Steve Chase (President)

Steve Chase is a native of New England who grew up outdoors amongst the wild lands of the Northern Forest. He is starting his tenth year working at the National Conservation Training Center, where he is the Chief of Facility Operations and Administration. He also oversees the NCTC Conservation Heritage Program and works on community-related projects. Steve graduated in 1983 from the University of Hartford, with a BA in Mass Communications and Earth Science. He received a Master of Public Administration from the Barney School of Business and Public Administration in 1990. He has served as a Legislative Fellow for the Connecticut State Legislature and was awarded a Presidential Management Internship in 1990. In the past 20 years he has also worked as a backcountry caretaker, river guide, public works administrator, planning commissioner, and environmental education video-maker. Along with his involvement in the American Conservation Film Festival, he serves as a board member of The Murie Center in Moose, Wyoming.

John Grabowska
FilmmakerNational Park Service

John Grabowska has been a radio and television reporter, a legislative analyst on Capitol Hill and a rural development worker in Central America where he taught subsistence farmers how to manage the killer bee for fun and profit. He has produced films in diverse and remote locales from the sub-arctic to the subtropics. Grabowska's films have been official selections of festivals around the world, broadcast nationally on PBS and received numerous awards. He has been a guest lecturer at the National Geographic Society, the Smithsonian Institution and the National Conservation Training Center, and has led environmental media workshops in Argentina and Panama. Since 1991 Grabowska has been writing, producing and directing documentary films with the Interpretive Design Center of the National Park Service, specializing in the environment and American History.

Don Henry
Professor of PhysicsShepherd College, WV

Don Henry received a B.S. degree in physics at Ohio University and a Ph.D. degree in physics at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is Professor of Physics at Shepherd College and until recently was Dean of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics. Since coming to Shepherd College he has been Principle Investigator or Director for $570,000 in grants from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the National Science Foundation, and he has assisted faculty in obtaining numerous other grants. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Proteus, a scholarly journal published by Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania, and a member of the Board of Directors of Friends of the National Conservation Training Center.

David Lillard (Treasurer)
Executive Director, Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship, VA

David Lillard is executive director of the Blue Ridge Center for Environmental Stewardship in Virginia. He is the founding publisher of Blue Ridge Press, a syndicated column service publishing on the environment of the the Southeastern U.S., and has written widely on energy technology and environmental policy. His commentary has appeared in such diverse media as the Anniston Star and Backpacker magazine. He is the former editor of International Solar Energy Intelligence Report and American Hiker magazine. He is the author of three history travelogues and three plays. As a community leader, he serves on the board of directors of several regional charities, including the Robert and Dee Leggett Foundation and the Potomac Conservancy. He received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Emerson College, Boston, Mass., in 1989, and a Bachelors degree in Music Theatre Directing from University of Delaware in 1983.

Mark Madison (Ex-Officio)
National HistorianUS Fish and Wildlife Service (NCTC)

Mark Madison is the historian for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He teaches environmental history to professional conservationists at the National Conservation Training Center. He has previously taught environmental history at Harvard University and the University of Melbourne (Australia). He has degrees in history, biology, and the history of science. For almost three years he did tropical reforestation in the rain forests of the Philippines as a Peace Corps volunteer.

Farzad Mahootian, Ph.D. (Secretary)
University of Alaska Fairbanks

Farzad Mahootian, Ph.D. works with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Vice Provost for Research and the College of Science Engineering and Mathematics to create and foster research opportunities for undergraduates and graduate students, and for pre-college students and teachers. He is also Director of the Alaska Summer Research Academy, a science & engineering "summer camp" for middle and high school students. A former director of the NASA Student Involvement Program, Farzad has worked on numerous NASA Earth and space science education projects for over ten years. Farzad holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Fordham, and an M.S. in Chemistry from Georgetown University. He enjoys coaxing the dialogue between science and society through art and reflection.

Topper Sherwood
Grants ManagerWestern Maryland Resource Conservation & Development Council, MD

Topper Sherwood is grants manager for the Western Maryland Resource Conservation & Development Council, whose projects include stream restoration, solar photovoltaics, and treatment of acid drainage from abandoned mines. A veteran reporter for The Associated Press, he began a 14-year-long freelance writing career in 1987. His clients include The Smithsonian Institution, Time magazine, Business Week, the Boston Globe, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of Education, Verizon, and the National Park Service.