Bryony Schwan - Executive Director
Prior to Bryony's involvement with The Biomimicry Institute, she worked for over 11 years as the Executive Director and then as the National Campaigns Director for Women's Voices for the Earth (WVE) a non-profit environmental justice organization that she founded in 1995. WVE works on the links between toxic pollution and women's and children's health. From 2001 to 2004, Bryony co-founded and coordinated Coming Clean, a national alliance of health and environmental groups.

Bryony was born in Zimbabwe and moved to the United States in 1981. She has a BA in Art from the University of Natal in South Africa and an MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. Bryony¹s work has taken her around the world from speaking on chemical policy in Europe to lobbying at the United Nations Treaty Negotiations on Eliminating Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) in South Africa. She has received several awards for her work including an AWR Conservation Award, the Len and Sandy Sargent Award for Environmental Activism and Montana's Jeannette Rankin Peacemaker of the Year Award (2002).

Bryony is also the founder of the Women's Institute for Leadership Development in Women (WILD Women) and the Young Women¹s Outdoor Leadership Project (now called GUTS! Girls Using Their Strengths). Bryony co-produces "In Other Words," a weekly feminist radio show on Montana Public Radio. She has served on the board of many organizations including the Social Justice Fund Northwest, a progressive foundation based in Seattle, and the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment, a national labor and environment alliance. She currently serves on the board of Greenpeace USA and Montana's St. Patrick Hospital Women's Health Advisory Board.

Sam Stier - Director of K-12 & Non-formal Education
Sam has a decade plus of experience working on ecological education, wildlife conservation, and environmental policy. Sam has taught outdoor, inquiry-based ecological education to dozens of classes of young students in the Philippines and United States, as a Peace Corps Volunteer and National Science Foundation Fellow, and has worked with college students as an instructor and campus director of diversity programs. In the Philippines, one of world’s biodiversity hotspots, Sam founded the country’s first natural history educational center, which today supports 140,000 annual visitors.

In addition to environmental education, Sam has experience working on both the scientific and social aspects of wildlife conservation. For four years he worked as a field biologist in the Philippines, studying the dietary habits of the largest bat species in the world using hunter surveys, fecal analysis, and radio telemetry. He also continues to co-manage a community-based wildlife monitoring project in the Philippines, begun in 2002, which collaborates with 31 Filipino non-profit organizations and has trained over 200 local people in wildlife monitoring techniques. Sam’s conservation efforts also include working successfully to persuade large companies to invest in conservation initiatives, including Motorola’s $1.2 million donation of radio communications equipment to underfunded protected areas worldwide, and the Shell Foundation’s $200,000 support of one of the first forest restoration projects in the tropics designed around the specific habitat needs of a threatened species. Other companies he has worked on environmental projects with include British Petroleum, Intel, SC Johnson, and Weyerhaeuser.

Cindy Gilbert - Director of University Education
Cindy was raised on a small farm in southern Ontario where she spent her days wandering in woodlands and playing in creeks. It was from her first 18 years of life on the farm and understanding the true nature of one place that she developed her passion for sustainable living. Since that time Cindy has nurtured her awe for the natural world through a combination of travel, research and education. Cindy completed her MS in wildlife science from Oregon State University and her BSc in biology from the University of Guelph in Ontario. Cindy’s research focused primarily on the impacts of climate change on arctic and antarctic seabirds. Cindy also has extensive teaching experience; she has taught in elementary school classrooms, at the university level, as well as with environmental education programs. Cindy earned her graduate diploma in education from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. Cindy is an avid gardener and all-season bicyclist; she also loves to practice yoga, ski, hot spring, and float rivers.

Denise DeLuca - Outreach Director
Denise is a registered professional engineer in Montana and a LEED AP. Denise received her bachelors in Civil Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she grew up, and her masters in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Montana State University in Bozeman. Denise has over 15 years of experience in both the public and private sectors in projects related to surface and groundwater quantity and quality modeling and analyses, environmental compliance, alternative waste management, and green building strategies. Most recently, Denise has been dba Emergent Solutions, an independent consulting service which focuses on strategies for sustainability. Denise is excited about her most recent project, developing The Biomimicry Resource Handbook, and her new position with The Biomimicry Institute developing outreach materials and programs, particularly targeted at engineers, architects, and designers.

Angela Klinefelter - Financial Executive Assistant
Angela landed in Montana in 1992 after leaving her home state, Pennsylvania, to pursue an education in wildlife biology. After earning her B.S. in 1996, she took a position as a Park Service naturalist in Grand Teton National Park. A year later she was hired as the first program biologist for Wind River Bear Institute, where the majority of her time was spent, literally, in the field of bear management throughout northwest Montana. Angela’s days were divided between utilizing Karelian Bear Dogs and bear shepherding as a bear management tool, trapping, relocating and radio tracking grizzly bears and black bears, educating visitors of public lands on avoiding bear-human conflicts, and working with private landowners to address the same. During the winter while the bears denned, Angela was employed by the institute as bookkeeper and office manager. In addition, she worked as a biological science technician in Grand Teton National Park and as a private contractor for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. During much of that time, Angela has moonlighted as bookkeeper for two Missoula-based non-profit organizations for over five years and most recently worked as an accountant for the largest real estate firm in Montana. When not home gardening with her husband and three cats she is out hiking, biking or enjoying the rivers around Missoula.

Tim Greiser - Portal Technical Lead
Tim Greiser is the technical lead on the Ask Nature portal.  He is a Zend Certified Engineer with over ten years of experience in software development.  He is passionate and opinionated about open systems, iterative development, unit testing and loosely coupled architecture.  He is an active participant in several local technology clubs, including the Missoula Web Discussion Group, Missoula Ruby Users Group and Missoula Linux Users Group.  In his free time he enjoys creating electronic music, travel, hiking, kayaking, hunting and scuba diving.

Chris Allen - Portal Manager
Chris serves as the manager of the Biomimicry Design Portal project. Chris has twenty years experience providing strategy and management services to private sector, public agency, and nonprofit clients.  Specializing in research and analysis, strategic planning, and sustainable development, he hold’s a degree in International Business from the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas.

He has designed, developed, and managed projects fora variety of private sector clients as well as the US Department of Energy, the National Center for Appropriate Technology, the Northwest Area Foundation, and the United Nations Man and Biosphere Program. His international experience includes work and studies in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Mexico. He also serves on the Board of Directors of A World Institute for Sustainable Humanity.

Amy Martin - Children's Album co-producer, songwriter & curriculum developer
Songwriter Amy Martin has been living in Missoula since the fall of 1999. She wrote the songs and co-produced the Institute's new biomimicry-focused album, Ask the Planet, and she is also creating a accompanying curricula for elementary teachers to use in their classrooms. Amy's love of the natural world originates in her childhood on an Iowa farm, and continues to grow through hikes and aimless wanderings through Western Montana's forests and mountain ranges. More about Amy's seven other albums and current projects can be found at amymartin.org.

Jen Hubber - Portal Content & Technical Editor
Jen recently graduated as an Honors College Presidential Leadership Scholar from the University of Montana – Missoula with a degree in Zoological sciences, a minor in Microbiology and a love for every field of science (but not enough money or time to get a degree in all of them).  She grew up in Helena, MT with the coolest big sister ever.  She loved all creatures from the time she was small, and has cared for everything from dogs to butterflies to sea-monkeys.  Jen is a zealous supporter of Locks of Love (www.locksoflove.org ), and has volunteered her time with Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Department of Public Health and Human Services, and the Student Health Advisory Committee.  She is interested in medicine, disease research, and global health, and dreams about working for the World Health Organization.  In her spare time, she enjoys reading biographies, photography, biking, making mini-muffins, and quoting her favorite comedians in everyday conversation.

Emily Harrington - Portal Illustrator
Emily has happily returned to the mountains of Montana where she was born. She brings with her a 6 years of graphic design experience and a recently completed masters certificate in science illustration. Emily received her BA in biology from Colorado College, and an associates degree in graphic design from the Art Institute of Colorado. She spent the next several years as a graphic designer for the Denver Botanic Gardens then moved back to Montana to begin a freelance graphic design business in Bozeman. Her clients included a broad range of non-profit science and educational groups as well as small businesses. From these clients, Emily discovered the need for good, clear and inspiring visual science information. With that in mind, she spent the last year training as a science illustrator with the prestigious program at University of California Santa Cruz Extension. She sees her role as a the middle person between the scientists and the public, conveying the excitement and the information of our discoveries and the hope that nature has solutions. When not puzzling over science, Emily spends her time running with her chocolate lab, biking, hiking and reading.

Jessica Jones - Graphic Designer & Image Wrangler
Jessica, a graphics designer for both the Biomimicry Guild and The Biomimicry Insitute, graduated from the University of Montana in the Spring of 2008. She holds a B.S. in Recreation Management and option in Nature Based Tourism. She also minored in media arts and nonprofit administration. While attending the University of Montana, Jessica was an intern for TBI where she developed and designed a Life's Principles PowerPoint presentation that educates people about how life is sustainable and provides examples of human innovations that have successfully imitated nature's strategies. Currently, Jessica assists in designing Institute promotional materials and is developing and maintaining our image database.

Spending her childhood in the deserts of Phoenix, Arizona, and the prairies of the Black Hills, South Dakota, Jessica is proud of the places she grew up and credits much of her creativity to these open landscapes. The inviting forms, shapes, and colors of these intriguing natural places have inspired her design style and continue to influence her work at both TBI and the Biomimicry Guild. Jessica lives in Helena, MT, because the seasons allow her to participate in activities such as snowboarding, sailing, photography, and nature journaling. She also hopes to make natural history documentary films that focus on the concepts of biomimicry and sustainability.

John English  - IT Specialist
John English assists the Institute with its computer-related needs. John has 15 years experience administering Linux and Windows Web server technologies. His scripting skills include Perl, PHP, ASP,Python, Bash and Rails. He has Web site design experience and is versed in HTML, CSS, MySQL, Apache, and IIS. He also possesses Website marketing and usability skills. His latest obsession is XML/XSL programming and its application toward RSS feeds and Content Management Systems. Currently he is employed by the National Center for Appropriate Technology and serves on the board of the George Grant Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

Norbert Hoeller - Bioinspired! Newsletter Editor
After a varied career at IBM, most recently as an Information Technology Architect and technical project manager in charge of major infrastructure implementations, Norbert Hoeller started an organisational innovation consulting practise in 2005; he is the Principal of the Sustainable Innovation Network.  He has worked with the Biomimicry Guild and The Biomimicry Insitute on a number of initiatives, including coordinating university education activities and improving communications within the biomimicry community. He edits the quarterly BioInspired! Newsletter and maintains various online information sources. 

Norbert has taught courses and workshops on bio-inspired design at the Ontario College of Art and Design, the University of Toronto and the Design Exchange. He is currently leading a team researching how the ‘pattern language’ concept could add depth to the ecosystem principles and help designers incorporate increased sustainability into their work. He is also working with Ryerson University on a pilot project to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of an energy-saving invention with a secondary goal of engaging students in practical sustainability.

John Webb - Portal Management Consultant
John, of John Webb Consulting (http://www.johnwebb.net/), serves as an advisor in the development of the next phase of the Biomimicry Design Portal. The portal is intended as a tool to cross-pollinate biological knowledge across discipline boundaries. It will be a place where designers, architects, and engineers can search biological information, find experts, and collaborate, to find ideas that potentially solve their design/engineering challenges. John also designed the Institute's new website. John has over ten years of experience in Web development, user experience, and project management. He has managed Web sites for several large organizations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and National Center for Appropriate Technology. He has extensive experience with incorporating the latest Web content management solutions, designing and developing usable, accessible Web interfaces, and successfully marketing and promoting Web sites.

Dona Boggs - Development Officer
Dona has been involved in biological research and teaching for 28 years. As a government major at Harvard College she pursued her interests in international relations and economic development before turning to the natural sciences. After obtaining a PhD in Zoology from the University of Montana she was awarded two post doctoral fellowships in Physiology, first at Dartmouth Medical School and then at the University of Colorado School of Health Sciences. She returned to Montana to raise three sons, lots of hay, sheep and cattle, plus a few dogs, while continuing to conduct research in comparative animal physiology and teach at the University of Montana for 13 years as an adjunct and research professor. She moved to a tenure track position in Biology at Eastern Washington University for 11 years until retiring in 2008 to return to Missoula where she is a faculty affiliate in the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of Montana and investigator at the Flight Lab in addition to her development work with The Biomimicry Institute 

Dona was invited to serve as a Program Director and the Cluster Leader for the Physiological and Structural Systems cluster within the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems at the National Science Foundation from 2005-2007.  Her research and teaching in comparative animal physiology and biomechanics  has focused on adaptations of animals to extreme environments and interactions between locomotion and respiration, which took her to England,  Australia and New Zealand for collaborations as well as other parts of the world to participate in numerous symposia.  Her experience with grant writing, grant review and administration, teaching, and biological research combined with a long standing interest in biologically-inspired design, as well as conservation and the need to find new more sustainable approaches to human life on earth, make her a useful member of the TBI’s development team.  When not reading, writing, or working in the lab, Dona enjoys hiking, bicycling, cross-country skiing, woodturning, pine needle basketry, general carpentry, gardening, making music, and playing with her children and grandchildren.

Sean will graduate in the spring of 2008 from the University of Montana with three degrees (a B.A. in cellular and molecular biology, a B.S. in microbiology w/minor in chemistry, and a B.A. in French language and literature).  Sean has worked as an independent researcher in Dr. James Gannon’s environmental and industrial microbiology laboratory for three years (http://dbs.umt.edu/facilities/nyack_observatory/default.htm).  He has recently completed a research fellowship with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-funded MILES program where he was the research leader on a cross-disciplinary team studying a novel metabolic pathway; Sean is now a peer mentor for the MILES program. Sean is the president of the UM Students for Peace and Justice (http://www.peaceandjusticefilms.org/), as well as a board member for the Jeannette Rankin Peace Center (http://www.jrpc.org/).Sean served as the president of Le Cercle Francophone for two years, after having lived in France as an assistant English teacher for nine months. He now volunteers at a French immersion camp in the summers as a French teacher/councilor. Sean is especially interested in the field of molecular biomimetics and its applications to sustainable energy. He has been involved with The Biomimicry Institute and the Biomimicry Guild for the past year. He completed the Biologist at the Design Table training in May 2007, and interned as a teaching assistant for the University of Montana's Biomimicry course, taught by Cindy Gilbert, in the fall of 2007. Sean is currently working as the team leader on a design project through The Biomimicry Institute and Pacific Outdoor Equipment. The design project involves engineering, design and biology students from across the U.S. and Canada who are collaborating remotely to create a biomimetic/sustainable shetler for backpackers.

Lauren Cooper - Intern: Spring 2008
Lauren Cooper holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Colorado School of Mines and is now a graduate student in Building Systems Engineering at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is currently studying how nature-inspired design can inform sustainability in the built environment. Last spring, Lauren taught a course on biomimicry at the Denver School of Science and Technology and will be teaching a biomimicry-based engineering design course at the University of Colorado at Boulder next fall. Lauren also keeps busy doing energy audits for non-profits in the Denver area.