Geoversity Foundation

“Zita Dias, a non-voting member of the Board, is married to Nathan Gray, President of Geoversity.”

“Preparation of Geoversitys 2024 Form 990 was assisted by a retired CPA who donated their services. Prior to filing, the Board received, reviewed, and approved this Form 990, and had an opportunity to ask whatever question they had.”

“In 2024, our governing documents and financial statements were available to the public upon request. During 2024, we approved a new conflict of interest policy for the Organization.”

“Geoversity Foundation www.geoversity.org has been empowering, training, and connection biocultural leaders across the globe for over three decades. Originally known as Earth Train, we started in 1991 with youth-led call-to-action conferences and train journeys across continents. This report covers the activities of Geoversity Foundation and of Geoversitys counterpart organization in Panama, Fundacion Geoversity, a recognized not-for-profit private foundation wholly dedicated to the mission of Geoversity.”

“Geoversity leads a growing ecosystem of individuals and organizations united in the mission of biocultural regeneration and leadership. Our programs are grounded in the hard day-to-day work of watershed conservation, economic development in partnership with nature and the fight to avert global ecological collapse, always in team with local and indigenous communities, scientists, designers, business and young leaders. We offer immersive learning experiences, guided by applied science, natural design, and indigenous wisdom, for emerging and accomplished biocultural leaders.”

“Geoversity is Natures University. Our main campus, located less than a two-hour drive from Panama City, Panama, is the 1,250-acre Centro Mamoni within the 12,000-acre Mamoni Valley Preserve that Geoversity co-founded in 2001. Our affiliated campuses are the Seahorse Nature Reserve on the Atlantic coast of Bocas del Toro, Panama, under the direction of Howard Dryden, Ph.D., and, under the direction of Tamsin Woolley-Barker, Ph.D., the Borrego Institute for Living Design on the edge of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park east of San Diego, California.”

“In addition to the programs and projects conducted by Geoversity that are covered in www.geoversity.org, we”

“1 Completed the construction of the Bamboo Ark Pavilion - the dining and meeting space at Centro Mamoni, Geoversitys science and leadership campus. We also completed the construction of Casa Melanie Nelson, our large bamboo and wood dormitory for students and visiting scientists. As reported in 2023, this ambitious upgrade of our facilities was accomplished with local talent and interns all benefiting with on-the-job training and special design workshops led by our staff and Panamanian architect Anthony Lay.”

“2 With funding from Rewild, the Wildlife Conservation Society and European Union, we launched the Young Forest Guardians, an ongoing initiative aimed at engaging a new generation of territorial guardians in Panama. Drawing on Indigenous ancestral knowledge, local experience, and modern environmental science, it is educating rural children and youth about forest conservation, climate resilience, and cultural heritage. Its start-up this year involved 72 children and youth and 19 adults in workshops and citizen science projects conducted in the Mamoni Valley and in rural schools in the province of Colon.”

“3 Building on the Diammayala Alliance for the conservation of water sheds in the areas the inter oceanic canal Gunayala, the autonomous territory of the Guna people and of the upper Mamoni, we conducted introductory workshops in digital mapping and the use of drones for territorial surveillance, including one in team with professors and students with the University of Redlands.”

“4 In the works for over five years, we received the first of two donation of Guna art and artifacts from the collector Thomas Hannaher. The Hannaher collection is the largest and most extensively documented collection of Guna art and artifacts in the world. This historic and generous act is the first step in a process of repatriation and the establishment of an institute/museum of indigenous culture in Panama. Thanks to a grant from a Rockefeller family foundation, we launched the production of the book Guna Art led by Hannaher in team with Guna cultural and youth leaders and the Guna anthropologist Cebaldo de Leon. The book will be published in October of 2025.”

“5 We conducted in-depth one week and more field trips at Centro Mamoni and at other Diammayala Alliance locations for the following secondary schools The International School of Panama The Metropolitan School of Panama The Casco School Canada School Toronto Deerfield Academy The Branson School and The Cottonwood School. We also conducted a special two-week program for Northeastern University.”

“6 Thanks to a grant from the Bailey Wildlife Foundation, we started the development of a model 200-acre reforestation and rewilding project in connection with our Caracol River Basin Restoration Project at Centro Mamoni. The project will feature a strong scientific monitoring element and a focus on long-term benefits to edge communities, that is populations located next to ecologically important areas.”

“7 Under the leadership of Juan Carlos Monterrey, we conducted at Centro Mamoni the first Democratic Leadership Accelerator Intensive for 18 young Panamanian leaders, with a faculty that included the former Mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Carmen Yulin Cruz and the architect and former Panama City Vice Mayor Raisa Banfield.”

“8. Consistent with our emphasis on collaboration, Geoversity Foundation funded”

“In collaboration with The Bailey Wildlife Foundation, a grant to Yaguara Panama for jaguar habitat protection and research”

“In collaboration with the Bacon Foundation, a grant to Wetlands International Panama, a grant to the Panamanian environmental organization CIAM and multi-year coral reef research led by the Panamanian science group CCIMBIO.”

“In collaboration with Islas Secas Foundation, a grant to OPAVA, for innovation in plastic recycling in rural areas.”

“Juan Carlos Monterrey concluded his outstanding work as Geoversitys Executive President to assume the highly influential position of National Climate Management Director with Panamas Ministry of the Environment. The position of Executive President is now being assumed by Jeff Karp, Ph.D., a distinguished professor at Harvard Medical School and MIT who has already tackled two field sessions with us in Panama this year. We also elected the retired business and civic leader Margaret Garcia US and Panamanian citizen, to the boards of Geoversity Foundation and Fundacion Geoversity.”