Chelsea Baird
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Clint Burson
Strategic Communications Manager
Stevensville, Montana
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Clint Burson comes to LightHawk with more than 15 years experience in the communications field. Clint served as Director of Government Relations and Communications for the Missoula, Montana Chamber of Commerce prior to joining LightHawk. In this role, his work ranged from overseeing chamber communications efforts to fostering relationships with elected officials, agency leadership and economic development leaders. He also spent nearly a decade working in media for a daily newspaper in Hamilton, MT. Growing up in the passenger seat of a Mooney, with his dad as pilot, Clint is enthusiastic about aviation. He volunteers as a board member for EAA 517 and creates the chapter’s monthly newsletter. His bucket list includes learning to fly himself. In his spare time, Clint enjoys hiking, skiing, fishing, photography and spending time with his wife (Jessica) and son (Jaxson).
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (970) 797-9355 ext. 5
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Esther Duke
Senior Program Manager
Fort Collins, Colorado
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Esther is passionate about building capacity for collaborative and performance-based conservation. Before joining the LightHawk team she was Director of Special Projects and Programs for the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources (HDNR) Department at Colorado State University (CSU). Esther has experience directing conservation social science trainings and conferences throughout the United States as well as in Kenya and Italy and managing research networks in China, Central America, and Europe. Esther also has experience in environmental market design. She worked as a consultant for The Wyoming Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and the University of Wyoming to lead a habitat exchange feasibility study. Esther received her M.S. from the HDNR at CSU in 2010. Her research was conducted in Panama and focused on design strategies and trade-offs for payment for ecosystem services programs. She received her B.A. from Illinois Wesleyan University.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 970-797-9355 ext. 8
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Audrey Ek-Psomas
Program Manager
Fort Collins, Colorado
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Audrey Ek-Psomas has spent much of her youth living and studying abroad in Europe and South America, which has spurred a love for travel and nature. Before joining the LightHawk team, she was the Training/Project Coordinator for the Center for Protected Area Management (CPAM) in Colorado State University’s Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Department. Audrey graduated from Colorado State University with a Master’s of Science in Conservation Leadership, an interdisciplinary social science degree. With an undergraduate degree in political science, Audrey is passionate about interacting with people from diverse cultures and problem-solving to create innovative solutions for the betterment of community and environment. Her professional interests include collaborative conservation, project evaluation, behavior change, leadership, gender and equity, and promoting community benefits from payment for ecosystem service projects.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 970-797-9355 ext. 7
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Cynthia Hartmann
Chief Financial Officer
North Topsail Beach, North Carolina
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As chief financial officer (CFO), Cynthia Hartmann is responsible for the company’s financial functions, including accounting, audit, treasury, finance and investment. She also oversees human resource operations. Her career spans more than 30 years of varied experience in financial management, business leadership and corporate strategy. Prior to joining LightHawk in 2021, Cynthia served in leadership roles at University of North Carolina Wilmington, Children’s Cancer Research Fund, Regis Corporation and The Bakken Library and Museum. Educated at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Cynthia combines her passion for aviation, finance, and nature into her work at LightHawk. In her free time, Cynthia enjoys spending time spotting wildlife on the barrier islands of North Carolina, exploring new destinations and visiting with family and friends.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (970) 797-9355 ext. 4
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Lee Pagni
Institutional Giving Manager
Tucson, Arizona
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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.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (970) 797-9355 ext. 2
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Michele Rutledge
CEO
Melbourne, Florida
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Born in Dayton, Ohio (the birthplace of aviation) to parents who loved the outdoors, Michele spent long summers camping, backpacking and hiking in most of the National Parks and wilderness areas of the United States. Her professional background includes overtwo decades of both non- and for-profit executive management, including executive leadership of Wings of Hope, an international humanitarian aviation NGO based in Missouri. She has assisted in ferry flights of donated aircraft in the US, South America and Africa, and someday hopes to get her private pilot’s license. Michele has a BA and MA in History, and is “all but dissertation” for her PhD. She spends her free time bluewater sailing, trekking, and being with family.
Email: [email protected]
(970) 797-9355 ext. 6
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Christine Steele
Program & Technology Manager
Portland, Oregon
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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.
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (970) 797-9355 ext. 10
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Jim Becker
Chair, Board of Directors
Bolton, MA
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Jim is an experienced high tech entrepreneur having started and grown several companies in fields as diverse as pharmaceutical clinical trials and airline data communications. He is currently consulting to several start-up companies in the clean energy and health technology sectors. Jim’s outdoor passions include hiking and rock-climbing the White Mountains, sailing along the Maine coast and off-shore, scuba diving, as well as cross country skiing as often as the weather will allow. He has held a pilot’s license for almost 50 years. He spent eight years flying C-130s for the USAF with a tour in Vietnam and then in the Reserves. Jim taught flying at Lebanon, NH Regional Airport while going back to graduate school and for many years owned a series of twin-engined Piper Aztecs. Jim received his AB from Dartmouth, his BE and ME from Thayer School of Engineering and his MBA from Amos Tuck School of Business. Jim often says that other than spending time with his family, he is happiest when he is in the mountains, in the air, on or under the sea.
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Erin Cooke
Member, Board of Directors
San Francisco, California
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Erin is San Francisco International Airport’s (SFO) first Sustainability Director where she is responsible for creating, implementing, and reporting on the Airport’s Strategic, Sustainability, Zero Waste, Resilience and Decarbonization Plans. By brokering and implementing high-impact emissions reduction investments within SFO’s $7.8 billion capital program, the airport has cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 41%, operationalized its first zero net energy building, banned plastic food ware and water bottles, and has become a global leader in Sustainable Aviation Fuel deliveries. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure and the ACI World Environment Standing Committee. Erin previously served the City of Cupertino as its Deputy City Manager and helped launch a countywide community choice aggregation program (Silicon Valley Clean Energy). She is a LEED AP, holds a Master’s in Environmental Science and Policy from Columbia University, and the proud mama of Izzy and Graham.
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Kimberly Eckert
Vice Chair, Board of Directors
Denver, CO
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Kimberly was raised in rural Montana and, after graduating from The University of Montana, spent 10 years in New York City working in investment banking and investment management, with a brief hiatus to New Hampshire to earn her MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She moved to Denver in 2011 to be closer to the mountains where she continued her career in the natural resources industry. She officially stepped off the corporate ladder in 2017 to pursue her own ventures. She stepped out of her finance comfort zone to launch her own natural foods company, Eva’s Energy, a with a goal to get people back into their kitchens by “making homemade easy”. While working to grow the food brand, she spent a year applying nearly two decades of experience in finance as the Chief Financial Officer of a geothermal energy start up converting existing oil and gas assets into low-temperature power generation facilities, before transitioning to other opportunities. From food to energy and everything in between, she is passionate about evolving the way we extract and utilize the earth’s resources. In addition to her entrepreneurial pursuits, she believes strongly in giving back to the local community. In addition to serving on the Board of LightHawk, she volunteers with the International Rescue Committee – Denver Chapter as a Family Mentor, coordinates the Tuck Alumni Chapter of Colorado, and is the Treasurer of the Junior League of Denver Foundation.
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Steve Kent
Member, Board of Directors
Warwick, NY
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Steve has been involved with the outdoors and aviation from early childhood. He started with Cessna Aircraft Company as an Airframe and Powerplant mechanic with Inspection Authorization. This led to a variety of positions with increasing responsibilities that have included Propeller, Caravan and Citation Sales. A highly experienced demonstration pilot, he loves sharing amazing aircraft with prospective owners. Currently the Regional Sales Director for Textron Aviation Propeller Products for the Northeast US and Eastern Canada. As an avid seaplane owner and pilot he looks forward to leveraging the unique airborne perspective to advance conservation issues around various watersheds as a volunteer pilot and board member for LightHawk. Steve and Kristine reside in southern New York.
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David Kunkel
Treasurer, Board of Directors
Boulder, CO
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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, and was named to the board of Metcalf Archaeology. He has been a LightHawk Volunteer Pilot since 2002 and flies a number of different aircraft.
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Josh Marvil
Secretary, Board of Directors
Yarmouth, ME
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Josh worked in environmental consulting and finance in a variety of executive and management positions for national and international companies. He currently lives in Maine and works as managing partner for a private investment partnership. Josh is a Director of the National Aviation Hall of Fame, former Chairman of LightHawk, and Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Trustees at the Chewonki Foundation, a non-profit environmental education institution. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, M.S. from the University of Colorado, and MBA/MAFM from the University of Chicago. He is an instrument-rated commercial pilot and flies a Cirrus SR22.
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Erin Manzitto-Tripp
Member, Board of Directors
Denver, CO
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Erin is a research scientist (and educator) whose work has emphasized plant and lichen biodiversity and its conservation, both throughout the United States as well as around the world, particularly the Neotropics and Africa. At the University of Colorado-Boulder, she is an Associate Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology as well as Curator of Botany in the Museum of Natural History. Her research products/publications include descriptions of hundreds of species new to science, checklists of what plants grow where (and why), and popular color regional field guides. She brings with her ample board and administrative experience as well as community outreach from her academic career, as well as a passion for flying. Erin is a Commercial Pilot who, for fun, flies her Cessna Cardinal across the USA exploring, camping, scoping out new airstrips, traversing new wildlands, and collecting plants and lichens in effort to document biodiversity and promote conservation of Earth’s most remarkable biota.
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Phil Walker
Member, Board of Directors
Bethesda, MD
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Phil Walker is a multidisciplinary attorney with 40 years telecommunications industry experience, including service as head of legal, regulatory and business development functions with a variety of telecommunications service providers in domestic U.S. and international markets. He now operates an international telecom consulting practice focused on strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions, and serves as chairman of UNIFI Communications, Inc. He is an Instrument-rated Commercial pilot, with 2,000+ hours of flight time. Owner/operator of a Mooney 231 aircraft, he serves as a volunteer pilot for LightHawk and Angel Flight Mid-Atlantic, and is a search and rescue/disaster recovery mission pilot with the Civil Air Patrol. With the CAP, he also serves as Legal Officer (general counsel) for the Maryland Wing.
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Will Worthington
Member, Board of Directors
Carefree, Arizona
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Will is the founder and president of Pipetech International, an engineering firm that specializes in testing and failure analysis of water and petroleum pipelines worldwide. He graduated from West Point and was a commissioned officer in the regular Army and Arizona Army National Guard for 30 years. He was an officer with the Army Corps of Engineers with many challenging assignments all over the world, including two years in Vietnam. He supervised the design of a $4.5 billion water project for the Bureau of Reclamation and holds three U.S. patents for pipeline diagnostic test inventions. He has over 4,800 hours as pilot in command and holds commercial pilot and flight instructor certificates. Will is a registered professional engineer in Arizona and California. He is a LightHawk volunteer pilot and received the Spirit of LightHawk award in 2012.
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Barry Baker, Ph.D.
Member, Advisory Council
Fort Collins, Colorado
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Barry is senior research scientist at the Conservation Biology Institute, we previously served as director of The Nature Conservancy’s Canyonlands Research Center in Moab, Utah. He also serves as adjunct assistant professor, Department of Environment and Society, College of Natural Resources, Utah State University. His research interests include bioclimatology, response of terrestrial ecosystems (grassland and alpine) to climate change, and ecosystem modeling of grassland ecosystems. Barry has previously collaborated with LightHawk as a conservation partner.
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Greg Bedinger
Member, Advisory Council
Tucson, Arizona
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Greg has been involved with LightHawk since first volunteering as a pilot in 2002, then as the staff Pilot Outreach Manager, from 2010-2016. Many of his Pacific Northwest LightHawk flights were in support of maintaining and restoring important coastal salmon habitat. Greg learned to fly in Alaska, where he lived prior to moving to Seattle in 1988, and holds ATP and instructor ratings. He first heard about “flying for the environment” while flying Beaver and Twin Otter floatplanes in coastal British Columbia as an air taxi pilot, an area where LightHawk was actively supporting efforts to highlight excessive and damaging logging practices. Greg moved to Tucson in late 2016 and since that time, the desert Southwest has provided numerous LightHawk flight opportunities in support of watersheds and wildlife, especially as it relates to international border impediments, both political and physical. Though his favorite airplane remains the de Havilland Beaver floatplane, he currently flies his wheel equipped Cessna 172, “Georgia,” an excellent platform for aerial based imagery.
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Brent Blue
Member, Advisory Council
Jackson, Wyoming
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Brent 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.
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Russ Cowart
Member, Advisory Council
Fort Collins, Colorado
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Russ Cowart is the founder of i-cubed, a remote sensing and GIS solutions company recognized as one of the world’s most respected geospatial technology firms. He has also worked as a field geologist. He completed a BS in Geology from Colorado College, graduate studies in Natural Resource Economics with CU Boulder, and Management of Technology with MIT.
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Rick Durden
Member, Advisory Council
Conifer, CO
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Rick Durden has been a volunteer pilot for LightHawk since 1990 and has served on its Board of Directors and as executive director. He holds CFII and ATP ratings, is type-rated in the Douglas DC-3 and Cessna Citation. He has written extensively on public benefit flying safety. He currently splits his time between practicing aviation law and editing two aviation magazines. In 2015 he was one of three volunteer pilots who received the Endeavor Award a prestigious honor recognizing service to public benefit flying.
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Rudy Engholm
Member, Advisory Council
Cumberland Foreside, ME and Lake Wales, FL
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Rudy Engholm served as LightHawk’s executive director from 2007-2014. He founded 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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John and Martha King
Members, Advisory Council
San Diego, California
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Pilots throughout the world know John and Martha King from their fun video presentations in their courses, and regard them as their personal aviation mentors. The Kings’ use of technology and clear, simple and fun teaching have made aviation knowledge more accessible to hundreds of thousands of pilots and maintenance technicians. The Kings’ ongoing love of flying and learning has resulted in their being the first couple to both hold every category and class of FAA rating on their pilot and instructor certificates. Martha is the first and only woman to achieve this complete ratings sweep. Through the years, the Kings have retained their enthusiasm for flying. They fly their own Dassault Falcon 10 jet wherever they go, swapping captain and copilot duties on each leg. They have flown as pilots in every continent of the world except Antarctica, including a trip completely around the world via the length of Russia. John and Martha have had many awards and honors, including enshrinement into the National Aviation Hall of Fame, but they say their greatest honor has been the privilege to play an important role in the lives of so many pilots.
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Tom McMurray
Member, Advisory Council
Jackson, Wyoming
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Tom is currently the Chairman and President of Marine Ventures Foundation which he created a decade ago with the mission to improve and protect critical marine, coastal and river habitats in North America, South America and the Caribbean. He first flew a Lighthawk mission in 2009 to photo baseline the Henrys Fork of the Snake River and has since flown several other Lighthawk missions. In addition, Tom is the Chairman of the Ocean Foundation, a global community foundation for ocean preservation, board member of the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment, Tag a Giant Fund and Lateral Line Fund and also an active investor on conservation causes. Previously Tom was a partner at Sequoia Capital, a venture capital company that invested in Apple, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Yahoo and Google. Tom holds a B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University and received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science from Duke in 1980.
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David Nielsen
Member, Advisory Council
Murray, Nebraska
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David is a retired Omaha attorney now living near Murray, Nebraska with his wife Mary. David’s law career specialized in estate planning, probate, business structures and tax planning for closely held businesses, charitable gift planning, foundations and corporate governance. David graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1969 and served as a pilot in the Strategic Air Command until 1975. He then attended Creighton University for law school, graduating in 1978 and was admitted to the Nebraska State Bar that same year. David is a private pilot with commercial, instrument, multi-engine and flight instructor ratings. He also enjoys baseball, art, biking, fly fishing, photography and writing.David is a retired Omaha attorney now living near Murray, Nebraska with his wife Mary. David’s law career specialized in estate planning, probate, business structures and tax planning for closely held businesses, charitable gift planning, foundations and corporate governance. David graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1969 and served as a pilot in the Strategic Air Command until 1975. He then attended Creighton University for law school, graduating in 1978 and was admitted to the Nebraska State Bar that same year. David is a private pilot with commercial, instrument, multi-engine and flight instructor ratings. He also enjoys baseball, art, biking, fly fishing, photography and writing.
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Sally Ranney
Member, Advisory Council
Colorado and Patagonia
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Sally has a thirty-year career in the public and private sectors dedicated to environmental, public land and water policy. She is an internationally recognized wildland conservation specialist and activist. Ms. Ranney was a founding LightHawk Board member and has been a long-time advocate of LightHawk. Ms. Ranney is CEO of Stillwater Preservation, LLC, a wetlands mitigation banking company and President of Rising Wolf International, Inc., a natural resource consulting group. She founded and served as President of American Wildlands, an NGO dedicated to protecting wildlands and wildlife through legislative and legal strategies and
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Michael Sutton
Member, Advisory Council
Carmel Valley, California
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Mike currently serves as Executive Director of Audubon California and Vice President of the Pacific Flyway for the National Audubon Society. He served as Vice President and Director of the Center for the Future of the Oceans for the Monterey Bay Aquarium for eight years, and prior to that he headed the Ocean Conservation Program at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in northern California. Mike founded and directed World Wildlife Fund’s Endangered Seas Campaign and before joining the WWF staff, he served as a park ranger with the National Park Service and as a special agent with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Mike has served as a senior advisor on ocean issues to the Departments of Commerce and State and has lectured at graduate seminars nationally. He pursued graduate studies in marine biology at the University of Sydney, Australia, and received a natural resources law degree from George Washington University. Mike is an instrument-rated private pilot and Cessna T210 owner, and enjoys scuba diving, wildlife and underwater photography, and skiing.
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Terri Watson
Member, Advisory Council
Lander, WY
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Terri Watson has a long history with LightHawk beginning as a volunteer pilot in 1997. Terri served as LightHawk’s executive director twice (2014-2020 and 2001-2003) and flight services director (2000-2001). Terri is a former EMS pilot and U.S. Army aviator in fixed and rotary wing service. Terri is a 7000+ hour commercial pilot with airplane single / multi-engine land and sea, helicopter, instrument-airplane and helicopter 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. She is currently the Executive Director of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) based in Lander, Wyoming.
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Stephanie Wells
Member, Advisory Council
Arvada, CO
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Stephanie Wells is a retired professional pilot now living in Arvada, Colorado. During her 10 years in the active Air Force, she began as a weather forecaster, and after pilot training, instructed in the T-37, T-38 and C-130. This was followed by 10 more years in the Reserves flying C-5s. Stephanie worked for NASA at the Johnson Space Center for 17 years as a staff pilot supporting the manned space program. She finished her government career with the FAA in the Denver FSDO as an operations inspector. She has always been active in general aviation, and now owns an RV-7 and a 1/4 share in a Cessna 182 which she flies donated missions for LightHawk. She has a strong training and safety background, as well as education in meteorology and climatology. Combining flying and her passion for the environment brought her to LightHawk.
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Brian Williams
Member, Advisory Council
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
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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.
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