Lee Altier is a horticulture professor at California State University. He directs the Organic Vegetable Project at the University Farm and directed the Cultivating Community North Valley for six years, a project funded by the USDA to alleviate food insecurity. He was a horticulture volunteer for the Peace Corps in Nepal for three years, worked for the USDA on agricultural water quality for three years in south Georgia, and has been doing summer work in Thailand and Nepal since 2001. His research interests are in sustainable cropping systems and agricultural ecology. This summer he will be leading a group of U.S. and Nepali students on a five-week program in Kathmandu and central Himalayan Mountain region to study development challenges and help in a village hit by the earthquakes two years ago.