Want to join a dynamic board that is making a difference for the long-term health and viability of eastern Idaho? Teton Regional Land Trust is accepting applications for board positions until August 1st. The Land Trust is committed to having a diverse Board of Directors. We are looking for board members from Bonneville, Madison, Jefferson, Clark, and Fremont Counties, multicultural members, and/or members with professional experience in agriculture, accounting, law, and fundraising. We are currently not accepting applications from Teton County due to having several board members representing this county already. If you are interested or have an individual you would like to nominate, please contact Kim Trotter at kimt@tetonlandtrust.org.
Current Teton Regional Land Trust Board of Directors
Bill Rogers
President
Idaho Falls and Teton Valley, ID
A native Texan, Bill moved to Idaho in 2004 as the Associate Laboratory Director for Science & Technology and Chief Research Officer at the Idaho National Laboratory. He retired in 2017 after working 28 years as a senior research manager and scientist at three DOE National Laboratories as well as 10 years as Professor and Chair of Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington. He also served as Director for the Center for Advanced Energy Studies in Idaho Falls, ID, and Director of the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory in Richland, Washington. Bill received his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry and BS in Chemistry from the University of Texas. He is a fellow of the American Vacuum Society (AVS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In retirement, besides interacting with the Land Trust, he enjoys traveling abroad, skiing, hunting, and cooking Texas pit barbeque. Bill and his wife, Lee, live in Idaho Falls and Teton Valley, Idaho.
Karen Rice
Vice President / Governance Committee Chair
Idaho Falls, ID
Karen brings decades of conservation experience to the board, having recently retired from the Bureau of Land Management. She notes the highlight of her career involved working with land trusts to conserve key private properties that intermingle with public lands. Since 1996, she worked with the BLM’s Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Teton Regional Land Trust, The Conservation Fund and The Nature Conservancy to form an award winning partnership that has conserved 90 private properties valued at approximately $65 million along the upper Snake Rivers’ corridors and at Henry’s Lake. Her extensive experience as a wildlife biologist and program manager brings a wealth of knowledge to the position. She is enjoying some traveling, hunting, skiing, and free time.
Bill Graham
Treasurer
Kenilworth, Illinois
Bill Graham is Founder of Rainbow Bend Capital, LLC. Prior, Bill was President and co-owner of USABlueBook, the nation’s leading catalog distributor of water treatment equipment. The company was an entrepreneurial start-up. Bill received his MBA from Kellogg and graduated with honors from Williams College. He is active in a variety of non-profit entities and is a founding member of his local Ducks Unlimited Chapter. Bill, his wife Libby, and their three children reside in Kenilworth, Illinois. The Graham family has a Teton Valley home protected by a Land Trust easement.
Ned Corkran
Secretary
Victor, ID
Ned Corkran grew up on the east coast and fled to the mountains as soon as he finished college to get away from the world of strip malls and parking lots. He was drawn to Teton Valley in the 1990s primarily to climb and ski in the Tetons and has come to value the ecosystem, the wildlife, and the rural community over his time here. Ned has worked on numerous wildlife studies in the Greater Yellowstone and passionately recognizes the uniqueness of this area we call home. He believes that we are lucky to spend time in a place this special and that it is in our own best interest to preserve it, for the benefit of both the people who live and visit here, as well as for the wildlife who call it home. Ned’s professional life has included working with various youth populations helping them find their passions and values as they become adults through programs like Red Top Meadows and Outward Bound. He spends much of his recreational time in the mountains, parks and open spaces of the area, skiing, hiking, camping, and floating the rivers.
Sarah Ashworth
Wise River, MT and Teton Valley, ID
Land conservation is near and dear to Sarah. She sees being on the board as an opportunity to make a positive and constructive contribution in support of TRLT’s mission “to conserve working farms and ranches, fish and wildlife habitat, and scenic open spaces in Eastern Idaho for this and future generations.” As the founder and former president of NET 30, Inc. and owner of CrackerBoxes, LLC, Sarah’s unique combination of creative thinking paired with a very logical approach to problem solving makes her an ideal board member.
Most recently, Sarah has served as active board chair of the Big Hole River Foundation in southwest Montana. She likes that the area TRLT serves to conserve is focused, which hopefully makes educational opportunities a little easier with farmers, ranchers and other landowners in the area. Sarah’s major cause for concern is the persistence of developers to intrude on Nature’s gifts without serious regard or care for their negative impact.
William “Brad” Bradley
Overland Park, KS
Brad is a retired IT company co-founder/senior executive and attorney. He was raised on a farm outside of Lawrence, Kansas and currently lives in Overland Park. While in school, he fell in love with the mountains on backpacking trips in Colorado. He graduated from the University of Kansas with honors earning a BA and JD. Twenty years later, he bought a second home in Jackson, Wyoming. When Jackson was getting “crowded and noisy” he moved to Irwin, Idaho where he became acquainted with TRLT. “Though I recently sold my place in Irwin, I’m still a big fan of the work you do. I’m pleased to join the board of such an important organization,” said Bradley.
He currently owns and manages the 2000-acre Little Osage Ranch, along the Kansas-Missouri border. Some of the land is reclaimed mining land, and over one mile of the Little Osage River flows through another parcel. They practice regenerative agriculture for row crop production and intensive livestock grazing. The entire ranch is under a conservation easement with Pheasants Forever.
Brad keeps busy the rest of the time with investments in and mentoring some start-up companies, including one he co-owns, FarmTender, LLC, that helps match regenerative farmers with landowners wanting regenerative techniques. It will launch in 2022. He recently completed a two-term stint as chair of The Nature Conservancy in Kansas board of trustees, and actively supports The Children’s Mercy Hospital Research Institute in Kansas City, and the Down Syndrome organization, also in Kansas City. He is a former Master 4-Her, and a former US Army, later National Guard artillery officer, and National Guard JAG officer.
Brad is married to Robbie Harding and he has five children/stepchildren, and eight grandchildren/ step-grandchildren. He enjoys fishing, hunting, hiking, skiing, sailing and scuba diving.
Jeff Carr
Idaho Falls, ID
Jeff has been the Executive Director of the Museum of Idaho since January 2023, and on the museum staff since 2017. As an eastern Idaho native, he is highly involved in the Idaho Falls community, including serving on several other boards. In addition to the museum, Jeff also has a background in journalism, academia, and foreign affairs having worked for the Central Intelligence Agency as a Political and Leadership Analyst and for Stanford University as a Program and Publication Coordinator. Jeff is a veteran communicator and storyteller who knows the Idaho Falls cultural, nonprofit, philanthropic, and business communities well.
Sandy Schultz Hessler
Development Committee Chair
Victor, ID
Sandy’s passion is to help people and teams catalyze the power within for maximum health, growth and success. She has over 30 years of experience in business from blue chips to start ups along with a lifetime of study on human potential and consciousness.
She began her career in brand management at Procter & Gamble, then co-founded a startup called Imagitas, which received a prestigious “Hammer Award” from then Vice President Al Gore for helping build a government that works better and costs less, and later sold it to Pitney Bowes in 2005 for $265 million. She has taught leadership, communications and marketing at Tufts, Miami of Ohio and Harvard Kennedy School where she served as Assistant Dean, running the office of career advancement, field experience and internships for students. For the last six years, she has co-created and taught the Start Up Intensive – 10-week, 200 hour boot camps in Jackson, Wyoming through Central Wyoming College, while also doing private leadership coaching and consulting. She has her undergraduate degree from Northwestern University, and advanced degrees from Harvard, Miami of Ohio and the University of Santa Monica. She is a mother of five and an avid adventurer. Over the last six years, Sandy has deepened her knowledge of psychology, consciousness, and success coaching by earning a Masters in Spiritual Psychology and working on a PhD in Depth Psychology.
Bob Lugar
Finance Committee Chair
Rigby, ID
Bob holds a B.S. in Environmental Science and a Master’s in Environmental Pollution Control. He moved to Idaho twenty-six years ago to advance his career as an environmental scientist and to enjoy the variety of outdoor recreation the region offers. Bob notes, “The land protection efforts by the Land Trust with willing landowners is tremendously important if we want future generations to enjoy the same view scape, wildlife, and natural beauty that is so much of our quality of life we enjoy here today.” Bob, his wife, and their two children live outside of Rigby, ID. He transitioned from environmental consulting to wealth management consulting and he is presently a financial advisor for a major Wall Street firm.
Mike Merigliano
Teton Valley, ID
Mike is an experienced plant ecologist, whose work includes natural resources management and research in plant ecology, specifically the connection between the physical environment, disturbance, and animals. He believes the Land Trust’s role in private land protection is especially important because such lands are typically very productive and yet often degraded, making long term stewardship of existing easements difficult logistically but also so important.
Paul Merrill
Victor, ID
Paul graduated from Boise State University with a B.B.A. in Business Management. He has 30 years of experience in the investment management business. He has worked for various Wall Street firms and currently owns an independent financial advisory practice in eastern Idaho. As a Utah native and resident of Victor, Idaho, he was drawn to the area because of his passion and love for the outdoors and in particular, the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Paul realizes the real need to preserve and protect open spaces for wildlife habitat and for future generations. He enjoys traveling and spending time with his family. He and his three kids are all avid skiers. In his spare time, he is also enjoys backpacking, biking, and diving.
Ron Miller
Bonneville, ID
As a retired physician, specializing in Neuroradiology, Dr. Miller enjoyed all facets of his occupation, but has always been interested in our natural environment, especially the interactions of water and land and how they interact to sustain life. When he retired, he was left with free time and a desire to better understand the way that the natural environment and water interact. Though supportive of many conservation organizations, his efforts have focused on ensuring that the South Fork of the Snake River is conserved, protected, and restored, which led to the development of the South Fork Initiative, a part of the Henry’s Fork Foundation, of which he is currently a board member.
Though Ron’s conservation roots lie in growing up on a small river in central Nebraska, his link to this area lies in a long, and enjoyable relationship with the Land Trust and its staff, as he currently has a TRLT directed conservation easement on his property. He has worked with the Land Trust for a long time and recognizes the extensive value of the work the organization has done and continues to do in land conservation. Dr. Miller also appreciates TRLT’s willingness to work collaboratively with other organizations to make a major impact on our environment.
Bruce J. Mincher
Conservation Committee Chair
Idaho Falls, ID
Bruce has his origin in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York and was brought west by Idaho National Lab in 1984. There he designed, proposed, and managed research programs in the areas of actinide and radiation chemistry until his retirement as a Laboratory Fellow Scientist in 2018. He has had a lifelong interest in hunting, fishing, and wildlife conservation and has spent countless hours raising money and participating in fieldwork for wildlife research projects for Idaho Fish and Game and several NGOs. The realization that protecting habitat is the single most important thing we can do for wildlife is the origin of his interest in Teton Regional Land Trust. He holds a BS in Biology from the State University of NY at Albany, and an MS and Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Idaho and currently resides in Idaho Falls.
John Nedrow
Past President
Ashton, ID
John is a lifelong resident of Fremont County, Idaho where he farms land his parents started buying in the late 1930s. He and his wife, Sheila, live on the bank of the Henry’s Fork, west of Ashton, and are proud to have protected most of their land under a conservation easement with the Land Trust. He has a B.S. in Agribusiness from the University of Idaho. John served for six years on the Fremont County Planning and Zoning Commission. He and his family wish to keep enjoying the outdoors, the wildlife, scenery, and recreational opportunities the area has to offer.
David Pease
Salt Lake City, UT and Teton Valley, ID
Dr. Pease works as an emergency department physician in Salt Lake City, UT where he has been a partner in the same group for almost 30 years. He has had the opportunity to do lengthy volunteer medical trips to Nepal and the Solomon Islands as well as several volunteer build trips with Habitat for Humanity and the Fuller Center.
David’s greatest passion is for the natural world. He spends much of his free time outdoors, trail running and climbing in the spring, summer and fall and backcountry and Nordic skiing in the winter. He is eager to bring that passion to conservation projects in Teton Valley with the Land Trust. David loves the phrase “think globally, act locally” and feels that serving on the Land Trust board is a great way to “act locally”. He and his wife have been visiting Teton Valley for 30+ years, have owned a home here for 16 years, and plan to retire here. David feels we are at a tipping point and he thinks we need “all hands on deck” to help mitigate the crises and to preserve the environment for those coming after us.
Arantza Zabala
Past President
Victor, ID
Arantza brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the board. She recently retired from the Idaho National Laboratory where she held various management positions in the Human Resources Department since 1991. She has a broad expanse of community service roles, including working with the Idaho Workforce Development Council, the Breaking Boundaries Board, the Idaho Migrant Council and the Industry Liason Group to name a few. In her free time, Arantza enjoys snowboarding, mountaineering, hiking, mountain biking, waterskiing, and SCUBA diving.