ADVISORY BOARD

Buster Fichera
Assistant Director for Water Pollution Control, City of Fort Worth

Buster Sebastian "Buster" Fichera is a graduate from the University of Texas in Austin. He has a B.A. in Biology and is a Registered Environmental Manager with the National Registry of Environmental Professionals. His experience spans over 29 years, his entire professional career, in the environmental field. His experiences include ten years in Pinellas County Florida, where he was responsible for developing a full service environmental laboratory and later as an Environmental Manager for the Water Quality Management Division. His last twelve years have been with the City of Fort Worth Water Department as the Industrial Pretreatment Manager and more recently as the Assistant Director for Water Pollution Control.

Lara Korba
Managing Partner, Stakeholder Research Associates USA, LLC. 

Lara Korba is an experienced consultant with expertise in strategy development and project management in the areas of sustainable development, corporate responsibility and the development of effective stakeholder engagement practices. She has worked in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, leading projects in the energy sector, banking and financial services sectors. She is currently based in Dallas, Texas.

Her work includes strategy development for a multi-billion dollar oil and gas company and benchmarking sustainability and corporate responsibility for a multi-billion dollar financial services company. She has also contributed to stakeholder engagement studies for Industry Canada, National Resources Canada, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the Sustainability Learning Programme of the International Finance Corporation the International Finance Corporation (a division of the World Bank).

Prior to completing her MBA at the Schulich School of Business at York University, Lara worked in financial services for several years. Her roles varied from operations consulting to  managing client services. In addition to her MBA (Business and Sustainability specialisation), she holds a Graduate Diploma in Business and the Environment from the Schulich School of Business and an Honours BSc from the University of Toronto.

Barbara Nickerson
Group Manager, Principal, and Vice President: Freese and Nichols

B.S., Southeastern Massachusetts University; M.S., Texas Christian University. Ms. Nickerson, manager of Freese and Nichols; Environmental Science and Remediation Group and a vice president of the firm, has served as project manager for environmental audits, environmental impact statements, wildlife mitigation projects, permit applications, water quality studies, biological assessments and groundwater monitoring projects. She has prepared environmental assessments for solid waste management, hazardous waste management, water transmission and resources and site development projects. As Group Manager, Ms. Nickerson regularly performs QA/QC on all Phase I and Phase II site assessments prepared by her staff. Many of these projects have involved coordination and interaction with state and federal regulatory agencies. Ms. Nickerson has attended numerous special schools in order to remain current on her knowledge of state and federal regulatory agencies; rules, regulations and operating procedures.

Sy Sohmer
Director: Botanical Research Institute of Texas

B.S., City College of New York; M.S., University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Ph.D., University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu. Sy Sohmer is a systematic botanist, with specialization in conservation of biodiversity. In addition to his duties as Director, Sy brings expertise in: biological infrastructure, biodiversity conservation, systematics of the paleotropical members of the genus Psychotria (Rubiaceae or Coffee family), floristics of Hawaii, the Pacific, Papuasia, and Malesia, to the Program. In his career, he has carried out fieldwork in various parts of the continental U.S., Hawaii, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea. Sy is BRIT's representative to the Ethnobotanical Products Investigation Consortium (EPIC), a consortium with scientists from the University of North Texas Health Science Center, and Texas Christian University. He is also involved with the studies of plants in the maintenance of human health.

Curtis Wales
Environmental , Health and Safety Manager, Motorola

B. S. Electrical Engineering Technology, Texas A&M University. Curtis Wales is the Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Manager for the Motorola manufacturing facilities located in Ft. Worth, Texas and Tempe, Arizona as well as the research and design plant in Chandler, Arizona. Curtis has served Motorola as both an environmental engineer and environmental manager primarily in the semiconductor operations for the past thirteen years. He has 15 years experience in Environmental, Health and Safety with industry operations and regulatory development. Curtis is a member on Texas’ legislatively mandated Pollution Prevention Advisory Committee and is Vice President of the non-profit Environmental Education for Tomorrow, which promotes youth environmental education. In the past, Curtis has worked with the TCEQ and the EPA on the Common Sense Initiative, Clean Industries 2000 and the Environmental Leadership Program, which earned him the Motorola CEO Award for EHS. The Ft. Worth Campus is currently participating in EPA’s National Environmental Performance Track, TCEQ’s Clean Texas Cleaner World National Leader program and OSHA’s VPP Star program. Curtis is happily married and the father of five precious children.

Chris Williams

Details to come...