Megan Epler Wood
FOUNDER & PRESIDENT
Megan Epler Wood is a conservationist, ecotourism pioneer, research leader and consultant on questions of managing sustainable tourism for destinations, business, and civil society. She has spent her career working with local people to achieve net positive results for the environment and local well-being. Since 2010, her research and teaching with Harvard and Cornell universities has vetted a wide range of solutions to help protect destinations using advanced business management, environmental health, social science, technology, landscape design, and environmental science. As a principal consultant for her firm, EplerWood International, she has worked in over 35 countries for international development agencies to develop regional strategies for sustainable tourism and economic development. She is dedicated to helping global industry and governments to leverage the positives of tourism while genuinely addressing the tough questions of managing rapid tourism growth worldwide. Epler Wood is the author of the 2017 book, Sustainable Tourism on a Finite Planet and the 2019 report Destinations at Risk; The Invisible Burden of Tourism.
Tanner C. Knorr
PROGRAM MANAGER
Tanner Knorr manages EplerWood International’s new business, develops the newsletter, and continues to build a presence for the company via public relations, social media, and events. Tanner holds a Bachelor’s in Archaeology and a Master’s in Administrative Studies, concentrating in Economic Development and Tourism Management from Boston University and was a Teaching Assistant at Harvard Extension.
He owns a business called Off Season Adventures that strives for sustainable tourism practices in Tanzania, Ethiopia, Tunisia, Uganda, Rwanda, and Nepal, and is the President of Second Look Worldwide, a 501(c)(3) organization that sponsors infrastructure improvements around tourism destinations in the developing world.
Amber Marie Beard
SENIOR ASSOCIATE
Amber Marie Beard is an accomplished sustainability professional with over 15 years of global experience. She has dedicated her entire career to integrating sustainability in projects and organizations across the industries of real estate investment, private equity, development, hospitality, construction and design. She is driven by a strong passion for transforming the state of our societies and global consciousness by creating a resilient, equitable, sustainable and regenerative world for all.
Organizations that Amber has led in sustainability include Lend Lease, China Resources, SURF Capital, Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas and Pegasus Capital Advisors. All of which have demonstrated commitment to combat climate change and transform our world towards a more sustainable and healthy one. She has now established her own company, projekt hABitat, where she collaborates with companies, real estate investors, developers, operators and communities as an integrated member of the team providing strategy, support, oversight and expertise via a multi-faceted and holistic sustainability approach.
Amber has her Bachelors Degree in Architecture and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee and is a LEED AP BD+C™.
Dr. Vicente Molés
SENIOR CONSULTANT
Dr. Vicente J. Molés is an international consultant with more than 25 years of experience in international development programs and tourism. He advises several multilateral development institutions and the International Sustainable Tourism Initiative (ISTI) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Molés has worked for the Valencian Government (Spain), European Commission in Brussels, Spanish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID) in Bolivia, UNWTO Themis Foundation as the Director, and at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Brazil.
His experience in the tourism sector covers issues related to global strategic alliances, strategic planning, sustainable tourism, learning and management of development programs, and projects within public and international institutions. Dr. Molés is an Industrial Engineer, receiving a Doctorate in Industrial Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and a Master’s degree in Hotel and Tourism Management from the University of Valencia. He is an Instructor at the Harvard Extension School.
Sofia Fotiadou
RESEARCH MANAGER
Sofia Fotiadou is the Eco-design & Sustainability Lead for an international company specializing in the design and construction of major transport infrastructure based in Paris. She is also the Research Manager at the International Sustainable Tourism Initiative (ISTI) of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health overseeing the Tourism and Environmental Health in a Changing Climate project. Within this project, she has worked on the development of an ISTI Framework for Sustainable Destinations and a pilot implementation of the framework, funded by GIZ, in two destinations in Tunisia.
Sofia is an Architect-Engineer and holds a Master’s degree in Sustainability from Harvard University DCE. She has a strong technical background with many years of experience in buildings and infrastructure, design and construction. As a researcher, she has worked on research on Mediterranean tourist destinations with a focus on direct and indirect impacts of tourism’s water and energy consumption, short and long-term effects of climate change on destinations, and carbon management at the accommodation and destination level.
Dr. Nejem Raheem
RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
Dr. Nejem Raheem brings over 15 years of experience as an environmental economist to EplerWood International. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of New Mexico, and is an associate professor of economics at Emerson College in Boston, MA. His expertise is in economic analysis of natural resource and environmental issues, focusing on ecosystem services and traditional or indigenous economies.
In addition to Emerson, Dr. Raheem has taught economics at Kinship Conservation Fellows and the University of New Mexico. He is currently working on a project with scientists from the USGS, The Nature Conservancy, and the Wildlife Conservation Society to examine the effects of long term drought on human communities.
Nejem grew up in Nepal and Bangladesh, with many long trips to Sri Lanka. Since then, he continues to travel the world, most recently spending time in Newfoundland and Ecuador.
Dr. Mark Milstein
SENIOR ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT ADVISOR
Dr. Mark Milstein is the Clinical Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He conducts research in and oversees the Center’s work on market and enterprise creation; business development; clean technology commercialization; and sustainable finance.
Dr. Milstein frames the world’s social and environmental challenges as unmet market needs which can be addressed most appropriately through business innovation and entrepreneurship so that the private sector can achieve financial success by creatively addressing problems such as climate change, ecosystem degradation and poverty. He works closely with a variety of firms in renewable energy and carbon markets, life sciences and sustainable agriculture, consumables, food and nutrition, health care and hospitality management, as well as finance and international development.