STAFF
Joelle Marier (she/her)
Executive Director
Born and raised in Minnesota, Joelle found her first connections with wilderness in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness along Minnesota’s Canadian border and has been dedicated to the wild ever since. She joined NWSA as executive director in 2023 and brings a background in public and private land conservation, public land stewardship, and nonprofit leadership to NWSA.
Joelle holds a Graduate Certificate in Geographical Information Systems, a B.A. in Environmental Studies, and A.S. degrees in Wilderness Management and Parks & Recreation. She currently resides in southern Colorado where she enjoys access to several wilderness areas and millions of acres of public lands. She is excited to connect and grow our stewardship community and increase our impact across the nation.
Contact Joelle at [email protected]
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jeff Randa
Chair
Jeff has a significant passion for the outdoors, including public land stewardship and participating in numerous outdoor activities. His background includes forty years in developing and executing global business and marketing plans in the engineered plastics industry, leading to revenue growth and expanding brand awareness. Before retiring, he worked for leading global companies, including Dow and Avient. The last seven years were spent building a business which focused on working with leading name brand outdoor gear manufacturers, assisting in innovating new products for outdoor enthusiasts.
Jeff was a Board member for a business-to-business nonprofit for four years, gaining an appreciation for the nonprofit drivers versus those for a profit entity. He is currently a patrolling member with the Poudre Wilderness Volunteers and serves on the organization’s Board of Directors as well as on several committees.
Contact Jeff at [email protected]
Bill Hodge
Vice-Chair
Bill currently serves as Montana State Director for The Wilderness Society. Bill previously served for over four years as the Executive Director of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation and prior to that over 12 years as the Founding and Executive Director of the Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards. He comes to NWSA having deep connections and passion for wilderness and for the work of NWSA. He served as NWSA Board chair during the early years of the organization and was instrumental in helping to shape the organization as it transitioned to hiring its first contracted staff member, Randy Welsh.
Contact Bill at [email protected]
Michael Splain
Treasurer
A native of Maryland, Mike relocated to the west coast in 1991 to pursue wilderness advocacy and stewardship with organizations like Forests Forever, Sierra Club, and Ventana Wilderness Alliance. He currently resides in northern California and manages the Conservation Funding Project at Resources Legacy Fund. Mike holds a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from UC Santa Cruz and spends his free time seeking flora, fauna, and solitude in the Klamath Mountains bioregion.
Contact Mike at [email protected]
Kaitlin de Varona
Secretary
Kaitlin de Varona is a Nevada native living near Asheville, North Carolina where she currently serves as the executive director for Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards (SAWS). Kaitlin has more than a decade of experience in the conservation world. Throughout her career, she has worked passionately to steward and protect our country’s wildest public lands. In addition to SAWS, Kaitlin worked for California State Parks, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Montana Conservation Corps, and Great Basin Institute. Kaitlin is committed to working towards equity in the outdoors and in conservation and continues to foster inclusivity in outdoor spaces and work to address past injustices to equitable access.
Throughout her time working to safeguard America’s wildest places, Kaitlin has seen the role volunteerism and non-profits are playing in wilderness stewardship as well as the value of partnerships working toward stewarding America’s enduring wilderness resource and preserving wilderness character. As such, Kaitlin joined the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance board in 2021 and proudly serves as a board member.
Kaitlin is absolutely enamored with her family, currently raising two young boys, and enjoys spending time with them outdoors hiking, camping, rock scrambling, gardening, and adventuring down the creek in their backyard. She earned a B.A. from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a M.S. from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC. Kaitlin is certified in crosscut saw, holds a red card in wildland firefighting, and earned a Graduate Certificate in Geospatial Information Sciences from North Carolina State University.
Contact Kaitlin at [email protected]
Ann Baker-Easley
Ann Baker Easley is a Colorado native who grew up in Boulder. There, she first discovered her love of the outdoors through family camping trips, backpacking and hiking. Over the past 25 years, Baker Easley has led state and national environmental, volunteer, and youth-development oriented nonprofit organizations, with a focus on strengthening their programs and helping them grow to new levels. Most recently she served for 14 years as the CEO for Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC), a statewide stewardship organization. Prior to this, Ann served as the founding director of the Colorado Youth Corps Association where she was its Executive Director for 11 years. She is a graduate of Colorado State University where she earned a BS in Psychology and the University of Michigan where she earned a MSW in policy and program development. She and her husband recently moved to Corvallis, Oregon where she is entering her new rewiring” phase! In addition to serving on the NWSA Board of Directors, Baker Easley serves as a governing member of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy Stewardship Council and The University of Michigan School of Social Work Alumni Board of Directors.
Contact Ann at [email protected]
Bob Ratcliffe
Bob is recently retired from the National Park Service where he served as Division Chief, Conservation and Outdoor Recreation. In his most recent capacity, Bob oversaw a portfolio that included the NPS Office of Outdoor Recreation; the Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance (RTCA) Program, National Trails System and National Rivers system among others. Previously, Bob served 24 years for the Bureau of Land Management in a variety of field and national leadership roles including over a dozen years as Deputy Assistant Director for Resources and Division Chief for Recreation and Visitor Services. He has spent much of the last four decades exploring public lands and developing new and progressive national policies conserving and restoring special places, enhancing visitor experiences, and partnering with gateway communities, recreation, and tourism interests in promoting responsible recreation and encouraging community engagement while balancing protection of resources. For over 40 years, Bob has run rivers in the West including time spent as a river guide and eventually a backcountry ranger on the Green and Colorado Rivers. Bob and his wife hope to spend more time at their home Bend, OR following their retirement.
Contact Bob at [email protected]
Simon Heinberg
Simon is currently pursuing a Master’s degree at the Duke Nicholas School of the Environment and previously served as Philanthropy Manager at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, managing the organization’s portfolio of grants. At Duke, Simon is pursuing a Master of Environmental Management specializing in ecology and conservation.
Simon is passionate about conservation and outdoor recreation. At the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, he oversaw the organization’s institutional fundraising and fundraised on behalf of the Conservancy’s work in landscape conservation, natural resource stewardship, trail maintenance, and outdoor volunteerism and education. Simon is also an avid outdoor enthusiast, and grew up canoeing, backpacking, and hiking in Vermont and New England. Simon has a B.A. in philosophy with a minor in economics from Pomona College. In his free time, he can be found hiking, skiing, or in the kitchen attempting recipes above his skill level.
Contact Simon at [email protected]
Quinn Brett
Quinn Brett is an athlete, writer, and public speaker. She holds speed records and climbing records on many peaks across the globe. On October 11, 2017, she fell while climbing on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, now paralyzed from the waist down. Her injury spun up her advocacy on public lands, now thru an additional lens. She returned to work for the National Park Service before departing to work as the Development Director for a spinal cord injury education and advocacy non-profit, as well as starting an adaptive recreation consulting company. Her spirit for adventure did not fall away with her injury, Quinn is the first known hand-cyclists to complete the Tour Divide and has also hiked the rim to rim of the Grand Canyon in her mobility device.
Contact Quinn at [email protected]
Michelle Reilly
Since 2018, Michelle has worked as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Wilderness Liaison for the National Wildlife Refuge System and is stationed at the Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center in Missoula, MT. She started with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at an Ecological Services office in 2017 and prior to that served as a visiting professor in the Natural Resource Management Department at New Mexico Highlands University. Her doctoral research investigated the impacts of non-motorized recreation on mammals in northern California. Michelle lives in Montana with her daughter and enjoys backpacking, packrafting, and exploring our public lands.
Contact Michelle at [email protected]
Are you interested in serving on NWSA's Board of Directors or know someone who might be a fit?
AGENCY LIAISONS
Peter Mali - USDA Forest Service
Dusty Vaughn - USDA Forest Service
Brenda Yankoviak - USDA Forest Service
Peter Keller - Bureau of Land Management
BOARD ALUMNI
Ian Nelson, past NWSA Chair, 2019-2025
Randy Rasmussen, past NWSA Chair, 2017-2023
Dave Cantrell, past NWSA Chair, 2012-2014 & 2016-2023
Anne Sentz, past NWSA Secretary, 2016-2023
Sandy Compton, 2017-2023
Katie Currier, past NWSA Chair and Vice-Chair, 2016-2023
Chelsea Phillippe, 2020-2022
Andrew Downs, 2015-2021
David Kallenbach, 2019-2021
Zach Bumgarner, 2019-2020
Stuart Dodd, 2016-2019
Andrew Schurr, 2012-2019
Darcy Shepard, 2012-2018
Jennifer Tripp, 2016-2018
Eric Melson, 2016-2018
Doug Scott, past NWSA Chair, 2013-2017
Bill Hodge, past NWSA Chair, 2011-2016
Bob Hazelton, 2012-2016
Hawk Metheny, 2010-2016
Shaaron Netherton, 2010-2016
Celina Montorfano, 2010-2016
Adam Andis, 2010-2016
Daven Hafey, 2014
Margaret Shaklee, 2011-2013
Elaine Dermody, past NWSA Vice-Chair 2010-2012
Jerome Wilson, 2010-2012
Heather Day, 2010-2011