Board of Directors

SJ Brown is Principal of Silvix Resources. Her primary focus of litigation is federal public lands forest management, but her practice includes cases involving the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, National Forest Management Act, and other land management statutes including the Oregon and California Lands Act. Susan Jane’s policy portfolio includes federal land management planning, wildfire risk reduction and mitigation, appropriations, wildlife conservation, and Indigenous co-management of federal lands, among other issues.

Prior to founding Silvix, Susan Jane was a senior staff attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC) for 14 years where she also directed the Wildlands Program. Susan Jane joined WELC after two years as Natural Resources Council for Congressman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) in Washington, DC.

She continues her involvement in collaborative working groups across the Pacific Northwest, including as a founder of the Blue Mountains Forest Partners on the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon.

Susan Jane graduated cum laude from Vanderbilt University in 1997 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, English, and Philosophy, and graduated from Lewis and Clark Law School in 2000 with a Juris Doctorate and the Environmental and Natural Resources Certificate. She is the recipient of numerous awards including the Bernard O’Rourke Award for Environmental Scholarship, Lewis and Clark Law School (2000); Bridge Builder Award, Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition (2012); Outstanding Conservation Leadership Award, Wilburforce Foundation (2019); and the Annual Leadership Award, Oregon State Bar Environmental and Natural Resources Section (2020). Susan Jane is active with the Forest Resources Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section on Energy, Environment and Resources (SEER), is the Written Content Chair for SEER, and a Forest Stewards Guild member.

In this forest investment firm specializing in native forest management, Kaärsten leads efforts to generate increased revenues from a diversity of ecological services including sales of carbon credits, working forest conservation easements, leasing of wind-energy rights, and the monetization of non-timber attributes associated with forestland ownership. She also oversees TFG’s domestic and international forest sustainability commitments and manages the firm’s certification program. Kaärsten is also involved in the development and implementation of forest management plans. She has worked with several domestic and international conservation organizations on public and private land conservation issues and enjoys creative problem solving to meet multiple stakeholder objectives.

Her influences include conservation writers and leaders, the wide-open landscapes of the west, the steep slopes of the Appalachian hardwood forests, and the land of the long white cloud (New Zealand). She lives in Conifer, Colorado, and her two boys keep her running, laughing and cleaning up messes.

Kaärsten has a BA from Smith College in English, an MS in Resource Conservation from the University of Montana School of Forestry, and an MBA from the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler School of Business. Kaärsten is a director in several of TFG’s investment interests and serves on the Board of Directors for the World Forestry Center. With the Guild since 1998, she served two terms on the Membership and Policy Council prior to the board.

Tony D’Amato is a long-time Guild member and Professor at University of Vermont. In fact, Tony is the Director of Forestry Program as well as Director of UVM Research Forests. His research interests center on evaluating the efficacy of traditional and experimental silvicultural strategies at meeting the increasingly diverse range of forest management objectives on public and private land. Tony’s specific research areas include: understanding the developmental dynamics and productivity of natural and managed forest systems, particularly within the context of changing global conditions and societal objectives; identifying factors affecting natural regeneration dynamics; and investigating the nature and influence of plant competitive interactions on long-term patterns of tree growth and forest structural development. His numerous publications include the text book Ecological Silviculture: Foundations and Applications.

Before returning to New England where he grew up, Tony taught silviculture at the University of Minnesota for seven years. Tony received his BS in Forest Ecosystem Science at University of Maine, MS in Forest Science, Oregon State University, and PhD at the University of Massachusetts. 

Ann Duff is the Fiber Sustainability Manager for WestRock company based in Fernandina Beach, Florida. Ann joined the Guild when she engaged with Guild staff through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) controlled wood risk mitigation work. As Fiber Sustainability Manager, Ann works with seven wood fiber and three recycle fiber paper mills to comply with FSC Chain of Custody/Controlled Wood, Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) Chain of Custody/Fiber Sourcing, and Programme Endorsement Forest Certification (PEFC) Chain of Custody standards. She interacts with WestRock customers, suppliers and employees regarding WestRock’s sustainability and forestry practices. She is currently serving as Secretary/Treasurer of the Florida Forestry Association, oversees the Florida Master Logger training program for the Florida SFI Implementation Committee, and is a member of the Florida Forest Council, which serves as an advisory body to the Florida Forest Service. 

Ann has worked for WestRock (includes business entity names Jefferson Smurfit Corporation, Smurfit-Stone, Rock Tenn) since 1989 in a range of positions include District Forester, Woodlands Auditor, General and Wood Accounting Supervisor, District Manager, Region Manager and her current position, Fiber Sustainability Manager. Ann graduated from the University of Florida School of Forest Resources and Conservation (now called School of Forest, Fisheries and Geomatics Sciences) with a major in Forestry. Her first job was with Rayonier as Soils and Fertilization Forester where she administered soil mapping project and operational forest fertilization operations on Rayonier fee lands. She resides in Jacksonville Beach, FL. 

Amber’s more than twelve years of experience includes leading a team of professionals responsible for forest planning across DNR administered lands, policy analysis, and strategic planning. She helps shape her agency's participation in federal regulatory action and initiatives, and support of state level legislative affairs. Previously a forester in northern Minnesota, Amber also mentors students, enjoys travel, and sleeping in a tent. She served on the Guild’s Membership and Policy Council for six years before joining the board.

John was the Environmental Affairs/Public Outreach Coordinator for the Tennessee Division of Forestry. He also worked for Greenpeace, the Nature Conservancy, and The U.S. Forest Service in California and Alaska. John has coauthored papers on: Carbon Sequestration Principles for the Southeast; Valuing a Forested Viewshed. He is an avid sailor, backpacker, waterfowl hunter, flyfisher, and wooden boat builder. John is a graduate of Tennessee State University where he also received a M.S. in Forest Economics and Policy.

John Galvan is the tribal Forester for the Pueblo of Jemez, New Mexico. John earned his Bachelor of Science in forestry at Northern Arizona University. He served as both 1st and 2nd Lieutenant Governor under the Pueblo of Jemez Tribal Government and has worked under the US Forest Service in various technician positions.

Currently, he is responsible for managing the forestry operations including reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires, promoting overall forest health, protecting forest resources including water and wildlife, coordinating wildfire response, and building program capacity and partnerships to enhance the Pueblo’s ability to protect and to enhance their forest resources.

John has long served as a valuable collaborator with the Guild, representing the Pueblo in the Southwest Jemez Mountain Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project and supporting the Guild’s Forest Stewards Youth Corps crew at Jemez Pueblo.

Peter and his family own and care for working forests in the northern Oregon Coast Range. The family’s work builds on 170 years of family involvement in forestry and sawmilling. Their solutions forestry business, Hyla Woods, experiments with models of forestry and grower-consumer partnerships that lead to enriched forests and sustained people. Peter’s community involvements include service on the Oregon Board of Forestry, leadership of the Build Local Alliance, and service on several non-profit boards. Peter and his family are enthusiastically involved in the Guild’s northwest region.

Austin Himes is an assistant professor of Sustainable Forest Management Systems and the Director of the Forest Ecology and Management program at Washington State University in the School of the Environment. He was previously an assistant professor of Hardwood Silviculture at Mississippi State University in the College of Forestry and has a PhD in Forest Ecosystems and Society from Oregon State University, and MS in Forest and Environmental Science from University of Washington, a BS in Environmental Science and a BA in English Literature from University of Oregon. Prior to his academic career, he worked for eight years in the forest industry for a Timber Investment Management Organization called GreenWood Resources. While there, he worked in tree improvement, silvicultural research, harvesting and sales, and finally as manager of two hybrid poplar plantations in Oregon. His research interests are interdisciplinary and usually revolve around silviculture and management of forests for multiple benefits and values. His work aims to understand how natural systems change over time and in response to human manipulation and connect those changes to impacts on the diverse ways nature is important to people including intrinsic, instrumental, and relational values attributed to ecosystem services. He was a contributing author for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Methodological Assessment Report on the Diverse Values and Valuation of Nature and is a Society of American Foresters Certified Forester.

Austin has a lifetime membership to the Forest Stewards Guild and joined in 2018. He previously served on the Guild's Membership and Policy Council from 2023-2025 as liaison with the Board of Directors. He was the lead author of the Guild's position statement on climate smart forestry, which he had published in a peer reviewed and indexed journal. While at Mississippi State University, he founded a student chapter of the Forest Stewards Guild. He was also a member of the Guild sponsored 2025 Northwest Innovative Forestry Summit planning committee.

Sandra Jones is an independent rural community development consultant, primarily working with African-American landowners and communities with low-incomes to preserve the culture and environment while providing economic opportunity and an improved quality of life. Because of her interest in community-based forestry and land ownership retention, Sandra served as a board member of the National Network of Forest Practitioners and the South Carolina Association of Cooperatives and Farmers. She is a founding board member of the Fund for Southern Communities and the Black Family Land Trust. Sandra also sits on the board of the Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center, which focuses on the history of the community of African American and white loggers in Wallowa County, Oregon.

She served as Director of the Land Use & Environmental Education Program at Penn Center in South Carolina from 1996 to 2002. Before joining the Penn Center staff, she served as a Legal Services attorney for 17 years in South Carolina and California. At the National Housing Law Project in Oakland, she specialized in community economic development, consumer, and housing issues. In response to Hurricane Hugo and the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, she established the National Legal Services Disaster Relief Task Force. Sandra co-founded the Center for Choice in Housing in 1994. A native of St. Louis and a fourth generation Arkansas family farming daughter, she received her BS as a member of the first graduating class of African and Afro-American Studies at Stanford University, and her JD at the University of California at Berkeley School of Law.

Brenda McComb is a Guild member and retired Professor, in the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University. As a Guild member, she served on the planning committee for the Seeing the Forest for the Queers outreach effort to LGBTQ+ natural resource professionals. Her research focused on the effects of various forest stand and landscape management practices on wildlife. Among over 150 publications are three books, Trees of the Central Hardwoods Forests of North America (With Bob Muller and Don Leopold), Monitoring Animal Populations and their Habitats (with Ben Zuckerberg, Dave Vesely and Chris Jordan) and Wildlife Habitat Management: Concepts and Applications in Forestry. She currently serves on the Oregon Board of Forestry and has previously served on the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board and the Oregon State University Board of Trustees. She continues to work with students to publish research results, advises forest land managers as a consultant, and assists with continuing education for the Forest Ecology Working Group of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.​

Before retirement, she previously served on the faculty at the University of Kentucky, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Oregon State University. She was also Chief of the Watershed Ecology Branch of the U.S. EPA, and was Interim Associate Vice Provost and Dean of Students at Stanford University. She holds a BS and MS from the University of Connecticut, and a PhD in Forestry from Louisiana State University.

Rick is a forester and helped form this family-run consulting company, providing comprehensive land management and conservation services to landowners, land trusts, and public agencies in the northern forest region and northeastern US. Rick holds a Master of Forestry from the University of Maine and a BA in Environmental Studies from Bates College. Rick served as the Baxter State Park Resource Manager, overseeing forest management activities in the Scientific Forest Management Area, an FSC-certified, 30,000-acre demonstration forest in Northern Maine. He has also worked as a forester with the University Forests at UMaine Orono. Rick is a licensed Maine forester, and a member and certified forester of the Society of American Foresters (SAF). He has been on our board since 2007 and served as chair from 2012 to 2017.

Dr. V. Alaric (Al) Sample is Adjunct Professor of Environmental Science and Policy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences Board on Agriculture and Natural Resources. He is also President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at the Pinchot Institute for Conservation in Washington, DC, where he was President and chief executive officer 1995-2015. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of American Foresters in 2000. Sample is the author of numerous books, research papers, and articles on topics in national and international environmental and natural resource policy. His current research is focused on the integration of climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience into the evolving institutional, legal, and policy framework for natural resource management. His most recent book is Forest Conservation in the Anthropocene: Science, Policy, and Practice, with R. Patrick Bixler and Char Miller (University Press of Colorado, 2016). Sample earned his doctorate in natural resource policy and economics at Yale University, for which he received the National Wildlife Federation Environmental Conservation Fellowship for excellence in graduate research. He holds an MBA and a Master of Forestry both from Yale, and a Bachelor of Science in forest resource management from the University of Montana.

Mary Snieckus currently works with the USDA Forest Service in Washington, DC as Chief of Staff for the National Forest System. Prior to this, she led Alaska Roadless Rulemaking and served for almost 3 years as deputy chief of staff for the agency. She rejoined the Forest Service in 2014 to lead the Ecosystem Services and Markets program in the State and Private branch of the agency. A Wisconsin native, she holds a BS in Forestry from UW-Madison, and an MS in Forest Policy from the University of New Hampshire. In addition to her public service, Mary worked with non-governmental organizations focused on forest and land stewardship: she managed the conservation incentives and markets program with the American Forest Foundation, consulted on forestry issues and natural resource policy with conservation organizations around the country, and was the first Executive Director of the Forest Stewards Guild. Mary also worked with communities and businesses as a rural development specialist with the State and Private Forestry branch of the US Forest Service in New England and began her forestry career on the Tongass National Forest in Thorne Bay, AK.