Staff and Board

NNRG Staff Members

Denise Pranger, Executive Director
Denise brings over 20 years of experience in non-profit management, including seven years with NNRG. She is responsible for oversight of all NNRG programs, budgeting, administration and logistical support and specializes in the social and community elements of NNRG programs. She has been an auditor for the SmartWood program, an FSC accredited certifier, since 2000, giving her extensive knowledge of regional FSC supply chains. Her previous work includes executive duties at the Poverello House, a soup kitchen, food bank and rehabilitation center in Fresno, as well as administrating the Indiana Center for Global Business at the Indiana School of Business. Denise also serves as an Advisory Board member for Shorebank Enterprise Pacific and as a Board member for the Organic Seed Alliance. She holds a B.A. in Social Welfare from Fresno State University.

Ian Hanna, Director- Northwest Certified Forestry
Ian is a forest products market development expert, with a broad background in ecosystem forestry, small-scale manufacturing, FSC market development, and wood product sales. Prior to joining NNRG in June of 2004, Ian provided market and business development consulting for clients involved in FSC and other regional certification programs. His experience includes national level market development for FSC and reclaimed wood products as a regional manager for Certified Wood & Paper Association and Certified Forest Products Council. Ian also co-founded Windfall Lumber in Olympia, one of the first FSC businesses in western Washington. Previous to the sustainable forest products industry, Ian was a restoration ecologist with the Nature Conservancy of Washington. He holds a B.S. in Ecological Sciences from The Evergreen State College. His professional affiliations include the Washington Farm Forestry Assocation, U.S. Green Building Council, and Northwest Ecobuilding Guild.

Kirk Hanson - NCF South Sound Regional Manager
Kirk is a small forest landowner with a 30-acre tree farm near Oakville, Washington where he manages a regenerating forest and develops experimental agroforestry systems. Kirk has worked on strategies for combining rural economic development with environmental enhancement in the Pacific Northwest for over 10 years. In 1996 Kirk founded Permaculture West, a non-profit organization that provided educational and training programs on sustainable forest and farm management for private landowners. In 1999 Kirk worked with a private fisheries consultancy on Critical Areas Ordinance issues pertaining to farming and riparian areas in the Skagit Valley. In 2000 Kirk began work with the Small Forest Landowner Office in the Washington State Department of Natural Resources where he currently assists family forest landowners across the state in finding financial and technical assistance. Kirk graduated from The Evergreen State College in 1995 with a B.S. in Sustainable Resource Management. His professional affiliations include the Washington Farm Forestry Association, Forest Guild and Family Forest Foundation.

Stewart Matthiesen - Development Associate
Stewart is currently a candidate for an MS in Organizational Management with a concentration in Development Management from the School for International Training (SIT) in Vermont. After serving as NNRG's marketing intern in Fall of 2005, he has returned for a temporary staff position. A native of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, he brings a wide variety of experiences to NNRG. He graduated from Peninsula College in 1997 with an AA-Honors (at 17 years old) and from Whitman College in 2000 with a BA in Astrophysics and English. He served in the United States Peace Corps for two years in central Russia, and has also worked as a rock climbing instructor, computer support specialist, state park aid, and city bus dispatcher. He is interested in sustainable development and the merging of environmental, social, and economic concerns in business and society.

NNRG Board of Directors

President - Chris Robbins, The Nature Conservancy of Oregon, Portland, OR
Chris works in the Conservation Program of the Oregon Chapter of The Nature Conservancy. Previously, he founded and operated Biota LLC, a Portland, Oregon-based natural resource consulting firm. Mr. Robbins joined NNRG in 2002. Prior to Biota LLC, Mr. Robbins worked for World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Washington, D.C. where he oversaw plant trade and conservation research for TRAFFIC North America, the wildlife trade monitoring program of WWF and the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Mr. Robbins has an educational and professional background in conservation biology and environmental policy, specializing in planning, research, outreach and communications. He has researched and published extensively on such issues as the forest products trade, wildlife conservation and sustainable agriculture. Mr. Robbins has a decade of experience working in the non-profit conservation community, assisting organizations with strategic planning and development.

Vice-President - Patti Southard, King County Recycling & Environmental Services, Seattle, WA

Patti has an extensive background in the sustainable wood products industry, having worked in sales for several years for Duluth Timber and the Environmental Home Center. At the Environmental Home Center, Patti led the wood products sales team and was responsible for bringing a wide variety of sustainable materials to the Seattle market. Her work with King County focuses on sustainable wood purchasing and recovery, with an emphasis on implementing the County's green building policies. Patti also chairs the Built Green program, a comprehensive residential green building standard, for the Master Builders of King and Snohomish Counties.

Secretary - Heidi Siegelbaum, Siegelbaum & Associates, Seattle, WA
Heidi directs the work of Siegelbaum & Associates, a company devoted to using cross disciplinary approaches such as behavioral change and community asset mapping, to inspire change in human behavior and the Pacific Northwest's environment. She was the Senior Performance Analyst for the Washington State Department of Ecology, helped the Pike Place Market adopt its first sustainability action plan, and was legal counsel to EPA's New Chemicals Program. She is devoted to using market driven tools, financial incentives and humor to sustain and improve our communities.

Treasurer - Diane Moody, Shorebank Enterprise Group, Ilwaco, WA
Diane is the marketing and business services manager for Shorebank Enterprise Pacific--a nonprofit organization that provides business and marketing technical assistance and financing to conservation-based entrepreneurs in rural coastal communities of Washington and Oregon. Prior to joining Shorebank Enterprise Pacific, she was a consultant for Shorebank Advisory Services (SAS), specializing in development banking strategies and economic and labor force development in both rural and urban markets across the nation.

Michael Broili, Phinney Neighborhood Association, Seattle, WA
Mike has extensive experience in the construction trades as a contractor and designer with a low impact and sustainable approach to environmentally sensitive ventures. His experience includes project management overseeing contracts and regulatory compliance. He is a frequent trainer on a variety of subjects and has presented at numerous workshops and seminars. Focusing on integrated water management, Mike is commitment to advancing environmental stewardship by promoting economically viable solutions to environmental problems with individuals, businesses and government entities. He is a member of the City of Shoreline Planning Commission, Bond Advisory Committee and Arts Jury. He is also a Washington Native Plant Steward, a King County Forest Adviser, a certified Sustainable Building Advisor and Compost Facility Operator. He offers his experience and a broad network of contacts across the low-impact design community. Most recently, Mike has taken a position with Phinney Neighborhood Association as Well Home Program Director.

Allen Lebovitz, Willapa Land & Dendrology, South Bend, WA
Allen is an applied ecologist and forester who focuses on coastal Northwest watershed conservation, restoration and management. He is the owner of Coastal Watersheds Consulting which has been providing ecological services to conservation groups, government, and industrial timber companies in the Willapa Ecosystem for over 10 years.
Allen is also the founder of Willapa Land and Dendrology (WiLD), an FSC certified timber company. In addition to owning and managing land, WiLD is an FSC certified broker of logs and Allen has worked aggressively to develop certified markets for timber to improve the valuation of forest resources in the region. Allen has a B.A. in Biology and Public Administration from Northeastern and a M.E.S from the Yale School of Forestry.

Marco Lowenstein, North American Wood Products, Portland, OR
Marco manages FSC and Latin American purchasing for North American Wood Products, a wood-products distributor based in Portland. Marco has worked in sustainable forestry and the certified forest products industry for the past 25 years. His experience includes positions as Western and Lake States Region Manager for the SmartWood program, an FSC certifier; Sales Manager of lumber and flooring dealers in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Director of Sustainable Forestry programs in New Mexico and Costa Rica; and Reforestation Crew Leader in Oregon. Marco has a BA in Biology from the University of California - Santa Cruz and a Masters in Forest Science from Yale University.

Norman MacLeod, Gaelic Wolf Consulting, Port Townsend, WA
Norman MacLeod is the President and CEO of Gaelic Wolf Consulting, an Internet presence strategy and design firm located in Hockessin, Delaware and Port Townsend, Washington. His firm's clients include a broad diversity of organizations, from the Watersheds division of the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control to Forester Communications, a publisher and conference organizing firm working in environmental industries. As a member of the International Environment Forum, a UN recognized NGO, he is actively involved in balancing human needs with those of the environment in many nations and regions around the world. He is involved in international work for the education and support of AIDS orphans in Africa, particularly with supporting subsistence gardening for these young people in Swaziland.

Michael Rylko, Environmental Protection Agency Region 10, Seattle, WA
Michael is the National Estuary Program Coordinator for the Puget Sound / Georgia Basin for EPA’s Office of Ecosystems, Tribal and Public Affairs. He is also the Regional Geographic Initiative Coordinator for the two most populated basins in the region — Puget Sound and the Willamette. His current work focuses on assisting with the design and development of localized watershed protection and restoration approaches in the Puget Sound & Georgia Basin. Michael negotiates, designs, and implements watershed restoration and protection projects and programs in the great Pacific Northwest across most scales of management and across most major land-use sectors. Before coming to Seattle, he was the Forest Team Province Lead for two northwest forest planning provinces - including the Rogue, Umpqua, and Willamette basins in Oregon. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Master’s Degree from the University of Washington, School of Marine Affairs in Coastal Resource Policy.

Michele Zukerberg, Washington Department of Natural Resources, Olympia, WA
Michele received her Master of Forestry degree from Duke University. She has over eight years of experience in research, restoration and management of natural resources. As a forester on public lands, Michele designed timber sales, silvicultural prescriptions, and performed contract compliance on harvest operations. She was previously the Forest Certification Coordinator for NNRG, served as an assessor for a number of Smartwood Chain of Custody and Forest Management operations in the Pacific Northwest, and represented NNRG in the development of the Forest Stewardship Council's Pacific Coast Regional Standards. Michele currently manages conservation lands for the State of Washington's Natural Areas Program.