People

Staff:

Jillian De Gezelle - Executive Director   jillian@remedia.us

Jillian combines her experience in research, education, and non-profit work with her passion for art and new media as the Director of Remedia. She graduated from Reed College in Portland, Oregon with a BA in Biology and a secondary focus in Cultural Anthropology.  She is now a PhD Candidate in Plant Sciences, and currently writing her dissertation on Belizean Ethnomedicine, in a joint program between The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, and The New York Botanical Garden.  Her extensive experience in education includes teaching college Biology courses in the Bronx, as well as K-12 environmental education in NYC, elementary art education, training public school teachers in science education, and giving guest lectures on ethnobotanical research at various colleges and institutions.  Her diverse professional experience ranges from laboratory-based scientific research,  to cultural research in NYC immigrant communities, to institutional affirmative action, to reproductive health work and advocacy.

Douglas Reeser - Program Director  douglas@remedia.us

Doug has turned his long-time interest in indigenous knowledge into an academic endeavor, and is currently a PhD student in Applied Anthropololgy at the University of South Florida in Tampa.  He received his BA in Anthropology from West Chester University in Pennsylvania, an MA in Applied Anthropology and an MPH in Global Health from the University of South Florida.  His research interests include diet, food, and small-scale production, indigenous knowledge and indigenous movements, and alternative health systems.  He views an applied approach as essential to his work, and has utilized photo and video in a number of projects.  His most recent research explored the effects of a school garden program on diet and cultivation practices in Q'eqchi' Maya communities in the southern district of Toledo in Belize.  He is currently working on Botanica research in Tampa, Florida, along with various Remedia projects in Belize.

Maria Lara - Program Coordinator         maria@remedia.bz

Maria has an Associate's Degree in Business from the Univeristy of Belize, and is currently seeking the funding to complete her Bachelor's Degree in Education, also from the Univeristy of Belize.  She teaches as a long-term substitute grade school teacher in the Maya villages of Toledo in southern Belize, and has developed her own educational summer day camp for children in Punta Gorda.  She is our incredibly talented language specialist, and speaks fluent Q'eqchi' Mayan, Spanish, Belizean Creole, and English, as well as a bit of Mopan Mayan and Garifuna!  She translates for many of Remedia's collaborative projects and events with Belizean and Guatemalan traditional healers, assists in ethnographic research and ethnobotanical field collections, and is the coordinator for our Indigenous Language Training Program.

Board of Directors: 

Jillian De Gezelle

Margaret Sikowitz

Julian Heal

Lisa Offringa