Dr. Saleem H. Ali Burlington, Vermont
Saleem is the director of the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, and Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Queensland, Australia (on extended professional leave from his tenure at the University of Vermont, USA). Dr. Ali is a National Geographic Emerging Explorer for 2010 and author of "Treasures of the Earth: Need, Greed and a Sustainable Future" (Yale University Press). He can be followed on Twitter @saleem_ali
President: Brett Hulstrom Portland, Oregon
Brett Hulstrom is currently an Environmental Specialist with the City of Portland’s Bureau of Environmental Services. Brett is the City of Portland’s lead staff person for the Dental Best Management Practices (BMP) Program. The City’s BMP Program, developed in cooperation with the Oregon Dental Association (ODA) and local member dental associations, was one of the first programs to address mercury issues from dental facilities and has been used as a model for other communities throughout the state and country. Brett was instrumental in the development and implementation of a Mercury Collection Event operated in conjunction with the annual ODA Conference. To date, the collection events have collected nearly 1,000 pounds of bulk mercury, mercury amalgam and other mercury containing devices.
Advisory Board Member: Dudley H. Hafner
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Dudley retired as CEO of the American Heart Association, Inc., a 700 million dollar non-profit health and research organization. Hafner serves on two foundation committees that annually recognizes outstanding contributions made by non-profit agencies in the field of education, environment and health. He is a peer reviewer for Nonprofit Leadership, a scholarly journal published by the Mandel Center at Case Western Reserve University. Since his retirement from AHA Inc. in 1997 he has coached senior officers at Fortune 600 companies and a humanitarian organization building community in developing countries.
Thomas Cushman, Antananarivo Madagascar
Tom is the founder and former Manager Advisor of the Madagascar Institute of Gemology. This school was established to teach stone grading, cutting and polishing to spur economic development with the Malagasy. A native Idahoan and the director of Allerton Cushman, Inc., Tom has been trading gemstones in Madagascar since 1991, and he also serves as Madagascar’s ambassador for the International Colored Gemstone Association.
The late Ralph Hazleton: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Ralph was a founding member of Artminers and helped shape our path. He will forever stay in my heart as a beloved friend and tough mentor. Ralph was born in Oregon but it was too small to hold him. He served honorably in the US military during the 60s but became disgusted at the Vietnam war and moved north, sending then-president Nixon his shredded passport. He went out into the world and took on the hardships and horrors of managing refugee camps, then advised generals on how to help victims of war. (more)
Advisory Board Member (non-voting): RW (Bill) Shafer Canby, Oregon
Bill is a retired National Vice President of the American Cancer Society. Prior to that he led the Oregon Division of ACS as Executive Vice President. Following retirement, Bill helped establish Cancer Care Resources of Oregon, which provides assistance to patients and their families after a diagnosis of cancer. He has served as president of Lake Oswego Rotary Club, and is a past president of Oregon Senior Golf and Willamette Valley Country Club.
Executive Director and Founder: Kristina Shafer
Portland, Oregon
Kristina is a past Creative Director and Writer/Producer for corporate advertising agencies and continues to work independently as an ad consultant. Serving a wide range of jewelry clients, her campaigns for diamond anniversary bands were syndicated nationally. In 2001, Kristina began research and development of a novel, patented apparatus that recovers microscopic gold particles from ore and brought Cleangold to the market in 2002. Cleangold has since been verified by two independent University studies, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, World Wildlife Fund-Guianas, and British and Danish Geologic Surveys as a clean alternative to mercury for artisanal and small scale gold miners. Kristina formed the Institute for Sustainable Mining (Artminers) in 2003 to bring Cleangold and capacity building to subsistence miners in developing countries.
