Tim Albright is the Chief Operating Officer of ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization), based in Fort Myers, Florida. ECHO’s 50-acre demonstration and teaching farm in Florida, as well as its Impact Centers in Thailand, Burkina Faso, and Tanzania operate as information hubs for development practitioners around the world, gathering solutions that are solving hunger problems and disseminating them to their active network. ECHO focuses on solutions that promote sustainable farming techniques, nutritional plants, and appropriate technologies.

Tim graduated from Nyack College with a BS in Missions and earned a Master’s degree from Columbia International University. He grew up as a missionary kid in Mali and as an adult worked for 23 years in community development in West Africa. Based in Burkina Faso, he served as a regional consultant for CAMA (Compassion and Mercy Associates) Services in health, education, micro enterprise and food security.  Tim has many years of experience working with moringa in Burkina Faso and has experienced first-hand the improvements it brings to the health of families and communities.  He provides Strong Harvest with excellent advice regarding both moringa and our field work.

Rosanna Hess, DNP, RN, has been a nurse for over four decades with almost 20 years of experience in Gabon, Africa as a missionary nurse, educator, and administrator.  She is the founder and current president of Research For Health (RFH), Inc., a non-profit research organization based in Ohio, USA.  RFH has conducted health-related research in several African countries, in Haiti, as well as in the USA.  Rosanna also has been a member of the faculty of the School of Nursing & Health Sciences at Malone University in Canton, OH, since 2002.  She is a research advisor to students in the Masters of Nursing, nurse practitioner program.

Dr. Hess’ wealth of knowledge in the areas of healthcare and research in African and Haitian communities will greatly assist Strong Harvest as we build studies to measure program effectiveness.

Dr. Burnette currently leads Merrick and Company’s portfolio of laboratory biosafety and biosecurity projects. He supports international biological threat reduction activities, and laboratory capacity building programs. Formerly, Dr. Burnette was the Vice President of WCG Biosafety, and Director of Alliance Biosciences. He has led laboratory design, commissioning, verification, oversight, and training in over a dozen countries for government, academic and private institutions. He recently published a book entitled, Biosecurity: Understanding, Assessing and Preventing the Threat. With over a decade of lab experience, Dr. Burnette is well-known for consulting on lab design, as well as biorisk management projects.

In addition, Dr. Burnette is a strong proponent of moringa and is willing to freely share his knowledge in order to assist Strong Harvest.

Dr. Bryan G. Araica Mendieta received his training as an agronomist specializing in Animal Science at the National Agrarian University, Nicaragua. He specialized in Project Formulation and Evaluation at the University of the Andes, Colombia and earned his MBA from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​Spain in the program of Integrated Farming Systems in the Tropics. His PhD in Animal Science with emphasis on Animal Nutrition was awarded by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.

Since 1998 he has worked with the theme of exploring the potential of Moringa in agricultural production systems and as a hub for rural development and has produced many scientific papers in international journals and in national magazines as well as books, technical manuals, brochures and outreach materials.

He is currently a professor at the National Agricultural University of Nicaragua and is the coordinator of Red Marango of Nicaragua, a network of stakeholders on the issue of making available to people the nutritional and healing benefits of moringa.  Dr. Mendieta’s research and knowledge is a valuable resource for Strong Harvest.