Patricia Gordon-Reedy is a Botanist/Senior Vegetation Ecologist with 30 years of experience in endangered species research and conservation planning for private, government, and non-profit sectors throughout the western U.S. and in Europe. She has been involved in all phases of Natural Community Conservation Planning programs in multiple ecosystem types throughout California—preserve design for endangered species, developing protocols and conducting rare plant surveys, large-scale vegetation mapping and classification, research and risk assessments for invasive plants, and writing prescriptive habitat management and monitoring plans. She is effective in working with scientists and land managers to synthesize and apply the latest scientific research to practical land management and conservation issues. Ms. Gordon-Reedy developed an adaptive management framework plan for the federally threatened and state endangered plant, Acanthomintha ilicifolia, and worked with the California Invasive Plant Council and other partners to map invasive species and develop a regional strategy for prioritizing treatments of invasive plants in San Diego County, CA. She serves on several regional subcommittees and working groups in San Diego, including subcommittees on Vegetation Mapping and Rare Plant Survey Protocols and an Acanthomintha working group.
Patrick joined CBI in October 2010. He brings thirty years of accounting and management experience working for various non-profits. Patrick earned his BBA degree from the University of Michigan in 1980.
Henri is an advocate for being outside as much as humanly possible. Henri is a Pacific North Westerner by birth and heart. Henri’s love of the outdoors inspired the study of horticulture and then geology. Obtaining a B.S. in geology from Oregon State University, followed by a graduate certificate in GIS, Henri inspires to save the world one rock, and one tree, at a time. Henri volunteers time with local schools to teach others about the planet we inhabit. Henri enjoys daily walks with her dogs, camping, hiking and pondering geology with her partner, Shereena.
Tom Atiyeh, joined CBI’s team in January 2012 and has a long history of conservation engagement. Tom is a native Oregonian and grew up around Opal Creek where years later he played an instrumental role in converting family mining claims to the now 35,000 acre Opal Creek Wilderness and Scenic Recreation Area. Tom is a former Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center Board Member and Executive Director.
Tom recently moved his attention from the ancient forest to the urban forest and guided Oregon-based, Friends of Trees as their Chief Development Officer. You may also know the name Atiyeh because of the 112 year-old family-owned business. His wife Leslie is now the President of Atiyeh International, Ltd. allowing Tom to spend time in the non-profit world. Tom’s father, Victor served for two terms as Oregon’s Governor from 1979 – 1987. Tom’s daughter, Meagan works for the Oregon Arts Commission as the Visual Arts/Public Art Coordinator.
Katie focuses on promoting enhanced data collection, collaboration, and policy decisions for land managers and citizen science. Katie brings over a decade of experience serving in technical science positions and a proven track record of successful partnership coordination and communication; along with the collection, analysis, and visualization of many types of geospatial data and other information. Project partners have ranged from federal agencies to local Friends groups, with equally successful outcomes. Specialized training and experience has included qualitative data collection and analysis, facilitation, mediation, and community-based social marketing. Katie’s strengths include communicating technical information in an engaging and approachable way, maintaining diplomacy and poise under any circumstance, attention to detail, and successfully working with diverse people.
Allison Anderson joined Conservation Biology Institute in July, 2009 as a Conservation Data Manager. She is a GIS professional specializing in implementing GIS technologies to share and distribute conservation data to practitioners who are doing conservation work on the ground. She is also interested in the nexus of GIS and national environmental law and policy. Allison has over 10 years of progressive GIS experience, managing GIS databases and spatial data. Prior to her work with CBI, she worked with The Nature Conservancy developing a network of Conservation Data Nodes and implementing ESRIs ArcServer technology. Allison’s educational background includes a BS in Applied Biology from Georgia Tech and coursework in Natural Resources Management at Virginia Tech.
Allison currently lives in Seattle, Washington with her family where she is happy to see snow-capped mountains offset by the waters of Puget Sound. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors cycling, hiking, snowshoeing and skiing, or inside cooking, baking and reading.
Susan Antenen is the Conservation Biology Institute’s Sierra Nevada Project Coordinator. Susan is helping CBI coordinate its science activities in the Sierra to deliver timely and integrated information and recommendations to public lands managers.
Susan is also the Coordinator for the Southern Sierra Partnership (SSP) comprised of CBI, The Nature Conservancy, Audubon California, Sierra Business Council, and the Sequoia Riverlands Trust. The SSP works towards a vision of healthy vibrant towns surrounded by well-managed natural lands and thriving working farms and ranches.
Before joining the CBI in 2010, Susan worked for The Nature Conservancy for 19 years in a number of capacities. She started the Conservancy’s Mongolia program and grassland protected area initiative. Before that she was the Interim Director of Maui, Hawaii. In New York, she founded and directed one of the Conservancy’s first temperate coastal/estuarine ecosystem restoration programs in US. Susan is a graduate of Goddard College in Vermont.
Kai Foster is a Project Manager/GIS Analyst with professional and academic experience working with diverse communities on a broad range of environmental issues. In 2008, she joined Conservation Biology Institute focusing her attention primarily on protected areas in the United States. Before joining the CBI team, Kai spent three years working with communities in Western Alaska mapping areas of cultural and ecological significance. Her interest in the relationship between people and landscapes has brought an appreciation and understanding to her current work in protected areas.
Jerre has worked with CBI for 16 years as a conservation ecologist in endangered species research and landscape-scale conservation planning and management of natural resources in the U.S., Europe, and Mexico. She is passionate about developing and orchestrating partnerships among the academic community, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and land managers to leverage funds and information for achieving conservation goals. Throughout her career, Jerre has researched and developed priorities for conservation and funding in California and Baja California, resulting in the acquisition and management of hundreds of thousands of acres for conservation, including the 240,000-acre Tejon Ranch in the Tehachapi Mountains, Donner Summit and Martis Valley in the Sierra Nevada (>15,000 acres), >100,000 acres in San Diego County, and Bahía de San Quintín in Baja California (>5,000 acres). She is project director for the Las Californias Binational Conservation Initiative which promotes creation of a binational park along the Peninsular Ranges of California and Baja-California. She has directed conservation planning, management, and monitoring for California’s Natural Community Conservation Planning programs in southern California, developed a regional program for coordinating management and monitoring in San Diego County, and currently works with land managers and researchers to develop management and monitoring plans for these programs. She coordinated development of the population monitoring framework for the six subspecies of Island Fox on the California Channel Islands and, through a grant from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, developed a science-based regional planning framework for wind energy in the Tehachapi Mountains and southern Sierra Nevada. She serves as a science and education advisor for several land trusts. As a member of the board of Terra Peninsular, she is active in conservation in Baja California.
Dr. Dennis Grossman is a Senior Scientist for the Conservation Biology Institute.
He has worked as a senior scientist for non-profit conservation organizations for the past 20 years, and is a recognized expert in conservation planning, biodiversity assessments, and ecological classification. Dr. Grossman earned his Ph.D. in Plant Ecology from the University of Hawaii in conjunction with the East-West Center . He was awarded M.S. and B.S. degrees in Botany from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Denny has made significant contributions in advancing our understanding of terrestrial, freshwater and coastal/marine ecosystems, and in the application of this knowledge for conservation and resource management. He was instrumental in the development of the classification standards for vegetation, freshwater and coastal/marine ecosystems that are now regularly used for conservation planning and resource management by many U.S. and international organizations. He has also focused on the development and use of appropriate technology to ensure the effective application of current scientific information for improved efficiency and effectiveness of ecological assessments and conservation plans.
Dr. Grossman has developed strong partnerships with scientists, public agencies and private corporations to develop and implement novel approaches to conservation and resource management challenges. He has worked extensively with conservation projects and partners across North and South America, the Caribbean, the Pacific Islands, South Asia and Indonesia. An author of numerous articles and reports, Dr. Grossman serves on several federal and scientific committees.
While serving for 7 years as Vice-President for Science, Dr. Grossman helped to build NatureServe after it was created as a spin off from the Science Division of The Nature Conservancy. During his 12 years in the position of Chief Ecologist, Dr. Grossman successfully integrated ecological concepts to prioritize conservation actions throughout The Nature Conservancy. He currently serves as a Senior Policy Advisor for The Nature Conservancy.