SUSAN KINSELLA, Executive Director, has been nationally known as an expert on environmental paper and environmentally preferable product procurement issues for over 25 years.

As Director of Research and Communications for Conservatree Paper Company from 1985-1990, she wrote the first national article "Exploding the Myths" about recycled paper (Garbage Magazine, 1990), gave policy speeches, handled media communications, and educated manufacturers, distributors, buyers, legislators, recyclers and environmentalists on market and production realities and requirements. She coined the phrase, "If you're not buying recycled products, you're not recycling" in a 1988 speech, catalyzing recyclers' realization that recovered materials markets are only as strong as demand for recycled products. She also launched and edited Conservatree's first national newsletter, ESP News.

At Conservatree and in her subsequent position as Director of the Buy Recycled Campaign at Californians Against Waste Foundation, she was highly influential in the national debates on requirements for recycled content, definitions, standards, measurement, and labeling, which eventually led to a national consensus on requirements for postconsumer content.

When Ms. Kinsella opened her own consulting company in 1994, Conservatree hired her to write and edit its new Greenline newsletter about environmentally sound papers. When Conservatree closed as a company in 1997, she established a nonprofit organization to continue its education and advocacy mission.

Currently, she both directs Conservatree and collaborates with other consultants on projects relating to environmentally preferable purchasing (EPP), extended producer responsibility (EPR), zero waste, and recycling.

Ms. Kinsella is a member of TAPPI, the California Resource Recovery Association and the Northern California Recycling Association. She has served on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors for the National Recycling Coalition, the Advisory Boards for the Recycled Products Guide and Recycled Paper News, the Scientific Advisory Board for Scientific Certification Systems, and as a member of the ASTM D06.40 committee and the Paper Definitions Working Group.

She has a B.Sc. degree in Psychology and Sociology from Purdue University, and an M.A. in Speech Communications with a specialty in Diffusion of Innovations from San Francisco State University, where she also taught public speaking and group communications.

GERARD GLEASON, Associate Director, developed specialized expertise in environmentally sound papers as a Conservatree salesperson from 1990-1993, matching paper buyers' needs with available grades of recycled paper and working with mills to deliver, direct to customers, grades of paper that met specific requirements. Among his major accounts were large national publishers and direct mail advertisers. Each year, he researched the Conservatree listing of all environmentally sound papers available in North America, becoming expert on all the papers and their environmental characteristics, as well as the mills' abilities to create new papers.

When Conservatree closed its paper sales division, Mr. Gleason became a paper and print broker for an environmental paper distributor, learning the printing business in even more detail. He came back to Conservatree as a paper researcher and administrator when the Greenline newsletter started up, then joined in converting Conservatree to a nonprofit organization when the company closed.

He has also coordinated administration and production for a book publishing company, including arranging the logistics for printing in the U.S. and Canada, and has designed and coordinated printing for government voting materials.

He has a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from San Francisco State University.

AARON FIRESTONE, Program Associate, was the program director for children’s environmental health at the Clean Air Council in Philadelphia (2001-2005), where he developed communications, networked with labor unions and schools, fostered cooperation between environmentalists and organized labor, and conducted research and outreach to increase citizens’ role in regional transportation planning. He also co-taught summer session courses at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (2002-2004). As a research assistant at Swarthmore College’s Behavioral Neuropharmacological Laboratory, he conducted laboratory research on the physiology of memory modulation and co-authored several journal reports.

At Conservatree, Mr. Firestone has developed articles, tools and website pages for our public outreach project, authored factsheets, edited reports and communications, and provided fundraising assistance.  He is leading efforts to increase recycled paper use by small purchasers and individuals by improving the accessibility of information and designing campaigns for these consumers.

He holds a B.A. in Psychology, with a concentration in Cognitive Science, from Swarthmore College (2001) and attended the Environmental Leadership Institute.