Charles W. Elliott

Charles provides organizational, strategic, research, open source intelligence, and tactical consultation based on thirty years' experience in providing services to non-profit organizations, citizen groups, governmental and public interest entities. He offers specialized advice on environmental and human rights conflicts and issues.  His experience in environmental issues includes nuclear power plant licensing challenges, halting improper waste disposal and water pollution, legal actions on behalf of victims of toxic chemical exposures, and natural gas pipeline opposition. Where citizens challenge projects requiring land use approvals, his decades of experience in zoning and planning issues can be decisive. In his human rights work, he has assisted "list counsel" of the International Justice Project for victims in the Darfur Situation and in The Prosecutor v. Omar Hassan Ahmad Al Bashir pending before the International Criminal Court. He also advises on computer security and privacy, open source intelligence (OSINT) and research, organizational formation and tax exempt status, and the use of technology in advocacy.

Charles’ work has received awards from the private and government sectors, including:

Clean Water Act enforcement award, issued by the United States Department of Justice, for "outstanding skill and dedication" in environmental enforcement work in citizen suit litigation under the Clean Water Act

Easton Planning Commission service award, "in appreciation for more than three decades of dedicated service to the Easton Planning Commission."

Conservation Award, issued by the Appalachian Mountain Cub, for "outstanding contributions toward protection of the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania."

R. Emmet Doherty Clean Air Award, issued by American Lung Association of the Lehigh Valley, for work to prevent air pollution

Award for Smart Code Zoning and Land Development Ordinance, City of Easton, PA in recognition of work in establishing the City's "Smart Code" zoning and subdivision and land development ordinance

Charles received his J.D. degree in 1978 at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.  He also earned a Diploma in Advanced Studies on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law from the Washington College of Law, American University, Academy on Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, and the Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), Utrecht University.

He currently serves on the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission (LVPC) a regional planning commission with a scope of responsibilities including land use, infrastructure, transportation, natural resources, and environmental and climate change planning.

Armen S. Elliott

Visual storytelling is a critical part of today's communications in every domain. Armen provides photographic coverage of public meetings, direct action,  press conferences, and other events with a creative vision sharpened by twenty years of work in a photojournalistic style.  She can provide professional digital assets for publicity, social media, websites, and print and has produced compelling imagery in covering mass protests in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Philadelphia, PA. Her work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post, and the American Photographer. Her photographs do not merely record; they provide a clear narrative of the events as they unfold. Her clients have also praised her quick problem-solving in pressured situations.

Armen studied photography at the School of Visual Arts and at the New School in New York City and received her Master of Fine Arts MFA degree in photography from The Pratt Institute in New York City.

Maro Elliott

Maro offers expertise in non-profit development and administration, including marketing and communications, grant writing, event coordination, member and stakeholder outreach, and web and graphic design. She has worked for non-profits both small and large (assets/annual revenue > $20M USD). Maro received her B.A. from Smith College in Northampton, MA, and studied in the NYU Tisch Performance Studies M.A. Program.

James A. Elliott

James is a photojournalist whose work focuses on humanitarian and environmental issues. He has covered the Dakota Access Pipeline struggle on the front lines in the Oceti Sakowin Camp, North Dakota, the People's Climate Change March, and other fossil fuel protests in North Dakota, Philadelphia, New York City, and Washington, D.C..  He has provided coverage for non-profit humanitarian organizations offering aid to refugees of the Syrian conflict rebuilding their lives in Greece and Armenia, and provided media services for the Bhutan Centre for Media and Democracy. James' portfolio includes Bhutan, Armenia, Greece and points in between, and USA coast-to-coast.

James received his B.A. at Wheaton College, Massachusetts with a double major in psychology and contemplative studies, where he received multiple awards from the college in its Eye on the World Photography competition.

Joseph E. Welsh

Joe brings decades of  successful experience in political organizing and campaigns, and expertise in First Amendment, civil rights, and police misconduct issues. He earned the prestigious Torchbearer Award from the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania for his public outreach efforts to defeat voter suppression efforts. Reggie Shuford, Executive Director of the PA-ACLU  declared that “Joe is always willing to go above and beyond in the fight to protect civil liberties.” His political campaign experience stretches from Mayor Harold Washington's campaign in Chicago, Illinois to Pennsylvania General Assembly and judicial races and campaigns in Indiana, New Jersey, and Arkansas.  Adding to his portfolio is his expertise in computer technology and database management. 

Joe received his J.D. degree from the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, and his  B.A. (Summa cum Laude) in Government and Information Science from Lehigh University.

Scott Sederstrom

With over fifteen years of experience with environmental groups, Scott's skills include community organizing, coalition building, media work, public speaking, advocacy, corporate research, and quantitative analysis. While working at Greenpeace USA, Citizens for a Better Environment (IL), and Great Lakes United as a toxics campaigner and field coordinator, he became intimately familiar with the challenges facing grassroots groups, and the strategies they can employ to win their battles. His work for Greenpeace USA  included research and writing, strategic planning, media work, document preparation, organizing, advocacy before governmental bodies and crisis management. Accurate, concise, and persuasively packaged information is fundamental to a winning strategy, and Scott's experience in detailed research and analysis in complex environmental battles, media and public outreach messaging, and advocacy offers solid support for organizing campaigns.

Scott received his MA from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has pursued further core studies in finance, marketing, and economics.  More recently, Scott participated in Cornell University's Strategic Corporate Research program. The program teaches techniques to research corporate ownership, finance, organization, and power for corporate accountability. He's an experienced statistical analyst and SAS programmer, and is always happy to create new and innovative ways to use data in support of environmental and social justice goals.

Thomas R. Elliott

Tom brings to the team his political experience as a former Northampton County (PA) Democratic party Chairman and delegate to the National Democratic Party Convention, his decades of experience in civil litigation, zoning, planning, and development matters, and his deep knowledge of local government processes and decision-making as a solicitor representing local governments and as a planning commission member.   

Tom received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and his A.B. degree in Government and Law, Lafayette College, Pennsylvania.

Glenn Nelson

Glenn is a professional conservationist, with field-tested experience in long-term scientific study, environmental restoration, ecological monitoring, conservation easement and land stewardship, and trail and recreation management. He combines this experience with geographic information systems (GIS), mapping and spatial analysis, and remote data collection.

Glenn’s experience includes work as a GIS analyst in state government and non-profit sectors in New York and Pennsylvania.  He holds certifications in Wilderness Management, Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response, Special Use Flights – Interagency Aviation Training, and NYSDEC Wild Lands Search Skills, among others. 

Roger Nelson

Roger has been working with open source technologies and secure communication systems for the last ten years.  His experience ranges from working at a major Silicon Valley U.S. cybersecurity firm performing white hat hacking to discover website vulnerabilities, to helping activist organizations set up secure communications using PGP encrypted emails over TOR. Roger has experience setting up and administrating TOR hidden services and running a TOR bridge. He uses a variety of techniques and technologies to build secure communication networks for individuals in high risk communities where privacy is mission-critical.
 
Roger also has strong computer networking skills, setting up nodes for the Sudo Mesh project in Oakland, CA, working on AIX servers at a major insurance company, and operating virtualized LAMP servers.
 
He can protect computer systems by deploying techniques for hardening operating systems and lowering the attack surface for exploits. He has a firm understanding of operational security for various threat models, from individuals seeking to protect their privacy using anonymity software, to activists that rely on their privacy being protected in order to operate on a day-to-day basis, to large corporate infrastructure that must be protected from hackers and corporate espionage.