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The 2010 Advisory Board consists of two staff members and four external members who represent a breadth of knowledge and expertise within the academic community. The BEAB is helping The Biomimicry Institute review and refine our newly established Biomimicry Affiliate Program (BAP) and Biomimicry Fellows Program (BFP). For the 2010 term, the BEAB will also help to sculpt the goals and agenda of our annual Biomimicry Education Summit and to improve the visibility of our active Biomimicry Educators' Network.
2010 Board Biographies
 Adelheid Fischer - Manager of InnovationSpace (Arizona State University)
Heidi is program manager of InnovationSpace at Arizona State
University, which is supported by the College of Design, Ira A. Fulton
School of Engineering, and W.P. Carey School of Business. This
transdisciplinary education and research lab teaches students how to
develop products that create market value while serving real societal
needs and minimizing impacts on the environment.
Heidi also is a writer whose work focuses on natural history and environmental issues. She is coauthor of Valley of Grass: Tallgrass Prairie and Parkland of the Red River Region,
winner of the 1999 Minnesota Book Award for nature writing. With
Minnesota ecologist Chel Anderson, she has coauthored a second book, North Shore: An Ecology of Place,
forthcoming from the University of Minnesota Press in 2010. Heidi
currently is working on a new book that explores the ecology of grief.
Heidi makes her home at the foot of South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona,
where she shares her yard, and sometimes her house, with southern house
spiders, scorpions, coyotes, cactus wrens, and the occasional javelina.
Carl Hastrich - Instructor (Ontario College of Art & Design)
Carl is an Industrial Designer who sees biomimicry as a stepping stone towards evolving the way we approach design and nurture sustainable, innovative thinking. His background involved working in the Toy Industry in home town Melbourne making a variety of products, from collectable figurines to yo-yos. Having been exposed to the unsustainable practices going on in Toy Design and the toxic manufacturing environments in China he was interested in looking for new avenues to address these issues. Carl now works with Janine Benyus and Dayna Baumeister with the Biomimicry Guild in Montana and teaches at the Ontario College of Art & Design in Toronto, Canada, exploring biomimicry and how it may evolve traditional design processes.
Tom McKeag - Adjunct Professor (California College of the Arts)
Tom has taught bio-inspired design to undergraduate and graduate students at the California College of the Arts (CCA) and the University of California, Berkeley, since 2006. His current course, How Would Nature Do That?, is an upper division interdisciplinary studio class offered at CCA. He is also founder and president of BioDreamMachine, a California non-profit dedicated to bringing bio-inspired design to public schools. He writes a regular blog on the topic of biomimicry at GreenerDesign.
 Raúl de Villafranca - Professor of Architecture (Universidad Iberoamericana)
Raúl is an architect and professor in the Architecture and Urbanism Department at the Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, Mexico. Raúl coordinates the diploma course on Sustainable Design and Construction and, as a core member of the environmental design program, strives to integrate ecological topics, including biomimicry, into existing design and architecture curricula. Raúl owns and operates his own design and construction firm and is certified by the National Charrette Institute as a facilitator and administrator. Recently, he participated in the Urban Revision Charrette "Framework for a Sustainable City Block," hosted by the Rocky Mountain Institute and Re:vision. For the past three summers he has organized a 9-day Biomimicry and Design workshop held in beautiful Veracruz, Mexico, and led by The Biomimicry Institute.
Cindy Gilbert - Director of University Education (The Biomimicry Institute)
 Cindy has extensive teaching experience, including developing and teaching university courses in biomimicry. She earned her M.S. in wildlife science from Oregon State University and her graduate diploma in education from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. Cindy is also a Biologist at the Design Table, trained by Biomimicry Guild co-founders, Janine Benyus and Dr. Dayna Baumeister. At The Biomimicry Institute, Cindy develops and evaluates biomimicry teaching and learning materials including lectures, workshops, curricula, and core requirements. In addition, she fosters connections between practicing biomimicry educators and facilitates formal relationships with academic institutions through the Biomimicry Affiliate Program to establish biomimicry minors, and manages the Biomimicry Professional Certification program.
 Megan Schuknecht - Manager of University Relation (The Biomimicry Institute)
Megan is a biologist with a strong interdisciplinary background in
ecology, environmental health, education, and sustainability and social
justice issues. She spent her youth in the forests, creeks, and
hedgerows of eastern Wisconsin, and later served in the Peace Corps in
Paraguay, where she worked as a beekeeping extension agent. Most
recently, she worked as a consultant for the Biomimicry Guild, helping
global companies look to nature for inspiration to develop sustainable
and innovative technologies. In her current role at the Institute,
Megan teaches Biomimicry & Design classes and workshops, lectures
on biomimicry to university audiences, and works with faculty and
administrators to incorporate biomimicry tools and concepts into
university classrooms and curricula. Megan graduated from Grinnell
College with a BA in biology and earned an MS in Environmental Studies
from the University of Montana.
2009 Founding BEAB Members
Dona Boggs (Ph.D.) - Professor of Biology (Emeritus, Eastern Washington; Faculty Affiliate, University of Montana)
Heidi Fischer (M.A.) - Manager of InnovationSpace (Arizona State University)
Janet Kubler (Ph.D.) - Professor of Biology (California State University, Northridge)
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