In the field
Janis Steele, PhD,
Island Reach embodies Janis' deep commitment to exploring connections between people and their natural environments. She holds a BA in Human Ecology, and a MA & PhD in Cultural Anthropology. Her interests over the years have included the politics of representation in film and storytelling, knowledge brokering and Third Space engagements, critical theory, agroecology, and women's issues. She has sailed three oceans as a conservation activist, worked as a documentary filmmaker/producer and an adjunct college professor, created and run an artisanal forest farm, and co-founded Island Reach to engage crises of collapsing biocultural diversity and climate disruption.
Island Reach embodies Janis' deep commitment to exploring connections between people and their natural environments. She holds a BA in Human Ecology, and a MA & PhD in Cultural Anthropology. Her interests over the years have included the politics of representation in film and storytelling, knowledge brokering and Third Space engagements, critical theory, agroecology, and women's issues. She has sailed three oceans as a conservation activist, worked as a documentary filmmaker/producer and an adjunct college professor, created and run an artisanal forest farm, and co-founded Island Reach to engage crises of collapsing biocultural diversity and climate disruption.
Brooks McCutchen, PhD,
Brook was raised working on artisanal farms in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. He later earned a BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic -- and first SCUBA dived in cold Maine winters harvesting scallops. He holds an MA & PhD in Clinical Psychology, with a focus on cross-cultural and community practice. With Janis and family he built the agroecology project Berkshire Sweet Gold Maple Farm which was their primary income for 25 years. In launching Island Reach, Brooks became a blue-water captain and navigated the steel ketch Research Vessel Llyr as a service vessel in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific to then base in Melanesia. His activism over time has increased, responding to accelerating climate crises and global collapse of biocultural diversity.
Brook was raised working on artisanal farms in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. He later earned a BA in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic -- and first SCUBA dived in cold Maine winters harvesting scallops. He holds an MA & PhD in Clinical Psychology, with a focus on cross-cultural and community practice. With Janis and family he built the agroecology project Berkshire Sweet Gold Maple Farm which was their primary income for 25 years. In launching Island Reach, Brooks became a blue-water captain and navigated the steel ketch Research Vessel Llyr as a service vessel in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific to then base in Melanesia. His activism over time has increased, responding to accelerating climate crises and global collapse of biocultural diversity.
Board of directors
Island Reach is actively growing our board of directors! If you might be interested in coming aboard, please reach out to speak with us!
Janis Steele, PhD, Co-founder of Island Reach. Read above
Ingrid Shockey, PhD, Associate Teaching Professor in Interdisciplinary and Global Studies
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Ingrid is an environmental sociologist whose work concerns natural literacy and the interplay of human-wilderness relationships. These domains include topics in biodiversity loss, climate change perceptions, and our sense of place and identity with respect to the landscape. Her work has focused most recently on mountain ecologies and economies in the western Himalaya.
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Ingrid is an environmental sociologist whose work concerns natural literacy and the interplay of human-wilderness relationships. These domains include topics in biodiversity loss, climate change perceptions, and our sense of place and identity with respect to the landscape. Her work has focused most recently on mountain ecologies and economies in the western Himalaya.
Noy Holland, Writer and Professor, MFA Program, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Noy is passionate about exploring polyphony and imagination in responding to the climate crisis. She considers, how we might "as poets, scientists, fishermen, farmers -- put our shoulder to the same wheel." An accomplished writer, Noy is the recipient of the 2018 Katherine Anne Porter Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her short story “Tally” was included in Best American Short Stories, and read by Suzzy Roche at Symphony Space in New York City. Her books include I Was Trying to Describe What It Feels Like, New and Selected Stories; the novel Bird; and three collections of short fiction and novellas-- Swim for the Little One First, What Begins with Bird, and The Spectacle of the Body.
Noy is passionate about exploring polyphony and imagination in responding to the climate crisis. She considers, how we might "as poets, scientists, fishermen, farmers -- put our shoulder to the same wheel." An accomplished writer, Noy is the recipient of the 2018 Katherine Anne Porter Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her short story “Tally” was included in Best American Short Stories, and read by Suzzy Roche at Symphony Space in New York City. Her books include I Was Trying to Describe What It Feels Like, New and Selected Stories; the novel Bird; and three collections of short fiction and novellas-- Swim for the Little One First, What Begins with Bird, and The Spectacle of the Body.
Connor Steele-McCutchen, MS in Public Heath, Gorta Group
Connor is the Global Advisor for Community-based Collaborative Programming with the Ireland-based Gorta Group. In the early years of Island Reach, Connor helped hone the organization's ridge to reef activities in Vanuatu, working closely with communities on building local resilience and advancing IR's messaging through his passion for documentary storytelling. His experience and commitments led him to pursue a BA and MA in International Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He now works in South Asia and Africa.
Connor is the Global Advisor for Community-based Collaborative Programming with the Ireland-based Gorta Group. In the early years of Island Reach, Connor helped hone the organization's ridge to reef activities in Vanuatu, working closely with communities on building local resilience and advancing IR's messaging through his passion for documentary storytelling. His experience and commitments led him to pursue a BA and MA in International Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He now works in South Asia and Africa.
Knowledge Brokers and collaborators
Bangladesh
United Purpose Bangladesh
Team: Sriramappa Gonchikara, Subhagya Mangal Chakma, Shamim Hossain, Sunmoyee Das, Shafiullah Kawsar, Jaber Hassan, Jannat Noor, Sumaiya Noor, Monica Mohapatra
Team: Sriramappa Gonchikara, Subhagya Mangal Chakma, Shamim Hossain, Sunmoyee Das, Shafiullah Kawsar, Jaber Hassan, Jannat Noor, Sumaiya Noor, Monica Mohapatra
Oceania
John Ronneth, Island Reach Program Coordinator 2014-2019
Ronneth is a seasoned conservation activist, having served as an enviromental resource monitor since the inception of the Vanua-tai Network25 years ago. He has also been a member of the Nguna-Pele Marine & Land Protected Area Network for 13 years, and served as network Chairman for four of those years. He has traveled throughout the Pacific region to train on both conservation leadership and coral reef restoration. In 2016, he certified with the Pacific Island Community Co-Management program of the University of the South Pacific. |
Dr. Bartlett has been living and working in the Pacific Islands since 2002, currently as a freelance climate and environmental expert. His extensive work with communities, civil society, private sector and governments in the Pacific have shaped his current action research interests. These include innovative and science-based solutions and strategies for dealing with change in the Pacific, including climate change.
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Donald James, Coordinator, Wan Smolbag Vanua-tai Environmental Resource Monitors Network
Port Vila, Vanuatu As the Program Coordinator for the Vanua-tai Network, Donald has vast knowledge about environmental leadership and issues across Vanuatu and is an expert in marine conservation. |
Willie Kenneth, Secretary, Nguna-Pele Marine and Land Protected Area Network
Worasiviu, Pele Island, Willie worked as a field coordinator for Island Reach for two years before moving on to attend the Australian Pacific Technical College to earn a Qualification in Community Development. Willie later helped IR liaise with the Nguna Pele Marine and Land Protected Area Network and develop a Memorandum of Understanding for collaboration |
Dr. Les Kaufman
Professor of Biology, Boston University Marine Program & Marine Conservation Fellow, Betty and Gordon Moore Center for Science and Oceans, Conservation International Les's research is focused on coral reef recovery, and also in helping to build the cross-disciplinary, CHANS science needed to guide global sustainability and climate change adaptation. Les also writes popular books, magazine articles and television, including multiple stints as either author or subject with NOVA and National Geographic. He was awarded the first marine Pew Fellowship in 1990. |
Dr. Austin Bowden-Kerby, Director of Corals for Conservation
Austin's passion is to address coral reef decline by developing sustainable, community-appropriate enterprises designed to shift the burden away from over-used and depleted fisheries resources. He developed coral gardening methods that are easily adopted by communities, at low expense, and that focus on protecting super corals (highly adaptive corals) that may have a better chance of surviving warming seas. |
Leisavi Joel, Sunae, Moso Island.
Communications Officer, Women's Vanua-tai Network |
Jocelyn Usua, Port Resolution, Tanna
Vanua-tai monitor and Chairwoman of the Tanna Usiusi Environment Network |
Joe Woleg,
Ngerenigmen, Mota Lava Vanua-tai monitor |