Board of Directors

Thomas L. Fleischner, Ph.D., President
(Environmental Studies Program, Prescott College)

Tom is Professor of Environmental Studies at Prescott College in Prescott, Arizona, where he has taught for twenty years. He has written extensively on natural history, conservation biology, and land management issues. In addition to his homeland in the Central Highlands of Arizona, he has spent significant field time in the slickrock canyon country of the Colorado Plateau, the Gulf of California, Mexico, where he has been studying shorebirds, and the coasts and mountains of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

tfleischner@prescott.edu 928-350-2219

Stephen C. Trombulak, Ph.D., Vice-President, and Editor
Journal of Natural History Education

(Department of Biology and Environmental Studies, Middlebury College)

Steve is the Albert D. Mead Professor of Biology at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. His interests are in the fields of conservation biology, environmental education, and natural history, particularly of birds, mammals, and beetles.

trombulak@middlebury.edu 802-443-5439

Saul Weisberg, Secretary
(North Cascades Institute)

Saul is the executive director and co-founder of North Cascades Institute, a nonprofit conservation education organization in Sedro-Woolley, WA. A national leader in environmental education, Saul worked throughout the Northwest as a wilderness ranger, biologist, fisherman and fire lookout before starting the Institute in 1986. An outstanding naturalist, Saul has written extensively about mountains, watersheds and wildlife, as well as many articles on environmental education. His passions include canoeing, bugs and walking in the mountains in the rain.

saul_weisberg@ncascades.org 360-856-5700, ext. 209

Joshua Tewksbury, Ph.D., Treasurer
(Department of Biology, University of Washington)

Joshua J. Tewksbury is an Associate Professor in the biology department of the University of Washington. His research interests include ecology, evolution and conservation, with active research focused on plant-animal interactions, tropical ecology and evolution, fragmentation and connectivity, physiological responses to climate change, and chemical evolution in ripe fruit. Josh is an advocate for the collection and curation of natural history information, and the integration of natural history information in the conservation and management of populations, species, and ecosystems. Josh is also a founding board member of the Yanayaku Natural History Research Group, the Corridor Research Group, the Connected Washington working group, and the Program on the Environment at the University of Washington.

tewksjj@u.washington.edu 206-616-2129

Arya Degenhardt
(Mono Lake Committee)


Arya Degenhardt is the Communications Director for the Mono Lake Committee, a non-profit citizens’ group dedicated to protecting and restoring the Mono Basin ecosystem on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada in California. She coordinates efforts to inform the public about the Committee’s policy and education work to promote cooperative solutions that protect Mono Lake, and invoke passion on its behalf. She has explored the Mono Basin as a naturalist, photographer, and advocate for over a decade.

arya@monolake.org (760) 647-6386 x11

David Lukas, naturalist and author
(Independent Naturalist)


David is a freelance naturalist and writer who lives just outside Yosemite National Park. As a naturalist he has led hundreds of natural history tours and programs in Oregon, California, Nevada, and Central America. His books include a revision of the classic guidebook Sierra Nevada Natural History and he is currently at work on a field guide to birds of the Sierra Nevada. He has written several hundred articles on diverse natural history topics, including a weekly “field guide” column in the Los Angeles Times, and he has also contributed natural history chapters to over 20 Lonely Planet travel guides.

david@sierranaturalist.com 209-962-6410

John Tallmadge, Ph.D., author, educator, and consultant
(Independent Scholar and Consultant)

John is a nature writer and environmental educator who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he maintains an independent practice of literary and educational consulting. He taught literature and environment for thirty years at institutions such as Carleton College, the Union Institute, and the University of Utah. He is the author of two memoirs, Meeting the Tree of Life: A Teacher’s Path (Utah 1997) and The Cincinnati Arch: Learning from Nature in the City (Georgia 2004) as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals and environmental magazines such as Orion, Audubon, Utne Reader, Environmental Ethics, and ISLE. He has served as a director of the Orion Society and as president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment.

info@johntallmadge.com 513-681-0944