Chuck Hutchinson is a geographer with specializations in remote sensing and arid lands. In particular, he has worked on inventory and monitoring techniques for agriculture and natural resources using satellite and aerial video systems. Since 1987, he has worked on environmental monitoring and famine early warning in Africa for the United Nations and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Since 2002, he has been working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on incorporating NASA Earth science products in national decision support systems (DSSs). He just completed a book for UNESCO that considers 50 years of arid lands research,The Future of Arid Lands — Revisited, published by Springer. He has been at the University of Arizona since 1980; prior to that he was with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the EROS Program of the U.S. Geological Survey. During his time at Arizona he has also been temporarily assigned to Washington D.C. to Resources for the Future in 1988 (sabbatical), NASA Headquarters in 1998 (Visiting Senior Scientist, Office of Earth Science), and again in 2001-2 (Acting Director, Applications Division, Office of Earth Science).

Charley Miller is a third generation rancher who owns and operates the Elkhorn Ranch, a guest ranch in the Altar Valley. Charley grew up on the ranch. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Arizona in agricultural business and animal science. After graduation, Charley worked as a camp cowboy, a commercial banker and a marketing analyst for Bruce Church Lettuce Company. When Charley returned to the Elkhorn in 1983, he pushed for the Elkhorn to work with NRCS as a formal cooperator, set up monitoring sites around the ranch, and initiated large scale rangeland restoration work on the ranch, with the advice and support of his father. Charley was named the 2013 Range Manager of the Year by the Arizona Section of the Society for Range Management. He is a horseman and guide, who enables thousands of people of all ages to safely experience the Altar Valley by horseback. Charley has been married to his wife, Mary, since 1996, and is also the father of two daughters.

Kerry Baldwin is a native Arizonan and worked in natural resource management throughout his career. He is a graduate of the University of Arizona with both B.S. and Master’s degrees in wildlife and natural resource management. He is a certified Wildlife Biologist. Kerry worked for the Arizona Game and Fish Department for 30 years, and spent most of that time as the Education Branch Chief and part of the agency management team. In 2004, he retired and went to work with Pima County as the Natural Resources Division Manager, and worked on the implementation team for the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. He helped review, acquire, and then manage the lands in the conservation land program (almost 150 properties covering over 200,000 acres), funded by the 2004 voter approved $165 million-dollar conservation bond. Kerry retired again in 2016, but remains an active volunteer and continues leadership roles in many organizations and projects locally, regionally, and internationally.

Brett Blum is the Associate Director for the Southern Arizona Experiment Station, part of the University of Arizona’s land grant. This role includes the administration and management of the Santa Rita Experimental Range, America’s oldest experimental rangeland. His career focus is to provide a diverse platform for research, education and outreach with an emphasis on understanding ecological processes and refining agricultural practices in the desert Southwest. He holds an MSc. and BSc. in Wildlife Ecology, Conservation and Management from the University of Arizona with much of his research focused on human/wildlife interactions and social dimensions of natural resources. Brett is an Arizona native and spends much of his free time exploring the back country of the Southwest.

Dr. Doelle has more than 30 years of experience as a professional archaeologist. He has worked extensively in Mexico, Guatemala, and the North American Southwest. His primary research interest is the demographic history of the Greater Southwest. Dr. Doelle served six years as Treasurer of the Archaeology Division of theAmerican Anthropological Association, and he was a member of the Board of Directors of the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), as well as Chair of the SAA’s Fundraising Committee. Bill came to Tucson almost 40 years ago as a new graduate student. Today, he is the founder and president of two Tucson-based organizations dedicated to respectfully exploring the Southwest’s past and sharing that story with everyone. His commitment to the region shows through the meticulous care and scholarship he and his teams bring to the study of the Southwest’s deep heritage, and through his fierce advocacy for preserving important places as a legacy for the future.

Larry Fisher is a Research Professor at the School of Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona. His teaching, research, and project-related interests focus on large landscape conservation, public lands policy, environmental conflict and mediation, and international conservation and sustainable development. Prior to joining SNRE, Larry worked for 10 years as a federal mediator for the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, coordinating their Public Lands and Resources program. Larry received his PhD in Forest Policy and Management from Cornell University, his masters in International Agriculture and Rural Development from Cornell University, and his B.A. in Social Sciences from the University of California – Irvine.

Dr. Elise Gornish is a Cooperative Extension Specialist in Ecological Restoration at the University of Arizona, and has been conducting research and outreach in arid land vegetation management for over ten years. She is particularly interested in trait based restoration approaches, restoration for multiple ecosystem services, the use of restoration in weed management, and spatially patterned seeding. The Gornish lab focuses on using integrated approaches to develop and deploy effective restoration and land management strategies in working and natural landscapes. The lab develops research and outreach programs on a wide range of themes to address questions related to ecological restoration and weed management in Arizona and the western U.S. region. Elise received her PhD in Ecology from Florida State University.

Scott Jones is a PhD candidate at the University of Arizona. His research interests are landscape ecology, socio-ecological systems, ecosystem services, land use/land cover change, human dimensions of natural resources, GIS and remote sensing. He holds an M.S. in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources from the Colorado State University, an MEd in Secondary Education from Arizona State University, a BA in International Studies from California Lutheran University, a BA in Political Science from California Lutheran University, and a BS in Environmental Science from California Lutheran University.

Jim Koweek has well over 4 decades of working with native plants and seed in Southeast Arizona.  He owns and operates Arizona Revegetation and Monitoring Company, which specializes in reseeding projects, native seed sales and rangeland monitoring for the mid elevations of the Southwest. He is also the author of the book Grassland Plant ID For Everyone: Except Folks That Take Boring Technical Stuff Too Seriously, which is a nontechnical field guide to around 300 species of grassland plants. Includes 60 grass species, trees and shrubs, cacti and succulents, and well over 100 forbs.

Walter Lane is a fourth generation rancher in Arizona with ranching interests in Pima and Cochise Counties. He graduated from the University of Arizona in 1983 with a degree in Finance/Real Estate. He has been a principal in Headquarters West, Ltd., a rural real estate brokerage and appraisal firm, since 1994. Walter is a founding member of the Altar Valley Conservation Alliance and current Treasurer. He is married with two children.

Brian Powell is a Program Manager with the Pima County Office of Sustainability and Conservation. He assists with the monitoring and management of the County’s extensive land holdings and assists in developing land-use policies and in reviewing environmental impacts of large-scale projects. Prior to joining the County, Brian led a 5-year biological inventory and monitoring effort in national parks in southern Arizona and New Mexico. He received his M.S. degree from the UA’s School of Natural Resources and the Environment (principally studying birds in the Baboquivari Mountains) and a B.S. degree from the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. Brian lives in Tucson with his wife, Leza Carter, and two children.

George Ruyle is a University of Arizona professor and extension specialist in rangeland management, and is the first recipient of the Marley Endowed Chair for Sustainable Rangeland Stewardship. His primary role is to provide leadership for statewide educational programming backed by problem-solving research and focused on sustainable use of rangelands. George’s interests have a central theme to provide various client-groups the ecological foundation essential for the implementation of effective rangeland management. Through participatory research and education, his programming helps build capacity in collaborative conservation, usually in rural communities and involving publicly held resources. He specializes in the area of conservation ranching for sustainable rangeland livestock production, primarily through the practices of grazing planning, monitoring and adaptive management. George received his doctorate in rangeland science from Utah State, his master’s in rangeland management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his B.S. in Environmental Resources in Agriculture from Arizona State University.

Thomas Sheridan holds a joint appointment as professor of Anthropology at the Southwest Center and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. He received his PhD from the University of Arizona in 1983. Thomas directed the Mexican Heritage Project at the Arizona Historical Society from 1982-1984, and was Director of the Office of Ethnohistorical Research at ASM from 1997 to 2003. He was heavily involved in Pima County’s visionary Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan since 1998, chairing the Ranch Conservation Technical Advisory Team. Thomas was President of the Anthropology & Environment Section of the American Anthropological Association from 2003 to 2005. He has authored or co-edited eleven other books. Thomas also serves on the Alliance board as a Community Representative.

Priya Sundareshan is the Director of the Natural Resource Use and Management Clinic. She was most recently an attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund in Washington, D.C., where she advocated for sustainable federal fisheries management in legal and policy issues. Prior to that, she was an associate at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in D.C.; her practice included a broad array of energy and environmental statutes. A Tucson native, she received her JD and an MS in natural resource economics through the University of Arizona’s dual degree program in Economics, Law and the Environment. She holds a BS in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Peter Warren is retired from The Nature Conservancy.