The staff at the Campaign for America's Wilderness, like the many other entities advocating for the public interest, find their occupation is their passion, their days more than 9 to 5, their work week longer than five days, and their work satisfying and often hectic. We are instruments of public will, and hope to meet the challenges of helping people everywhere who love a favorite wild place to secure its lasting, statutory protection. We stand on the shoulders of giants, people like Aldo Leopold, Bob Marshall, Mardie and Olaus Murie, Howard Zahniser, Sigurd Olson, and Celia Hunter. Because of their work and the dedication of many thousands more, the American public has been given a gift. We work to help Americans pass along that gift to future generations.
Mike Matz, Director
Mike formerly headed the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in Salt Lake City, where he spearheaded the successful effort to achieve the establishment of the 1.9-million acre Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument by presidential order. Matz spent six years with the Sierra Club, four of those as a director of its public lands program in Washington, D.C. He served for four years as chairman of the Alaska Coalition. He has also worked as associate director of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center. In addition to running the Campaign for America’s Wilderness, Matz serves as treasurer of the board of directors for the Alaska Wilderness League, an organization he helped found. Based in Durango, CO, Matz spends part of his time in the Washington, DC office.
Marcia Argust, Manager, Policy
Marcia works on wilderness initiatives in the states of Idaho, Colorado, South Dakota, and Utah. Before joining the Campaign, Marcia served as the Director of Public and Governments Affairs at the American Society of Landscape Architects, and as a lobbyist with the American Institute of Architects, promoting sustainable community issues. She was also a lobbyist for the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), where she focused on Alaska and Pacific Northwest parks, historical areas, and clean air issues. Prior to her work in the private and non-profit sectors, Marcia spent five years on Capitol Hill working on natural resource issues for a Republican congressman. Marcia has a MS in Environmental Science from Johns Hopkins University and bachelor degrees in political science and psychology from Binghamton University.
David Chott, Senior Associate
David has worked with web technologies for more than eleven years, with recent experience building online communities. His passion for wilderness began on the frequent canoe, fishing, camping and hiking trips that filled his upbringing. David has bachelor degrees in political science and history from Arizona State University, and a master's degree in information management from UC Berkeley. He lives in Portland, OR.
David Dreher, Manager, Policy
David brings a strong background in natural resources issues to the Campaign, having served as senior legislative aide to Resources Committee member Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR), whose staff he joined in 2000. Dreher played a key role in writing and negotiating the Healthy Forest Restoration Act, and wrote major legislation to overhaul the Northwest Forest Plan and protect old-growth forests. He holds a B.S.in political science from the University of Oregon in Eugene.
Brian Geiger, Manager, Communications
Brian worked on Capitol Hill for over eleven years, including service as press secretary for a Florida congressman, chief of staff for a California congresswoman, and communications director for a Louisiana Senator. He also worked as a radio and television news reporter. Brian graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelor’s degree in communications. In 2006, he was admitted to doctoral candidacy at the University of Florida in political science.
John Gilroy, Program Director
Prior to joining the Campaign, Johne was a consultant to various national foundations and organizations. His work has focused on developing and promoting regional and national campaigns to protect old growth forests, critical habitat, and roadless areas on National Forests. Prior to that John spent a year at the Rockefeller Family Fund as a program associate. From 1988 until 1992 he was the executive director of the Vermont Public Interest Research Group. Prior experience was with the Center for Study of Responsive Law, US Public Interest Research Group, and the New York Public Interest Research Group. He is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center (JD) and New York University (BA). He serves on the serves on the boards of the Alaska Wilderness League, Public Interest Projects and the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation.
Gretchen Lambrecht, Administrative Associate
Gretchen comes to the Campaign with a BS degree from the University of Colorado and over eleven years of office administration experience in the investment management, software development, and university research arenas. She is extremely excited to be using her skills to assist the Campaign with its goal of protecting America's wilderness lands for future generations. When not hard at work, Gretchen enjoys the outdoors from the saddle of her road bike.
Tim Mahoney, Senior Officer and Policy Director
Over a 30-year career working for Campaign for America’s Wilderness, Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society and as an independent consultant, Tim has worked on scores of legislative campaigns, primarily wilderness bills, involving tens of millions of acres in more than 30 states, and has helped more than 50 separate pieces of legislation become law. As a consultant, he was involved in federal land acquisition and exchange efforts in the California Desert, the North Cascades, and Alaska. Representing three Alaska native corporations, Tim negotiated land sales and conservation easements protecting more than a hundred thousand acres in state and federal conservation units, tapping civil settlement funds in the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. In the 1980s he headed the Alaska Coalition, working to defend the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil development, and has long served as a board member of the Alaska Wilderness League. On February first, Tim joined the Pew Environmental Group as Senior Officer and Policy Director, Campaign for America’s Wilderness.
Jim Mathews, Manager, Policy
Jim brings over 25 years of experience working on environmental, natural resource, and conservation issues in both the public and private sectors. Jim’s professional career has included service as the Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Fisheries Management of the House Merchant Marine & Fisheries Committee; Chief of Staff for Congressman Thomas J. Manton (D-NY); Legislative Director for U.S. Senator Harrison A. Williams, Jr. (D-NJ); Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER) at the EPA; and as a senior lobbyist for a major Washington, DC, consulting firm. He earned a B.A. in Internal Relations from Lehigh University, and pursued studies in International Affairs at the George Washington University.
Jon Owen, Manager
Previously, Jon was the Campaign Director for the Washington Wilderness Coalition in Washington State, playing a lead role in the ongoing effort to pass the Wild Sky Wilderness Act. Jon began his career in '93 as a door-to-door canvasser for the Sierra Club. Since then he has spent nearly a decade in the Pacific Northwest fighting for wilderness preservation by building alliances with diverse interest groups, local leaders and members of congress to protect roadless national forests. He recently earned a Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
Ken Rait, Senior Officer and Campaign Director
Ken is the former director of the Heritage Forests Campaign, the organization that successfully advocated for the conservation of nearly 60 million acres of roadless, wild national forest lands. He served as conservation director of the Oregon Natural Resources Council and, prior to that, spent seven years as issues director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Previously, he was the conservation chair of the Sierra Club's Rincon Group in Tucson, Arizona, where he lobbied for the passage of the Arizona BLM wilderness bill. At that time he held a faculty position at the University of Arizona's Department of Agricultural Economics as research associate and published in various legal and economics journals. He holds bachelor and master's degrees from Clark University.
Carrie Sandstedt, Senior Associate
Working with citizens to empower themselves to improve their quality of life and the world around them has been a driving force in Carrie’s work on social change, politics, and wilderness preservation. Carrie comes to us after directing the Nevada Responsible Trails Alliance. Before that she worked with Nevada’s healthcare union, SEIU, and as Nevada State Director for America Votes. She has also worked for The Wilderness Society in Washington, DC, the California Wilderness Coalition, and with the Sierra Club in Nevada where she worked with volunteers and activists to protect wilderness in Nevada’s Clark and Lincoln Counties. Carrie is a proud UCSB Gaucho and lives in Reno, NV. After college, Carrie spent two years as a Rural Community Development Volunteer for Peace Corps in Togo, West Africa and loves to share her experience with others.
Doug Scott, Manager, Policy and Research
Doug formerly managed a local environmental group in the San Juan Islands of Washington State, worked at The Wilderness Society, and for 17 years for the Sierra Club, including as conservation director and associate executive director. Doug was involved in enactment of the Eastern Wilderness Areas Act (1975), The Endangered American Wilderness Act (1978), the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness (Idaho, 1980), The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (1980), and the California Desert Protection Act (California, 1994), among others.
Susan Whitmore, Senior Officer and Communications Director
Susan headed up the communications team at Handgun Control, Inc. (now the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence) where she directed the successful media efforts to win passage of the Brady Bill and assault weapons ban. More recently, she was a senior press officer at the National Education Association in Washington, D.C. Susan has also worked on Capitol Hill for a California congressman and was managing editor of Political Profiles. She has a B.A. in political science from The George Washington University.
Lindsay Woods, Associate
Lindsay has a background in community relations, working with the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life events in Minneapolis, MN. More recently she worked at Fleishman-Hillard on a public relations program for the United States Army. Lindsay has a B.A. in Communication Studies from the University of Minnesota and recently received her M.A. in Public Communication from American University.
