Learn more about our passionate and dedicated Board of Directors and staff.
- Board of Directors
- Staff
Our Board of Directors
A Board of Directors that are enthusiastic about and dedicated to a non-profit’s mission are essential to the organization being vibrant and successful. FOMR seeks out Board members with varied skills and backgrounds but most of all individuals who understand and appreciate the role Malheur Refuge plays in natural world.
Pictured above: Member Directors Duffy, Haynes, Jensen, and Hill with Executive Director Wicks and additional Member Directors Woodward, Ivey, Tweed, and Elshoff during their 2025 Refuge Board Tour.
William Tweed – President
A native Californian, environmental historian William C. Tweed attended the College of the Sequoias, the University of the Pacific, and Texas Christian University, where he earned both master’s and doctorate degrees in history. He currently resides in Bend, Oregon, with his wife Frances.
For more than thirty years he pursued a career with the United States National Park Service, where he worked at various times as a historian, ranger-naturalist, park planner, concessions management specialist, public affairs specialist, and park program manager. He spent most of these years at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, California, enjoying the final decade of his career there as the parks’ Chief Naturalist. In that role he oversaw not only the parks’ interpretive programming but also its visitor center design, wayside exhibit, and public affairs programs.
In the years since he left Federal service in 2006, Dr. Tweed has pursued his interests as an author, newspaper columnist, field naturalist, lecturer, and consultant. During these years he also served on the Board of Directors of both the Sequoia Natural History Association (2006-2010) and the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Foundation (2006-2012). He spent time as chairman of both organizations.
Dr. Tweed is the author or co-author of a number of books, including Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, the Story Behind the Scenery; Challenge of the Big Trees, A Resource History of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks; Recreation Site Planning and Improvements in National Forests, 1891-1942; Death Valley and the Northern Mohave, A Visitor’s Guide; and Uncertain Path: A Search for the Future of National Parks.
Late 2016 saw two new books by Dr. Tweed published: King Sequoia: The Tree that Inspired a Nation, Created Our National Park System, and Changed the Way We think About Nature (Heyday), and Challenge of the Big Trees: A History of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Revised Edition (George Thompson Books).
His latest book, Granite Pathways: A History of the Wilderness Trails of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, is scheduled for publication in the summer of 2021 by the Sequoia Parks Conservancy.
Rachel White - Vice President
A Wyoming native, Rachel has always loved open spaces, birding, and reading. After undergrad, Malheur drew her further west: she worked as a biological volunteer, wildland firefighter, and biotech at the refuge in the 1990s. She helped monitor duck and goose nests, did shorebird surveys, conducted radiotelemetry monitoring of Sandhill Crane colts, and helped clean up during a botulism outbreak, among many other amazing experiences.
After moving to Portland in 1999, Rachel was a freelance writer for several years (including working on Birds of Oregon: A General Reference with David Marshall, Alan Contreras, and Matthew Hunter), before transitioning to a career as a science writer with the USDA Forest Service. After 21 years helping forestry scientists share the stories of their research, she and her husband took an early retirement buyout.
Now Rachel looks for new ways to make herself useful, including serving on the Friends of Malheur board; advocating for science, public lands, and nature; and looking after a house tortoise named Reggie and a spirited puggle named Georgie.
Larry Hill - Treasurer
Larry has been an Oregon resident since 1974 and first visited Malheur with his wife Cheryl on their honeymoon in 1984. It was a high-water year and Hwy 205 was flooded. The refuge could only be reached through Crane, and on that drive to the Refuge and south to Frenchglen they were astounded by the birds they saw.
In the 1980s Larry served two terms as a State Representative and two terms as a State Senator in the Oregon Legislature representing Springfield and Eugene. He then was a political director for a public employees union, and later was governmental representative for small businesses, including sportfishing guides and outdoor outfitters. Leaving politics he worked as an adjunct instructor with the University of Oregon while he earned Master’s Degrees in Public Administration and Community & Regional Planning. For the remainder of his career Larry worked in the public sector, finally retiring from the City of Eugene budget office as a Senior Financial Analyst.
Following retirement Larry and Cheryl came back to Malheur, joining FOMR, becoming FOMR volunteers and developing their birding skills. They enjoy travel and traditional folk music and dancing. Larry is a long-time board member and treasurer for the Eugene Folklore Society, which provides traditional music and dance opportunities.
Carla Burnside - Secretary
Carla recently retired after 35 years with the National Wildlife Refuge System. She served as the archaeologist at Malheur Refuge for 26 years before transitioning to other positions within the NWRS. Carla started working at Malheur in 1990 as floodwaters from the 1980’s floods were waning. She had the opportunity to explore most of the refuge as she managed the numerous cultural resources that overlay the lands encompassed by the refuge. During her time at Malheur she developed a broad appreciation of and relationship with members of the Burns Paiute Tribe.
Birdwatching and photography are are favorite hobbies that were honed by her years at Malheur and while working at/visiting numerous refuges across the country. She loves to travel within the US and internationally exploring the cultures, archaeology and landscapes of the world.
Jerry Moore
Jerry first visited Malheur Refuge in 1971 as student on an Eastern Oregon University Biology Department field trip. While obtaining a biology degree at EOU, he was involved with the opening of Malheur Field Station and in the summers of 1974 and 1975 participated in the Malheur Refuge Youth Conservation Corp, first as a group leader and then in 1975 as the program director. He obtained a graduate Zoology degree at Oregon State University and spent two summers doing small mammal research on Steens Mountain, the watershed that feeds the southern end of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge.
After completing his Zoology degree, he went on to spend 19 years as the Director of Operations at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon. Jerry is retired and lives in Bend, Oregon with his wife Chris. They enjoy birding and nature related travel with the Sky Islands of SE Arizona being a favorite.
Josh Cline
Josh and his wife Lindsey live and work in Harney County as educators. Josh has worked as a Speech-Language Pathologist for over 20 years. Working in the schools has allowed him to work seasonally doing botany work for both Idaho Fish & Game and more recently for the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center in Burns.
Their first time visiting the Malheur Refuge was in 2022, when they spotted white-fronted geese for the first time. They’ve been hooked on watching wildlife at Malheur ever since! They’ve loved getting to live year round in the Harney Basin to see the migrations and seasonal changes. When he isn’t working in the schools, you can find Josh outside doing plant walks, collecting native seed, gardening, and of course, birding.
Jennifer Haynes
Jennifer A. Haynes, Ph.D., MNM has strong ties to Oregon, having grown up in Ontario Oregon and obtained degrees at both OSU and U of O. Jennifer recently completed her Master's Degree in Nonprofit Management from U of O and has non-profit experience working with Portland Audubon. Most recently she has been working as an analyst for Oregon Paid Leave and the Oregon Department of Energy. The major part of Jennifer’s career involved working as a Biotech patent agent for law firms, and biotech companies. Previous to that, she received a Ph.D. in molecular biology and did a postdoctoral fellowship studying childhood cancer. Other board experience includes Friends of Buford Park and Mt. Pisgah. In her free time Jennifer enjoys hiking, backpacking and birding.
Carl Woodward
Carl Woodward has been practicing law for over 40 years. He has a broad integrated practice with specializations in environmental, municipal, zoning and planning, real estate, insurance and criminal law, and litigation in state and federal courts. Mr. Woodward was appointed an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey in 1971, has served as Chief of the Environmental Protection Division, has been trustee of the New Jersey Institute of Local Government Attorneys, has lectured on various topics in municipal law, and has taught zoning and planning at Seton Hall Law School as an adjunct professor.
Carl is an avid birder and photographer and has traveled widely in pursuit of these passions. His wife, Kathy Woodward, is a member of the board for the National Wildlife Refuge Association and they reside in New Jersey.
Walt Duffy
Walter Duffy lives in the northern California town of Fortuna with his wife Jill, both enjoy bird watching. Walt “discovered” Malheur National Wildlife Refuge early one morning in May of 1998, months after relocating from South Dakota to California, and was stunned by the avian diversity and abundance on the refuge. Since that morning, he has taken every opportunity to visit Malheur Refuge and developed an appreciation for the importance of the refuge to not only bird ecology and migration, but also to the culture of the American west.
Walt attended Lake Michigan College and Michigan State University and received a Ph.D. in fisheries and wildlife biology from Michigan State University in 1985. In 2017 he retired as professor of fisheries biology at Humboldt State University and Leader of the U. S. Geological Survey’s California Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and continues to serve those entities in an emeritus capacity. His career offered him the opportunity to investigate wetland ecology in the Upper Great Lakes, the Mississippi River Valley, Prairie Pothole Region, Canadian Arctic, northern Rockies and California as well as fisheries of the Great Lakes, rivers on the East Coast, the Missouri River Valley and rivers of the Pacific Coast.
Among accomplishments he is proud mentoring more than 50 graduate students and teaching university classes on multiple topics in aquatic ecology, limnology and fisheries science and completing research to the management of Voyagers, Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Redwood National Parks. He has published more than 60 technical papers and book chapters on various aspects of wetland ecology and fisheries. Services he has rendered include providing peer review of hundreds of papers submitted to technical journals, chairing the California Fishery Restoration Grant Program for 15 years, and serving on the California Advisory Committee on Salmon and Steelhead Trout.
Walt is enthusiastic about the opportunity to share his extensive knowledge of wetlands, fisheries, and science communications to support Malheur National Wildlife Refuge through service on the Board of the Friends.
Gary Ivey - Emeritus
For more than 20 years Gary worked with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in the National Wildlife Refuge System. He worked primarily on wetland, waterfowl and water bird management and planning in Eastern Oregon and in California’s Central Valley. Gary served as a wildlife biologist at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge for 15 years and is currently working part time for the International Crane Foundation on sandhill crane conservation in the Pacific Flyway. He finished his PhD work on wintering ecology of sandhill cranes in 2015 through Oregon State University.
Alice Elshoff - Emeritus
Alice has been visiting Malheur National Wildlife Refuge since the 1960s, first birding and then volunteering. She is a retired teacher who enjoys sharing her love of wildlife with visitors of all ages. She believes deeply in the mission of the National Wildlife Refuge System, which sets wildlife conservation as its primary purpose and preservation and restoration of biological diversity and environmental health as its main goal.
Alice is a founding member of the Friends of Malheur being integral in its establishment in 1999. She served as Vice President of the Board from 2014 – 2021.
Erik Jensen
As native Oregonians, my wife Mary and I like being outdoors. Attending college or graduate schools in the east, we couldn’t wait to get home to Oregon. We have been retired in Bend for 16 years and enjoy it. We raised 2 kids and have 2 grandchildren. We worked in public service (Mary) and in private business (Erik) for more than 30 years before we retired. We hike a bit, fish some, and play golf some, all as ways to enjoy being outside.
My first visit to Malheur NWR was when i was 10 years old for hunting and for fishing. We have been returning regularly if not as frequently as we might have.
When we moved to Bend we met Cal and Alice Elshoff who reintroduced us to Malheur via a few volunteer work parties they led. We liked looking for Bobolinks a lot, a new species for us. We have returned regularly to bird at the refuge and look forward to learning much more about the refuge. We have been fortunate enough to have been able to bird in Africa, Panama, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, and New Zealand and have spent more time in SE Arizona birding, as we winter there. Mary did find an Elegant Trogon in Patagonia Sate Park, probably our best US bird?
I hope to be a good listener on the board and to bring some curiosity and energy to FOMR.
Matt Cahill
Matt works for The Nature Conservancy as the Sagebrush Sea Program Director, leading a team of colleagues and partners focused on improving sagebrush ecosystem restoration, management, and protection across the West. Matt works extensively with federal land management agencies, state governments, livestock and industry representatives, and other non-profit organizations to develop strategies, secure funding, and implement projects in a six-state area. In the before times, Matt travelled extensively, but for now spends most of his time at home in Bend, Oregon. Matt is a botanist and ecologist by training. He spends most of his free time looking for birds, rare plants, unusual geology, or just tending the garden.
With both a personal and professional connection to Harney County and the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Matt would enjoy helping the Friends of Malheur identify and plan resource improvements and threat abatement that increase bird habitat and benefit how people visit and use the Refuge. Matt understands the social, economic, and ecological challenges facing southeast Oregon, and would be excited to help the Refuge better achieve its goals.
Alan Contreras - Secretary
Alan Contreras is a fourth-generation Oregonian born in Tillamook County. A birder from the age of 11, Alan first visited Harney County in 1969. He has made biannual trips to the Refuge for the past 50 years.
From 2011-2012 Alan served on FOMR’s board while also serving on the board of the Great Basin Society, which operates the Malheur Field Station. “I’ve been a part of the interest groups at Malheur Refuge for quite a while now,” he says.
Alan is semi-retired from a career in higher-education oversight, mostly for the state of Oregon. He is also a writer and editor, notably serving as the editor of “Edge of Awe”, a collection of writings on Malheur Refuge and Harney County from birders, naturalists and other high-desert devotees.
Alan is looking forward to bringing more of Oregon’s birding community into the FOMR fold. “The Refuge is going through a number of transitions now; membership is healthy but we can do better,” he says. “Neither Sheran (having joined the Board with Alan) or I are biologists; neither will we be doing any trail maintenance or tree planting because we’re older—but we do know lots of contacts in the Oregon birding community and we look forward to finding more ways to involve them.”
Liz Jones – Vice President
Born in Springfield, OR, and raised in Eugene, Liz attended the University of Oregon and has lived in the Pacific Northwest for most of her life.
She first stumbled upon the high desert of Harney County in the early 1980s, while returning from a two-week trip to Yellowstone National Park with her husband Jeff. They stopped at Page Springs Campground, near the southern edge of Malheur Refuge. Liz knew immediately that they had found a special place. “I went, ‘Wow, I have to come back here,’” she said.
Living in Seattle at the time, she and her husband revisited Harney County on occasion over the years. After they moved back to Oregon in the early 90s to “come home,” as she puts it, she estimates that they’ve been back to visit every year since.
The waters of Harney County are what initially drew her here. “I’m not a passionate birder or a biologist. My passion is flyfishing,” she said. But over the years, she’s come to appreciate the collaborative efforts between stakeholders in the area to conserve natural resources, including those at Malheur Refuge.
Liz learned of FOMR recently, after she and her husband volunteered at the Refuge and the Nature Center & Store. She became a FOMR member soon afterward, and last month she accepted FOMR’s invitation to join the Board of Directors. “I’m one of those people who join to make a difference,” she said. Liz comes from a corporate business background and brings years of organizational experience to FOMR. We’re very pleased to have her on board.
Sheran Wright
In 1981 Sheran Wright moved to Oregon from the eastern U.S. and took her first birding trip in August 1983 to Tillamook County, with the Portland Audubon Society. “We saw more than 200 species on that trip, and I was hooked,” she says.
Sheran first visited Malheur Refuge in the spring of 1984, staying at the Malheur Field Station. She’s been back almost every spring and fall, staying a week or more each time. A retired federal labor investigator, Sheran has served on the boards of the Great Basin Society and the Oregon Birding Association (OBA). For years she’s helped organize OBA trips to Malheur Refuge.
Sheran was urged to join FOMR’s board by Alan Contreras. “I thought about it: I’ve been visiting the Refuge for 36 years, I have an ongoing interest in several conservation issues here, such as tree cover and birder access…I was happy to be recommended to the board and look forward to getting more involved here,” she says.
Rick Vetter
Rick is a retired biologist, following a diverse 35-year career with BLM, FWS, and USFS as a range specialist, fish and wildlife biologist and wildlife refuge manager in California, Utah, Idaho, Hawaii, Washington and Oregon. He spent most of the 1990s working at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge as a wildlife biologist where he developed a passion for controlling common carp. His carp kill list is about 150,000 and still growing, working as a volunteer Malheur Refuge and Malheur National Forest. Much of his time now is spent travelling with his wife on natural history trips to remote parts of the world, emphasizing birds and photography. Their adventures have taken them from Papua New Guinea, to Madagascar, from Ethiopia to Columbia with numerous places in-between.
Currently he works for the Oregon Eagle Foundation monitoring golden eagle nest sites across southeast Oregon and enjoying the scenery, wildlife and adventures of the vast sagebrush ocean. At home he enjoys hunting, fishing, packing with their horse and mule and cooking injera.
Kenn Kaufman
Kenn didn’t start to notice birds until the age of six, but this interest soon developed into a lifelong passion that has never let go. He burst onto the national birding scene as a teenager in the 1970s, hitch-hiking all over North America in pursuit of birds, an adventure later chronicled in his cult-classic book Kingbird Highway. After working as a leader of nature tours to all seven continents, he switched to a career as a freelance writer, artist, and naturalist. Most of his energy currently goes into book projects and into painting bird portraits. He has written a dozen books, including his own field guide series, Kaufman Field Guides, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt of Boston. The series now includes volumes on North American birds, butterflies, mammals, insects, advanced birding, and the nature of New England, with a guide to nature of the Midwest as the latest addition in 2015.
His other books include Lives of North American Birds and Flights Against the Sunset. Kenn currently lives in Ohio, where his wife Kimberly is now director of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory. Kenn is a field editor for Audubon magazine, a fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union, and one of only two persons to have received the American Birding Association’s lifetime achievement award twice.
Our Staff
The Friends of Malheur strives to attract staff that are highly skilled and passionate about Malheur Refuge and its ecological importance. Our staff’s skills and dedication to excellence is key in achieving our mission and commitment to Malheur Refuge.
Janelle Wicks - Executive Director
Janelle joined the Friends of Malheur NWR as Executive Director in 2018. She has a long history with and deep passion for the US Fish & Wildlife Service and National Wildlife Refuge System. It began in 2006 when she started volunteering at a US FWS Fish Hatchery Laboratory in Lamar, PA.
After completing her BS of Biology in Environmental Sciences and Marine Biology, she dove into a career that vacillated between working in natural resources for federal public lands management agencies and as an informal educator and program manager for non-profits. This winding path has taken her from her home state of Pennsylvania to the shores of Virginia before moving to Oregon in 2013.
Since arriving in the Beaver State, Janelle has moved from Gold Beach to Corvallis and then Klamath Falls before finding her home in Harney County with wife, Teresa. Together with their dogs, cat, rabbit, six chickens and twin toddlers they have been making quite the life for themselves. When Janelle is not busy engaging with visitors at the Refuge or facilitating one or more of the Friends many ongoing projects she can be found knitting in a hammock, simply soaking up the good life.
Kaitlin Clark - Crane's Nest Manager
Kaitlin Clark is the Crane’s Nest Nature Center & Store Manager for Friends of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, beginning April 30, 2026. She brings a diverse background in retail, volunteer management, conservation, and public engagement, along with a strong appreciation for Oregon’s wildlife, landscapes, and rural communities.
Kaitlin has experience supporting teams, working with volunteers, and contributing to field-based and community-focused programs, giving her a broad skill set well suited to the daily operations of the Crane’s Nest and Friends of Malheur outreach efforts. Her time living in the Klamath Basin helped deepen her connection to Oregon’s natural places, and she is excited to return to the state and make Harney County her home.
With an interest in birds, education, and organizational growth, Kaitlin is eager to help strengthen visitor services, public programming, and community connections at Malheur. Friends of Malheur is pleased to welcome her to the team and looks forward to the energy and perspective she will bring to the Refuge community
Jill Bachman - Crane's Nest Assistant Manager
Jill has had a love for all things related to nature her entire life. Growing up in Utah, she spent many summer nights camping and hiking with her family. She loved everything from backpacking with her dad to 4-wheeling with her friends and going to the lake to fish, wakeboard, or just sit with her feet in the sand. If she was outside, she was happy.
After attending nursing school in Idaho, Jill moved back to Utah and started a family. She was busy working and raising kids and decided the cold weather wasn't for her anymore so she took her two kids and moved to Arizona. Upon arriving in Harny County in 2023, she was very excited to move out of the city and into a more rural area where she could get back to her roots and spend more time outside enjoying as much nature as possible. She loves being a part of and work in this community and to be associated with the Friends of Malheur organization.
Be a Malheur Refuge Advocate.
You can become a Malheur Refuge champion by joining the Friends of Malheur and together we can advocate for a secure and more prosperous future for Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and our national wildlife refuge system.
