Jaimi Butler has a bachelor’s degree in Fisheries and Wildlife from Utah State University, as well as 20 years of experience in field biology, wildlife research and management, community organizing, grant administration, community based science, higher education and outreach. Currently, she is the coordinator and co-creator of Great Salt Lake Institute at Westminster College. There, she strives to connect people to Great Salt Lake through research and education by supporting an interdisciplinary cadre of faculty and undergraduate students in their research and projects centered around the local environment. That research is then disseminated to teachers, fellow researchers, and the general community.

Her time at Westminster follows earlier work as a field technician with Utah State University, and time as a biologist with the brine shrimp industry and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, where she enthusiastically spent countless hours in the salt and mud counting birds and bugs and smelling [like] Great Salt Lake. She is most proud of the enduring relationships she has in our community and the increased understanding of both Great Salt Lake and science in general.

Joe Donaldson is a professional landscape architect and environmental planner. Throughout his career in public and private practice and university teaching he has applied principles of ecological design and green infrastructure to protect and improve habitat and create sustainable environments for people. His work, at scales ranging from landscape-level planning to detailed design, has included ecological restoration, open space planning, wildlife habitat improvement, management for endangered species, visual resource assessment, environmental education, and environmental consensus-building. Joe holds a Masters of Landscape Architecture from USU and an A.B. in Architecture from UC Berkeley. He is a Life Member of the Sierra Club and loves birding, hiking, biking, skiing, rafting, kayaking, and backpacking whenever and wherever he can.

Paul Parker has always been drawn to and fascinated by the beauty and mysteries of the natural world. He grew up on a small farm in Cache Valley, Utah. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture from Utah State University and went on to earn a master’s degree in the same subject from Harvard University.

After graduate school, Paul served as Deputy State Planning Coordinator in the Utah Governor’s office, where he helped coordinate state policies for natural resources and environmental conservation. For over 30 years, Paul worked as a non-profit organization executive focused on natural resource conservation through stakeholder collaboration, research, and education. At the Center for Resource Management, he led projects such as a joint research collaboration on climate change with US and Russian scientists and stakeholder efforts to protect the Bering Sea and the Porcupine Caribou herd in Alaska from oil and gas development. For over ten years, he worked closely with the golf industry and the environmental community to make golf courses more environmentally sustainable.

Most recently, Paul served as Executive Director of Hawkwatch International, which works to monitor and protect birds of prey. Paul enjoys spending time outdoors with family and friends hiking, bird watching, camping, fishing, and gardening.

Mark Brunson is a Professor of Environment and Society at Utah State University. He studies the interactions between people and nature – how humans affect natural environments and how nature affects human environments – especially in sagebrush rangelands of the Intermountain West. Mark is passionate about connecting science to people who can benefit from it, leading outreach programs for land managers about wildfire and ecological restoration and teaching graduate ecology students about science communication and community engagement. He lives in Cache Valley with his wife and cats, and spends as much time as he can outdoors looking for birds and wildflowers.

Gary Dodge was born and educated in Utah County, graduating from Orem High School, Brigham Young University and the J Rueben Clark Law School. He clerked for a Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals judge and then practiced law in Salt Lake City for over 40 years, with a particular focus on renewable energy. Gary is passionate about the beautiful canyons, mountains, wetlands, and deserts of Utah, and he particularly enjoys spending time in areas surrounding Castle Valley, Utah. He is married and the father of four sons.

Gary has served as an officer and board member of two prominent Utah law firms, Parr Brown Gee & Loveless and James Dodge Russell & Stephens. He has also worked with and served as an officer or board member on several non-profit organizations, limited liability companies, and cooperative organizations. As he attempts to transition into retirement, Gary looks forward to focusing more of his energies on Utah’s extraordinary wild areas.

Emmanuel Santa-Martinez is an Assistant Professor of Biology at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC). Since Emmanuel joined SLCC in August 2019, he has been teaching organismal biology courses and supervises independent research projects that are now part of his curriculum. He also created the first Bilingual Introduction to Biology in Spanish and English. Emmanuel collaborates in agricultural and pollination biology projects and has established semester-long research projects where SLCC students have the opportunity to explore plant-pollinator interactions. Aside from his Biology background, Emmanuel advocates for fairness and equity among all students, with the intent of creating a culture of inclusion and equal access to a high- quality education.

He obtained his PhD in Entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2017. His PhD research focused in understanding the foraging behavior of different bee species and how these pollinators can impact gene flow and self-pollination in agriculture. In his spare time, Emmanuel enjoys hiking, camping, kayaking, cooking and exploring the outdoors.