- The BioTour Crew -
The BLOG
Click Here to read about the journey in the Blog: The BioTour Vagabond Journal
Ethan Burke - Director of Operations
Student, Teacher, Adventurer. Ethan was raised in the quiet town of Berkley, Massachusetts where he spent his teenage years in the outdoors and the basketball courts and blacktops of surrounding cities. Basketball carried him to a year of prep school, to Stonehill College and Massasoit Community College where he played briefly until injuries and evolving interests led him to lay the ball to rest.
The shock of the September 11th attacks and a story told to him by a Jesuit Priest about war, poverty and misery in Central America led Ethan to reexamine some long held assumptions and popular ideologies. Years of indoctrination gave way to a liberating quest to learn and explore the world around him. He spent the next few years engrossed in reading history, politics, and philosophy.
In the summer of 2004, Ethan traveled to England for the Oxford University Summer Seminar at Trinity College, where in between punting on the Cherwell River, playing “American-style” croquet and raising havoc on the streets of Oxford, he attended classes. He then embarked on a Semester at Sea journey to nine countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. During this voyage, Ethan meditated in the temples of Kyoto, Japan; talked politics with students at Renmin University in Beijing, China; wandered the streets of Saigon, and at one point matched drinks in a back alley restaurant with an American soldier who had remained in Vietnam since the war. He discussed spirituality and swam with the locals in the warm waters of Thailand; spent nights in the estates of wealthy landowners and a Dalit village in Tamil Nadu, India; discussed life with Masaai warriors on the beaches of Zanzibar, Tanzania; visited the winelands and the townships of Cape Town, South Africa; nearly died cliff diving from waterfalls in Brazil; and explored Caracas with young teachers in Venezuela. 
Upon his return to Massachusetts, Ethan continued exploring—viewing home with a new perspective. He established the group "Students Against the War" at UMass and joined the UMass Anti-War Coalition, encouraging discussion and promoting peace in Iraq, specifically reaching out to and developing relationships with military veterans on campus. He wrote articles about politics and economics as an Editorial/Opinion columnist for the UMass newspaper "The Daily Collegian''.
Ethan’s personality and philosophy have been shaped by his experiences as a student, athlete, traveler, political organizer and teacher. He has worked as a construction worker, farmed tomatoes, bussed and waited tables at a local restaurant, coached and instructed youth basketball and baseball, played music in a cover band with friends, volunteered at Veteran’s Affairs hospitals, bowled with wheelchair-bound veterans, and served as a Faculty Advisor for the National Youth Leadership Forums on medicine and law. In 2009, Ethan plans to pass on leadership while continuing involvment withe BioTour. Along with other Co-Director Alan Palm, he plans to participate in designing and building eco-villages in Nova Scotia, Canada and Hola Vida, Ecaudor before he takes on law school.
Alan Palm - Director of Operations
Student, Teacher, Explorer. Alan grew up and attended high school in a quiet, scenic coastal town in Massachusetts, making recurrent trips to visit family in rural Nova Scotia. Seeking to know more of the world beyond New England, he enrolled at the University of Colorado. At CU, Alan played lacrosse for two seasons, and explored the mountains and foothills around Boulder. In the summer of 2004, he ventured deep into the Rocky Mountains by horseback with the National Outdoor Leadership School and formed a relationship amid the mountains, the meadows and beneath the stars of the Wind River Range that opened a new world for him. That fall he embarked on a voyage around the world, visiting ten countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America with Semester at Sea. While back home the Red Sox made a captivating run through the playoffs, Alan wandered the streets of Varnasi, India meeting the children, shopkeepers, and beggars of the ancient holy city on Ganges.
Exploring and making connections with people around the world profoundly affected his consciousness. Returning to CU, Alan became active on campus with Amnesty International and in the local community—volunteer tutoring in the local high school, and writing and editing for the arts and culture magazine “Illiterate”. He also worked with high school students as a Faculty Advisor for the National Youth Leadership Forum’s conferences on medicine and law.
After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in English in 2006, he set off for South America with an old friend, a backpack and a one way ticket to Ecuador. After exploring the volcanic highlands and inner jungle, where he traveled via dug out canoe to the home of a Shaman, Alan volunteered on for several months at a foundation in the Ecuadorian Oriente, working with indigenous communities in the one room school houses and on small economic projects. He then traveled to Costa Rica to explore the country, live simply and surf often.
The journey carried him to Guatemala where Alan stayed in the city of Xela and studied Spanish. The dedication of the activists he met and the exuberance and generosity of the people, despite their history of unfathomable oppression, were inspirational. Meeting up with an old friend from Colorado, the two traveled by chicken-bus, and eventually by mule trail, to the unexcavated ancient Mayan city of Mirador—once home to 100,000 people, now reclaimed by the jungle.
Returning home to Massachusetts Alan viewed American society, Western civilization, and humanity’s relationship with the natural world with a broadened perspective.
Following BioTour Alan plans to continue exploring, teaching, writing, and working to build a sustainable and peaceful world.
Fernando Ausin - Director of Strategic Outreach
Listener, Learner, Advocate, Traveler. Fernando is Mexican and American and a US Citizen. He was born and raised in Mexico City but he grew up in Southern California and Guadalajara, Mexico. Fernando graduated from Dartmouth College in 2006 and majored in Latin American politics.
Fernando came to Dartmouth thinking that politics and economics were the most effective tools for the positive changes he wanted to see in the world, but slowly realized the greater potential that grassroots movements and NGOs hold today. His change of m
indset came about through his studies of free trade projects in Latin America and the effect that grassroots organizations have in the region. More specifically, Fernando wrote his thesis on the Plan Puebla Panama—where he learned about the governmental macro-economic excuses supporting the plan and its disastrous effects on the people in the region.
Fernando's unofficial second major, which he shares with Ethan and Alan, is traveling. He spent six months in Germany studying the language and society of Western Europe before embarking on Semester at Sea with these piratas locos. Although his life changed in a drastic manner and he learned to appreciate the differences in life, his regard for the environment and concern for climate change did not occur until a trip the three of them took in early 2007 to the 
Bahamas.
After graduating from Dartmouth, Fernando's master plan helped him decide to obtain professional experience and training from a large government consulting firm in Washington DC. He currently lives and works in DC where he also coordinates BioTour's for Fall 2007 tour.
Fernando's family and his grandmother's influence convinced to him to join BioTour. His grandmother's dream of traveling through the world and its shores has now become Fernando's mission. His belief of the interconnectedness among human beings through spirituality has been his guiding force. His deep appreciation and regard for the world have become his mantra. An odd combination of these things and more have brought Fernando to BioTour.
Jenny Sherman - Photographer & Director of Media
Eternal Student, Curious Wanderer. Jenny grew up in the ever-changing, cultural wonderland that is the San Francisco Bay Area. It was its diverse assemblage of people and 
lifestyles as well as long road trips in the family van that inspired her initial interest for travel. She found that the more people she met, the more she wanted to meet, and even the most isolated, desolate places were fascinating. With this and a love for writing and photography, her desire grew to learn more about and document the world.
Jenny attended the University of Oregon from 2000 to 2004, graduating with a Journalism degree and a Spanish minor. She studied abroad in Oviedo, Spain her junior year during the commencement of the Iraq war and learned what its like not only to be the minority but to be discriminated against simply for her nationality. After graduation, she returned to Europe with a backpack and traveled to 9 countries by train. Since then she has worked as a photographer in various cities, driven across the U.S. with a camera and video recorder, and just recently returned from living and working in Mexico. 
Each of Jenny’s experiences has molded who she is and what she advocates. Living outside of the U.S. has taught her how to tolerate and value diverse cultural practices as well as appreciate her own. It has also exemplified the importance of living simply and consuming less, which has led her to the BioTour project, where she feels she can help relay the message of sustainability to a nation of people who need to hear it most. After contributing to this project she hopes to continue advocating for a greener Earth and taking pictures around the world as a successful photojournalist.
"There is a loftier ambition than merely to stand high in the world. It is to stoop down and lift mankind a little higher." - Henry van Dyke
Jeremy Daw - Director of Development
Advocate, Missionary, Visionary. Jeremy grew up in small cities and large towns in north and east Texas, the second son of a church of Christ preacher and a devout Christian. He brought food to shut-in widows, sang hymns for nursing home residents, served at soup kitchens for the poor and homeless, helped build houses through Habitat for Humanity, and embarked on a number of mission trips in the United States and overseas. He devoted himself to being the most Christ-like he could be. He graduated from the University of Texas at Tyler in 2002, with a B.A. in English Literature.
His life radically changed after moving to New York City in 2002 to attend one of NYU's graduate programs in interdisciplinary studies. Discovering ideas he had never encountered before and conversing with people from homes far away, Jeremy experienced a rapid expansion of his perspective. Eventually growing tired of only theorizing about social problems, he took action, accepting a paralegal position with a prestigious New York law firm with a reputation for top-notch courtroom work. Having learned about advocacy but still driven by the nagging questions he held about how to create a more just society, Jeremy enrolled in Harvard Law School, where he earned recognition as a skilled advocate through Harvard's mock trial team.
In law school, Jeremy’s dreams of "making a difference" were shaken when he learned the truth about how deeply special interests have captured the way justice is administered in the United States. He saw the stark difference between the legal systems reserved for an elite few and the legal systems dispensed to everyone else, and became a strong believer in direct action. After consulting for a brokerage of renewable energy credits and spending a summer investigating systemic injustices in Texas's criminal justice system, Jeremy is ready to bring his experience in advocacy and dedication to the public good to the BioTour.
Former Crew Members
Brian Patrick Edmund Burke: - Booking Coordinator/Publicist - Spring 2007 Tour
Student, whistler, listener. Brian descends from Irish and Italian roots. He was born in Boston, MA and grew up just south in Quincy, MA. Brian graduated from Westfield State College in 2004 with a bachelor's degree in Mass Communications. While at Westfield, Brian wrote for the Campus Voice newspaper and co-founded a voter registration drive and political discussion group called Wake Up! Looking to extend the boundaries of internship possibilities, Brian started working for Boston Mobilization (a youth-run, social justice non-profit) during the summer of 2004. Applying his media skills, and passion for social justice, Brian worked on projects such as We Voteand a campaign to stop the construction of a Bioweapons Research Lab in urban Boston.
In search of travel and a way to more actively create change, Brian joined AmeriCorps*NCCC in 2005. Working with a team of 10 for 11 months, he worked as a mentor and tutor in a Denver middle school, worked with The Nature Conservancy applying prescribed burns and mitigating wildfires in Minnesota, built a house for a Wyoming family with Habitat for Humanity, and was part of the initial disaster relief effort in Mississippi immediately following hurricane Katrina.
His father's advice to "travel at any opportunity", his passion for progressive social change, a firsthand knowledge of the power of a small team to affect, not just change, but hope, and a simple desire to have fun with the world has brought Brian to BioTour.
Cat Hainfeld - Photographer and Web Designer - Spring 2007 Tour
Cat is the former documentarian, filmmaker, photographer and web designer for the Spring 2007 Tour. Cat brought her many skills to BioTour, designing the BioTour logo and the BioTour Vagabond Journal. Cat brought her artistic, computer, and a variety of other skills to BioTour, taking many captivating photos utilized throughout the BioTour website. Cat attended Brown University in Providence, RI, studying neuroscience, animal behavior and linguistics. She also attended took graduate courses for film and computer animation in Savannah, GA. Cat now works in freelance photography, film, various arts such as animation, sculpture, interior design, and acting. Cat strives to help people see the self in others through her art, scientific endeavours and activism.
Brent "Arrow" Baker - Director of Previous BioTour Project
Brent is former owner of the BioTour Bus who ran the previous version of BioTour that logged more than 20,000 miles touring the nation promoting biofuels. Brent is founder and CEO of Tristate Biodiesel, New York City's first commerical biodiesel producer. Brent, called a "self-styled Jonny Appleseed of biofuels" by Jim Leher of the PBS News Hour, has been an environmental advocate for almost 20 years, working on various sustainability issues. He has been a promoter and producer of biodiesel since the fuel emerged in the United States about 12 years ago. He has directed several non-profit organizations including Biotour.org, a bio-fuels and sustainability education organization, which he also founded. Brent is widely recognized in New York City as the local expert on bio-fuels, and has built a large network of allies in the biodiesel and environmental fields.
