IBI Staff
IBI Staff
Starting with a few very part time employees in 2007, IBI now has a staff of six people. As shown on the map below, our staff is located all around the world. For more information on a particular IBI employee (and to contact them), click on their name.
- Debbie Reed, Executive Director
- Jane Lynch, Technology Extension Director
- Julie Major, Agricultural Extension Director
- Kelpie Wilson, Communications Editor
- Lee Parker, Administrative Director
- Thayer Tomlinson, Communications Director
Debbie Reed, IBI Executive Director
Debbie Reed is a founding member of the International Biochar Initiative (IBI). She is also the President and Director of DRD Associates, providing strategic and policy support for national environmental, energy and agricultural groups on agricultural mitigation strategies for state, federal, and international global climate change policies. Debbie worked for President Bill Clinton at the White House Council on Environmental Quality as the Director of Legislative Affairs and Agricultural Policy for the White House Climate Change Task Force. Prior to that, she was a Senior Legislative Assistant for U.S. Senator J. Robert Kerrey (D-NE), where she handled environmental, natural resource/agriculture, and energy issues. In previous positions at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and at several public health oriented institutions, Debbie's work focused on federal agricultural, food safety, and human nutrition policy.
Jane Lynch, Technology Extension Director
Jane Lynch holds an honours degree in engineering and has just commenced a PhD in biochar. Her technical background is in renewable energy research and development. From 2003 until 2008 she worked as a logistician and logistics coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres in Sudan, Chad, Uganda, Sri Lanka and South-East Asia. She also has several years experience working in remote Australian Indigenous communities on appropriate technology (including renewable energy), community planning and land management.
Julie Major, Agricultural Extension Director
Julie Major was raised on a farm outside Montréal in Canada. She completed a B.Sc. (Agr.) degree with great distinction at McGill University in Montréal, in December 2000. She became interested in topical agriculture as an undergraduate, during a field semester in Panamá. After completing an internship with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in the Dominican Republic in the first half of 2001, she undertook an M.S. degree at Cornell University where she studied weed dynamics on Terra preta de Índio soils of the Brazilian Amazon. Working on Terra preta soils sparked her interest in studying biochar as a soil amendment. Her Ph.D. degree involved studying the effect of biochar on soil fertility and its fate after soil application, and was granted in May 2009 by Cornell. Since January 2009, she has been working as the Agricultural Extension Director for the International Biochar Initiative.
Kelpie Wilson, Communications Editor
Kelpie Wilson is a writer and a mechanical engineer. She has worked for IBI on communications since September 2008. Prior to that she was the environmental editor and columnist for Truthout.org and a contributing editor for Yoga Plus magazine. She has published more than 100 articles in numerous online and print publications and worked as a technical writer for a solar power company. After graduating with honors from California State University, Chico in 1987 with a B.S. in mechanical engineering, she worked for a small R&D firm designing Stirling cycle engines. In the 1990s, she was the executive director of the Siskiyou Regional Education Project, a grassroots environmental group protecting wilderness and old growth forests in the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon.
Lee Parker, Administrative Director
Lee Parker founded and directed a NGO providing services to working families and their children for 23 years. She obtained her BA in Anthropology from Cornell University and has since then pursued graduate studies in Psychology. In 2008 Lee started her own business providing back office services to NGO’s, including Finance, Human Resources, Administration, Office Management and Project Management.
Thayer Tomlinson, Communications Director
In addition to working with IBI, Thayer Tomlinson is a Program Manager for the Energy and Security Group (ESG) with seven years international development experience conducting project development and implementation, research and analysis in climate change, renewable energy, agriculture, and environmental issues. With ESG she works with the Small Business and Congregations Network of the EPA ENERGY STAR Program and is a consultant to the TPW Energy Collaborative, a group of philanthropists dedicated to providing funding for sustainable energy projects in developing countries. Prior to joining ESG, she worked with the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) and was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mongolia. Thayer has a Master's Degree in International Environmental Policy from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Forms and Documents applicable to IBI staff and Consultants