BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Photo Credit: Florian Schulz
Former President Jimmy Carter, Honorary Co-Chair
Former President Jimmy Carter, Honorary Co-Chair, is one of the true heroes of Alaska’s environment. In 1980, he signed the historic Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act which protected millions of acres in Alaska as wilderness and expanded the boundaries of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It is a testament to his continued commitment to protecting the Arctic Refuge that President Carter has agreed to serve as the honorary chairman of the Alaska Wilderness League board.
The Honorable Robert Mrazek, Honorary Co-Chair
The Honorable Robert Mrazek, Honorary Co-Chair, was the founding board chair of Alaska Wilderness League in 1993. While serving in Congress, Mrazek authored the landmark Tongass Timber Reform Act which protected 3,000,000 acres (12,000 km2) of old-growth forest in Southeast Alaska, revoked artificially high timber cutting targets and created broad buffers for all salmon and resident fishing streams. Mrazek was also the lead sponsor of legislation that sought to permanently protect the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as Wilderness. He served in the United States House of Representatives representing New York’s 3rd congressional district on Long Island from 1983 until he retired in 1993.
Tom Campion, Chair Emeritus
Tom Campion, Chair Emeritus, lives in Seattle, Washington, where he is one of the co-founders of Zumiez, a worldwide action sports lifestyle retailer. Tom has been involved with many environmental organizations and was a founding board member of Conservation Northwest. Tom is also an avid outdoorsman and a leading champion to preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which he has traveled to many times.
Kit DesLauriers, President
Kit DesLauriers is a ski mountaineer and the first person in the world to have skied off the top of the Seven Summits, the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. She completed this lofty goal with her October 18, 2006 ski descent from Mount Everest. Beyond the Seven Summits, Kit has made several first ski descents of the highest peaks in the Brooks Range of Alaska and counts the experience of skiing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s pristine landscape as among the favorites in her lifetime. In 2015 Kit was named a National Geographic Adventurer of the Year for her merging of science and adventure in the U.S. Arctic. Kit holds two consecutive World Freeskiing Women’s Champion titles and her ski expeditions have also included notable descents on big mountains in New Zealand, Bolivia, the Alps as well as Siberia where she met her husband Rob DesLauriers, himself a former professional skier. Since the year 2000, Kit and Rob have been living in the Teton Range of Wyoming and are now raising their daughters to appreciate adventure and the natural world.
John Sterling, Vice President
John Sterling has spent more than 25 years working at the intersection of business and conservation. After serving as Director of Environmental Programs for Patagonia, Inc., John became the first executive director of The Conservation Alliance, a group of outdoor industry companies that work together to fund and advocate for conservation initiatives. John left The Conservation Alliance after 17 years, and now works as a consultant, helping businesses engage in conservation efforts. John lives in Bend, Oregon with his wife and two teenagers.
Yvonne Besvold, Treasurer
Yvonne Besvold is vice president of finance and treasurer for Patagonia Works, heading up all global financial operations. Yvonne has been at Patagonia for nearly 12 years, and today leads the financial operations for the company, including work on global infrastructure projects, operations and evaluating financial structures to address years of rapid growth. Patagonia is a leader in environmental business practices and is constantly evolving to build the best quality product while having the least impact on the environment. Over the last few years, Yvonne has led a strategy to influence and reposition the company’s financial operations (including banking, insurance and asset management) to institutions sharing the company’s environmental values and mission to reduce climate change and harmful activities. Yvonne splits her time between Ventura and Burbank, California. Her husband, Chris, is recently retired, and they have two grown children. Yvonne likes to ski, hike, explore the world, read, and is learning to fly fish. Yvonne is a PSIA certified ski instructor and spent a few memorable winters as a ski bum back in the day.
Debbie S. Miller, Secretary
Debbie S. Miller is an author and teacher who has lived in Alaska for more than three decades. She has written many books and essays about Alaska’s wilderness, wildlife and indigenous people. Her first book, “Midnight Wilderness,” describes the wonders of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge based on 14 years of wilderness trips through the area, and "On Arctic Ground" provides an in-depth look at the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. As an educator and children’s book author, Ms. Miller travels extensively to schools throughout Alaska and the United States. She is a founding member of Alaska Wilderness League.
Additional Board Members (listed alphabetically):
Toni Armstrong
Toni Armstrong is a scientist currently residing in St. Louis, Missouri. She fell in love with Alaska on her first trip to the state in 1983, and has been an advocate for Alaska’s wild places ever since. Toni has had the opportunity to canoe or kayak in several areas of Alaska including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, rivers on the south slope of the Brooks Range, Teshekpuk Lake, the Utukok River, Wood Tikchik State Park, Katmai, Icy Bay, Glacier Bay and Kenai Fjords. When she is not traveling in Alaska, you will find her paddling Ozark streams in her canoe. She is active in the local Sierra Club group as trip leader and activist.
Chad Brown
Chad Brown is a Navy veteran, an accomplished portrait and adventure photographer, creative director and conservationist. He now resides in Portland, Oregon, where he runs Soul River Inc., the nonprofit organization he founded that brings together at-risk youth with military veterans as mentors and takes them into threatened wild spaces, providing mission-driven experiences where advocacy and outdoor education meet. He later founded Love is King, a nonprofit that focuses on welcome access, safety and healing in the outdoors for BIPOC communities and all underserved voices. His work has brought him to Capitol Hill to advocate for public lands preservation, bringing youth leaders of tomorrow and giving them an opportunity to interface with congressional members. Chad has been featured on BBC, CBS, as well as in national publications including Outside Magazine and The Drake, and in various Pacific Northwest publications. Brown was the first recipient of the Breaking Barriers Award presented by Orvis, as well as the Bending Toward Justice Award from Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley.
Nikki Buffa
Nikki Buffa resides in southern California where she is a partner at law firm Latham & Watkins. Ms. Buffa brings two decades of experience into this role, previously working on energy and environmental policy including eight years in the Obama administration where she served as Deputy Chief of Staff at the Department of the Interior, Deputy Director of Cabinet Affairs at the White House and Associate Director for the Council on Environmental Quality at the White House.
Lisa Collins
Lisa Collins, Ed. D is an author, assistant professor, and racial healing leader. An environmental advocate, Lisa explores the outdoors and supports communities to expand outdoor experiences for those unfamiliar with the healing nature of the outdoors. She is an assistant guide for the nonprofit Love Is King, which creates leadership opportunities for BIPOC leaders to explore outdoor environments. Lisa enjoys the outdoors as an avid explorer of natural environments in her travels. She is an angler and flyfisher with experience in guided back-country exploration. She is inquisitive about the wonders of the outdoors as a person of color. Lisa sees nature as healing and promotes her exploration of the outdoors in her healing work as a life coach and trauma practitioner.
Ellen Ferguson
Ellen Ferguson is the community relations director for the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle, Washington. Ellen has served on a variety of civic and nonprofit boards and been involved in capital fundraising campaigns. She visited the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 2004 and is a dedicated philanthropist in the Pacific Northwest.
Tonya Garnett
Tonya Garnett holds a B.A. in Alaska Native Studies and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She is Neets’aii Gwich’in, originally from Vashraii K’oo (Arctic Village, AK). Tonya has served as Communications Director for Fairbanks Native Association (FNA) and worked previously with Tanana Chiefs Conference Self Governance and Tribal Development, Arctic Village Council, Doyon Foundation, Big Brothers Big Sisters Rural Expansion Program, and with Three Star Enterprises, LLC on the Administration for Native Americans Alaska Region T/TA contract. Tonya has served as a representative and as a board member on Gwich’in Council International, Yukon Flats School Board, and the Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government.
Greg Moga
Greg Moga is the Principal of Moga Investments, providing angel investing to clean energy, biotechnology, food production and media start-ups. Greg is a trustee of the Washington State Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, a board member of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), a board member of the Student Conservation Association (SCA), and a board member of Greater Seattle Partners (GSP).
Brian O'Donnell
Brian O'Donnell has been a leading land and wildlife conservationist for more than two decades. Brian recently led the Conservation Lands Foundation where he launched a campaign that protected millions of acres of land as National Monuments. Prior to joining CLF, Brian was the national public lands director for Trout Unlimited (TU). In that capacity, he led TU’s efforts to safeguard National Forest Roadless Areas, permanently protecting more than a million acres in the Wyoming Range and Oregon’s Copper-Salmon Wilderness. Brian also worked for The Wilderness Society where he led campaigns resulting in the congressional designation of the Black Rock Desert and Sloan Canyon National Conservation Areas and dozens of new legislated Wilderness areas throughout Nevada. In the early-mid 1990s, Brian served as the executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League. Brian is currently consulting with the Frankfurt Zoological Society (U.S.) on international land and wildlife conservation. Brian earned a B.A. in Economics from Rollins College in 1993. He lives in Durango, Colorado with his wife Melyssa, daughter Kara and dog Oso.
Jody Juneby Potts-Joseph
Jody Juneby Potts-Joseph is Han Gwich’in and an enrolled tribal member of the Native Village of Eagle. Jody is a dog mushing guide for Arctic Winter Adventures, snowboard instructor, a traditional Gwich’in tattoo practitioner and a wilderness guide at Arctic Wild. She is a graduate of Northern Arizona University holding a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Indigenous Studies with an emphasis in Environmental Management. Jody was the vice chair of former Governor Walker’s Tribal Advisory Council and served as a board member to the Alaska Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, and has been an outspoken advocate about the lack of law enforcement and protections for victims of crime in the villages, particularly women and children. Jody is passionate about wellness and safety, but also is an advocate for the protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as her Gwich’in elders and leaders have fought for over 30 years. Jody was raised on the land she is Indigenous to and still hunts to provide food for her family. She lives in Fairbanks with her three children, Isaiah, Quannah and Denali, each of which she has taught to hunt on their traditional lands.
Pat Pourchot
Pat Pourchot lives in Anchorage, Alaska, and has worked for more than 45 years in Alaska including serving as a senator and representative in the Alaska State Legislature, commissioner of the Alaska State Department of Natural Resources, land manager for the Alaska Federation of Natives, senior policy representative with Audubon Alaska, and most recently Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for Alaska Affairs under the Obama administration.
Amy Roberts
Amy Roberts has focused her career in the outdoor recreation industry, serving in leadership roles in both for-profit and non-profit organizations. Most recently, Amy served as senior director of Corporate Social Responsibility and Brand Impact for The North Face overseeing the brand’s commitment to product environmental sustainability, legislative advocacy and philanthropy through The North Face Explore Fund.
Prior to joining the North Face, Amy served as Executive Director of Outdoor Industry Association, the outdoor industry’s trade association comprised of 1300 members. OIA advocates on public lands, sustainability and trade issues important to the outdoor industry. Amy was previously the director of sustainability and a member of the executive leadership team at Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) where she guided the Canadian outdoor retailer’s commitment to business and product sustainability and innovation.
Amy graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in journalism and has worked for both print and broadcast news organizations as well as serving as press secretary for the governor of Idaho. She has served on the boards of The Conservation Alliance, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition and is currently a trustee at Ski and Snowboard Club Vail and a board member of outdoor lifestyle company Toad&Co.
Leonard Steinberg
Leonard Steinberg, a resident of Anchorage, Alaska, is a retired attorney and corporate executive. Leonard first visited Alaska in 1974 and returned to live there in 1976. From 1977-1980 Leonard was employed by the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council advocating for wilderness protection for the Tongass National Forest and during these years, Leonard spent his holidays sea kayaking remote areas in Southeast Alaska. Leonard has also visited the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Western Arctic, and other remote parts of the state. In retirement, Leonard continues to explore Alaska, the Lower 48, and the rest of the world. Leonard earned his Bachelor’s degree in biology and environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, his Masters in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, his Juris Doctor degree from Hastings College of the Law, and his Masters in Business Administration from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.