Steve Barker

Steve Barker along wife his wife Nona founded Eagle Creek Travel Gear in 1975. Under their leadership, Eagle Creek became the first US brand to exclusively focus on outfitting Adventure Travel and grew to become a globally respected brand.

Steve stepped down as President of Eagle Creek in 2010 after selling Eagle Creek to VF Corporation and formed Wild Places, a consulting practice focused on saving wild places.

Currently, Steve serves as Board Chair of the Adventure Travel Conservation Fund, as Vice Chair of the Outdoor Foundation ,as Board member of the Alaska Wilderness League and is a founding board member of the Escondido Creek Conservancy.

The Barker’s split their time between Elfin Forest in North San Diego County and Bishop in the Eastern Sierra.

Jennifer Melville

Jennifer has been working to conserve land for wildlife and people in New England for three decades. She currently holds a dual role with the Open Space Institute: Vice President, Conservation Grants and New England/Southern Canada Field Coordinator. Jennifer develops and provides oversight for OSI re-grant programs from Southern Canada to Alabama and directs OSI’s work in New England, including managing OSI’s Funds and grant-making for Sweet Water Trust. On behalf of OSI, she serves on the executive committee of Sebago Clean Waters, the coordinating committee for the Network for Landscape Conservation, and the steering committee for the Appalachian Trail Landscape Partnership. Before joining OSI in 2008, Jennifer worked for the Trust for Public Land, establishing TPL’s Maine field office and conserving iconic places such as Tumbledown Mountain, Scarborough Beach and the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village. Previously, she served as Conservation Director at the Appalachian Mountain Club and as a planner for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, holds an MA from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and lives and works in Southern Maine. Her volunteer activities include serving as Vice President for Maine Conservation Voters, as an advisory council member of Wildlandscapes International and passivhaus Maine, and as an easement steward for the Freeport Conservation Trust. 

Wilfred Saiteu

Wilfred Saiteu (Kakae), is a born naturalist, conservationist and a tour guide, who grew up in the remote village on the outskirts of Karatu District bordering  the Ngorongoro Conversation Area. At age 13, he moved to life in the Ngorongoro, where on daily bases his sees and share the same environment with the big and small critters of the tropics. With a great passion for wildlife, he went on pursuing a bachelor of science in wildlife conservation at Dar es Salaam University.

Upon graduating, he worked as an environmental advisor for the non-profit organization, Wegs, which stand for Water Ecology and Ground Survey. Mid 2008 he join Nomad Tanzania Limited---a safari company as a Tour guide, and latterly, he now works for Nomad Tanzania as a freelance Tour guide. Working as a tour guide, Wilfred is able to reach, teach, and share with a lot of his clients among other things ranging from key global issues, importance of nature preservation and the long term benefits of environmental conservation. Wilfred is an active member within Nomad Company who takes interested people to visit, learn and support the conservation projects which Nomad supports like the carnivore project in the Ruaha, DE-snaring program in the Serengeti and many more of the like.

Wilfred has been fortunate among Tanzanians; he has had the privilege of visiting a vast number of North American National parks and monuments with the great companionship of David Houghton. He has seen and learned a lot on his various trips to the states.

Evgeny Shvarts

Dr. Evgeny Shvarts is Lead Scientist of Institute of Geography, the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Fellow (2019-2020) in University of Washington (Seattle, WA) and in Bowdoin College (ME). Dr. Shvarts earned the title, Honored Ecologist of Russian Federation, and he is the first environmentalist and environmental scientist elected as independent director of large mining companies - Member of the PJSC MMC Norilsk Nickel Board of Directors and UC RUSAL Board of Directors. Dr. Evgeny Shvarts is former Director of Conservation/Director of Conservation Policy of WWF-Russia (1998 - 2019). He holds a Ph.D. degree (1987) and a Habilitation degree (Doctor of Sciences, 2003, both from Institute of Geography RAS). He was Senior Fellow and Member of the Academic Board of the Institute of Geography, RAS (1990–98), Chairman of the Board of the Biodiversity Conservation Center (1992–98), Manager of the Protected Areas Component of the GEF/WB "RF Biodiversity Conservation Project" (1996–98). He has authored five books and 120 articles. Dr. Evgeny Shvarts is the founder, member, and former Chairman (2015-2017) of Public Council of Russian Federal Agency on Forestry and member of two Scientific Councils of Russian Academy of Sciences on forest and on ecology of communities.

Brenda Smith

Brenda Smith, PhD, has been the Executive Director of High Desert Partnership since 2015. She has a Ph.D. in Agronomy from Oklahoma State University, a Master of Science in Agriculture from California State University, and a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Science and Management from the University of California. 

Her deep interest in collaborative work started years ago when she trained in facilitation while teaching at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the 1990s. She has had various professional experiences that range from starting her own business of an intensive market farm using the Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model to market vegetables and cut flowers, to conducting agricultural research, to starting a university on-farm internship program, to developing outreach products for land managers. These experiences have led her to better understand the complexities of working in partnerships. Her work has given her an appreciation of landscape-scale management and the importance of addressing land management’s social issues. She was a founder, partner, and manager for Smith and Smith Farms for 12 years and served as the Outreach Coordinator and Agronomist for the Eastern Oregon Agricultural Research Center for nearly a decade. In 2019, she was named Harney County Chamber of Commerce’s Woman of the Year. 

Today, in addition to her work with High Desert Partnership, she also grows flowers in the summer for local subscriptions of Harney County Buckaroo Bouquets and recently served on the Board for the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers. She is also the current Chair of the Harney County Watershed Council.

Paul Taylor

Paul is the founder of GLOBAL CITIZEN, an iconic branding agency focused on helping organizations to leverage the power of iconic branding to solve the world’s greatest challenges, after helping to develop The Coca-Cola Company’s first-ever Global Citizenship Report and Corporate Responsibility Strategy. Having worked closely with many of the world’s most iconic brands, GLOBAL CITIZEN has created a proprietary Iconic By Design Brand Process to partner with brands in the UN Sustainable Development global challenge sectors focusing on the environment, energy, education and the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). Brand Partners include - The Coca-Cola Company, Nike, Disney, Adidas, HP, P&G, Colgate-Palmolive, Kellogg's, RISE Costa Rica, SmartAction, the Department of the Interior (DOI), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS), the Department of Energy (DOE), National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 

Prior to founding GLOBAL CITIZEN, Paul worked as a global executive at The Coca- Cola Company for 7 years where he led two multi-billion dollar business units as the Global Innovation Director-VP of Coke Classic & Diet Coke and the Global Marketing Director-VP of Dasani & Powerade.

When not in the home office, Paul can be found exploring the great outdoors with his wife, Anne, and their four children, Kaden, Bodhi, Zaddek, and Sage.