About LVDI International
LVDI (pronounced lüdi) = Green Earth
Founded in 2015, LVDI International Incorporated is a U.S. 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity dedicated to preserving biological diversity on Earth. Our mission is to inspire and empower people to protect nature. Through discovery and sustainable practices, we envision a better future wherein humans are responsible stewards of our planet’s natural resources.
We are a volunteer-led organization with a global presence. Our conservation teams work on the frontlines, currently delivering local impact in eight countries. By focusing on what we do best – SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, EDUCATION and CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT – we have affected positive changes in the lives of over a million adults and children worldwide.
Leadership
Mr. Werner Funk
Chairperson of the Board
Mr. Funk is the CEO and President of Omnitek Engineering Corporation. Using patented diesel-to-natural gas engine technology, Omnitek converts diesel engines to natural gas, resulting in greatly reduced air pollution and fuel costs. Omnitek is represented in 12 countries and to date has converted more than 5,000 engines worldwide. Mr. Funk was born and educated in Germany. He holds a bachelor’s degree with honors in automotive technology from Carl-Benz Technical College. His career began at Mercedes-Benz where he held a position as Assistant Crew Chief for the Porsche factory-sponsored racing team. After moving to the United States, Mr. Funk started several successful automotive related companies, including Nology Engineering Inc., the manufacturer of the patented capacitive spark plug wires. Mr. Funk is the inventor/co-inventor on six United States patents for methodologies that contribute to dramatic reductions in polluting engine emissions.
Mr. Bruce Engelbert
Board Member
Mr. Engelbert is skilled in helping people work effectively together and in dealing constructively with differences and disputes. He is a mentor mediator and facilitator, with over 40 years working in the fields of environmental management and conflict resolution. Mr. Engelbert’s career included working for the Department of Energy, the President’s Council on Environmental Quality, and over 30 years at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. During the first part of his federal career, he held a variety of policy and program management and implementation positions. In the second half, he focused on promoting good public participation and alternative dispute resolution. He has extensive experience in the practice of public participation and community involvement at the federal, state and local levels. He holds master’s degrees in both public policy and conflict resolution.
Ms. Ann Lomuto
Board Member
Ms. Lomuto is a staunch supporter of community-based charities whose missions focus on improving the educational, economic, and/or health conditions of people around the world. A skilled teacher, Ms. Lomuto has taught English as a second language both in the United States and in Europe. Drawing from her master’s degree training in pastoral counseling, she also has coached ministry graduate students on how to best help people work through life’s many challenges. Before retiring, Ms. Lomuto worked at a Massachusetts General Hospital affiliate where she served as Co-chair of the Ethics Committee and as Chaplain Liaison in the Intensive Care Unit. Additionally, as an End-of-Life practitioner, specializing in ethical decision-making in patient care and the psycho-spiritual dimensions at end-of-life, Ms. Lomuto combined her extensive training with her compassionate nature to support many patients and families during this process. Ms. Lomuto is a horticulture enthusiast and enjoys tending to her garden in her spare time.
Ms. Susan Hua-Connell
Board Member
Ms. Hua-Connell became interested in wildlife conservation work as an undergraduate at Cornell University. After receiving her bachelor’s degree in anthropology, she worked as a field assistant studying the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey in Vietnam and the Sichuan snub-nosed monkey in China. She earned a Master of Arts in conservation biology at Columbia University. During her time in New York City, she became involved in outdoor education and went on to earn a Master of Arts in education at Brooklyn College. She has been an earth science teacher for over a decade and is currently teaching in New York’s Capital District. Her main goal as a teacher is to help her students to make the connections between what they learn in class and the real world.
Ms. Cynthia Rose
Board Member
Ms. Rose enjoys empowering and championing others. She holds a BA in molecular biology and worked for 17 years at Merck as a medical liaison and specialty sales representative dialoguing with researchers, physicians, and pharmacists. During her time there she served as class counselor for trainees, mentor for several individuals, and earned awards for excellence, teamwork, leadership, and culture. She currently serves as co-leader of the Carlsbad chapter of Women In Bio, which promotes careers, leadership and entrepreneurship for women in the life sciences, as well as discussions that address conflict management, co-elevation and resourcefulness. Previously, she has volunteered as a literacy tutor for English as a second language and co-founded and served as president of the Habitat for Humanity Campus Chapter at the University of Colorado.
Mr. Paul Wood
Board Member
Mr. Wood received his bachelor’s degree in international relations and strategic studies from Claremont McKenna College, as well a bachelor’s degree in international business from the London School of Economics and Political Science in the U.K. He also has obtained postgraduate training from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Mr. Wood is a sales enablement leader who designs, builds, and implements customer-centric strategies and enterprise-wide tactics with the product, operations, sales, and marketing teams to increase an organization’s global reach and revenue. Of equal importance has been his commitment to promote an organization’s impact around the world, and the communities it serves. This commitment has extended to his service as a youth and adult soccer club coach and a volunteer for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the National Kidney Foundation, and Rady Children’s Hospital.
Mr. Robin Shaug
Board Member 2015-2022
Mr. Shaug worked in the southern California aerospace industry for over 30 years as a design engineer. Self-taught and industrious, he was employed by TRW, Hughes Aircraft, and Raytheon Corporation, where his specialty was computer networking during the time of the moon landings. Since retiring his overriding passion was to give back to society through his involvement with human health and animal welfare oriented charities. Most notably, Mr. Shaug championed facilities that rehabilitate and adopt out retired racehorses, as well as organizations that protect endangered species. Under his leadership, LVDI International not only greatly increased its standing in the conservation community but also the effectiveness and impact of programs, especially those concerned with educating the public about nature. To continue his legacy, LVDI International has established the Robin Shaug Inspiration Fund to support individuals or groups with exceptional ideas that will inspire and empower people to protect nature.
Dr. John "Andy" Phillips, Ph.D.
President & Secretary
Prior to forming LVDI International, Dr. Phillips was the Deputy Director and Acting Director of Research and Conservation at San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research (previously named Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species or CRES). During his illustrious tenure, spanning nearly three decades, Dr. Phillips was responsible for developing and administering numerous field conservation and research programs in Africa, Central and South America, Australasia, and Asia. Although known as an accomplished field and administrative scientist, Dr. Phillips never missed the opportunity to teach and be a proponent of science education. Before retiring early to pursue his passion for conservation education, Dr. Phillips established the Institute’s Conservation Education Laboratory that eventually became a stand-alone division.
Dr. Phillips’ interest in education began when he was an undergraduate at the University of California at Santa Cruz. While studying in the Ph.D. program in Zoology at the University of California at Davis, he was selected as a Regents’ Fellow, a prestigious award that honors graduate students who combine outstanding research with an exceptional ability to teach. In 1983 he was chosen as a member of the powerful K-12 Science Curricula Framework Development Committee for the Board of Education, State of California, and was responsible for introducing the concept of “Conservation” in the biology textbooks for the first time.
Dr. Phillips has been awarded numerous federal and corporate foundation grants, and served as a Program Director and Scientific Cluster Leader at the National Science Foundation. He was a member of President Clinton’s US-Asia Scientific Partnership Team, and traveled to the region more than 30 times.
Working with education partners in Asia and Africa, Dr. Phillips developed a series of knowledge and attitude surveys for schoolchildren that has paved the way for effective local conservation education programs. One such program, known as the Little Green Guards®, the brainchild of Dr. Phillips, has proved to be highly successful in motivating students to learn about wildlife and in turn become advocates for the protection of nature. Since 2011 the Little Green Guards® has been implemented by LVDI International and its partners in several countries.
To further foster children’s interest in biology, Dr. Phillips created the Little Green Guards® ABC (Animal Biology and Conservation) Coloring Books, a fun way to teach young children about their native wildlife species while increasing their English proficiency. These books, tailored to different regions, are provided free-of-charge to rural children living adjacent to protected areas in Nepal, Vietnam, China, Madagascar and Benin.
Dr. Chia Tan, Ph.D.
Vice President & Treasurer
Dr. Chia Tan, a.k.a. the “Asian Jane Goodall”, is a renowned primatologist specializing in the behavior, ecology and conservation of endangered lemurs and monkeys. She is the leading authority on Malagasy bamboo lemurs (Hapalemur and Prolemur) and an expert on Asian leaf-eating monkeys (Rhinopithecus, Pygathrix, Nasalis and Trachypithecus). Over the past three decades she has conducted and overseen numerous cross-disciplinary research and conservation projects in the U.S. and overseas. Her current endeavors employ non-invasive technologies, such as camera traps and automated sound recorders, to study endangered mammals and birds and aid their long-term protection. Through collaboration with a diverse array of professionals and institutions in over 20 countries, Dr. Tan has been successful in managing and implementing a multitude of in-situ conservation programs. The professional development program, Training in Primatology Series, and the children’s education program, Little Green Guards®, are prime examples of her extraordinary partnership efforts; the impact generated by these programs has been far-reaching. In addition to her multifaceted role as a nonprofit leader, Dr. Tan is a dedicated teacher and has provided practical training and mentorship support to more than 200 U.S. and international scholars and conservation practitioners. Dr. Tan received her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in anthropological sciences from Stony Brook University. She also has obtained a graduate certificate in nonprofit leadership and management from the University of San Diego, as well as a graduate certificate in fundraising and development from the University of California, San Diego. She was a visiting professor in the Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology at the University of Turin (Turin, Italy). Currently, she holds an adjunct professor position in the Department of Anthropology at San Diego State University and in the School of Agroforestry Engineering and Planning at Tongren University (Guizhou, China). A world-class conservationist, Dr. Tan serves as a Distinguish Foreign Expert of China’s Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve and a member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, Primate Specialist Group.