With a shared vision about their future and a wealth of accessible data to support decision making, forests in the western United States are healthy and adapting to climate change. Indigenous practices are the dominant management paradigm, and forests provide diverse benefits to people and wildlife, including habitat, water, carbon storage, recreation, cultural connections, and economic activity. Fire is a natural part of forests without posing a severe risk to communities or water sources.
We focus on what’s possible.
We use the best information as the basis for sound decision making.
We create vivid stories to make meaning and break through.
We look decades into the future to map a path forward.
We work at wildfire-relevant scales, such as watersheds and landscapes.
Oktay has been supporting mission-driven organizations and climate tech innovators his entire career. He was previously the Vice President, PayPal Giving, leading the company's efforts on a mission to increase giving in the world. Under his leadership. PayPal's Giving platform raised more than $21B for nonprofits around the world in 2022. Before PayPal he was a co-founder and CTO of MissionFish, eBay Inc.’s nonprofit partner powering cause-marketing and donation programs built into eBay properties until its acquisition by eBay in 2011. He also served as the CTO of the Points of Light Foundation, where he focused on building volunteer management and matching systems. Prior to that he was a management consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and worked as an information technology analyst with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He was included in Washingtonian Magazine's list of DC's 2023 Tech Titans, highlighting the most important and innovative leaders in DC's tech scene right now. He received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and his M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University.
Chelsey works at the intersection of natural resource management, geospatial data science, and communications. She is passionate about the ability of place and technology to bring data, disciplines, and people together to support inclusive decision making and solve complex challenges. Across her research and geospatial data science roles in academia, industry, and philanthropy, she has worked closely with stakeholders from government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and communities around the world co-creating models and decision support tools addressing pressing socio-environmental challenges. She holds an M.S. and Ph.D. from North Carolina State University in forestry and environmental resources and a B.A. from Iowa State University in journalism and mass communications. Contact Chelsey.
Alister brings extensive geospatial expertise to Vibrant Planet Data Commons, leading the team in geospatial development, design, and storytelling. In this role, he oversees the creation of user-friendly tools and visualizations to enhance accessibility and understanding of VPDC's data. This includes supporting the development of the MMRV platform and managing the user needs assessment for the Climate Smart Commodities grant.
Alister's background spans geospatial sciences, cartography, data visualization, web design, and development. Throughout his career, he has leveraged GIS and web technologies to support wildlife conservation, academic research, cultural preservation, environmental initiatives, and natural resource management efforts. Alister also leads WayFind LLC, a creative agency specializing in geospatial technologies and visual storytelling, collaborating with organizations that share his dedication to positive global impact. Contact Alister.
Bryce A. Denton is Vibrant Planet Data Commons' Chief Financial Officer. Bryce’s vision to drive consulting partnerships into an immersive and engaging experience led to the founding of Moun10 Partners in late 2010. Before that, he spent nine years focusing on both operational and strategic applications of financial accounting. For the last 12 years, Bryce has primarily worked with environmental nonprofits and for profit organizations in the outdoor industry. He has worked with global clients such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) and the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN). He has a bachelor's degree in accounting and an MBA with a focus on entrepreneurship. He lives and adventures in the mountains of Colorado with his wife, daughter, and beloved black lab.
Chankrit is a social entrepreneur and spends most of her time advocating for and bringing resource equity to marginalized entrepreneurs of small and medium businesses (SMBs). Her focus lies in quantifying the social impact of public benefit SMBs and using data to strategize growth and bring profit to social ventures. Chankrit founded and ran a global healthcare delivery non-profit organization- Disaster EPR- that became one of northern India's most successful emergency education and ambulatory care nonprofits. Along with a Master’s in Statistics and Epidemiology from Mount Sinai, she also completed a dual Global Executive MBA program at Columbia (CBS) and London Business Schools (LBS) in 2023. Over the past two years, she designed and led a practical workshop series to bring equitable growth and development to justice-involved entrepreneurs (Startup Works).
Chankrit is passionate about using data to maximize impact for purpose-driven social enterprises. She is now developing and launching CBS Tamer Center’s Venture Clinic for justice-impacted entrepreneurs. She is also the founder of Impact Evolution, a data-led consulting firm that helps entrepreneurs of SMBs quantify their social impact and leverage it to increase profit. At Vibrant Planet Data Commons, she is working with the team to launch a monitoring and evaluation dashboard to better track and assess the organization's impacts. Contact Chankrit.
David has worked professionally at the intersection of forest science, policy, and management since 2008. His work has evolved from reporting on forest carbon markets and climate policy, to developing carbon offset projects and accounting standards, and over the past ten years has involved honing expertise in forest growth-and-yield modeling, geospatial data science, and software engineering. As a descendant of the Coahuiltecan first peoples of south Texas and northeastern Mexico, David finds particular inspiration pursuing actionable science motivated by the needs and interests of tribal communities and natural resource programs. David holds a B.A. in Environmental History from Harvard, an M.S. in Soil Science from Oregon State University, and a Ph.D. in Forestry from the University of Washington. David splits his time between Vibrant Planet (a Public Benefit Corporation) and Vibrant Planet Data Commons.
Michael (Mike) and his wife Denise enjoy their country life south of Dallas where they have raised their four children. Mike is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. He worked at the Grand Ronde Natural Resources Department for 28 years, the last 15 as Dept. Manager. He has enjoyed the difficult work of protecting tribal sovereignty and rights, while promoting tribal economies. He recently left his job with the Grand Ronde to enter a new chapter of semi-retirement and consulting work and projects he is dedicated towards. Mike is currently leading Vibrant Planet Data Common’s work to develop guidelines and practices for sharing Indigenous data.
Jenessa works with Vibrant Planet Data Commons on Communications and Outreach. While training to be an outdoor guide, learning how physics drives fire behavior sparked her interest. While a NASA intern, Jenessa interviewed hundreds of people working in fire and shadowed a fire response team. She compiled their requests, challenges, best practices, and barriers in addressing the fire crisis. Jenessa works to bridge data and fire communities across the fire cycle for healthier landscapes and safer communities. Jenessa previously worked at OSU College of Forestry, with roles including media and communications liaison, fire science TA, and GIS analyst. Her team’s work on public fire education was featured by Esri. Jenessa holds a B.S. in plant biology, M.S. in environmental science, 10 years' experience in GIS, and 15 years in fire.
Maria is a seasoned product leader with over 20 years of product management experience in Silicon Valley, with industry experience that spans the sciences, insurance, and social media. She has conceived and built innovative analytics and enterprise applications at Facebook, Guidewire, and Informatica, and has managed products and advised at Palantir, Hearsay Social, and National Ignition Facility. Maria specializes in building out scaled, analytical platforms that power decision making. She is currently a Product Manager at Vibrant Planet.
Mike is a versatile and results-focused consultant, experienced across a variety of technical, analytical and research design functions including data collection and analysis, tool development, decision support, econometrics, land use modeling, impact analysis and GIS. Mike has extensive knowledge of and experience in natural resource management and conservation particularly related to spatial and non-spatial information systems to facilitate management and conservation of fisheries, forestry and sustainable agriculture. Mike also has proven leadership skills including oversight of highly skilled and diverse staff, contribution to strategic direction and ability to build diverse teams to achieve research goals. He is passionate about leveraging data, technology and science to make a lasting difference in equitable outcomes related to natural resource management, community well-being and conservation.
Brad is supporting Vibrant Planet Data Commons' strategic framework development. Brad founded Groundwork Strategies to bring communications expertise, deep issue understanding and a broad network to organizations that are advancing solutions to challenges facing our climate and forests. Over the past 20 years, he has worked with a wide array of conservation and sustainability organizations, including the Bullitt Foundation, Climate Solutions, ClimateWorks, Forest Stewardship Council, The Nature Conservancy, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Trust for Public Land, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. From strategy and message development to website production and social media, Brad uses communications as a tool to bring people together, set a course and make a difference. Brad has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brown University and a master’s degree in Watershed Systems and Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He lives in Seattle, where he serves on the board of directors of Seattle Parks Foundation.
Bill is a Professor of Forest Ecology and Forestry at the University of Vermont. There he directs the Carbon Dynamics Laboratory and is a Fellow in the Gund Institute for Environment. His research spans a range of fields related to forest conservation and sustainability. These include forest ecosystem dynamics, forest fires and disturbance ecology, riparian ecology, forest carbon and climate, old-growth forests, and ecologically-based forestry practices. Geographically Dr. Keeton works in several regions of the U.S., as well as eastern Europe, the Himalayan Mountain Region, and Chilean Patagonia. He chairs the IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations) Working Group on Old-growth Forests, and serves on the boards for Science for the Carpathians and the Vermont Land Trust. Bill worked as a Fulbright Specialist in Ukraine (2008) and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Austria (2021). He recently co-edited the book “Ecology and Recovery of Eastern Old-Growth Forests,” published by Island Press (2018). He holds a B.S. in Natural Resources from Cornell University (’90), a Masters in Conservation Biology and Policy from Yale University (’94), and a Ph.D. in Forest Ecology from the University of Washington (2000).
Alex has spent five years as a Research Manager on Meta's Data for Good team. This team released over 25 privacy-protecting datasets to assist with natural disasters, public health, poverty, and climate change. Before that Alex led the growth team at a startup scaling the company to 35 countries over 3 years. Prior to this he worked on access to information and Internet programs for 6 years at an international NGO called IREX; first in Ukraine, next in Namibia, and then in Washington DC. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching mathematics in Namibia from 2006 to 2008. Alex holds a BS in physics from the University of Illinois, and an MS from the University of Michigan (where he also taught astronomy.) He has served as a board member of School to School International since 2016 and as chair since 2021.
Yuko is a senior director of engineering at Lyft, responsible for the strategic direction, vision, growth and performance of Lyft’s customer experience and safety. As a seasoned professional, with more than 20 years of experience, particularly with data, machine learning, and software engineering, Yuko is known for intelligently driving product experience, using data and ML. Before Lyft, Yuko was a director of engineering at Square for 2.5 years, responsible for product analytics, science and engineering for Square’s core products and infrastructure. Yuko is also known as the strong advocate of diversity and inclusion in Silicon Valley, and has influenced the company culture through public speaking, program evangelisms, and deep connection in the women engineering community. Yuko is a mother of two young kids, living in Marin County. Making the world better for our youth is important to Yuko, and she is looking forward to using her backgrounds in data and engineering to make a difference in the climate change and global warning through VP Data Commons.
Oktay has been supporting mission-driven organizations and climate tech innovators his entire career. He was previously the Vice President, PayPal Giving, leading the company's efforts on a mission to increase giving in the world. Under his leadership. PayPal's Giving platform raised more than $21B for nonprofits around the world in 2022. Before PayPal he was a co-founder and CTO of MissionFish, eBay Inc.’s nonprofit partner powering cause-marketing and donation programs built into eBay properties until its acquisition by eBay in 2011. He also served as the CTO of the Points of Light Foundation, where he focused on building volunteer management and matching systems. Prior to that he was a management consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and worked as an information technology analyst with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. He was included in Washingtonian Magazine's list of DC's 2023 Tech Titans, highlighting the most important and innovative leaders in DC's tech scene right now. He received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins University and his M.S. from Carnegie Mellon University.
Collecting, managing, mapping, and efficiently sharing the best data products to make them easily accessible to scientists and land managers. Partnering with scientists to make it easier for them to share their data.
Translating data products into vivid, meaningful stories and educational experiences that shape public opinion and offer policy guidance about the future of forests in the western United States. Focusing initially on pilot watershed landscapes designed to shift the narrative around fire from acres burned to good vs. bad fire and to focus on restoring natural processes.
Bringing diverse partners together to forge consensus about a long-term vision for forests in the western United States, supported by the best data and vivid storytelling.