Dr. Tatsuo Okada, Chairman
Tatsuo is Executive Director of NPO Global Sports Alliance, which he founded in 1999 in Japan. He has established GSA Teams across Africa and Asia, and in 2007 he founded GSA-USA, of which he is now Chairman. An avid sailor and dedicated to the environment, Tatsuo is Chairman of the Japan Sailing Federation’s Environment Committee, as well as Chairman of Preserve Planet Earth Committee, Rotary International. He received his Ph.D. in Materials Science from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Jane Poynter, President
Jane is one of only eight people to live sealed in an artificial world for two whole years. Her training for Biosphere 2 led her to ride the Australian Outback on horseback, and sail across the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. She managed the design and operation of the farm where the crew grew its food. She is the author of The Human Experiment: Two Years and Twenty Minutes Inside Biosphere 2.
Jane is a founder of Paragon Space Development Corporation, which develops technologies for extreme environments (like outer space, under water and hyper-efficient buildings). Jane has had experiments in her patented self-sustaining habitats flown on the International Space Station, the Russian Mir Space Station, and the U.S. Space Shuttle. She has also worked with the World Bank on projects to mitigate global climate change. Jane has appeared on hundreds of television and radio shows, and has been interviewed for many magazine and newspaper articles about Biosphere 2 and her work in space and the environment.
Elisabetta Ambrosia, Secretary/Treasurer Elisabetta has been involved with GSA USA since its inception in early 2002, and has been instrumental in developing our non-profit organization. In August 2005, she traveled to Nagoya, Japan as an invited guest at the Sports Summit for the Environment, held at the Aichi World EXPO 2005. The United Nations sponsored the program in an ongoing effort to solve global ecological issues using sports.
Elisabetta spent most of her formative years in Europe and has traveled extensively. She is a litigation assistant and performs legal translations. She is also preparing to attend law school.
Gary Baraff, Board Member
Gary owns Summit Communications, a strategic marketing consulting company in Boulder, Colorado. He has also served as Vice President/Marketing for Intelligent Office, a national virtual officing and communication solutions franchisor. Prior to that he was Senior Vice President/Business Development for First Magnus Financial, the nation’s 12th largest mortgage banking operation. He has also served as Director of New Markets for SmartHealth, Inc, a national provider of business development products and services, and Director of Marketing for AlphaGraphics, Inc, an international franchisor of digital publishing and visual communication services.
Betty Barton, Board Member Betty has worked on aspects of global sustainability, social accountability and clean energy since the mid-1990s. For 14 years she has been a Public Policy Advisor at the law firm Patton Boggs where she specializes in issues involving strategic assistance, issue advocacy, crisis management, and policy innovation. She helped launch the White House initiative, Technology for a SustainableFuture and the EPA Innovations Task Force Aiming for Excellence. She was appointed by the US EPA Administrator to the National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology’s Compliance Assistance Advisory Committee. She also provided consultation and implementation guidance on "first-ever" internationally certified environmental management and social accountability programs for major multinational food companies.
Previously she lived and worked in Washington, DC and Alaska, spending time in places and engaging in endeavors that remain close to her heart. Among her fondest memories was her work in Bush Alaska, which included several years as a circuit riding city manager serving communities dotted throughout the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. As she looks back, she knows it is a corner of the world that vividly demonstrates the importance of careful environmental practices exercised by each of us.
Rich Pierson, Board Member Rich is President and Founder of Pierson Construction Corporation, which specializes in municipal infrastructure. His life’s goal is to play a proactive role in environmental awareness and enhancement, and reads everything he can get his hands on about what he can do to reduce his own impact on the environment. To that end he is working to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of the heavy equipment his firm uses during construction. A native of upstate New York who has made his home in Scottsdale, Arizona, Rich is an avid outdoorsman. His particular sporting passion is cycling and skiing.
