Advisory Board

ISOS Advisory Board represents diversity reflected through gender, ethnicity, geographic and professional expertise

Diverse perceptions naturally give way to different aspects of sustainability and areas of concern, while ultimately presenting creative and dynamic solutions to ISOS Group’s projects.

Members of the Board of Directors will:

• Oversee strategy, budget and operations of ISOS Group, including oversight of management, compensation, and development
• Play a leadership role in forming the Advisory Councils, provide oversight of their activities, and amend/approve their recommendations

Current Members:

Caroline Stevenson
Caroline Stevenson currently serves as a Chairperson for the Beacon of Peace and Hope project for Arkansas Women Action for New Directions (WAND). Over 430 individuals and groups have contributed toward the goal of building a monument meant to focus on the vision for living in peace and hope. As a member of WAND, Caroline devotes herself to a mission of peace centered on empowering women to act politically to reduce militarism and violence and to redirect excessive military resources to unmet human and environmental needs.

Caroline has also worked tirelessly to promote programs for persons with mental illnesses. Following her position as the Director for the voluntary organization, Friends of Research in Psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), she continued to serve on the university’s Board for the Psychiatric Research Institute (PRI) where she has helped raised funds for construction of the PRI building on the UAMS campus. She also coordinates activities for the Episcopal Mental Illness Network (EMIN), which is a national group focused on eliminating the stigma around mental illness within the Episcopal Church.

The Arkansas Office of Volunteerism and KARK-TV recognized Caroline as one of 6 recipients of the Volunteer of the year award in 1985. From 1986-89, she served on the national Board of the Alliance for the Mentally Ill and was Chair of the Membership Committee which allowed her to help establish state organizations throughout the country. She served as 1st Vice President of that organization in 1988-89. Since that time, she has been actively involved in advocating for understanding and negotiation in resolving national and global conflicts. ”Only through these means will we ever find the answers to living as friends of one another and stewards of the planet.” For this work, Caroline received the 1st Annual Bishop Kenneth Hicks Peace Award presented by Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, Little Rock, in 2007.

Ben Steinberg
Ben Steinberg is Senior Vice President of Southern Bancorp, which provides both comprehensive community development services in Arkansas as well as development lending in Arkansas and Mississippi. Southern Bancorp (SBI) is a $575 million multi-bank holding company. While at SFP, Mr. Steinberg has focused on Southern’s comprehensive community development initiative, known as the Delta Bridge Project, that is focused on Phillips County, Arkansas, one of the most distressed counties in the country. The project is demonstrating that when strategic community planning is combined with grant-making, low-interest loans, and market rate loans, profound change may be realized in a geographically-targeted area. The Delta Bridge Project has invested nearly $10 million in Phillips County, leveraging over $62 million in grants and loans for the local community. This new community development model is being adapted in two other counties, on in Arkansas and one in Mississippi.

Dr. David Bainbridge
David A. Bainbridge, Ph.D. was educated at the University of California in San Diego, Earth Sciences, and U.C. Davis in Ecology and Environmental Planning. He has published 7 books, numerous book chapters in restoration, resource management, and building, and more than 300 articles and reports, for audiences ranging from Tree Planter’s Notes to the Wall Street Journal. While still in graduate school he started one of the first companies involved in developing environmental impact analysis and reports in California. His interest in environmental planning led to a position at Living Systems, an innovative design firm. This led to research and development of passive solar systems and guidelines for energy efficient development. He was recruited by the California Energy Commission and later created the Passive Solar Institute. He was honored as a solar pioneer for his research by the American Solar Energy Society in 2004.

Frustrated by subsidies, regulations and incentives that favored fossil fuels instead of solar energy he turned his attention to the problems of the sustainable resource management of dry lands. This led from the Dry Lands Research Institute at U.C. Riverside, where he was coauthor of the groundbreaking guide to Sustainable Agriculture for California in 1991. His work on desert restoration then moved to San Diego State University and finally to Alliant International University(AIU). He has developed and taught courses at AIU on sustainable management, environmental economics, sustainable resource management and ecotourism; and coordinates the concentration in “sustainable management”. He has received perfect 4.0 ratings for his teaching and a presidential award for service to the university.

Alex Biris
Alex Biris, Ph.D. leads the research in the Nanotechnology Center at UALR, exploring the science of nanostructures that can be used to alter the properties of other substances at the atomic level. Through collaborations with private corporations, universities in the state and nation, and research institutes in the United States and abroad, Dr. Biris serves as Chief Scientist to accelerate the development of commercial applications of nanotechnology – which have the potential to revolutionize the way we manufacture the next generation of products. From 2006 Dr. Biris has also worked as an Assistant Professor for the Applied Science Department at UALR. Before becoming an Assistant Professor for UALR and during his work for the Nanotechnology Center, Dr. Biris has collaborated in over 100 scholarly publications.

Dr. Biris has actively participated in numerous successful developments, such as designing and developing an electrodynamic screen for space exploration in collaboration with NASA (U.S. Patent granted). He also led the invention of a new method and technology for producing large quantities of carbon nanotubes with high purity (several U. S. patent applications pending), led the design and development of carbon nanostructures based filters to efficiently remove bio-chemical contaminants from air and water (U. S. Patent application), and helped Develop a unique tissue regeneration system that has been used successfully in 33 clinical studies to grow bone tissue.

Dr. Biris served on the organizing committee of the first joint Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and Electrostatic Society of America (IEEE/ESA) annual meeting. Furthermore, he currently serves an International Advisor for the Brazilian Nanotechnology Research Program and is a member of the Editorial Board for the international journal, Particulate Science and Technology.

Tarra Hunchack
Tarra Hunchak currently serves as a Sustainability Analyst for the in-house sustainable investment research department of Triodos Bank. Triodos Bank, a pioneer and still is a leading innovator in sustainable banking, aims to help investors and companies adopt and implement corporate sustainability and to promote corporate accountability and responsibility towards stakeholders. Tarra is responsible for development and maintenance of various investment criteria (Climate Change, Biofuels, Corruption, Corporate Governance, Precautionary Principle for Oil & Gas), methodology application, and conducts research of stock-quoted companies for the sustainable investment fund division. With an analytic approach and personal passion for sustainability, Tarra has taken the role of coordinating engagement activities, including proxy voting, website updates, and writing various articles and reports on the departments engagement with companies, experts and academia.

Tarra holds a double bachelor degree in Business Administration from British Columbia University in Canada and from the International Business and Management Studies program at Hogeschool Zeeland in the Netherlands. Tarra also holds a certification in Climate Change in the Financial Sector from the United Nations Institute for Training and Research in Geneva. Since 2006, she has been an External Advisory Board Member for INHolland University, promoting greater adoption of sustainability issues within the international business curriculum.

Tarra had previously worked in retail banking as a financial services representative at TD Canada Trust Bank, serving as a personal and small business lending officer and financial advisor, before moving abroad and joining Triodos Bank. She has held successive positions with Triodos since.