Gerry Ellis/Founder

GLOBIO was founded by Gerry Ellis with a core of talent and resources from his two-decade photojournalism career, but quickly expanded to include a wide range of exceptionally talented and dedicated people from children’s publishing, technology, the arts, business, and the education community. Each individual involved brings a unique skill set, and a deep personal passion, to connecting kids in global learning and dialogue. Read more

Gerry Ellis created and founded GLOBIO as an outgrowth of the Wild Orphans project in the late 1990s. As a professional naturalist and photographer, Gerry has worked extensively throughout the world. He was a member of World Wildlife Fund's initial biodiversity research team in New Guinea. Gerry has experienced first hand the rapid loss of global biodiversity and its impact on children's lives while working on books such as America's Rainforest.

Visit Gerry's Blog

 

Sponsors and Support

Board of Directors

J. Keith Crisco, Board Chair, is the current North Carolina Secretary of Commerce. He brings to GLOBIO 38 years experience in business and commerce. Since 1986, he has served as President and Chairman of Asheboro Elastics Corporation. For the 8 years prior, Crisco worked as President of Stedman Elastics in Asheboro, North Carolina. After receiving his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1968, Crisco took a job as Assistant to the Executive Vice President for Burlington Industries. During his ten-year tenure with the company he was promoted to Account Manager in Chicago, Illinois and then National Accounts Manager in New York, New York. From 1970-1971 Crisco served as a White House Fellow in Washington, D.C. as Assistant to the Secretary for Commerce. Crisco, 65, has served 16 years on the board of Randolph Community College and is a member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at the North Carolina School of Public Health. Read more

Doug Gastich, Secretary, is an instructional technologist mixing innovative technology and engaging content to connect with young learners. He is the manager of content development for Learning.com, where he works to deliver the high quality web-delivered curriculum directly to the classroom. His current focus is on gaming for education and user generated content. In step with the growth of the Internet itself, Doug has worked as architect and creative director of quality websites, games, CD-ROMs, museum kiosks and even PDA-based WiFi media applications. He has had the honor of working with the best in the industry, from public institutions like PBS and the National Academy of Science to entertainment content companies like The Jim Henson Company and FableVision, to large educational publishers like Pearson Scott Foresman, Houghton Mifflin and Knowledge Adventure.

Leslie Coolidge is an assurance partner with KPMG LLP's Chicago office. She is one of KPMG's top technical resources, having been designated as one of the firm's SEC Reviewing Partners. She previously served as a partner in KPMG's Department of Professional Practice, where she was the firm's representative on the AICPA's Accounting Standards Executive Committee.

Gerry Ellis founded GLOBIO as an outgrowth of the Wild Orphans project in the late 1990s. As a professional naturalist and photographer, Gerry has worked extensively throughout the world. He was a member of World Wildlife Fund's initial biodiversity research team in New Guinea. Gerry has experienced first hand the rapid loss of global biodiversity and its impact on children's lives while working on books such as America's Rainforest. He previously served as Board Chair for the nonprofit Rhino Trust.

Polly Hix has enormous international travel experience and senior board experience. She serves on the board of the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, and founder of the Museum’s Dinosphere’s Polly H. Hix Paleontology Prep Lab. She is a board member of the Black Hills Museum of Natural History and Indianapolis Zoo. Indianapolis Zoological Society, The Eiteljorg Museum of Native American and Western Art, Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, South Dakota, The Indianapolis - Marion County Public Library Foundation.

Todd Trzcinski has nearly 25 years experience managing accounting systems and departments for both privately- and publicly-held corporations. For the past three years, Trzcinski has been leading the accounting department as Controller of Fios, Inc., one of the largest electronic discovery service providers in the United States. Prior to joining Fios, he served as Controller for several privately-held growth companies, including Christensen Electric and Envoy Global. Other major companies in which Trzcinski has served include Consolidated Freightways and CNF Transportation. Trzcinski specializes in developing and managing corporate business plans, managing costing models, helping companies prepare for growth and expansion, and ensuring accounting systems and personnel are utilized to their full potential.

Photographers

Ken and Mary Campbell have recently donated the bulk of the wonderful underwater and wildlife photo collection to GLOBIO. In addition,these fine photographers are continuing to photograph around the world on GLOBIO's behalf. When not traveling they present travel programs in support of GLOBIO to elementary schools in the northeast USA.

Michael Durham is one of finest specialty nature photographers in the world. His unique style of high-speed and sensor triggered nocturnal photography has created glimpses of biodiversity few have even imagined. Michael's donation of time and imagery to GLOBIO is of enormous value.

Gerry Ellis has been an internationally renowned wildlife and nature photographer for over twenty years. His credits and awards rank him among the top in the world. He is currently coordinating new photo and video projects for GLOBIO’s Visual ARC.

Dr. Katherine Feng was GLOBIO's China Panda Project photographer. She has over a decade of travel experience throughout China photographing wildlife, landscapes and indigenous cultures in many of China's less visited areas.

Michael Wilhelm is a gifted photojournalist and award-winning environmental photographer. His specialties include documenting river system, US salmon and neo-tropical migrant songbirds. Michael is a valued member of GLOBIO's founding Board of Directors.

Christian Ziegler is contributing his wildlife images of tropical Central America to further enhance Glossopedia™. Children delight in his wonderful images of insects and other small animals created from their perspective.

Where We Work

Beyond our online resources, which reach over a half million children, teachers and others each year, our teacher workshops, Bring-A-Book deliveries and photographic documentary projects engage countless individuals globally with GLOBIO’s mission. GLOBIO works in the following locations: Read more

GLOBIO Countries:

  • Botswana
  • China
  • Ecuador
  • India
  • Kenya
  • Namibia
  • Peru
  • Rwanda
  • Tanzania
  • Uganda
  • United States
  • South Africa
  • Zambia
  • Zimbabwe

Our History

Founded in 2001, GLOBIO is an educational nonprofit organization. Our mission is to engage children in cross-cultural dialogue and understanding, inspiring them to protect the diversity of all life on earth.GLOBIO aims to engage 7-12 year old children on how to make respectful, conscious decisions about the planet in which they live and to understand how they can make a difference in environmental quality and biodiversity issues. We deeply believe that children, no matter what nationality, share similar concerns and interests about the world, and that their participation is fundamental to the responsible management of Earth’s limited resources. But children first must understand their place in the global community and environment and the effects of their actions. Read more

Our objectives are to create multimedia tools and programs that connect kids to the environment, to other kids, and to actions they can take to manage natural resources wisely; we also provide professional development to teachers to ensure that they have the knowledge, skills, and resources to support kids in making these connections.