2024 Annual Meeting Speakers

**Bob Christensen** - Supporting Regional Small Wood Utilization: Why and How
Bob works through the Sustainable Southeast Partnership on community-based natural resource projects that integrate social, ecological and economic values because he believes that the vitality and resilience of nature and its peoples go hand in hand. He appreciates the opportunity to work with community catalysts on their local priorities and with his fellow regional catalysts on finding synergies between our often siloed disciplines. Bob is the sole proprietor of Living Systems Design, a consulting business based in Icy Strait that has been working to facilitate collaborative stewardship at home and abroad for about 25 years. Bob is proud to serve on the Leadership Team of the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition so that he can learn from colleagues in his field, and share the lessons they have learned in southeast Alaska with a broader network of practitioners. His participation in the the SSP is supported by a variety of partner organizations, including the Nature Conservancy in Alaska and Sealaska. Bob lives on Lemesurier Island, near Glacier Bay, Alaska and have been working as an environmental consultant in Southeast Alaska for about 20 years. Bob loves to hunt, fish, kayak, hike and hangout with family and friends.

**Lenya Quinn-Davidson** - Innovations in Community-Led Burning
Lenya Quinn-Davidson is the Fire Network Director for the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, where she leads a statewide team working on various facets of community and landscape resiliency. Over the last 15 years, Lenya’s work has focused in large part on the human connection with fire. Lenya has worked at various scales, including locally with private landowners and community members; at the state level, where she collaborates on policy, research, and training; and nationally/internationally, through her leadership on the Women-in-Fire Training Exchange (WTREX) Program.

**Robin Hansen** - Sustained Funding for All-Lands Stewardship
Robin Hanson lives in Susanville, CA with her husband and two young daughters. In her position at California Rangeland Trust, she brings additive conservation opportunities to the Trust’s landowner network. She grew up in the ranching community & has a degree in Recreation Administration with a focus on Parks & Natural Resources from Chico State. She has a cow-calf operation with her dad & sister in the Sacramento Valley, and helps her husband’s family with their cattle ranch in the high desert of Northeastern California.

**Lisa Lien-Mager** - Welcome Panel
Lisa Lien-Mager serves as Deputy Secretary for Forest and Wildfire Resilience, leading the Agency’s initiatives to improve the health of California’s forests and landscapes while building resilience to wildfire. She also serves as the Agency’s lead in implementing California’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Action Plan and aligning policies, programs and investments to help achieve the Action Plan’s goals. Prior to being appointed to the role in September 2023, Lisa served as Senior Advisor for Strategic Communications at the Agency from 2021 to 2023 and as Deputy Secretary for Communications from 2017 to 2021. Before joining the Agency, Lisa served as Director of Communications for the Association of California Water Agencies for five years and held various other positions at that organization. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism and Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and started her career as a reporter for the Milwaukee Sentinel.

**Michael O’Casey** - Political Realities
Michael is the Deputy Director of Forest Policy and Northwest Programs at the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP). His passion for public lands and policy was sparked as a kid fishing the Columbia and hunting elk in the coastal forests of Oregon. He earned a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from the University of Montana and spent years working in the field with federal agencies and nonprofits before joining TRCP. Michael lives outside Sisters, Oregon, with his wife and two sons.

**Kathleen Rutherford Riggs** - Political Realities
Kathleen Riggs is Principal of Kolibri Consulting Group (KCG) a firm that works across sectors, belief systems and world views to catalyze collective action and innovation to better meet the moment of accelerating change across our common and differentiated ecological, economic and organizational realities. After over two decades of consensus building in policy realms she is now focused on building structures and processes to better prepare for futures that are emerging but not yet fully formed. When she is not working she tends a pretty amazing cut flower garden, chases two small dogs and hacks around at water sports with her husband on a tiny island in the southern Puget Sound.

**Nils Christoffersen**- Stewardship Economy
Nils is a graduate of both Williams College (B.A. in Economics) and Oxford University (M.S. Forestry) and has served on many local and national boards - including the National Commission on Science for Sustainable Forestry, Oregon Board of Forestry, and World Forest Center. He also served on the Enterprise School District Board from 2004-2017 and the Winding Waters Medical Clinic from 2014-2020. He is currently the chair of *Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition's steering committee. RVCC advances placed-based policy solutions from across the rural West to advance stewardship economies associated with public and private working lands.*

**Bre Owens** - Producer-Centered Climate Markets
Bre lives in Los Molinos, CA with her sons Will and Clyde, where she runs a small cattle operation. Bre serves as a convener and project facilitator, with intention to bring ranchers needs and solutions into programs, policy and communications efforts, while sharing resources and stewarding partnerships across the West. She is motivated by a love for working landscapes – for the people, land and livestock that are a part of them. She believes that agriculture at its best is conservation at its best.

**Katie England Cox** - Attainable Housing for the Stewardship Workforce
Katie’s love of nature was cultivated during her youth, growing up in the wilds of Idaho. Summers were spent swimming in lakes, backpacking into the Frank Church Wilderness and taking long drives around the Palouse wheat fields. Born and raised in Moscow and Elk City, Idaho, Katie has always believed that spending time in nature is integral to one’s growth. Katie received her B.S. in Education from the University of Idaho and a Masters in Architecture from the University of Washington. Her education and architecture background focused on supporting and building community spaces for the past decade. Since stepping into the position as Executive Director of Kaniksu Land Trust in June of 2019, she has continued to support community building through community conservation which focuses on the intersection of conservation, community and connection. The threads of Katie’s life have woven together her deepest passions — a love of the Idaho landscape, teaching and learning, bringing people together for positive action, and spending time outdoors. In her spare time, you will typically find Katie with her family running, biking, swimming, or skiing.

**Laurel Harkness** - Welcome Plenary & Moderator
Laurel has a diverse background in outdoor recreation, place-based natural resources, community development, and working landscapes. Prior to joining RVCC, she served in the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development working to support resilient, equitable, and sustainable economies in rural communities. Laurel has many years of experience working collaboratively in rural communities, advancing equity in the outdoors, growing stewardship economies, and supporting wildfire recovery and forest resilience. Laurel has played key roles in large landscape conservation efforts across the west and has gained a specific focus on centering Indigenous futures in the advancement of place-based solutions. Laurel is based in Mt. Shasta, CA. She is a graduate of U.C. Davis (B.S. Soil & Water Science / Viticulture) and is currently a graduate student in Rural Policy at Oregon State University.

**Temra Costa** - Supporting Regional Small Wood Utilization: Why and How
Temra Costa has spent over two decades dedicated to initiatives that support regenerating land and fostering community resilience. With a commitment to sustainable practices, she has led programs across diverse domains such as circular economies, ecological and regenerative forestry, climate resilience, land stewardship, and regenerative food and agriculture. Serving as a Board Member at Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Temra is deeply invested in advancing land stewardship projects and practice. Moreover, as the Co-founder and Director of Regenerative Forest Solutions, a nonprofit focused on revitalizing forest ecosystems, she continues to drive impactful change. Temra's passion and expertise are also reflected in her acclaimed book "Farmer Jane: Women Changing the Way We Eat."

**Stacy Corless** - Event planner and Coalition member
At Sierra Business Council, Stacy Corless advances policy to secure the economic, environmental, and social well-being of California’s Sierra Nevada region. Prior to SBC, she was elected to two terms on the Mono County Board of Supervisors. During her tenure on the board, she served as chair of the Rural County Representatives of California and on the executive committee of the state’s Wildfire and Forest Resilience Task Force. She was also an active member of the National Association of Counties’ Public Lands Policy Steering Committee. Stacy lives in the heart of the High Sierra–Mammoth Lakes–with her husband and dog.

**Brittany Covich** - Sustained Funding for All-Lands Stewardship
Brittany Covich serves as the Policy and Outreach Division Chief at the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, a state conservancy under the California Natural Resources Agency, working to improve the environmental, economic, and social well-being of the Sierra-Cascade region. Covich began working for the SNC in 2007 after completing a Bachelor’s degree in Geography at Chico State. Covich worked directly with community partners on wildfire risk reduction and forest resilience projects as a grant manager and field representative and she now leads the SNC’s policy, communications, science, and community support work. Covich grew up in the Sierra-Cascade region and continues to live and play there with her husband and young son.

**Larz Stewart** - Stewardship Economy
Larz is the Development Director at Wallowa Resources and resides in Joseph, OR. He has helped to lead capital campaigns and strategic communications initiatives that support large landscape restoration projects, respond to rural community needs, and provide resources for communities across the West to have meaningful dialogue to make their landscapes and communities more resilient. He holds an M.B.A. from Hawai’i Pacific University and studied sustainable forestry as a post-graduate at the University of Hawai’i-Manoa.

**Don Hankins** - Keynote Speaker & Innovations in Community-Led Burning
Don Hankins is Professor of environmental geography at CSU Chico and Field Director for the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve. His areas of expertise include pyrogeography, conservation, and Indigenous land and water stewardship. His research includes wildland fire with an emphasis on applied landscape scale cultural and prescribed fires, and their implications to biodiversity conservation and environmental change. Don engages in various aspects of land stewardship, policy, and conservation with a variety of organizations and agencies including Indigenous entities in North America and Australia.

**Dan Johnson** - Welcome Panel
Dan Johnson is the Deputy State Director for USDA Rural Development in California. He has been with USDA for 40 years, starting with the former Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) in 1984. Dan was the Rural Development Manager in the Bakersfield Area Office for 11 years, overseeing RD’s Housing, Business, Community Facility and Rural Utility programs for Kern, Ventura and Inyo Counties. In 2007 he began specializing in Rural Development’s Community Facility programs, moving to Business Programs in 2011. In 2020 he became the Program Director for Rural Business & Cooperative Programs, a position that he held until becoming the Deputy State Director earlier this year.

**Chris Estes** - Stewardship Economy & Outcomes-Based Frameworks
Chris Estes is Co-Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group. He’s a national rural development leader focused on equitable, sustainable, and holistic approaches to strengthening rural communities. Chris has strong policy expertise and practice experience at the community, state, and federal levels on poverty, housing, disaster and community development. He has co-led the creation of CSG’s reports on Natural Disaster, Outdoor Recreation, Funding Flexibility Rural Health & Devlopment as well as numerous case studies all featuring the voices and wisdom of rural development practitioners. In his free time he is on his bike or in the woods, hiking or mountain biking, or in the mountains doing all of those things.

Brian Wallace - Non-Governmental Support for Tribal Natural Resources Management

Appointed this September 2024 by the newly elected Indigenous governing body of The Sierra Fund, Wallace becomes the new Chief Executive Officer, tasked to lead a movement that seeks to protect these vital cultural landscapes, and to empower indigenous leadership, preserve cultural ecologies, and recognize the rights of nature as we chart a new course for the Sierra BioRegion’s future. As the new CEO, Wallace’s long record of constructive national and international leadership, brings decades of experience and proven success to this new movement to center the voices of the land and culture in all discussions related current and future Sierra Nevada Biodiversity. “By foregrounding indigenous leadership and wisdom, we are not only honoring the deep cultural ties that First Nations have to this land but also embracing their proven methods of sustainable land stewardship. This approach is more than just conservation; it is a commitment to restoring and nurturing the living systems that sustain all life in the Sierra BioRegion”.

**Brett Fulcer** - Political Realities Panel
Brett Fulcer is the Vice President of the Brumidi Group, a D.C.-based government affairs consulting firm. Brett helps clients navigate a range of policy areas, including economic development, transportation, appropriations, outdoor recreation, and conservation. Before joining the Brumidi Group, Brett was a professional staff member for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Brett earned his J.D. from George Mason University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Virginia Tech. He lives in Denver, CO.

**Cole Jenson** - Moderator
Cole earned his M.S. in Environmental Policy and Management at the University of California, Davis, with a focus on sustainable agriculture and wood utilization for wildfire resilience and rural community benefit. Before moving to California, Cole’s wide ranging path included studies in neuroscience and music at Duke University and a couple of years of rural public health work in Nome, Alaska. This all led him to work at the intersection of the wellbeing of our communities and our environments. Outside of work, Cole enjoys hunting, skiing, biking, and boardgame rivalries.

**Jack Rinck** - Innovation in Community-Led Burning
Jack Rinck is based out of Missoula, Montana and during his tenure at the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation he has created, and now coordinates the Montana Prescribed Fire Council. The Council, like those in other states, hopes to collaboratively promote prescribed fire, at all levels, and to address the many barriers that inhibit the reintroduction of fire to Montana's landscape.

Nick Goulette - Sustained Funding for All-Lands Stewardship

Born and raised in Maine and trained as a forester at the University of Vermont, Nick moved to CA in 2004 launching a 20-year career with the non-profit Watershed Research and Training Center, taking

over as Executive Director in 2009. He oversees programs focused on forestry, fire and fuels, watershed and fisheries, youth development and natural resources policy. Nick extends his passion for rural communities and working landscapes through service on several volunteer and elected boards. He resides in Weaverville, CA with his wife and two young children where they also own and operate a nursery and garden center.