers and lectured widely on the subject of environmental and natural resources security. He holds an undergraduate degree in oceanography/physics from the U.S. Naval Academy and a Master's of Science degree in physical oceanography from the Florida State University.

Darci Glass-Royal is a founding director, chairman of the board, and executive director of FESS. She is a recognized expert in national security and policy concerns in vulnerable states and holds degrees in both economics and public policy. Prior to FESS, Mrs. Glass-Royal served as an independent advisor to senior U.S. government policymakers on issues of evolving environmental and natural resource threats to regional stability. Mrs. Glass-Royal has extensive experience in Africa and Asia and has developed a number of critical resource and conflict mitigation programs for multilateral, government, and corporate institutions. Through strong outreach to interdisciplinary experts within the private sector, academia, and nongovernmental organizations, Mrs. Glass-Royal has developed innovative environmental security programs for policymakers around the world, as well as authored numerous reports on the strategic implications of environmental and natural resource management in specific countries and regions.

Jeffrey Stark is director of research and studies at FESS. From 1996 to 2003, he was the director of research and studies at the North-South Center of the University of Miami, where he also was editor of the North-South Agenda Papers. At FESS, he has led environmental security assessments in the Dominican Republic, Uganda, and the Philippines as well as project activities in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia. He is co-editor of Fault Lines of Democracy in Post-Transition Latin America (North-South Center Press 1998), winner of the Choice outstanding academic book award, and editor of The Challenge of Change in Latin America and the Caribbean (North-South Center Press 2001). Recently, he has written on security, democratic governance, and problems of environmental security in Latin America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Since 2007, Mr. Stark has been a visiting professor at the United Nations University for Peace in Costa Rica. He previously taught political science at St. Thomas University in Miami and served as a program officer in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Information Agency in New York City.

Mersie Ejigu is a senior fellow at FESS and president, founder, and chief executive officer of Partnership for African Environmental Sustainability (PAES). Mr. Ejigu has served as Assistant Director General for Programmes and Policy of IUCN - The World Conservation Union based in Gland, Switzerland. In his home country, Ethiopia, Mr. Ejigu served as Minister of Development Planning as well as Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources. He has served as consultant to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the UN Development Programme (UNDP), UNICEF, the World Bank, IMF, the African Development Bank, USAID and DFID on sustainable development strategies, natural resource assessment, program formulation and evaluation. Trained in macroeconomics and agricultural economics, Mr. Ejigu has researched and written widely on sustainable development and environmental security issues.

Katsuaki L. Terasawa, PhD is a senior fellow who has worked on key projects with FESS since 2000. He has been involved in environmental security analysis for the Philippines, the Mekong River Basin countries, and Ethiopia. He served as the Associate Director for The Croft Institute for International Studies (1999-2005) at the University of Mississippi, where he taught global economic issues, international trade, and microeconomics for both undergraduates and graduate students. His research interests focus on mechanism design in an asymmetric information environment. In the past, he worked on East Asian security and economies, renewable energy, environmental security, and defense procurement issues. He taught economics at the California Institute of Technology, UCLA, Monterey Institute for International Studies (MIIS), the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, and the University of Mississippi. Outside the academic realm, he served as a senior economist and a chair of the Economics Group at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (renewable energy system project), a senior staff member at the Caltech Environmental Quality Lab (LA basin air pollution abatement project), and a senior economist at the RAND Corporation (government procurement project, energy issues, and U.S./Japan Relations Center). He has served as an economic consultant to various U.S. government agencies, including the Energy Information Agency, Department of the Navy, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and the State Department. Dr. Terasawa was born in Nagano, Japan and raised in Tokyo where he attended Keio University.

Christine Mataya is a senior research associate at FESS with fourteen years of experience in the field of international development. Prior to joining FESS, Ms. Mataya held program management positions with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs focused on democratization in Eastern Europe and provided research and program development support to the Institute's legislative development projects in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Eurasia. She also oversaw the American Bar Association's Section of International Law and Practice's efforts to conduct rule of law programs with volunteer members. Her experience includes program development and management, proposal development, and evaluation. She has helped develop civil society groups, improve the practices of nascent legislatures, monitor elections, and worked and lived in post-conflict countries. With FESS, Ms. Mataya served as chief researcher for the first pilot study of its Environmental Security Assessment Framework (ESAF) in Nepal and has participated in ESAF studies in Uganda, the Dominican Republic, and Ethiopia. Ms. Mataya holds a BA in international relations from American University in Washington, D.C. and a MA in public policy from George Mason University, with an emphasis on governance, environmental security, and conflict literatures.

Ellen Suthers, PhD is a senior research associate with FESS whose training in socio-cultural and applied anthropology includes several years of field research and international development in West, East, and North Africa. As FESS program coordinator for Sierra Leone since 2005, she is responsible for program development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and outreach for a community-based project to reclaim mined-out land and increase livelihood and food security in artisanal diamond mining areas. She has led a FESS field study of the gold mining sector in Sierra Leone and participated in an ESAF study in Uganda. Dr. Suthers has a number of years of experience in proposal development. Prior to joining FESS, Dr. Suthers taught anthropology and African and Middle Eastern studies at The George Washington University, Washington, D.C. and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She served in the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Institute as coordinator of officer training for Africa and in the Department of Academic Studies, National Museum of African Art-Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Dr. Suthers has published for UNICEF and in scholarly journals. A Fulbright scholar, she holds a PhD and a MA in anthropology from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Kelley N. Lubovich is a research associate with FESS. She holds an MA in Crime, Human Rights, and the International Community from the University of Westminster in London and a bachelors degree in Global Studies with an emphasis in political science and economics, from the University of Minnesota. With FESS, Ms. Lubovich focuses on water issues. She is the author of a Working Paper on transboundary water issues in the Lake Victoria region and an Issue Brief on water insecurity in Peru. She also contributes to the Lake Tana (Ethiopia) ESAF and co-authored an Issue Brief on land reclamation in Sierra Leone. Prior to joining FESS, Ms. Lubovich was the editor of Industrial Wastewater and Utility Executive for the Water Environment Federation. She has also worked as a contractor for the Department of Defense as an analyst and writer.

Daniel Gbondo is the FESS field representative in Sierra Leone. Prior to FESS, Mr. Gbondo served as resident senior program officer for the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute (NDI), working on programs related to reform of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces, local government elections, parliamentary strengthening, and civic education. Mr. Gbondo also held the position of national network coordinator for the Network on Collaborative Peacebuilding in Sierra Leone (NCP-SL), a non-governmental organization, where he coordinated activities of over thirty civil society organizations. Mr. Gbondo worked closely with former fighters, government officials, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), and members of the diplomatic community in Freetown. Mr. Gbondo holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone and a MA degree in International Peace Studies from the UN University for Peace, San Jose, Costa Rica.

Aaron Hall is a research assistant with FESS. For over seven years he has worked in various capacities in the fields of international conflict management, development, and natural resource management. Prior to joining FESS, Mr. Hall worked at the U.S. Institute of Peace as a consultant in the Education and Training Center and held several positions at the U.S. Department of State, most recently as a Desk Officer in the Office of Southern Africa Affairs. He served as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia from 2002-2005, focusing on community-based natural resource management and human/wildlife conflict. Mr. Hall holds a BA in Political Science and Cultural Geography from the University of Montana and an MA in International Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution from the American University in Washington, D.C.