Durlin Hickok

 
Durlin Hickok first became involved with ONDA through his daughter, Laurel, who worked with as an Assistant Wildlands Coordinator. A physician by training, he practiced for eighteen years before joining Adeza Biomedical Corporation as vice president of clinical and regulatory. He retains a position at the University of Washington of clinical professor, epidemiology and obstetrics, and gynecology. Durlin and his family spend extensive time in central Oregon and have had a second home in Bend for over fifteen years. He has previously served in leadership roles for a number of medical organizations, and, currently, is a trustee of Outward Bound West.

John Sterling

Vice President

John Sterling is a Bend, Oregon-based consultant working to help businesses and environmental organizations work together more effectively. Before moving to Bend, John was Director of Environmental Programs at Patagonia, Inc., an outdoor clothing company that supports many grassroots environmental initiatives.

John returned to his native Oregon after an 18-year exile in California that took him from college at UC Berkeley, to a stint on the staff of Earth Island Institute in San Francisco, then seven years at Patagonia, where, in his free time, he put too many miles on his car driving to climbing and skiing destinations in the Sierra Nevada and the California desert.

He returned to Oregon with his wife, Heather, and joined the ONDA board in 2004.

Helen Harbin

President

Helen Harbin’s involvement with ONDA started by helping inventory thousands of acres of public land for wilderness values and removing miles of barbed-wire fence from the Steens Mountain Wilderness. An Oregonian since 1992, she is fascinated by the ancient history and wild places to be found in the arid lands of eastern Oregon.

Lucky enough to retire after a silicon valley business career, she has an agenda that includes hiking, paddling, yoga, and mandolin music with friends, plus organizing neighbors to protect the Deschutes River in Bend. Helen joined the board in 2004

Kirk Richardson

A hardcore Oregonphile, Kirk is a 27-year veteran of Nike and former president of Keen Footwear in Portland. Kirk is now the General Manager of Footwear at Columbia Sportswear. When not working, Kirk can be found exploring Oregon's wildlands on foot, tied into a climbing rope, or with barbed-wire fence removal tools in hand. In addition to his business savvy and marketing skills, Kirk brings to the ONDA board a wry sense of humor and a commitment to protecting our desert wildlands. He also serves on the board of the Outdoor Industry Conservation Alliance, a group of outdoor companies that funds grassroots environmental groups, including ONDA.

Lisa Brown

Secretary

Lisa Brown has worked with Northwest conservation groups on watershed and aquatic habitat protection projects for more than a decade, as well as for an aquatic research group at the Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis. Lisa earned her B.S. in Environmental Science from Oregon State University, and graduated with honors from Lewis and Clark Law School with a certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law. She is a staff attorney at WaterWatch of Oregon and is a member of the Oregon Bar. A desert rat at heart, she joined the ONDA board in 2005 and looks forward to having more excuses to make it over to the east side.

Ray Hartwell

Treasurer

Ray Hartwell has years of experience in environmental conservation in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, including work for the Deschutes River Conservancy and Environmental Defense. He has a background in conservation finance and environmental economics, most recently through consulting work for the World Conservation Union (IUCN). Ray has also worked as an economic and financial research consultant at Cornerstone Research and has taught statistics as a member of the adjunct faculty at New York University. He holds a Bachelor’s in French and German from Williams College and a Master’s in Public Policy from New York University.

 Ray has recently returned to Oregon from four years in Manhattan, and has settled in Portland with his wife Laurel. They enjoy skiing, climbing, hiking, and other outdoor pursuits in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest. Ray joined the board in 2007.

Piper Lucas

Piper is an award winning designer residing in Sisters Oregon.  Originally from Georgia, she moved to Sisters in 2006, and is the owner and manager of Twiline LLC, a building firm focusing on Green Design. She is also an active member of the Laird Norton Family Foundation, and she is a member of the climate change fund advisory council.  Piper has a love for Oregon’s wild desert rivers in particular the John Day and Owyhee.  

Piper joined the ONDA board in 2007.

Julie Weikel

Julie has been practicing large animal veterinary medicine for over thirty years; this experience has afforded her a unique opportunity to meet and know others who love and live with the desert on its most demanding term. Julie confesses she likes cattle and works every day to understand them and their needs.  Humane management of cattle and wildlife in the desert is a huge daunting task due to the variability’s of the desert environment.  For those livestock producers who choose not to meet that challenge, she appreciates and supports ONDA’s policies of economic support.

Julie feels  fortunate to have been able to raise her children in the “space” of Eastern Oregon.  They are all now people who need and value that space.  Her work with ONDA is driven largely by her commitment to preserve that sense of space for all who need it.

Ken Rait 

Ken is the campaigns director for the Campaign for America's Wilderness in Portland. He is the former director of the Heritage Forests Campaign, the organization that successfully advocated for the conservation of nearly 60 million acres of roadless, wild national forest lands. He served as conservation director of the Oregon Natural Resources Council and, prior to that, spent seven years as issues director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. Previously, he was the conservation chair of the Sierra Club's Rincon Group in Tucson, Arizona, where he lobbied for the passage of the Arizona BLM wilderness bill. At that time he held a faculty position at the University of Arizona's Department of Agricultural Economics as research associate and published in various legal and economics journals. He holds bachelor and master's degrees from Clark University.

Chris Van Dyke

Originally from California, Chris began a promising law career in Oregon right out of law-school in the mid 1970’s. After nine years in the public sector, including four years as a District Attorney for Marion County, Chris moved to the private sector. He began as an attorney for Nike where his role eventually morphed into that of marketing director, product developer and brand manager. From there he moved to the austere and “greener” pastures of Patagonia where he was responsible for the management of marketing and branding communications, including advertising, catalog, website, retail, and PR. Chris also co-founded Nau Inc. a sustainable outdoor clothing retailer, whose mission aims “To combine the generosity of the human spirit with technology and business innovation to….protect the environment, promote social justice and provide humanitarian relief worldwide.” Chris is currently doing consulting work for consumer product companies on branding and sustainability issues. His personal interests--sailing, surfing, cycling, and adventure travel --provide him inspiration. Since living on several hundred acres of Sonoran Desert for three years in the early 1970’s, Chris has maintained a deep love and appreciation for the desert environment. Chris joined the ONDA board in 2009.

Jeff Frank

 Jeff Frank is a native Oregonian and a Portland-based financial consultant.  He earned his ‘street cred’ at the University of California/Berkeley in the sixties where he worked for environmental protection while earning a degree in Sociology.  He then joined the Peace Corps and moved to Thailand where he worked on water projects.  He returned to Corvallis, Oregon, to earn a degree in Civil Engineering from Oregon State University with an emphasis on water systems planning. Jeff is a passionate rock climber, mountaineer, wilderness wanderer, and nature photographer. Jeff is firm believer in Ockham’s razor – the simplest solution to any problem is the most effective and always the most elegant. He still owns his original Birkenstocks and his first edition of The Whole Earth Catalogue.

Jack Sterne

 Jack Sterne is the principal of Rising Tide Strategies LLC, which provides strategic advice to environmental organizations and renewable energy companies. His history with ONDA, began as a volunteer while a law student at Lewis & Clark Law School in 1992, and continued as a de facto ONDA staff attorney from 1995 to 1999,  when he won an injunction barring grazing from the Owyhee Wild and Scenic River.  He then became a staff attorney at the public-interest law firm Trustees for Alaska, where he co-counseled the precedent-setting Steller sea lion litigation. In 2003, he co-founded Ocean Champions, the first national political organization for the oceans, and now serves as its General Counsel. He also served as an official advisor to the NOAA transition for President Barack Obama.  After ten years in Alaska, he and his family returned to Bend in September 2008 and are greatly enjoying being back in the high desert.

Gilly Lyons

Gilly works as Save Our Wild Salmon's Washington, DC Representative. Prior to joining the SOS staff, Gilly spent six years as grassroots coordinator for the Oregon Natural Desert Association in Bend and Portland, OR, and two years as legislative advocate for the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign in Washington, DC. Gilly, who hails from New York City, holds an MSc in environmental studies from the University of Montana. Gilly joined the ONDA board in 2009.