The GOSESO project has been incorporated in Tanzania as a non-governmental Trust Deed and in the United States of America as a 501 (c) 3 tax-exempt non-profit organization. The Tanzania-based Board of Trustees and Community Council are the two active governing entities that oversee the project in the country. Additionally, the Board of Directors for GOSESO-USA, Inc. meets regularly. Ten distinguished individuals are currently serving in the International Advisory Board.
The following is a profile of each advisory board member:
• Mr. Yared Fubusa, GOSESO founder and Executive Director, is a recently-appointed Ashoka Fellow for Social Entrepreneurship. He was born and raised in a small village near the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. He served as a research assistant to the renowned British primatologist and conservationist, Jane Goodall, and was instrumental in launching outreach programs for the Jane Goodall Institute in Tanzania and abroad. Yared earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics at Virginia’s Longwood University, a Master’s degree in Parks Management and Economics of Tourism from the University of Utah. Mr. Fubusa is currently in his final year of Ph.D. candidacy at Utah State University where his research seeks to bridge the gap between humans and wildlife through the promotion of local participation in environmental decision-making, rural economies, indigenous knowledge and institutions, and sustainable livelihoods.
• Dr. Terry L. Sharik is a Professor in the Department of Wildland Resources at Utah State University. He served five years as the head of the Department of Environment and Society and has previously served as the head of the Department of Forest Resources at Utah State University. He has held academic appointments at Oberlin College, Virginia Tech, Michigan Tech, and the University of Michigan. His overseas experience has mostly been in Africa, principally in Uganda and Morocco, focused on institutional development.
• Dr. D. Layne Coppock is an ecologist and social scientist, and has been an Associate Professor in the College of Natural Resources at Utah State University since 1991. His research addresses community-based problems in rural areas of the developing world, using risk management interventions and building human capital to promote sustainable livelihoods. He has led multi-year projects in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Bolivia, and his involvements in East Africa are ongoing. His projects are funded through the US Agency for International Development.
• Dr. Claudia Radel is an Assistant Professor in the College of Natural Resources at Utah State University. She joined the faculty in 2005, following the completion of her Ph.D. in Geography from Clark University. Her research examines changing livelihoods in the rural developing world and the outcomes of those changes on the wellbeing of households, the status of women, and the sustainability of human-environment systems. She holds an M.S. in International Development from Princeton University, has been a Rotary Scholar at the University of Zimbabwe, and has worked in several countries in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa.
• Dr. Reuben S. Rose-Redwood is an Assistant Professor of Geography at Texas A&M University. He earned a B.A. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia as well as an M.S. and Ph.D. in Geography from Penn State University. His research explores the historical geography of landscape transformation and the cultural politics of environmental change. He also has a longstanding interest in environmental history and the politics of postcolonial conservation.
• Dr. Ann Laudati is a broadly trained human-environmental geographer with specializations in political ecology, conservation and development, and regional African studies. She joined the faculty of Utah State University as an Assistant Professor in the College of Natural Resources in 2008 after receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Oregon where she examined the extent to which environment and development programs such as gorilla tourism improve local livelihoods around Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in southwest Uganda. Her current program of research investigates how the environment has been a factor in the continuing conflicts in Southern Sudan, Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Northern Uganda.
• Mr. R. Kent Clark is the Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at Utah State University, and has extensive experience in non-profit development and management, including 15 years on staff or boards of organizations. In addition to supporting the fundraising of GOSESO, Mr. Clark acts as pro bono counsel on organizational and strategic matters.
• Dr. Rob Lilieholm is an Associate Professor of Forest Resources in the College of Forestry at the University of Maine. His research focuses on sustainable management of wildlands to promote a wide range of ecological and social goals, and he has done extensive work related to African national parks. Professional appointments have included the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Organization of Tropical Studies in Costa Rica. Additionally, he been a consultant to the U.S. Congress, the Danish Government, the Kibale Forest Foundation, Utah State University, and many other industry and environmental organizations.
• Mr. Jack Shea is the Executive Director of the Teton Science Schools in Jackson, Wyoming, a post he has held since 1988. He holds a B.S. in Wildlife/Forest Management from the University of Vermont and an M.S. in Wildlife Biology from the University of Alaska. He has almost 30 years of teaching experience in environmental, outdoor, and science education.
• Dr. Chris Conte is an Associate Professor
of Environmental History and African Studies at Utah State University, where
he teaches African and environmental history. His research examines the historical
dynamics of landscape change in East Africa’s mountain environments.
In 2004, Ohio University Press published his book, Highland Sanctuary: Environment
and History in Tanzania’s Usambara Mountains.