Meet the Team

Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Richard Young studied history at the University of Hawaii. There, his interests in the rise and fall of civilizations led him to research the adaptability of cities to change. He went on to lead seminars in urban design and land-use interpretation at the California Institute of the Arts. Richard joined SustainLane in 2006 and helped establish the award-winning SustainLane Government knowledge-base, one of the first online tools for collecting best practices in sustainability. He currently lives in Oakland, California, and worries about the future of his island birthplace.

Lulu Lin came to SustainLane after working as an educator for four years, including two years spent as a teacher overseas. Lulu speaks five languages, including Japanese and Chinese. A Bay Area native, she is a graduate of the University of California Berkeley, where she studied artificial intelligence as part of her degrees in Cognitive Science and Applied Mathematics. She put these skills to use as a research analyst for SustainLane's 2008 City Study, crunching data and formulating algorithms. Born in Taiwan, Lulu has traveled in seven countries, including Japan, where she rode her bike through rain, sleet or snow in order to decrease her carbon footprint.

Jordana Gustafson is a freelance journalist based in San Francisco. She was born and raised in California, educated in Connecticut, and apprenticed in radio at WBUR-Boston. As a foreign correspondent based in Mexico, she reported for NPR and Marketplace. At WUNC-Chapel Hill, she was part of the duPont-Columbia award-winning team that produced the series North Carolina Voices: Understanding Poverty. She has reported for and contributed to numerous outlets, including the Boston Globe, the BBC, and This American Life. Jordana is fluent in Spanish, has traveled on four continents, and has lived in Sweden, Vietnam, and Mexico. Since moving to San Francisco, where there is curbside, single-stream recycling and food scrap composting, Jordana estimates that her personal solid waste diversion rate is about 95 percent.

An award-winning journalist, Chanan Tigay has covered the Israeli-Arab conflict as a Middle East based correspondent, the attacks of Sept. 11 from New York City, and has reported out of Ukraine and Poland. He has contributed to publications ranging from Newsweek and The New York Times, to the Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, The Jerusalem Post, and United Press International. He has interviewed leading American political figures including Sens. Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Joe Lieberman, along with top Israeli parliamentarians such as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Shimon Peres. A writing instructor at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, Chanan holds an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and a B.A. in political science from the University of Pennsylvania.

Karyn Miller-Medzon is a freelance writer, editor and radio producer living, working, playing sustainably in Boston, MA. She has a Masters degree in International Relations from McGill University and a Masters Degree in Journalism from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. She's written for numerous newspapers and magazines including the Montreal Gazette, Toronto Star, Toronto Globe and Mail, New York Newsday, the Boston Herald, and more. She's also held the titles of Senior Writer for WBUR/NPR radio's Morning Edition and Associate Producer for the nationally-syndicated Here and Now program. She freelances regularly for NPR stations. When she's not recording, writing or editing, Karyn runs marathons and tends her green children, bio-degradable husband and eco-friendly dogs.

Faye Chen is a graphic designer from Taiwan. She was educated in Taipei at Ming Chung University with a background in Commercial Design. She holds a MFA degree in Graphic Design from Savannah College of Art and Design. She has received numerous awards, including the SCAD Honors Fellowship. Her knowledge of and extensive experience with both Eastern and Western design sensibilities allows her to work in a broad spectrum of styles. Faye has worked on several sustainability projects prior to joining the SustainLane team.

Amy Wing Fong Lee is a Bay Area artist and a freelance designer/illustrator. She was raised in Los Angeles and graduated from UC Berkeley with a double major in Art and Architecture. She was also trained in painting at the New York Studio School and was the first recipient of the Wendy Sussman Prize in Painting in 2005. Her oil paintings and cardboard constructions have been exhibited in local galleries such as the Rock Paper Scissor Collective, Lobot, Receiver Gallery, and Cellspace, as well as the Hotel Reichspost in Berlin. Her professional portfolio includes projects in game design and corporate branding. Amy is responsible for many of the design concepts featured in the city-study.

Diana Budds is a freelance writer and graduate of the University of California, Davis where she double-majored in Environmental Policy Analysis and Planning and Art History. While attending UC Davis, she worked on a transportation study of the Olive Drive corridor, and traveled extensively through Europe, studying sustainable city planning in Scotland, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. Diana rides a purple bike in the country's most bike-friendly city (Davis). She enjoys beating Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle, before recycling the paper.

Brad Ewing researched the 50 largest U.S. cities for SustainLane's City Sustainability Rankings. In addition, he conducts research for the National Footprint Accounts and coordinates the Ecological Footprint Standards Committee at Global Footprint Network. Previously, he analyzed forest and prairie carbon sequestration at the University of Michigan Biological Station and identified ecological systems for the State of Ohio Gap Analysis Program. He has authored reports including Africa: Ecological Footprint and Human Well-Being, Report on the Ecological Footprint in China, and WWF's Living Planet Report 2008. Brad holds a B.S. in Economics and a B.S. in Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology from The Ohio State University. He is currently pursuing an MBA at UC Davis.

Many thanks to Elli and the rest of the tech team in India. We couldn't have done it without them!

Please visit our About Us to meet the rest of our team at SustainLane.com.