About Academics Without Borders USA

Steve Temple

President of the AWB USA Corporation and Chair of the Board of Directors

Steve is a retired UC Extension Specialist with 40 years of national and international experience in grain legume production and varietal development, and currently active in assistance projects in Latin America and the Caribbean. He holds an M.S. from University of Illinois and a Ph.D. from UC Davis. Steve worked for the Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical in Colombia for 11 years before his return to UC Davis, where he led the Sustainable Ag Farming Systems research and extension program for 14 years, and chaired the UC International Ag Development graduate group for 4 years.

Gaëlle Chanlot

Secretary of the Corporation and Executive Director of the Board of Directors

Originally from France, Gaëlle Chanlot arrived in Davis—and in the United States—in February 2021. She holds a PhD in Food and Consumer Science from AgroParisTech and brings more than 15 years of experience spanning food science, consumer and market insights, and philanthropic strategy. Gaëlle currently serves as a Project Scientist with UC ANR, where she supports food businesses in integrating sensory and consumer research into their product development and business strategies. For more than a decade, she has also been deeply engaged in volunteer work focused on communication and fundraising across various nonprofit organizations. She has actively supported the AWB USA Board since November 2021, became Executive Director in September 2023 and joined the Board in September 2025, helping to strengthen the organization's strategy and outreach.

Gail Martinez

Treasurer of the Corporation and member of the Board of Directors

Gail Martinez is Assistant Vice Provost Emerita - Undergraduate Education at the University of California, Davis. She holds a B.S. degree in Child Development, Ph.D. in Education from UC Davis, M.S. in Counselor Education from California State University, Sacramento. She provided leadership and advocacy for campus issues related to the enhancement of undergraduate education and assisted the Vice Provost in oversight of campus compliance for accreditation. During her tenure she oversaw the Undergraduate Research Center, the Center for Leadership Learning, the Washington Program, and assisted in the oversight of several other campus units and initiatives including the University Honors Program, Summer Sessions, and the Center for Educational Effectiveness.

James Hill

Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for International Engagement

James (Jim) Hill is Associate Dean Emeritus and Extension Specialist Emeritus of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis. He earned B.S. degrees in crop science and biochemistry at CSU, San Luis Obispo and a Ph.D. at UC Davis in plant physiology. At UC Davis, he led an applied research and extension education team in rice agronomy. He is a past Chair of the Department of Agronomy and Range Science. He served as Program Leader for Irrigated Rice and Head of the Division of Crop, Soil and Water Sciences in the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) from 1999-2002 where he led programs across most Asian rice countries. He is a past Chair of the USA Rice Technical Working Group and the International Temperate Rice Conference. He is currently chair of the Global Rice Research Foundation.

Thomas Rost

Co-Chair of the Board of Directors for Social Media Management

Tom is a Professor Emeritus in Plant Biology at the College of Biological Sciences at UC Davis. His BS is from St. John's University in Minnesota, an MA from Minnesota State University and a PhD from Iowa State University. He served as a Captain in the US Army in Okinawa and was a National Cancer Institute post-doctoral fellow at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Tom has co-authored 10 books and numerous peer reviewed publications, and his research focused mostly on aspects of plant anatomy and plant development. Tom has traveled extensively on international projects, he taught courses in plant development in Uruguay and England and has presented workshops and presentations in many countries, including two Fulbright grants to Myanmar and Slovakia.

James Grieshop

Member of the Board of Directors

Jim retired from the University of California, Davis (UCD) in 2008 after a 33 year career as a Cooperative Extension Specialist in the Department of Human and Community Development. He earned a B.S. in biology from Marquette University, a M.S. in Anthropology from SUNY Binghamton, and Ph.D. in Foundations of Education from University of New Mexico. At UCD, Grieshop was responsible for conducting applied research and outreach education throughout California, as well as for teaching undergraduate and graduate students. He is fluent in Spanish and has conducted research and education efforts in Nepal, Ghana, Kenya, Cuba and the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America, Ecuador, and Paraguay.

Michael Lazzara

Member of the Board of Directors and Liaison with UC Davis Global Affairs

Mike is Associate Vice Provost for Academic Programs and Partnerships in Global Affairs and Professor of Latin American Literature and Cultural Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UC Davis. He earned his B.A. in Spanish and Government and International Relations from the University of Notre Dame and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Spanish from Princeton University. He is one of the founding faculty of the UC Davis Program in Human Rights Studies, the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to Chile, and has published widely on human rights and cultural memory in Latin America.

James F. Shackelford

Member of the Board of Directors

Jim has BS and MS degrees in Ceramic Engineering from the University of Washington, Seattle and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. Following a postdoctoral fellowship at McMaster University in Canada, he joined the University of California, Davis, where he is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. His online course Materials Science: Ten Things Every Engineer Should Know has had over 100,000 learners take the course since it was launched on the Coursera platform in 2015. His textbook Introduction to Materials Science for Engineers is now in its 9th Edition and has been translated into Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish. Since retiring, he has enjoyed teaching materials courses at UC Davis, UC Irvine, and various universities in Vietnam, Korea, and China.

Karen Beardsley

Member of the Board of Directors

Recently retired from UC Davis, Dr. Karen Beardsley focused her 32-year career applying geospatial technologies to global environmental and conservation challenges, as well as leading global professional programs, which includes the Humphrey Fellowship Program and the Mandela Washington Fellowship. Karen was a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Kenya in the late 1980s and her dissertation research included fieldwork in southeastern Kenya. She spent the 2015-16 academic year as a Fulbright scholar in Bhutan developing geographic information sciences curriculum and teaching at the Royal Thimphu College. Upon return from her Fulbright experience, Karen joined Global Affairs full-time and served for 10 years as director of Global Professional Programs. Karen continues to teach GIS for UC Davis Continuing and Professional Education and leads a UC Davis study abroad program, focused on GIS, in Bhutan each summer.