Our Board
Only 5% of the entire United States, including Alaska, is protected as wilderness.
Sarah Chase Shaw
Chair
Flagstaff, AZ-native Sarah Chase Shaw grew up on a ranch with public lands literally in her backyard. Weekends spent exploring the Grand Canyon, the San Francisco Peaks, and other obscure areas of the southwest led to an appreciation for accessible open space and a love of maps. After receiving a master’s degree in landscape architecture from Cornell University, Sarah settled in Basalt, Colorado to pursue a career in landscape architecture and planning for Design Workshop, Inc. Now she works as freelance writer and serves as the Communications Director for the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies at the Aspen Institute. Sarah is the author of four books, the most recent of which is On the Roof of the Rocky Mountains: The Botanical Legacy of Betty Ford Alpine Gardens.
Torrey Udall
Secretary
He is the descendant of a line of public service leaders, conservationists and adventurers. His grandfather and great-uncle, Morris and Stewart Udall, each played significant roles in the U.S. Congress conserving natural landscapes throughout the United States. Torrey’s maternal grandfather, Richard Emerson, was part of the first successful American expedition to Mount Everest in 1963. He lives with his wife, who works as an attorney, in Salt Lake City, Utah. When away from the computer, you’ll find them running, biking, skiing or consumed by a game of cribbage at the local coffee shop.
Karen Fisher
Treasurer
Karen is a retired molecular biologist and project manager in the biotechnology industry. She has spent more than 30 years at Genentech, most recently preparing strategies and business cases for cancer drug development projects. She has published more than 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts in scientific journals and holds two US patents. She led the whitewater kayak program for Outdoors Unlimited, a group dedicated to sharing their outdoor expertise with others. She lives with her husband in Mammoth Lakes, CA exploring wild places on foot, in boats and through the viewfinder of her camera.
Travis Belote, PhD
Travis is a research ecologist with The Wilderness Society focused on using ecosystem science to inform conservation and adaptive management strategies. He holds a M.S. from the University of Tennessee, Ph.D. from Virginia Tech, and conducted postdoctoral research with the USGS in Flagstaff, AZ. He has published more than 65 peer reviewed scientific articles and serves as a research advisor for graduate students at the University of Montana and Montana State University. Travis lives in Bozeman, MT and enjoys spending time outside with his family and listening to old-time country music.
Jim Blomquist
Before retiring in 2021, Jim was a consultant to nonprofit groups in campaign strategy and lobbying. He had previously worked for Sierra Club for 25 years as the regional representative in the Pacific Northwest and Southern California, and as a representative in Washington, D.C. specializing in national forest and national park issues. During this time he worked on numerous National Forest Wilderness bills that were enacted into law and was also deeply engaged in the legislative fights over the endangered spotted owl. He is an avid fisherman.
Craig Groves
Craig Groves is a conservation biologist with expertise in planning, monitoring and evaluation, and protected area conservation. In 2017, he retired from a full-time career in international nature conservation as a scientist with The Nature Conservancy and the Wildlife Conservation Society. He has written and published two books on conservation planning as well as more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles on conservation planning, protected areas, climate adaptation, and the ecology of at-risk species. In 2024 he completed 8 years of service on the board of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative and currently serves on the board of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He also recently completed 8 years as the volunteer Series Editor for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) Good Practice Guidelines. He has lived in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, Idaho, and Montana since 1978 and currently resides in Bozeman MT (since 2002) with his wife LeeAnne French and their Pudelpointer hunting dog Cali. He spends as much time as possible skiing, river running, backpacking and hunting in wilderness areas.
Danna Hebert
Danna grew up in Bellingham, WA with a passion for science. It all started with observing polliwogs during backpacking trips as a kid and evolved to researching nudibranchs while getting her degree in marine biology at UC Santa Cruz. Danna followed her passion for science across the ocean, spending two years in Australia playing with fish in the GBR and kangaroos in the Outback while earning her Masters in Conservation Biology. After school, Danna followed in her family’s footsteps, moving into fundraising for the cause she is most passionate about- conservation. She has worked at non-profits Forterra and the Seattle Aquarium, and is now Associate Director, Corporate and Foundation Relations at UW College of the Environment in Seattle. A true weekend warrior, Danna can be found anywhere in nature- diving, climbing, and hiking with her puppy, Huck, in tow.
Joaquin Murrieta-Saldivar, PhD
Joaquin is the Cultural Ecologist Director at Watershed Management Group in Tucson, Arizona. He specializes in building resilience in diverse communities by enhancing the connections between people, culture and natural resources. Joaquin is a graduate of the University of Arizona with an MSc in Natural Resources and Agricultural Economics and a PhD in Renewable Natural Resources Studies with an emphasis on management, policy and economics of natural resources. Originally from Sonora, Mexico, Joaquin splits his professional time between Mexico and Arizona implementing community-based approaches to watershed management, river restoration, geo-tourism, conservation and best practices for ranching communities.
Joaquin lives with his wife in Tucson and loves to hike, play soccer, cook and listen to music. While he appreciates many musical styles, Pink Floyd is the absolute best.
Connie Myers
A native of CO, Connie grew up chasing wild turkeys on the Uncompahgre Plateau and counting deer on the highway between Glenwood Springs and Aspen with her dad who was a biologist for Colorado Division of Wildlife. Connie started to work with the US Forest Service straight out of graduate school as a wildlife biologist and social scientist on the Ketchikan Area of the Tongass National Forest in Alaska where she conducted survey research in remote communities to help resolve community and agency differences on timber harvest. She spent five years working as subsistence and public affairs specialist on the first Tongass Land Management Plan Revision Team before moving to Montana as Assistant District Ranger on the Ninemile Ranger District. In this position she brought together wilderness manager expertise across the country to complete national wilderness projects in direct response to wilderness stewardship needs and Congressional oversite hearing criticisms. This led to establishment of the interagency Arthur Carhart National Wilderness Training Center and Connie’s role as director. In that role and until her retirement in 2016, Connie dedicated herself to unifying the Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Forest Service and National Park Service at every level around consistent and collaborative stewardship of America’s singular National Wilderness Preservation System. No matter how challenging or how long it takes, collaboration is the right thing to do for America’s National Wilderness Preservation System and for taxpayers of the United States who have entrusted Wilderness into our care. Retired, empty-nesters, Connie and her husband thrive on exploring new places and meeting new people all across the country on their adventure van travel adventures.
Bill Pope
Bill is a fully recovered ex-attorney, born and raised in Seattle but living fulltime in Mazama, WA. He has served on the boards of Earthjustice, the Nature Conservancy of Washington, the Washington Trails Association, and the Methow Housing Trust. He also served on the steering committees of the Loomis Forest Fund, the Cascade Conservation Partnership, and the Methow Headwaters Campaign. He is a longtime outdoorsman and wilderness advocate, a lover of backpacking and skiing, and, as a lead investor in the Mazama Public House, also a lover of beer. He formerly served as corporate counsel at Microsoft back when disks were still floppy.
Denise Schlener
Denise is a non-profit executive with extensive experience in building sustainable and impactful organizations. Over a three-decade career in land conservation and environmental advocacy, Denise has served in a variety of roles from community organizer and fundraiser to chief of staff and executive director. She led the Connecticut Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land Chesapeake Field Office before establishing an interim executive director practice to help non-profits in leadership transitions. In addition to serving on the WLT board, she is currently on the board of an urban land trust, the Tregaron Conservancy in Washington, DC.
Mark Trautwein
Mark served on the staff of the U.S. House Interior Committee from 1979 until 1995 under Chairmen Mo Udall and George Miller. He was responsible for the committee’s jurisdiction over parks, public lands and wilderness. During that time, the Committee led Congress to double the size of the National Parks System, triple the lands in the National Wilderness System and enact landmark conservation laws including the Alaska Lands Act. Previously, he was a staff writer for Congress’s Environmental Study Conference. He holds a degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley, and worked as a newspaper reporter in the San Francisco Bay Area. He retired from KQED Public Radio in San Francisco after more than two decades as an editor.
Jacqueline Van Dine
Jacqueline is the vice president of merchandising at Birkenstock, leading all product development and portfolio management functions. Jacqueline was the co-founder and brand director for Ahnu Footwear. She was awarded Sporting Goods Business “Top 40 under 40” in recognition during Ahnu’s first year in business. She previously managed product design and developed trade and consumer marketing strategies for Birkenstock and Keen Footwear.
Andy Wiessner
Since 1988, Andy has worked for Western Land Group, which specializes in public and nonprofit land transactions. His extensive experience in legislative affairs includes serving as counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Public Lands and National Parks, and the Subcommittee on Mines and Mining. Andy serves on the boards of the Wilderness Workshop and High Country News.
Jon Mulford, Emeritus
Jon is an attorney and is founder and past president of The Wilderness Land Trust. He formerly practiced law in Denver and Aspen, specializing in federal public land law. He is a fellow of the University of Colorado Natural Resources Law Center.
Past Board Members
Jim Babbitt
Brad Borst
John Fielder
Lucy Hibberd
Jean Hocker
Thomas Hoots
Ray Hohenberger
Sydney Macy
Linda McNulty
Christine McRoy
Buck Parker
Zack Porter
Doug Scott
Giles Toll
Paul Torrence
John Toth
Eleanor Towns
Jay Watson
Liz Wilson
