Staff
Pamela Matson, Ph.D
Scientific Director
Pam Sturner
Managing Director
pam.sturner@stanford.edu
Jessica Barry
Program Coordinator
jjbarry@stanford.edu
Eiko Rutherford
Program Associate
erutherford@stanford.edu
Valentina Fontiveros
Communications Assistant
vfontiveros@stanford.edu
Pamela Matson, Ph.D.
Scientific Director
A 2000 Leopold Leadership Fellow, Pamela Matson is the Richard and Rhonda Goldman Professor of Environmental Studies in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, the Naramore Dean of the School of Earth Sciences, and McMurty Fellow for Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. She was an early contributor to the international global change research program, serving in leadership positions in the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program and Projects, and on the National Academy Board on Global Change. More recently she has been a leader in efforts to harness science and technology for sustainable development, serving as a member of the National Academies Board on Sustainable Development and as the founding chair of the National Academies Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability. Her contributions have been recognized through election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and as a recipient of a MacArthur prize. She has served as Scientific Director of the Leopold Leadership Program since January 2005.
Pam Sturner
Managing Director
For the past decade Pam has worked in communications and nonprofits to promote understanding between scientists, environmentalists, decision-makers, and business leaders. As a newspaper reporter and editor, she covered a range of environmental and resource management issues on the San Francisco Peninsula. She later served as the development director for the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, a nonprofit dedicated to greening the high-tech industry. Before joining the Leopold Leadership Program, Pam was the executive officer of the San Francisquito Watershed Council, a nonprofit stakeholder group that engages and educates the community about watershed science for sound resource management planning. In this capacity she convened the council's diverse members to consider a number of resource issues approaching critical near-term decisions. Pam serves on the Environmental Advisory Committee to the Santa Clara Valley Water District board and on the board of Friends of the San Francisco Estuary. Pam graduated from Yale College with a B.A. in English literature and environmental history.
Jessica Barry
Program Coordinator
Jessica Barry is a program coordinator with a great appreciation for organization. Before joining the Leopold Leadership Program, she worked for several high tech companies in the Bay Area, including Hewlett Packard, Apple Computer and Cisco Systems. While at Apple Computer, she had the opportunity to coordinate Mac World, one of the best-known and largest computer industry trade shows. She also worked on public announcements and new product photo shoots for the first iPod and the 17-inch PowerBook laptop.
Outside of work, Barry is an active fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. In 2004, her team raised $10,000 at the Campbell Relay for Life in Campbell, California, an event in which volunteers are sponsored to run or walk around the local high school track for several hours at a stretch. In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors and her true life passions, traveling and cooking.
Eiko Rutherford
Program Associate
Eiko Rutherford joined the Leopold Leadership Program in October 2007. Before joining the program, she worked for a nonprofit organization promoting relations between Virginia and Japan, as a program coordinator at the Stanford Overseas Studies Program in Kyoto, Japan, and, most recently, for Hitachi Chemical America. While at the Overseas Studies Program, she organized a variety of cultural and educational events and arranged internships with Japanese corporations and universities in order to enrich students' experiences in Japan.
Eiko has been long interested in environmental issues, especially nature preservation and alternative energy. She also enjoys outdoor activities such as hiking, camping and snorkeling.
Valentina Fontiveros
Communications Assistant
Valentina Fontiveros is an undergraduate in the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences at Stanford University. As a docent for Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve (JRBP), an ecological research center at Stanford, she has mentored sixth-grade students from Eastside College Preparatory School, teaching them methods of field ecology for studying plant communities.
Mineralogy and environmental problems are two of Valentina’s academic passions. A native of Venezuela, Valentina hopes to learn more about the complex systems at work on our planet, including topics as diverse (yet connected!) as the risk management of natural hazards and the impact of global change on humans and biodiversity. Her interests outside school include her family, traveling, nature writing, and the outdoors.
About the Program