Rich Earth Institute : Our Team

Our Team

Jamina Shupack

Executive Director

Jamina is interested in any system that treats waste as a resource, especially when it comes to sanitation. She joined the Rich Earth team in 2021. She sees improving the sanitation systems in the United States and beyond as a vital component in the fight against climate change. Jamina holds a Bachelors in Environmental Science with a minor in Biology from the University of Oregon. She comes to the world of circular sanitation after 12 years as an educator. In her spare time, she can often be found working on a sewing project, cooking for her community, embarking on a bike tour, or swimming in the closest body of water.

Abraham Noe-Hays

Research Director & Co-Founder

Abe is the Research Director of the Rich Earth Institute, where he coordinates a multidisciplinary research and demonstration effort involving farmers, scientists, planners, and volunteer participants, with the goal of developing tools to allow other communities to start recycling urine. He is also the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Rich Earth’s spin-off, Brightwater Tools. A lifelong resident of Vermont, he has used alternative sanitation systems since 1976, and has been academically and professionally involved in their development since 2000. He holds a BA in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic.

Arthur Davis

Operations Director

Arthur Davis holds a B.A. in Geology and Environmental Studies from Oberlin College and has been working with alternative sanitation systems since 2013. This includes working on the Living Machine Wastewater System at Oberlin College and work as a marine engineer on an educational tall ship in the Puget Sound region. He is excited to be back home in Brattleboro, VT, working toward completing the food nutrient cycle. At Rich Earth, Arthur directs Rich Earth’s community-scale urine recycling program (the Urine Nutrient Reclamation Program), coordinates the portable toilet service, and works on technical and agricultural research projects. He also works as an R&D engineer at Rich Earth’s spinoff company Brightwater Tools.

Tatiana Schreiber

Social Research Director

Tatiana Schreiber received her B.S. in Rural Sociology and Nutrition from Cornell University, her M.A. in Mass Communications from Emerson College and her Ph.D in Environmental Studies from Antioch University Graduate School. Her graduate work examined economic, ecological and cultural sustainability and resilience among coffee and cacao growers in Chiapas, Mexico. She has worked as a public radio journalist and is currently teaches agroecology and writing courses at Keene State College. At Rich Earth Institute she conducts social research on urine diversion and re-use under our National Science Foundation (NSF) and Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grants. She especially enjoys working with and learning from farmers about their interests and needs. Other current endeavors include development of dual-use solar and agricultural projects and growing/selling organic seedlings at Sowing Peace Farm, in Westminster West, Vermont.

Julia Cavicchi

Education Director

Julia coordinates Rich Earth’s “Urine My Garden” education program, local community outreach, and science communication. She also organizes the annual Rich Earth Summit, the global gathering for researchers and practitioners to advance the field of urine nutrient reclamation. She received her B.A. in Environmental Studies from Skidmore College, an MRes in Human Geography from the University of Glasgow, and has been with the Institute since 2019. She is committed to the ongoing journey of exploring how reclaiming our ‘waste’ can fertilize social change. Julia’s nutrients split their time between Rich Earth’s community peecycling program and her veggie garden.

Jed Blume

Development Director

Jed Blume, M.A. joined Rich Earth Institute as the Director of Development after five years of supporting the organization as an Organizational Development Consultant. Jed brings with him an accomplished track record as an activist, organizer, trainer, strategist, fundraiser, consultant, and musician. After completing a Master’s Degree through SIT Graduate Institute in 2012, Jed began partnering with organizations as a freelance consultant to support community-based programs, social services, education, environmentalism, and the arts. As of the beginning of 2021, the impact of this work has raised over three and a half million dollars for over 20 organizations primarily in the southern Vermont region. In joining the Rich Earth Institute, Jed will continue developing grant applications and working with the team to map out strategies for development.

Mike Iacona

Finance Director

Whether he’s creating and analyzing spreadsheets, or calculating the surface area of a yurt roof, Mike has always enjoyed working with numbers. He holds a BS in Finance from Penn State University, but his favorite class at university was the one in which he learned about the simple magic of composting toilets. Work at the Rich Earth Institute allows him to combine his joy of working with numbers with his fondness for composting toilets and urine diversion systems. He has been known to design and facilitate taper-wall yurt building workshops, remodel kitchens, carve wooden spoons, and is currently learning how to make ladder-back and windsor chairs.

Cole Teranes

Gretchen Saveson

Research Associate

Gretchen believes in a food system where there is no such thing as waste. Since graduating from the University of Vermont in 2021 with a BS in environmental sciences, she has followed her interest in sustainability to various points within our food system. On farms in western Massachusetts, she has built soil health and produced food using regenerative practices. In Vermont, she has researched effects of mycorrhizal fungi in blueberry cultivation. Most recently, she has worked in the wetlands of Nevada and California to monitor the critical resources they supply to desert ecosystems and our cattle industry. She entered the world of eco-sanitation while installing and maintaining composting toilets throughout Massachusetts and is excited to continue alchemizing waste into resource at the Institute.

Gregory Reilly

Operations Technician / Bookkeeper

Gregory joined Rich Earth as the Operations Technician supporting the Urine Nutrient Reclamation Program, portable toilet service, and technical and agricultural research projects. He enjoys strengthening relations with the natural world and values turning (would be) waste toward useful and creative needs. Some part of his body is often engaged in drumming, and he seeks to unite and inspire people through rhythms. He is a student of the world around him, and his passion to understand and translate his human experience manifests in poetry and friendship. Before departing on a world walkabout in 2019, he was a successful accountant and business professional. Fast forward to today and Gregory’s values are being lived out in endeavors of art, earth based practices, and sustainability.

Robin Fitzgerald

ECO AmeriCorps Member

Robin is a recent graduate from Bennington College with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. Their senior thesis explored the relationship between Western conceptions of freedom and nature. Robin is guided by the idea that there is nothing you can’t learn or discover if you have enough curiosity. They are interested in expanding the accessibility of scientific knowledge through illustration, theater, poetry, and prose. Robin is honored to serve as an ECO AmeriCorps member with Rich Earth, and eager to gain a deeper understanding about our waste and water systems, and empowering community members with accessible knowledge and resources. In their free time Robin can be found staring intently at plants, reading, drawing silly stories, or playing games with friends.

2024 Interns

Zada Grant

Zada Grant (or Z for short) and just graduated from a local high school, and was born and raised in VT. She is going to college in the fall to study environmental engineering at RWU (Roger Williams University) in Rhode Island. She plans on getting her bachelors and then a masters within the next 4-6 years. Zara is glad to be useful and helpful in and around Rich Earth and to gain as much information and experience as she can.

Cory Howley

Cory is a rising senior chemical engineering major with a minor in bioengineering at the University of Dayton. They are excited to learn more about sustainability, agriculture, and nonprofit operations as a part of their third co-op semester experience. In their free time, they like to rock climb, read, and spend time outdoors.

Avery Gillman

Avery is from Wareham, Massachusetts and is a junior working towards his B.S. in industrial design from Wentworth Institute of Technology. He is excited to be staying in Vermont and working at Rich Earth Institute and Brightwater Tools for his first Co-op semester. For four years, he’s worked seasonally as a farmhand at Bay End Farm, passionately planting, cultivating and harvesting organic produce. In his free time he enjoys sewing and modifying clothes and accessories.

Jess Shapiro

Jess Shapiro is working on attaining a B.S. in Environmental Conservation and Sustainability, with a focus on ecology and agriculture at the University of New Hampshire. Being raised in the southern VT/NH area, she gained a deep appreciation for all the things the earth has to offer. Once in college, it only felt right to pursue an education in this field. She’s always eager to learn more about just about anything to do with nature and is so excited to be a part of the Rich Earth Institute’s movement!

Kim Nace

Rich Earth Institute Co-Founder Emeritus / Brightwater Tools CEO

Kim Nace holds an M.A. in International Administration from World Learning and an M.A. in Educational Leadership from Keene State College. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana and has taught children of all ages. She coordinated research funded by the MacArthur Foundation and later served as an Elementary School Principal – in rural Vermont and in Chennai, India. She has been passionate about sustainable sanitation alternatives ever since creating an educational video about composting toilets for her 1989 master’s thesis project. As Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Rich Earth Institute, she focused her leadership and organizational strengths to build a high performance team at the Institute and to engage others in the possibilities and practicalities of urine recycling. Kim is now CEO of Rich Earth’s spin-off organization, Brightwater Tools. Kim and her family use a urine diverting composting toilet.