Shelley Silbert, Executive Director

Shelley Silbert

Shelley joined Broads in 2012, bringing 20 years of experience in the fields of conservation and sustainability. She served as Associate Director for San Juan Citizens Alliance from 2011–2012, Director of Strategic Initiatives at Northern Arizona University from 2003–2011 where she advanced environmental and Native American programs. From 1994–2003, she directed The Nature Conservancy’s Northern Arizona Program, managing three nature preserves and working on conservation priorities, ecological restoration, regional planning, and public open space campaigns. She grew up in Tennessee, and fell in love with the wide open spaces of the west on a backpacking trip. Fluent in Spanish, she has worked in various Latin American countries.

Shelley has an M.A. in Watershed Management (Dryland Forestry specializations) from the University of Arizona. As Executive Director, she is responsible for the implementation of the Strategic Plan and setting the vision and direction of the organization, along with the Board of Directors. She determines the wild lands advocacy agenda, achieves fundraising goals, and represents Broads to the media, to our members, to our partner organizations, and to the great wild world.

Lauren Berutich, Associate Director

Lauren Berutich

Lauren has nearly 20 years of experience teaching environmental education, grassroots organizing, conservation and stewardship coordination, advocacy, and public work for sustainable community development. She served as Broads’ Grassroots Leadership Director for nearly four years, overseeing the training, guidance, and support of volunteer chapter leaders across the country.

Prior to that, she managed Northern Arizona University’s (NAU) Campus and Community Based Action Research Teams, to support democratic, civic action for justice and sustainability through education, outreach, and advocacy campaigns. She has served as Volunteer Coordinator with the Grand Canyon Trust engaging stewards of all ages in conservation and preservation activities across the Colorado Plateau. Lauren also served on the Friends of Camp Colton EE Board for six years, serving as president for two years. She has a Bachelor’s in Environmental Geography and a Masters in Sustainable Communities from Northern Arizona University. When she can’t be found at a Broadwalk, talk, or local event, she is in the mountains, on a river, at the beach, in the desert, enjoying local tunes, or romping somewhere wild with her pup, Lili.

Susan Kearns, Communications Director

Susan Kearns

Susan has a diverse background in communications, graphic design, and marketing. For 20+ years, she has dreamed up ways to promote everything from widgets to wildfire awareness. Susan helped develop the San Gabriel Mountains Bighorn Sheep Restoration Strategy, and as a board member of the Wrightwood Fire Safe Council helped to write the first Community Wildfire Protection Plan approved by the state of California. She holds an Art degree from California State University, Long Beach, where she also studied Illustration. She is an avid hiker, camper, and backpacker and enjoys drawing, painting, and using printmaking techniques to capture and share with others her love of the outdoors. To sum up her enthusiasm for Broads work: “I can’t think of anything more important than preserving wilderness. It is the greatest gift we can give to all living things now, and after we are gone.”

Lisa Pool, Grassroots Leadership Director

Lisa Pool comes to Great Old Broads with a decade of experience in grassroots organizing, advocacy, and directing campaigns. Most recently, she worked with Conservation Colorado, where she developed strategies to grow community voices and involvement in conservation issues, including close collaboration with several Colorado Broadbands. Prior to that, Lisa was the Field Director for the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG), where she developed and executed statewide campaigns and ran the New Voters Project, managing paid and volunteer organizers to register and get young voters to the polls.

Lisa cares deeply about women’s rights and has worked for 9to5 Colorado, which is a women’s workers’ rights organization. While Lisa has worked on several progressive campaigns throughout the years, she keeps coming back to conservation. Lisa’s passion for the environmental movement grew from her incredible experiences on our nation’s public lands—from summers spent fishing in the north woods of Wisconsin with her dad, to rafting trips with her husband on the mighty rivers of Colorado and Utah.

Katya Spiecker, Grassroots Regional Coordinator

Katya grew up exploring the old-growth juniper and towering ponderosa woodlands of central Oregon, where the sweeping sage of the Great Basin meets the majestic Cascade Mountains. Inspired by nature’s wonders, she eventually acquired a Bachelor’s in Environmental Science from Oregon Institute of Technology and has worked and volunteered for over a decade in the environmental field. Throughout her career, she developed a diverse knowledge of natural history, grassroots organizing and event management. Her interest in public lands advocacy grew while working on wilderness campaigns for Oregon Natural Desert Association and serving three years on the Bitterbrush Broadband leadership team. Katya also has a passion for pollinators and founded Monarch Advocates of Central Oregon, a group working to restore monarch butterfly habitat. When she’s not channeling her inner-geek with insects and botany, Katya enjoys hiking, birding and discovering the natural/cultural treasures of the southwest.

As one of Broads’ Grassroots Regional Coordinators, Katya cultivates leadership development, grassroots advocacy, and community empowerment for public lands protection within members of Broads’ chapters (Broadbands). She is the go-to staffer for Broadbands located in CA, OR, WA, AK, ID, NV, MT, MN, WY, WI, ME, NH and GA.

Rachel Green, Climate Education & Stewardship Program Manager

Rachel Green earned her Master’s of Science from Colorado State University in Human Dimensions of Natural Resource Management. Her graduate work explored community understandings of Tribal buffalo restoration on the Wind River Reservation. This work solidified her passion for collaborative and equitable community-based conservation. Prior to attending graduate school, Rachel worked throughout the West in the action-packed field of environmental education. She was a Master Instructor at the Keystone Science School where she explored ecosystems with students of diverse backgrounds and ages, bringing abstract concepts and complex environmental challenges to life.

Ever since a high-school backpacking trip to Yellowstone first ignited her love of wild places, she has sought opportunities to share these experiences with others. Rachel explores the vital relationships between our communities and the public lands we love and depend upon, which face pressing challenges due to climate change. Rachel is also a rescue dog mom, avid backpacker, fly fisherwoman, and insatiable tinkerer.

Sally Sharp, Grassroots Regional Coordinator

Sally brings 20+ years of experience as an elementary school teacher to Great Old Broads, and while grassroots organizing is new for her, she is not new to advocacy. She recently coordinated the energy justice campaign Bring Power Home 2020 in Pueblo, Colorado, managed an issue-based campaign with the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition, and worked on Conservation Colorado’s Protégete Voter Registration Drive.

She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from California State University, Northridge, with a minor in Spanish. While in college she lived in Mexico and Honduras for 14 months and carries a special spot in her heart for the immigrant community. In her spare time she is a volunteer dispatcher for the Colorado Immigrant Rapid Response Hotline.

Sally’s passion for the outdoors springs from family camping and hiking trips, especially fishing with her dad. She.passed on her love for the outdoors to her now-grown children. The fight to keep our public lands whole and untarnished drives her commitment to conservation.

Jason Vaughn, CES Communications Coordinator

Jason brings over 20 years of experience in journalism and communications to Great Old Broads. He has a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri, and worked as a reporter, editor, and content producer for small-town newspapers all the way up to the largest cable networks before switching to non-profit communications. Jason has also been—at one time or another—a studio guitarist, punk singer, camel loader, short-order cook, accounting software engineer, ski lift operator, carpenter, babysitter, bartender, band manager, amusement park janitor, movie critic, soccer referee, pool cleaner, roller coaster operator, roadie, pre-press technician, hand model, music critic, substitute teacher, UX tester, candy salesman, radio station gopher, TV presenter, landscaper, and tour guide. When not at work, Jason can be found enjoying the scenery of the high desert around the Four Corners.

Kaye Berman, Development Director

Kaye comes to Great Old Broads with eight years of fundraising experience after a long career in the hospitality industry. She has most recently worked with Animals Asia Foundation, where she established a broad and diversified national fund development program, with an emphasis on building Major Gifts. Prior to that she was the Grants Manager and Mobile Pantry Coordinator for Food Bank of the Rockies. She holds a Master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from Regis University, Denver, Colorado. She is passionate about relationship-based fundraising and new opportunities for inspiring others.

When she’s not working, you can find her cooking up a storm, walking her pup, Grit, hiking in the mountains, playing in the surf, or planning a trip to a foreign land.

Alyssa Rainbolt, Membership & Events Manager

Alyssa comes to Great Old Broads with a passion for wild places and a background in non-profit project management and outdoor education. Most recently she was walking and rock climbing throughout the west for NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School), teaching environmental ethics, leadership, inclusion, and outdoor skills to a diverse student population. Prior to working in the field, she fostered the NOLS alumni community and directed events across the U.S. as the Alumni Relations Coordinator.

It was at the anti-human trafficking nonprofit Not For Sale that Alyssa first saw the power of grassroots movements while curating content for campaigns, social media, and a unique fundraising initiative that engaged professional athletes. She has a BS in Journalism from the University of Kansas, where she played on the women’s golf team. These days, Alyssa loves connecting with the natural world by way of rock climbing, mountain biking, wildcrafting, or sunbathing on a slab of granite next to an alpine lake, all with her dog Osa.