Board of Trustees

Dr. Max Oelschlaeger, Board Chair

Kurt Menke, Secretary-Treasurer

Dr. Paul Sneed

Dr. Gary Nabhan

Kelly Burke

Mark Lamberson

Dr. Ed Grumbine

Dr. Peter Weisberg

Kim Vicariu

Staff

Kelly Burke, Executive Director and Geologist

Kelly Burke is the Director of the Grand Canyon Wildlands Council. Starting as a volunteer in March 1996, then as consultant and eventually staff, she cofounded and directed the organization. She coordinates the programs, outreach, and fundraising for the Wildlands Council, as well as participates in the regional ecological assessments and analyses. She received a B.A. with honors in Geology/Art History from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an M.S. in Structural Geology from Northern Arizona University. Ms. Burke has 14 years experience in geological mapping including six years of research trips down the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. She led numerous natural history tours to Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce, and Alaska. Her publications include scientific articles about structural geology, geomorphology, and geochemistry of natural waters and short conservation articles in the Boatman’s Quarterly Review (newsletter of Grand Canyon River Guides) and Wild Earth Magazine.

Larry Stevens, PhD, Consulting Ecologist and Science Advisor

Dr. Stevens is an independent consulting ecologist and an adjunct faculty member of Prescott College and the Department of Biological Sciences at Northern Arizona University, as well as the Curator of Ecology and Evolution at the Museum of Northern Arizona. He received his undergraduate degree from Prescott College and his M.S. and Ph.D. from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. He is an avid natural historian and river runner, and has spent the past 30 years engaged in ecological research on rivers in the American Southwest. His studies have focused on native and non-native plant-herbivore interactions in riparian habitats, as well as linkage between riparian and aquatic components of aridlands fluvial ecosystems, particularly the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. Dr. Stevens coordinated and conducted research through the NAU Biology, Geology and Forestry departments, Arizona State University and the University of Arizona which contributed to completion of the Glen Canyon Dam Environmental Impact Statement in 1995, the second largest EIS in the nation's history. He has published numerous scientific and popular articles on the natural history of the Grand Canyon ecoregion.

Kim Crumbo, Wilderness and Land Planning professional, Wildlands Conservation Director

Kim Crumbo is coordinating participating in policy and ecosystem conservation aspects of the BLM planning process for the Arizona Strip. He is also Northern Arizona Field Rep for the Arizona Wilderness Coalition, a position hosted by the Wildlands Council. He was Wilderness Coordinator for the Southwest Forest Alliance in 2000, and in Grand Canyon National Park where he worked from 1980-1999. He coordinated the Park’s wilderness volunteer program, contributed to NEPA compliance reviews and assisted in exotic species inventory and removal. Mr. Crumbo has worked as resources management specialist, river ranger, professional river guide and for the Sierra Club in Utah as Wilderness Coordinator. Before his work on rivers and wilderness he completed two combat tours to Vietnam with the Navy’s SEAL Team One. Kim received a B.S. in Environmental Studies from Utah State University. His publications include A River Runners Guide to the History of Grand Canyon and several articles.

Emily Omana, Conservation Biologist            

As a Conservation Biologist for the Grand Canyon Wildlands Council, Emily is involved in many projects in the Grand Canyon ecoregion including translocation of the endangered Humpback chub (Gila cypha), spring and riparian restorations on the Arizona Strip and in Glen Canyon, and nonnative removal programs working with such species as saltcedar (Tamarix ramosissima), common mullein (Verbascum thapsus), and northern crayfish (Orconectes virilis). She is also an Adjunct Faculty member of Rio Salado College.  Emily earned a B.S. in Zoology and a M.S. in Biology from Northern Arizona University, where her studies focused on evolution and mating systems in aquatic invertebrates, particularly in the northern Gulf of California.