An EnviReform Event: Participant Biographies

Participant Biographies

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Robert F. Kennedy, JR. serves as Senior Attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, Chief Prosecuting Attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and President of Waterkeeper Alliance. He is also a Clinical Professor and Supervising Attorney at the Environmental Litigation Clinic at Pace University School of Law in New York.

Mr. Kennedy has built a reputation as one of North America's leading voices for the environment both at home and abroad, successfully prosecuting polluters on the Hudson River and Long Island Sound, and speaking out in defense of endangered ecosystems from Chile to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In January 2000, NRDC included the Upper Macal River Valley in Belize on the list of "BioGems" - threatened natural areas in the Americas. Mr. Kennedy has helped lead the battle to stop a Canadian-backed hydroelectric dam which would flood this important haven for wildlife."

Hevina S. Dashwood is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at Brock University, where she teaches international relations and Canadian foreign policy. Her current research focuses on corporate social responsibility, and the role of international norms in the dissemination of new values around acceptable corporate behaviour. This research is being funded through a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Through a comparison of selected Canadian mining companies and an examination of their overseas operations in developing countries, her research hopes to shed light on the possibilities and constraints for responsible corporate behaviour. This research flows from her earlier research on international development, focusing on the political economy of structural adjustment through a case study of Zimbabwe, the findings of which can be found in her book: Zimbabwe: The Political Economy of Transformation (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000).

Elizabeth Graham is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Archaeology and has been the Director of the Lamanai field archaeology project, since 1998. Graham's work in Belize began in 1973, and she was Belize's Archaeological Commissioner from 1977 to 1979. She has conducted extensive field projects at sites throughout the country, including Nohmul, San Estevan, Stann Creek District, Lamanai, Marco Gonzalez, Santa Cruz, Negroman. Graham was a Research Associate at the Royal Ontario Museum from 1983 to 1999 and Associate Professor of Anthropology at York University, Toronto from 1991-1999.

Ari Hershowitz is a scientist and advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). As Director of NRDC's BioGems program, Latin America, Mr. Hershowitz leads international campaigns to protect threatened natural areas in the region, from the temperate forests of Southern Chile, to the Maya Rainforest, spanning southern Mexico, northern Guatemala and Belize. Working with scientists and local communities, Mr. Hershowitz was instrumental in the successful campaign to save the world's last undisturbed gray whale nursing lagoon, Laguna San Ignacio, in Mexico, from plans by Mitsubishi Corporation to build the world's largest industrial salt facility, one of the touchstone success stories of the international environmental movement.

John James Kirton is an Associate Professor of Political Science, a Fellow of Trinity College, a Research Associate of the Centre for International Studies, Principal Investigator of the EnviReform Project, and Director of the G8 Research Group at the University of Toronto. He has co-edited Linking Trade, Environment and Social Cohesion: NAFTA Experiences, Global Challenges (Ashgate, 2002) and Governing Global Finance: New Challenges, G7 and IMF Contributions (Ashgate, 2002) and co-authored Environmental Regulations and Corporate Competitiveness: A NAFTA Perspective (Oxford University Press, 1999), NAFTA's Environmental Institutions: Performance and Potential (Commission for Environmental Cooperation, 1997), and Building a Framework for Assessing NAFTA Effects (Commission for Environmental Cooperation, 1996). Other books include Trade and Environment: Legal, Economic and Policy Perspectives (Edward Elgar, 1998), Trade, Environment and Competitiveness: Sustaining Canada's Prosperity (National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy [NRTEE], 1992, 1993), The Halifax Summit, Sustainable Development, and International Institutional Reform (NRTEE, 1995), and The International Joint Commission Seventy Years On (Centre for International Studies, 1982). He has served as team leader of the Commission on Environmental Cooperation's project on NAFTA's environmental effects (1995-99), founding Chair of the North American Environmental Standards Working Group, a member of the Foreign Policy Committee of the Canadian Prime Minister's National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (1989-95), and a member of the Government of Canada's International Trade Advisory Committee (1995-97).

Greg Malone was born in St. John's on October 19, 1948 .. He was educated at St. George's School, St. Bonaventure's College, Gonzaga High School, and Memorial University where he graduated with a BA in English. In May 2000, Greg was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from his Alma Mater in recognition of his achievements and contribution to the artistic and academic communities. Greg is best known for the CODCO TV series and his wicked impersonations of political icons like Jean Chretien, the Queen, and of course, Barbara Frum, and has received many Gemini awards for writing and performing. Besides the sixty-three CODCO shows, Greg wrote and performed in forty-three Wonderful Grand Band shows for the CBC, films, many specials, radio programs, countless stage shows and international theatre tours. He directed and edited the popular and award winning docudrama The Untold Story of the Suffragists of Newfoundland, in which he also appears as Sir Richard Squires. His wildly funny one man special for the Comedy Channel Pocket Queen, picked up the Gold Award for comedy at the 1999 Houston International Film and Television Festival. Greg made Sex Drugs and HIV to raise awareness of the impediment prejudice is to the health care of persons infected with HIV or living with AIDS. As a political activist he is recognized in Newfoundland for his part in the campaign that successfully stopped the privatization of Nfld. & Labrador Hydro and his consistent efforts to protect the Environment. He is currently the director , co creator and co writer of George St TVwhich premiered on NTV in Jan 2003. Greg is an dedicated amateur theologian, spending endless hours trying to reconcile the new cosmology with a medieval Catholic education. In his spare time he enjoys in-line skating, cooking , and of course, is an avid eater.

Sharon Matola, Founding Director of the Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Center, biologist, author of 3 children's books about wildlife in Belize. Co-author of Field Guide to the Snakes of Belize. Radio presenter and lecturer on natural history of Belize. Serves on the Belize CITES Scientific Authority and on UNDP Small Grants Fund Board. Served as Chair of the IUCN Tapir Specialist Group 1990-2000 and co-edited the Tapir Action Plan. Has studied Scarlet Macaw ecology in the Central Maya Mountains of Belize since 1998, publication with Betsy Mallory, PhD of Manomet Observatory forthcoming. Has led over 16 scientific expeditions in Belize, many resulting in the discovery of new species records for the country. Awarded the Conservation Action Prize from Missouri Botanical Garden in 2000, Conde Nast Env. Award runner up in 2002.

Gráinne Ryder is a water resources engineer by training and policy director at Probe International, an independent policy research group that investigates the environmental and economic consequences of Canadian government and corporate activities around the world. She is editor of the path-breaking book, Damming the Three Gorges: What Dam Builders Don't Want You To Know (Probe International 1990 and Earthscan 1993), which exposed serious flaws in the Canadian engineering feasibility study for China's Three Gorges dam and led to complaints of negligence, incompetence, and professional misconduct against the Canadian engineers responsible. Gráinne edited and wrote the introduction for The Mekong Currency: Lives and Times of a River (International Books,1993), a photojournalist's portrait of rural communities in the Mekong region that are threatened by large-scale development schemes. She wrote chapters on Mekong dam politics for two books, Wasser in Asien: Elementare Konflicte (Asienhaus Essen, 1997) and Dams as Aid: A political anatomy of Nordic development thinking (Routledge, 1997). Gráinne has spent 15 years working to stop destructive power projects in Asia, both with Probe International and as a co-founder of TERRA (Towards Ecological Recovery and Regional Alliance), the regional division of the Bangkok-based Project for Ecological Recovery, Thailand'sleading environmental group.

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