Board of Directors

The NAEC Board of Directors help plan for the organization’s future by:

• Ensuring adequate resources to achieve the organization’s mission

• Spearheading the Annual Major Donor Campaign and Auction
  

• Making sure the organization’s programs and services appropriately address the majority of our member’s environmental interests

• Selecting and supporting the Executive Director
  

• Encouraging and supporting volunteer involvement

Jon Miller, President: 2011-Present

Jon Miller moved to Fairbanks in ‘88 in pursuit of wilderness, mountains, and an academic interest in the ecology of alpine birds.   After completing an M.S. in biology at UAF, his love of outdoor adventures left little time for a career in science, so he turned to carpentry…between climbing, ski mountaineering, canoeing and sea kayaking outings and environmental activism.  Learning to live responsibly and sustainably in this bountiful but fragile northern landscape is a focus for Jon and his wife (and fellow board member,) Lou Brown.  Subsistence hunting, fishing and gardening, and plenty time on the land is a traditional and rewarding heritage they cherish and are working to pass on to future generations of Alaskans.

Don Pendergrast, Vice President: 2009-Present

Don's love of the outdoors, conservation ethic, and education path is rooted in a childhood on a farm and being an Eagle Scout.  He was raised and educated in Atlanta, Georgia (B.S. Biology, Emory University; M.S. Aquatic Ecology, Georgia State University).  He founded the Georgia State Parks' Interpretive Naturalist program, and learned to paddle in the Southern Appalachians.  Don moved to Alaska in 1976, joining the Fairbanks Environmental Center then.  He has a typical Alaska checkered past, working various federal, university and private sector jobs.  Don earned a Ph.D. in Outdoor Recreation Management at UAF and recently retired from the National Park Service.

Carol Norton, Treasurer: 2010-Present

Carol grew up near Boston and came to Alaska with her husband in 1967. Her first job was working for Ginny Wood and Celia Hunter at Camp Denali.  That was the beginning of a life of outdoor activities including boating, fishing, skiing, biking, and gardening. After raising her children and retiring from various occupations, Carol took some accounting classes and became a bookkeeper.  She hopes to use her new skills to help maintain the fiscal health of the NAEC.

Lou Brown, Secretary: 2009-Present

Lou Brown was born in upstate New York, moved to San Francisco at age 13 and lived without seasons in that city for the next 20 years. During that time she took a degree in Italian and French while working in the hotel industry.  Her life improved immeasurably after she rode a bicycle over the Sierra Nevada mountains and, unexpectedly, landed a job working for the preservation of Mono Lake on the east side of the Sierra. Life got even better when she met her future husband the day after she arrived and spent her 35^th birthday in her first snow cave. Lou and her beau moved together to Fairbanks in 1988 and learned to love the extremes of seasons and each other in a dry 20x20 cabin. The next 20 years went by in a blur but Lou seems to recall numerous month-long kayak trips and building a cabin on a remote parcel in Prince William Sound, building her current home (with that same guy!), hunting trips for the blessings of moose, hiking and boating on the Ribdon, Ivishak, Chandalar, Canning, Sheenjek and Yukon rivers…and lots and lots of grant proposal writing for just about every kind of non-profit out there. She hopes her work with the NAEC board will help ensure that future generations will also enjoy the beauty and solace of wild Alaska.

Cara Brunk, 2009-Present

Cara Brunk, born and raised in Fairbanks, currently works at the University ofAlaska's Office of Information Technology doing training and marketing. She is also close to completing her MBA through UAF's School of Management. In 2008 she hiked along the coastal plain of the 1002 Area in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This experience reaffirmed her feelings about protecting this last great wilderness. In addition to backpacking, she enjoys skiing, running and gardening. Her greatest enjoyment in life comes from being a mother to her daughter and spending time with her family, especially surrounded by nature.

Karl Monetti, VMD: 2007-Present

Karl Monetti has a B.S. in Biology from Moravian College and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 1969. He was born in Irvington, New Jersey and lived nearby in Maplewood, NJ, a suburb of Newark, until age 11, when he moved to western New Jersey near Delaware Water Gap. There he was instantly thrust into a natural environment and was left to his own devices for the next 6 years, learning first hand how to enjoy, live in, get along with and nurture nature. A brief stint in the Boy Scouts taught him a bunch of good knots and how to build better fires. He learned to play guitar from an aunt at age 12 and has been playing ever since. Remodeling (as in tearing apart and rebuilding, room by room) a 175 year-old farmhouse gave him a good idea of how to build and fix stuff. He has built things (gunstocks then, dog sleds, cabins, later, most recently guitars of his own design), hunted, fished, hiked and canoed ever since. He drove to Alaska May 1971 to visit an old vet school roommate working at Ft. Greeley. Monetti worked construction as he began his own veterinary practice in and around North Pole. He opened North Pole Veterinary Hospital in August 1971 and sold it August 2006. Karl has been writing letters to editor for the last three years, developing more of a conscience about everything he does in the context of the global picture with a focus on environment. "I find myself now with time and energy to devote to helping address global warming/climate change/environmental issues in any way I can."

Paul Reichardt: 2010-Present

Paul Reichardt was brought up in St. Louis and developed a strong interest in the outdoors and conservation through his childhood experiences in the Ozarks.  He received a B.S. in chemistry from Davidson College and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin.  In 1972 he and his wife, Terry, fulfilled childhood dreams when they moved to Alaska.  Paul retired from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 2007 after a 35 year career as chemistry professor, dean, and provost.  He brings to his position on the Board of Directors his background in science as well as commitments to habitat preservation and responsible approaches to the production and use of energy.

Sven Grage: 2010-Present

Sven first visited Alaska in 1987, during a four-month hiking/kayaking/biking trek around the state. Born and raised in Hamburg, Germany, he had spent many summers and winters in Scandinavia. The expanse and seeming health of various ecosystems Sven experienced in a number of Alaska's wildlands was unparalleled and let him choose Alaska for his permanent home in 1997. It is his hope to contribute a small piece to the endeavor to promote protection and conservation of habitat. Sven has been teaching at West valley High School (German, Geography, Outdoor Education, PE, Guitar) since 2000.

Stacey Baldridge: 2011-Present

Stacey Baldridge moved to Fairbanks in 2007 to pursue a Master's Degree in Northern Studies (Oral History) and ended up gaining much more than a degree. Having traveled throughout northern Scandinavia, including a stint living in Finland for 6 months as an exchange student, Stacey learned about the environmental, cultural, and historical aspects of that portion of the  Arctic. Part of the decision to pursue an M.A. at UAF was to return to the North. Her love of everything Northern (and fearlessness of -40) keeps here here- along with her Alaskan, husband Derek. Stacey also interned (twice!) under Pamela Miller and the Arctic Program in 2009, as the summer multi-media intern, and in 2010, as the winter multi-media intern. Stacey is excited and looking forward to serving on the Northern Alaska Environmental Center's board, and can't wait to explore new baking recipes and adventures with her fellow board members.