Who We Are

Elyssa Serrilli is a professional outdoor and environmental educator, with over 8 years of experience in urban, suburban, and rural communities and with audiences from children to adults. Her passion is using hands-on, experiential education and community service to bring sustainable living and vibrant, local economies to communities across New Jersey. Her teaching specialties include working with at-risk populations, community service projects, sustainable living skills (organic gardening, arboriculture, composting, food preparation & preservation, biofuels, and fiber craft), wilderness survival & recreation, and team building.

Elyssa began her teaching career with the AmeriCorps & NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP)
NJ Watershed Ambassadors Program (www.state.nj.us/dep/watershedmgt/ambassadors_index.htm). Here, she gained a firm foundation in field-based nature study and hands-on community service, focal themes for all her later work. For two and a half years, Elyssa worked with NJ Youth Corps (NJYC) (iyonewark.org/) leading service projects - such as tree planting, recycling and stream restoration - with at-risk high school dropouts in the City of Newark. In this capacity, she honed the skills of worksite management, community organizing, coalition building, project development, and grant writing. Just as she had seen in herself, Elyssa saw the power of ‘service learning’ (www.servicelearning.org/) to drive her students to change their lives and rebuild their communities. Elyssa then switched gears to a rural setting, teaching for 2 years at the NJ School of Conservation (csam.montclair.edu/njsoc/) in Stokes State Forest. This competitive teaching appointment, awarded to only 2 graduate students each year through the graduate program (www.csam.montclair.edu/earth/grad.html) in Environmental Studies at Montclair State University, covered a broad range of subjects in outdoor recreation, team & trust building, natural science, and primitive living skills.

Although Elyssa’s career is based in her home state of New Jersey, she has been enriched with experiences from across the country and abroad. In 2005, thanks to the Rivendell Foundation, Elyssa received a scholarship for Newark educators to attend the Rocky Mountain Outdoor Educator Course (www.nols.edu/courses/locations/rockymtn/rockymtneducatorbackpack.shtml) with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Elyssa spent one month backpacking with outdoor educators from around the world, honing skills in risk management, expeditionary travel, nature awareness. The following year, she interned for 5 weeks at Rancho Mastatal (www.ranchomastatal.com/), a sustainable living and education center in the Costa Rican rainforest. Another pivotal experience, Elyssa’s time at the Ranch taught her that sustainable living is not just some crazy ideal, but possible, practical, and beneficial to human quality of life. Rancho Mastatal inspired her to create a program that would bring sustainable living and education to New Jersey. Elyssa fine-tuned this vision through her Master’s research on sustainable redevelopment, and in the summer of 2008, she refined the idea further during a post-graduate fellowship. As a fellow at PERC’s Enviropreneur Institute (www.perc.org/enviroprog/enviropreneur/camp/basics.php) in Bozeman, Montana, “Green Collar Futures” got its name and its commitment to a financially sustainable business model. Following the fellowship, Elyssa toured the west in her veggie oil powered VW and taught environmental education at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions as part of the Sustainable Living Roadshow (sustainablelivingroadshow.org/). Last year, Elyssa worked as a Support Guide in teaching and administration at
Ridge and Valley Charter School (www.ridgeandvalley.org), a sustainability-themed charter school in Blairstown, NJ. Elyssa will be interning again this Winter 2010 at Rancho Mastatal, gaining skills in green building, solar energy, methane biodigesters, and wilderness medicine.

In 2008-2009 she acquired program management skills as an assistant administrator Ridge and Valley Charter School, a public K-8 charter school based on outdoor, experiential education and Earth Literacy. She is currently employed part time as an adjunct facilitator at the Princeton-Blairstown Center.

Elyssa is committed to living the change she wants to see in the world. She lives the local food, low carbon, and low waste lifestyle at Green Quest Farm, a startup sustainable co-housing community in Green Township, Sussex County. (Elyssa Serrilli resume.pdf)

Frances Subbiondo has been a student and promoter of sustainability for 10 years. He weaved both environmental stewardship and green urban planning into his studies at Rice University -- long before they were vogue in Houston -- on his path to a bachelor's and a professional degree in Architecture. Long believing that the spaces we create and inhabit directly influence our collective health, Frances has been a tireless advocate for, and builder of, places that nurture life.

From architecture in Texas, Frances leapt into the plant kingdom in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he performed habitat restoration and plant propagation -- later becoming project and garden crew manager of a residential gardening outfit. Meanwhile, Frances tutored and mentored inner city middle school students, and developed a professional culinary prowess that consistently delights. Frances studied and worked, as well, a season with the plants of the Western Amazon Basin near Iquitos, Peru.

In 2007, Frances founded nature works -- which is now a partnered cooperative grounded in a mission of healing the Earth locally and transforming global consciousness. Since returning to the East Coast in 2008, Frances has studied the art and science of regeneration (Permaculture) extensively -- with many of the most proficient regenerative designers in the Northeast. He is now a certified Permaculture Design Instructor. Frances is a synthesizer and a vessel of ecological wisdom that now serves this emergent green economy and all those it connects. His goal is to develop systems that are beyond sustainable -- those that self-organize, and continually grow in vitality.
(Frances Subbiondo resume.pdf)

       Jonathan Cloud is a lifelong environmentalist, community organizer, and entrepreneur. An early pioneer in passive-solar design and construction in Canada in the 1970s and 80s, as well as an environmental community activist, he received a UN Environment Award in 1985, in recognition of his work in renewable energy, conservation, and appropriate technology. His career has spanned journalism, politics, invention, housing design and construction, database, software, and Internet development, financial services, networking, nonprofits, network marketing, and sustainable business development.

He has lived in over a dozen countries, spoken several languages, and published articles and translations. His passion, however, is human transformation and empowerment in the broadest sense. He was a longtime volunteer and IFLP Leader with Landmark Education, a university lecturer, a Millionaire Mind graduate, and the founder of a successful local business network in one of the wealthiest areas in the U.S.

His current focus is on developing the ISE's Sustainable Business Incubator, which will assist entrepreneurs with start-up ventures in renewable energy, CO2 reduction, and other environmental technologies, as well as with emerging business models involving carbon trading, sustainability consulting, and sustainable social enterprises. For the latest information on the Incubator, please visit sustainablebusinessincubator.com.

After graduating from Rutgers University with a B.A. in history, Drew saw that there was a lot of injustice in the world and decided to do something about it. He dedicated himself to two years of service as an AmeriCorps member with Great Falls YouthBuild in Paterson, NJ where he taught G.E.D. classes, construction training classes, and leadership development workshops for young people ages 17 to 24 who were aiming to better themselves and their communities through G.E.D. preparation and the construction of affordable housing. While at YouthBuild, Drew came to realize that many of these young people's situations were due to poor choices and others were due to economic traps and lack of resources. This led him to devote himself to helping others. Drew felt that it was the power of national service that led him to dedicate himself to this cause. Since this time, Drew has led two AmeriCorps programs in New York City, at The After School Corporation and City Year New York, where he has helped other young people realize the power of national service as well. Drew is in the process of earning his Master's of Science in Urban Policy Analysis and Management at Milano the New School. He currently works at the Bergen County Division of Community Development administering Community Development Block Grant, HOME Investment Partnership Act and Emergency Shelter Grant funds.

Ms. Italiano is Managing Principal of Merintra Co., LLC, a strategic business and market development consulting firm that she founded in 2003. Prior to founding Merintra Co., she spent 15 years on Wall Street leading large scale change initiatives related to governance and strategy alignment for both Morgan Stanley and Chase. Her program management responsibilities also included new product development, market roll-outs and operational infrastructure implementations to support business strategy.

Ms. Italiano now works with green economy clients to build their business and brand equity through sustainability measures, value creation and market related risk management practices. She also offers allied merchant banking advisory services to facilitate capitalization requirements associated with Green Building, Renewable Energy and FSC Certified product companies.

Currently, Debra sits on the Boards of three visionary start-up companies – categories are technology / advanced commerce, integrated composting, green jobs development / youth focused – and is also serving as Strategic Advisor to GreenWorks NYC, a Collaboratory and Innovation Forum for New York Green Economy stakeholders as Chair of the Sustainable Food Systems sector for that endeavor and as Strategic Advisor to the CALL CCEA energy aggregation framework, designed to bring Community Renewable Energy systems and program initiatives to municipalities throughout the state of New Jersey.

Ms. Italiano received her BS from Pace University in New York City, is a USGBC LEED Accredited Professional and uses whole systems thinking and permaculture design metaphors to facilitate interdisciplinary groups and collaborative forums for her clients and community.

Kevin Burke has been working with disadvantaged youth on both a local and national level for over thirteen years. He currently works as a mental health specialist at the Children’s Transitional Residence at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) where he aides in the treatment of children with emotional and behavioral disorders. Prior to that, he served as the National Director of the AmeriCorps Education Awards Program at YouthBuild USA, overseeing a grant that enabled over 900 YouthBuild students to improve and provide valuable services to their communities while earning money for their education. After leaving YouthBuild USA, he returned upon request to help lead the YouthBuild AmeriCorps Katrina Rebuilding Project, a start-up residential program in Gulfport, Mississippi that provided an opportunity for YouthBuild graduates to help rebuild homes on the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. The pilot program was responsible for the building and rehabilitation of more than 100 homes destroyed by the storm.

Kevin began his involvement in youth service in 1996 as an AmeriCorps member, and then program manager of the New Jersey Youth Corps at UMDNJ, a program that provided life skills training, mediation and conflict resolution services, and mentoring services to middle school and high school aged students throughout New Jersey.

Douglas Cohen practices Social Architecture focused on sustainability as a driver of large-scale change.

He is practitioner of collaborative, cross-sector solution seeking, addressing key social equity and economic justice and spiritual dimensions of the Sustainability Era using the tools of human systems thinking and self-organizing social learning and change processes. His professional sensibility has been informed by experiences in multi-national corporate leadership development, organizational capacity building in social services and Child Welfare & Foster Care reform, and a deep dive in the youth development and youth leadership domains. Since 2004, Doug has been in a civil society pioneering social change organization, the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development [USPESD].

He is Chair, Resource Council – National Youth Initiatives and co-developer of the Green Jobs for At-Risk Youth Initiative, and serves on the Executive Committee of USPESD. He advocates an Inter-Generational Partnership model as a core value and operating principle for progressive change. Doug is on the Advisory Council for the Institute for Sustainable Enterprise at FDU and the leadership team for the Coalition for One Voice in NY City. He has led retreats around the world for those who are called to service of humanity.

At once, but to varying degree at different times, Ron embodies an Artist-Teacher-Designer-Builder. After securing a BA in Fine Arts from Colgate University in 1969, and an MAT from the Rhode Island School of Design, Ron worked 25 years as a self-employed designer-builder engaged in all forms of custom residential projects. He has built and renovated houses, offered services in finish carpentry, built furniture, and installed gardens -- and currently contracts as a design consultant.

Ron has taught extensively -- K – Adult. He received a teaching certification from the National Outdoor Leadership School in Alaska, and has offered professional workshops in Art, Design, Sustainable Building Practices, and Personal Empowerment – as well as numerous workshops and presentations to groups of emotionally disturbed adolescents. Ron is currently an adjunct professor in the Art Department at Sussex County Community College.

Ron sits presently on the Board of Directors of Genesis Farm – an ecological learning center and seat of wisdom in the Earth Literacy movement – where he has led community workshops on straw bale construction and served as supervisor for the Farm’s Volunteers for Peace work camps – which have also built two straw-bale construction projects.

He continues to be creative and active, with some physical limitations due to Parkinson’s disease diagnosis 9 years ago. Ron presides as Executive Director & Chairman of the Board of The Healing Community at Fairview Lake, a camp for families whose lives have been impacted by HIV/AIDS (Aids Benefit Committee of New Jersey – John DeMarco Humanitarian Award – 2002). And he remains an environmental activist and a blogger.