New Members
We would like to extend a warm welcome to the new members of SWG!
Niké Arrighi Borghese (Corresponding) was born in Nice, France, her father was the Italian 
Consul General and her mother was an Australian ballerina and model. Niké was educated in Sydney at the Sacrè Coeur convent, then went on to Paris where she became a model for Balenciaga and Nina Ricci. She studied at RADA, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, and acted for the next ten years in films: “The Devil Rides Out”, Truffaut’s “Day for Night” and others, also in theatre. She danced the “7 Deadly Sins” by Brecht-Weill, at the Genova Opera House, and sang the young lead in “Operetta” by Gombrowitz. She then joined her husband, Paolo Borghese, in Hong Kong, where she taught art to handicapped and orphaned children.
Niké went on to exhibit her own art, winning the the Biennial Art prize, Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Fiorino d’Oro in Florence and the “Donna del Lazio” for Art in Rome, and a Bronze Medal for etching in Paris. She has had exhibitions in London, Hong Kong, Macau, Turkey, Japan, Italy, France and Australia. She likes to sing sacred music in choirs in Palestrina and Artena. She has composed a piece for 15 instruments, “Tsunami “, which was performed in 2007 at the Sala Paolo Borghese in Artena. With her daughter Flavia they save abandoned animals and cook eastern food.
Susan D. Sawtelle (DC) is Managing Associate General Counsel at the U.S. 
Government Accountability Office in Washington, D.C. She oversees GAO’s legal advice and legal opinions to the Congress, the Comptroller General of the United States, and the public on issues including energy, the environment, the financial markets, aviation and transportation, and telecommunications.
Prior to joining GAO in 2001, Susan was a partner in private law practice and Special Assistant to the Director of EPA’s Office of Solid Waste. She took a leave of absence from 1999 to 2000 to serve at the National Science Foundation’s research base at the South Pole in Antarctica, as the Station’s winterover Environment, Health, and Safety manager. She maintains an active interest in the polar areas, among many other environments, and is also a member of The Explorers Club.
Susan earned her J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School and her B.A. in Anthropology and in Asian Studies from Connecticut College.
Dr. Rebecca Lee (Corresponding) is Founder and Director of The Polar Museum Foundation Ltd. Rebecca Lee has transformed herself from a professional graphic designer, painter, photographer and writer to a polar researcher in the last 30 years. She is now working closely with polar scientists in the Mainland to conduct continuous research on the environment. She is also responsible for publicizing the findings to other scientists in the world to identify ways to protect the environment. Pursuit of innovation has resulted in her being recognized as the first Hong Kong woman explorer to reach the Arctic, Antarctic and Mount Everest. She has published more then 10 books on her own, organized educational exhibitions and produced TV documentaries about the world we live in.
Her personal integrity is seen in her courage, resilience, and survival in extreme conditions and adversity. She has approached the Arctic 10 times, Antarctica 7 times and 4 times to the Mount Everest region. Her works shows a true love for the earth and mankind.
Rebecca has delivered hundreds of lectures to secondary school students, university undergraduates about her work, adventure and latest scientific findings on the environmental problems. Some over 500,000 students in Hong Kong, Macau and China have attended her talks. They are inspired to take a more serious attitude towards life and to conserve and protect the environment. The community has benefitted tremendously from her public education efforts. She is contributing significantly to the goal of environmental protection.
Lang-Hung Nora Chiang (Corresponding – Taiwan) is Professor of Geography at National Taiwan University, as well as Associate Dean in the College of Science in that University.
She received her B.A. from the University of Hong Kong, her M.A. in geography from Indiana University, and her Ph.D. in geography from the University of Hawaii. She was also, in 2006, a BRCSS Visiting Scholar with a Seriously Asia Award from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In 2005, she received a Faculty Research Award, International Council for Canadian Studies (York University, Toronto).
In previous years she also received a Visiting Fellowship from the National Science Council, R.O.C., and an Excellence in Research Award at the 10th Pacific Science Inter-Congress. In 1998, she was granted a visiting fellowship from the National Science Council, R.O.C., to the East Asian Research Institute at Harvard University.
Her recent research has been published in many well-recognized international journals and books on the subjects of transnational migration, feminist geography, sustainable tourism. Her research focuses on women and gender.
She was founding Director of the Population and Gender Studies Center at National Taiwan University and, in 2007, hosted a well attended conference of the IGU Commission of Gender and Geography held in Taiwan.
Julie A. Eadeh (DC) has been a foreign service officer in the U.S. Department of State for six years, serving in some of the most demanding and dangerous posts, including Saudi Arabia, Jerusalem, Lebanon (during the 2006 war), and Iraq.
She has been honored as a Presidential Management Fellow, with the State Department Franklin Award, and for four years, with State Department Superior Honor Awards. In 2008 she was American Foreign Service Association Post Representative of the year in Bagdad.
She received a B.S. in history from Eastern Michigan University and an M.A. in Arab Studies and Political Science from Georgetown University. She was an intern at the National Foreign Affairs Training Center in 1999. She has served as Foreign Affairs Officer in the US Embassy in Riyadh, Political Officer in the U.S. Embassy Beirut, and as Economic Officer in the US Consulate General in Jerusalem, and recently as Assistant Information Officer in the US Embassy, Baghdad.
She published chapters in the Encyclopedia of World History-The Contemporary World, 1950 To the Present on the subjects of Wahabism, the King-Crane Commission, King Abdul Aziz, and the United Arab Emirates. She speaks Arabic, French and Spanish.
Kaitilin Griffin (NY) is the Park’s Librarian in the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. She received a B.A. From Columbia University in Comparative Literature, and an M.A. from the University of Toronto in Medieval Studies. Previously, she was Project Manager for Parklands (Parkland Acquisition and Jurisdiction) and Environmental Assessment Coordinator at the Parklands Division, Dept. Of Parks and Recreation.
She was also a Library Assistant, Burke Library, Union Theological Seminary, NY. She has been a student of landscape and botanical illustration and has a Certificate in Botanical Illustration from the NY Botanical Garden School, as well as a Merit Scholarship from the Art Students League. She has several Certificates from the NY Botanic Garden in training in gardening.
She has participated in archeological exploration in Egypt, Turkey, Spain and Central America. She has made various trips to study architecture and botanical and landscape subjects in Italy, Scotland, Wales and England. Her paintings have been exhibited at the Riverside Cafe in Toronto, Ontario, and at the Annex Art Centre, also in Toronto, Ontario.
Student Members
Lisa Alice Howell (UK) is in Tomlinscote School and Sixth Form College- A Levels. Lisa is interested in nature conservation and plans to study geography in university in the UK. She participated in a research project about the reintroduction of wild horses in the UK.
She was involved in all phases of the project work, including background research, field questionnaire, field work and data analysis. The video that was filmed of this project will be used by Nuffield in school education programs in how to conduct a research project.
Shkulla Khpal (UK) is a candidate for a BSc (2010) in Royal Holloway, University of London. She came from Afghanistan and is interested in how political systems help or hinder development. She hopes to do a Ph.D. related to the politics of Afghanistan and Central Asia.
Robin Anne Lewis (At- Large AZ) is a candidate for a Ph.D. in Geography with a minor in Global Change (in 2010) at the University of Arizona. She previously received her B.A. and M.A. in Geography and a B.S. in Botany from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
She has received two Fulbright awards, a Fellowship, sponsored by the Malaysian- American Commission on Educational Exchange and U.S. Dept. Of State, and a Fulbright-Hays Group Study Abroad Grant, Consortium for Teaching Indonesian and Malay-Advanced Indonesian Abroad Program, Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Salatiga Indonesia.
Robin has also received a Pre-Doc Graduate Research Grant from the Social and Behavioral Research Institute and several Graduate Student Travel Awards from the Institute for the Study of Planet Earth and from the Professional Student Council, the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers and from the Department of Geography and Regional Development, University of Arizona. She has been Teaching Assistant/ Grader in the Department of Geography and Regional Development at the University of Arizona.
For several years she has been a Student Member of the AAG and the Ecological Society of America. She has advanced proficiency in the Indonesian language from study in the University, as well as beginning proficiency in Malaysian from self- uided study. She also is proficient in Spanish.
Audrey Meredith Mohan (TX) is a Ph.D. Research Assistant for the Grosvenor Center for Geographic Education in the Department of Geography Education at Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas. She will complete her degree in Geographic Education in 2009, with a dissertation that explores teacher efficacy in geography teacher education and training.
She is working on developing a national, K-12 and post-secondary geography education, geography teacher preparation and efficacy, environmental education, and informal geography education. She has also worked on educational policy initiatives as the Grosvenor Scholar for National Geographic Society, and has worked on the geography curriculum development for the states of Texas and California. Audrey has had teaching experience at the university level in quantitative methods, and introductory regional geography for college freshmen or beginning geography majors, at Texas State University.
She has published various refereed papers on geography education from conference proceedings. She has also co- uthored several books and book chapters on geography education curriculum and made many presentations at workshops and meetings in many U.S. cities, Tunisia and Australia.
Rong (Tracy) Zheng (UK) s a Ph.D. student at Royal Holloway University of London, concentrating on water use in Beijing and Chonqing. She received a M.Sc. with distinction from that Royal Holloway University and a B.A. From Sichuan International Studies University in China.
She plans to return to China to work in an academic department where she can continue to do research as well as teach. She speaks English, German and her native Chinese.
Annalise Gomersal Blum (CA) is studying at Stanford University and expects to graduate in June 2010 with a BS in Environmental Engineering.
She spent summer, 2008, helping with research on water and sanitation in Tanzania, and is also conducting her own research project on this topic in Ecuador this summer. Annalise is interested in working on international development and public health in the future.