Elizabeth Bisbee, Research Assistant
Ms. Bisbee is an upper junior at Queens College where she is working towards her BS degree in the Earth and Environmental Sciences. She began her work with the Institute in the Fall of 2006 as a bibliographic research assistant for the Nature and Environment of New York City class. This summer she has been assembling further materials and resources for the course to be used by its current and future teachers. Elizabeth's research interests include hydrology and watersheds, and the growing concern over the global drinking water supply.

Paul Elston, Institute Senior Fellow
Mr. Elston has a BSCE from Merrimack College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Paul serves as President of the Riverside South Planning Corporation, and Chair of the Friends of the Hudson River Greenway in the Bronx. Both organizations work on waterfront revitalization in NYC. Paul started his career in NYC government where he was the First Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Employment, Assistant Commissioner of Environmental Health and Chair of the NYC Water Board. In New York State government he was the First Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and Deputy Director of the State Budget Office. Subsequently he worked at the Federal Department of Environmental Protection with agency-wide management and financial responsibilities. After working in government, he founded and served as CEO of Long Lake Energy Corporation, an independent power producer that built, owned and operated hydroelectric and gas fired electricity plants. He is a founder and former Chair of the New York State League of Conservation Voters and is the Chair of the Flea Theater. Paul is a newly appointed Fellow at the Institute and his research interests include sustainability of urban centers and climate change.

Allan Frei, Ph.D., Deputy Director
Dr. Frei, the Deputy Director of CISC, is an associate professor in the Geography Department at Hunter College, CUNY. After receiving his Ph.D. from Department of Geography at Rutgers University in 1997, he spent four years at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), which is part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado. In 2001 Dr. Frei moved to Hunter College. Dr. Frei is a climatologist whose research interests include issues related to climate change, including links to snow cover and sea ice across the Northern Hemisphere, as well as water resources in the New York City watershed region. Dr. Frei is spending the 2007-2008 academic year on sabbatical leave working with the Climate Research Division of Environment Canada, the environmental protection and research branch of the Canadian Government, where he will be collaborating with Canadian colleagues on research related to climate change and snow cover over North America.

Lee Hachadoorian, Research Associate
Mr. Hachadoorian received his BA in Philosophy at Cornell University in 1991. He is currently enrolled in the Earth and Environmental Sciences doctoral program at the CUNY Graduate Center. He has been with CISC since June 2006 and is curently working on our Core Projects, our Knowledge Network, and a New Jersey Climate Change proposal. His research interests are in urban economic geography, suburbanization, and the geography of residential location.

Peter Lenz, Research Assistant
A life long resident of New York City, Peter Lenz is the system administrator of CISC's Urban Earth Wiki. His interests include transportation and infrastructure issues as well as the physical and social geography of the internet. Peter is an undergraduate Senior Geography major at Hunter College.

Andrew Lynch, Research Assistant
Mr. Lynch is currently a senior at Hunter College working towards his BA in Geography. He began his work at the Institue in 2008 to help build their website. He is interested in transportation issues and is the creator of the website The Future MBTA which looks at how to improve public transportation in the metro Boston area. Andrew is also interested in urban growth issues, sustainable development, and photography of the urban environment.

Peter Marcotullio, Ph. D., Institute Senior Fellow
Dr. Marcotullio received a MA in Ecology from the University of Pennsylvania, and a MA in Geography and a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from Columbia University. He joins CISC as an Institute Senior Fellow and Distinguished Lecturer at Hunter College, CUNY, as of August 2007. At the Institute he will continue to pursue his research interests in urban environmental transitions, with a focus on New York City's experiences. Dr. Marcotullio is also Adjunct Senior Fellow at the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Study, Project Associate with the IHDP, Urbanization and Global Environmental Change (UGEC) project and on the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment's (SCOPE) Adaptive Ecopolis Development to Meet the Challenge of Environmental Change project.

Dan Milner, Environmental Internship Coordinator
Mr. Milner graduated magna cum laude from Hunter College in May 2007 with a B.A. in Geography and is continuing at Hunter in the Master of Arts in Geography program. A former airline industry executive and a ranger in the National Park Service, Dan holds a Certificate in Business Management from New York University. He joined CISC in June 2006 as a research assistant to the Knowledge Network and has since took over the role of the Environmental Internship Coordinator. Dan's research interests include improving auto energy efficiency through motorist education and the special challenges global climate change brings to metropolitan New York.

Carina Molnar, Outreach Coordinator
Ms. Molnar has a BA in International Affairs with a focus in Sub Saharan Africa and Sustainable Development from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is currently pursuing her MA in International Affairs with a focus on Cities and Urbanization at the New School University. Her research interests are mass transportation with a focus on bicycle ridership, the benefits of green roof implementation, and environmental justice for vulnerable populations. Since joining CISC, Carina has worked to develop the voice for the Institute by managing the blog and conducting various outreach activities, within the CUNY community and the larger New York City area.

Jason Nu, Research Assistant and Governor's Island Docent
Mr. Nu graduated from Wesleyan University in 2000 with a BA in film studies, and has been enrolled since January 2007 as an MA degree candidate in the Geography department at Hunter College. Since joining CISC as a Research Assistant in July 2007, he has been working on the development of the Institute's Knowledge Network as well as serving as a docent for CISC's climate change exhibition on Governor's Island. His research interests include urban infrastructure and transportation systems, renewable energy and materials resources, and urban demographic growth and change.

Lesley Patrick, Program Manager
Ms. Patrick received a BA in the Earth Sciences from Boston University and a MS in the Geological Sciences from Rutgers University. She has been enrolled in the Earth and Environmental Sciences doctoral program at the CUNY Graduate Center since 2005 and joined CISC as the Program Manager in June 2007. Her work at the institute has focused primarily on program administration, fundraising, and research. Lesley's research interests include global climate change, environmental justice and sustainability, and physical geography.

Rutherford H. Platt, Ph. D., Institute Senior Fellow
Dr. Platt is Professor of Geography Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He holds a B.A. in political science from Yale and both a J.D. (law) and Ph.D. (geography) from the University of Chicago. He specializes in public policy concerning urban land and water resources. His most recent edited book is The Humane Metropolis: People and Nature in the 21st Century City (University of Massachusetts Press and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. He is the author of Land Use and Society: Geography, Law, and Public Policy (Revised Edition, Island Press, 2004) and Disasters and Democracy: The Politics of Extreme Natural Events (Island Press, 1999). He was also was the lead editor of The Ecological City: Preserving and Restoring Urban Biodiversity (University of Massachusetts Press, 1994.) He has served on many national panels including the National Research Council Water Science and Technology Board and several of its committees. In 2002, he was honored as a Lifetime National Associate of The National Academies. He directs the Ecological Cities Project, a national program of research and outreach based in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Thor Ritz, Research Assistant
Thor earned his BA in Geography at Syracuse University where his work and research focused on struggles for social and environmental justice. He enrolled in the Geography MA program at Hunter College in the Spring of 2008 and is currently in the process of developing his thesis proposal. He is generally interested in studying cultural theory, the relationships between social and environmental processes, and "sustainable" development. Specifically, he is interested in the geographies of food production, immigration and social justice in the U.S. and Mexico. At CISC Thor is helping to develop the voice of the institute by assisting with various outreach activities.

William Solecki, Director
Dr. Solecki holds a BA in Geography from Columbia University and an MA and PhD in geography from Rutgers University. In addition to serving as Director of CISC, he is a professor in the Geography Department at Hunter College, CUNY. His research focuses on urban environmental change, urban land use, and suburbanization. He has served on the U.S. National Research Council's Special Committee on Problems in the Environment. He has also served as the co-leader of the Metropolitan East Coast Assessment of Impacts of Potential Climate Variability and Change. He currently is a member of the International Geographical Union Megacity Study Group and the International Human Dimensions Programme, Urbanization and Global Environmental Change Scientific Steering Committee.