High Roberts Slideshow
Jessica Burness -- Medical Doctor
Jessica Burness hails from Northern California, where she spent springs and summers hiking in the Sierras and learning the names of wildflowers with her father. She went to college and medical school at Brown University, and returned to the West Coast to do her residency in family medicine at Oregon Health Sciences University. She now practices at the Native American Rehabilitation Center Clinic in Portland, and has interests in access to health care, international health and infectious diseases. She retains her childhood love for and sense of connection to nature, and considers environmental preservation and environmental health critical to human health. She is excited to share in the Crag Law Center's mission.
Kristin Ruether -- High Desert Advocate
Kristin is a staff attorney for the Oregon Natural Desert Association in its Portland field office.
She focuses on litigating public lands grazing issues in eastern Oregon. She is a recent graduate of Lewis and Clark Law School, where she was active with the school's clinic, Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center. Before law school, she worked as forest watch coordinator for Friends of the Clearwater in Moscow, Idaho. She grew up in the scenic Rust Belt and has a degree in biology from Cornell University. She enjoys backpacking, cross-country skiing, and souping up her biodiesel wheels.
Brian Litmans - Public Interest Attorney
Brian Litmans is a solo practitioner whose practice focuses exclusively on environmental law. Brian graduated from Lewis and Clark in 2001 and since that time has been involved with environmental cases across the country, predominately litigating on the natural resources and endangered species front. Brian has been on the Crag Law Center's Board since its inception, and brings with him a diverse background of government and non-profit environmental work experience. He has worked in the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the Regional Solicitor's Office for the Department of the Interior and Portland's Metro Regional Government. He has also worked and volunteered with a number of environmental organizations, from Portland to D.C. to Geneva, Switzerland, including the Center for International Environmental Law, Defenders of Wildlife, the National Wildlife Federation, the Alaska Quiet Rights Coalition, the Sierra Club, the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, and the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center. After several years working in Alaska and DC he has recently returned to Portland and looks forward to volunteering more time with the Crag Law Center.
Gary Kish - Director of Development, Oregon Humane Society
For the past 12 years Gary has been the Director of Development of the Oregon Humane Society. During that time he has implemented a diverse array of programs including a highly successful planned giving program. In that regard, he is very proud of his work to get two state laws passed that facilitate including pets in estate plans. He has also used direct mail, monthly giving and a retail store to provide OHS with a greatly increased and stabilized private donation base. Since starting with OHS, he has raised its supporters from 2,500 contributors to 42,000 and grown the revenue budget by a factor of eight to $4.2 million.
As a volunteer, Gary serves on the Oregon Natural Resources Council's Development Committee. He is also Chair of the Mazamas Fundraising Committee and a member of the Mazamas Facility Task Force. Mr. Kish also provides fund-raising advice to other conservation organizations including the Association of Northwest Steelheaders, the Oregon Natural Desert Association and The Crag Law Center. Gary has strong personal interests in native fish conservation, forest preservation and mountaineering.
Aubrey Baldwin - Advocate for Clean Air, Progressive Leader
Aubrey grew up in Southern Appalachia, where she now lives and represents public-interest organizations and citizens in their efforts to fight coal-fired power plants and other sources of air pollution across the country. Her cases include those that address Clean Air Act permitting and enforcement and national air quality and climate policy initiatives. Aubrey graduated with honors from Lewis & Clark Law School, where she was active in student government, the National Lawyers' Guild and OutLaw. Aubrey earned a Certificate in Natural Resources and Environmental Law and was inducted into the Cornelius Honor Society. In 2006 Aubrey was awarded the Williamson Award, which is presented yearly by the Environmental Alumni Association to an outstanding recent graduate who has demonstrated a commitment to public interest environmental work. While in law school, Aubrey received a Public Interest Law Project Stipend to work at the Crag Law Center, was a law clerk at the Center for Food Safety in Washington, D.C., and was a summer Legal Intern at the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center. Before law school, Aubrey was an activist, organic farmer, and social worker.
Bill Barnes - Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Portland
Bill grew up camping, fishing and hiking with his parents in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, and he has been hooked on nature ever since. He spent his undergraduate years at the University of New Hampshire, and then spent three years in Japan teaching English and cultivating a new appreciation for the bounteous North American wilderness. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Notre Dame in 2001. At the University of Portland, his interests include Environmental Economics, and in his classes and research he strives to incorporate local environmental issues. He is currently researching clean technology barriers and drivers and the diffusion of alternative energy in the Northwest.
Sadna Shenoy - Software Engineer
Sadna grew up in Bombay, India where she recieved a degree in Accounting and enjoyed hiking and climbing in the ecologically wondrous coastal ranges called the Western Ghats. She has lived in the Portland area since 1986. She earned a Master's degree in Computer Science from the Oregon Graduate Institute and worked in the software field for some time before committing her time to raising her two wonderful daughters and to volunteer causes. She has participated extensively in fundraising campaigns for schools and in support of Democratic candidates. She is the Treasurer for the Oregon Chapter of the Sierra Club and has served on the Executive Committee of the Columbia Group of that organization. Her interests include sustainable living, rural development and health issues in India - to all of which she has made active contributions. She is interested in native and organic gardening and enjoys various outdoor activities in the Pacific Northwest. She also volunteers for the Crag Law Center!
Carrie Ward - Board Member, Real Estate Broker
Carrie was born in Chicago, Illinois and lived there through the end of high school. She attended Cornell College and The American University of Paris and received a B.A. in English, Philosophy, and French. Carrie discovered the great outdoors on a National Outdoors Leadership School semester in Patagonia, and became hooked after 3 months of climbing and kayaking through the wilds of Chile. She moved to Oregon in 1994 to attend law school and enjoy the rivers, mountains, deserts and ocean in the Pacific NW. She graduated with a Special Certificate in Environmental Law in 1998 from Lewis & Clark. After working for a few non-profit environmental organizations her career took turned towards residential real estate and she has been working as broker in Portland since 2000. She still is deeply involved in conservation issues and enjoys volunteering her time to give back her skills to the community.
Leo McCloskey - Entrepreneur
Leo is a firm believer in the right of the people to participate in the process of government. At the end of every day, we, the people, are the owners of this public corporation we call a country and have every right to fair and transparent adjudication of decisions that impact our environment. Public servants and government agencies are supposed to act in the public interest. Yet Leo is pretty convinced that this is typically the exception and rarely the rule. A conservationist at heart, participating in the Crag Law Center is his way of finding balance and sustainable relationship with the environment. A technologist by trade, he assists large corporations with technology and networking strategic design and planning. He is currently employed by a large global systems integrator and travels widely. He has lived and worked in Japan, Russia, Europe and several US states, and currently resides in Sammamish, WA. Leo received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian language and International studies from Dickinson College. He is blissfully married and has three terrific girls, a dog and a cat.
Chris Winter - Co-Executive Director & Staff Attorney Tel - (503)525-2725
Chris Winter received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell University in 1994 and then graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1998, where he focused on environmental and natural resources law. For three years he practiced environmental law at Stoel Rives LLP in Portland, Oregon, representing large corporate clients on complex issues relating to investigation and cleanup of contaminated industrial sites and regulatory compliance. He also donated time to serve the environmental community pro bono during those three years and has been practicing public interest environmental law full time since founding the Crag Law Center.
When Chris isn't working, he spends time in the mountains. His passion for high, wild places has led him across the continental United States and to remote locations in Asia, Africa and Europe. Here in the Pacific Northwest you might find him tied into the sharp end of the rope, looking for turns in the backcountry or struggling to keep up with his girlfriend on the trail.
Ralph Bloemers - Co-Executive Director & Staff Attorney Tel - (503)525-2727
Ralph grew up on a cheese farm in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. After high school he left for Colorado's Rocky Mountains to study Political Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. He then worked abroad in Munich, Germany, and after that moved to Salem, Oregon, to attend law school at Willamette University. He completed an externship at 1000 Friends and a fellowship at the Nature Conservancy where he learned about environmental, land use and natural resources work. He studied international environmental law in Holland and then returned to Willamette to graduate Cum Laude in 1998. After law school, he practiced Intellectual Property, Securities and Finance law at an established Portland law firm for almost three years. Through representation of new technology, entrepreneurs and inventors, the insane demand created by the Internet "boom" and a healthy measure of initiative, Ralph gained extensive experience with the nuts and bolts of practicing law. Ralph left to commit his energy to build upon his pro bono endeavors and progressive causes and founded the Crag Law Center.
JD Brown - Staff Attorney Tel. (503)525-2724
JD attended the University of Virginia and then law school at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. JD worked in the summer for the Southern Environmental Law Center in Charlottesville, Virginia and worked in the Georgetown University Law Clinic. After school JD moved west and worked for a labor and employment law firm representing policeman and firefighters. He joined the Crag Law Center in 2004 and focuses his energy on the Coastal Law Project. When he is not working, JD enjoys spending time with his wife kayaking the rivers in Oregon and raising his new golden retriever.
Megan Hooker - Paralegal
Originally from Arizona, Megan moved to Oregon by way of Vermont in 2004. While she misses the red rocks of the desert southwest, she loves the rivers and landscape of the Pacific Northwest. Since earning a master's degree in environmental law from Vermont Law School, she has worked with several non-profit groups on clean water issues. When she's not behind the computer, you're likely to find her on her yoga mat or getting her feet and hands dirty in her garden.
Peter Brown - Business Development, Phillips Electronics
Peter is an Oregon native who has demonstrated a strong interest in protecting the diverse and unique community in which we live. Peter received a degree in marketing from Portland State, and built on that knowledge to help grow early stage growth in notable Oregon enterprises including Pixelworks, In Focus Systems and KVO Advertising and Public Relations. Peter also served a stint at Sun Microsystems. Peter has a solid expertise and understanding of embedded hardware, software, development tools and the service elements of high technology. Peter intends to put these valuable skills to work for the Crag Law Center, and to develop new ones, in order to build a strong community for future generations.
Erica Lewis - Executive Vice-President for Environmental Marketing, Better World Travel
Erica's current work as Vice President for Environmental Marketing focuses on providing sustainable travel and transportation options to business and leisure travelers and bringing these products to market. She pioneered the world's first climate neutral air travel certification; an innovative travel option that empowers travelers to eliminate the greenhouse gas pollution associated with air travel. The program received certification from the Climate Neutral Network in November 2000. Additional climate neutral travel services are currently in development as well as a "green" hotels database. She is also involved in the development of Better World Travel's charitable foundation that identifies suitable carbon offset projects for investment purposes. She is leading the company's marketing efforts and business development strategy by creating partnerships with businesses, environmental organizations, community groups and government agencies.
Abby Wool Landon - Attorney
Abby is an attorney with the law firm of Samuels Yoelin Kantor Seymour Spinrad LLP. She is licensed to practice law in Oregon and focuses her practice on Business, Litigation, Estate Planning, Trusts and Probate law. Abby graduated from Simmons College in 1980 then completed a graduate degree at Reed College in 1984. She received her law degree from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark in 1991 and was admitted to Oregon Bar the same year. She was general counsel and Executive Vice President, TripleE, Inc. from 2000-2001. She has been involved with Club Cabaret Fund Raising Committee and the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group.
Barbara Brower - Professor of Geography, Portland State University
Barbara Brower received her first degree from UC Berkeley in Anthropology in 1977, and later received an MA in 1982 and a Ph.D in 1987 in Geography from UC Berkeley. Barbara's interests lie in bio-geography, cultural ecology in the regions of High Asia, Nepal and the Western United States. Barbara is the editor of the Himalayan Research Bulletin, which reviews scholarship, research, and other information of interest to members and other Himalayanists and promotes an understanding and appreciation of the region through the publication and support of original research. She has a strong passion for mountains and wild land resource conservation and policy.
Matthew Follett - Program Director, Green House Network
Matt received his undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies in 1999 from Lewis & Clark College. In May, 2000 after serving as Campaign Director for the Green House Network, a Portland-based non-profit, Matthew was promoted to Program Director. Green House Network is the only nationally oriented non-profit organization with the sole focus on building a grassroots movement to stop global warming pollution. Its mission is to educate and unite people, students, government and business in the effort to create the clean energy future that can stop global warming pollution. Due in part to the current lack of United States leadership, Matthew has deferred his entrance into the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College for a third year so that he may continue to work with the Green House Network to stop global warming pollution.
Jill Keen - Wildlife Biologist
Early in life, Jill felt drawn to the true experience of the wilderness, the simplicity and beauty she felt there. This heartfelt connection ignited her passion for forests, rivers, deserts, and all the creatures living there. This passion carried her to the wildlands of Australia and beyond. Jill has a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin in wildlife ecology and vast experience in the field of avian ecology. Her passion for wildlife is demonstrated in the numerous field projects that she has managed over the years. In the wetlands of Nevada and Oregon she began her professional career researching white-faced ibis. Her most recent project with Alaska Biological Research ("ABR") focused on the northern spotted owl and the marbled murrelet, two endangered bird species here in the Pacific Northwest. Additionally, Jill has worked on the Oregon Coast surveying the impacts of caspian terns on endangered salmonid species.
Jill revels in her time in the wilderness; such as the years she spent living in the Grand Canyon researching the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher. Now, living in the city of Portland, she is excited by the opportunities to combine her vast scientific knowledge with the shimmering edge of progressive action.
Perrin de Jong
School: BA, Sociology; Berea College. 2nd-year JD Candidate, Lewis & Clark Law School
Hometown: Chapel Hill, NC
What brought you to Crag? An opportunity to get experience working in a dazzling array of environmental law areas.
What are your legal interests? Administrative environmental law, particularly as it relates to wildlands defense, logging, mining, road-building, and environmental justice. Also criminal defense for activists and other victims of police abuse.
Favorite pastime: Playing music with friends
Favorite place in the Pacific NW: Klamath-Siskiyous
Favorite Quote: "You're voting which you're hoping will stop the guns from smoking -- is someone f---ing joking? They're bankers in sheep's clothing!" - The Coup
Sean Malone
Hometown: Dayton, OH
School: BA, University of Colorado. JD Candidate, Gonzaga University
Why Crag? Environmental Work
Legal Interests: Environmental law, Constitutional law.
Favorite Pastime: Playing Guitar
Favorite Place in Pacific NW: Oregon Coast
Favorite Book: Ulysses by James Joyce
Chuck Brushwood
School: B.S., Ecology, The Evergreen State College. J.D. Candidate 2008, Willamette University College of Law.
Hometown: I'm still looking for one.
What brought you to Crag? A shared vision. Ralph came to Willamette last year to talk about Crag's work in support of community efforts to promote environmental conservation and sustainable natural resource management, and I was hooked. Working with Crag is a real privilege and a great opportunity to focus and develop my education in preparation for my incipient legal career.
What are your legal interests? Public interest law, public lands law and policy, water law, American Indian law.
Favorite pastime: Exploring the wild lands and waters of Cascadia.
Favorite place in the Pacific NW: I have a hard time picking one favorite spot with so many great places in the PNW to choose from, but I will say that I have a soft spot for the North Cascades.
Favorite Quote : "Wilderness needs no defense, only more defenders" - Ed Abbey
Name: Kris Russell
School: Reed College
Hometown: Easton, CT or Scottsdale, AZ
What brought you to Crag? My professor Noelwah Netusil happens to like these gentlemen, and recommended that I spend a summer with them.
What are your legal interests? Obviously Environmental Law, but I'm also very interested in Law and Economics.
Favorite pastime: I enjoy badminton, playing my flute or guitar, container gardening, and hiking with my dog, Widget.
Favorite place in the Pacific NW: Haven't found it yet.
Favorite Quote: "Tea! That's all I needed! Good cup of tea! Super-heated infusion of free-radicals and tannins, just the thing for healing the synapses."
-Ten, Doctor Who
Name: Josh Halladay
School: Catlin Gabel School
Hometown: Tigard, OR
What brought you to Crag? After chatting with with Board Chairwoman Sadhana Shenoy I learned about Crag and and what the lawyers stood for.
What are your legal interests? Civil Rights and Animal Rights
Favorite pastime: Football, baseball, and racquetball
Favorite place in the Pacific NW: Oregon Coast
Favorite Quote, Hero, Book, Movie or anything else?:
"I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark."-Muhammad Ali
Name: Alexandra Saavedra
School: Santa Clara University
Hometown: Lima, Peru and Portland, Oregon
What brought you to Crag? As a freshman in college, I am seriously considering going to Law School and wanted some exposure to what that entails. One of Crag's board memebers introduced the idea of interning here and after looking into what it is Crag stands for and how much they are able to accomplish with so little resources, I decided it would be a great first law-related internship.
What are your legal interests? For now, although this is very subject to change as I am only 19 years old, I am heading towards International Law.
Favorite place in the Pacific NW: Mt. Hood (Timberline)
Favorite Quote: "Today you are you that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you." -Dr. Seuss
Name: Nicole Rentz
School: The George Washington School of Law
Hometown: Columbia, Louisiana
What brought you to Crag? The opportunity to work for an attorneys representing local citizens in environmental litigation, and the chance to spend the summer in Portland.
What are your legal interests? Environmental and land use law, International and human rights law.
Favorite quote: "I arise in the morning torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. That makes it hard to plan the day." — E.B. White
Name: Maureen McGee
School: University of Oregon School of Law
Hometown: Pocatello, ID
What brought you to Crag? I was looking for a small, non-profit setting for my first year internship, where I would be able to do substantial legal work and learn first-hand how to do environmental litigation from experienced attorneys. When I saw that Crag was hiring for the summer, I found a classmate who had volunteered here. She was so happy with her experience at Crag that I applied, and I couldn't be happier with my decision to come here!
What are your legal interests? The whole reason I entered law school was to pursue a career in environmental law. I love the work that I am doing here at Crag, and am also interested in work more along the lines of increasing sustainability practices for business and working to bring our energy policies more up to speed in promoting truly renewable resources across the board. My favorite classes so far in school have been Property Law, and interestingly, Contracts.
Favorite place in the Pacific NW: One of my favorite ways to relax is to leave my home in Eugene early in the morning, drive over to the Oregon Coast, and then head south from Florence until I find a nice, empty beach in the dunes area. There are secluded spots, where, after wandering out onto the beach a bit, you can sit on the sand and see nothing in any direction but the ocean and sand. Crater Lake is pretty cool, too.
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