Elizabeth Albright is a Research Associate at MIT and a doctoral candidate at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. Her dissertation research, which has been supported through a Fulbright Scholarship and a Dissertation Enhancement Grant from the National Science Foundation, focuses on local-level policy learning and decision making processes in response to extreme flood events in the central region of the Danube River basin. Elizabeth received her MPA/MSES from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University and her BA in chemistry from the College of Wooster. She has worked for USEPA and the state of North Carolina developing water quality and land-use change simulation models and spent a year in Hungary where she taught English and learned Hungarian. On this project, she is developing the web version of the survey and assisting with statistical analysis. Elizabeth is originally from Indianapolis, Indiana and enjoys surfing, sailing and abstract painting.

Rachel Healy is a doctoral student in the Environmental Policy and Planning Group at MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. While at MIT she is focusing her studies on resource management and environmental policy. She earned a Master’s degree in Urban Planning from Columbia University, with a concentration in international development and infrastructure in 1997. Rachel has 8 years of work experience on a variety of national and international projects including, tenancy and service planning for squatter settlements, redevelopment planning for contaminated industrial and military facilities, environmental impact analysis, and public transportation management.  Most recently, she received funding from the Program on Human Rights and Justice and DUSP-PSC to conduct exploratory research and to work for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees on a proposal for sustainable refugee camp closure. 

Tegin Teich is a dual degree candidate at MIT, studying for a Master in City Planning from the Department of Urban Studies and Planning and for a Master of Science in Transportation from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Her primary interest is in the role of transportation in international development and environmental policy. On this project, she is responsible for identifying organizations to be included in the survey, managing the project website, coordinating survey implementation, and assisting with data analysis. Tegin spent the summer of 2006 working on these activities at the Regional Environmental Center in Szentendre, Hungary. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and professional experience in nonprofit program work and philanthropic consulting for small, Massachusetts-based foundations. In her free time, Tegin enjoys climbing, cycling, hiking, skiing, and snowboarding.

Robert Atkinson is the Director for Civil Initiatives at the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe. Four program areas work under this banner: Education and Capacity Building, Information, NGO Support, and Public Participation. He has been working in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989 and for the REC since 1995. He has held a variety of different posts since joining the REC, working in various areas, including granting for NGOs, environmental education, and country office development. Since joining the REC Robert has carried out projects in all sixteen of the organization’s beneficiary countries and many of the former Soviet Union countries. In July 1999 he was a part of the UNEP - Balkan Task Force in Serbia and Kosovo to look at the environmental damage of the recent conflict. Robert has a BSc. (Hons) degree in Maritime Geography and Certificate of Industrial Competence from the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology (United Kingdom). He was born in Glossop, England and currently lives in Budapest, Hungary, with his wife and two children. He strongly believes that Manchester United is the greatest football team on the planet.

Richard Filcak has extensive experience as a project manager working for environmental NGOs in Slovakia and Czech Republic and in coordinating projects involving NGOs from the Balkan and former Soviet Union regions. While participating this project, Dr. Filcak was working at the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe. In general, his work and research interests are focused on environmental and social policy development in the transitional countries of Central and Eastern Europe - with particular attention to the role new social movements play in this respect. He received his Ph.D. from the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary where he wrote his dissertation on the Roma ethnic minority and environmental justice.

Petr Jehlicka is Lecturer in Environmental Geography at the Open University, UK. Dr. Jehlicka has a longstanding interest in environmental policy and politics in Central and Eastern Europe and more than fifteen years experience conducting research in the region. One strand of his research examines the development of the environmental movement in Central and Eastern Europe and how domestic environmental traditions and discourses present in state-socialist times combine with imported western know-how and agendas. A second strand focuses on issues related to eastern expansion of the European Union including changing environmental governance in Central and East European states, the implications of enlargement for European environmental policy, and the unfolding politics of sustainable development. The results of his research appear in a number of journal articles and book chapters. He also is co-editor of Dilemmas of Transition: The Environment, Democracy and Economic Reform in East Central Europe.

Todd Schenk is is receiving his MCP degree in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at MIT. Prior to coming to MIT, he was a project manager in the NGO Support and Capacity Building Programmes of the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe. In that capacity, Todd taught a course on sustainable development to government officials and working with a wide range of stakeholders - particularly in the governmental and civil society sectors - working on various environmental issues. He also has extensive experience in grant making and grant monitoring, though his interests and research extend to NGO campaigns and social marketing.

Photo courtesy of Prázdninová škola Lipnice