Shelley Silbert, Executive Director

Shelley Silbert

Shelley comes to Broads with more than 20 years in the fields of conservation and sustainability. Most recently she served as Associate Director of the San Juan Citizens Alliance in Durango, Colorado. She was the Director of Strategic Environmental Initiatives at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff from 2003 to 2011, where she founded and chaired the Environmental Caucus and 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. Shelley grew up in Tennessee.

She has a B.A. in Anthropology and Health Care from the University of Tennessee and an M.A. in Watershed Management from the University of Arizona. As the Executive Director, Shelley is responsible for the health and success of the entire organization. Along with administrative duties of budgeting and personnel management, she determines the wild-lands advocacy agenda for the Broads and represents Broads to the media, to our members, to our partner organizations, and to the great wild world.

email: shelley@greatoldbroads.org

Lauren Berutich, Associate Director

Lauren Berutich

Lauren has more than 10 years of experience in environmental education, grassroots organizing, conservation and stewardship coordination, 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 joined the Friends of Camp Colton EE Board in 2004, serving as president for two years. She has a Bachelors 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, playing disc golf, enjoying local tunes, or romping somewhere wild with her pup, Lili.

email: lauren@greatoldbroads.org

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.”

email: susan@greatoldbroads.org

Joyce Thomsen, Membership Maven

Joyce Thomsen

Joyce took a break from a 23-year stint at chiropractic in Durango to participate actively in the preservation of the “back country,” which incidentally is also the name of her practice where she enjoyed hiking, biking, and skiing in her spare time for most of those 23 years. Ya, ya betcha she grew up on a farm in Minnesota, and credits her parents with showing her the beauty and value of open country on their many family vacations, especially to the American west.  She earned bachelor degrees in physical education and distributive science at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, MN, then continued her education with a bachelor of science in human biology and a doctor of chiropractic degree from National College of Chiropractic, Lombard, Illinois. Joyce loves  interacting with other Broads and helping to make a difference!

email: membership@greatoldbroads.org

Lori Niewold, Development Coordinator

Lori Niewold has a Master’s and Ph.D. from the University of Texas at El Paso, specializing in Environmental and Sustainable Chemistry. For the past 10 years, she’s worked in development and fundraising and sees joining Broads as a way “to give back to nature.” As Broads’ Development Coordinator, Lori plays an integral role in fundraising and grant writing. Her love of the outdoors started with watching crawdads while sitting on a rock in the woods of Missouri and has grown to exploring 14er’s in Colorado. Lori describes herself as part quirky, part techy, but mostly WILD. She tells us she’s a prankster as well, so we hope we don’t find a rubber crawdad in our desks anytime soon!

email: lori@greatoldbroads.org

Mike Kruse, Grassroots Leadership Coordinator

Mike comes to Broads with more than 10 years of experience in the environmental field, ranging from non-profit and volunteer work, to working with private companies and the U.S. government. He has lived and worked around the western United States and seen many sides of the environmental spectrum. Mike holds a B.S. in Resource, Recreation, and Tourism and a minor in Outdoor Recreation Leadership from the University of Idaho. His master’s thesis obtained from Prescott College focused on collecting attitudes and opinions on public lands in the two contrasting states of Texas and Arizona. Mike has made it a priority to seek out, advocate for, and find refuge amongst America’s public lands. When not mountain biking, hiking, or simply enjoying the beauty of public lands with his dog Roady, he is out and about meeting new people, visiting old friends, playing or seeking out music, and hoping that he can travel soon.

email: mike@greatoldbroads.org

Katya Spiecker, Grassroots Advocacy 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 the Grassroots Advocacy Coordinator, Katya researches various environmental issues, develops advocacy materials for national and local campaigns, and assists Broad members in speaking out for wildlife, wilderness and America’s public lands.

Email: katya@greatoldbroads.org

Claire Attkisson, Communications Assistant

Claire brings more than 20 years of marketing and branding experience in various leadership roles as a consultant and entrepreneur in the non-profit and private sectors. She holds a BA in Women’s Studies with an emphasis in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz; and, an MBA in Sustainable Management, Entrepreneurship & Marketing from Pinchot University (now Presidio Graduate School)—the first “green MBA” program in the United States.

Claire joins the Broads team as a way of getting back to her roots. Early in her career, Claire co-founded and directed Common Earth, an outdoor adventure company for women and girls in the San Francisco Bay Area. When she is not busy with creative and entrepreneurial endeavors, she enjoys yoga, traveling, and hiking with her life-partner and their blended gaggle of four teenagers. 

Email: claire@greatoldbroad.org

Ellie Stevenson, Operations Manager

Ellie settled down in Durango after a year of road-tripping and backpacking around the West, and joined Great Old Broads soon afterward. Throughout her career she has worked in a variety of roles for non-profit organizations with missions ranging from youth workforce development to preventive health education, sparked by a term serving with the AmeriCorps VISTA program. Raised in a family where vacation time meant a camping trip, she has always had a special place in her heart for the natural world and is grateful for the opportunity to work to protect the places and spaces that mean so much to her personally. In her free time, she enjoys backpacking, hiking, biking, experimenting in the kitchen, making travel plans, and reading a good book with her cat in her lap.

email: ellie@greatoldbroads.org