Board Members

Terry Vogt is Managing Director at Terra Global Capital, a company facilitating the market for land-based carbon credits, working in tropical forests as well as in US forestry and agriculture. He has a wide-ranging international business and development background, including investment banking and private equity experience. He served as Deputy Director General of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, a multi-lateral organization focused on agriculture and rural sustainable development. Subsequently he directed a program on conservation finance at The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the world’s largest private funder of conservation projects. He was an investor and board member of Brasil Ecodiesel, a major biodiesel producer. Vogt has an undergraduate degree in Latin American History from Harvard, an MBA in Operations Research from the University of Colorado, and in 1996 was awarded the Order of Rio Branco by President Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil. He lives with his wife Mary, an accomplished choral singer, in San Francisco, California.

Giancarlo Vestri is a Vice President and Export Finance Specialist with Global Trade Sales at Union Bank N. A. (“UB”) in San Francisco, California. He advises clients on Export Credit Agencies’ transactions with a particular emphasis on the Export Import Bank of the US and Overseas Private Investment Corporation (“OPIC”) programs. Before joining UB, he spent several years with Bank of America in international groups and among them: International Correspondent Banking, Global Capital Markets and The International Trade Bank.

Mr. Vestri has been involved with different international non profit organizations in San Francisco. He is currently a Steering Committee member with the World Affairs Council of Northern California and has served on the boards of the International Trade Council, the International Diplomacy Council and the Pan American Society of California.

Mr. Vestri holds a BA in Applied Economics from the University of San Francisco and an Executive MBA from Saint Mary’s College of California. Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, he was raised in Argentina and Italy and has been living in the San Francisco Bay Area for several years. He is fluent in Italian, Spanish and French.

Ms. Pimentel is an environmental protection specialist, currently working at the US Environmental Protection Agency on US-Mexico trans-boundary environmental issues and developing capacity related to climate change mitigation and adaptation, particularly material management.

In 2009 she worked on a leadership assignment, with the four San Francisco Bay Area planning agencies, to develop a regional climate change adaptation program to compliment voluntary and mandated mitigation activities. Prior to joining EPA in 2003, she worked in consulting with Tetra Tech Inc. and Camp Dresser & McKee on various assignments including: the Navy’s Base Closure and Realignment Program of 38 western bases; a two-year assignment to develop the environmental framework programs for Argentina’s Secretary for Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank; and various specialized projects sponsored by international funding institutions.

Ms. Pimentel has as B.A. in Biology from the University of Texas at Austin and M.A. in Ecology from San Francisco State University. Besides being on the Advisory Board of PAS, she serves on the Board of Trustees of The Mexican Museum in San Francisco and formerly served as Board Member of the Hostelling International Norcal Region.

Zane O. Gresham is a partner in the international law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP. His practice focuses on major private facilities and large-scale public works in the United States and internationally. Mr Gresham has served as a legal adviser to national governments and international organizations on energy, water and transportation, and as counsel to international conservation organizations in efforts to protect important ecosystems, such as the Three Rivers area of Yunnan, China, and the Komodo National Park in Indonesia. He also has acted as a special legal adviser to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the North America Commission on Environmental Cooperation (NACEC).

Mr. Gresham is a full member of the Urban Land Institute and of Lambda Alpha, the international honorary land economics organization. He is Vice Chairman of the National Youth Science Foundation, a Director of the Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco, and a Trustee of Grace Cathedral. Mr. Gresham previously served as President of the Pan American Society of California.

Julian D. Munoz is a native San Franciscan and has been involved in many affairs dealing with Latin America. He served as Commercial Attaché for the Consulate of Costa Rica under three presidential administrations in the City. Aside from his participation on many board levels with the Pan American Society for nearly two decades, he has served on local and international non-profit boards including the Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress. His involvement with Costa Rica includes participation as an Alpine Skiing competitor at the Calgary and Albertville Winter Olympics. Mr. Munoz is presently vice president for Accela, Inc., an international software company based at Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, California.

Gerardo Marin, PhD, is a Professor of Latin American Studies and Psychology, is Associate Provost at the University of San Francisco, and is an APA Fellow. He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from De Paul University. He has written more than 135 publications on topics that are relevant to Hispanics, including cultural norms and attitudes, risk behaviors, culturally appropriate methodology, and acculturation. He is the author of two widely used acculturation scales for Hispanics and was the editor of the recent Surgeon General's Report on Smoking regarding the four ethnic minority groups. In 1991, he coauthored the book Research With Hispanic Populations with Barbara VanOss Marin and is also the co-editor of Acculturation: Advances in Theory, Measurement, and Applied Research (2003) and Readings in Ethnic Psychology (1998).

Dr. Bloch is a cognitive neuropsychologist who received his Ph.D. in 1989. His research investigates hemispheric asymmetry and integration in normal and disabled populations, as well as the effects of certain olfactory stimuli on hemispheric processing. He is also an Educational Therapist, working with a variety of students with learning differences including dyslexia, ADD, and nonverbal learning disabilities.

Dr. Bloch's teaching interests include Brain and Behavior, Human Neuropsychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Learning and Memory, Cognition, Psychology of Reading and Dyslexia, Psychology of Dreaming, Statistics, and General Psychology.

Lois Ann Lorentzen is Professor of Social Ethics in the Theology and Religious Studies Department at the University of San Francisco (USF), Chair of the Theology and Religious Studies Department, Co-Director of the Center for Latin@ Studies in the Americas (CELASA), and Principal Investigator for The Religion and Immigration Project. Professor Lorentzen received her PhD in Social Ethics at the University of Southern California. Prior to coming to USF she taught at Saint Joseph's University in Philadelphia. She has also taught at the Iberoamerican Universities in Mexico City, Puebla, Mexico, and Tijuana, Mexico, and at the University of Central America in San Salvador, El Salvador. Professor Lorentzen is the author of Etica Ambiental (Environmental Ethics) and Raisingthe Bar and co-editor of On the Corner of Bliss and Nirvana: the intersection of religion, politics, and identity in new migrant communities; Ecofeminism and Globalization: Exploring Culture, Context, and Religion; Religion/Globalization: Theories and Cases; The Women and War Reader;Liberation Theologies, Postmodernity and the Americas; and, The Gendered New WorldOrder: Militarism, the Environment and Development. She is Associate Editor for the Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature and the Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict, and has written numerous articles in the fields of women and war, religion and violence, religion and immigration, and gender and the environment.