Staff Profile

I have over 25 years of experience in the public and non-profit sectors.  From 2004-07, I served as Vice President for Programs and Operations at Sustainable Northwest, a Portland-based non-profit dedicated to rural sustainability.  Before joining SNW, I spent a decade as an independent consultant, providing strategic planning, project management and facilitation services to a wide range of clients focused primarily on natural resource management, land conservation and environmental policy.  Highlights of my consulting experiences included facilitating the Portland Bureau of Environmental Service’s initial Stormwater Policy Advisory Group, supporting the development of the Oregon Water Trust’s first strategic plan (and two subsequent plans) and advising the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board on land acquisition priorities.

Prior to my years as a consultant, I worked in a variety of management capacities for The Nature Conservancy of Oregon, the Oregon Department of State Lands, the Council of Great Lakes Governors and the State of Wisconsin. 

I served on the Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission from 1992-1996, and am a past member of the board of directors of the Oregon Coast Aquarium. I served on the founding board of directors of Childswork Learning Center and as a PTA leader in my children’s schools.  My educational background includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Geography from the University of Maryland and a Master’s Degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Woodlawn Senior High School (outside Baltimore, MD)

I truly had no idea.

It led me to the local commuter college, where I majored in geography (a very broad subject, so you could still get away with not knowing what you wanted to do). I eventually got the idea that I wanted to be a land use planner and save farmland. That led me to Wisconsin, and graduate school. Let's stop there.

All things considered, you'll turn out better than okay. But you should stop thinking so much about your social life and start thinking more about ideas.

Well, I wasn't an athlete OR a scholar. I worked at Burger King, baby-sat, made my own dresses, read stacks of books, and kept detailed, angst-filled, gossipy diaries. My best friend and I had a great time cruising Route 40 in her brother's Camaro after football games.

The Beatles, of course. But I loved the Motown groups as well, especially the Four Tops and Temptations.

In high school, among my classmates I was most likely to: break up over and over again with the same guy. I held the record.

The best job I ever had (after this one, of course) was working as a volunteer park ranger in Canyonlands National Park in southeastern Utah.