Participant Bios

WWiW participants come from: California, Colorado, Idaho, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.

California

Lynn Jungwirth was the founding Executive Director of the Watershed Research and Training Center in Hayfork, California and is currently serving as its Senior Fellow for Policy and Development.  She has been working at the nexus between healthy forests and healthy communities since 1992 and has been a leader in the Community Forestry movement in the US.   Lynn has served as the Chair of the Communities Committee of the 7th American Forest Congress, in the Core Group of The Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition, on the Board of Directors of the Forest Guild, and the Board of Directors of the Sustainable Northwest Wood Distribution Center.  Her organization has participated in the programmatic monitoring of USFS and BLM Stewardship Contracting since 1999 and continues today.  She has testified before congress on various issues over the years, including workforce and labor on public lands, forest collaboration, the future of the USDA Forest Service, forest restoration, and climate change.

Carl Wilmsen served on the board of directors of the Alliance of Forest Workers and Harvesters for five years until assuming the position of Executive Director in March, 2009. He specializes in social justice in the management of U.S. public lands, the intersection of race and environmental issues, and participatory research methods. Prior to joining AFWH, Carl was Program Director of Community Forestry and Environmental Research Partnerships. He has served on the advisory boards of several community forestry groups. He has also evaluated sustainable agriculture programs, worked as an oral historian, and (before college) worked as an apple picker and orchard hand, landscape laborer, school bus driver, and truck driver. He has authored several book chapters and journal articles on race and the environment, oral history methodology and participatory research. He is also co-editor of Partnerships for Empowerment: Participatory Research for Community-Based Natural Resource Management (Earthscan, 2008). 

Colorado

Ted Toombs received his BS from the University of Illinois in Liberal Arts and Sciences in 1990, and his MS from Colorado State University in Rangeland Ecosystem Sciences in 1997. Ted currently serves as the Rocky Mountain Regional Director for Environmental Defense Fund’s Center of Conservation Incentives. Since joining EDF seven years ago he has successfully spearheaded EDF’s efforts to restore grassland ecosystems in the West and has a demonstrated track record of working with ranchers, state and federal agencies and partner organizations. Ted has worked for a variety of governmental and non-governmental organizations and private landowners on projects related to grassland ecology and wildlife, including grassland birds. He has over seven years of experience with analysis and implementation of Farm Bill programs, with emphasis on the application of such programs toward endangered species recovery goals.

Idaho

Joyce Dearstyne, Joyce Dearstyne is the Executive Director of Framing our Community (FOC), a grassroots nonprofit organization founded in 1999 whose vision is a "Healthy Forest, Healthy Community."  FOC’s mission is to provide an integrated program that creates jobs, improves forest and watershed conditions, and increases educational opportunities.  FOC is located in Elk City, Idaho-- a small rural community surrounded by national forest and wilderness. Joyce has oversight of the “Jobs in the Woods” program for Forest and Watershed Restoration, Water Quality Improvement and Hazardous Fuels Reduction – Defensible Space programs, FOC's Elk City Small Business Incubator and new Artists in the Woods E-commerce program.  Future plans include a Biomass Power Cogeneration facility, expansion of the Small Business Incubator and a Traditional Skills/Natural Disaster Response Team School.  Joyce and FOC work closely with Federal and State Agencies (USDA Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Clearwater R C & D, Idaho Department of Lands, Labor and Commerce), the Idaho County Commission, tribal and community leaders and private land owners to aggressively address the hazardous fuel loads identified in Idaho County's Wildfire Protection Plan, diversify the economic base and improve water quality issues as identified in the South Fork Clearwater River TMDL Implementation Plan.  She serves on Clearwater Basin Collaborative, Ida-Lew Economic Development Council, North Central Idaho Eastern Washington Workforce Development Planning Group.  She works with leaders from 13 western states on national issues and federal agency policies that directly impact the welfare of rural natural resource based communities in the Pacific Northwest, Inland Northwest and the West as a whole. Her liberal arts undergraduate studies were at Monmouth University and community development studies at the Northwest Community Development Institute, Boise State University.

Gina Knudson has a B.A. in Journalism from Whitworth University and joined the staff of Salmon Valley Stewardship in July 2006 and became the executive director in January 2007. She has continued to work as a freelance journalist, publishing articles in High Country News, Big Sky Journal, Sun Valley Magazine, Horizon Air magazine, and the Idaho Falls Post Register in recent years. Prior to moving to Salmon with her family in 2002, Gina worked as the environmental public affairs officer for Mountain Home Air Force Base. In 1996, she received Air Combat Command’s Outstanding Public Affairs Civilian award. She later worked for the engineering firm CH2M Hill’s Boise office as a technical writer and editor. She has served as a Salmon City Council member and on the board of directors for the Salmon Arts Council and the Lemhi Afterschool Promise nonprofit organizations. In 2010, she was appointed to the Lemhi County Planning and Zoning Commission. 

Kristin Troy has served as the Executive Director for Lemhi Regional Land Trust since the land trust’s beginning in 2005.  Her duties include fundraising, building partnerships, creating community awareness, implementing land protection projects, and compelling Board Members to check their e-mail. Kristin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration, with a degree in Management with Entrepreneurial Emphasis from Boise State University. A Salmon High School graduate, she spent 11 years in the outdoor recreation industry before returning home to Salmon. In 2000, she and her husband, Mark, purchased Idaho Adventures; a Salmon based river rafting and fishing business. Mark and Kristin have been active members of the Idaho Outfitters and Guides Association and Kristin serves on the Upper Salmon Basin Watershed Project Advisory Board, has lobbied in Washington, D.C. for salmon and steelhead recovery, and has served as President of the Salmon Chamber of Commerce.

Maryland

Mary Cox has served as Executive Director of the Communities Committee since October, 2006, where her work has focused community-owned forests and community-based forestry policy. Prior to joining the Communities Committee, Mary was a Program Manager with Parks & People Foundation, a grassroots urban forestry organization in Baltimore, for more than five years. She worked with residents, researchers and local agencies to develop pilot programs and applied research projects to improve the local environment. Mary also worked as an independent consultant with the World Wildlife Fund’s Biodiversity Support Program on a review of the capacity-building impact of their international community-based conservation programs. Before working in the environmental field, Mary was a litigation attorney for the City of Chicago. She has a B.A. and J.D. from Northwestern University, and a M.S. in Resource Policy and Behavior from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment.

Montana

Maureen Bookwalter is Program Director and Student Coordinator for Northwest Connections.  Maureen received her Master’s of Science in 2004 from the University of Montana’s Environmental Studies Program and was selected as a Doris Duke Environmental Fellow. Her graduate work focused on the divestment of corporate timberlands and the conservation strategies being utilized to maintain rural landscapes and working forests.  Prior to her graduate work, she spent 5 years working for various government agencies (USGS, USFS, NPS, Nez Perce Tribe) doing wildlife and forestry related fieldwork. She has been working for Northwest Connections for the past 6 years coordinating NwC’s student educational programs and assisting with land conservation projects on both public and private lands. Her passion in the conservation field lies with protecting rural places – working towards balanced solutions that sustain the abundant natural resources while simultaneously sustaining local economies and protecting rural culture. Maureen grew up in the Adirondack Mountains of New York and has lived in Montana for 12 years.

Marnie Criley is the Director of Restore Montana, a network of organizations and businesses working to promote and strengthen an integrated restoration economy that addresses the natural and built environments.  Marnie is also the Coordinator for the Montana Forest Restoration Committee, a 3-year old collaborative effort to promote and engage in ecologically sound restoration projects on Montana's national forests.  Finally, Marnie has worked in on-the-ground forest and watershed restoration projects in western Montana for 12 years with Watershed Consulting, LLC. Over the last ten years, Marnie has been engaged in numerous restoration-focused collaboratives at a national, regional and local scale, and these efforts have led to her interest in the relationship between ecological restoration and human communities. Her current focus is on creating high-skill, high-wage restoration jobs and furthering public understanding of the importance of restoration. Marnie has been involved with RVCC since 2003. Marnie has a Master's degree from the University of Montana Environmental Studies Program (1996) and a Bachelors of Arts degree in English from the University of Michigan (1985).

Carol Daly is president of the Flathead Economic Policy Center, a Columbia Falls. MT-based non-profit whose main focus is stewardship forestry and collaborative problem solving in natural resource-based communities.  Carol’s prior work includes extensive experience in cattle ranching, aviation, manufacturing, and community and economic development.  She is a founding member and immediate past president of the Communities Committee (a national community forestry organization), chair of the board of the Bad Rock Fire District, secretary-treasurer of FireSafe Montana, a member of the Society of American Foresters, and a Tree Farmer.

Melanie Parker is co-founder and Executive Director of Northwest Connections.  Melanie graduated with honors from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1988 with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science.  She attained a Masters of Science degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana in 1997.  Melanie has taught field-based ecology courses for twenty years, and has worked in a wide diversity of outdoor jobs including back country ranger, wilderness guide and field ecologist. Melanie is an active spokesperson for place-based collaborative conservation.  She has a strong reputation as someone who can bring people with diverse interests together and craft a solution that benefits both people and land.  Melanie facilitates the Swan Valley Coordinating Committee, a group that includes state and federal agencies, local government, as well as local and regional non-profits to coordinate conservation and restoration work.  She is also the current chair of the Swan Valley Elementary School Board of Trustees.

Nevada

Robin Boies lives and ranches with her husband Steve and family in NE Nevada. Their ranch is a traditional high desert cow-calf operation. In 2000, the Boies' organized a collaborative management group that includes federal and state agencies, interested public individuals, and ranch neighbors.  This is the Shoesole Management Team's tenth season working together.

New Hampshire

Joe Short is Program and Policy Director with the Northern Forest Center in Concord, NH. Joe joined the Center in 2003 as a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow, and joined the staff full-time in 2004. From 2005-2008 he managed the Northern Forest Sustainable Economy Initiative, supporting a 4-state steering committee in the creation of a sustainable economic development strategy for the four-state Northern Forest region. Joe currently directs a variety of programs and policy initiatives for the Center, including the Northern Forest Investment Zone—a multi-year initiative to create revenue streams from the forest, build regional policy, and develop pilot projects and replicable models for forest-based sustainable development.  Earlier in his career Joe worked for four years for The Nature Conservancy, first in Nebraska and then in northern California. Joe has an M.S. in Resource Ecology and Management from the University of Michigan and a BA in Biology from Carleton College.

New Mexico

Mike DeBonis is the executive director of the Forest Guild, a national organization of foresters and allied professionals that promotes ecologically, economically, and socially responsible forestry. Mike has been with the Forest Guild since 2006 and previously worked as the organization’s southwest region director. Mike currently serves as co-chair of the Biomass Working Group of the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition. Prior to working for the Guild, Mike was employed by the Maine Forest Service as the state’s urban and community forestry coordinator. Mike has spent time as an environmental consultant in CT, a park ranger in VT, and a Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica. Mike holds a Master’s degree in Forestry from Yale University.

Oregon

Cullen Brady is the Policy Program Associate at Sustainable Northwest.  He grew up in the western United States and has a deep passion for policy and working to find landscape-scale solutions for community-based conservation. After moving to Portland, Oregon to pursue a Bachelor of Arts degree with double majors in international affairs and German studies (including spending a year in Munich, Germany), from Lewis & Clark College, Cullen served as an intern for Congressman Earl Blumenauer. He then worked for the City Club of Portland creating venues and opportunities for civic engagement at various levels, along with facilitating community-based policy research. He then went to work for The Nature Conservancy in major gift fundraising and then as their policy associate for the Western United States. On the weekends, you will likely find Cullen sipping the most recently released vintage of a Pinot Noir in Oregon's Willamette Valley.

Chad Davis works at Sustainable Northwest with Forest Stewardship Program partners and communities to link them to opportunities that strengthen market channels for the byproducts of ecologically-based forest stewardship. Chad's interest in market-based conservation strategies that create opportunity for individuals at the community level drew him to Sustainable Northwest. He also works to affect Federal and state policy, striving to ensure that rural entrepreneurs and leaders have equitable access to developing appropriately scaled renewable energy projects. In his spare time Chad enjoys strapping on his backpack to survey the alpine flora of the Northwest and pedaling past the hopfields and vineyards throughout the Willamette Valley.

Maia Enzer is the Director for the Policy Program at Sustainable Northwest. In that capacity she works on issues related to forest restoration and community economic development, with a focus on federal lands policy. She has more than 13 years experience in bringing diverse stakeholders together to identify common ground around federal lands management issues. Previously, she served as Sustainable Northwest's Director of the Healthy Forests, Healthy Communities Partnership (HFHC), a regional collaborative working to market the byproducts of forest restoration. Prior to joining Sustainable Northwest, Maia was the Director of Forest Policy at American Forests in Washington, D.C. (1993-2000). She has also worked as an organizer for MASSPIRG and NYPIRG on state and local environmental issues.  Maia has a Masters degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (1993) and a BA in Political Science from Union College (1989). She currently is serving on the Western Governors' Association Forest Health Advisory Council. She served on the board of the Communities Committee of the Seventh American Forest Congress and was the Co-Chair of the Policy Task Group for the (1997-2002); she served on the board of the National Network of Forest Practitioners (2000-2005).   She is one of the editors on the book entitled, Understanding Community Based Forest Ecosystem Management, published by the Journal of Sustainable Forestry.

James Honey is the Director of the Rangelands and Ranching Program at Sustainable Northwest.  He has managed Sustainable Northwest’s efforts in the Klamath Basin since 2001.  He is responsible for one of the first “working lands” conservation easements in Oregon, a potential model for broader settlement of water and restoration and economic issues in the Upper Klamath Basin.  He is a recipient of the John Wesley Powell Award for outstanding contributions to Western watershed management for this and other innovative work with ranchers and the Klamath Tribes in the Basin.  James also directs SNW’s emerging Ranchland Renewal program, through which he has assisted with the regional expansion of Country Natural Beef, the largest cooperative of Food Alliance certified natural beef producers in the West.   James was born and raised in Mexico and is a graduate of Stanford University.  His background includes complex class action litigation, and conservation work with the World Wildlife Fund Mexico and the California Hydropower Reform Coalition.

Becky Hyde ranches in the Sprague River valley with her husband and children.  She's been involved in helping create the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement.

Hannah Gosnell is Assistant Professor of Geography in the Geosciences Department at Oregon State University, where she is affiliated with the Rural Studies Program, the Water Resources Graduate Program, the Institute for Water and Watersheds, and the Oregon Climate Change Research Initiative. Her research interests have to do with agricultural landscape change and environmental governance in the American West; and the ways in which laws and institutions might evolve to better reflect changing geographies. Current research projects focus on “payment for ecosystem services” schemes and their potential to enhance agricultural prosperity and rural sustainability. Professor Gosnell earned her MA and PhD degrees in Geography from the University of Colorado in 2000, then served as a Professional Research Associate at the Center of the American West until 2006, co-managing the Ranchland Ownership Dynamics Project. She holds a BA in American Civilization from Brown University. 

Dylan Kruse is the Policy Program Assistant at Sustainable Northwest where he helps with program support for the policy team.  He graduated from Lewis & Clark College with a B.A. in International Affairs and an emphasis in Resource and Security Issues.  His work at Sustainable Northwest has linked his interests of resource management, conservation and economic development.  Dylan has also worked in the Portland Public school system and is considering a future in economic and community development.

George McKinley is Coordinator of the Southern Oregon Small Diameter Collaborative, a multi-stakeholder community group working with agency partners to improve forest health, reduce the risk of uncharacteristic fire and strengthen the regional forest workforce infrastructure.  After growing up in the midwest working on his grandparents' christmas tree farm, he moved west for graduate school.  He has worked as a wilderness guide and taught in college-level religious and environmental studies programs.  In 1992 he opened a small wood shop outside of Ashland, Oregon utilizing primarily local wood. Today, his family owns the 600 acre Greenwood Forest and his custom milling operation works with forest owners and others interested in using local wood. McKinley was 2008 Jackson County Tree Farmer of the Year in recognition of the long-term stewardship of his forest and leadership in collaborative efforts to promote small diameter utilization.

Cassandra Moseley is the director of the Ecosystem Workforce Program and associate director of the Institute for a Sustainable Environment at University of Oregon.  At the EWP, she developed applied research and policy education programs, focused on community-based forestry, federal forest management, and sustainable rural development. She is co-editor of People, Fire, and Forests: A Synthesis of Wildfire Social Science (2007) and is co-author of Collaborative Environmental Management: What Roles for Government? (2004). Prior to joining EWP in 2001, she was an assistant professor of political science at the University of Florida and program development director at the Rogue Institute for Ecology and Economy in Ashland, Oregon. She is a core group member of the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition, and a former board member of the Flintridge Foundation and the Applegate Partnership. She is currently an associate editor of the Journal of Forestry. She has testified before Congress about rural green jobs in economic stimulus and the working conditions of forest workers. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University in political science, and her B.A. from Cornell University, where she majored in mathematics and government.

Alaina Pomeroy is Program Assistant for the Policy, Klamath, and Ranches and Rangelands Programs at Sustainable Northwest where she helps her colleagues work on a wide range of issues.  Alaina was introduced to the community based forestry movement as research assistant at the Ecosystem Workforce Program in Eugene.  Her previous work experience includes tutoring for the American English Institute, three weeks in Bulgaria as a research assistant for the INTREU program and landscaper extraordinaire for Pomeroy's Organic Landscape and Design in Portland.  Alaina holds a bachelors degree in Environmental Studies and Spanish from the University of Oregon Clark Honors College.  During her senior year she completed an Honors thesis, Science and the Klamath Project, where she researched the role of science across the history of the Klamath case to see if and when science influences the policy process, and by what processes it does so.  Alaina is a 7th generation Oregonian, born and raised in Portland.  She is an avid fan of ultimate frisbee.

Shiloh Sundstrom is a native of Deadwood, Oregon and currently works on natural resource conservation policy and development in for the west.  Shiloh has a M.S. Degree in Forest Resources from Oregon State University and has conducted research on livestock management and conservation in southern Kenya. He currently works with the Siuslaw Institute to coordinate policy and research for RVCC's Ranching and Private Lands working groups. He has worked with the Siuslaw Watershed Council and the Climate Leadership Iniative at the University of Oregon.  He also trains horses and co-manages a small cow-calf and sheep operation in Deadwood, Oregon.

Jim Walls is the Executive Director for the Lake County Resources Initiative (LCRI), a non-profit working on natural resource projects. Prior to coming to LCRI, Jim worked for Natural Resource Conservation Service retiring after 33 years. Jim’s main efforts today with LCRI involves biomass development, carbon credits systems for forestry, third party monitoring on the Fremont National Forest and collaborative forest management.  In addition to biomass Jim is working on geothermal, hydro, solar and wind energy projects in Lake County.  Jim served 5 years as an advisor at the University of Washington initiating several forest carbon research projects.  Jim serves on the Governor’s Renewable Energy Workgroup helping develop policy and legislation for renewable energy in Oregon. Jim is a member of the Governor’s Oregon Way Advisory Group assisting the Governor by determining appropriate projects for the federal stimulus dollars.  In addition to his work, Jim served as a council member for the Town of Lakeview, is Past-President of Lake County Chamber of Commerce and Past-President of Lakeview Rotary.

Mark Webb

Tennessee

Whitney Kimball Coe serves as coordinator of the National Rural Assembly at the Center for Rural Strategies, a rural movement made up of activities and partnerships geared toward building better policy and more opportunity across the country. Before joining the Rural Strategies staff, Whitney served as assistant editor of Appalachian Journal, an academic regional journal based in Boone, North Carolina. She has master's degree in Appalachian studies from Appalachian State University in North Carolina and an undergraduate degree from Queens University of Charlotte. Whitney lives in Maryville, Tennessee.

Vermont

Andrea L. Colnes, Policy and Development Director of the Biomass Energy Resources Center.  Andi Colnes has spent much of her career working on natural resource public policy and coalition building throughout New England and elsewhere in the country, where she has held a variety of positions focused on large-scale land conservation, sustainable forestry, and energy issues across the Northeast. Her background in energy issues began with her work on Vermont's first Comprehensive Energy Plan under Governor Madeleine Kunin, and more recently working closely with BERC and partners in launching and implementing the Northern Forest Biomass Energy Initiative. Andi served as founding executive director of the Northern Forest Alliance, policy director of the Northern Forest Center, and deputy director of the Vermont Natural Resources Council. She co-founded Americans for Our Heritage and Recreation and the Eastern Forest Partnership and helped launch the National Rural Assembly. Immediately prior to joining BERC, Andi served as the policy leadership director for the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire, where she worked with nonprofit leaders throughout northern New England. Andi has a master’s in Wildlife Conservation from the University of Maine and a BA in Political Science from Williams College.

District of Columbia

Gerry Gray is the Executive Director of American Forests.  He has extensive experience working on policy issues related to the restoration, protection, and management of public and private forests. Since the mid-1990s, his policy work has focused on advancing community-based forestry and helping to bring the voices of local and regional partners to the national policy arena.  In addition, Gerry has worked on issues related to forests and climate change and forest-based ecosystem services. Prior to joining American Forests in 1988, Gerry worked as a state forest resource planner with the Division of Forestry, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and with the U.S. Forest Service, Northeastern Area, State and Private Forestry.  He holds a Doctor of Forestry degree from the University of Minnesota (1987), a Master of Forest Science from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies (1982), and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University (1978).

Brian Kittler is the Project Director at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation.  He focuses primarily on the Institute’s work on sustainable bioenergy and community-based forestry issues. His current work examines the role of wood-based bioenergy in greenhouse gas emission reduction and renewable energy production strategies, and the extent to which these strategies support sustainable communities and improved forest management of public and private forest lands. Brian is working with a number of stakeholders in target geographic locations across the country to develop sustainable policy and management frameworks for biomass harvesting at the state level. He is also helping to lead a broad-based multi-sector policy dialogue to identify appropriate mechanisms to ensure that emerging markets for wood-based energy are closely aligned with principles of sustainable forest management. In addition to this work on bioenergy, Brian also manages an annual multi-party programmatic level monitoring effort to assess the role communities play in designing, developing and implementing stewardship contracts and agreements on National Forest System and Bureau of Land Management Public Domain lands. Brian has previously managed programs for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, worked on wilderness management issues in the Mt. Hood National Forest, and has served on the technical advisory panel for three inter-state policy reports related to the potential impacts of bioenergy systems on watershed health and water quality in the Chesapeake Bay region. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Policy from Colby College and a Master of Science in Environmental Science and Policy from the Johns Hopkins University.  

Amanda Tai is the Forest Policy Associate at American Forests. A recent 2009 graduate of Wellesley College with a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Studies, Amanda recently moved to Washington D.C. to pursue her interests in environmental policy, justice, and sustainability. She engaged in several on-campus environmental initiatives during college, including a greenhouse gas emissions audit and a water conservation tutorial for incoming students. Prior to American Forests, Amanda was an intern for the Massachusetts Green Jobs Coalition and had a summer internship in Madagascar working on local conservation projects.