For Immediate Release Media contact: The Field Museum Greg Borzo 312/665-7106 gborzo@fieldmuseum.org Field Museum's Division of Environment, Culture, and Conservation creates Fellows program ECCo names five Fellows to foster active collaborations with other museums, institutions CHICAGO—The Field Museum's Division of Environment, Culture, and Conservation (ECCo) announces a new Fellows program. The fellowship has been created to foster active collaborations with other institutions. It will also recognize the contributions of individuals who work closely with ECCo staff on projects that support the mission of this division: conservation and cultural understanding both in the United States and Latin America. "ECCo puts rigorous science into immediate action that creates and supports lasting conservation," says Debra Moskovits, Director of ECCo and Senior Vice President of The Field Museum. "By appointing these partners as Fellows, we will help to empower them to be more effective. At the same time, they will enhance our efforts on behalf of the environment. Together we will be able to accomplish more than ever." ECCo was established in 2004 to unite and strengthen The Museum's Environmental and Conservation Programs (ECP) and Center for Cultural Understanding and Change (CCUC). It plans to name more Fellows in the future. The first five Fellows, each appointed for a five-year term, are: Michael Cepek (Anthropology Department, University of Texas-San Antonio), Clark Erickson (Anthropology Department, University of Pennsylvania), Gabriela Nuñez (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago), Melinda Pruett-Jones (Executive Director, Chicago Wilderness), and Debra Shore (Commissioner, Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago). These Fellows are collaborating with ECCo staff through programs in Ecuador, Peru, and across the Chicago region. Debra Shore Debra Shore was elected Commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago in November 2006 and is currently serving a four-year term in that office. Her successful campaign for office focused on important water resource conservation messages that resonated with the public. Prior to public service, Shore served the Chicago Wilderness (CW) conservation consortium as Editor of the award-winning Chicago Wilderness Magazine for nine years and as CW director of development for four years. In her role as an ECCo Fellow, Shore will work with The Field Museum to raise public awareness of issues related to Lake Michigan's health. Together, The Field Museum and the City of Chicago can work to help the people of this region know what they can do to conserve and protect this unparalleled freshwater resource. "Those of us who live in the Chicago metropolitan region are exceedingly fortunate to have access to, and to benefit from, one of the world's Great Lakes," Shore says. "Collectively, the Great Lakes hold close to twenty percent of the world's fresh surface water. One of our challenges is to learn to live like misers in a land of plenty — and to begin to treat rainwater as a precious resource rather than a problem. "The Field Museum is wonderfully positioned, right along the shores of the lake, to demonstrate conservation techniques and to lead the way in educating the public," she adds. Shore holds a bachelor's degree from Goucher College and master's degrees from Johns Hopkins University and Columbia College. Continue>>