
Alex Dolginow
Senior Science Analyst
Forest Management
Our scientists will guide your organization to achieve its climate goals with the right carbon management program.
Alex Dolginow
Senior Science Analyst
Forest Management
Amber Kerr, PhD
Science Advisor
Soil Carbon + Forest Management
Bodie Cabiyo, PhD
Senior Science Analyst
Environmental Science & Policy + Forest Management
Claudia Herbert, PhD
Science Advisor
Forest Management + Geospatial Analysis
Jacob Bukoski, PhD
Science Advisor
Forest Management
Jared Stapp
Science Analyst
Forest Management + Geospatial Analysis
Lauren Gifford, PhD
Science Advisor
Environmental Science & Policy + Forest Management
Letty Brown, PhD
Science Advisor
Forest Management + Biodiversity
Matthew D. Potts, PhD
Chief Science Officer
Forest Management + Biodiversity
Sarah Federman, PhD
Senior Scientist
Soil Carbon + Forest Management
Van Butsic, PhD
Principal Scientist
Forest Management + Geospatial Analysis
Alex is an environmental professional with a background in climate change, land use, environmental markets, and modeling. His experience spans science-based research, project management, and strategy.
Prior to joining Carbon Direct, Alex ran his own independent consulting group, Dolginow Consulting, where he advised clients on environmental issues. His projects have included helping to create a greenhouse gas emissions model and advising on philanthropic grantmaking to slow deforestation.
Education
MS, Energy and Resources Group
UC Berkeley
BA
Harvard University
Her role is to objectively evaluate the technical and biological feasibility of land-based carbon sequestration projects.
Dr. Kerr is an agricultural ecologist with a strong interest in undergraduate education. She is currently working as an adjunct faculty member at UC Berkeley during the summer and at Las Positas College in Livermore during the academic year. She teaches classes in basic biology, applied ecology, climate science, and sustainable energy.
Dr. Kerr completed her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley's Energy and Resources Group in Fall 2012. Her dissertation focused on agroforestry (growing trees together with crops) as a tool for drought adaptation in southern Africa. Dr. Kerr has several years of field experience in Malawi and Kenya, but has also worked on a variety of research projects in California. Her core topics of expertise are ecology, agriculture, climate, and sustainable development.
Education
PhD, Energy and Resources Group
UC Berkeley
MS, Earth Systems
Stanford University
BS, Earth Systems
Stanford University
He also leads multiple internal efforts focused on principles and guidance to push the market towards high-quality carbon projects.
Dr. Cabiyo uses interdisciplinary approaches to investigate nature-based solutions to climate change. He has recently completed his PhD in the Energy and Resources Group at UC Berkeley, where he studied how policy and innovative technology can enable carbon-beneficial forest management. This work bridges industrial ecology, forest economics, and forest ecology.
Dr. Cabiyo's modeling work has focused on the role of innovative wood use in reducing carbon emissions, both in California and East Africa. His applied policy work focuses on improving forest carbon offset protocols. The intent of this work is to promote the more credible translation of carbon dioxide removals to a market context.
Education
PhD, Energy and Resources Group
UC Berkeley
MS, Energy and Resources Group
UC Berkeley
BS
Western Washington University
Awards
Achievement Award
Secretary of Energy
NSF Graduate Research Fellow
Graduate Research Fellowship Program
Presidential Scholar
Huxley School of the Environment
Dr. Herbert received her PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from UC Berkeley. Her doctoral work focused on applications of geospatial analysis and remote sensing in the context of North American fire and forest carbon management. She now focuses on software innovation in the fight against climate change.
Education
PhD, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
UC Berkeley
BS, Conservation and Resource Studies
UC Berkeley
Awards
Honorable Mention, Earth Observation Dashboard Hackathon
NASA
Department Citation, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
UC Berkeley
Dr. Bukoski's research broadly focuses on the conservation, management, and restoration of forests globally. Through his research, he has been fortunate enough to work in forests across the globe - including Thailand, Vietnam, Vanuatu, Brazil, California, and New England.
Dr. Bukoski completed his Ph.D. at the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley, and his M.Sc. in Forest Science at Yale University’s School of Forestry. He also holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Bukoski is also currently an Associate Editor at the Journal of Sustainable Forestry.
Education
PhD, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
University of California, Berkeley
MSc, Forest Science
Yale School of the Environment
BA, Environmental Studies
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Jared is in the final semester of his PhD in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley, where his dissertation work has focused primarily on examining forest carbon offsets within California's cap-and-trade program.
He is interested in the intersection of environmental policy and land use, and uses various tools and frameworks such as remote sensing, cloud-based tools, causal inference, machine learning, and spatial and econometric modeling. He received his BS in Environmental Studies from Utah State University and his MS in Ecology and Environmental Sciences from the University of Maine.
Education
PhD Candidate, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
UC Berkeley
MS, Ecology and Environmental Sciences
University of Maine
BS, Environmental Studies
Utah State University
She works with various teams across the company, advising on forestry and natural climate solutions, advancements in climate tech, and the evolution of voluntary and compliance carbon markets.
Dr. Gifford is a human-environment geographer whose work looks at intersections of climate policy, conservation, markets and justice, with particular focus on carbon markets and offsets, climate finance, and climate tech. Her dissertation research connected UNFCCC policy-making with forest carbon offset development, with a critical focus on carbon accounting and climate justice concerns.
Dr. Gifford is a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at University of Arizona’s School of Geography, Development & Environment working on earth system transformation with the global Earth Commission. She has conducted field research in the Peruvian Amazon, in Maine’s forests, on Cuban organic farms, at the UNFCCC, and at civil society meetings around the globe.
Before studying for her doctorate, she was manager of Dartmouth College’s Climate Justice Research Project, examining the justice implications of carbon markets. Dr. Gifford is regularly consulted as a subject matter expert on NPR, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, Al Jazeera, and more.
Education
PhD
University of Colorado, Boulder
MA, Environmental Studies
Dartmouth University
BA, Communications
American University
Dr. Brown is a forest scientist with formal training in ecology, carbon measurement, reforestation, conservation planning, and nature-based solutions to climate change. She has worked on land-based carbon projects for approximately 9 years in the forests of Cambodia, Indonesia, Kenya, Brazil, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Peru, and the US. Dr. Brown holds a Ph.D. from the Environmental Science, Policy, and Management (ESPM) Department at UC Berkeley and conducted post-doctoral work in Brazil. Dr. Brown currently teaches at UC Berkeley. She is also a Fulbright Scholar.
Dr. Brown currently works on the land-based sequestration projects seeking credit for emission reductions and removals, in California and abroad, through reforestation, avoided deforestation and forest degradation, improved land management, and climate-smart agriculture.
Education
PhD, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
UC Berkeley
MS, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management
UC Berkeley
BS, Biology
UC San Diego
Awards
Fulbright Scholar
Fulbright Program
Specifically, Dr. Potts helps clients assess high quality carbon removal from managed landscapes and works to ensure climate actions are just and equitable. He also works closely with Carbon Direct’s technology team to integrate science, software and product.
Dr. Potts draws on his interdisciplinary background with formal training in mathematics, ecology, and economics to inform his work in nature and community based climate solutions.
Dr. Potts has over two decades of experience in resource management issues in low- and middle-income countries. Though currently on leave from UC Berkeley, this expertise supports his work as the S.J. Hall Professor in Forest Economics at the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, & Management and as the Associate Director for Sustainable Development, Blum Center for Developing Economies, where he leads an interdisciplinary lab that focuses on the co-production by human and natural systems of ecosystem services and natural pathways for carbon sequestration.
Dr. Potts recently served as a coordinating lead author on the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Land Degradation and Restoration Assessment.
Education
Ph.D. Applied Mathematics 2001
Harvard University
A.M. Applied Mathematics 1999
Harvard University
B.S. Mathematics 1996
University of Michigan
Awards
NRT-AI: Digital Transformation of Development (DToD), $3,000,000 (2021-2026)
US National Science Foundation
INCLUDES Alliance: Broadening Career Pathways in Food, Energy, and Water Systems with and within Native American Communities (Native FEWS Alliance), $7,071,915 (2021-2026)
US National Science Foundation
Coordinating Lead Author, Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Land Degradation and Restoration Assessment (2015-2018)
She has a track record of building analytical approaches to understanding complex systems that drive equitable and climate-smart solutions to challenges facing humans and the environment.
Combining passion with a deep technical knowledge of the patterns and processes underlying ecological dynamics, Dr. Federman contributed to Federal R&D Policy for landscape resiliency, agricultural innovation, and the circular carbon economy as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow with the USDA’s Office of the Chief Scientist. Subsequently, in private industry she led, developed, and implemented data-driven continuous improvement frameworks for sustainability strategy to enable responsible vertical scaling for Plenty, an indoor agricultural technology startup.
As a consultant, Dr. Federman developed educational materials for massive open online courses on plant biology for the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. She has additionally consulted for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Beijing on Sino-African illicit wildlife trafficking and Earth Justice on chemical pesticide use in New York State. Dr. Federman holds a Ph.D. from Yale University’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, a M.S. in forest science from the Yale School of the Environment, and a B.A. in Biology from Barnard College. Her graduate studies were supported by the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Student Research Fellowship Program. She has managed multilateral teams and collaborations in Peru, Madagascar, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Education
Ph.D.
Yale University’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
M.S. in Forest Science
Yale School of the Environment
B.A. in Biology
Barnard College
Principal Scientist
Forest Management + Geospatial Analysis
He leverages his expertise in forest science to help clients understand the principles for high-quality carbon removal in the forestry sector. He works closely with Carbon Direct's tech team to integrate science with software.
Before joining Carbon Direct, Dr. Butsic was an Associate Professor and Cooperative Extension Specialists at UC Berkeley where he combined novel econometric methods with geospatial analysis to understand the causes and consequences of land use policy.
Dr. Butsic has developed methods to look at diverse drivers of land use change including carbon offsets, protected areas, wildfires, agricultural subsidies, war, and the regulation of illicit drugs.
Education
PhD, Forestry
University of Wisconsin
MS, Applied Economics
University of Wisconsin
BS, Economics
Reed College
Awards
Humboldt Research Award
Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation