PEOPLE

president - currently unfilled

JON KOHL - EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Jon Kohl, Costa Rican and American, founded the PUP Collaboratory out of his work both at RARE Center for Tropical Conservation in the 90s and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in the 2000s. As part of PUP, he manages study abroad courses in Costa Rica for American universities. He specializes in protected natural-cultural heritage area management, especially visitor management and especially heritage interpretation and communications. He does this from a holistic or integral perspective. His book, cowritten with Dr. Stephen McCool, called The Future Has Other Plans: Planning Holistically to Conserve Natural and Cultural Heritage (Fulcrum, 2016) is a cornerstone for PUP´s holistic orientation. Jon also has written extensively on a variety of topics related to protected areas, heritage, interpretation, and international development. See his ResearchGate for his articles as well as his books the Interpretive Theme Writer’s Field Guide: How to Write a Strong Theme from Big Idea to Presentation (2018, 2025) and Esencia de la Interpretación: Visión Holística para Conservar y Experimentar el Patrimonio Natural y Cultural de América Latina cowritten with Marisol Mayorga (2021). He served as a US Peace Corps in Costa Rica as a zoo educator-interpreter where he met his future wife and now lives in Costa Rica with dual citizenship and his family and organic garden and where he plays Ultimate frisbee. See his LinkedIn account for more details.

SHANTI GAIA - VICE PRESIDENT

Shanti has worked with Sean Esbjorn-Hargens, the founder of the MetaIntegral Associates, focusing on teaching the MetaImpact framework through courses called “Designing Wisdom Economies” and on working towards the creation of multicapital value accounting software. He has spent a decade living at two different ecovillages that were also nonprofit education centers, spending a significant amount of his time in leadership roles at those organizations.

He spent three years on the board of the Sirius, Inc. nonprofit, including approximately two years as treasurer. He also spent a couple of years on the statewide steering board for the Massachusetts 350.org network. Over the length of his career, he has founded or worked for over half a dozen environmental nonprofit organizations.

Overall, he has worked in the nonprofit sector for most of his career. He also has expansive training and practice in ecological conscious raising work, having trained directly with Joanna Macy and others in Experiential Deep Ecology, along with training in similar work by the Pachamama alliance.

jean knaack - TREASURER

Jean Knaack is a PUP Board Member. She is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay with a Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition, and, she earned a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in nonprofit management from George Mason University. Knaack is the Chief Executive Officer of the Road Runners Club of America where she has served in the role since 2005. Jean has extensive skills in organizational and financial development, board and member relations, and program planning and implementation.