C. Rudy Engholm
Executive
Director
Cumberland
Foreside, ME
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Prior to joining LightHawk, Rudy Engholm was the founder of Northern Wings, an environmental flying organization that merged into LightHawk in 2003. He joined LightHawk’s board at that time and served as Board President from 2005-2007. Rudy 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. He 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. Rudy spent his childhood in Japan and speaks a modest amount of Japanese.
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Laura Armstrong
Director of Giving
Fort Collins, CO
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Laura joined LightHawk in July 2008 as Rockies Program Manager and became Director of Giving in April 2011. Laura was the first executive director of Legacy Land Trust in Fort Collins and was a consultant providing fundraising, board training and technical services to Colorado's conservation community including The Nature Conservancy, Colorado Open Lands, the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust, Legacy Land Trust and the High Plains Environmental Center. She has a B.A. in biology and environmental science from Colby College in Maine and a M.S. in environmental studies from the University of Montana, where she focused on international environmental policy, natural resources law and green building. Laura and her two daughters spend their free time exploring Colorado's wide open spaces.
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Greg Bedinger
Pilot Outreach
Manager
Bainbridge Island, WA
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Greg has been a Volunteer Pilot with LightHawk in the Pacific Region since 2002. He is part owner of a Maule aircraft, an ATP-rated pilot and he has flown floatplanes commercially for much of his 30 year aviation career in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Much of that time was spent in his favorite plane, the De Havilland Beaver. He is an active flight instructor and has shared his passion for aviation through mentoring programs directed at both youth and adults. He is a skilled furniture builder and woodworker, a passion he has pursued alongside his aviation endeavors, continuing a long family history in both aviation and artistic arenas. A graduate of the University of Washington, he has served in many capacities with volunteer based organizations, including LightHawk’s Volunteer Pilot Committee. Greg is also a cofounder of a nonprofit environmental film production company.
Contact Greg |
 Ryan Boggs
Chief Program Officer
Fort Collins, CO
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Ryan brings a wealth of land conservation experience to LightHawk. He served as Executive Director of Legacy Land Trust from 2009 to 2013 helping preserve farm, ranch and natural lands in northern Colorado. His conservation work also includes nine years with The Nature Conservancy starting at Phantom Canyon Preserve in the Laramie Foothills area and later serving as a project director for the Aiken Canyonlands, Chico Basin, and Upper Purgatoire areas. As an experienced wildland firefighter, he has worked on forest and fire restoration as well as land protection issues. Ryan received his B.S. in Wildlife Biology from Colorado State University and is a native of Fort Collins where he enjoys woodworking, climbing and running.
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Bev Gabe
Communications
Manager
Gorham, ME
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Just before joining LightHawk in January 2008, Bev was part of the development team at the University of New England managing a fund-raising campaign, grant writing and planning events. She also spent a year and four days in Antarctica driving heavy machinery and organizing materials shipments to the earth's highest, driest and coldest continent. In Seattle, Washington, she worked as a copywriter coming up with new and engaging ways to market elevator music. Bev has a B.A. in creative writing from the University of Maine. She enjoys hiking, gardening, reading, cooking and collecting old-fashioned vinyl records.
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 Jonathan Milne
Atlantic Region
Program Manager
Sidney, ME
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Jonathan has been surrounded by pilots his entire life. His father flew the PBY Catalina and Martin PBM Mariner and his younger brother Duncan flew for the USMC for 20+ years as an AH-1 Cobra helicopter pilot. Jonathan brings a diverse conservation and outdoor recreation background to LightHawk: he was a park ranger in Oregon for the BLM and in Maine for almost ten years at Baxter State Park. He has worked as an environmental consultant - with an emphasis on benefitting Maine's land trust community - and also managed outdoor programs for Colby College and Naval Air Station Brunswick. Jonathan has a B.S. in Recreation and Park Management from the University of Maine, and is working toward his M.S. in Environmental Science and Conservation Biology from Green Mountain College in Vermont. He is married to Julia Hanuauer-Milne, and has two sons, Nathan and Noah.
Contact Jonathan |
Lee Pagni
Program
Specialist
Sonora, CA
*independent
contractor
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Lee started working with LightHawk as a partner, organizing over-flights for community leaders in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve of Central Mexico. Currently Lee works assisting with programs in Mesoamerica and the Pacific regions. In addition to his work with LightHawk, Lee works with other non-profit organizations to advance conservation via outreach and education. His work focuses on projects in the Caribbean and Latin America. One of his main projects is working with communities in the Caribbean to improve rock iguana conservation. He has an M.S. in Natural Resources from the University of Arizona, Tucson and a B.S. in Ecology from the University of California, San Diego. When he isn’t working, Lee enjoys being in the Sierra Nevada backcountry, something he has done since he was 3 months old.
Contact Lee |
Kate Pinard
Development
Associate
Biddeford, ME
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Kate has a Master of Arts in Transforming Spirituality/Spiritual Direction from Seattle University, where she spent several years engaging students in co-curricular service and leadership programs through the Center for Service and Community Engagement. Kate served on the Board of Directors of the Ignatian Spirituality Center in Seattle and helped to found the Friends of the Columbia Greenway Rail Trail in Westfield, MA. Kate is a baking and culinary arts teacher for Old Orchard Beach - Saco Adult Education, and serves on the Board of Directors of City Theater in Biddeford where she is often seen working backstage and performing onstage.
Contact Kate |
Shannon Rochelle
Rockies Program
Manager
Lander, WY
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Before joining Lighthawk, Shannon worked for eight years as a plant physiologist for the USFS Rocky Mountain Research Station in Colorado. She has served on the faculty of the National Outdoor Leadership School for ten years, teaching risk management, leadership, outdoor skills and environmental studies in six western states, Kenya and India. During this decade, she also served as grant writer, staffing coordinator (500+ field staff), and most recently Alaska Program and Operations Program Manager. In Alaska, she worked closely with bush pilots to arrange resupplies and evacuations via helicopters and planes landing on wheel-skis, floats and tundra tires in support of more than twenty-five simultaneous month-long wilderness expeditions all over the state. She is currently pursuing her private pilot's license. A graduate of Princeton University (BA in Biology) and Virginia Tech (MS in Forestry), Shannon has dedicated her career to helping people understand the natural world and our effects on it.
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Emilie Ryan
Chief Financial
Officer
Loveland, CO
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Emilie has spent most of her 20+ year career in financial management at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), an international outdoor educational nonprofit organization based in Lander, WY. While at NOLS she held a variety of financial management positions including Controller and Director of Finance and Facilities and served as one of five school wide directors. Ryan began her association with LightHawk part-time in 2001, and joined May of 2005 as CFO, overseeing the organization’s finances, budgeting, and human resources. Emilie spends the majority of her free time recreating in the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado and loves being able to use her financial experience to contribute to their protection through LightHawk.
Contact Emilie |
Christine Steele
Pacific Region
Program
Manager
Portland, OR
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Before joining LightHawk, Christine worked for the Johnson Creek Watershed Council in Portland, Oregon, coordinating their outreach and advocacy efforts. Trained as a wildlife biologist, Christine has studied birds in habitats as diverse as arctic tundra, Costa Rican swamp-forest, and the forests of the Pacific Northwest. She spent time rehabilitating seabirds and raptors in California, and worked with non-releasable raptors as education birds. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Aquatic Biology from UC Santa Barbara, and a Masters in Natural Resources, Wildlife from Humboldt State University in Arcata, CA, where her thesis focused on avian disease ecology. Christine also volunteers locally, conducting bird and amphibian surveys as part of a monitoring project through Metro, Portland’s regional government.
Contact Christine |
Armando Ubeda
Mesoamerica and
Gulf of Mexico
Program
Manager
Sarasota, FL
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Prior to joining LightHawk in the summer of 2008, Armando worked for the Center for Shark Research at Mote Marine Laboratory in Florida conducting research on movement of sharks, tag-and-recapture studies, and promoting conservation of elasmobranchs. Before that, he worked for The Nature Conservancy in Nicaragua for the Parks in Peril Project in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve supervising and planning conservation activities and working closely with indigenous communities. He also had conducted research on sea urchins, coral reef communities and manatees, and volunteered to a diverse group of projects working with endangered species from birds to marine reptiles. In 2000, Armando was granted with a Fulbright scholarship which allowed him to get his M.S. in Marine Resource Management from Oregon State University. He also has a B.S. in Marine Sciences from the University of Mobile (Latin American campus), Nicaragua.
Contact Armando |
