Andrea Schuman, Director, has been involved with child and family policy, health policy, disability issues, and early childhood education as a practitioner, community organizer, state policy maker, researcher, and consultant at the state and national levels for almost thirty years. Formerly with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, she has focused most recently on health and environmental issues affecting Latino families in the US and in Latin America. Her M.S.Ed. in early childhood special education and Ph.D. in social policy provide a strong interdisciplinary base for project development and implementation. Current research and programmatic activities are focused in environmental anthropology; the influence of macroeconomic change on family life; intercultural communication in education and health care settings, and participatory strategies for improving community health.

        Jon Soderberg, Scientific Director, has had nearly forty years of experience in research and project management in the environmental sector. He has held research positions at Harvard Medical School, Research Institute of Environmental Medicine, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, and Orion Research. At Orion Research he was Product Line Manager of varied instrumentation for industrial monitoring of process water and pollutants in effluent discharges, as well as project manager in the development of toxic vapor dosimeters, a water quality monitor for NASA’s Skylab, and a water re-use monitor for military field hospitals. Since 1984, when he was contracted for three years as the Environmental Specialist at the Massachusetts Military Reservation Superfund site, he has consulted on mobile environmental laboratory analysis for the rapid evaluation and assessment of contaminant impact, particularly in reference to drinking water. He also has had a long term interest and activity in marine science, particularly the impact of coastal development upon water supply resources and pollution release into estuaries.