Who We Are
Green Points of View
Eating 'Green' – What Are You Really Buying? by Sheila Newhouse
Read board member Chris Elam's interview with Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland, a new book that looks at why we waste so much perfectly edible food.
Read How Hamburgers Pollute Our Water, by Research Director Renee Cho. The article can be found on Columbia University's Earth Institute blog.
People
INFORM consists of:
- Virginia Ramsey, Executive Director
- Bette Fishbein, Senior Fellow
- Renee Cho, Research Director
- Ted Scovell, Senior Advisor
- Derek Sylvan, Production Advisor
- David Milner, Webmaster
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Executive Director
A seasoned management and development professional, Virginia Ramsey brings to INFORM the experience of a career devoted to helping non-profits tighten operations and grow funding to enhance their impact.
Following her passion for social justice and progressive causes, Virginia has spent her life working effectively on behalf of organizations targeting an array of issues, among them world hunger relief, low-income housing, youth and community service, and the environment.
Virginia returned to INFORM in 2004, having first worked for the organization in 1975 as an assistant to Joanna D. Underwood, INFORM's founder and former President. As Director of Development, Virginia revitalized the organization's fundraising department and implemented strategies that resulted in steady growth in individual giving. She later helped see INFORM through its first change in leadership when Ms. Underwood left to pursue other activities.
Virginia is intimately acquainted with INFORM's history, making her uniquely qualified to lead it through its future endeavors. As such, when the new Board of Directors reorganized INFORM in June 2007, they appointed Virginia to head the organization and oversee the strategic development and implementation of new programs and management practices. She welcomes the chance to lead INFORM as it enters a dynamic and innovative new phase in its history.
Prior to joining INFORM, Virginia served as the assistant to the Associate Director of Major Gifts at New York Weill Cornell Medical Center, where she was instrumental in organizing the hospital's annual fundraiser for women's health. From there she moved to the New York Academy of Medicine to be the Associate Director of Development.
Virginia attended the University of Pennsylvania and graduated from Barnard College where she pursued an independent major in Foreign Area Studies.
Bette Fishbein joined INFORM in March 1990 and is now Senior Fellow in the Waste Prevention Program. Ms. Fishbein has directed research projects that include solid waste planning for states and municipalities, development of positive source reduction initiatives in the business and public sectors, and public policies that promote source reduction and recycling.
With the publication of her overview of Germany's packaging legislation, Germany, Garbage, and the Green Dot: Challenging the Throwaway Society (1994), Ms. Fishbein became recognized as a leading national expert on the emerging concept of extended producer responsibility (EPR). She worked with the Eco-Efficiency Task Force of the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) to develop US policies based on this concept and has brought her knowledge of EPR to other forums such as the EPR2 Roundtable which addresses electronic product recovery and recycling, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on developing EPR guidelines for its member countries. In a joint project with the University of Tennessee, Ms. Fishbein documented the national program launched by battery manufacturers to collect and recycle spent nickel-cadmium batteries in the US.
Ms. Fishbein is the author of numerous INFORM publications, including Waste in the Wireless World: The Challenge of Cell Phones (May 2002). Other recent publications include Extended Producer Responsibility: A Materials Policy for the 21st Century, a report prepared in conjunction with the World's Fair Expo 2000 in Germany and Leasing: A Step Toward Producer Responsibility, which examines the effectiveness of leasing as an alternative to mandated take-back programs. Ms. Fishbein is also principal author of Making Less Garbage: A Planning Guide for Communities (1993), co-author of Reducing Office Paper Waste (1991), and has published many articles on solid waste source reduction issues. An INFORM publication authored by Ms. Fishbein, Building for the Future (1999), documents waste prevention strategies for municipal construction projects.
Previously, Ms. Fishbein was an economist and public policy analyst for the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies in White Plains, New York, directing research on social welfare policy. She is the author of Social Welfare Abroad and articles on social welfare, the consumer price index, and the food stamp program. Ms. Fishbein was a research analyst with the National Bureau of Economic Research and Resources for the Future, and an intern with the Joint Economic Committee. She received a B.A. from Wellesley College, Phi Beta Kappa, with honors in economics.
Renee Cho joined INFORM in 2010 as Director of Research. She is a freelance writer who has covered a variety of climate change issues for www.solveclimate.com and other outlets. She is also currently enrolled in the Certificate Program at The Center for Environmental Research and Conservation at Columbia University's Earth Institute.
Prior to joining INFORM, Renee was Director of Communications for Henry Hudson 400, a foundation commemorating the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's voyage to New York with a series of special events culminating in the transatlantic H209 Water Forum that explored sustainable solutions to the water challenges facing coastal cities. Previously, as Communications Coordinator for Riverkeeper, the environmental organization that protects the Hudson River, Renee handled all media relations and wrote and edited articles for the Riverkeeper Journal. She also served as editor of the award-winning Westchester Parent Magazine where her monthly editorial column won two gold Parenting Publications of America Editorial Awards. Renee began her career in the film business. She produced and directed the one-hour PBS documentary "Jazz is My Native Language: A Portrait of Toshiko Akyoshi," directed several short dramatic films while attending The American Film Institute, and worked on a multicultural documentary series for children produced by WGBH-TV.
Ted Scovell joined INFORM in 2008 as a senior advisor. He teaches Advanced Biology and 8th grade biology at Friends Seminary in Manhattan. Prior to teaching, Ted worked as a portfolio manager and proprietary trader at various Wall St. firms.
Ted's love of nature started early. He studied biology at Harvard where he researched ant behavior in E.O. Wilson's lab. As an undergraduate, he published "Dominance and Reproductive Success Among Slave-Making Working Ants" in Nature.
Since graduating from college, Ted has twice escaped the jungles of New York City for a year in Costa Rica. Living among the toucans, white-faced monkeys, and leaf-cutter ants reaffirmed his belief in the importance of protecting the diversity and beauty of life.
Derek Sylvan has worked in film and television since 2002. He has been working with INFORM since the spring of 2009 as an advisor on production and organizational initiatives as well as a Producer on the Secret Life series. Derek is passionate about a number of environmental causes and hopes to bridge his media background with work in environmental awareness and public policy. He is a graduate of Wesleyan University and currently lives in Brooklyn.
- Thomas C.T. Brokaw, Chair
- Virginia F. Ramsey
- Christian Ettinger
- Chris Elam
- Marina Belesis-Casoria
- Dennis J. Krumholz, Esq.
- Stephen B. Land, Esq.
- Kenneth F. Mountcastle, Jr.
