Board of Directors
 Dr. Brent Blue Jackson, Wyoming Contact Brent |
Brent Blue attended Vanderbilt University and the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He received his post-doctoral training at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Blue practices medicine in Jackson Hole and is a recognized expert in aviation medicine. He also has been on several nonprofit boards, including the Teton Science School, Dancer’s Workshop of Jackson, and the Board of Health of Teton County. Dr. Blue made multiple environmental flight missions for the Vanderbilt Student Health Coalition/Save Our Cumberland Mountains in the early 1970s to document the environmental destruction, cultural devastation, and health impacts caused by open pit strip mining in Appalachia. Those flights made lasting impressions and fostered his commitment to environmental protection. |
 Tuck Colby Treasurer Sarasota, Florida Contact Tuck |
Tuck is a trustee of private charitable foundations following his retirement from a banking career in Africa, Scandinavia, New York, and Paris. He has been an active volunteer pilot in the northeastern United States for ten years, served on the board of Northern Wings, and currently works on environmental issues in his home state of Florida. |
 C. Rudy Engholm, Executive Director Portland, Maine Contact Rudy |
Prior to joining the LightHawk, Engholm was the founder of Northern Wings, an environmental flying organization that merged into LightHawk in 2003. Engholm joined LightHawk’s board at that time and served as Board President from 2005-2007. He holds a commercial pilot certificate and has also been active in a number of environmental issues, including the campaign to create a new Maine Woods National Park. Engholm has a B.S. in computer engineering and a law degree from the University of Michigan. He practiced law in the late 1970s with a Connecticut law firm, then served for ten years as Vice President and General Counsel of Creative Solutions, Inc., a Michigan-based tax and accounting software company. Engholm spent his childhood in Japan and speaks a modest amount of Japanese. |
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Jon Engle is a lifelong professional aviator with a diverse background of over 33 years of civilian and military flying. Jon first soloed in gliders when he was 14, then in powered aircraft when he was 16. He holds a degree in Atmospheric Science and Meteorology and worked as a forecaster for the National Weather Service before continuing his flying career as a military pilot. Currently, he is the Director of Air Operations in Europe for 3rd Air Force. With over 4100 hours flying time in more than 35 different aircraft types, Jon has flown from over 27 different countries in either civil or military aircraft. His flying experience includes over 162 hours of combat flying and 38 aircraft carrier landings. He has flown from the edge of sand dunes in hang gliders, to the edge of space in the U-2. Jon holds Commercial, Single and Multi Engine Land, Single Engine Seaplane and Instrument rating as well as a Basic Hang Glider License. He is currently stationed in Germany. |
 Tom Haas Durham, New Hampshire Contact Tom |
Tom Haas is a pilot, flight instructor and owner of Great Bay Aviation, LLC in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He has been flying in the Northeast for 34 years. He spent three years restoring a 1947 Piper Cub, and also owns a 172 Skyhawk and a 182 Skylane, as well as a Challenger 601 jet. Tom currently serves as National Chairman of the AOPA Foundation's campaign committee, and is a member of the AOPA’s “Hat In The Ring Society.” Tom is also the Vice President of The New Hampshire Aviation Historical Society. Tom graduated from Nathaniel Hawthorne College with a BBA and Associates in Professional Pilot. He then continued to earn his CFII and A&P license. Tom currently resides in Durham, NH. |
 Jeff Hamilton Spokane, Washington Contact Jeff |
Jeff joined LightHawk’s board in 2008 and is an active member of LightHawk’s volunteer pilot corps. Jeff retired from Accenture in 2001 as a Senior Managing Partner and a member of the Firm’s Global Management Council. Jeff serves on several non-profit boards and spends his free time flying and working on hangar projects. Jeff holds commercial, multi-engine, instrument, and seaplane pilot ratings. He currently flies in a Stearman formation team performing at air-shows and community events several times a year. |
 Steve Knaebel Vice President Mexico City, Mexico Contact Steve |
Steve retired in 2005 from Cummins, Inc. as Vice President – Mexico Operations and Distribution Latin America and as President of Cummins’ Mexican subsidiary. Previously he was USAID mission director in Costa Rica. He received his MBA from Stanford in 1969, and later managed a 3,200-unit housing project in Brazil. Steve founded Special Olympics-Mexico and was national chairman for 13 years; he also established and presided over the Cummins Philanthropic Association. He has served on the boards of Accion International, Special Olympics International, and EARTH University in Costa Rica. Knaebel was on LightHawk’s board from 1995-1998, and currently serves on the boards of the Mexican Fund for the Conservation of Nature and The Center for Sustainable Transport. He holds a commercial pilot’s license with instrument and multiengine ratings. |
 David Kunkel President Meeker, Colorado Contact David |
David has an extensive and successful background as an entrepreneur. He has lived in Washington, Oregon, Colorado and California, co-founding what is now Johnson, Kunkel and Associates, a civil engineering firm in Eagle, Colorado. He later founded a software and services company which catered to the needs of local governments. After selling the company to Tyler Technologies, he continued to work for Tyler as a division head until 2004. During this time he sat on Tyler's Executive Committee and the Technology Committee. During the early 1980s he served on the Eagle County Airport (now called the Vail Eagle airport) Commission. David also has served on architectural control committees and a cooperative irrigation company board. Most recently he has been named to the board of Metcalf Archaeology. He has been a LightHawk Volunteer Pilot since 2002 and flies a number of different aircraft. |
 Josh Marvil Yarmouth, Maine Contact Josh |
Josh worked in the environmental consulting industry in a variety of executive and management positions for national and international companies and has experience in the development of financial and non-financial management systems, mergers and acquisitions, risk management, and insurance products. He is Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Chewonki Foundation, a non-profit environmental education institution and a center for leading-edge conservation and sustainable energy curriculum. Josh earned his single-engine pilot’s license in 2008, and is looking forward to getting an instrument rating and airplane in the next few years. |
 Steve Phillabaum Spokane, Washington Contact Steve |
Steve joined LightHawk’s board in 2009 and, as an attorney, provides legal advice to the organization. He is a lifelong resident of Spokane, Washington and has four children with his wife, Sheryl, who is also an attorney. He is active in the Spokane Rotary Club, is a licensed pilot and flight instructor, and is a member of the Northwest Bi-Plane Association. Steve has extensive experience as a trial lawyer in State and Federal courts throughout Washington and Idaho. He attended the University of Puget Sound earning his Juris Doctor and graduated magna cum laude. Steve earned a masters degree in Geography with an emphasis in Geomorphology involving coastal land use and was a land use planner for several years before law school. Steve owns a Cessna 185, a Stearman and an RV-8 that he just completed building. He is an avid bicyclist and often bikes to and from his office. |
 Michael Sutton Monterey, California Contact Mike |
Mike is Vice-President of the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the head of the Center for the Future of the Oceans. Sutton previously headed the Ocean Conservation Program at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and also founded and directed World Wildlife Fund's Endangered Seas Campaign. He has served as a senior advisor on ocean issues to the Departments of Commerce and State. Before joining the WWF staff, Sutton served as a park ranger and also as a special agent with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. He pursued graduate studies in marine biology at the University of Sydney, Australia, and holds a natural resources law degree from George Washington University. Sutton was recently appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to the California Fish and Game Commission. Sutton is an active pilot. |
 Terri Watson San Rafael, California Contact Terri |
Terri is the executive director of Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association. Previously, she was an EMS and State Department support pilot and served as LightHawk's executive director (2001-2003) and flight services director (2000-2001), after joining LightHawk’s volunteer pilot corps in 1997. Terri is a former U.S. Army aviator in fixed and rotary wing service, a former branch director and senior field instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School, and currently owns Winds Aloft Aviation, Inc., an aviation consulting and contracting company. Terri is a 10,000+ hour Airline Transport Pilot with airplane single / multi-engine land and sea, helicopter, and instrument-airplane ratings, and flight instructor ratings for each of these. She has flown throughout the world in military and civilian applications, many of them remote area operations. |
 Brian Williams Boone, North Carolina Contact Brian |
Brian is a director at a global consulting firm specializing in the application of information technology. He holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from Northwest University in South Africa and an MBA from Pace University in New York. Brian earned his pilot's license in South Africa in 1989 and has flown throughout the region for recreation and business. Early in his flying career, Brian flew to locate a fugitive and endangered black rhinoceros before it crossed the border from South Africa into neighboring Botswana where it was in danger from poachers. The rhino was captured and returned, saving its life. Ever since that experience, Brian has had a keen interest in habitat conservation and environmental policy. In 1998, he emigrated to the USA and in 2007 started volunteering for LightHawk's Mesoamerica and Eastern region programs. He was Lighthawk's 2007 "Rookie of the Year" and in 2008 was the "Rockwell Award" recipient. He also volunteers for Southwings concentrating on Appalachian mountain top removal mining. Brian owns a Cessna Cardinal Turbo RG and is a 2800hr commercial pilot with instrument- and multi-engine ratings. |
