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Current members of the founding BEAB helped develop and establish application and review procedure guidelines for both the Biomimicry Affiliate Program (BAP) and the Biomimicry Fellows Program (BFP). The BEAB consists of two Institute staff members and three external members who represent a breadth of knowledge and expertise within the academic community.
Board Biographies
 Cindy Gilbert (M.S., M.Ed.) - 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.
 Dona Boggs (Ph.D.) - Professor of Biology (Emeritus, Eastern Washington; Faculty Affiliate, University of Montana)
Trained at Harvard College, The University of Montana, Dartmouth Medical School Department of Physiology, and University of Colorado School of Health Sciences, Dona is a comparative animal physiologist with 28 years of experience in teaching and research, as well as two years experience in research grants administration as a Program Director in Integrative Organismal Systems at the National Science Foundation. Her interest and experience in comparative physiology and biomechanics are natural links to an enthusiasm for biomimicry and the mission of The Biomimicry Institute.
 Adelheid Fischer (M.A.) - 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.
 Janet Kübler (Ph.D.) - Professor of Biology, California State University, Northridge
Janet received B.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Johns Hopkins University and University of Maine. She has worked in industrial research and development, elementary through college education, and basic research. She is currently on the faculty of California State University at Northridge where her teaching specialty is biology for nonscientists. Janet grew up in the woods and backyards of Eastern Pennsylvania with a strong connection to nature, but she first saw her intellectual destiny through Jacques Cousteau’s lens. She is a student of the original multicellular organisms, the seaweeds, and has been exploring feedback and response loops between algae and their environments for more than two decades.
Janet is the author of dozens of research articles and coauthor of a book on mathematical models of organic growth, The Algorithmic Beauty of Seaweeds, Sponges and Corals. She has presented the results of her research to audiences worldwide. Coming from a family of engineers, she joined the Biomimicry Guild as a Biologist at the Design Table in 2005. She is also an on-line instructor in the Certificate in Biomimicry where she teachess Biology Taught Functionally. Her personal and professional life revolves around the biomimic’s work of rekindling the conscious connection between people and their living world through conducting scientific research, guiding local natural history explorations, teaching elementary school art classes, and lecturing. She currently lives with her family in Southern California where life reminds her how much more there is to learn.
 Megan Schuknecht (M.S.) - Biologist at the Design Table; Manager of University Relations
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.
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