Sam Tucker
Director
Sam has twenty-five years of experience in conservation and philanthropy, focused primarily on land and water issues in western North America. He has worked to find solutions to long-standing challenges in landscapes ranging from the Arctic coastal plain of Alaska to the desert rivers of the U.S. Southwest. He recently served as senior advisor for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, with a focus on its Colorado Plateau strategy. In recent years, Sam was an independent consultant, serving environmental foundations and nonprofits. His clients included the Hewlett Foundation, the Moore Foundation, and The Nature Conservancy. Previously, he managed the Alaska and British Columbia environmental grantmaking portfolio for the Wilburforce Foundation in Seattle. Other professional endeavors included raising butterflies in Costa Rica and serving as program associate at the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity (now the Biodiversity Funders Group).
Anne Kalmer Cainion
Program Manager
Anne is grounded in the ethos of working for the greater good and collaborating to find sustainable solutions to global issues. She has been with the CRSC since 2013 and has nineteen years of nonprofit experience. Anne was formerly the interim Executive Director for TEMPO Milwaukee, an organization dedicated to furthering the impact of women leaders in the local community. During almost ten years in Washington D.C., Anne was the Manager of Board Relations and Special Projects at the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment. Prior to the Heinz Center, Anne worked for the African Wildlife Foundation, where she managed the legacy gifts program and served as a major gifts officer. Previously, she worked for the American Red Cross National Headquarters as an investigative analyst for the Hurricane Katrina Investigative Unit in the Office of Investigations, Compliance and Ethics. Anne holds a B.A. in Communication Studies and African American Studies from Marquette University.
Karen Kwon
associate project director
Karen has more than twenty years of experience in problem solving for natural resource challenges, with an expertise in water law and policy related to the Colorado River Basin. As a former First Assistant Attorney General at the Colorado Department of Law, Karen spearheaded the legal team charged with protecting and advocating for Colorado’s interests in federal and interstate water matters. In this capacity, she has represented and provided counsel to entities such as the Upper Colorado River Commission, the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, and Division of Water Resources on matters including compact compliance, reservoir operation, NEPA and ESA compliance, implementation of the Grand Canyon Protection Act, and interbasin and binational negotiations on matters such as the Colorado River Interim Guidelines, Drought Contingency Plans, and Minutes 319 and 323. Karen has built a reputation for finding workable solutions to water supply questions among federal and state agencies, water users, conservation districts, Tribal Nations, municipalities, and non-governmental organizations.
Nicole Seltzer
State policy and communications manager
Nicole has deep knowledge of western water and river issues through twenty years of stakeholder relations, communications, non-profit leadership and network management. Positions with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District, Water Education Colorado and River Network have given her the skills needed to strengthen the influence and effectiveness of coalitions at the local, state and regional levels through creating community and fostering effective collaboration. Her experience ranges from production of print and film media to tell the stories of water advocates, to designing leadership development programs to empower water professionals, to ensuring the public has input into water infrastructure projects, to supporting multi-stakeholder collaboratives to sustain and improve rivers. In her work and personal life, she endeavors to slow down, be strategic, and choose wisely by following the mindfulness advice of the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, “Don’t just do something, stand there!” Nicole works out of the Yampa River valley of northwest Colorado where she takes advantage of the wild rivers, deep snowfall and abundant public lands with her partner John and dog, Rocket, that adopted them.
Natasha Hale
Tribal partnership manager
Natasha is Navajo and Saudi Arabian and was born and raised on the Navajo Nation. She is from the community of Bahastl'ah (Twin Lakes) in northwest New Mexico and has over twenty years of experience building place-based solutions at the intersection of land protection and strong cultural economies. She has worked closely with Tribes and grassroots tribal leaders to protect land, water, natural, and cultural resources through land protection campaigns, social entrepreneurship initiatives, strengthening tribal governance and nation building efforts, and land management initiatives. She served as the inaugural director of Native American Partnerships for the Catena Foundation, a program officer for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and is a co-founder of Colorado Plateau Foundation. Natasha also served as a director for the Grand Canyon Trust and co-founded Change Labs, an incubator designed to support social entrepreneurs as they navigate processes and obstacles to launching their business in tribal communities. She played a critical role in the designation of the Bears Ears National Monument and was appointed by the Tribal Coalition to play a key role in executing their national campaign. She takes pride in standing on the shoulders of her leaders and ancestors who have asserted and defended the rights of Native people, lands, and water.
Gretchen Rank
Wildfire resilience Manager
Gretchen has over thirty years of experience in financial administration and business management for a variety of businesses, nonprofits, and government entities. For the last nine years, she has worked for the Mancos Conservation District, most recently as its Executive Director. In that role she worked to address natural resource conservation at the watershed level. She also provided valuable leadership to grow and expand the District to a multi-million dollar organization and create positive impact that will last generations. Gretchen was born in South Carolina and spent her early childhood years in Mexico, Ecuador, and Peru. During those years, she developed a love for people of diverse cultures and recognized the need for natural resource education and conservation worldwide. She now lives with her family in Southwest Colorado and enjoys birding, hiking, farming, and restoring her thirty-five-acre property for wildlife habitat.