Staff

Our conservation, development, and support staff represent nearly a century of experience working for you and Northwest forests and wildlife.

Paul Bannick, development director

206.675.9747 ext. 202
Paul Bannick heads up our Seattle office as well as our major gifts program. Before his recent positions obtaining major gifts for American Rivers and Islandwood, he worked for 15 years in the high tech field, helping grow Aldus into the top force in desktop publishing, then later working with Adobe and Microsoft. An accomplished naturalist and wildlife photographer, Paul has a passion for nature. He's just published The Owl and The Woodpecker, his first book, featuring all 41 species of owls and woodpeckers found in the US and Canada. Read more.

Jodi Broughton, business and membership director

360.671.9950, ext. 15
Jodi Broughton fell in love with the Northwest's wild places when her family moved here from Texas in 1979. After completing her environmental policy degree in 1997, she spent a few summers telling people about the beautiful alpine landscape around Mount Baker, then joined Conservation Northwest as newsletter editor. She enjoys most anything that takes her away from a computer: hiking, skiing, gardening, and cooking.

Barbara Christensen, membership associate/systems administrator

360.671.9950, ext 12
Barbara Christensen is also our resident bat-lover. Barbara has worked in the non-profit world on both coasts for more than a decade, focusing on technology access, conservation, and development. She has an MS from the University of Washington and spends time gardening, reading voraciously, and volunteering. She edits our blog, Scat!, and otherwise makes sure we are up to lightspeed on our Web 2.0.

Tim Coleman, director, Columbia Highlands Initiative

509.775.2667
Tim Coleman has been an environmental activist since 1971, including service as Kettle Range Conservation Group executive director from 1993 to 2004. He is currently a steering committee and executive committee member of the Wild Washington Campaign. Tim was named an Environmental Hero by the Washington Environmental Council in 1998 for his work on the Colville National Forest. A Vietnam-era navy veteran, he enjoys mountain climbing, white water rafting, telemark skiing, and gardening. Tim and wife Sue have lived for more than 20 years in their handmade solar-powered log home on 80 forested acres in northern Ferry County.

Seth Cool, conservation associate

360.671.9950, ext. 16
Seth Cool graduated from Western Washington University's Huxley College with a degree in environmental science. Seth works as Conservation Northwest's representative on Lake Whatcom, Blanchard Mountain, and various wildlife topics. In his spare time he enjoys traveling, backpacking, sailing, bicycling, and snowboarding. He is also a brand new dad to a beautiful daughter, Isadora.

Mitch Friedman, executive director

360.671.9950, ext. 13
Mitch Friedman never held the same job for longer than a few months prior to founding Conservation Northwest. He has served as executive director since 1989. He has a degree in zoology from the UW and is the father of two. His biography makes for good reading!

Crystal Gartner, outreach associate

509.747.1663
Crystal Gartner joined Kettle Range Conservation Group in 2003 as wilderness campaign assistant, and is now outreach associate with Conservation Northwest. She manages events and operations in our Spokane office. She also conducts conservation outreach in Spokane and in key rural communities, coordinates with other local conservation organizations, and leads hikes in the Columbia Highlands as part of Conservation Northwest's summer hike series. She enjoys all winter sports, particularly snowshoeing, around the Spokane area and likes to travel and to relax by cooking good food with good friends.

David Heflick, conservation associate

509.684.8287
David Heflick graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in 1977 with a degree in education. Before becoming actively involved in the environmental movement in 2000, David was a self-employed musician. He is also the author of two books, the latest being a road cycling guidebook for eastern Washington. In his spare time he enjoys traveling, backpacking, bicycling, and wildlife photography. David lives in a log cabin on 20 wooded acres near the Canadian border. He is our mapping and forest resources guru.

Jay Kehne, Okanogan County outreach associate

509.470.1767
Jay Kehne joins Conservation Northwest after a 31-year career with the USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service where he put his wildlife biology and soils degrees to work providing conservation assistance to farmers, ranchers, and landowners in eastern Washington. He served for many years as resource conservation and development coordinator for Chelan, Douglas, and Okanogan counties. Jay lives in Omak with his wonderful wife Rita and two children on six acres overlooking the Okanogan River. He loves to ski, backpack, hike, hunt, raise a big garden, hobby farm, cook, and meet, talk, and share ideas with all kinds of folks.

Derrick Knowles, outreach coordinator

509.747.1663
Since graduating from Eastern Washington University with an MA in technical writing three years ago, Derrick Knowles worked for Kettle Range Conservation Group out of the Spokane office, organizing grassroots support for protecting northeastern Washington’s remaining wild areas and wildlife in the Kettle River Range and Selkirk Mountains. A life-long resident of the Spokane area, Derrick still enjoys the same outdoor activities he grew up with: hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, and river rafting. He has a deep, personal connection with the Inland Northwest’s unique landscapes and is excited to team up with Conservation Northwest to make wilderness protection for the wild home of caribou, grizzly bears, and lynx in northeastern Washington’s Colville National Forest a major issue for people throughout the Northwest.

Andrea Lawson, outreach coordinator

360.671.9950, ext. 28
Andrea Lawson has lived in and enjoyed beautiful Whatcom County landscapes since the age of two. She began working with us in 2007 as a volunteer and later served as public outreach and membership recruitment intern. Andrea studied Environmental Education and Spanish at Western Washington University and anticipates learning just as much (but probably much more!) from her Conservation Northwest colleagues as she did in college! Andrea enjoys swimming in all weather conditions, eating beets from the Farmer's Market, and perusing the nature literature shelves in local bookstores.

Joel Litwin, web contractor

Joel Litwin came to us after years of working in marketing and sales for the Oceanic Society in San Francisco and Northern Lights Expeditions in Bellingham. He now works for Airporter Shuttle. A former mountain climber, Joel was attracted to the heavily glaciated North Cascades, though he now prefers less life-threatening pursuits. An accomplished professional percussionist, he has played with many groups, including the LA-based Latino band, Incendio.

Rachel Livingston, development associate

Rachel Livingston is our new development associate. Rachel is a fourth generation Washingtonian and spent her formative years swimming in the Hood Canal, hiking in the Olympics and the North Cascades, and cross-country skiing in the Blue Mountains. She has a master’s degree in English literature from Portland State and has worked as a high school English teacher, community college instructor, and tax consultant. In her free time, Rachel is an amateur bicycle racer, avid reader, and film enthusiast. "Success of wilderness conservation lies in the hearts of individuals. I have worked with kids most of my life and have shared my passion for nature with my students."

Jasmine Minbashian, special projects director

360.671.9950, ext. 29
Jasmine Minbashian is involved in strategic communications and outreach, splitting her time between our offices in Bellingham and Republic. An experienced and passionate old-growth activist and accomplished photographer, her number-one favorite pastime is looking for salamanders. "Give me a cold clear creek, shady ferns, and rocks to turn over, and I'm the happiest person in the world." She is also a ready and able horsewoman.

Erin Moore, publications director

360.671.9950, ext. 24
Erin Moore has long worked in communications and publishing, including a stint in the '80s at the Northwest Passage (an underground newspaper born in Bellingham in 1968), and she readily remembers laying out publications on light tables using hard copy and exacto knives. She holds degrees in scientific and technical communication as well as forest ecology and loves hunting for mushrooms, backcountry skiing, and summertime swimming and scrambling.

Marlo Mytty, office manager (Seattle) and auction coordinator

206.675.9747 ext. 201
Marlo Mytty started at Conservation Northwest as a national forest intern and holds degrees in business and forest resources with a wildlife emphasis. Her passion for wildlife began as a volunteer at PAWS wildlife hospital. Although she has a background in wetlands and restoration work, her true callings are forest ecology and wildlife and roads. She comes truly alive in old-growth forests and often hikes and camps throughout the US and Canada with a goal of exploring all of the national parks in North America. At Conservation Northwest she also coordinates volunteers for the Cascades Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project.

Pat Roberts, accountant

360.671.9950, ext. 19
Pat Roberts grew up surrounded by the scenic wildness of northeast Minnesota. Lured by a photo of Bellingham Bay/Mt. Baker featured on the catalog cover, she enrolled at WWU in 1970. According to Pat, you can take the girl out of MN, but you can't take MN out of the girl, but that doesn't mean she misses swatting mosquitoes or enduring below zero temperatures! An accountant with 25 years experience, she served as fiscal manager for Big Brothers Big Sisters before coming to work for Conservation Northwest in February 2002. Free weekends will find her relaxing at her Lake Samish home or out in the woods with her husband, Mike.

Joe Scott, international conservation director

360.671.9950, ext. 11
Joe Scott got in lots of trouble growing up in Joisey City, but was saved from a life of crime by a strict, blue-collar dad and a genetic predisposition as a jock. He attended Boston College on an athletic scholarship where he didn't excel at playing football but did manage a degree in finance, and a couple of really cool sons. Joe works to protect large animals, from grizzly bear to mountain caribou, and wildlife habitat, particularly the Inland Temperate Rainforest of British Columbia, with a focus on collaborating with our Canadian neighbors to the north.

Julia Spencer, office manager (Bellingham) and membership associate

360.671.9950, ext. 10
Julia Spencer spent her early years on a 60-acre communal farm in Oregon. She moved to Sequim, WA, in 1985 with her family who taught her the most important things in life, partly through visits to the Olympic National Forest. She became a volunteer at Conservation Northwest upon moving to Bellingham in 2002, and earned a degree in environmental policy from Huxley College. She has worked at the state legislature and Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association. She is often seen around Bellingham on her old Schwinn bicycle. Live music, nature, food, and community are her passions, which is why she organizes the kitchen annually at the Subdued Stringband Jamboree and is learning to play the ukulele.

Jen Watkins, conservation associate/I-90 Wildlife Bridges Campaign coordinator

206.675.9747, ext. 203
Jen Watkins began working with Conservation Northwest over five years ago as part of the outreach team for The Cascades Conservation Partnership. She continues to work on connectivity issues in the Central Cascades with the I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition and with our national forests program on the Wenatchee National Forest. Jen graduated from the University of Washington’s College of Forest Resources and has a strong interest in community collaborations and wildlife connectivity.

Dave Werntz, science and conservation director

360.671.9950, ext. 14
Dave Werntz is a forest ecologist long involved in Pacific Northwest conservation efforts. Originally introduced to wilderness in the northern Great Lakes region, Dave quickly recognized the global importance of large wild landscapes and their remnant populations of lynx, grizzly, and wolf in Washington's Cascade Mountains. He is also an expert at calling spotted owls.

George Wooten, conservation associate

509.997.6010
George Wooten came to Twisp, Washington, to discover wild nature, only to find it being systematically dismantled by resource extraction. With a background in botany, computers and chemistry, George worked for 10 years with the Okanogan National Forest on grizzly bear habitat evaluation, research natural areas protection, and timber sale evaluations for wildlife habitat. After fighting in the 1994 fires, George left the agency to work as a consultant on a variety of projects including roadless mapping, wetlands delineation, surveys for legal challenges to unsound developments, K-12 teacher education, and wildfire behavior mapping. He also teaches local community college courses in computer applications and botany.

Lucy, office friend

Friendly Boston terrier Lucy spends a lot of her time inside the Seattle office and outside in the Cascades! She has more energy than all the rest of us put together, and reminds us regularly that directed action can be very fruitful.

Abbey, hospitality coordinator

Abbey has been helping out in the Bellingham office since she was eight weeks old. The staff rely on Abbey for relaxation, fun, and her warm, affectionate greetings. Abbey especially enjoys Conservation Northwest field trips and hikes, and is an expert at tracking, wilderness exploration, edible grass identification, and sniffing for voles and other small rodents.

Buddy, universal greeter

When not contentedly napping, Buddy is our official greeter in the Bellingham office and is happy to give you a high-five anytime you ask. His favorite activity is spending anytime, anywhere out-of-doors, namely running, running, running. But when in the office, he also serves as our official food-quality control officer. If you are eating it, he would like some too–please.