Jane Fink, Events Coordinator and Assistant to the President
Jane joined the Center team in the spring of 2005, bringing with her a vast array of experience including nine years of management and administrative work with nonprofit conservation organizations coordinating with public, private and government agencies on a domestic and international level. She has a strong background in logistical management, networking, informational research and concept to completion project management. Her international liaison work ranges from negotiating predator control plans with African farmers and facilitating feral animal control with Haitian refugees, to environmental coalition building with international CEOs and government Ministers in Kenya. Jane holds a BA in Communications from the University of Virginia, an AS in Veterinary Technology from St. Petersburg College and has completed an internship in zoo medicine at White Oak Conservation Center, Yulee Florida. 

Carolyn Graney, Ways of the Woods Tour Manager
Carolyn holds her Master’s Degree in Social Work from SUNY-Buffalo. Prior to joining the Center as Tour Manager in 2006, Carolyn had spent 12 years working with homeless, low-income, mentally challenged and emotionally disturbed children and families in northern New York and Maine. After receiving her B.A. in Sociology from Lawrence University in Wisconsin, Carolyn spent several years directing canvass offices across the northeast for Greenpeace. Carolyn and her exceptionally adorable son, Thomas Wilson, enjoy traveling with “the big truck” and meeting people across the Northern Forest region. 

Jennifer Hawkins, Bookkeeper
Jennifer joined the Center in July, 2006. Jennifer has spent the previous three years at home with her daughters and prior to that she was the Office Manager at The Eye Center of Concord. Jennifer has her Bachelor’s in Business/Accounting from Hesser College. 

Rachel Kennedy, Development Coordinator
Rachel began her professional career stage managing and performing in Palace Productions at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, NH. Shortly into her career at the Palace she began taking on development responsibilities. In three years there, she worked with consultants and board members to create and oversee a development department for the theatre, managing fundraising events, membership, annual fund and campaign responsibilities. Rachel has a BA in English and a certificate in theatre from St. Anselm College. 

Doreen Oliveira, Development Director
Doreen brings to the Center more than 25 years experience designing, developing and implementing administrative and management systems and working with executives on organization and board development. Doreen joined the Center in 1999 as office manager and executive assistant to Steve Blackmer. She became the Center’s development director in 2003. Doreen graduated from Katharine Gibbs Business School and completed the year-long Complete Fundraiser Program from the Institute of Conservation Leadership. She is a member of the New England Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and New Hampshire’s Continuing Education in Fundraising Association. 

Gabe Perkins, Ways of the Woods Field Staff
A fifth generation Western Mainer, Gabe previously worked for Habitat for Humanity with the Americorps VISTA program, where he helped raise several hundred thousands of dollars for families in need through his dual roles in development and public relations. This background—plus and his uncanny abilities to reach higher than most and lift museum-quality kiosks—makes Gabe uniquely qualified to be on the Ways of the Woods tour staff. He also recently acquired his Commercial Drivers License, adding flexibility to bringing Ways of the Woods to people across the region. 

Rob Riley was appointed as President of the Center in April 2008. Rob joined the Center in 2007 as Director of Programs, leading development of new programs emerging from the Center’s Sustainable Economy Initiative. Prior to joining the Center, Rob served as director of MicroCredit-NH, an award-winning statewide community economic development program. Before that Rob founded and served as executive director of Main Street Plymouth, Inc., which received New Hampshire’s “Main Street Program of the Year Award” in 2000. His other professional experience is wide ranging both in scope and geography: he’s been director of Youth Programs at Sagebrush Arena in Hailey, Idaho, and a farmer and logger in Andover, Vermont. Rob lives in Canterbury, New Hampshire, with his wife Tabitha and their two children Alice and William. The New Hampshire Union Leader included Rob in its 2003 list of “Forty Outstanding Leaders Under 40 in New Hampshire.”

Steve Rohde, president, Sustainable Forest Futures (Sustainable Forest Futures is a non-profit subsidiary of the Northern Forest Center)
Steve Rohde has more than 35 years of experience working on policy formulation and program development and implementation relating to economic development and community development, including specialized expertise in the workings of private markets and the financing of small- and medium-sized businesses, real estate and sustainable forestry. His past positions include, among others, deputy director and chief of policy and programs for the federal Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) Fund, director of Private Institutions Programs for the Michigan Strategic Fund, deputy director of the Governor’s Cabinet Council on Jobs and Economic Development (in Michigan), director of Real Estate Finance for the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (in rural Easter Kentucky), and member of the staff of the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Steve has lived in New Hampshire since 2000. 

Jessie Seymour, Ways of the Woods Field Staff
As you’d expect from someone whose family has lived in Maine since the mid-19th century, Jessie grew up living in and exploring the woods. A 2004 graduate of Dartmouth College (she holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology, focusing on both education and rural issues), Jessie interned at the Upper Valley (NH/VT) Housing Coalition, where she wrote the quarterly newsletter. During Ways of the Woods’ off-season, she lives in Bethel, Maine, working as communications coordinator at Sunday River ski resort where she faithfully tests and reports ski conditions on a daily basis. 

Joe Short, Sustainable Economies Initiative Program Manager
Joe first came to the Center in 2003 as a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow, and he joined the staff full-time in 2004. Joe helped coordinate the initial work of the Center’s policy program, convening regional dialogue and developing consensus strategies for public policies focused on community, economic, and conservation needs in the Northern Forest. The Center’s Sustainable Economy Initiative was a direct outcome of this work, and in 2005 Joe became program manager of this new program. In this role Joe manages the Center’s work to create a sustainable economic development strategy for the Northern Forest—a two-year initiative that will deliver a quantitative assessment of the region’s natural-resource economy and strategies for economic revitalization tied to continuing land conservation. Joe has an M.S. in Resource Ecology and Management from the University of Michigan and a BA in Biology from Carleton College. Earlier in his career he worked for four years for The Nature Conservancy, first in Nebraska and then in northern California. 

Kelly Short, Communications Director
Kelly has been communicating about the Northern Forest for more than 15 years as a writer, editor, graphic designer and public relations manager. Before joining the staff at the Center, Kelly consulted for regional and national non-profit organizations. Prior to opening her business, Kelly was communications director for the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), where she managed corporate communications and publishing programs and contributed to strategic planning as a member of AMC’s senior management team. Outside the office, Kelly chairs the New Hampshire Rivers Council, serves on the New Hampshire Advisory Committee for the Trust for Public Land and is a member of the Canterbury Conservation Commission. She was co-named New Hampshire Conservationist of the Year for 2005 by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests for her work on the Merrimack River Initiative. She earned a BA in communications from Boston College. 

Mike Wilson, Senior Program Director
Mike joined the Northern Forest Center in 1997, and served as principal researcher and author of the Northern Forest Wealth Index: Exploring a Deeper Meaning of Wealth. Most recently he has led development of the Center’s National Endowment for the Humainties-funded mobile museum, Ways of the Woods: People and the Land in the Northern Forest. Over the past ten years Mike has organized five Northern Forest conferences and led development of several publications including Cultural Connections: Organizations Working with Culture & Heritage in the Northern Forest; What’s in a Name: Exploring the Stories of the Baskahegan Landscape; and HandMade in the Northern Forest: A guide to fine art and craft traditions in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. Before joining the Center, Mike worked as a grassroots organizer for the Northern Forest Alliance and the Maine People’s Alliance. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from James Madison University and a master’s in Resource Management and Administration from Antioch New England Graduate School. He was awarded a Switzer Environmental Fellowship in 1998, and a Switzer Leadership Award in 2000. In 2006, Mike finally earned his commercial drivers license allowing him to be behind the wheel when Ways of the Woods is on the road.