Lynn Schauwecker

Lynn Schauwecker is the Founder and Executive Director of Floresta Project. She has worked in development and fundraising since 1994. Over the past twenty years she has worked with several not-for-profit organizations and has a range of experience in all aspects of development including: major gift solicitation, special events, grant writing, campaign development and implementation, network development, and pubic relations.

Lynn has developed and organized many events including a special four-day Longevity Conference with the Dalai Lama, Doctors of the World events with guest speakers such as Hilary Clinton and Susan Sarandon, and the first gathering of the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. For the past seven years Lynn’s focus has been to develop partnerships with Indigenous and Native peoples from communities in the Brazilian Amazon, South America, and in the United States. With Floresta, she aims to support Indigenous and Native communities in becoming self-sustainable, helping them to improve their quality of life while preserving and safeguarding Mother Earth.

Angelina Nasso

Angelina Nasso is a co-founder and Program Director for Floresta Project. While living in Australia she worked in Media, Communications and Advertising. She has a BFA in fine art, and has been exhibiting in the US and Europe for over 15 years. She has worked as an educator creating art programs for children, as well as initiating fundraising events for Tibetan orphans in India.

Her interest in comparative religion, plant medicines, and different ways of prayer has led her to study with teachers around the world. Since 2003 she has been travelling to the Amazon, developing relations with the people of the forest. She has also has worked closely with Native elders in North America. Angelina is actively committed to preserving the original traditions of Indigenous peoples and supporting the sustainability of their communities in North and South America through her work with Floresta Project.

Cameron C. Dubes

Cameron C. Dubes is the LikeMinds Development Consultant for Floresta Project and founder of LikeMinds Network, LLC. LikeMinds specializes in providing consulting services to the nonprofit sector with special emphasis on fundraising, communications, and planning. LikeMinds has a broad network of independent consultants and small firms specializing in all aspects of nonprofit management. Other consulting services include market & prospect research, branding, finance, human resources, and licensing. Cameron’s background includes nearly 30 years of professional fundraising, communications, and nonprofit branding services for human rights, health, education, religious, environmental, advocacy, cultural, civic, and youth service organizations.

Anne Frederick

Anne Frederick is the Executive Director of Hester Street Collaborative (HSC), where she has worked to develop a community design, education and advocacy organization that responds to the needs of HSC’s local neighborhood in Lower East Side/Chinatown, as well as the needs of other under-resourced New York City communities. Her unique approach to community design integrates education and youth development programming with participatory art, architecture, and planning strategies. This approach is rooted in partnership and collaboration with community-based organizations, schools, and local residents.

Prior to founding HSC, Anne worked as an architect at Leroy Street Studio Architecture and as a design educator at Parsons School of Design and the New York Foundation for Architecture. Anne graduated from Parsons School of Design and The New School for Social Research in 1998 and has represented the work of HSC at various conferences, lectures, and exhibitions. To date, she has coordinated design education programs in over a dozen schools citywide, has overseen community design initiatives in a variety of parks and open spaces on the Lower East Side, and has initiated partnerships with a range of local and city-level organizations to improve the built and natural environment in underserved New York City neighborhoods.

Inga Hulleberg

Inga Hulleberg isa website development assistant for Floresta Project. She works with children, plant medicines, sustainable farming and food preservation.

Avery Jenkins

Avery Jenkins is a Permaculture designer and educator. Born in the heart of the Catskill Mountains and raised in spiritually intentional communities, Avery developed a deep appreciation for nature and the divinity of all things. Traveling throughout the world has exposed Avery to many of humanity’s problems and the negativeimpactthat man has had our planet. Avery recently spent several months living with a community in the Amazon rainforest, and has also traveled to Arizona with Floresta Project. He is committed to supporting the development of sustainable food programs.

Mona Polacca

Mona Polacca is a Havasupai, Hopi, and Tewa Native American whose tribal affiliation is of the Colorado River Indian Tribes of Parker, Arizona. She is a member of The International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, a group of women representing Indigenous cultures from around the world who are concerned with the destruction of the earth and traditional ways of life. She served as a U.S. delegate at the Indigenous Women’s Intercontinental Meeting in Lima, Peru, where she participated in the drafting of the Statement on Indigenous Women’s Issues. She participates in the United Nations Permanent Forum of Indigenous Peoples Issues, and for the past ten years she has been a member of a working group planning the Indigenous World Forum on Water and Peace. Her intercontinental work among Indigenous Peoples includes assisting First Nations in Canada in the drafting of Water Declarations, and South American Peoples in a collaborative effort to “call for protection of the cultural and sacred waters” on the lands and territories of the Indigenous people of the world.

Mona has been a featured conference speaker both nationally and internationally, focusing on Indigenous peoples’ human rights, aging, mental health, addiction and violence. She is also the President/CEO and a faculty member of the Turtle Island Project, a non-profit program dedicated to promoting a vision of wellness and providing trans-cultural training to individuals, families, and healthcare professionals. She is committed to supporting initiatives that develop effective strategies and sensitive approaches towards addressing Indigenous human rights.

Thomas Sandbichler

Thomas Sandbichler is a consultant to Floresta Project, bringing a background of integrative architectural design and sustainable building. His work over the last 10 years includes restoration, planning and design, and energy-efficient building principles.

Marisa Scirocco

Marisa Scirocco, living in New York and originally from Schenectady, is a graphic designer, project manager, dancer and artist. Marisa has been a volunteer with Floresta Project since 2009. She was the onsite manager of the construction of a general kitchen that was facilitated by Florest Project in the community of vila Céu do Mapiá in Amazonas, Brazil which was completed in 2012.

Robert Wootton

Robert Wootton, a native of Ireland, has had an extensive career in the entrainment industry managing bands and nightclubs. Two years ago, Robbie relocated to the Amazon and is now permanently based there after selling his businesses. Robbie's background is rooted in financial management, production, and orchestration of multiple projects and groups in the music industry. Robbie will be overseeing and managing Floresta’s projects in Brazil.