Tuolumne River Trust Advisory Committee

The following are members of our Advisory Committee

David Aced, CPA

David Aced serves as an advisor to the Finance Committee. He co-founded the Dunker and Aced Accountancy firm with offices in Modesto and Oakdale in 1973 in order to provide personal and professional accounting services to the community. David is an avid fisherman and outdoorsman.

John Amodio

John was Executive Director of the Tuolumne River Trust during the 1980's when 83 miles of the Tuolumne River were declared Wild and Scenic. He now works for the State of California Department of Conservation. Gov. Pete Wilson appointed John to the Calif. Integrated Waste Management Board to serve as liaison to the environmental community. Over the years, John has served with many environmental organizations.

Sally Chenault

Sally has a lifetime of personal experience along the Tuolumne River having grown up in Modesto. She is an attorney with the Modesto law firm of Damrell Nelson Shrimp Pallios Pacher and Silva specializing in civil litigation and family law. With excellent training from the Junior League of Santa Barbara, she brings skills of fundraising, public speaking, and lobbying to the Trust as well as a deep-rooted love of the Tuolumne and Clavey Rivers.

Heather Dempsey

Heather served as Bay Area Program Director for the Tuolumne River Trust from 2004 to 2007. Heather came to the Trust with a diversity of experience in the environmental field from both the non-profit and government sectors. As a grant manager for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, she became well-versed in river restoration efforts in California and the role of government agencies in river management . Heather earned her Masters of Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies with a focus on large-scale conservation

Glenda Edwards

Glenda Edwards has worked to protect the Clavey River as a Wild and Scenic River since 1994. She is a member of a collaborative group, the Clavey River Ecosystem Project, that has as its goal an assessment and analysis of the entire watershed to be used as the basis for future management recommendations and monitoring. Glenda became an Advisor to the Trust in 2000.

Jim Greene, Jr.

Jim retired from the US Navy in 1995 having completed 32 years of active duty. He is currently on the faculty of the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA and also consults for Defense Industry clients. Since retirement he has been actively involved with numerous land and river preservation non-profit organizations as a Board member or advisor including a five year term as Chair of the Henrys Fork Foundation dedicated to preserving the headwaters of the Snake River in SW Idaho . Jim is an avid fly fisherman and first encountered the Tuolumne River on a 1970 camping and fishing trip at Tuolumne Meadows.

Richard Haratani

Teacher, Riverdale Elementary School . Richard is a river guide on the Tuolumne.

Samuel Harned

Sam is a Senior Landscape Architect with rrm design group in Oakdale. As a child, his father instilled a love of nature in his brothers and him, and Sam passes this along to his own young boys. Sam in interested in serving TRT because he appreciates the need to preserve and protect rivers as a resource for a healthy and sustainable environment. He brings passion as well as technical and architectual expertise to the Trust.

Noah Hughes

Noah, a resident of Sonora, teaches earth science and geology at Modesto Junior College . As an avid kayaker, Noah brings an intimate knowledge of the Upper and Lower Tuolumne River and is excited about using his expertise as an educator to further the mission of the Trust.

Balvino Irizarry

Balvino is the President of the Hispanic Leadership Council of Stanislaus County. The Trust looks forward to working with Mr. Irizarry and the Council on many community projects in the lower Tuolumne watershed . Balvino is the owner of Irizarry Enterprises LLC and
Advanced Mailing Services in Modesto.

Thomas A. Johnson

Jeffrey Leighton, CPA

Consultant, foundation and not-for profit financial and management issues, former Chief Financial Officer, Packard Foundation (10 years); served as senior financial advisor to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Packard Humanities Institute and Stanford Theatre Foundation. Serves on the Trusts' Finance Committee.

Cecily Majerus

Cecily has been a Trust advisor since 2003. She is a former Executive Director to the Trust and Board member. Before moving to California, Cecily lived in Maryland and was their Governor's Coordinator for the Chesapeake Bay . She is a currently Chair of the Ocean Conservancy.

Amy Meyer

Amy is a founding member of the Tuolumne River Trust and was vice-president of the board for several years. She has been co-chairman of People for a Golden Gate National Recreation Area since 1971, was vice-chair of the GGNRA's federal Advisory Commission for 28 years, and was a member of the board of the Presidio Trust. She is currently a chairman of People for the Presidio. She has been an advisor to the Trust since 2002.

Jenna Olsen

Former Executive Director of Tuolumne River Trust through 2005, Jenna currently is employed as Senior Manager Government Partnerships and Third Party Contracts with Pacific Gas & Electric.

Drummond Pike

Founder and President, Tides Foundation, Tides Center , Groundspring.org and Tsunami Fund; President, Highwater, Inc.; Founder and Associate Director, Youth Project ( Washington, D.C. ); former Executive Director, Shalan Foundation.

Wendy Pulling

Wendy Pulling is an avid birdwatcher, hiker and (white-knuckle) passenger in river rafts. An environmental lawyer by training, she is the Director of Environmental Policy at Pacific Gas & Electric Company. She has served on the advisory committee since 2002.

Richard Roos-Collins

Attorney, Natural Heritage Institute; former President and Board member, Tuolumne River Trust (10 years).

Norwood Scott

Staff, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; Member, U.S. Wild Water Team; Member, Team Perception; Member, Board, American Whitewater Association, Former Board Member, Tuolumne River Trust (5 years).

Ron Stork

Ron is the Senior Policy Advocate for Friends of the River. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the School of Agriculture at the University of California at Davis in Plant Science. In his occasional spare time, Ron can be found ambling around mountain trails or floating western rivers with a hand lens and a large Flora in hand searching for rare wildflowers. Ron served on the Trust Board for 20 years before joining the advisory committee in 2002.

Patricia Sullivan

Tricia studied Biology both as an undergraduate at UC Davis and in graduate school at Harvard. She joined PG&E in 1980, and in 1988, joined the Environmental Affairs Department, where she manages investigation and remediation of historically contaminated sites (such as former Manufactured Gas Plant sites). Tricia's hobbies included hiking, backpacking and/or camping, bird watching and, in general, being in nature. She is a former Trust Board member and joined the Advisory Committee in 2002.

Therese Tuttle

Therese is a farmer advocate and attorney for Tuttle and Van Konynenburg, LLP in Modesto . She is a founding member and leader of the Great Valley Slow Food Convivium. Therese is also involved with the Modesto Chamber of Commerce, Agriculture Advisory Board of the Great Valley Center , American Agricultural Law Association, California Bar Association, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, American Farmland Trust, California Native Plant Society, and the Sierra Club. She is a former Trust Board member and joined the Advisory Committee in 2007.

Holly Welles, Ph.D.

Dr. Holly Welles joined the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) in January 2001. She was Supervisor of Environmental Policy in the Department of Environmental Affairs and manages the Company’s Environmental Justice Program. She earned a Ph.D. in Environmental Planning at UC Berkeley, a Master of Forest Science from Yale University (School of Forestry and Environmental Studies), and a bachelor of geology and a bachelor of biology from the University of Colorado. She was a Switzer Environmental Fellow, a Morris K Udall Dissertation Fellow, and serves on Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services Advisory Committee, and the San Jose State University Urban and Regional Planning Department Advisory Committee. Holly served as a Trust Board member from 2002- 2007.

Jennifer M. White, Ph.D.

Director for Education, U.C. Berkeley Botanical Garden; former staff Science educator Lawrence Hall of Science; Member, Advisory Committee to Yosemite Park Concession Services.

John Woolard

John Woolard co-founded Silicon Energy and was President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board. John is the co-author of a US Patent for web-based Energy Management Systems, and has been a leader in energy technology for many years, meeting several times with President Bush in executive sessions on National Energy Policy. John has an MBA from the Haas School of Business at U.C. Berkeley, a Masters in Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia , and a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia . Along with the Trust, John also serves on the Board of the California Clean Energy Fund, the Strategic Advisory Board for Xcel Energy, and is a Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He is also a frequent guest lecturer at the Haas School of Business, as well as many national energy and technology conferences. John served on the Trust Board from 2002 to 2006.