About PlanetLabs

John D.Donahue is the Raymond Vernon Senior Lecturer in Public Policy.  Donahue’s teaching, writing, and research largely address the allocation of public responsibilities across levels of government and sectors of the economy. His publications include fourteen books, most recently The Dragon, the Eagle, and the Private Sector (with Karen Eggleston and Richard J. Zeckhauser, 2021). He served in the first Clinton Administration as an Assistant Secretary and then as Counselor to the Secretary of Labor. Donahue has consulted for business and governmental organizations, including the National Economic Council, the World Bank, and the RAND Corporation, and serves as a trustee or advisor to several nonprofits. A native of Indiana, he holds a BA from Indiana University and an MPP and PhD from Harvard.  His leadership roles at HKS include helping to found the HKS-HBS joint degree program; launching the SLATE teaching and learning initiative; and chairing the MPP program from 2010 through 2021 and again in academic year 2023-24

Bil Johnson is a retired educator who taught for over 42 years as a public-school teacher (7-12) and teacher-educator (at Brown University and Yale University).  A co-founder of one of the first charter schools in Massachusetts (The Francis W. Parker Charter Essential School,  Devens, MA) he was also a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools National School Reform Faculty.  Johnson is the author of The Performance Assessment Handbook, Volumes 1 & 2, The Student-Centered Classroom Handbook, and Right Time, Right Places: One Teacher’s School Reform Journey. Bil Johnson was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1949 and grew up on Long Island, where he became “Mr. Bay Shore” at his high school after quarterbacking an undefeated football team and serving as captain of the basketball squad. He graduated from Yale College in 1971 and, after a semester of substitute teaching at his old high school began a Master of Arts in Teaching program at Colgate University in upstate New York. After receiving his degree from Colgate, Johnson began his teaching career at the newly created Blind Brook Jr./Sr. High School in Rye Brook, N.Y

May Wu is a graduate of Harvard Kennedy School with a master’s degree in public policy. She has extensive teaching and managerial experience in the field of education. Her professional journey has spanned seven countries, encompassing China, the United States, Switzerland, Norway, and Finland, where she has been committed to the development of international education including in schools and summer camps. Mrs. Wu is passionate and experienced in school administration, curriculum development, teacher professional development, parent communication, marketing & admissions, and summer camp design and operations. She is currently the International Deputy Principal in a Shanghai-based international school.  She has directed curriculum development teams and headed international summer camps. She has been in the classrooms and camps working with children and educators for 14 years, and she continues to enjoy that

David McCobb is a biologist and retired professor of Neurobiology and Behavior at Cornell University.  Professionally, Dr. McCobb is interested in the cellular basis of behavior, particularly the role of intrinsic electrical excitability of neural and endocrine cells in integrating information and controlling plasticity of the system, including memory formation, neural plasticity, and development. His research focused on stress- and steroid-related regulation of function and expression of  key proteins in excitability known as ion channels. He has taught Intro neuroscience, cellular and electrical neurophysiology, a course on “Molecules of Social Behavior and Emotion”, and another on Ecopsychology.

He was fortunate to have been part of a broad department that included prominence in “behavioral Ecology”, a field that focuses not on how, but on why a wide variety of species behave as they do, especially in social behavior  (including humans). He loves wandering and integrating across basically any topic in biology, as well as celebrating our place in a virtually unfathomable biosphere and universe. He has enjoyed living 20+ years in one of the largest “Ecovillages” in the world: Ecovillage at Ithaca, NY. Since retiring he has guest lectured on Ecopsychology/EcoSpirituality. EcoSpirituality to him pertains to collective/community mental/spiritual wellbeing. He is actively engaged in promoting the idea that to bring change to our environmentally destructive life style we have to profoundly alter our behavior in celebration of this incredible biosphere. He is generating a community website for sharing relevant views expressed in any form, as well as a traveling bus serving as a center for exploring this topic, and any topic in biology. Learn more at his site (in early stages) Https://BeingEarth.one. His motto is “There is nothing unnatural about us”!

Joel Gurin is the President and Founder of CODE and an internationally recognized expert on open data. His book Open Data Now (McGraw-Hill), written for a general audience, is considered a benchmark publication that helped define this emerging field.  Before launching CODE in January 2015, he conceptualized and led the development team for the GovLab’s Open Data 500 project, the first thorough study of the use of open government data by the private sector. Joel’s background includes government, journalism, nonprofit leadership, and consumer issues. He served as Chair of the White House Task Force on Smart Disclosure, which studied how open government data can improve consumer markets, and as Chief of the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. For more than a decade he was Editorial Director and then Executive Vice President of Consumer Reports, where he directed the launch and development of ConsumerReports.org, which was then the world’s largest paid-subscription information-based website. He is a graduate of Harvard University with an A.B. in Biochemical Sciences, Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa. In 2023 he was honored to be selected to the FCW Federal 100, and to be elected as a Fellow of the National Academy for Public Administration.

Michael Shear, MD, is an expert on emergency medicine and an Advisor to PlanetLabs.Earth on applications of artificial intelligence in medical care.  He has a long career of research and service, including publication in the New England Journal of Medicine.  Dr. Shear also has extensive experience in providing travel care and advises the Camps on safety and preparedness for emergency medical care. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of California, San Francisco Medical School.

Liuba Shrira is a Professor of Computer Science at Brandeis University and is affiliated with the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. A native of Latvia, she received her PhD from the Technion (Israel).  Her research interests span aspects of design and implementation of distributed systems and especially storage systems. This includes fault-tolerance, availability and performance issues. Her recent focus is on blockchains, fast transactional storage, time travel (in storage), software upgrades.

Professor Shrira is an expert on many topics of relevance to PlanetLabs.Earth, including AI applications in education, STEM-related programs for advanced students, and training students to be creative in all fields.  Her personal experience of growing up behind the Iron Curtain, then Israel, and now the US, informs her opinions on tolerance and conflict zones in the world.

Valery Kostin has been involved in international cultural exchanges for many years in more than 50 countries and was an ICF Board member, representing Russia for 30 years.  Valery emigrated to the US and now lives in Portland, ME, where he is active in international Counselor recruiting and camp promotion.

He has considerable experience organizing children’s, youth, as well as camp professionals’ exchange programs. This experience comes from his personal involvement  (since childhood) in camps all over the world.  He was the youngest Camp Director in Russia’s flagship ARTEK CAMP.  At that camp, he grew from a camper to a camp counselor, then program director, then camp director of one of the units.

Since 1990 he has been a Member of the Steering Committee of the International Camping Fellowship.  In 2008, in Quebec City, Valery was elected ICF (International Camping Fellowship) President.

Valery participated in all International Camping Congresses since 1994 and was one of the key organizers for the IV International Congress in St. Petersburg in 1997 and the XI ICC in Sochi in 2017.

Valery is a great ambassador of the Russian camp movement; he promotes its achievements all over the world and has consistently advocated for cultural and mutual international understanding through camping.  In 2020, he was awarded the highest ICF DRUZHBA Award for his contribution to the development and popularization of the international camping movement.

Veroff immigrated to Canada in the early 1970’s and has lived in Quebec ever since,  learning French and the Québécois culture. As a Professor of Fine Arts at Cegep Marie Victorin for nearly 35 years, Veroff specialized in using art as a medium for transcultural connection and education.  Her work focused on young adults, especially related to cross-cultural conflict resolution.  She holds a PhD in Human Development and Organization and a Masters in Intercultural Mediation.

As an Advisor to PlanetLabs.Earth, Veroff is most interested in developing curriculum that lets young people explore differences and find common ground.  Using art as part of this exploration has been particularly successful, as has Veroff’s previous work in mediation and conflict resolution.

Gleb is currently a master’s student at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, majoring in International Business. He is fluent in English, Chinese, as well as his native Russian; he has passed HSK 5 in Mandarin and C1 Level in English in the Russian system. Gleb is a veteran of many camps as a camper in his childhood, and more recently as a Counselor.  Gleb was a Counselor at PlanetLabs’ 2019 Camp in Beidaihe and YMCE’s Greenwoods Camp outside of Shanghai in 2024.  He is an avid games player and athlete, as well as the “crush” of all teenage girls at every camp he attends.

David is an experienced international school teacher, with long experience in China and Thailand, among other places. David grew up in Spain, where he got his AB in Physical Education and Sports. At Shenzhen Bay School, David was a Triathlon coach, Swimming coach and Football coach.  In addition, he taught Music, English, and Spanish.  He is also an accomplished musician and guitarist.  As David says: “[Teaching] felt like the right thing to do, like a spontaneous way of contributing to the world; trying to give a safe and a positive learning environment for the always curious younger generations.”

At PlanetLabs.Earth, David will lead the sports and active recreational programming. We hope there will be many occasions to break out his guitar and inspire all of us to sing!

Kerry is a sophomore at Brandeis University. She majors in Psychology and Sociology. Besides academic studies, she has joined the Brandeis Women’s Ultimate Frisbee Team and dance club, and she plays the piano as her extracurricular hobby. Kerry graduated from Shanghai Pinghe School, an international high school in Shanghai. As an advocate for educational equity and a change-maker, she founded a ‘Vocational School Students’ Life’ interview platform in grade 11, speaking up for marginalized vocational students and challenging stereotypes about them. She created and organized another interview column with HOPE School, offering career development advice for vocational students. She participated in Brown University’s Leadership and Social Change program, conducting many different social change case studies on educational equality, environmental sustainability, etc.

In 2018, Kerry attended an international camp as a camper in Maine led by John Stadler. She engaged in intellectual communication, built a sense of community responsibility, and volunteered to help translate. In 2019, she served as a CIT in PLE’s DEX ONE camp, assisting counselors with course teaching and taking care of campers’ lives. In 2024, she played a counselor’s role in Kunming International Summer School of Curiosity and Leadership and assisted K12 campers with PBL projects. She experienced Camp Director training at the same time in order to get prepared for PlanetLabs’ 2025 summer camps. Based on her diverse camp experience, she looks forward to creating an unforgettable and engaging experience by working with all the campers.