Scott Flint is a dedicated natural resource conservation professional and has spent a lifelong career with the State of California, working every day to make a difference for this planet.
He has consistently been on the cutting edge of complex environmental issues as a big picture thinker and during his forty-one years on the job he served the public as a trusted, hard-working, problem-solver. Scott loves working and leading in a team setting. As a leader, supervisor and a mentor, he has learned to successfully develop environmental champions and then get out of their way — to let them excel at whatever they do best.
His experience as a conservationist and environmental regulator has been broad, encompassing hazardous waste and contaminant cleanup, water rights and water quality issues, wetlands protection, fish and wildlife conservation, endangered and sensitive species permitting, conservation lands management and climate change science. Scott has developed expertise working with or within almost every environmental regulatory program implemented by both the State and federal governments.
Born and raised in Sacramento, California, Scott studied Biological Oceanography at Humboldt State University and received his Bachelor’s Degree in Biological Conservation from Sacramento State University. He maintains ongoing educational interest and expertise in plant ecology, wetland and riparian systems, and natural resource conservation and management.
In his personal time, Scott enjoys his family, and time outdoors to pursue walking, hiking, landscape photography and to promote outdoor education.
Kim Delfino has worked for more than thirty years within and for the non-profit community to advocate for biodiversity conservation. As part of this work, Kim values the critical role that science plays in policy, planning, and project implementation. As President of Earth Advocacy, Kim provides policy and advocacy expertise to nonprofits and foundations with the goal of protecting and restoring our lands, water, and wildlife for future generations. Prior to establishing Earth Advocacy, Kim was the California Program Director for Defenders of Wildlife for two decades. She has experience in public and private land use planning and policy, species conservation, energy policy, federal land management, and water policy. Kim served on the California Water Commission from 2010-2015. She also serves on the board of the American Bar Association Section of Environment, Energy and Resources Trends and is an adjunct professor at the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law. Kim began her career as an associate attorney in Washington, D.C. with the public interest law firm of Meyer & Glitzenstein, where she specialized in cases involving the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, and other environmental laws. She is a graduate of UC Davis and McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific.
Dan serves as the Treasurer of CBI, bringing over two decades of experience as a financial leader and CFO across multiple industries including technology, financial services and hospitality. With a proven track record in financial strategy, Dan ensures fiscal discipline and transparency in all aspects of the organization’s operations. Having led multiple organizations through high growth stages and multiple exits, Dan is committed to supporting CBI’s mission of protecting natural treasures for future generations.
Laura Jean (Jean or Lj) Palmer-Moloney is intrigued by the chaos of systems and the often tangled complexity of human-environment interaction. With two PhDs, Palmer-Moloney has experience across the scientific, academic, nonprofit, policy, and environmental communities, recruited often to give meaning and context to highly technical material and to serve as a go-between for engineers and scientists, policy analysts, and decision-makers. She brings 30+ years of experience and expertise in education (K-16), problem-based learning, and environmental sustainability and systems assessment (water-food-energy nexus).
Living in coastal North Carolina, she is on the faculty at East Carolina University and teaches undergraduate and graduate physical geography courses. In addition to teaching, Palmer-Moloney is founder of VTT, a science consulting business supporting ecosystem health and blue economy innovation.
In addition to numerous academic appointments, she served in the Department of Defense as Senior Advisor on Water – Helmand Province, Afghanistan (2011-2012) and as a Senior Research Geographer with the US Army Corps of Engineers/Geospatial Research Lab and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA).
As a research scientist, hydrogeographer, and educator with experience and expertise in coastal resources management, her values and core beliefs are reflected in the work she does.
As Chairman of the Board, Melinda (Mindy) Weck brings a wealth of non-profit and nature education expertise to the CBI board of directors. Currently, she manages Business Development and Strategy at Hundzsoil, a pioneering firm specializing in an organic recycled content soil amendment that reduces agricultural water use by up to fifty percent.
Mindy has a decade-long legacy with the Riekes Center for Human Enhancement, where she founded the ongoing Synapse School Nature Days Program and turned the Nature Awareness Department into a primary revenue source. Her leadership secured key funding and notable partnerships, including the recruitment of Grammy-winner Macy Gray for the annual Rally for Riekes fundraiser. Additionally, her passion for human connection and environmental education has extended to her work with both the Wilderness Awareness School in Duvall, WA and The HIll School in Middleburg, VA.
Robin Jones is the executive director of Conservation Biology Institute. She brings a strong foundation in biological sciences and a career that bridges environmental impact, technology innovation, and cross-sector leadership. With a BS in Biological Sciences from Stanford and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, she has held executive roles spanning product management, marketing, partner ecosystems, and organizational operations. Her work has increasingly focused on advancing environmental data access and decision-making tools. As Senior VP of Marketing & Business Development at Socrata, she helped governments harness open data for greater transparency and resource management. At Esri, she founded and led Esri’s geospatial developer business unit, enabling wider integration of location intelligence into conservation, land-use planning, and environmental monitoring applications, among others. Her career reflects a commitment to translating complex science and technology into tools for ecological resilience and sustainability.
Marilyn Veek earned a B.S. in Food Technology from Oregon State University and an M.S. in Food Science from University of California, Davis. She is retired from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where she worked in field investigations, epidemiological operations, and international programs. CBI board member since 2005.
Terri Nopp is the founder of Online Newsroom, a PR agency focused on helping organizations evolve their communications to meet the needs and demands of today’s public. Over the past 2 decades Terri has built a reputation for her entrepreneurial spirit and innovative communication expertise, working with start-ups to some of the world’s leading tech and consumer brands. She has developed PR campaigns for leading technology companies such as Microsoft, WebTrends, Tripwire and Autodesk.
Prior to founding Online Newsroom, Terri was the Deputy General Manager at Edelman Portland where she ran the office operations and was also a global customer relationship manager for Autodesk. Prior to Edelman, Terri started TNT Communication, a boutique high tech PR agency and spent the first 8 years of her career driving PR strategies for a variety of Microsoft products, including Office, Outlook, Windows and Visual Studio.
Terri is an active outdoorswoman and enjoys spending time with her husband Mike and 2 dogs at their Yurt in the Columbia gorge.
John Vankat earned an A.B. in biology from Carleton College and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in botany from the University of California, Davis. He taught and researched plant ecology at Miami University for 31 years, before moving to Flagstaff, Arizona, where he continued research as a special projects ecologist with Grand Canyon National Park followed by senior research ecologist at Northern Arizona University. John has published in such journals as Conservation Biology, Ecology, Forest Ecology and Management, Journal of Vegetation Science, Ecological Modelling, and Landscape Ecology. Past professional activities included helping to start and later chairing the Vegetation Section of the Ecological Society of America and the North American Section of the International Association for Vegetation Science. John served on the CBI Board from 2006 to 2016.
David Johns earned degrees in law and political science from Columbia University. He currently teaches politics and law in the School of Government at Portland State University. David is a co-founder of The Wildlands Project and Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiatives, both NGOs that rely heavily on science in shaping conservation goals. David has written extensively on the role of science in conservation and the politics of the conservation movement. CBI Board member since 1997.