M. Ann Howard is a professor of public policy and urban and community studies, director of RIT's University-Community Partnership and former chair of the Department of Public Policy. She also currently serves as senior associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts.

Her areas of expertise include environmental policy, the Great Lakes and community service-learning. Howard is also an expert in asset-based community development and the role of the citizen in environmental decision-making, with an emphasis on democratic process and practice.

Prior to joining RIT, Howard served as director of planning for Monroe County, NY and as director of policy and planning for the City of Camden, NJ. She holds a bachelor's in human ecology from Cornell University and a J.D. from Rutgers University.

Jim Myers focuses on challenges associated with the development of natural resources, infrastructure and the related impact on human health and welfare. He spends much of his time on project implementation in the developing world. He has worked extensively on energy, water and food-systems development in post-conflict environments in southeastern Europe.

In 1998, Myers led the implementation of academic programs at the American College of Management and Technology—an RIT affiliate—in Dubrovnik, Croatia. In 2002, he helped establish the American University in Kosovo and continues to lead the RIT programs at American University in Kosovo. He is a consultant to the World Bank’s Western Balkans Energy Efficiency Assessment team and has worked on numerous development projects in the Western Balkans. He also conducts research in Haiti and serves on the board of Haiti Outreach Pwoje Espwa (H.O.P.E), a non-profit organization that provides health care and basic infrastructure in Borgne, Haiti.

Myers teaches courses in natural resource economics, environmental accounting and finance, infrastructure development and appropriate technology. Since 2002, he has received grants, contracts and foundation awards totaling more than million. He is currently director of the Center for Multidisciplinary Studies and Global Outreach Education at Rochester Institute of Technology, where he supports RIT global initiatives in Southeastern Europe, Dubai and the Caribbean. He also serves as director of the Center for Energy and Natural Resource Development at the American University in Kosovo. He earned his Ph.D. in natural resource economics from Michigan State University and his M.S. and B.S. degrees from RIT.

John Schott specializes in remote sensing of the earth from aircraft and spacecraft. He heads the Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing group at RIT. His particular expertise is in the areas of hyperspectral and thermal infrared sensing and synthetic scene simulation and modeling.

Schott has published more than 100 technical publications in the field of remote sensing and wrote the textbook, Remote Sensing: The Image Chain Approach, Oxford University Press (1997).

He is the principle investigator on a wide range of programs for the civil and defense / intelligence community. His research work focuses on developing new remote sensing techniques and applying techniques to solve customer problems.

Schott received his bachelor's in physics and sociology from Canisius College and his master's and Ph.D. degrees from State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Anthony Vodacek is an expert in optical sensing of the earth environment. He has expertise in environmental applications of remote sensing, aquatic optics, remote sensing of water quality and water depth, remote detection and monitoring of fire, the use of lasers for remote sensing of the environment and hyperspectral imaging.

Vodacek has authored more than 19 peer-reviewed journal articles. He is the principal investigator for over million in externally funded research grants and is an instructor and advisor at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

He earned his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1981) and his master's (1985) and Ph.D. (1990) in environmental engineering from Cornell University.

James Winebrake conducts research to determine the environmental impacts of transportation and energy use in society. He applies quantitative models to assess environmental impacts primarily related to air quality and global climate change.

Winebrake is an expert on energy technology, global warming, transportation and energy and environmental policy.

At RIT, he is dean of the College of Liberal Arts and co-director of the Lab for Environmental Computing and Decision Making. Winebrake is also director of the National Parks Service's University-National Park Energy Partnership Program.

Winebrake is the author of The Alternative Energy Reference Book and Dynamic Modeling of Environmental Systems, as well as numerous articles on transportation, energy and the environment.

Winebrake earned his B.S. in Physics from Lafayette College, his M.S. in Technology and Policy from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Energy Management and Policy from the University of Pennsylvania.