President

Hortenisa is an anthropologist and head of the Anthropology of Development Laboratory and Associate Researcher at the Center of Anthropology of the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research (IVIC). She received her Ph.D in anthropology at the University of Arizona (2003).

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Her work focuses on cultural, historical and political transformations among the Venezuelan Yanomami as well as intercultural processes and indigenous rights among  Amazonian peoples. She currently serves on the advisory council for the Wenner-Gren Foundation and is on the Good Project board.

Board Member

Grant E. Rogers has over twenty years of equity and fixed-income experience. He began his career as a private banker at the Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Company, where he was responsible for coordinating investment management, lending, and custody services to high net worth individuals and institutions. For the four years prior to founding Metis Capital, he was involved with marketing equities for Julius Baer and for CIC Securities to institutional investors. Prior to that, he was Head of Sales for CIC's fixed income, derivative, and currency division in Paris, France, where he oversaw the sales effort in Paris, London, New York, and Singapore. His background also includes options trading at the Bank of Boston.

He has a B.A. in economics from Boston University, from which he graduated in 1982. Grant is bilingual in French.

Board Member

Serena became involved with the Good Project when she wrote a screenplay calledNapagnum which was featured at the Sundance Writers Lab as well as the Plume et Pelliculewriters workshop sponsored by Dreamago in Sierre, Switzerland. Her first feature film, The Merry Graingers was written, directed and produced by Serena.

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She holds an M.B.A. from Texas Christian University and a BA in Economics from the University of Texas. What began as a script has evolved into a deep personal connection to the Yanomami. A people whom she believes the world should embrace for they can teach us many things including knowledge that was lost, or that we may have never had to begin with.

Executive Director

David Good was born on November 2, 1986 at the Bryn Mawr hospital in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He attended East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania where he received his undergraduate and master’s degree in biology. He is a member of the Explorers Club, a visiting scholar at Rutgers University, and teaches at Northampton Community College of Pennsylvania.

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As a Yanomami-Venezuelan-American, his ambitions lie in establishing dialogue, service, and cultural interchange for the Yanomami and the rest of the world.

Board Member

Dr. Britt Rios-Ellis is the founding Dean of the College of Health Sciences and Human Services at California State University Monterey Bay (CSUMB). From 1994-2014, she served as professor at California State University Long Beach (CSULB) and the founding director of the National Council of La Raza /CSULB Center for Latino Community Health, Evaluation, and Leadership Training and the barrio-based Centro Salud es Cultura.

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She holds Bachelors’ degrees in Spanish and Political Science, a Master of Science in Health and Fitness Management, a certificate in Women’s Studies, and a Doctorate in Community Health from the University of Oregon. She also completed the Institute for Management and Leadership in Education at Harvard and the HERS Program for Women’s Leadership in Higher Education.

Board Member

Treasurer

Jonathon is serial entrepreneur, developer, and world traveler proudly based in Northeast PA. He is the founder and lead developer of Marathon Studios Inc., a web applications and publishing company.

In 2012, he won the first annual PASSHE State Business Plan Competition, and took second place in the Greater Valley Technology Alliance's Business Plan Competition, with my business plan for people search service eDentified, LLC.

In 2014, he won first place in the 12th Annual GVTA Business Plan Competition for TickChek LLC, a biotech company that provides laboratory tick testing services to people nationwide through a high-tech online interface.

His goal is to build successful and profitable web startups, and network with like-minded entrepreneurs and engineers

Anthropologist

Kenneth Good is a prominent anthropologist from the United States. A recognized expert on the Yanomami of Venezuela, Dr. Good received his PhD from the University of Florida. He conducated research at the Max Planck Institute of Munich with Nobel Laureate Konrad Lorenz, and is a Fulbright Scholar.

His book Into the Heart, describing his life and work among the Yanomami in Venezuela was the subject of an award-winning film produced by National Geographic. He is widely published in national and international journals.

Anthropologist

Born in Madrid, Spain Javier completed his undergraduate degree in History and Geography specializing in Americanist Anthropology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He received his Ph.D in Anthropology (2005) from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.

Since 1990, he works among the Yanomami in the Upper Orinoco, (Amazonas State) Venezuela, serving as an anthropology advisor to the Yanomami association, SUYAO (Shaponos Unidos Yanomami del Alto Orinoco), the Upper Orinoco Biosphere Reserve Project for the Venezuelan Ministry of Environment, and the Yanomami Health Plan for the Venezuelan Ministry of Health. He is a visiting research collaborator in the Center of Anthropology at the IVIC (Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research).