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Missoula

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Here are biographies of speakers for SEJ's 20th Annual Conference, October 13-17, 2010, in Missoula, Montana.

 

Saturday's Breakfast Plenary Session will sniff out answers to the question "Wolves, Grizzlies and Humans: Where’s the Balance?"

Back to Missoula conference home.

 

Alphabetical Speaker List
(a work-in-progress)
A | B | C | D | E
F | G | H | I | J | K
L | M | N | O | P | Q | R
S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

 

 

 

 

A

 

Tim Aldrich
 

Event: Saturday, Breakfast Plenary, Wolves, Grizzlies and Humans: Where’s the Balance?, 7:30 a.m.

Tim Aldrich, a native Missoulian, has had a life-long interest in hunting, hiking and angling, for recreation and putting food on the table. In 1997, he retired from the United States Forest Service after a long and varied career. A seasonal position as a sawyer on a brush crew transitioned into a 7 year stint as a smokejumper. Following that, Aldrich worked in Montana, Idaho, Alaska and California in business management functions. Currently, he is in his third year as president of the Montana Wildlife Federation, an organization of over 7500 conservation minded hunters, anglers and wildlife watchers. He is past president of the Hellgate Hunter and Angler organization located in Missoula and is current chair of the Missoula City Open Space Advisory Committee. Previously, Aldrich served on the Citizens Advisory Committee to the local Region of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks since 2004.

 

Elaine Allestad
 

Event: Saturday, Breakfast Plenary, Wolves, Grizzlies and Humans: Where’s the Balance?, 7:30 a.m.

Elaine Allestad, her husband Lawrence, and family raise sheep and cattle on ranches near Big Timber and Opheim, Montana. They had the last sheep grazing permit in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness until predators and endangered species regulations made it impossible to coexist. She has served as Sweet Grass County commissioner for 20 years; also as the first woman Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks commissioner, and on the Governor’s Hunting Heritage Council, the Montana Crime Board, the Yellowstone Grizzly Bear Ecosystem Coordinating Committee, the Governor’s Wolf Management Working Group, and is now the chairperson of the Montana Livestock Loss Reduction and Mitigation Board, which is tasked with reimbursing ranchers for their losses from wolves and funding mitigation methods to prevent losses. Their family and ranching operation has been featured in the award-winning documentary “Sweetgrass,” a film by Lucien Casting Taylor and Ilisa Barbash, and in the August 2010 issue of Range magazine. Allestad comes from first-hand experience dealing with predators, endangered species and the environment of processes.

 

Bryce Andrews
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 3, Clark Fork River: Restoring the Nation's Largest Superfund Site, 7:00 a.m.

Bryce Andrews was hired as the Clark Fork Coalition's Ranchlands Program Manager in May 2009 to oversee the Coalition's 2,300-acre working ranch — located in the heart of the upper Clark Fork's Superfund site — and turn it into a living classroom that demystifies how the upcoming cleanup will co-exist with agricultural operations and builds community support for broader restoration of the upper watershed. He will also model innovative techniques in conservation ranching and supply technical assistance for landowners looking to improve their ranch economics through better range health, natural habitat restoration, and environmentally-sustainable land management. Andrews is implementing an energetic outreach program that taps into his experience ranching in the Madison Valley, on the doorstep of Yellowstone Park, where he worked on finding a balance between the needs of livestock and wildlife. He holds an M.S. in Environmental Studies from The University of Montana, and has written freelance articles for environmental magazines and journals.

 

Janet Annesley
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Tar Sands from Alberta to Missoula and Beyond, 11:00 a.m.

Janet Annesley is vice president of communications for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP). CAPP represents companies, large and small, that explore for, develop and produce natural gas and crude oil throughout Canada. CAPP’s member companies produce about 90 per cent of Canada’s natural gas and crude oil. CAPP's associate members provide a wide range of services that support the upstream crude oil and natural gas industry. Together CAPP's members and associate members are an important part of a $110-billion-a-year national industry that provides essential energy products. Annesley joined CAPP in 2009 from Shell Canada Energy where she was Senior Manager of Stakeholder Engagement and Major Projects Communications for Shell’s oil sands business, a post she held from 2004. A native Calgarian, Janet graduated from Mount Royal College.

 

Emilia Askari
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, THE CRAFT: Be the Change You Want to See: Pitchfest for Journalism Entrepreneurs, 9:00 a.m.

Emilia Askari is embracing change in the media industry with a scholarship to study human-computer interaction, social computing and other topics related to the future of news at the University of Michigan's School of Information. She has more than two decades of experience covering the environment, public health and local news for the Detroit Free Press, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the Miami Herald. Askari served as SEJ's second president and a member of its early boards. She also has held leadership positions in several other professional organizations, including the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and the Asian American Journalists Association. The latter organization recently asked Askari to lead a pilot project called The Living Textbook, which aims to help a group of Arab American middle schoolers tell their life stories using multi-media technology. Over the years, Askari has won more than a dozen journalism prizes and fellowships, including the Oakes Award and a Knight-Wallace Fellowship. In addition, she has for ten years teamed with fellow SEJ member Julie Halpert to teach a popular course in environmental journalism at the University of Michigan

 

Dave Atkins
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Is Biomass Power Really Green?, 9:00 a.m.

Dave Atkins works for the State and Private Forestry Branch of the US Forest Service in Missoula, Mont. For the past 10 years he has been the Woody Biomass Utilization Program manager for a six-state area. He focuses on adding value to small diameter trees and slash, which includes the "Fuels for Schools and Beyond" initiative. It uses wood in small- to medium-scale biomass heating systems and combined heat and power. He has a BS in forest science from Humboldt State University and an MS in forest ecology from the University of Montana, where he did a thesis on definitions of "old growth" forests. He has had a varied work history including recent details as a Forest Service district ranger, director of governmental affairs for the Western Forestry Leadership Coalition, as a certified silviculturist, forest ecologist, regional forest health monitoring coordinator, and more.

 

 

B

 

Tim Baker
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, THE SOAPBOX: Environmentalists Split Over Wilderness Deals, 11:00 a.m.

Tim Baker is legislative campaign director of the Montana Wilderness Association. Born in Detroit, Michigan, he attended the University of Michigan, and moved west in 1981 to attend law school at the University of Montana. After practicing law for over 16 years, Baker joined the Montana Wilderness Association staff in 2001. Prior to his current position, he served as MWA's development director (2001-4) and executive director (2004-2009. Baker loves Helena, where he has lived since 1985. He enjoys the area's vast bounty of wild public lands, and is an avid backpacker, angler, and hunter.

 

Ed Bangs
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 7, Preserving Wildlife in a Changing World, 8:30 a.m.

Ed Bangs earned a B.S. from Utah State University in 1974 and an M.S. from University of Nevada, Reno in 1979. He started seasonal work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1975 on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. For the next 13 years he worked on several species/programs including swans, eagles, sea birds, passerine birds, voles, shrews, snowshoe hares, marten, coyotes, lynx, wolves, black bears, brown bears, moose, caribou, mountain goats, and Dall's sheep. In 1988 Bangs started the USFWS Wolf Recovery Program in Helena, Montana. At that time there were only 14 wolves in Montana, all of them in Glacier National Park. From 1992-94, he led efforts to develop the Congressionally-mandated Environmental Impact Statement for Wolf Reintroduction to Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho. In 1994-96, Bangs led the reintroduction effort. Since then he’s been the primary spokesperson for a diverse and multi-agency wolf recovery and management program. By December 2009 there were >1,700 wolves in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. Bangs has also examined wolves and wolf management in Mongolia, Sweden, Japan, England, Canada, and Italy.

 

Alexis Bonogofsky
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, THE CLIMATE: Energy Issues on Tribal Lands, 9:00 a.m.

Alexis Bonogofsky is the senior coordinator of National Wildlife Federation's Tribal Lands Conservation Program. Bonogofsky earned her M.A. from the University of Denver in International Development with a concentration in Environmental Policy.

 

Jane Braxton Little
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 6, Flathead Lake: The Pristine and the Alien, 8:00 a.m.

Jane Braxton Little writes about science and the environment from her base in California's northern Sierra Nevada. Her stories have appeared in numerous national magazines, including Scientific American, Nature Conservancy and Audubon, where she is a contributing editor. Little is co-coordinator of SEJ's Mentor Program.

 

Casey Brennan
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, THE WEST: Trans-boundary Issues: Pollution and Wildlife Migration, 9:00 a.m.

Casey Brennan is the Southern Rockies program manager for Wildsight, a British Columbia-based environmental group focused on the Columbia and Rocky Mountain ecoregions. He holds a BA in Urban Studies and his graduate work focused on the importance of social networks and social capital in advancing environmental campaigns. Brennan volunteered for Wildsight when it was the East Kootenay Environmental Society during the 1990s, and since becoming a program manager in 2002, he has played an instrumental leadership role in the efforts that led to the B.C. government's recent decision to permanently prohibit mining and oil and gas activity in the entire Flathead watershed. He continues to work toward the completion of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park through inclusion of the lower third of B.C.'s Flathead River Valley. Brennan helps lead Wildsight's campaign to connect wilderness along the spine of the Rockies through the reinstatement of the Southern Rocky Mountain Wildlife Management Area.

 

Joseph Brenneman
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 6, Flathead Lake: The Pristine and the Alien, 8:00 a.m.

Joseph Brenneman was born and raised in the Flathead Valley. He taught school for two years after graduating from college with a BA in Education, then began farming with his father on the family dairy farm in 1985; he continues to live and work there. Brenneman was elected Flathead County commissioner in November 2004 and began his term January 1, 2005. He represents District 2 in the central part of the county.

 

Chris Brick
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 3, Clark Fork River: Restoring the Nation's Largest Superfund Site, 7:00 a.m.

Chris Brick, the Clark Fork Coalition's Science Director, earned a B.A. in geology from Carleton College, an M.S. in environmental studies and a Ph.D. in geology from the University of Montana (UM). Between degrees, she worked as an exploration geologist for a mining company and as a groundwater geologist/hydrologist consultant, and was awarded a three-year postdoctoral fellowship from the National Science Foundation in science education. Brick keeps tabs on the ecological health of the Clark Fork and helps devise science-driven solutions to lingering problems and emerging threats in the basin. She is CFC's liaison to the government agencies involved in Superfund cleanup of heavy metals pollution in the upper reaches of the watershed, and is helping devise restoration solutions to heal degraded creeks and streams. The State of Montana selected Brick to chair the peer review panel for the design of river restoration at the confluence of the Clark Fork and Blackfoot river. She serves as chair of Missoula County's Water Quality Advisory Council, is a member of Missoula County's Technical Advisory Committee for stream protection, and represents the Coalition on the Tri-State Water Quality Council.

 

Hanneke Brooymans
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Tar Sands from Alberta to Missoula and Beyond, 11:00 a.m.

Hanneke Brooymans has been the environment reporter at the Edmonton Journal in Alberta for almost nine years. Her interest in the beat began about a year after she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in environmental biology at the University of Alberta and realized she wanted to write about what she had learned there. She has written extensively about oilsands issues.

 

Chuck Brushwood
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, THE WEST: Tribes and Salmon: Making News in the Northwest, 10:45 a.m.

Chuck Brushwood is a policy analyst with the Colville Confederated Tribes' Fish and Wildlife Department. In that capacity, he provides legal and policy support to the Fish and Wildlife Department director and staff. Chuck is a graduate of the Evergreen State College and Willamette University College of Law, and is an attorney licensed to practice law in Washington State. Prior to coming to work for the Colville Tribes, Brushwood worked for the U.S. Forest Service for ten field seasons in various capacities, including as an ecologist, wildland firefighter, and wilderness ranger.

 

Christi Buffington
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 6, Flathead Lake: The Pristine and the Alien, 8:00 a.m.

Flathead Lakers Education & Outreach Coordinator Christi Buffington builds relationships with local agencies, organizations, and watershed education programs and plans and implements education projects to inform landowners, public officials, students and others about threats to water quality in the Flathead Watershed and how they can help protect our clean waters. Buffington earned a B.S. in Soils and Environmental Science from Montana State University-Bozeman in 1998 and a M.S. in Environmental Science, with a focus in Regional Planning from Washington State University-Pullman 2000. Before joining the Flathead Lakers in 2009, she worked as an environmental consultant for an engineering and planning firm, a curriculum designer for a nonprofit science education center, and an advisor and instructor for conservation and environmental science majors at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

 

Caroline Byrd
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, THE WEST: Conservation Easements and Private Land Protection, 11:00 a.m.

Caroline Byrd has a varied background in conservation and outdoor work throughout the West. Currently, she is the Western Montana program director for The Nature Conservancy of Montana. Based in Missoula, she primarily works on the Montana Legacy Project and the Blackfoot Community Project, two landscape scale conservation efforts in which The Nature Conservancy has purchased around 400,000 acres of Plum Creek Timber lands. Byrd works with a wide array of partners and communities to come to long term conservation solutions for these lands. Previously, she was The Nature Conservancy's Southwest Colorado Program Manager in Telluride, CO. Before working for the Conservancy, Byrd was a staff attorney and the Greater Yellowstone program director for the Wyoming Outdoor Council in Lander, Wyoming. She has an undergraduate degree in environmental studies and anthropology from the University of California Santa Cruz, a master's degree in environmental studies from the University of Montana and a law degree from the University of Montana, School of Law.

 

Eve Byron
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 4, Managing Wild Lands and Wildlife in the Wild West, 7:15 a.m.

Eve Byron is the special projects editor at the Independent Record newspaper in Helena, MT where she's spent the past 18 years. Her specialty is natural resources and the environment, which encompasses wolves, bears, oil and gas leases, wilderness, and the federal government (think Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, federal court) and all things in between. She's a Minnesota native who left the motherland in 1980, and graduated in 1987 with a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Colorado in Boulder (after taking a few years off as a ski bum). She worked at a small weekly in Glenwood Springs before moving to Aspen to cover the courts and cops beat. After a brief stint back in the midwest working at newspapers in Racine, Wis., and Winona, Minn., she found her way back west to Montana.

 

 

C

 

Richard Caperton
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, THE SANDBOX: The Return of Nuclear Power: Coming to a Town Near You?, 9:00 a.m.

Richard W. Caperton is a policy analyst with the Energy Opportunity team at the Center for American Progress. He works on several issues related to the transition to a clean energy economy, including renewable energy finance and investment in energy infrastructure. Prior to joining American Progress, Caperton was a policy fellow at the Alliance for Climate Protection and worked in government relations at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. He has testified before Congress on issues related to nuclear financing, and is well-versed in matters related to the nuclear loan-guarantee program, the costs of new reactors, and the economics of nuclear power.

 

Bill Carlson
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Is Biomass Power Really Green?, 9:00 a.m.

Bill Carlson is the principal of Carlson Small Power Consultants, a small primarily biomass power consulting firm with offices in Redding, California and Black Butte Ranch, Oregon. He was, for several years, the chairman of the Biomass Power Association, a trade group representing the interests of the nation's biomass power plant owners and operators. Carlson is also a board member of the California Biomass Energy Alliance and 25x25, a former member of the Biomass R&D Advisory Committee of the US Departments of Energy and Agriculture, and a member of the Western Governors Association Biomass Task Force. He has provided testimony to Congress on numerous occasions regarding matters relating to biomass energy production and its economics and potential.

 

Joel Chavez
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 3, Clark Fork River: Restoring the Nation's Largest Superfund Site, 7:00 a.m.

Joel Chavez is supervisor for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality Construction Services Section of the Mine Waste Cleanup Bureau and Construction Manager for state-led Federal Superfund sites, including the Streamside Tailings Operable Unit along 23 miles of Silver Bow Creek near Butte, Montana. He has held that position since 1998, the start of the Silver Bow Creek project. Chavez feels it's important to the entire ecosystem that the river has been cleaned up and he's proud to have led the effort. Before his work with federal superfund sites, Chavez worked for the DEQ Abandoned Mine Lands Program in reclamation and for the mining industry as a geologist. He earned Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in geology from the University of Idaho.

 

Jon Christensen
 

Event: Friday, Opening Plenary, The Changing West, 9:00 a.m.

Jon Christensen is executive director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University. The Center is dedicated to advancing scholarly and public understanding of the past, present, and future of western North America. The Center supports research, teaching, and reporting about western land and life in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It offers visiting journalism fellowships at Stanford and co-sponsors the annual Knight-Risser Prize for the best western environmental journalism in any media. Christensen was an environmental journalist and science writer for more than two decades before becoming an environmental historian. His work has appeared in The New York Times, the western regional newspaper High Country News, and many other newspapers, magazines, journals, and public radio and television shows. Jon was a Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford in 2002-2003 and a Steinbeck Fellow at San Jose State University in 2003-2004.

 

Wendy Cleland-Hamnett
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, THE SANDBOX: Translating ToSCA, 10:45 a.m.

Wendy Cleland-Hamnett, who began her career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1979, is the director for the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT) in EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances. She has held a variety of jobs within OPPT, as well as in the Office of Environmental Information, the Office of Policy, and as special assistant in the Office of the EPA Administrator, where she worked on pesticides and toxics programs, research and development issues, the Agency's Risk Assessment Council, the EPA Science Advisory Board, and more. She has co-chaired efforts with State partners to design and implement the National Environmental Exchange Network to improve the quality, quantity and accessibility of environmental and program data shared among EPA, States and other Federal partners. Cleland-Hamnett received a B.A. in Political Science from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana and a law degree from George Washington University. She is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.

 

Ken Cook
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, THE SANDBOX: Translating ToSCA, 10:45 a.m.

Ken Cook is president and co-founder of the Washington, DC-based Environmental Working Group (EWG), a public interest research and advocacy organization working on policy governing toxic chemicals, pesticides, air and water pollution, and the ecological impacts of modern agriculture. A frequent source of environmental commentary in national print and broadcast media, Cook testifies regularly before Congress on a range of issues, including TSCA reform. He earned his B.A., B.S., and M.S. degrees from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is a board member of Earth Day Network and the Amazon Conservation Team.

 

 

D

 

Joseph Davis
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, COMPUTER WORKSHOP: Follow the Money, 11:00 a.m.

Joseph A. Davis is SEJ WatchDog Project director, EJToday editor, TipSheet editor and a freelance writer/editor in Washington, D.C. The WatchDog Project, an activity of SEJ's Freedom of Information Task Force, reports on secrecy trends and supports reporters' efforts to make better use of FOIA. He also edits EJToday, SEJ's daily selection of new and outstanding stories on environmental topics in print and on the air, and TipSheet, a biweekly electronic newsletter of story ideas and sources co-published by SEJ and the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation. As well, Davis helps shape SEJ's Web site and is our Daily Glob blogger on Gulf oil spill news.

 

Rob Davis
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, THE WEST: Western Water Use and the ESA, 2:00 p.m.

Rob Davis is a staff writer for voiceofsandiego.org. He writes about the environment and politics. Rob grew up on Maryland's Eastern Shore and graduated from the University of Richmond. He worked at two newspapers in Virginia before moving to San Diego in 2005. His coverage regularly examines everything from endangered species to air and water pollution to climate change's local impacts. He has written extensively about the precariousness of San Diego's water supply and the region's fitful efforts to preserve habitat.

 

Kathleen Dean Moore
 

Event: Sunday, Breakfast with the Authors, 8:30 a.m.

Kathleen Dean Moore is co-editor of Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril. With testimony from 80 global moral leaders and foreword by Desmond Tutu, the book argues that climate disruption and other environmental emergencies are moral issues — issues of justice and compassion that call for a moral (not merely technical or economic) response. An award-winning essayist and Distinguished Professor of Environmental Philosophy at Oregon State University, Moore writes about our cultural and ethical relationships to the natural world. Her best-known books are Riverwalking, Holdfast, Pine Island Paradox, and Wild Comfort. She publishes essays in magazines such as the Utne Reader, Audubon, Discover, Orion, and the New York Times Magazine and in professional journals such as The Journal Of Forestry, Conservation Biology, and Frontiers in Ecology and Environment. The founding director of OSU's Spring Creek Project for Ideas, Nature, and the Written Word, Moore serves on the Board of Directors for Orion Magazine, Oregon Humanities, and the Island Institute.

 

Christopher D'Elia
 

Event: Friday, Afternoon Plenary, Lessons From the Gulf, 3:30 p.m.

Christopher F. D'Elia has been professor and dean of the Louisiana State University School of the Coast & Environment since July 2009. Prior to that, he was associate vice chancellor for Academic Affairs for Research and Graduate Studies and professor of marine sciences at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, and earlier was director of the Maryland Sea Grant program for the University of Maryland College System from 1989 to 1999. He's also a former president of the Estuarine Research Federation. He helped set up an early meeting between university and independent scientists in several states and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to discuss how science could address issues that would be raised during the spill, especially the use of dispersants. D'Elia is attending SEJ as part of a University of Rhode Island/Metcalf Institute of Marine Sciences program underwritten by a National Science Foundation RAPID grant aimed at improving the public understanding of the oil spill's impacts and the specific scientific techniques used to assess the impacts.

 

Bryan DiSalvatore
 

Event: Sunday, Breakfast with the Authors, 8:30 a.m.

Bryan DiSalvatore is the author of A Clever-Baseballist: The Life and Times of John Montgomery Ward (Pantheon, 1999) as well as many articles for magazines such as The New Yorker, Outside, The New York Times Magazine and more. He teaches nonfiction writing at the University of Montana.

 

Scott Dodd
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, THE CRAFT: Freelance Pitch Slam, 11:00 a.m.

Scott Dodd is the online editor for OnEarth magazine. As a newspaper reporter for 12 years, including eight at The Charlotte Observer, he covered everything from hurricanes to highways to homeland security. In 2006 he moved to New York City for a year-long science journalism fellowship at Columbia University, where he is now an adjunct professor. He has freelanced for Scientific American, The New York Times and others. At OnEarth, he writes, edits and assigns stories for onearth.org and contributes to the magazine’s print edition. See his portfolio at www.scott-dodd.com or follow him on Twitter: @scottdodd.

 

Denise Dowling
 

Event: Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 1: Video Training, 9:00 a.m.

Denise Dowling came to the University of Montana in 2000 after a 20-year career in radio and television. Her first job was as master control operator at KPAX-TV in Missoula while she was still an undergrad. After graduation she held jobs in Colorado, Great Falls, Montana, and Spokane, Washington, working her way up to managing editor/executive producer of television news. Dowling earned a masters degree in learning and technology after joining UM as a visiting faculty member. She was named the nation's Most Promising Professor by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in 2004. She is now an associate professor and this year is acting chair of the Radio-Television Department. Dowling has won numerous awards for her work including several Emmy Awards and the "Best of Festival" honor from the Broadcast Education Association. She is a national trainer for the Society of Professional Journalists and recently traveled to Nepal to launch an exchange program between UM and Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu.

 

David James Duncan
 

Event: Sunday, Breakfast with the Authors, 8:30 a.m.

David James Duncan is the author of The Brothers K, The River Why, River Teeth, My Story As Told By Water, and God Laughs and Plays. His work has appeared in numerous anthologies and other publications including Harper's, Orion, Outside, Sierra Magazine, and Gray's Sporting Journal. He's the recipient of three Pacific Northwest Bookseller’s Awards, two Pushcarts, a Lannan Fellowship, the Western States Book Award, the American Library Association's 2003 Award for the Preservation of Intellectual Freedom (with co-author Wendell Berry), among other honors. He lives near Missoula, MT and is interested in fish.

 

Dayton Duncan
 

Events:
Thursday, The Late Movie, 9:00 p.m.
Friday, Breakfast Plenary, American Treasures: The Future of the National Parks, 7:30 a.m.

Dayton Duncan is an award-winning writer and documentary filmmaker. He is the author of ten books including Out West: A Journey Through Lewis & Clark's America and The National Parks: America's Best Idea, both companion books to documentary films he wrote and produced. Articles of his have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, American Heritage magazine, The Old Farmer's Almanac, and many other publications. Duncan has also been involved for many years with the work of documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. Most recently, he produced and wrote "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," a six-episode, twelve-hour documentary that won two Emmys — one for best nonfiction series and one for best writing. In politics, he has served as chair of the American Heritage Rivers Advisory Committee and director of the National Park Foundation. Duncan is currently on the board of the Student Conservation Association, the National Conservation System Foundation and the New Hampshire Humanities Council. In April 2009 he was officially named an Honorary Park Ranger, a designation bestowed upon fewer than 50 people.

 

 

F

 

Peter Fairley
 

Event: Friday, Lunch Breakout Session, What is the Smart Grid? 12:15 p.m.

Peter Fairley has reported on global energy and technology developments for a decade, tracking the story from the coalfields of Inner Mongolia to the unlit villages of Bolivia's Cordillera Real. His freelance byline appears regularly in both print and online publications, including Discover, MIT's Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, among others. Before going independent, Peter served as a senior managing editor and Washington bureau chief for Chemical Week magazine, chronicling the global chemical industry's collision with the environment. He holds a Masters in science, health & environmental reporting from New York University, a B.S. in molecular biology from McGill, and serves as an elected officer of SEJ.

 

Bruce Farling
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 4, Managing Wild Lands and Wildlife in the Wild West, 7:15 a.m.

Bruce Farling has been executive director of Montana Trout Unlimited for 17 years. Previous to that he was conservation director for six years for the Clark Fork Coalition, a regional watershed conservation group. Farling also worked for the U.S. Forest Service for 10 years, including nine years in Montana and Idaho working in wilderness management. He has a B.S. from the University of Oregon in Environmental Sciences and completed course work towards an M.A. in the University of Montana School of Journalism. He has written for the popular press and professional journals, and received a number of awards including the Arnold Bolle Conservation Professional Award in 2000, as well as distinguished service awards from Trout Unlimited and the American Fisheries Society. In 2009, Trout magazine named him one of the 10 most influential people in the 50-year history of Trout Unlimited.

 

Matt Fein
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 3, Clark Fork River: Restoring the Nation's Largest Superfund Site, 7:00 a.m.

Matt Fein has been with Envirocon since 2004 and was responsible for managing all aspects of the Milltown Dam and sediment removal, design-build project. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Geological Engineering and Master of Science degree in Geology from Purdue University, and an MBA from Indiana University Kelley School of Business. Fein is a senior project director with Envirocon.

 

Douglas Fischer
 

Event: Sunday, October 17 - Wednesday, October 20, Post-Confer Tour, Glacier Park and Conservation at the 'Crown of the Continent'

Douglas Fischer has spent 15 years covering subjects ranging from climate science to pesticides to energy development. Since 2008, he has served as editor of DailyClimate.org, a non-partisan website compiling mainstream news and current science on climate change. He is also a senior member of the editorial team at Environmental Health Sciences, the non-profit publisher of Daily Climate. Before switching to the Web, Fischer spent eight years covering the environment for the Oakland Tribune and a number of San Francisco Bay area papers. Prior to that he was with the Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner and Newsweek. Fischer's articles have won numerous awards, including an Award of Merit from the Grantham Prize, the world's largest journalism prize. Data from one of his investigations, of a typical family's chemical body burden, was published in a peer-reviewed article in a leading public health journal in 2006, and he has lectured frequently on environmental health and journalism in conferences, seminars and classrooms across the country. Fischer has a degree in philosophy from Columbia University.

 

Tom France
 

Event: Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 2: Environmental Law, Western Style, Lunch Plenary, 12:00 p.m.

Tom France joined the National Wildlife Federation in 1981 and is currently regional executive director and counsel of the Northern Rockies & Prairies Regional Center. He also supervises the natural resource clinic program, run in cooperation with the University of Montana School of Law. France has participated on the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment on coal leasing and the Hydro Assessment Steering Committee of the Northwest Power Planning Council. He is a past member of the Montana Environmental Quality Council, past chairman of the Missoula Solid Waste Task Force, and past chairman of the Board for the High Country News Foundation. He is currently chairman of the Board for the Clark Fork Coalition. France has been involved in campaigns to restore wolves and grizzlies in the northern Rockies, reform hard rock mining in the West, and promote effective private lands conservation through the Farm Bill.

 

Holly Fretwell
 

Event: Friday, Breakfast Plenary, American Treasures: The Future of the National Parks, 7:30 a.m.

Holly Fretwell is a research fellow at Property and Environment Research Center and an adjunct instructor at Montana State University where she has taught introductory economics, macroeconomics, natural resources and environmental economics. She works with the Foundation for Teaching Economics, giving workshops for high school teachers to improve their skills in teaching and using economic tools. Fretwell has co-authored curriculum for high school teachers on economic principles and climate change issues. She authored Who is Minding the Federal Estate: Political Management of America’s Public Lands, has presented papers promoting the use of markets in public land management, and has provided Congressional testimony on the state of U.S. national parks and the future of the Forest Service. She also published a children's book on climate change, The Sky's Not Falling: Why It's OK to Chill About Global Warming (2007). Fretwell holds a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in resource economics from Montana State University.

 

 

G

 

Paul Genoa
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, THE SANDBOX: The Return of Nuclear Power: Coming to a Town Near You?, 9:00 a.m.

Paul H. Genoa is the director of Policy Development at the Nuclear Energy Institute. His focus is on developing unified industry policies and effectively communicating those policies to key stakeholders. His technical, regulatory and political experience makes him a valuable resource to policymakers on nuclear energy and environmental issues. He is vice chair of the Industry Trade Advisory Committee chartered by Congress to advise the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and the U.S. Trade Representative on energy issues.

 

Christy George
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, THE SANDBOX: Midterm Elections and the Environment, 2:00 p.m.

Christy George, SEJ president, is an independent radio and television producer in Portland, Oregon. She worked for Oregon Public Broadcasting from 1997-2010, initially creating a bureau covering the intersection of business and the environment for the Los-Angeles based national business show, "Marketplace," later hosting her own weekly radio show, "Oregon Territory," and most recently producing special projects for radio and TV. Before that, George edited foreign and national news for The Boston Herald and covered politics for WGBH-TV. She started out in 1976, covering noise and air pollution and neighborhood encroachment by Logan Airport for The East Boston Community News — a dream beat that first introduced her to the environment beat. George has won Emmys in both the Northwest and New England, a Gracie Allen Award, an Edward R. Murrow award, a first place prize in the New York Festivals and numerous AP and SPJ awards. Her special, "Liquid Gold," on how water is bought, sold and marketed like any other commodity, was part of "Marketplace's" 1998 winning submission for a Columbia-DuPont Silver Baton award. A high school graduate, she was a 1990-91 John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University.

 

Michael Gibson
 

Event:
Thursday, Tour 2, Wild Trout, Wilderness and (Global) Warming, 6:30 a.m.

Michael Gibson is outreach coordinator for Montana Trout Unlimited, a statewide fishing and conservation organization based in Missoula and representing 12 regional chapters and more than 3,000 members.

 

Jeffery Greenblatt
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Clean Energy Economy and the Environment, 10:45 a.m.

Jeffery Greenblatt joined the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in 2008, where he currently heads the residential refrigerator/freezer analysis team. He also leads a long-term, low-carbon energy study for California. Prior to LBNL he was Climate and Energy Technology Manager at Google.org where he screened renewable energy grants and investments, and authored an analysis of U.S. clean energy pathways through 2030. He has also analyzed similar studies for California, the Midwest and globally during stints at Environmental Defense Fund and Princeton University. He earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley in 1999.

 

 

H

 

Will Hammerquist
 

Events:
Thursday, Tour 1, Crown of the Continent: Glacier National Park, 6:00 a.m.
Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, THE WEST: Trans-boundary Issues: Pollution and Wildlife Migration, 9:00 a.m.

Will Hammerquist is the National Parks Conservation Association's Glacier Program manager, and is running as a Democrat for the Montana Legislature. Since joining NPCA in 2007, he has coordinated a significant increase of media attention to the proposed Cline Mine in the British Columbian headwaters of Glacier National Park. He is currently working on an effort to introduce federal legislation that will provide long-term stewardship for Glacier National Park as a component of the Glacier Centennial in 2010. Previously, Hammerquist worked in the Montana Governor's Office as a policy advisor with a focus on transboundary water and environmental restoration, and as staff to Montana’s Lt. Governor John Bohlinger. A Montana native who grew up exploring Glacier National Park and the backwaters of the Flathead River, Hammerquist graduated from Montana State University-Bozeman in 2003 with an emphasis in political science and economics. During his final semester, he was hired by the Associated Students to represent the 24,000 students of the Montana University System to the Montana Legislature.

 

Jenny Harbine
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Covering Western Coal: What's the Future? 2:00 p.m.

Jenny Harbine is a staff attorney in Earthjustice's Northern Rockies office in Bozeman, Montana. Harbine's work focuses on litigation and advocacy to address the causes of global warming, including coal mining and coal-fired power plants. Earthjustice's Northern Rockies office is also engaged in litigation to address the effects of global warming, particularly on species such as the grizzly bear, lynx, wolverine, and Arctic grayling. Born and raised in Missoula, Montana, Harbine attended law school at the University of California, Berkeley. She was an attorney at a small environmental and land use law firm in San Francisco, California before returning to Montana to work for Earthjustice in 2006.

 

Duane Harp
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 4, Managing Wild Lands and Wildlife in the Wild West, 7:15 a.m.

Duane Harp began his career with the US Forest Service as seasonal firefighter in 1968. He has had assignments on two National Forests in California, as well as in Colorado and Alaska. For the past 11 1/2 years Harp has been the District Ranger on the 380,000 acre Helena Ranger District where he works with a staff of permanent employees and summer seasonals managing the resources and the many complex issues which are included with our National Forests. A significant issue on the Helena District is a major epidemic of mountain pine beetle, affecting both ponderosa and lodgepole pine. The District and Forest are currently planning and implementing projects to address the many issues associated with the epidemic. Harp is a graduate of Humboldt State University in California, having earned a B.S. degree in Forest Management. He also received a Master's Degree in Wildland Resource Management from the University of California at Berkeley.

 

Peter Hodson
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Tar Sands from Alberta to Missoula and Beyond, 11:00 a.m.

Dr. Peter Hodson earned a BSc from McGill University, an MSc from the U. of New Brunswick and a PhD from the U. of Guelph. He has served as a scientist with the Government of Canada, (Fisheries and Oceans and then Environment Canada). In 1995, Hodson joined Queen's University as the first director of the School of Environmental Studies, and directed a continuous expansion in its faculty complement and its undergraduate and graduate curricula over 10 years. He is a past president of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC), and twice served on its Board of Directors, as well as the Board of the SETAC World Council, Chair of the World Council Science Committee, and an editor of the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry. Hodson has authored more than 180 technical publications related to fish toxicology and environmental contamination. He is currently studying the mechanisms of hydrocarbon toxicity to early life stages of fish, the environmental impacts of crude oil, among other topics.

 

Patrick Hogan
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Clean Energy Economy and the Environment, 10:45 a.m.

Patrick Hogan is a regional policy coordinator for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change where he works for the Director of Innovative Solutions. He brings the Pew Center's experience and expertise to the development of climate policy by states, especially those involved in the Midwestern Regional Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord. His responsibilities include researching and communicating information on state-level climate change policy (with a focus on the Midwest) and technological solutions for reducing greenhouse gases. He engages in Pew Center analytic work on low-carbon technologies as well as climate-related markets, and is also responsible for editing Pew Center reports. Hogan holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies with honors from the University of Chicago.

 

Cheryl Hogue
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 3, Clark Fork River: Restoring the Nation's Largest Superfund Site, 7:00 a.m.

Cheryl Hogue has covered national environmental policy developments from Washington, D.C., since 1987. For the last decade, she has reported on pollution-related issues for Chemical & Engineering News, the weekly newsmagazine of a major scientific organization, the American Chemical Society. Her first environmental reporting was a series on the health of the Chesapeake Bay for The Daily Banner in Cambridge, Md., on the Delmarva Peninsula. After daily newspaper stints there and at the Montgomery Journal in Rockville, Md., she moved to the Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (BNA). While at BNA, Hogue covered Congress, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and international environmental policy. She co-authored Toxic Substances Control Guide: Second Edition, a book detailing the major U.S. laws regulating chemicals. She holds an M.S. in environmental sciences and policy from Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. in biology from the College of William & Mary. She's an avid birdwatcher.

 

Don Hopey
 

Events:
Thursday, Tour 2, Wild Trout, Wilderness and (Global) Warming, 6:30 a.m.
Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Covering Western Coal: What's the Future? 2:00 p.m.

Don Hopey, an SEJ board member, has covered the environment for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette since 1992. He has written series about an 80-mile canoe trip through the Wild & Scenic sections of the Allegheny River, the "Wise Use" movement in Pennsylvania and problems with the nation's hazardous waste incinerators. He participated in an end-to-end hike of the Appalachian Trail by five eastern newspapers in 1995, hiking more than 500 miles from Virginia through Pennsylvania. Reports on the hike were reprinted in a book, An Appalachian Adventure. He is co-author of Exploring the Appalachian Trail: Mid-Atlantic States, one of five guide books in a series that highlights the trail's social and natural history. He teaches an environmental issues and policy class at the University of Pittsburgh.

 

Peter Höppe
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, THE CLIMATE: The Business of Climate Change, 2:00 p.m.

Professor Peter Höppe joined the Munich Re in 2004. He was appointed head of the Geo Risks Research Department in 2005. Previously he worked in different institutes at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich and as a post doc at Yale University (USA). Most of Höppe’s university career was spent at the Institute of Bioclimatology and Applied Meteorology and the Institute of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. His academic education is in meteorology (Masters and PhD) and human biology (PhD). Höppe researches effects of atmospheric processes (heat/cold, UV radiation, air pressure fluctuations) and air pollutants (ozone, particles) on humans and the general assessment of environmental risks, and trends of natural catastrophes and their drivers and on climate change effects on the insurance industry in general. A member of many scientific societies over the years, Höppe has held different expert functions in WHO and WMO; founded the Munich Climate Insurance Initiative, which has become a relevant player in the UNFCCC climate change negotiations; and co-initiated the large renewable energy project, Desertec Industrial Initiative.

 

 

I

 

Kyle Isakower
 

Event: Friday, Afternoon Plenary, Lessons From the Gulf, 3:30 p.m.

Kyle Isakower serves as vice president for Regulatory and Economic Policy at the American Petroleum Institute, the primary national trade association for America's oil and natural gas industry. In this role, he leads API's climate policy development, oversees the establishment of environmental and tax policies, and manages the development of API standards and economic and statistical analyses in support of advocacy and outreach efforts. Isakower possesses 26 years of energy and environmental policy experience including over 5 years each in consulting and government positions. In addition to his current areas of expertise, in his 15 years with API he has advocated on behalf of the oil and gas sector regarding waste management and remediation, NAAQS and air toxics issues, led efforts to identify and manage emerging issues and promoted the industry's energy efficiency efforts. Isakower holds an MS in Earth Science from Adelphi University and a BS in Biology-Geology from the University of Rochester.

 

Orna Izakson
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 1, Crown of the Continent: Glacier National Park, 6:00 a.m.

Dr. Orna Izakson spent 12 years covering the environment as a newspaper staffer and freelancer in Oregon and Maine. Her work has appeared in publications including the Los Angeles Times, The Bangor (Maine) Daily News, Utne Reader, E/The Environmental Magazine, Eugene Weekly, Multinational Monitor, Pacific Fishing, and Wellwire.com. She has published chapters in two books, Feeling the Heat: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Climate Change and Green Living: The E Magazine Handbook for Living Lightly on the Earth. Izakson took a break from practicing journalism to attend medical school, and now practices as a licensed naturopathic physician in Portland, Oregon. Her current writing focuses on issues of human health and the environment, with a major emphasis on medicinal plants and gardening.

 

 

J

 

Michael Jamison
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 6, Flathead Lake: The Pristine and the Alien, 8:00 a.m.

Michael Jamison has operated The Missoulian's Flathead Valley bureau for 14 years, writing extensively on environmental science issues specific to Flathead Lake and the Crown of the Continent. Previously, he taught in the University of Montana's School of Forestry and worked as managing editor at the weekly Hungry Horse News, located in the headwaters of Flathead Lake.

 

Jason Johns
 

Event: Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 2: Environmental Law, Western Style, Contemporary Challenges to Antique Laws, 1:30 p.m.

Jason Johns is an attorney in the Energy Development group at Stoel Rives LLP in Portland, Oregon. His practice covers many areas of federal energy regulation, and he has represented clients in proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on issues such as interconnection queue reform, transmission joint operating agreements, power sales, utility transactions, and the 2000-2001 California energy crisis. Johns has been closely involved in wind integration issues in the Pacific Northwest, and has significant experience with renewable energy power purchase agreements. For the Energy Foundation, he recently co-authored two white papers which discuss potential solutions to the barriers to transmission development in the Western Interconnection, and Johns spoke on this topic at the 2010 annual meeting of the Western Governors’ Association. He is a native Montanan and received his J.D. from the University of Montana School of Law. He also holds a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California-Davis.

 

 

K

 

David Keith
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, THE CLIMATE: Can Geo-Engineering Save Us?, 10:45 a.m.

David Keith, director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy, Environment and Economy's Energy and Environmental Systems Group, University of Calgary, has worked near the interface between climate science, energy technology and public policy for twenty years. His work in technology and policy assessment has centered on the capture and storage of CO2, the technology and implications of global climate engineering, the economics and climatic impacts of large-scale wind power and the prospects for hydrogen fuel. He has built a high-accuracy infrared spectrometer for NASA's ER-2 and developed new methods for reservoir engineering increase the safety of stored CO2; leads a team of engineers developing technology to capture of CO2 from ambient air at an industrial scale; has won several physics and/or environmental prizes; and served on numerous high-profile advisory panels such as the UK Royal Society's geoengineering study, the IPCC, and Canadian 'blue ribbon' panels and boards.

 

Ronald Kendall
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, THE SOAPBOX: Sponsored Research: It's Not Just Following the Money, 9:00 a.m.

Ronald J. Kendall, Ph.D., is founder and director of the Institute of Environmental and Human Health and chairman of the department of environmental toxicology at Texas Tech University, Lubbock. He joined Texas Tech in 1997 after previous stints at Clemson University and Western Washington University. A past president of the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, he has done and directed research for a wide range of public and private sector sponsors, including industry-funded studies of the herbicide atrazine.

 

Andrew King-Ries
 

Events:
Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 2: Environmental Law, Western Style, Enforcement: Why Is It So Hard to Successfully Prosecute Environmental Crimes?, 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 2: Environmental Law, Western Style, Contemporary Challenges to Antique Laws, 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, POLLUTION AND SOLUTIONS: Community Disaster: Libby's Deadly Asbestos Dust, 9:00 a.m.

Andrew King-Ries teaches courses in criminal procedure, criminal law, domestic violence, juvenile justice and white collar crime at the University of Montana’s School of Law. In the spring of 2009, he and University of Montana journalism professor Nadia White led teams of law and journalism students who provided gavel-to-gavel legal analysis and news coverage of the federal government's unsuccessful criminal prosecution of W.R. Grace & Co. executives who oversaw the vermiculite mining and milling operation responsible for Libby's asbestos contamination. King-Ries was a speechwriter for the Secretary of Education Lauro Cavazos; a clerk for the United States Court of Appeals of the Eighth Circuit; and, for eight years, a prosecutor specializing in domestic violence cases for the King County Prosecutor's Office in Seattle. He graduated from Brown University in 1988 with a degree in history. King-Ries received his law degree from Washington University in St. Louis, where he was an editor on the Washington University Law Quarterly.

 

Andrea Kissack
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, COMPUTER WORKSHOP: Storytelling Online — Choosing Your Media, 10:45 a.m.

Andrea Kissack was born in Los Angeles and discovered radio news through listening to her college radio station. With a curious mind and a love for telling stories, she set off for Tampa where she landed her first job. Over the past two decades she has worked at a number of public and commercial radio stations. Kissack currently edits, and produces, Quest, KQED's multimedia science and environment series. She says she feels lucky to cover emerging science and environmental trends in a place where geek is chic.

 

William Kittredge
 

Event: Sunday, Breakfast with the Authors, 8:30 a.m.

William Kittredge taught for the University of Montana for 29 years, where he was Regents Professor of English and Creative Writing. His honors include a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford, fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, two Pacific Northwest Bookseller's Awards for Excellence, the Montana Governor's Award for the Arts, and the PEN West Award for non-fiction. His books include Hole in the Sky: A Memoir, Who Owns The West?, The Nature of Generosity, We Are Not In This Together, Owning It All, and Willow Creek. He is co-editor with Annick Smith of The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology, and co-producer of the movie, A River Runs Through It. He's also published in numerous periodicals including The Atlantic, Harper's, Esquire, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, and The New York Times.

 

Karen Knudsen
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 3, Clark Fork River: Restoring the Nation's Largest Superfund Site, 7:00 a.m.

Karen Knudsen is the executive director of the Clark Fork Coalition in Missoula, Montana. She has worked with the Coalition for 16 years in a variety of capacities, including business manager, education and outreach coordinator, campaign director, and communications director. Knudsen has also been the Coalition’s point person on growth issues in the Clark Fork basin, working to advance projects and policies that improve river habitats and water management for people, fish, and wildlife species. She serves on Missoula's Open Space Advisory Committee, and is on the board of the Watershed Restoration Coalition, a land-owner group working to conserve natural resources in the Deer Lodge Valley. Prior to joining the Coalition in 1993, Karen worked as a research associate for a forestry/economics research firm in Portland, where she conducted economic, policy, and financial research on national forest management issues. She holds a B.A. in Economics from Colorado College and a Master's degree in Public Administration from Syracuse University.

 

Bill Kovarik
 

Event: Saturday, Teaching EJ: A Three-Hour Workshop, 2:15 p.m.

Bill Kovarik is a professor of communication at Radford University in the Blue Ridge mountains of southwestern Virginia. He was named the 2009 Canwest Global Media Fellow at the University of Western Ontario and moonlights occasionally as visiting professor at Virginia Tech. Kovarik is a journalist and historian who has worked with wire services, daily newspapers and national news magazines. He teaches science & environment writing, reporting, web design, media history, media law, and peace studies. He is serving as academic representative on the board of the Society of Environmental Journalists.

 

Peggy Kuhr
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, THE CRAFT: Working with Citizen Journalists and Community Contributors, 2:00 p.m.

Peggy Kuhr joined the University of Montana School of Journalism as dean in August 2007. Previously, she was Knight Chair on the Press, Leadership and Community at The University of Kansas. While at KU, she and Richard Harwood of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation developed a website featuring community journalism tools, training and insights into how communities work.

 

 

L

 

Carrie La Seur
 

Events:
Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 2: Environmental Law, Western Style, Lunch Plenary, 12:00 p.m.
Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 2: Environmental Law, Western Style, Where Is My Next Environmental Law Story Coming From?, 3:30 p.m.

Carrie La Seur is an energy and environmental lawyer who has served as a gubernatorial appointee to the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission, a panel of nine citizens who provide policy oversight over Iowa¹s environmental protection efforts, and the Iowa Power Fund Board, charged with shaping the state’s energy plan and investing $100 million in public funds in clean energy. A seventh-generation descendant of Montana homesteaders, La Seur earned a doctorate in modern languages as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Carrie has practiced in the upper Midwest since 2003 and has published on a variety of energy and environmental topics, including an article on the U.S. Farm Bill in the winter 2010 issue of the Harvard Law & Policy Review. She is a licensed attorney in Iowa and Montana, and founded Plains Justice in 2006.

 

Michael Leahy
 

Event: Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 2: Environmental Law, Western Style, Lunch Plenary, 12:00 p.m.

Michael Leahy oversees Defenders of Wildlife's work throughout the Rocky Mountain Region, which emphasizes recovery of wolves, grizzly bears, wolverine, lynx, fisher, black-footed ferrets, prairie dogs, grassland ecosystems. Prior to coming to Defenders in May 2000, he ran the National Audubon Society's Forest Campaign, serving as lobbyist, policy analyst, and advocacy organizer on forest issues. Leahy has a B.S. in Natural Resources from Cornell University, with a focus in resource policy and planning and a minor in business, and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.

 

Michael Lemonick
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, THE CRAFT: Freelance Pitch Slam, 11:00 a.m.

Michael D. Lemonick is the senior writer at Climate Central, a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting nonpartisan science-based information about climate change to policymakers and the general public. Prior to joining Climate Central, he spent nearly 21 years at TIME magazine, where he wrote more than 50 cover stories on topics ranging from climate change to genomics to particle physics before stepping down as a senior science writer in early 2007. He has also written for Discover, Scientific American, National Geographic, Yale E360, Newsweek and other magazines, and has taught science and environmental writing at Princeton, Columbia, Johns Hopkins and New York University. Among his professional honors are the AAAS-Westinghouse Science Journalism Award, the Overseas Press Club award for International Environmental Reporting and the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award. He is the author of four books on astrophysics, and holds an A.B. in Economics from Harvard College and an M.S. in Journalism from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

 

Jianguo (Jack) Liu
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, THE CLIMATE: Population, Consumption and Climate Change, 11:00 a.m.

Dr. Jianguo (Jack) Liu is a human-environment scientist and sustainability scholar. He is the Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability and University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University (MSU). He also directs the Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability. Liu has been with MSU since completing his postdoctoral work at Harvard University. He is also a guest professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a visiting scholar at Stanford (2001–2002), Harvard (2008), and Princeton (2009). Liu is keen to connect seemingly unconnected issues (e.g., divorce and environmental sustainability). His broad research interests include household-environment interactions, complexity of coupled human and natural systems (CHANS), sustainability science, China’s environment, and globalization. His work has been published in journals such as Nature and Science. Dr. Liu is president of the U.S. Regional Association of the International Association for Landscape Ecology and is the recipient of many awards, such as the Guggenheim Fellowship Award, CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, Distinguished Service Award from US-IALE, and Aldo Leopold Leadership Fellowship from the Ecological Society of America.

 

Andrew Logan
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Tar Sands from Alberta to Missoula and Beyond, 11:00 a.m.

Andrew Logan is a director with Ceres, a coalition of public interest groups and institutional investors representing over $10 trillion in assets. Ceres' mission is to move businesses, capital, and markets to advance lasting prosperity by valuing the health of the planet and its people. Logan coordinates Ceres' work with the oil and insurance sectors, with a focus on the risk that climate change poses for those sectors. Logan has a background in corporate strategy from his work with Bain & Company, a leading management consultancy. While with Bain, he developed high-level strategy for companies in the finance, e-commerce, manufacturing, retail and media sectors.

 

Marion Loomis
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Covering Western Coal: What's the Future? 2:00 p.m.

Marion E. Loomis started with the Wyoming Mining Association in 1976 and has been executive director since 1991. He was born in Sheridan, Wyoming and raised on a ranch near Big Horn, Wyoming. Loomis attended the University of Wyoming and graduated with a degree in Geology in 1971. He worked for the Wyoming Department of Economic Planning and Development (DEPAD) from 1971 until 1976 as an Economic Development Geologist. While at DEPAD, Loomis worked as a fuel allocation officer for Wyoming during the Arab Oil Embargo in 1973. He obtained the rank of Eagle Scout during high school and was a scout leader in Cheyenne while his son participated in scouts. Loomis is a member of the Kiwanis Club, Ducks Unlimited (serving as area chairman for Cheyenne for two years), Young Men’s Literary club and a 2002 graduate of Leadership Wyoming.

 

Jane Lubchenco
 

Events:
Friday, Afternoon Plenary, Lessons From the Gulf, 3:30 p.m.
Friday, Beat Dinner #7, Catch Shares, Gulf Oil Spill, and Other Ocean News; Talk with NOAA Chief Jane Lubchenco, 7:00 p.m.

Dr. Jane Lubchenco, a marine ecologist and environmental scientist, is the ninth and first woman administrator of NOAA. Her scientific expertise includes oceans, climate change, and interactions between the environment and human well-being. Raised in Denver, she received a B.A. degree in biology from Colorado College, a M.S. in zoology from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. in ecology from Harvard University. While teaching at Harvard (1975-1977) and Oregon State University (1977-2009), she was actively engaged in discovery, synthesis, communication, and application of scientific knowledge. Lubchenco has studied marine ecosystems around the world and championed the importance of science and its relevance to policy making and human well-being. A former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the International Council for Science and the Ecological Society of America, she served 10 years on the National Science Board (Board of Directors for the National Science Foundation). More.

 

Francesca Lyman
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, THE SANDBOX: Translating ToSCA, 10:45 a.m.

Francesca Lyman is a freelance journalist who has reported on the effects of toxic chemicals on human health for many years, for such publications as Ms. Magazine, Seattle Metropolitan, and MSN Channels, and the award-winning "Your Environment" column for MSNBC. She is a contributor to such outlets as Popular Mechanics, The New York Times Green, and Parks & Recreation Magazine, and the author of The Greenhouse Trap, with World Resources Institute, and Inside the Dzanga-Sangha Rain Forest, with the American Museum of Natural History.

 

 

M

 

Frank Maisano
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, THE SANDBOX: Midterm Elections and the Environment, 2:00 p.m.

Frank Maisano is a skilled media specialist with a track record of success in working with media outlets across the country. He joined Bracewell & Giuliani in 2003 after 15 years as a press secretary on Capitol Hill and as a professional media consultant specializing in energy and environment issues. He is a founder of the firm's strategic communications practice and represents wind developers, utilities, refiners, cement companies, transmission builders and chemical companies on the strategic communications aspects of an array of policy, political, legal and energy project siting issues. As an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University's Carey Business School, Maisano teaches corporate communications and negotiations and bargaining in the MBA and graduate marketing programs. He also serves as guest lecturer on communications and global warming for several academic programs. Maisano earned his M.B.A. at Johns Hopkins University in 2004 and his B.A.at Hillsdale College, 1989.

 

Richard Manning
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 8, Western Wildfires: Ecology, Economics and Ethics, 9:00 a.m.

Richard Manning is the author of eight books including Rewilding the West: Restoration in a Prairie Landscape. He worked as a consultant on agriculture, poverty and the environment to the McKnight Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. As a freelance magazine writer, Manning has had essays and articles published in Harper's, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Wired, Men’s Journal, OnEarth, Los Angeles Times, American Scholar, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The New York Times, Audubon, Outside, E Magazine, High Country News and Northern Lights. Previously, he was a newspaper editor and reporter for fifteen years, working at newspapers in Montana and southern Idaho. Manning has won the University of Montana’s Mansfield Center's Lud Browman award for science writing, Richard Margolis award for environmental writing, Montana Audubon Society award for environmental reporting, Montana Wilderness Association award for writing, three-time winner of C.B. Blethen Award for investigative journalism. His work has been selected for 2010 "Best American Science and Nature Writing." Manning was a John S. Knight fellow in journalism at Stanford University in 1994-95. At University of Michigan and University of Montana he studied political science.

 

Tony Massaro
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, THE SANDBOX: Midterm Elections and the Environment, 2:00 p.m.

Tony Massaro, senior vice president of Political Affairs, joined the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) in May 2005. He has run the LCV political programs for the past five years including all the independent expenditure campaigns, LCV coordinated campaigns and all the PAC work. Massaro has nearly 30 years' experience in environmental politics, including work on over 100 campaigns in every capacity. Prior to joining LCV, he was the executive director of the state league, Colorado Conservation Voters (CCV), for four years. Under his direction CCV grew from a political program of $65,000 in the 2000 election cycle to $600,000 in the 2004 election cycle. From 1992-2001 Massaro ran a small environmental public affairs consulting company, Rocky Mountain Environmental Strategies. He worked on clean air, alternative energy, emerging technologies and political campaigns. From 1983-2001 Massaro served Federico Peña in the Denver Mayor's Office as Director of Environmental Affairs and Political Director.

 

Clayton Matt
 

Events:
Thursday, Tour 5, Managing Indian Country: Stories of Cooperation and Conflict, 7:30 a.m.
Thursday, Tour 6, Flathead Lake: The Pristine and the Alien, 8:00 a.m.

Clayton Matt is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (CSKT), Flathead Reservation, Montana. He is currently the Director of Tribal Services (DOTS). This position oversees nine Tribal Departments. Prior to being appointed to the DOTS in January 2010, he was the Department Head for the Natural Resource Department. He has held previous positions including Water Administration Program Manager, Environmental Division Manager and Water Rights Division Manager for the CSKT. He has been involved in water rights since 1982. He is the spokesperson for the Tribal water rights team. In 1995 he received a Master of Science in Water Resource Administration from the University of Arizona, Department of Hydrology.

 

Laurie Mazur
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, THE CLIMATE: Population, Consumption and Climate Change, 11:00 a.m.

Laurie Mazur is the director of the Population Justice Project, which works to envision and promote a progressive, social justice-based approach to population-environment issues. Previously, Mazur worked as an independent writer and consultant specializing in population, environment, and sexual and reproductive health and rights issues. She is the editor of A Pivotal Moment: Population, Justice & the Environmental Challenge (Island Press, 2009). Mazur also edited Beyond the Numbers: A Reader on Population, Consumption and the Environment (Island Press, 1994). With Michael Jacobson, she co-authored Marketing Madness: A Survival Guide to a Consumer Society (Westview Press, 1995), an indictment of excesses in advertising and marketing. Mazur founded and, for several years, directed the Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health and Rights.

 

Rob McDonald
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, THE CLIMATE: Energy Issues on Tribal Lands, 9:00 a.m.

Rob McDonald is communications director at the Confederated Tribes of the Salish and Kootenai. McDonald left a 15-year career working at daily newspapers, most recently, The Spokesman Review in Spokane, Wash., where he covered education, business, the diverse cultures beat and ran a column about life in the Inland Empire called Northwest Passage. He graduated from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash. with a degree in journalism. He interned at the Bellingham Herald, Everett Herald, Seattle Times and Dallas Morning News. He began a real job at The Bremerton Sun in features, moved to nightlife entertainment reporting in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the News-Sentinel where he began a column called Single Minded, which was syndicated by Knight Ridder until he left. As communications director for his Tribe he speaks for the government, manages media relations, public education, and is a first contact for those reaching out to the tribes. He is also an associate justice for the Tribes Appellate Court. A myth-busting website is one of his projects.

 

Tom McDonald
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 5, Managing Indian Country: Stories of Cooperation and Conflict, 7:30 a.m.

Tom McDonald is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes and Division Manager for the Tribe's Fish, Wildlife, Recreation and Conservation Division. The Division employs ~75 resource specialists and professionals for fish, wildlife and recreation management on the 1.3 million acre Flathead Indian Reservation and within the aboriginal territory of the Tribes. McDonald has worked for the Tribe's Natural Resources Department in various capacities for 28 years and possesses a bachelor's degree in natural resource management from The Evergreen State College. His 34-year work experience includes management of wild and prescribed fire, conducting fish and wildlife population surveys and transplants, writing wilderness and fish/wildlife management plans, and acquiring and restoring critical wildlife habitat and travel corridors on sensitive landscapes. He is an active member of the Montana/Wyoming Tribal Fish and Game Commission and the Native American Fish and Wildlife Society. Additionally, McDonald has developed long term hunting and fishing agreements and partnerships with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, and has secured positive relationships with various non-governmental organizations.

 

Sarah McMillan
 

Events:
Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 2: Environmental Law, Western Style, Lunch Plenary, 12:00 p.m.
Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 2: Environmental Law, Western Style, Where Is My Next Environmental Law Story Coming From?, 3:30 p.m.

Sarah McMillan, an attorney with Western Environmental Law Center, has represented nonprofit organizations and individuals in environmental, land use, and constitutional litigation in administrative, state, and federal fora in both her private practice and previously at the Tuholske Law Office, a two-attorney firm in Missoula, MT. Sarah is a graduate of Williams College and received her law degree with honors from the University of Montana, Missoula, MT in 2000.

 

John Mecklin
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, THE CRAFT: Freelance Pitch Slam, 11:00 a.m.

John Mecklin is the editor-in-chief of Miller-McCune. Over the last 15 years, he's also been: the editor of High Country News, a nationally acclaimed magazine that reports on the American West; the consulting executive editor for the launch of Key West, a city/regional magazine; and the top editor for award-winning newsweeklies in San Francisco and Phoenix that specialized in narrative journalism. In an earlier incarnation, he was an investigative reporter at the Houston Post and covered the Persian Gulf War from Saudi Arabia and Iraq for the paper. His writing has won national acclaim; writers working at his direction have won major journalism honors, including the George Polk Award, the Investigative Reporters and Editors certificate, the John Bartlow Martin Award for Public Interest Magazine Journalism and the Sidney Hillman Award for reporting on social justice issues. Mecklin holds a master's in public administration degree from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and a bachelor's in psychology from Indiana University.

 

Gregory Meeker
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, POLLUTION AND SOLUTIONS: Community Disaster: Libby's Deadly Asbestos Dust, 9:00 a.m.

Gregory Meeker is a research scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver, CO and a co-project chief for the USGS Minerals and Health Project. His research focuses on the mineralogy and morphology of fibrous and asbestiform amphiboles, especially those that triggered the EPA Superfund action in Libby, MT. Meeker was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine committee reviewing the NIOSH roadmap for asbestos research and testified before the U.S. House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials regarding asbestos mineralogy and nomenclature. He was a principle investigator in the USGS study of the dusts generated by the collapse of the World Trade Center. Other investigations include studies of particulate material in lung tissue and of naturally occurring asbestos in California, and environmental studies of sedimentary materials deposited as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Meeker holds an M.S. degree in geology from California State University, LA.

 

Joan Melcher
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 5, Managing Indian Country: Stories of Cooperation and Conflict, 7:30 a.m.

In a wide-ranging career that has included stints as a reporter, communications director, editor of magazines, playwright and author of two books on Montana bars, Joan Melcher came to environmental reporting the hard way — as a freelance writer. Currently she contributes to Miller-McCune.com and Planet-Profit Report. Recent stories also have appeared in Via, High Country News and BioCycle.

 

Scott Mills
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 7, Preserving Wildlife in a Changing World, 8:30 a.m.

L. Scott Mills is a professor in the Wildlife Biology Program in the College of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana. Mills is the author of more than 90 research articles and an award-winning wildlife population ecology textbook. His eclectic research across normally disparate scientific disciplines has led to key advances in applying ecological science to international wildlife conservation. Early in his career, Mills was awarded one of the most prestigious awards given by National Science Foundation to junior faculty: a Faculty Early Career Development award. In 2002 he was invited to testify to the US Congress (House Committee on Natural Resources) regarding ethics in conservation science. He served on the Board of Governors for the North American Section of the Society for Conservation Biology, and was an invited contributor to the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report. In 2009 Mills received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, which he used to help build capacity for ecological science in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. He is currently working on projects ranging from snowshoe hares to marmots, coyotes to cougars, bighorn sheep to snow leopards.

 

Caryn Miske
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 6, Flathead Lake: The Pristine and the Alien, 8:00 a.m.

Caryn Miske has served as the executive director of the Flathead Basin Commission since 2006. Prior to joining the FBC, she worked as a land use attorney and private consultant. Miske has a law degree from the University of Montana and a Masters in Public Education from Columbia University.

 

Lou Moore
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Clean Energy Economy and the Environment, 10:45 a.m.

Lou Moore is chief of the Energy and Pollution Prevention Bureau for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. She is responsible for energy conservation and renewable energy as well as recycling and pollution prevention for the state. Moore began her career with the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, spending 17 years in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy. She expanded her work to environmental protection in 1995, returning to the energy field in 2003 and serves in the capacity of Montana's state energy director in her role as bureau chief, directing a variety of programs. Moore is overseeing $40 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment funds for efficiency and renewable energy targeted primarily for state and local governments. She holds a BS degree from Montana State University and serves on the Executive Committee for the Northwest Energy Efficiency Task Force and the board of directors for the National Association of State Energy Officials.

 

Dave Morris
 

Event:
Thursday, Tour 2, Wild Trout, Wilderness and (Global) Warming, 6:30 a.m.

Dave Morris graduated from Evergreen State College with a degree in Environmental Studies, then earned his M.S. in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana. He is currently seeking a PhD in Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana, investigating the connections between climate change, natural resource policy, and disturbance ecology. Morris is on the board of directors of the Wild Rockies Field Institute and teaches a variety of classes for them, including the popular "Cycle the Rockies: Energy and Climate Change in Montana."

 

Clint Muhlfeld
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 6, Flathead Lake: The Pristine and the Alien, 8:00 a.m.

Dr. Clint Muhlfeld is a research aquatic ecologist for the USGS Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center stationed in Glacier National Park and a faculty affiliate at the University of Montana and Montana State University. Clint's research has focused on various aspects of aquatic ecology, fisheries biology, and conservation of native aquatic biota in the Flathead system and Crown of the Continent Ecosystem. His published research spans a range of research questions and conservation issues, including climate change, invasive species, and habitat modification.

 

 

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Mark Newton
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, THE CLIMATE: The Business of Climate Change, 2:00 p.m.

As director of sustainable business at Dell, Mark Newton is responsible for developing the company's environmental and social strategies and policies. Maintaining conversations with stakeholders is an important part of his role. Since joining Dell in 2003, Newton has led the development of Dell's climate strategy; e-waste policy prohibiting export of non-working equipment to developing nations; and the company's precautionary approach to materials use. He also established sustainability criteria against which Dell suppliers' performance is measured. Previously, Newton led environmental technology programs at Apple and Motorola and was a principal scientist for DEKA Research and Development Corp. He serves on the advisory boards of Clean Production Action, Carbonfund.org, and Austin Community College and as a business advisor to Chemsec, The Carbon Disclosure Project, and the World Resources Institute. Newton holds a Doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Texas at Dallas.

 

Martin Nie
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, THE SOAPBOX: Environmentalists Split Over Wilderness Deals, 11:00 a.m.

Martin Nie is professor of natural resources policy in the College of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana. His research focuses on federal lands, resources and wildlife policy. He has a particular interest in environmental governance, conflict, planning and conservation strategy. Nie’s latest book is The Governance of Western Public Lands: Mapping Its Present and Future (2008). His research and writing can be found online. He also administers a blog, A New Century of Forest Planning, that focuses on national forest management. When not thinking about public lands, he likes to take pictures, hike, backpack, ski, float, hunt, and fish on them.

 

 

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Brian O'Neill
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, THE CLIMATE: Population, Consumption and Climate Change, 11:00 a.m.

Brian O'Neill leads the Integrated Assessment Modeling group within the Climate Change Research section at NCAR. He holds a Ph.D. in Earth Systems Science and an M.S. in Applied Science, both from New York University, and has worked previously on the science staff of the Environmental Defense Fund in New York, and as an assistant and associate professor (Research) at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies. His current research interests include the relationship between socio-economic development paths and greenhouse gas emissions, the characterization of uncertainty and its role in decision analysis, and scenario analyses linking long-term climate change goals to shorter-term actions. O'Neill is lead author (along with Landis MacKellar and Wolfgang Lutz) of Population and Climate Change, published by Cambridge University Press. He has also served as a lead author for the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report in a volume on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability (Working Group II), and for the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) in a volume on Scenarios.

 

Sharon Oosthoek
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, THE WEST: Trans-boundary Issues: Pollution and Wildlife Migration, 9:00 a.m.

Sharon Oosthoek, an SEJ board member, is a Toronto-based freelance science and environment journalist. Her work has appeared in New Scientist, The Globe and Mail, Canadian Geographic, cbc.ca, Today’s Parent, Canadian Family, ON Nature and Canadian Wildlife. Sharon has more than 20 years' experience working for daily newspapers, magazines and online news services. Before becoming a freelancer in 2002, she was a reporter for The Hamilton Spectator for 10 years covering social trends, education and crime. A graduate of the University of Western Ontario, Oosthoek holds a bachelor's degree in political science. Her journalism degree is from Ryerson University. She has twice won both Science in Society Journalism Awards from the Canadian Science Writers' Association and the Western Ontario Newspaper Awards. Oosthoek has also taught corporate communications students at Toronto's Centennial College how to write.

 

 

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Lisa Palmer
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Clean Energy Economy and the Environment, 10:45 a.m.

Lisa Palmer is a writer and editor specializing in environment, climate change, and business topics. Recently, she worked as the development editor and writer for "Advancing the Science of Climate Change," one of the America's Climate Choices reports by National Academy of Sciences. Lisa is also a regular contributor to The Yale Forum on Climate Change & the Media. She has written for more than 30 magazines, newspapers, and online media, including Scientific American, Fortune, Fortune Small Business, CNNMoney.com, Popular Mechanics, and many others. She earned a master's degree at Simmons College in Boston and is a graduate of Boston University.

 

Megan Parker
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 7, Preserving Wildlife in a Changing World, 8:30 a.m.

Megan Parker grew up in Montana, where she couldn’t help but gain an appreciation for wildlife and wild places. She attended Middlebury College for her B.A., and Boise State University for her M.S. in raptor biology, working on falcons in Tikal National Park in Guatemala. She studied African wild dogs in the Okavango Delta of Botswana for her Ph.D. work at the University of Montana. Parker has trained dogs since she was 10 and this led her to combine her passion for conservation biology with dog training to partner with other experts and co-found Working Dogs for Conservation. As director she develops projects, trains conservation detection dogs and helps explore new avenues for conservation applications with detection dogs, such as helping define wildlife corridors and identify areas of conflict, detect scats of endangered species, elusive live animals and rare or invasive plants and animals.

 

Jodi Peterson
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, THE CRAFT: Non-Profit Environmental Journalism: Here To Stay, 10:45 a.m.

Jodi Peterson is managing editor of High Country News, an award-winning nonprofit newsmagazine and website. HCN, now celebrating its 40th year, covers environmental, natural resource, and cultural issues in the Western U.S. Peterson has been with the organization since 2005. Before that she spent 16 years at Hewlett-Packard as a technical writer and editor. She holds a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Communication Development from Colorado State University.

 

Theresa Pierno
 

Event: Friday, Breakfast Plenary, American Treasures: The Future of the National Parks, 7:30 a.m.

Theresa Pierno, the National Parks Conservation Association's executive vice president, provides strategic direction for the organization's national programs and policy initiatives, as well as communications, membership outreach, and government affairs activities. Previously, as senior vice president for regional operations, she strengthened NPCA's regional and field capacity to effectively engage and partner with park advocates, local governments, and organizations nationwide. She also led the organization’s Restoring Healthy Parks campaign. Pierno joined NPCA in October 2004 having served as a vice president for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Maryland Executive Director since 1999. In her role at CBF she managed a staff of 60 with a budget of $5 million and was responsible for implementing policies and advocating for Bay protection and restoration strategies throughout the 64,000 square-mile watershed. Previously, Pierno was part of the executive staff at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Pierno earned a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Baltimore.

 

Daniel Pletscher
 

Events:
Thursday, Tour 7, Preserving Wildlife in a Changing World, 8:30 a.m.
Saturday, Breakfast Plenary, Wolves, Grizzlies and Humans: Where’s the Balance?, 7:30 a.m.
Sunday, October 17 - Wednesday, October 20, Post-Confer Tour, Glacier Park and Conservation at the 'Crown of the Continent'

Daniel H. Pletscher is a Professor and Director of the Wildlife Biology Program at the University of Montana. Most of the research he and his graduate students have conducted involves large predators and endangered species. He and his students have worked on wolves in Montana, British Columbia, and Alberta; markhor in Pakistan; argali in China and Mongolia; Dall sheep in Alaska and desert bighorn sheep in New Mexico. Pletscher has served as President of the National Association of University Fish and Wildlife Programs and as chair of the National Cooperators Coalition for the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units. He received Honorary Life Membership in The Wildlife Society last year at their annual meeting in Monterrey, California.

 

Thomas Power
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Covering Western Coal: What's the Future? 2:00 p.m.

Thomas Michael Power is currently a research professor and professor emeritus in the Economics Department at the University of Montana where he has been on the faculty since 1968 and served as Chairman from 1978 to 2007. He specializes in natural resource and regional economic development issues. Power has published six books, including Accounting for Mother Nature: Changing Demands for Her Bounty (with T.L. Anderson and L.E. Huggins, eds., 2007), Post-Cowboy Economics: Pay and Prosperity in the New American West (with R.N. Barrett, 2001), Lost Landscapes and Failed Economies: The Search for a Value of Place (1996), Environmental Protection and Economic Well Being: The Economic Pursuit of Quality (1988, revised and renamed 1996), and The Economic Value of the Quality of Life (1980). In addition he has written almost two dozen book chapters and over a hundred papers, reports, and monographs in the field of resource economics and regional economic development. He regularly testifies before state and federal regulatory agencies on energy policy, natural resource development, environmental protection, and local economic development. He is a regular commentator on economic issues on Montana Public Radio and in the national press.

 

Jim Poyser
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, THE CRAFT 2: Three Environmentalists Walk into a Bar... A Humor Workshop, 2:00 p.m.

Jim Poyser has worked in the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies circuit for over 20 years, first as an arts reviewer for the Bloomington Voice, and for the past 16 years, as Managing Editor at NUVO Newsweekly in Indianapolis. Among his multiple duties is stewarding NUVO's environmental coverage. Jim is co-founder of The ApocaDocs, a web site/comedy duo whose content seeks to “humor the horror” of climate collapse. Their first book on the converging emergencies of our environmental stresses has just been (self) published. Jim is also a prolific playwright, screenwriter and haiku-ist. Currently, he is assembling a canary-in-a-coalmine mascot costume to wear to public events... and die.

 

 

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Chuck Quirmbach
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 5, Managing Indian Country: Stories of Cooperation and Conflict, 7:30 a.m.

Chuck Quirmbach is a Milwaukee-based producer and reporter who covers energy and environmental issues for Wisconsin Public Radio. During his 21 years on the beat, he also filed many "green" related stories for NPR, The Environment Report, Great Lakes Radio Consortium and the Voice of America. Since 1986, he has also covered Milwaukee-based news of statewide interest for WPR, focusing on elections, welfare-to-work and many other topics. During his career, he has won several awards from the Northwest Broadcast News Association, Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, the Associated Press and the Milwaukee Press Club. Since 1991, he has been a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, and has helped out at several SEJ conferences including co-chairing SEJ's 2009 Annual Conference in Madison, WI. In 2008, he chaired the SEJ Elections Committee, which just means he basically watched Chris Rigel (SEJ's director of programs and operations) do the heavy lifting.

 

 

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Doug Rader
 

Event: Friday, Afternoon Plenary, Lessons From the Gulf, 3:30 p.m.

Douglas N. Rader is chief oceans scientist for Environmental Defense Fund’s Oceans Programs. He advises EDF leadership on the scientific aspects of policies and programs affecting oceans. Rader works with national and regional teams to leverage cutting-edge science in current Oceans Program projects and emerging ocean issues. His efforts include stronger fisheries management policies and programs that align conservation with the business of fishing, improved coastal habitat protection programs, and science-based networks of marine protected areas. Rader earned a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of North Carolina and an M.S. in Zoology from the University of Washington. He serves as chair of the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council Habitat and Environmental Protection Advisory Panel; a member of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council Marine Protected Area Advisory Panel; a member of Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council; chair of the North Carolina Marine Fisheries Commission Habitat and Water Quality Standing Advisory Committee Planning and Permits Subcommittee, among others.

 

John Rimel
 

Event: Sunday, Book Publisher Pitch Slam, 11:00 a.m.

John Rimel is the publisher at Mountain Press Publishing in Missoula, Montana, a regional press that has achieved national recognition for its books for both young and old on natural history and history. He served as president of the Rocky Mountain Book Publishers Association and as a board member of the Publisher's Association of the West. A native Montanan, Rimel is active locally, serving as a trustee of the Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, on the Missoula County Open Lands Committee, and on the Missoula County Weed Board. In his spare time, he lives to horseback ride, run rivers, take off in his sea kayak or motorcycle, or crew in the weekend sailboat races on Flathead Lake.

 

Ray Ring
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, THE CRAFT: Freelance Pitch Slam, 11:00 a.m.

Ray Ring, High Country News senior editor based in Bozeman, Montana, has more than 30 years of experience in Western journalism. He's earned national recognition including a George Polk Award for political reporting, a Sidney Hillman Foundation Award for investigating oil-field accidents, and an Investigative Reporters & Editors scroll for going undercover as a prison inmate. Environmental politics is a primary focus of his journalism and he's taught the subject as an adjunct at Montana State University. He's also worked on staff for daily and weekly newspapers in Montana, Arizona and Colorado, in roles including columnist, investigative reporter and assistant managing editor. His freelance journalism has appeared in a range of publications such as Harper's and Outside, where he wrote two departments for a year. He's created three niche newspapers covering business, the ski industry and agriculture. His journalism is also informed by his experience in blue-collar jobs such as city firefighter, taxi driver and snow-plowing. He's had three novels published by New York houses.

 

Bruce Ritchie
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Is Biomass Power Really Green?, 9:00 a.m.

Bruce Ritchie is a senior writer with the Florida Tribune and is editor of FloridaEnvironments.com, which features news on statewide environmental issues from Florida's capital. He was growth and environment reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat for nearly nine years until December 2008. He was part of a Democrat team that won an in-depth reporting award from SEJ in 2007 for its coverage of nitrogen pollution of Florida's groundwater and springs.

 

Jim Robbins
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 7, Preserving Wildlife in a Changing World, 8:30 a.m.

Jim Robbins is a freelance journalist in Helena, Montana who writes for primarily for The New York Times and Conde Nast Traveler and is the author of several books.

 

Paul Rogers
 

Events:
Thursday, Tour 1, Crown of the Continent: Glacier National Park, 6:00 a.m.
Friday, Breakfast Plenary, American Treasures: The Future of the National Parks, 7:30 a.m.

Paul Rogers is the Natural Resources & Environment Writer at the San Jose Mercury News. He also works as managing editor of 'QUEST,' an award-winning weekly environment and science series broadcast on radio and TV on KQED, the San Francisco PBS and NPR affiliate. Rogers was part of the Mercury News team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1990 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times and other newspapers. Rogers also has taught environmental journalism at the University of California-Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and the UC-Santa Cruz Science Communication Program. He serves as chairman of the board of the Institutes for Journalism & Natural Resources, a non-profit group based in Missoula, Montana that provides training to reporters to improve environmental journalism.

 

Mark Rose
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, THE WEST: Conservation Easements and Private Land Protection, 11:00 a.m.

Mark Rose works with USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service state offices to manage more than 3,400 Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program easement acquisitions nationwide. These easements prevent more than 750,000 acres of farm and ranch lands from being converted to nonagricultural uses. Rose received an Associate Degree of Applied Science in Crop Production Technology from the Agricultural Technical Institute and a Bachelor's degree in Agriculture from The Ohio State University. During his 26-year career with NRCS, Rose has held numerous positions in several locations, including district conservationist in Wyandot County, Ohio; Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) coordinator in Southwest Oklahoma and Southern Maryland; resource conservationist in NRCS’s national headquarters in Washington, D.C.; and assistant state conservationist for programs in Maryland. Rose grew up on a 1,000 acre grain and beef farm in Wyandot County, Ohio. He operated the family farm until 1992 when he moved to Oklahoma.

 

Steven Running
 

Events:
Thursday, Tour 2, Wild Trout, Wilderness and (Global) Warming, 6:30 a.m.
Friday, Opening Plenary, The Changing West, 9:00 a.m.

Dr. Steven W. Running is an ecologist and forestry professor in the University of Montana's Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences and director of the department's Numerical Terradynamic Simulation Group. He is founder of the university's Climate Change Studies program and a leading climate scientist who shared in the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize that was awarded to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Running was a lead author of the 2007 United Nations' IPCC report.

 

 

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Alex Sakariassen
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 7, Preserving Wildlife in a Changing World, 8:30 a.m.

Alex Sakariassen is a news writer for the Missoula Independent, an alternative newsweekly in western Montana. He's covered a wide array of environmental issues in the region, from recreation management on the Blackfoot River to illegal poaching and other obstacles to wildlife conservation. Sakariassen also wrote extensively on wildfires and conservation on the Rocky Mountain Front for the Choteau Acantha weekly newspaper in 2006 and 2007. He has won a number of state and regional awards over the past few years, most recently a second place distinction for government and politics coverage from the Society of Professional Journalists Region 10 in 2010. Sakariassen is a 2008 graduate of the University of Montana's School of Journalism and a native of Bismarck, ND.

 

Jennifer Sass
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, POLLUTION AND SOLUTIONS: Nanotechnology: The Smallest Miracle or the Largest Disaster?, 10:45 a.m.

Dr. Jennifer Sass is a senior scientist in the Health and Environment program of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental non-profit organization, and director of the Scientific Integrity project. She oversees the U.S. government regulations of industrial chemicals and pesticides, and assesses the data underlying the regulatory decisions. Sass is well versed in the health sciences, with degrees in Anatomy and Cell Biology, and Toxicology, and has published over three dozen articles in peer-reviewed journals. She has presented testimony in the U.S. Congress and participated in U.S. government scientific advisory committees and the National Academies. Sass collaborates with scientists in the U.S. and internationally, working towards regulations that are protective of human health and the environmental.

 

Greg Schildwachter
 

Event: Friday, Opening Plenary, The Changing West, 9:00 a.m.

Greg Schildwachter became familiar with many issues and people at local, statewide, and federal levels by contributing significant outcomes in the conservation of wolves, salmon, other endangered species, private lands, water rights, and local agreements. He now advises clients on conservation easements, land exchanges, climate change, and private investments in conservation through his company, Watershed Results. Previously, Schildwachter worked at the White House Council on Environmental Quality advising President George W. Bush on public lands, wildlife, and agriculture issues; served Senator Mike Crapo of Idaho as special assistant and staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water; was policy advisor in Idaho Governor Kempthorne’s Office of Species Conservation; and served as wildlife program manager for the Intermountain Forest Association in Montana and Idaho. Schildwachter earned a Ph.D. in Wildlife Biology from the Boone and Crockett research program at the University of Montana, an M.S. in wildlife science from the University of Tennessee, and a B.S. - Forest Resources from the University of Georgia.

 

Mark Schleifstein
 

Event: Friday, Afternoon Plenary, Lessons From the Gulf, 3:30 p.m.

Environment reporter Mark Schleifstein, previously an SEJ board member, has worked at The Times-Picayune since 1984. He is the co-author with John McQuaid of Path of Destruction: The Devastation of New Orleans and the Coming Age of Superstorms, published by Little, Brown & Co. His reporting during and after Hurricane Katrina was among the newspaper's stories honored with 2006 Pulitzer Prizes for Public Service and Breaking News Reporting and the George Polk Award for Metropolitan Reporting. Stories prior to Katrina on coastal science issues were honored in 2006 with a special award from the American Geophysical Union. The 2002 series he co-authored, "Washing Away: How south Louisiana is growing more vulnerable to a catastrophic hurricane," won the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2003 Excellence in Media award and the 2003 National Hurricane Conference media award. He also was a co-author of the 1996 series, "Oceans of Trouble: Are the World's Fisheries Doomed?" which won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for Public Service from the Society of Professional Journalists.

 

Andrew Schneider
 

Events:
Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, POLLUTION AND SOLUTIONS: Community Disaster: Libby's Deadly Asbestos Dust, 9:00 a.m.
Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, POLLUTION AND SOLUTIONS: Nanotechnology: The Smallest Miracle or the Largest Disaster?, 10:45 a.m.

Andrew Schneider is an award-winning investigative reporter for AOL News, specializing in public health and safety issues. He also writes his two blogs — coldtruth.com and thefoodwatchdog.com. As a senior national correspondent for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1999, Schneider broke the story of how asbestos contamination killed or sickened hundreds of people in Libby, Montana. His subsequent book, An Air That Kills, co-authored by David McCumber, offers the definitive account of Libby's tragedy. Formerly Schneider has served with The Baltimore Sun, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Oregonian, Scripps Howard Newspapers in Washington, The Pittsburgh Press, The Associated Press, and Newsweek. Among Schneider's awards are two Pulitzer Prizes, one in public service and for specialized reporting.

 

Bill Schneider
 

Event:
Thursday, Tour 2, Wild Trout, Wilderness and (Global) Warming, 6:30 a.m.

Bill Schneider was the founding editor of Montana Outdoors in 1970. Between 1979 and 2000 he founded and ran Falcon Publishing. He has written many informational and guide books on the greater Yellowstone area. Today he is a freelance journalist who writes regular commentary about issues related to wildlife and outdoor issues.

 

Conrad Schneider
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Is Biomass Power Really Green?, 9:00 a.m.

Since 1997, Conrad Schneider has worked as advocacy director of the Clean Air Task Force (CATF), a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring clean air and healthy environments through scientific research, public education, and legal advocacy. His practice includes work in federal and state legislative and administrative arenas and courts. Schneider is an adjunct lecturer in environmental law and policy at Bowdoin College in Maine. He is a board member of the Center for Clean Air Policy in Washington. Prior to CATF, he served as air project leader with the Natural Resources Council of Maine where his duties included air, energy, and transportation-related advocacy. A former civil rights attorney with the U. S. Department of Justice, he served as law clerk for U.S. District Judge Robert H. Hall in Georgia. He has a law doctorate from the University of Virginia and a BA in political science and history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 

Chris Servheen
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, THE WEST: Trans-boundary Issues: Pollution and Wildlife Migration, 9:00 a.m.

Chris Servheen has been the Grizzly Bear recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 28 years. As such, he is responsible for coordinating all the research and management on grizzly bears in the lower 48 states and working with biologists in Alberta and B.C. He was the EIS Team Leader for the Bitterroot Grizzly Bear Reintroduction EIS and was responsible for the final rule recovering and delisting of the Yellowstone grizzly population. His interests involve bear conservation and management and the relationships between human activities and bear distribution and survival. Much of his current work involves the impacts of highways and human developments on habitat fragmentation of bear populations in the Rocky Mountains. He has also worked in many countries in Asia and in Europe on bears and bear conservation, and is particularly interested in the trade of bear parts for use in traditional medicine in Asia and the impact of this trade on Asian bear conservation.

 

Sarah Severn
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 2, THE CLIMATE: The Business of Climate Change, 2:00 p.m.

Sarah Severn has an extensive background in consumer research and advertising prior to joining Nike, where she has spent the last 14 years in various roles, including Director of Sustainable Development and Director of Horizons within the Corporate Responsibility team. Severn currently serves as Director of Stakeholder Mobilization on the Sustainable Business and Innovation team. For a decade she has led Nike's efforts around climate change, focusing now on developing Nike's climate change advocacy strategy. Previously, Severn has served on the Pacific Northwest regional council of the President's Council for Sustainable Development, the board of The Natural Step U.S, and the State of Oregon Governor's Climate Change Integration Group. Currently she serves on the Advisory Boards of Sustainable Northwest and the Oregon Natural Step network and is a core faculty member of the Prince of Wales and University of Cambridge Business and Environment Programme.

 

Margaret Sheehan
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, ENERGY AND THE ECONOMY: Is Biomass Power Really Green?, 9:00 a.m.

Margaret Sheehan is an environmental lawyer based in Massachusetts. She represents citizen and environmental groups seeking to ensure that biomass combustion power plants are sited and operated in a manner that is consistent with laws protecting our air, water, and forests. Sheehan recently led a successful campaign in Massachusetts to ensure that the production of biomass electricity to satisfy renewable portfolio standard requirements is done in a manner that is consistent with goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Sheehan graduated from Boston College Law School and Colgate University. She was an assistant attorney general with the Massachusetts Attorney General Office, is president of the Biomass Accountability Project and board member with Energy Justice Network.

 

Sara Shipley Hiles
 

Events:
Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 1: Video Training, 9:00 a.m.
Saturday, Teaching EJ: A Three-Hour Workshop, 2:15 p.m.

Sara Shipley Hiles has reported for newspapers and magazines, co-written a book about Hurricane Katrina, and taught college journalism part-time. Starting in January, she will have a new job as a full-time journalism instructor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

 

Diana Six
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 2, Wild Trout, Wilderness and (Global) Warming, 6:30 a.m.

Diana L. Six is Professor of Forest Entomology and Pathology in the Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences at the University of Montana. Her primary research focuses on the evolution and maintenance of symbioses particularly those occurring among ambrosia beetles, bark beetles and fungi. Her research in this area includes several collaborative efforts with scientists in the US, South Africa, Mexico and Canada. She also conducts research on various aspects of bark beetle ecology and management, including investigations into the interactions of bark beetles with fire and interactions among an exotic pathogen (white pine blister rust) and a native insect (the mountain pine beetle in high elevation whitebark pine ecosystems). Recently, her focus has expanded to include effects of climate change on beetle-fungus symbioses.

 

Dan Smith
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, THE CRAFT: Freelance Pitch Slam, 11:00 a.m.

Dan Smith is vice president of communications for American Forests, the Washington-based nonprofit conservation group founded in 1875, where he also edits American Forests magazine, now in its 116th year of publication. At American Forests in the 1980’s he helped to develop its Global ReLeaf forest restoration program and the now popular concept of urban forests as green infrastructure. On his own earlier this decade, he produced and directed an independent documentary film "The American Elm: Majestic, Imperiled, Renewed" (2007) and helped develop DC’s new urban forestry nonprofit startup, Casey Trees. At Defenders of Wildlife in the 1980’s he directed communications for the team laying the groundwork for the restoration of wolves to Yellowstone. Smith grew up in Montana, is a graduate of Dartmouth College and now lives in Cheverly, Maryland where he and his neighbors regularly pull invasive plants and agitate for improved stormwater management practices in the Anacostia River watershed.

 

Lauren Sommer
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, COMPUTER WORKSHOP: Storytelling Online — Choosing Your Media, 10:45 a.m.

Lauren Sommer is a radio reporter and multimedia producer for QUEST — a multiplatform science and environmental series at KQED Public Broadcasting in San Francisco. At QUEST, Lauren has hiked Sierra Nevada peaks, hunted for newts in the rain, and desperately tried to get her sea legs — all in the pursuit of good radio. Originally from the Bay Area, Sommer attended Cornell University and has a background in environmental policy. Before joining KQED, Lauren cruised bunny slopes as a ski instructor in Tahoe, California and ate croissants in France as a travel writer for Frommer's. Her work has appeared in National Geographic Adventure, Sierra magazine, Marketplace and NPR.

 

Art Soukkala
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 5, Managing Indian Country: Stories of Cooperation and Conflict, 7:30 a.m.

Art Soukkala is a wildlife biologist for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. His interests in wildlife stem from time spent wandering thru the forests and floating the lakes while growing up in northern Minnesota. He received degrees in Wildlife Management from the University of Minnesota and the University of Maine. He has worked on a variety of wildlife research projects including manatees in Florida, pine marten in northern Maine, the diversity of wildlife species inhabiting peatlands in central Maine, red pandas in Nepal, predator-prey ecology in Newfoundland, Canada, and grizzly bears in Montana. He began work on the Flathead Indian Reservation as part of a team studying the effects of hydropower generation on wildlife living along Flathead Lake and the Flathead River. During his first 10 years with the Tribes, he worked mainly on forest carnivores and continued hydropower issues. Over the past 10 years he has been involved in wildlife habitat acquisition and the restoration of wetlands and prairie grasslands as part of a hydropower mitigation settlement.

 

Patrick Spears
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, THE CLIMATE: Energy Issues on Tribal Lands, 9:00 a.m.

Patrick Spears is a member of NativeEnergy's Board of Directors and co-founder and president of the Intertribal Council On Utility Policy (COUP), representing fifteen Tribes in the Dakotas, Wyoming, Idaho and Nebraska involved in policy issues and outreach education to tribal governments, tribal colleges, and indigenous environmental organizations on telecommunications, climate change, energy planning, energy efficiency and renewable energy development. Intertribal COUP represents Tribal energy interests from regulatory and economic perspectives at regional and national levels on regulatory issues, policy analysis, energy development plans, and legislative proposals. He views energy as a key component of sustainable development and economic restoration. The energy interests range from utility regulation policy, energy planning, energy efficiency, and renewable energy with emphasis on wind energy development. He is a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and completed undergraduate work in Sociology with emphases in Anthropology and Indian Studies from the University of South Dakota, and graduate study in Public Administration at the Washington D.C. Public Affairs Center, University of Southern California.

 

Jack Stanford
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 6, Flathead Lake: The Pristine and the Alien, 8:00 a.m.

Jack A. Stanford is the Jessie M. Bierman professor of ecology and director of the Flathead Lake Biological Station at The University of Montana, where he has worked since 1971. He is well known for his research on natural and cultural interactions of large catchment ecosystems. He has published 170 juried papers and books in limnology and ecology since receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 1975. Stanford is most noted for his long-term studies of the 18,200 km² Flathead River-Lake ecosystem in Montana and British Columbia and for research on the ecology of rivers regulated by dams. In 1999 he began extensive work on a suite of observatory salmon rivers in Kamchatka, Argentina, Alaska, and BC; the research focuses on cross-site comparisons of the effects of marine nutrient subsidies on floodplain ecology. He is a board member of the Wild Salmon Center, Portland, OR, that is devoted to conservation of salmon rivers around the Pacific Rim. He has served on many national and international science review panels and editorial boards concerning the ecology and conservation of rivers and salmonid fishes.

 

Suzanne Stone
 

Events:
Thursday, Tour 7, Preserving Wildlife in a Changing World, 8:30 a.m.
Saturday, Breakfast Plenary, Wolves, Grizzlies and Humans: Where’s the Balance?, 7:30 a.m.

Suzanne Asha Stone has worked in wolf restoration in the northern Rockies since 1988, which included serving as a member of the 1995/1996 USA/Canadian wolf reintroduction team. She currently oversees the Defenders of Wildlife wolf conservation programs in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Alberta and British Columbia. Stone works directly with ranchers and farmers to help them reduce wolf depredation losses. She is the lead author of Livestock and Wolves: A Guide to Nonlethal Tools and Methods to Reduce Conflicts, and she developed Defenders’ Livestock Producers Advisory Council. Previously, Stone served as public outreach intern for the Central Idaho Interagency Wolf Recovery Steering Committee, assistant director of the Wolf Education and Research Center and director of Idaho’s Wolf Recovery Foundation. She holds a Masters degree in Wildlife Conservation and Conflict Management from Prescott College in Arizona and has received numerous awards for her work.

 

John Sullivan
 

Event: Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 2: Environmental Law, Western Style, Where Is My Next Environmental Law Story Coming From?, 3:30 p.m.

John Sullivan has, since February 2008, been assistant managing editor for environmental news at BNA, a Washington, D.C.-based publisher of news on regulatory and legislative policy and significant legal issues. Prior to that he was a senior editor in BNA's Bureau of Environmental News from 2001-2003 and again from 2005-2008. Sullivan's primary responsibility in both positions has been to organize coverage for Daily Environment Report, the flagship daily in the Bureau of Environmental News. Daily Environment Report covers virtually the entire landscape of environmental regulation, legislation, and litigation — from climate change and air pollution to clean water and hazardous waste. During his two-year hiatus from the Bureau of Environmental News, Sullivan worked as a reporter covering labor and economics, also for BNA. He was awarded a National Press Club prize in 2004 for best analytical story in the Newsletter publishing category for a piece that analyzed spending by labor unions on compensation for union officers. Sullivan also have been awarded prizes for labor and economics reporting by the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild.

 

 

T

 

Erin Thompson Switalski
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, POLLUTION AND SOLUTIONS: Covering Reproductive Health and the Environment, 11:00 a.m.

Erin Thompson Switalski is the executive director of Women's Voices for the Earth (WVE), a national organization that works to eliminate toxic chemicals that impact women's health by changing consumer behaviors, corporate practices and government policies. She has led statewide initiatives to reduce women's exposure to mercury from mercury-containing products and introduced comprehensive legislation to ban the sale of mercury products in the state of Montana. Switalski developed and implemented the national Safe Cleaning Products Initiative, which has resulted in the introduction of federal legislation that will reduce women's exposure to cleaning product chemicals. She has given numerous presentations about the unique role women play as advocates to diverse audiences across the U.S. Switalski is a 2010 winner of the "40 Under 40" leadership award for advocacy from the New Leaders Council, and has traveled to Colombia twice to act as a human rights observer. She holds a BA in Spanish from the University of Montana.

 

 

U

 

Randy Udall
 

Event: Saturday, Lunch and Plenary, U.S. Energy Frontiers: Beyond the Gulf Disaster, 12:00 p.m.

Randy Udall, former director of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE), is one of the nation’s leading activists in promoting energy sustainability. His partnerships with electric utilities and local governments have led to remarkable accomplishments, including Colorado’s first solar energy incentive program, the world's first Renewable Energy Mitigation Program which has raised $7 million, and some of the most progressive green power purchasing programs in the country. Udall started the first "solar production incentive" program in the U.S. In partnership with Holy Cross Energy, a rural electric utility in western Colorado, his efforts will keep three million tons of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere over the next 20 years. Udall co-founded the Association for the Study of Peak Oil-USA and has keynoted annual conferences for the American Public Power Association, the American Wind Energy Association, and the American Solar Energy Society. Udall was recently featured in a CNBC documentary The Hunt for Black Gold. He hales from a Western political family renowned for conservation policy. He is the son of Morris (Mo) Udall, former Arizona congressman and the nephew of Stuart Udall, former Secretary of the Interior.

 

 

V

 

Garrit Voggesser
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 5, Managing Indian Country: Stories of Cooperation and Conflict, 7:30 a.m.

Dr. Garrit Voggesser is the senior manager of the National Wildlife Federation's (NWF) Tribal Lands Conservation Program. He works on a variety of ecosystem protection, wildlife, habitat, climate change, energy, and water quantity and quality issues with tribes throughout the nation. Voggesser received his Ph.D. in history, with a focus on American Indian and environmental history, from the University of Oklahoma. He has also served as NWF's Bison Team Associate Coordinator. The mission of NWF's Tribal Lands Conservation Program is to partner with sovereign tribal nations to solve today's conservation challenges for future generations. Partnering with tribes, we aim to ensure the protection of the environmental and cultural values of tribal lands and resources.

 

W

 

Ronald Wakimoto
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 8, Western Wildfires: Ecology, Economics and Ethics, 9:00 a.m.

Dr. Ronald H. Wakimoto is professor of Forestry at The University of Montana, Missoula. He received his B.S. in Forestry and M.S. and Ph.D. in Wildland Resource Science from the University of California at Berkeley. He began his faculty career at the University of California, Berkeley in 1976 and has been at The University of Montana since 1982 teaching and conducting research in wildland fire management. He teaches academic courses in wildland fire management, fuel management, and fire ecology. Wakimoto currently researches the effectiveness of fuel management treatments, smoke quality and quantity from smoldering combustion, and crown fire spread. Previously, he served as a technical advisor to the National Fire Policy Review Team following the Yellowstone events. He has given testimony on Wildfire Policy to the U.S. House Agriculture Committee; the 2000 Montana fire-fuel situation to the U.S. House Natural Resources Sub-Committee on Forests and Forest Health; to the same committee in 2001 concerning the implementation of the National Fire Plan.

 

John Waller
 

Events:
Thursday, Tour 1, Crown of the Continent: Glacier National Park, 6:00 a.m.
Sunday, October 17 - Wednesday, October 20, Post-Confer Tour, Glacier Park and Conservation at the 'Crown of the Continent'

Dr. John Waller is the wildlife biologist for Glacier National Park, a position he has held for 8 years. He came to Glacier after working for 4 years for the USFWS Grizzly bear recovery office, and 10 years with Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. He holds a masters degree in fish and wildlife management from Montana State University and bachelor and doctoral degrees from the University of Montana. Waller's specialty is grizzly bear research and management, on which he has authored numerous reports and scientific publications.

 

Mike Walls
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 4, THE SANDBOX: Translating ToSCA, 10:45 a.m.

Mike Walls is the vice president of Regulatory and Technical Affairs at the American Chemistry Council (ACC). ACC represents the leading companies engaged in the U.S. business of chemistry — a $674 billion enterprise that employs over 800,000 Americans. ACC represents the industry on a wide range of advocacy issues at the state, federal and international level, including the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and international chemical regulatory proposals.

 

Tony Ward
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, POLLUTION AND SOLUTIONS: Community Disaster: Libby's Deadly Asbestos Dust, 9:00 a.m.

Tony Ward is an assistant professor at the University of Montana’s Center for Environmental Health Sciences. He has a B.S. (Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas) and M.S. (The University of Houston – Clear Lake, Houston, Texas) in environmental science, and received his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Montana in 2001. An air quality specialist, Ward and his students have identified asbestos contamination in the bark of trees surrounding Libby and along transportation corridors to and from the town. They are also researching the potential for asbestos exposure caused by harvesting contaminated firewood. Ward worked for several years as an environmental consultant in the Houston and Seattle areas specializing in air-quality issues. In addition to his research, he teaches in the University of Montana’s School of Public and Community Health Sciences, and is an adjunct faculty with the University of Montana’s Department of Chemistry.

 

Vicki Watson
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 3, Clark Fork River: Restoring the Nation's Largest Superfund Site, 7:00 a.m.

Vicki Watson was born in 1953 on a small family farm on the Texas blackland prairie in the headwaters of the Trinity River. She grew up watching her parents care for their land and struggle to protect the farm's small creek from the wastewater of a growing town upstream. She completed a PhD at the University of Wisconsin, working on the Madison lakes of the Yahara River (headwaters to the Mississippi). Since 1983 she has been a UM Environmental Studies professor, focusing her research, teaching, and service on the conservation, preservation and restoration of Montana watersheds, especially the Clark Fork River of the Columbia. She works with federal, state, and local governments and with citizen groups and individuals. With her students, she provides technical assistance to watershed groups through the UM Watershed Health Clinic, working for sustainable and ethical use of water resources and conservation of streams, lakes & their watersheds.

 

Kenneth Weiss
 

Event: Friday, Concurrent Sessions 1, THE CLIMATE: Population, Consumption and Climate Change, 11:00 a.m.

Kenneth R. Weiss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, writes about conservation and public health. He was the lead reporter for the Altered Oceans series, which showed how the slow creep of environmental decay often has a more profound, corrosive impact than cataclysmic natural disasters. Besides winning the Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2007, Weiss has won the George Polk Award, the Grantham Prize, the Scripps Howard Foundation’s National Journalism Award and awards from the Society of Environmental Journalists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and other organizations. He holds a bachelor’s degree in folklore from UC Berkeley and lives in Carpinteria, California.

 

Carolyn Whetzel
 

Events:
Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 2: Environmental Law, Western Style, The Laws That Govern Land, Water, Rocks and Trees, 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 2: Environmental Law, Western Style, Where Is My Next Environmental Law Story Coming From?, 3:30 p.m.

Carolyn Whetzel, the SEJ Board first vice president and programs chair, is an environmental reporter for BNA, a private publisher headquartered in Washington, D.C. that covers legislative developments, federal and state laws and regulations, court decisions, and economic trends. Whetzel is based in California and covers a variety of state environmental issues including air and water quality, hazardous wastes, chemicals, and energy since 1992. Her work appears primarily in BNA's Daily Environment Report, Environment Reporter, Toxics Law Reporter, Chemical Regulation Reporter, Occupational Safety & Health Reporter, and Daily Report for Executives. Whetzel joined BNA in 1970 while attending George Washington University, but left four years later to travel and move to California. Before rejoining BNA, she wrote for in-house publications for several companies and institutions and was a freelance writer in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Dallas.

 

Nadia White
 

Events:
Wednesday, All-Day Workshop 2: Environmental Law, Western Style, Enforcement: Why Is It So Hard to Successfully Prosecute Environmental Crimes?, 10:30 a.m.
Thursday, Tour 2, Wild Trout, Wilderness and (Global) Warming, 6:30 a.m.
Saturday, Teaching EJ: A Three-Hour Workshop, 2:15 p.m.

Nadia White teaches Covering Environmental and Natural Resources Issues, among other classes, at the University of Montana School of Journalism. Students in her environmental reporting class provided exhaustive online coverage of the 11-week W.R. Grace environmental crimes trial in 2009. Prior to joining the faculty at Montana, White worked at the Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune as city reporter and Washington D.C. reporter before wrapping up her work there in 2005 with six years as state editor. She is a former Ted Scripps fellow, a veteran of the Institutes for Journalism & Natural Resources, and an AAAS winner for work related to brucellosis. She has worked at newspapers in Maine, Minnesota and Colorado. She attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York.

 

Andrew Wilcox
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 3, Clark Fork River: Restoring the Nation's Largest Superfund Site, 7:00 a.m.

Andrew Wilcox is an assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences at the University of Montana who specializes in fluvial geomorphology. His research entails field studies and modeling of river flow, sediment transport, and channel morphology, which he in turn seeks to relate to aquatic ecosystem processes and watershed management. Current research topics include geomorphic responses to the removal of Milltown Dam on the Clark Fork River, MT; effects of geomorphology on bull trout habitat; and feedbacks between riparian vegetation and geomorphic processes.

 

Roger Witherspoon
 

Event: Saturday, Concurrent Sessions 3, THE SANDBOX: The Return of Nuclear Power: Coming to a Town Near You?, 9:00 a.m.

Wm. Roger Witherspoon has spent more than 40 years working in all forms of the media as a journalist, author, educator, and public relations specialist. Along the way, he has written extensively on state and national politics, foreign affairs, finance, defense, civil rights, constitutional law, health, the environment, and energy. Most of Witherspoon's career has been in the news business, working as a full-time reporter, editor, columnist, or producer for a variety of media companies including newspapers (The Record, N.J.; Star Ledger, N.J.; NY Daily News; Atlanta Constitution; Dallas Times Herald; and Journal News (N.Y.); television ( CNN, KNBC and NBC Network); and radio (WCBN, MI.). As a freelance writer, he has written for several publications, including Time, Newsweek, Fortune, Essence, Black Enterprise, The Economist, US Black Engineer & IT, TheRoot.com, and NewJerseyNewsroom.com. Witherspoon is the author or co-author of three non-fiction books: two histories and an engineering 101 text book.

 

Marilyn Wood
 

Event: Thursday, Tour 6, Flathead Lake: The Pristine and the Alien, 8:00 a.m.

Marilyn Wood, a conservation biologist with 13 years' experience with the Nature Conservancy, currently serves as executive director of the Flathead Land Trust. The organization, based in Kalispell, works with private landowners to protect places in northwestern Montana through voluntary agreements. One collaborative effort, called "The River to Lake Initiative," is focused on protecting riparian habitat, river and sloughs, and prime farmland along the main stem Flathead River and the North Shore of Flathead Lake.

 

Bob Wyss
 

Event: Saturday, Teaching EJ: A Three-Hour Workshop, 2:15 p.m.

Bob Wyss joined the University of Connecticut Journalism Department in 2002 and he is currently an associate professor. He is the author of Covering the Environment: How Journalists Work the Green Beat (Routledge, 2007). He continues to be an active freelance writer and since arriving at the university he has written two books and more than 70 newspaper and magazine articles for national and regional publications. Before coming to the university he was an editor and reporter for 28 years for The Providence Journal. Wyss has taught environmental journalism courses which have been open to journalism and non-journalism majors. He has also worked with both journalism and science students in a variety of interdisciplinary efforts to promote science literacy among the journalists and improved communication with the scientists.

 

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