Team

Bios

Doretta Winkelman
Binational Education Director and Co-founder of PROBEA

Doretta Winkelman is Director of Binational Education for the San Diego Natural History Museum. She also serves as the U.S. Executive Director of PROBEA (Proyecto Bioregional de Educación Ambiental), a binational environmental education program that trains Mexican educators using environmental themes with teaching/learning techniques as the delivery method.

Born and raised in Nebraska in a family of farmers who still live and work in the fields, Ms. Winkelman developed a strong connection to the earth and an appreciation of nature. Ms. Winkelman received a Bachelor of Arts in Education at Wayne State College, Nebraska in 1967. Upon graduating from college she joined the Peace Corps as a volunteer and spent two years serving in Venezuela, where she became fluent in Spanish and taught elementary and high school. Ms. Winkelman earned a Master of Arts degree in Curriculum and Instruction, with an Informal Emphasis in Environmental Education, from San Diego State University in 1995. In 1990, Ms. Winkelman, along with two other partners, co-founded the Daedalus Alliance for Environmental Education Foundation (DAEE). The Foundation researched, built relationships, created and initiated multiple programs in Mexico as well as the U.S. In 1997, DAEE merged into the San Diego Natural History Museum to create the Museum's first trans-border education program to advance its binational mission. As the lead administrator for PROBEA, Ms. Winkelman is responsible for program fundraising, fiscal administration, grant management, and the accomplishment of department goals and objectives. She also oversees the design, development, implementation, and administration of environmental education programs within the natural history region, north of Santa Barbara, California to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur (including the Sea of Cortés and out to the deep ocean in the Pacific.) She brings 30+ years of broad-based experience in team leadership, communication, relationship development, and conflict resolution to this binational partnership.

Karen Levy-Szpiro
Binational Education Program Manager

Karen is an experienced educator, administrator, and translator. She has combined her early interests in languages with her inherent teaching ability and her formal education to extend these talents across the spectrum of public and private educational institutions, non-profit organizations and business enterprises for over 25 years. Karen holds a bachelor's degree in education from the Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, she has also earned certificates in language education for Spanish and English speakers, and for four years (1998-2001) she owned and operated her own pre-school in Tijuana, Mexico. She integrated the environment into her school curricula through nature field trips, establishing schoolyard gardens, and educating students about our shared Tijuana-San Diego bio-region. She is currently Binational Education Programs Manager at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Her responsibilities include managing the Museum’s binational education program, PROBEA, and PROBEA's office in Tijuana; coordinating teacher trainings and community events; coordinating internal and external communications with the PROBEA team and its clients, as well as translating educational materials, brochures and research papers. She has a profound understanding of cross-cultural relationships and is fluent in Spanish, English and French; she is also a professional translator in those languages. Karen is a member of the Environmental Council for the Californias (EECC).

Judy Ramirez
Community Outreach Coordinator and Co-founder of PROBEA

Judy holds a degree in biology and brings 20 years of classroom teaching experience, including bilingual education (English/Spanish), to her current endeavors. She worked as Education Specialist at Tijuana Estuary National Estuarine Research Reserve and had her own consulting business, Grassroots Educators, specializing in ecology and natural history interpretation for educators, children, and the general public. As the San Diego Natural History Museum’s Community Outreach Manager, she pioneered the development of after-school environmental education programs for underserved audiences in urban San Diego. She also served as staff developer for Communities Alive in Nature, a U.S. environmental education project implemented in the public schools.

Judy is currently a PROBEA instructor. Her responsibilities include facilitating teacher and community volunteer workshops, curriculum design and development, supporting teachers and community volunteers to carry out school and community-based environmental education projects, and serving as project evaluation lead.

Judy co-authored The Making of a Naturalist/El Joven Naturalista, a bilingual curriculum presenting basic ecology principles and guided field experiences.

Laurie Silvan
Development Advisor and Co-founder of PROBEA

In 1982 Laurie received her degree in Social Anthropology from the National School of Anthropology and History in Mexico City. After working in the field of anthropology in peasant, fishing and mining communities for 10 years in Mexico, she lived for four years in Los Angeles, California, before finally moving to Tijuana. Laurie is founder and has been director of Proyecto Fronterizo de Educación Ambiental since 1991. Proyecto Fronterizo is a civil society organization that advocates and facilitates access to environmental information and improved social participation in environmental policy and education in the U.S./Mexico border region. Laurie has been co founder of several binational initiatives such as the Environmental Education Council of the Californias, the Border Power Plant Working Group and the Binational Tijuana River Watershed Advisory Council of which she is Co-chair since 2003. She sits on the Executive Committee that organizes the Bi-annual Meeting on Border Environment which offers training, networking, and exchange opportunities for environmental NGOs from all along the U.S./Mexico border. She is currently the Coordinator for the Environmental Coalition for Access to Information and Transparency of Baja California.

Araceli Alejandra Fernandez Garcia
Instructor and Academic Consultant for PROBEA

Araceli has a Degree in Oceanography from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California. She worked for several years at the Science Museum in Ensenada as coordinator of educational services and as a naturalist. During that time, Araceli designed and coordinated non-formal educational activities such as guided ecological field trips; she designed and delivered environmental education and science workshops mainly for the region's students and general public; organized outreach activities with the scientific community; and became an educational adviser and consultant for students writing their dissertations at the Escuela Normal para Maestros de Ensenada (Ensenada Teachers' College). Araceli has ample experience as an environmental education consultant and naturalist. In the past few years she has collaborated in the design and development of non-formal educational activities with regional and non-governmental organizations such as PROBEA, as well as with important education centers such as the Centro de Educación Ambiental Las Piedras established by Fundación La Puerta, the San Diego Natural History Museum, the National Wildlife Federation, PRONATURA, Universidad Pedagógica Nacional, Ensenada Campus, and others. At present, Araceli is an independent consultant in environmental education for Tierra MyA, a civil organization that she co-founded. She is also a member of the Environmental Council for the Californias.

Miguel Angel
Vargas Téllez
Academic Consultant for PROBEA

Miguel Angel has a Degree in Oceanography from the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California and a specialty in Natural Resource Management. He worked in the fishing industry for several years as an operations and quality control manager. During his time in this industry he designed advising and consulting activities for water and fishing projects. He also has ample experience as a consultant in environmental hazards and impact. In the past few years he has collaborated with non-governmental organizations developing outreach activities linking different sectors of the population to promote sustainable development and natural resource conservation in the Baja California peninsula. Miguel has also collaborated with regional organizations such as Proyecto Bio-regional de Educación Ambiental, Fundación La Puerta, Cirio, AC, the San Diego Natural History Museum, Laguna Baja, AC and others.

At present, Miguel is the Regional Coordinator for Conservation of Private and Social Lands at PRONATURA, AC as well as an independent consultant in environmental education. He is a member of the Environmental Council for the Californias as well as a member of the Board of Directors of the Association for the Integration and Rehabilitation of Autistic People in Ensenada.

Dolores Monterrubio Alvarez
Academic Director (1993-2005) and Co-founder of PROBEA

Dolores has more than twenty-five years of experience teaching English and Spanish as foreign languages. She has researched, designed, and delivered training programs for teachers since 1986. She is constantly interested in searching and studying innovative teaching-learning methods that acknowledge and develop thinking and language skills and complement personal learning styles. She has enormous empathy, love and respect for teachers, and the passion, dedication, creativity, quality and personal commitment with which she approaches educational projects shows in her work.

Contact Dolores at lolimonterrubio@prodigy.net.mx and/or direccionacademica@sibies.com.mx