WRFI Staff

Laurie Schlueb, Executive Director

Laurie Schlueb Laurie's passion for environmental education fuels her work behind the scenes as WRFI's director. Prior to accepting this position in December 2003, Laurie spent nine years as a naturalist guide or teacher in the Bahamas, southeast Alaska, Denali, Baja California, the Everglades and Montana, where she kayaked, hiked and dove in some of the most fabulous landscapes and seascapes on Earth. Her real zeal, however, is for connecting people to the environment and helping them understand their relationship to it, whether they are in the wilds of Alaska or their city neighborhood back home. Laurie hopes to foster this sense of community, place, and stewardship through her work in, and outside of, the office. She holds a B.A. in biology from Washington University and an M.S. in environmental studies from the University of Montana where she focused on adult environmental education. Laurie can be reached at laurie@wrfi.net.

Anna Tuttle, Program Manager

McNairy Anna Tuttle, WRFI's Program Manager, looks after student relations and communication, instructor support, course oversight, advertising and recruiting, and even some office administration. Anna came to WRFI after completing her M.S. in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana. Prior to that she was a Liberal Arts major at Colorado State University, where a class similar to a WRFI semester course inspired her to change her life’s direction. Anna has taught in the outdoors all over the west and in Alaska for various organizations, but she currently lives in Missoula where she was the youth development coordinator for the Flagship Program at Willard Alternative High School before coming to work for WRFI full time in May 2007. Anna has instructed Colorado Plateau: Desert Canyons & Cultures and Montana Afoot and Afloat: Human/Land Relations . She feels honored to work for an organization as empowering and relevant as WRFI. To contact Anna, send an email to: anna@wrfi.net.

WRFI Board of Directors

Tom Bansak

Upon completion of his Master's degree in river ecology from the University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station, Tom Bansak came to WRFI as an instructor. He ended up staying on as a full-time WRFI instructor for five years, during which time he became involved in most aspects of WRFI. He has worked in our office, revised and created course curricula, helped with gear purchasing and repairs, and contributed to fundraising efforts. Tom joined the Board in 2001 and has served as board president, vice president, treasurer, secretary and the head of the safety committee. He is currently a research scientist at the Flathead Lake Biological Station and is the research coordinator for the British Columbia component of a large international research project called the Salmon Rivers Observatory Network, which focuses on large intact salmon rivers of the Pacific. This position keeps him busy, but facilitates his love of exploring the wild and remote rivers of the world. For WRFI, Tom has taught Colorado Plateau: Desert Canyons & Cultures, The Alaskan Rainforest: Ecology and Policy of the Tongass, and Montana Afoot & Afloat: Human/Land Relations.

Chris Brick

Chris Brick Chris is the staff scientist for the Clark Fork Coalition, and an adjunct assistant professor in the geology department at the University of Montana, teaching classes in environmental geology and hydrogeology. Her academic odyssey started with a B.A. in geology at Carleton College and then veered west to the University of Montana for a master's degree in environmental studies and a doctoral degree in geology. When she's not poring over EISs, running groundwater models, or assessing stream restoration projects for the Clark Fork Coalition, Chris heads for the hills. She has traveled, climbed and skied throughout western North America, Europe and South America.

Dave Glaser

Photo of Dave Glaser Dave is the Director of the Small Business Development Center at the Montana Community Development Corporation here in Missoula. Dave received his BA in Environmental Conservation from the University of Colorado and his MS in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana. Before graduate school, Dave spent time working on a kibbutz in Israel, leading backcountry and river expeditions in Costa Rica with Outward Bound, teaching kayaking and guiding raft trips in the Western US, and working on sailing yachts in the Caribbean. Now that Dave is an office slob he punctuates his somewhat less romantic lifestyle with biking, skiing and kayaking – all of which he does with less skill and stamina than he used to.

Gail Gutsche

Gail Gutsche is a long-time activist with a penchant for environmental and reproductive rights issues. A former development director for both Planned Parenthood and the Missoula Urban Demonstration project (MUD), Gail also worked as program coordinator for many years at Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE). Gail served four terms in the Montana House of Representatives (1999-2005). She was elected Democratic Whip in her final term; sat on the Judiciary and Fish Wild Life and Parks Committees; and served as vice chair of the Natural Resources Committee. She sponsored numerous bills to protect Montana’s environment, and helped to defeat several bills that threatened reproductive rights for women.

A graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, Gail earned a B.A. in English. She has lengthy experience as a journalist and editor in Salt Lake and St. Paul, experience that has served her well in Missoula where she utilizes her writing and communication skills to help fundraise for numerous non-profit organizations. An enthusiastic, but limited gardener, Gail grows great basil and garlic. At home in Missoula for the past 14 years, she is an independent contractor who enjoys lounging around with felines Frank and Ella. Gail can be reached at: gutsche@wildrockies.org.

James McKusick

jim James McKusick is Professor of English and Dean of the Davidson Honors College at the University of Montana. He completed his B.A. in English and Comparative Literature at Dartmouth College, and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. in English at Yale University.

His research and teaching interests include British Romanticism, literary theory, environmental studies, and the history of science. His books include Faustus: From the German of Goethe, Translated by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, co-edited with Frederick Burwick (Oxford University Press, 2007); Green Writing: Romanticism and Ecology (Palgrave, 2000), Literature and Nature: Four Centuries of Nature Writing, co-edited with Bridget Keegan (Prentice-Hall, 2001), and Coleridge's Philosophy of Language (Yale University Press, 1986). He has also published more than twenty articles and over two dozen reviews in such journals as Eighteenth-Century Studies, English Literary History, European Romantic Review, Keats-Shelley Journal, Modern Philology, Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Romantic Circles, Romantic Pedagogy Commons, Studies in Romanticism, University of Toronto Quarterly, and The Wordsworth Circle.

Dr. McKusick has been the recipient of grants and scholarships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Fletcher Jones Foundation, and the Maryland Humanities Council. He currently serves as President of the Wordsworth-Coleridge Association and Executive Director of the John Clare Society of North America.

Dave Morris

Dave Morris Dave graduated from Evergreen State College with a B.A. in Environmental Studies. He earned his M.S. in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana. Dave has instructed for the Yosemite Institute, Southern Yosemite Mountain Guides, two Outward Bound Schools, and several other outdoor education programs. He has traveled extensively in Canada, South America, New Zealand, and Asia. Dave loves teaching at the college level and offers WRFI students a wealth of knowledge about resource issues and ecology.

Dave is a long-time WRFI instructor. He has taught Alaskan Rainforest, Coastal Culture and Ecology of Baja, Conservation & Community in the Yellowstone to Yukon Region, Continental Divide, Colorado Plateau: Desert Canyons & Cultures, and Montana Afoot and Afloat, and he developed our new Cycle Montana: Energy Alternatives for a New Century. He hopes to teach many more WRFI courses in the future.

Tommy Petersen

Tommy Petersen joins the WRFI board with a dedicated history working toward wildland preservation and restoration. Tommy offers a range of talents as a writer, educator, and development director. He was an instructor for WRFI's Restoration Ecology course, and is currently development director for Wildlands CPR, a group that protects and revives wild places by promoting road removal, preventing new road construction, and limiting motorized recreation. Tommy spends his "extra" time helping other non-profit organizations raise money for conservation, and he writes extensively about environmental issues and ethics. His work has been published in Orion, ISLE, and Camas, among others. He extends our list of WRFI staff and board members who are graduates of the University of Montana's Environmental Studies Master's Program.

Sarah Pohl

Sarah Pohl Sarah passed on the torch as WRFI's full-time director and headed back to the University of Montana for an MA/T in Philosophy and a secondary education licensure in English. When not absorbed in the works of Aristotle and Shakespeare, Sarah can be found in the garden, at the hockey rink, or jogging around town with her dog Colter ("the Bolter"). Prior to working for WRFI, much of her experience has been instructing in the backcountry, and has included working with the Voyageur Outward Bound School in Montana, the Minnesota-based Wilderness Inquiry, and Alternative Youth Adventures in Utah and Montana. Other work has included working with the Forest Service, with the University of Montana, and with Montana Conservation Corps. Sarah received her B.A. in Philosophy from Colby College and her M.S. in Wilderness Recreation Management from the University of Montana in 1998, where she focused her thesis work on women and wilderness. Sarah teaches the backpacking sections of our Montana Afoot and Afloat course. She can be reached at pohlwoman@blackfoot.net.

Dan Spencer

dan Dan teaches in the Environmental Studies program at the University of Montana where he focuses on issues of globalization, Latin America, community participation in ecological restoration, and environmental ethics and theology. Dan’s undergraduate degree is in geology from Carleton College, which also included three summers teaching geology field camp in the Tobacco Root Mountains of southwest Montana, and three summers working and climbing in Glacier Park. He has graduate degrees in theology and ethics from Union Theological Seminary in New York, and spent 10 years teaching in a Religion and Philosophy Program at Drake University in Iowa before moving to Montana just in time for the fires of 2000. Dan grew up on the West Coast and in Colorado, and spent most of his adult life trying to find a way to get back to the West from Minnesota, New York and Iowa. He’s been teaching at the University of Montana since 2002, and now that he’s back in Montana, he hopes to never move again. He lives with his partner, Pat Burke, and Pat’s two kids, in Missoula.

Bethany Swanson

dan Having grown up in Portland, Oregon, Bethany's love of the outdoors was fostered by all the Northwest has to offer. She graduated from Colorado College in 2000 with a degree in environmental history, and completed her Master's degree from the University of Montana's environmental studies program in May 2005. Her emphasis in environmental education is specifically focused on place-based education and critical pedagogy. A job guiding sea kayaking trips for a small outfitter in southeast Alaska took Bethany up to Ketchikan in 2000. After three summers of paddling the pristine waters around Ketchikan, the hook was set. Although she calls the Rocky Mountain West home, Alaska calls to her and she returns whenever she can. She has studied and taught natural history and ecology from southeast Alaska to the Rocky Mountain West and in Central and South America. In her free time, Bethany loves to ski, run, backpack, read, travel and make salads from her garden. She's thrilled to instruct Alaskan Rainforest: Ecology and Policy of the Tongass, Colorado Plateau: Desert Canyons & Cultures, Baja Peninsula: Coastal Ecology and Culture, and Montana Afoot & Afloat.

WRFI Advisory Board

Tim Bechtold

Tim Bechtold is a Missoula lawyer who specializes in environmental law, toxic torts, and products liability. He is a partner in the firm Rossbach Hart Bechtold, PC. Along with Matt Thomas and Dave Havlick, he is a co-founder of WRFI and has taught WRFI courses in Alaska, Montana, and Baja California. He holds an AB in biology from Harvard University, an MS from Montana's Environmental Studies Program, and a JD with high honors from the University of Montana School of Law. He has climbed many peaks across the Americas and Europe, paddled the seven seas, ripped and slogged thousands of backcountry turns, shivered through countless nights in a sleeping bag, and biked RATPOD three times.

Katie Deuel

Before taking time off to become a full-time mother, Katie Deuel worked for the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, a joint Canadian - U.S. network of organizations working to secure a life-sustaining web of protected wildlife cores and connecting wildlife movement corridors. Katie has worked on public land issues for several other regional conservation groups, including the Alliance for the Wild Rockies as the ecosystem defense director. She has extensive experience leading outdoor expeditions for the National Outdoor Leadership School. Katie completed her Master of Science in environmental studies at the University of Montana and has recently returned to UM to enter the Master of Social Work program. Katie is a former president of the WRFI board.

Dave Havlick

Dave Havlick Dave is the founding president of Wild Rockies Field Institute. In addition to more than a decade as a field instructor, Dave has worked for Predator Conservation Alliance, Wildlands CPR, and the Forest History Society. His publications include No Place Distant: Roads and Motorized Recreation on America's Public Lands (Island Press, 2002) and articles in High Country News, Walking, Adventure Cyclist, Conservation in Practice, and other periodicals. He graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in English, earned an M.S. in environmental studies from the University of Montana, and is currently completing a Ph.D. in geography at the University of North Carolina.

Nicky Phear

nicky Nicky Phear coordinates and teaches for the Wilderness and Civilization Program, which is a two-semester field and campus program for undergraduates at the University of Montana. Nicky has long been dedicated to WRFI. She was the organization's first director and has taught a range of field courses for WRFI as well as Prescott College and the Colorado Outward Bound School. She is currently active in climate change education. In the fall of 2007 she cycled 1000 miles with the Ride for Climate giving public presentations about global warming and the need for action. She serves on the city of Missoula’s Mayor’s Climate Change Advisory Board and is helping the University of Montana develop an innovative minor in climate change. She received her Master of Science in environmental studies at the University of Montana. Nicky has filled many roles on our board, and is one of the founding instructors of the Cycle the Rockies course. She can be reached at nicky.phear@umontana.edu.