CURRENT BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

Dave Ward, President
daveward@nwlink.com
Dave specializes in public involvement and education for Snohomish County's Surface Water Management Division, where he develops public communication strategies and education programs to help landowners improve aquatic habitat and reduce their impacts on habitat and water quality. Prior to his current position, Dave managed salmon habitat restoration projects for the Stilly-Snohomish Fisheries Enhancement Task Force and was the Executive Director of Pilchuck Audubon Society. He currently sits on the board of the Cascade Land Conservancy. A self-described generalist, Dave holds degrees in civil engineering and architecture, and has an unusual fondness for bugs. Dave brings expertise in aquatic and forest habitat restoration, construction, community outreach, communications, and non-profit management to the Task Force. He lives in Monroe with his radiant wife Susan and a menagerie of critters.

Franchesca Perez, Vice President
mperez@stillaguamish.nsn.us
Franchesca works for the Stillaguamish Tribe Natural Resources Department as a technical service provider and outreach specialist in the Stillaguamish watershed. Franchesca wears a variety of hats to match each aspect of her job: she consults with and manages projects with landowners to improve salmon habitat; she helps coordinate the Festival of the River, provides educational programs to local schools, works with volunteers, creates the quarterly newsletter, and manages the departmental website. She also is the Tribal co-Lead Entity coordinator for the Stillaguamish Implementation Review Committee and serves on the Snohomish County Shoreline Advisory Committee. Franchesca holds a Masters degree in marine and estuarine science and has a broad base of science experience from ocean plankton research to larval crab ecology to molecular biology. When off the clock, she plays mandolin and guitar, windsurfs, and has recently married the man of her dreams!

Suzi Wong Swint, Treasurer
swswint@aol.com
Suzi joined the Task Force Board of Directors in Fall 2000, and is the most recent past-Board President. Suzi presently manages Snohomish County Surface Water Management's (SWM) Watershed Education Program. The Watershed Education Program offers classes, workshops, seminars, and watershed tours to citizens interested in protecting and restoring local water resources. Suzi joined SWM in 1991 and coordinated the member entities of the Stillaguamish Implementation & Review Committee (SIRC). Other professional experience includes coordinating the environmental review and public involvement aspects of various projects proposed by the Snohomish County Public Works Department, and designing several United States Forest Service recreational capital facilities (campgrounds, trails, & trailheads) in Oregon and Washington. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in landscape architecture from Oregon State University.

Andy Loch, Secretary
aloch@ci.shoreline.wa.us
Mr. Loch has acquired 20 years of experience in aquatic ecology in a variety of settings and disciplines. His skills, knowledge and abilities have been derived in part from extensive assessments utilizing bioassesments, wetland surveys, fisheries biology, landscape characterization profiles, and ambient monitoring. His area of expertise is evaluating our human footprint on the aquatic ecology of streams and wetlands. As an Aquatic Ecologist with BS in Environmental Biology he has worked on wide range of projects from glacier fed streams of Washington's Cascade Mountains to her windswept nearshore estuarine habitats. Andy has collaborated with public agencies, local governments, sovereign nations, non-profit organizations, and private landowners to foster watershed-based approaches to protect, preserve and restore our aquatic resources. Recipient of several awards, the most notable being the Pilchuck Audubon Society's Outstanding Community Achievement Award for his work to conserve and restore the natural ecosystems of Snohomish County.

Kip Killebrew, Member at Large
k.killeb@verizon.net
Kip Killebrew has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology with a minor in Marine Science from Penn State University. He has more than 20 years of experience in the fisheries field and has worked with the National Marine Fisheries Service, Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the University of Washington School of Fisheries. For the last 14 years, Kip has been employed as a fisheries biologist for the Stillaguamish Tribe working on the Tribe's chinook natural stock restoration program. Recently, NMFS has acknowledged the Tribe's chinook hatchery restoration program as one of only 6 programs within Puget Sound that are essential to the recovery of endangered Puget Sound chinook. Kip has been involved with the Stilly-Snohomish Fisheries Enhancement Task Force since its inception in 1990, and has filled a variety of board/officer positions during that time, except Treasurer because he's lousy at managing money.

Thomas Murphey, Member at Large
Thomas Murphy is Chair of the Department of Anthropology at Edmonds Community College. He has a PhD in anthropology from the University of Washington and has conducted ethnobiological and ethnomedical research in Guatemala, Mexico and the Pacific Northwest. The Associated Students of Edmonds CC selected Dr. Murphy as the Lifetime Honorary Triton Outstanding Faculty in 2005 and Outstanding Club Advisor in 2003 and 2001. He founded the Learn-and-serve Environmental Anthropology Field (LEAF) School at the college in 2006. The LEAF School is an innovative service-learning program in which students earn an AmeriCorps education award while completing a series of courses in Human Ecology. The LEAF School's contributions to making fishing, farming and forestry more sustainable received national recognition when the Community College National Center for Community Engagement selected the program for a 2007 Service-Learning Collaboration Award.

Chris Grieve, Member at Large
James “Chris” Grieve has a mechanical engineering degree from Arizona State University and currently works in the commercial aircraft modification business. He is also a fly fisherman and a part time fly fishing guide. As a guide, he spends a lot of time on the Stillaguamish, Skykomish, Skagit and Sauk rivers. Chris is also a board member of the Wild Steelhead Coalition. “I am passionate about fly fishing for steelhead and salmon. I would like to see a reversal in the decline in our wild steelhead and salmon run. I am adamant about protecting and restoring the environment that they live in so that generations to come may enjoy them as I have.”

Kirk Lakey, PWS, Department of Fish And Wildlife Watershed Steward
Kirk is a Fish and Wildlife Biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Habitat Division. As a Watershed Steward, Mr. Lakey provides technical assistance to the Lead Entities (LE) in the Green-Duwammish Water Resource Inventory Area (WRIA) 9, Cedar-Lake Washington WRIA 8, as well as to the Mid-Puget Sound Fisheries Enhancement Group (MPSFEG) and the Stilly -Snohomish Fisheries Enhancement Task Force (SSFETF). Kirk has worked throughout the United States and overseas as a professional in the natural resource field for over 15 years. Past work experience includes the characterization, assessment, and delineation of wetlands, the development of mitigation plans for the creation, restoration and enhancement of wetland systems, terrestrial habitat analysis and evaluations, threatened and endangered species surveys, and interpreting, international, federal, state and local regulations and policies. Mr. Lakey is a Professional Wetland Scientist (PWS) with a Bachelor of Science in Range Management and Wildlife Habitat Management from Washington State University. Kirk's expertise is in applied ecology and wetland science.