Yale Alumni Service Corps (YASC) in Panama 2024

Alicia Morris is the Trip Producer for the 2024 YASC trip to Panama and has also participated in YASC trips to Brazil in 2016 as a volunteer and to the Dominican Republic in 2019 as a project co-lead. For nearly two decades in corporate and business-aligned HR and leadership development, Alicia has worked with mid-level and senior leaders and their teams, across multiple sectors, and on behalf of both internal and external constituents to deploy talent programs globally. Now, as an evidence-based coach, Alicia partners primarily with business leaders and mid-life professionals to design careers and lives they love with a focus on purpose, values, strengths, freedom, and wellness. Her approach to coaching is grounded in Emotional Intelligence, neuroscience, and the principles of reframing, Attachment Theory, Mindfulness, and Somatic Awareness. To complement her passion for coaching and human development, Alicia also is flourishing as a performer and instructor of Salsa On 2 (New York-style Salsa) and Traditional Bachata for adult learners. Alicia holds a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, a master's degree from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and a certificate in Evidence-based Coaching from Fielding Graduate University. She has also studied and resided in Spain, Mexico, the Czech Republic, and Brazil, and speaks Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and some French.

Florence Reed founded Sustainable Harvest International (SHI) in 1997, based in great part on her experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Panama.  Since that time, SHI has provided regenerative agroecology technical assistance to over 3,000 smallholder farms in Central America to regenerate 30,000 acres of degraded land including the planting of four million trees. In the face of a worsening climate crisis, Flo now leads the organization towards a scaling up vision to reverse degradation on 8 million acres, achieve food sovereignty for 5 million people and sequester 16 million tons of carbon annually by partnering with a million smallholder farms. Flo has been awarded three honorary doctorates and a number of awards, including the National Peace Corps Association's Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service.  She's proud to represent SHI in a number of coalitions including 1T.org, 4 per 1000, CA4SH and the 20×20 Initiative. Some of her favorite memories from her work at SHI are of leading groups on trips to get to know inspirational farming families in SHI’s programs and the beautiful places they live.

Andrew Burgie teaches Global Environmental Health as an assistant adjunct professor in the New York University School of Global Public Health. He also serves as an industrial hygienist and assistant research scientist who manages the NIEHS Worker Training Program Grant that administers Hazardous Waste Worker Training for various New York-based groups as part of the Atlantic Center for Occupational Health and Safety Training Consortium run by Rutgers School of Public Health. As former Co-Director of the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health at the CUNY School of Public Health, he specializes in Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response training for both City and State agencies as well as private organizations. Trained as an industrial hygienist with an M.S. in Environmental and Occupational Health Science from Hunter College CUNY, he has also conducted numerous indoor air quality inspections, lead-based paint assessments, and general environmental health investigations for commercial and residential properties for various consulting firms over the years. Andrew Burgie was the producer for the YASC program in Puerto Rico 2023. He is the Chair of the YASC Board having been on ten trips.