As a Geospatial Analyst, Grace is interested in applying geospatial technologies to translate data into accessible and actionable conservation solutions. Her areas of expertise and interest include geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing, data visualization, and interactive web maps. Grace has broad experience in conservation, most recently with the Center for Large Landscape Conservation to analyze the potential impacts of linear infrastructure development on wildlife across Asia. She has also worked with Conservation International to develop a land-use planning tool and with the National Park Service to identify disturbances in National Parks using satellite imagery. Grace has an M.S. in Environmental Observation and Informatics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Professional Certificate in Geospatial Programming and Web Map Development from Penn State University, and a B.S. in Environmental Studies from Yale University.
Grace is passionate about the process of linking knowledge to action, and through her work hopes to use geospatial data to inform land-use decisions that balance the needs of people and biodiversity. She is a 2022 Pacific Crest Trail thru-hiker, and currently lives in Bend, OR, where she enjoys rock climbing, skiing, and jigsaw puzzles.
Moriah Van Voorhis is a GIS Analyst with experience using spatial analysis to aide in the management of declining species. She takes interest in exploring the complexities and patterns present on a landscape to catalyze solutions for the restoration of natural ecosystems. She holds an M.S. in Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology from North Carolina State University. Her areas of expertise and interest include geographic information systems, species distribution, remote sensing, connectivity modeling, and conservation planning.
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 Bental has over twenty years of start-up and small company management and investment experience. Over this period, Mr. Bental has owned, managed and invested in a number of successful business. Mr. Bental was the founding partner of APG, LLC and Diio, LLC, both of which he sold to large multi-national corporations after growing the businesses to over 100 professionals. In addition, Mr. Bental has invested in companies with significant up-side potential in the aviation, real estate and technology space. Typically, Mr. Bental lends his market expertise to the companies in which he invests in order to facilitate the future success of these entities.
Mr. Bental received a B.A. in Economics, summa cum laude, from the University of California, Los Angeles, and holds an M.B.A. in Finance and Statistics from the University of Chicago.
Torrence joined CBI in August 2021. She enjoys working in a variety of languages and technologies and considers herself a polyglot programmer. Torrence recently returned to higher education and is currently a student in the Natural Resources program at Oregon State University specializing in Landscape Analysis.
When not studying or researching where to travel in her van, Torrence spends most of her spare time hiking and camping in the outdoors. She also enjoys board games and reading sci-fi. She plans to eventually hike a section of the Blue Mountains Trail. She lives in Portland, OR with her partner and their cat.
Hannah joined Conservation Biology Institute in January 2020 and primarily contributes to a project assessing and mapping grassland dynamics within the USDA Conservation Reserve Program. With a M.S. in Geography from Oregon State University and a B.S in Geography and Geographic Information Science/Cartography from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Hannah is excited to extend her geospatial analysis skills with Google Earth Engine and random forest modeling to contribute to geospatial mapping and analysis efforts at CBI using open-source tools and data.
After completing her Bachelor’s degree, she made maps for a transportation engineering firm, a self-driving car company, and participated in the NASA DEVELOP Program to study estuarine vegetation patterns in the Bay Area. While completing her Master’s degree, Hannah worked on the NASA-funded Missing Millions project with which she studied satellite image time series analysis and disturbance detection algorithms to analyse establishment and growth trends of refugee settlements in Northern Uganda. Hannah’s interest in using satellite image analysis for land cover change couples with her passion for studying people and environment dynamics, and human migration and development. With a curiosity for studying the power of maps, old and new, Hannah plans to continue studying satellite imagery through a critical geographic lens.
Hannah lives in Corvallis and spends her free time trail running with her partner and dog in the McDonald-Dunn forest, cooking, seeing live music and exploring new places in Oregon.
Chris Shannon joined CBI in July 2021. He specializes in user interface design, accessible web applications, APIs, and user testing. Chris started his career in the U.S. Air Force as a Satellite Communications Technician, then went on to become a Computer-aided Drafter and eventually turned his interest to software development and integration. He has worked in several industries, including construction, banking, and government contracting.
Chris grew up near San Antonio, TX where he spent most of his time fishing, hiking and kayaking on the local waterways. Chris loves being outdoors and can usually be found fishing next to a river reading a well-worn book, and continuously baiting one of his children’s fishing hooks. He believes all life on Earth is precious and needs our help to flourish.
As the Systems Administrator for Conservation Biology Institute, Robert brings 14 years of GNU/Linux, Windows and Mac administration and interoperability to CBI in a relentless quest to be a prime enabler.
His experience encompasses various forms of Systems Adminsistration and support of GNU/Linux, Mac and Windows based computing environments. This has ranged from the server side to the desktop with both custom and off the shelf software and hardware solutions.