PEOPLE/CONTACTS

CU Boulder
Jason Neff : email : website
Mark Williams : email : website

Fort Lewis College
Gary Gianniny : email

Mountain Studies Institute
Koren Nydick : email

Lee Allston, Professor, University of Colorado Boulder.
Social scientist

Susan Avery, Professor, University of Colorado Boulder/ Fellow at CIRES/ MSI Board Member

Nichole Barger, Assistant Professor, Biology, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Arid lands ecologist.

Rob Blair, Professor Emeritus, Geosciences, Fort Lewis College/ MSI Board Member.

Ashley Boling, Executive Director, Telluride Institute.
Ashley is the Executive Director of the Telluride Institute, in Telluride, Colorado. Telluride Institute started in 1984 and is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. We foster the transition to a sustainable world. We do this by working with communities, businesses, and the pubic sector to create and advance real solutions which support the health of environments, cultures, and economics. We collaborate with leading artists, scientists, and educators to map a progressive future. I have been involved with T.I. as an instructor for eleven years, and I worked as a teacher, administrator, and outdoor instructor for four years at a private, secondary school in Virginia.

Brad Clark, Assistant Professor, Political Science, Fort Lewis College.
I have a Ph.D. from Colorado State University in political science. My areas of research / interest are US Environmental Policy; Western Water Policy; River Restoration (via dam removal); Public Lands Management (especially wilderness and BLM lands); endangered species; and collaborative forms of watershed-level resource management. In general, my research centers on how policy change (i.e., changes to and/or terminations of traditional management regimes) is both a cause and consequence of the contemporary transformation of the "New" American West. With the ascendency of economic drivers such as tourism and recreation, often at the concomitant demise of traditional extractive industries (mining, agriculture), how will traditional policies (e.g., codifications of nineteenth century values and beliefs) change and/or adapt? In addition, will the transition of many interior western states into "blue states" (or at least "purple") continue, and if so, how will this affect the socioeconomic evolution of the American West? In turn, how will environmental policy and natural resource management regimes change? Will improvements to ecological health and sustainable modes of production follow?

Cynthia Dott, Assistant Professor, Biology, Fort Lewis College. B.S. Colorado College (Biology), M.S. and Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison (Botany-Ecology).

My general expertise is in plant community ecology, with particular emphasis on riparian systems and their response to changing disturbance regimes. I have worked extensively on the Colorado Plateau, as well as in the southern Rocky and San Juan mountains. My specific research interests include: 1) riparian community dynamics and their interactions with geomorphic processes; 2) interactions between riparian community structure and changes in natural disturbance regimes (e.g. by dam construction, introduced livestock grazing, etc.); 3) impacts of livestock grazing on riparian vegetation, including the potential (or lack thereof) for vegetation recovery under tightly managed grazing regimes; 4) characterizing disturbance in terms of feedback systems in an effort to help managers understand how to work with disturbance events; 5) the potential impacts of changing climate on existing disturbance regimes (e.g. flood frequency and intensity), geomorphic processes, and vegetation structure; 6) relationships between exotic species invasions and site history in riparian systems and elsewhere. I would be interested in collaborating on projects relating to riparian community structure across a range of elevations and environmental conditions, changes in community composition and disturbance regimes due to changing climate, fluvial geomorphology, flood dynamics and the timing of spring snowmelt, relationships between flood timing and seedling establishment for dominant native and non-native riparian species, riparian community impacts as a result of livestock grazing and/or recovery from grazing, and projects that tie human community sustainability to healthy ecological communities especially in river corridors.

Matt Janowiak, Assistant Center Manager, San Juan Public Lands Center (USFS/BLM)

Chris Landry, Executive Director, Center for Snow & Avalanche Studies.
The CSAS opened an office in Silverton in October 2002 and was formally incorporated in January, 2003. The CSAS is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) research and education organization whose mission statement is: "The Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies enhances the interdisciplinary investigation of the alpine snow system's behavior and role in human/environment relationships by offering resources - people, information, and facilities - for field-based research and education." Chris's particular training, professional practice, and research have focused on snow avalanche forecasting and processes and, most recently, to the application of earth surface system, non-linear dynamical systems theory, and complexity theory to avalanche behaviors and to the alpine/mountain snow system at large. Chris earned his MSc in the Department of Earth Sciences at Montana State University studying the spatial variability of snow stability. He also brings a background in land use and conservation, and not-for-profit organizational development and operations, to the CSAS. Chris is a Professional Member of the American Avalanche Association and an Affiliate Member of the Canadian Avalanche Association.

Erin Lehmer, Assistant Professor, Biology, Fort Lewis College. Physiological Ecology of Mammals / Wildlife Infectious Disease. M.S., Zoology (Physiology / Ecology), Colorado State University; Ph.D. (Physiology / Ecology), Colorado State University; Post Doctoral Research, University of Utah (Zoonotic Disease, Microbial Pathogenesis).
The majority of my research has focused on understanding physiological processes of free-ranging animals in an ecological context. In particular, my current research interests are focused on understanding physiological and immunological aspects of Sin Nombre virus transmission in the natural environment, as well as on physiological and ecological factors that influence over-winter behaviors of free-ranging prairie dogs. My current research projects include 1) characterizing differences in the immune responses of deer mice infected with Sin Nombre virus in different reproductive states, 2) examining patterns of Sin Nombre viral prevalence in deer mouse populations following large-scale ecological disturbances, 3) assessing small mammal community composition across multiple forest habitats in different stages of post-fire succession, 4) comparing habitat characteristics and population dynamics of black-tailed prairie dog populations distributed across an urban gradient, and 5) characterizing over winter body temperature patterns of free-ranging Gunnison's prairie dogs.

Gary Gianniny, Associate Professor, Geosciences, Fort Lewis College/ MSI Board Member, San Juan Collaboratory Institutional Coordinator for Fort Lewis College. B.S. Collorado College (Geology), Ph.D. and M.S., University of Wisconsin, Madison (Geology, sequence stratigraphy and paleobiology), Post Doctoral Research, Idaho State University (sequence stratigaphy, paleoclimate, and aquifer charcterization).
My expertise that currently lends its self to San Juan Collaboratory efforts integrates my work in sequence stratigraphy and paleoclimate, to elucidate stratigraphic controls on aquifer heterogenetity. Current research includes the sequence stratigraphic evolution of the Pennsylvanian Hermosa Group in the Southern San Juan Mountains with my colleagues Dr. Kim Miskell-Gerhardt, Dr. Scott Ritter and Fort Lewis College students. This stratigraphic framework is pertinent to facies variation in oil and natural gas reservoirs and regional aquifers. In-terms of water resources, this framework is being used as a predictive model to characterize aquifer herterogenety and to identify areas of potential karst aquifer development. Understanding these aquifer characteristics is becoming increasingly important as development expands onto the flanks of the San Juan Mountains and the conflicting demands on groundwater and surface water becomes more acute.
I am also currently involved in work with the Colorado Geological Survey to provide a high resolution stratigraphic characterization of the Fruitland Formation outcrops in the northeastern San Juan basin. Those stratigraphic data will be integrated with a new survey of hydrologic features to lay the groundwork for a synoptic study of groundwater/surface water interactions in this region that is experiencing rapid coal bed methane development. San Juan Collaboratory partners on this project include MSI, and CU Boulder. I am interested in the evolution of stratigraphic systems and how that information can provide predictive models for water and energy resources. I am also keenly interested in broadening access to education and in increasing the impact of science on public decision making.

Alessandra Nisco Jacobson, Telluride Institute.
Alessandra graduated from CU Boulder's Geography Department in 1997 after completing an undergraduate research project based on alpine wetlands in the Telluride region that summer. She immediately took up residence in Telluride upon graduation and has delved in the natural sciences and environmental education fields ever since, while raising children full time. Work and research experience includes wetlands restoration with Telluride Ski and Golf Company, contracted source water assessment surveys for the EPA, loads of water sampling for various entities, and several years of contracted work for Telluride Institute (TI), a twenty-three year old non-profit organization, focusing mainly on environmental watershed-based education in the San Miguel Watershed. Through TI, Alessandra has founded and directed Bridal Veil Living Classroom (BVLC) since 2005, a college-accredited high altitude summer field course for high school students centered on biodiversity monitoring and individual research projects. Through BVLC and several other local prospects, including the San Miguel Watershed Coalition, TI foresees numerous opportunities for collaboration with CU and MSI in future mountain research endeavors.

Julie Korb, Assistant Professor, Biology, Fort Lewis College.
I received my undergraduate and Master's degrees from the University of Colorado in Boulder studying vegetation dynamics and my Ph.D. from Northern Arizona University studying restoration, fire, and disturbance ecology. I teach a diversity of general education and biology courses. These courses include: Ecology of the Southwest, Fire in the West, Introduction to Biology, Issues in Evolutionary and Biological Thought, Field Ecology, Senior Seminar and Senior Thesis. My research interests include: (1) fire ecology and plant responses to disturbance, (2) forest restoration ecology with particular emphasis on pure ponderosa pine, mixed-conifer forests, and pinyon-juniper, (3) arbuscular mycorrhizae and ectomycorrhizal responses to disturbance, (4) plant community dynamics (successional trajectories), and (5) adaptive ecosystem management. I am actively involved in consulting and research. Some of my recent projects include: (1) warm-dry mixed conifer restoration study in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado quantifying the effects of thinning and prescribed burning on plant community dynamics, (2) vegetation responses to different burn intensities and restoration treatments in the Missionary Ridge Burn Area, San Juan Mountains, (3) historical and repeat vegetation photograph study in southwest Colorado, and (4) assisting the GMUG and San Juan National Forest in their Terrestrial Ecosystem Assessment and assisting Mesa Verde National Park in rewriting their Fire Management Plan. I am interested in collaborating in projects dealing with fire ecology, forest dynamics related to natural disturbances and climate change, plant community ecology, and ecosystem management.

Ray Kenny, Professor Geosciences, Assistant Dean of Natural and Behavioral Sciences, Fort Lewis College. B.S. Northeastern Illinois University (Geology); M.S. and Ph.D. Arizona State University (Geology); Research Associate (RA-1), INSTAAR (UC Boulder).
Professionally registered geologist. Past research has primarily focused on stable isotope geochemistry of sedimentary material (chert, carbonate and paleosols), geomorphology (karst and slope stability), Holocene climate change in southern South America (data from terrestrial peat bogs), gamma-ray spectrometry of uranium breccia pipes (northern Arizona), and minor hydrology consulting.

Christy McCain, Professor, University of Colorado Boulder.
Small mammals/elevation gradients

Jana Milford, Professor, University of Colorado Boulder.
Air quality/modeling

Jason Neff, Assistant Professor, Department of Geological Science and the Environmental Studies Program, University of Colorado at Boulder.
My expertise is in biogeochemical cycling with a particular focus on the carbon cycle. My work in the San Juans has focused on understanding the links between geologic substrates and ecosystem nutrient cycling as well as lake sediment and contemporary studies of history and source of dust deposition to the San Juan Mountains. I have also worked on land use change impacts on soils and ecosystems on the Colorado Plateau with a particular focus on wind erosion of soils and the impact of grazing on ecosystems. I am interested in studies of regional environmental change including the interactions between economic and environmental change in the region. I am also interested in developing MS and Ph.D training programs at CU Boulder that specifically target underrepresented groups and low income students from the Four Corners region.

Koren Nydick, Director of Mountain Studies Institute /UCB Research Scientist II/FLC Adjunct Professor.
Koren is an aquatic ecologist and biogeochemist with a PhD in ecology from CSU. Research includes: (1) nutrient cycling and effects of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on mountain lakes and streams, (2) eutrophication and sources of nutrients in the Lower Animas River, (3) acid mine/rock drainage effects on groundwater-surface water interaction (and a proposal to address nutrient cycling in AM/RD streams), and (4) mercury deposition and incorporation into lakes in the SJ Mtns, and (5) setup of GLORIA alpine plant/climate change monitoring plots. She enjoys working with stakeholders and is working to form the San Juan Climate Initiative (research/monitoring, education, outreach) which was kicked off at an Oct 2006 conference. She also is part of the San Juan Fen (wetlands) Project with university researchers and stakeholders and provides outreach support for this and other projects. Koren is working on a series of outreach booklets (Wetlands of SJ Mts completed, Air Quality in progress, Climate Change pending funding). She has taught at the mid school, high school, undergraduate and graduate levels and is interested in problem-based education programs in the SJs. She is interested in projects about water quantity and quality, aquatic/wetland hydro-ecology (especially in relation to environmental effects of pollutants, climate, etc.), air quality and effects, and climate change.

Mark Rikkers, Colorado Avalanche Information Center.

Joe Ryan, Professor, Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado at Boulder.
He has been teaching and doing research at the University of Colorado since 1993. His research focuses on the role of colloids and surfaces on the fate and transport of contaminants in natural waters. Recent research projects include examination of the interactions of organic matter with mercury and metal sulfides, the transport of colloids and metals in alpine streams affected by acid mine drainage, the transport of clay colloids and radioactive cations in unsaturated porous media, and the transport of microbes (viruses and protozoa) in saturated and heterogeneous porous media. He teaches courses that echo these interests: Water Chemistry, Environmental Organic Chemistry, and Aquatic Surfaces and Particles. Before coming to the University of Colorado, he was a National Research Council postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. Geological Survey in Boulder. He came to Boulder from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned his Master of Science degree in 1988 and Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1992, both in environmental engineering. Before graduate school, he worked as an environmental consultant for a couple of years in Minneapolis. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in geological engineering from Princeton University in 1983. As a member of the Lefthand Watershed Revitalization Team, he was a recipient of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency National Notable Achievement Award in 2006. He and his students have been assisting local watershed groups like the Lefthand Watershed Oversight Group in dealing with problems associated with abandoned mines for the past five years.

Les Sommerville, Professor, Chemistry, Fort Lewis College.
Biochemistry, metabolism and enzymology associated with dissimilatory Fe(III) reducing bacteria, enzymology of bacteria from the Acidobacteria division, and bioremediation.

Robert "Tino" Sonora, Professor, Economics & Business, Fort Lewis College, Co-Director Office of Economic Analysis & Business Research, and Assistant Professor of Economics, and Environmental Studies, Fort Lewis College.
Tino received a PhD from The Ohio State University in Economics, an MA in International Economics from the Univeristy of Essex in the UK and a BA in Economics from Connecticut College. His current research interests include international trade, relative price convergence, real estate markets in the Southwest and ... As a Co-Director Office of Economic Analysis & Business Research at Fort Lewis he conducts studies and research on local economic and business issues. In addition to his current research he has done some work in public and environmental economics including economic growth and environmental quality and resources and traffic economics. He has done considerable economic modelling and empirical research which should lend itself well to many potential studies.

Scott White, Professor, Geosciences, Fort Lewis College.
I received his B.S. degree in geology from Tennessee Technological University in 1987. In 1991, I received an M.S. degree in geology from Texas Christian University where I specialized in remote sensing and structural geology. Subsequently, I worked as an environmental geologist and a consulting geologist in Houston, and then as an environmental chemist in Indianapolis for two years. In 1993, I began work on a Ph.D. in geography from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, specializing in cartographic, GIS, and remote sensing applications in surface hydrologic modeling. I was awarded a USGS grant to study the use of GIS and visualization methodologies in the modeling of the 1993 Mississippi River floods, and this study developed into my dissertation project. I started at Fort Lewis College in August 1999, and completed my Ph.D. in August, 2000. My primary research interests revolve around the use of GIS and geographic visualization techniques in the earth sciences. Over the past several years, I have been involved in several applied research projects with the USDA (San Juan RC&D), NPS (Mesa Verde and Aztec Ruins), and the USFS (fire potential mapping in La Plata County).

Laurie Williams, Assistant Professor Engineering/ Engineers Without Borders Co-Director, Fort Lewis College.
I am a mechanical engineer (PE) with a master's degree in Environmental Management. Past research (Los Alamos National Laboratory) included CO2 sequestration and industrial uses for the incorporation of supercritical CO2 in cleaning and extraction applications. Since joining FLC in the fall of 2004 my research interests have focused on sustainable technologies for meeting the basic needs of developing communities; energy, water availability and treatment, sanitation, food security, and building. This research has involved numerous undergraduates and four project implementations in Northern Thailand and Ecuador. I am currently a State of Colorado commissioner to the Southern Ute Indian Tribe/Co Environmental Control Commission, a Board Member for the FLC Environmental Center and a certified ZERI (Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives) practitioner.

Mark Williams, Fellow, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, and Professor, Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder.
Mark received his Ph.D in Biological Sciences from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1991. His research interests are the processes that determine the hydrochemistry and biogeochemistry of high-elevation basins, including the storage and release of solutes from the snowpack, biogeochemical modifications of snowpack runoff, nutrient cycling, and hydrologic pathways and residence time. The majority of his research has been conducted in the Rocky Mountains, Sierra Nevada of California, and the Tien Shan, China. Mark is on the faculty of the Hydrology Program in Geography and his classes can be used to satisfy the Hydrology Certification Program in Geography. Mark is the PI of the Niwot Ridge LTER program.