Board of Directors
PRC's board members live in states around the West and bring varied backgrounds to the organization.
Bob Anderson
(Helena, MT and Lake Tahoe, CA)
Bob Anderson is an energy consultant with emphasis on renewable resources and conservation in the electric utility sector in the West. He served on Montana's elected Public Service Commission from 1991-2002. Author of Beartooth Country, a human and natural history of Montana's Beartooth Mountains, Bob enjoys river running, hiking, climbing, botany, fishing, photography, biking, music, frisbees, and hot springs. He has been president of the Montana Wilderness Association and executive director of the Great Yellowstone Coalition.
Joe Bauwens
(Ketchum, ID)
Joe Bauwens has served as an employee and/or officer or board member for several for-profit and non-profit companies, including the Rand Corporation. He loves creeks and rivers. He retired from a pharmaceutical company of which he was a Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer.
David Bayles, M.A., Acting Secretary
(Eugene, OR)
David Bayles has worked with PRC nearly since our inception in 1987. PRC's former Executive Director, David is a national leader in the conservation community on aquatic conservation generally, and has particular expertise on the effects of land management on aquatic systems and the public policy setting for the watershed and aquatic species conservation. He is the co-author of several scientific articles on aquatic species conservation, watershed conservation and ecosystem management and co-authored the successful endangered species petition for coho salmon. He was a participant in Keystone Policy Dialogue on Ecosystem Management, and of the award-winning Policy Dialogue Group on Wild and Scenic Rivers.
Mardel Chinburg, Chair
(Eugene, OR)
Mardel Chinburg served as a member of the Washington D.C. legislative staff to former Congressman Jim Weaver, Oregon Fourth Congressional District from 1979-1984. Since then, Mardel has worked as a researcher and trial assistant for the law firm of Johnson, Clifton, Larson & Schaller, P.C. She is a past chair of the Lane County chapter of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters and a former board member of the statewide OLCV organization. She continues to be politically active in Oregon. In addition, Mardel supports a wide variety of local organizations dedicated to art, music, education and youth programs. Mardel is an avid cyclist, hiker and skier.
Rand Eads
(Lafayette, OR)
Art Johnson
(Eugene, OR)
Art Johnson is a trial lawyer, the senior shareholder in the firm of Johnson, Clifton, Larson & Schaller, P.C. Formerly the president of the Oregon State Bar and Oregon Trial Lawyers Association, he has served as a member of the Land Conservation and Development Commission, the Oregon Public Officials Compensation Commission, chaired the Willamette River Greenway Committee, and has served on many committees and boards relating to the rule of law, and to social and environmental issues. He continues to enjoy family, friends, rivers, wilderness, and wetlands.
John J. Kaib, MD, FACEP, Treasurer
(Portland, OR)
John Kaib is a semi-retired Emergency Physician. He also has a degree in Forestry. Love of the outdoors brought him to Oregon decades ago where he has enjoyed a cabin on Odell Lake that has provided access to skiing, fly fishing, birding and sailing. He and his wife, Sherold, have been members of many environmental organizations over the years.
Karl Konecny, Vice Chair
(Glide, OR) 
Karl Konecny is an engineer and founding partner of Northwest Motion Products. His love of rivers and wild lands has its roots in a lifetime of fishing, backpacking, and canoeing.
Ernie Niemi
(Eugene, OR)
Ernie Niemi has been a vice president and senior policy analyst at ECONorthwest since 1978. He specializes in applying the principles of cost-benefit analysis, economic valuation, and economic-impact analysis in the context of natural-resource management, economic development, and public-policy decisions. He has presented analytical findings to congressional, judicial, arbitrative, administrative, and scientific / professional bodies.
Wayne Minshall, PhD
(Pocatello, ID)
Wayne Minshall is a professor of ecology at Idaho State University. His research interests include community dynamics and stream ecosystem structure and function. He has received numerous honors and awards, including the Distinguished Researcher Award from Idaho State University, the Outstanding Scientist of the Northwest Award from the Northwest Scientific Association, and the Award of Excellence from the North American Benthological Society.
Jim Ratzlaff
(Roseburg, OR)
Jim Ratzlaff lives on the North Umpqua River where he and his wife operate a livestock ranch. His business activities include continued service as an officer and director of Capital Research and Management Company, an international investment organization which manages the American Funds group of mutual funds.
Jack Rockefeller, J.D.
(Camden, ME)
Jack Rockefeller is a California native, coming from a family with deep generational roots in Oregon. He has been a lifelong philanthropic supporter of environmental protection and restoration efforts in the Western U.S., having most recently served as Board Development Chair at Adopt a Watershed in Northern California, and as Capital Campaign Director at Slide Ranch in Marin County. For much of his professional career, Jack has managed health based academic research organizations, including the International Federation of Institutes for Advanced Studies in Stockholm, and the Regional Cancer Foundation in San Francisco. He is currently completing his MPH in Environmental Health at Johns Hopkins University.
Maria Dolores (Lola) Wesson
(La Jolla, CA)
Lola Wesson is the Associate Director of the California Sea Grant College System at the University of California in La Jolla.
Robert C. Wissmar, Ph.D.
(Seattle, WA)
Robert Wissmar is an aquatic scientist, professor and author with the University of Washington School of Aquatic Fishery and Sciences. His research calls for extending paradigms for prey and habitat selection by fish to examine predictions in different ecosystems. The ability to predict the diet and habitat use of organisms as a function of prey resource availability and habitat profitability to the consumer is essential to developing a more mechanistic understanding of forager behavior and for potentially unraveling competition and community-level questions.
Board Advisors
Sharon Kramer (Arcata, CA) is a senior associate ecologist with H.T. Harvey & Associates and a faculty associate in the department of fisheries at Humboldt State University.
George Miller (San Francisco, CA) was Senior Vice President and Director of the Capital Research and Management Company and President of The Income Fund of America until his retirement in 1996. Prior to joining Capital in 1975, he was Director of Research for the American Express Investment Management Company.
Jim Van Loan (Steamboat, OR) owns and operates the Steamboat Inn on the North Umpqua River in Douglas County, Oregon. He is a former Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Commissioner.
