Economics Lecturer, Harvard University, Massachusetts

David is currently an Economics Lecturer at Harvard University. For the past several years, he has been teaching Microeconomics and Macroeconomic analysis at both Wellesley College and Harvard University. Previously, David taught economics for four years at Stanford University. He has received wide recognition for his teaching talent and animated style, and strives to make his courses interesting, important and relevant. David has been teaching in CSF’s courses since 2004.

David says this about CSF: "Any economist worth his salt has but a single goal in mind: harnessing the tools of economic analysis to support improvements in the human condition. CSF’s raison d’être is its belief that sustainable environmental resource use is singularly responsible for the future of that human condition. The CSF training model works brilliantly precisely because it begins with talented, experienced “students” already armed with a demonstrated commitment to environmental awareness. As a scholar, I have the enviable task of helping them fit that last piece of the puzzle – those economic tools that add academic rigor to what is often misguidedly perceived as purely emotional tree-hugging…the “hard head” to accompany the “soft heart.” As an organization, CSF has always impressed me with their unwavering commitment to the importance of economics and markets in saving the planet. I continue to marvel at their resilience in withstanding what one might call a “dual skepticism” of their mission: skepticism from those who doubt that climate change is real AND skepticism from fellow environmentalists who doubt that economic analysis is the way to save our planet. CSF courses boast participant lists that regularly send me straight to Google Maps! But no matter how large or small their countries or their conflicts, students leave CSF courses energized, empowered, and equipped with the proper tools to make their cases back home. We have a term for those groups not afraid to fight multiple headwinds in pursuit of a cause they know in their heads and hearts is right: leadership."

World Bank Institute (retired), Kailua, Hawaii, USA

John Dixon was the lead Environmental Economist at the World Bank and is widely known for his work on applied environmental economics, especially the valuation of environmental resources. He has published numerous books on economic valuation and its applications to various ecosystems, as well as many articles on these and other themes. Before joining the World Bank in 1990, John was a researcher at the East-West Centre in Honolulu, and also worked with the Ford Foundation in Indonesia. His recent work has focused on the economics of parks and protected areas, especially marine parks and tourism. Recent professional work includes activities in East Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. John holds undergraduate degrees in Chinese and Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard.

University of Brasilia, Brazil

Jorge Madeira is Professor and Head of the Economics Department of the University of Brasilia (UNB) in Brazil, where he has been working since 1983. Jorge received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and completed his PhD at the University of London in 1982. Between 1991 and 1995 he was a visiting Professor at the University of Cornell as a Fulbright Scholar. Jorge has published extensively on the economics of agriculture and the environment in Brazil and abroad.

CSF Board Secretary and Acting Chief Economist for NOAA (National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration), Washington, D.C., USA

Linwood Pendleton is the Acting Chief Economist for NOAA (National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration). Prior to this, he was a Senior Fellow, Director of Economic Research, and Director of the Coastal Ocean Values Center at The Ocean Foundation. He was also an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at UCLA and maintains an adjunct position there. His current research focuses on the economics of environmental goods and services, especially those in the coastal zone.

Linwood has been teaching with CSF since 1999 and has experience both in the United States and abroad with environmental valuation, coastal resource management, and the economics of marine protected areas. Linwood has worked internationally on recreation demand of tropical coral reefs and Costa Rican National Parks, and on issues of dams, non-timber forestry, and the economic causes of tropical deforestation in Latin America and Africa. He is involved with the National Ocean Economics Project, the Southern California Beach Valuation Project, and the California Regional Study of the Coastal Ocean Observing System. He is also a member of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission’s Marine Technical Advisory Council, and a Director of the Aquarium of the Pacific's Marine Conservation Research Institute.

Linwood has a Masters in Biology with a focus in Tropical Ecology from Princeton University, a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University, and a PhD in Natural and Environmental Resource Economics from Yale University.

Economist, Bolivia

Mauricio Medinaceli was previous the Minister of Hydrocarbons in Bolivia from 2005 to 2006 and the coordinator of Hydrocarbons in OLADE, based in Quito, Ecuador, from 2008-2010. He has a degree from Bolivian Catholic University and has completed postgraduate studies in both Chile and Germany. Mauricio has also acted as a consultant to the World Bank, CAF, BID, PNUD, GTZ, PIEB, PKF Consulting Group, Prisma Energy America Do Sul, and Cámara Boliviana de Hidrocarburos. He has taught at numerous universities, including FLACSO University of the Americas in Ecuador, Catholic University, University of the Andes, as well as others in Bolivia. Mauricio has written several publications and books on hydrocarbon.

Instructor, ULACIT, Costa Rica

Sarah Cordero is currently the Dean of the Ulacit Business School in Costa Rica. Previously she was an Assistant Professor at the Central American Institute for Business Administration (INCAE), with a focus in environmental economics and project appraisal. She is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and she received a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University in 1992. In addition to posts at Ulacit and INCAE, she has also been a professor in the Program on Investment Appraisal and Management at the Harvard Institute for International Development. Sarah has extensive teaching experience at various institutions including MIT, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, and the Technological Institute of Costa Rica. Sarah has taught in CSF’s courses in Costa Rica, Bolivia and the U.S, and she has taught numerous other short programs in Mexico, Bolivia, Paraguay, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.