Natasha is the Executive Director of Citizens For A Healthy Community (CHC). Before stepping in as Executive Director, Natasha served on the CHC Board. She brings to CHC legal, location, ecosystem, and industry analysis experience. She is an international trade attorney, turned independent business consultant, turned editor of a location intelligence magazine, turned author of Travel Healthy: A Road Warrior’s Guide to Eating Healthy. She believes that clean air, water, soils, and nouri (the new word to describe what we should be eating for optimum health) are a basic human right.
Bronwen Barry retired to the North Fork Valley with her partner Bruce Woodside five years ago after a 40 year career in film, and 25 years on the executive board of her union, The Animation Guild IATSE LOCAL 839. Though her past experience may not have direct relation to the work of environmental nonprofits, she is a firm believer in the mission of CHC and feels honored to be part of an organization that has made such an undeniable difference in the future of this unique community.
Kay Howe settled on the Western Slope of Colorado after a long hiatus. Her activist side emerged in Moab when she became a force behind the appeal of the Moab BLMʻs decision to approve the Lisbon Valley Copper Mine. An invitation to an environmental education conference introduced her to Dr. Manny Pinoʻs work with middle school students at the Laguna and Acoma Pueblos, examining the impacts of uranium mining in their communities. Inspired by this, she saw education as an avenue for change. In Kalimantan Indonesia, she connected UNIDOʻs Global Mercury Project with an environment-based NGO to mitigate the release of mercury from illegal artisanal gold mining activities near a national park. She finished a Master of Science degree from the University of Hawaii, participating in studies and developing educational materials on Angiostrongylus cantonensis the rat lungworm, a parasite that causes brain damage. She currently conducts professional training courses for teachers in the curricula that she wrote. Kay appreciates the richness of this valley, the wild beauty that surrounds us, and the need to protect it. An avid beekeeper, she is concerned about the warming of Delta and surrounding counties, and the potential impact of the expansion of oil and gas extraction to the North Fork Valley.
David is a retired biology professor from the University of Maryland, where he taught ecology and conservation biology. He still does field research at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, near Crested Butte, where he has worked each summer since 1971. His long-term research there focuses on how the changing climate is affecting the timing and abundance of flowering by wildflowers, and how that is affecting animals like pollinating bumble bees and hummingbirds. He has been a resident of the North Fork valley since 2015. David writes frequently about his research for newspapers and magazines, and works with organizations like the Ecological Society of America (recently as President), and the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign.
Jon has many passions, all stemming from his deep desire for human and environmental rights and connection. With a BA in photography, he fell in love using the lens of a camera to shed light on issues and inspirational stories. Now a documentary filmmaker and award-winning portrait photographer, Jon is inspired by issues of transformation, whether in nature or humans. He and his wife steward a 5-acre organic farm and product company, Rock ‘n Roots Farm, in Paonia, which uses regenerative practices to give more than what is taken from the land. Their vision is that the farm will become a place for people and activists to come, rejuvenate and heal before heading back into their communities to continue to create positive change in the world.
Jon also co-produced the award winning documentary,Arise (2012) about women in the global environmental movement and is working on a film as a videographer called, Still Here.
Jon has been involved with non-profit work since 2000 when he started volunteering with and eventually served as a volunteer ED with the Arizona No Fee Coalition, which worked to resist access fees and the privatization of public lands. He also volunteered with and served on the board of several other non-profits in Flagstaff that were focused on environmental justice, strengthening local economies and resisting war. In 2009, Jon became the secretary of the non-profit, UrbiCulture Community Farms in Denver which he co-founded with his wife, Candice. For 7 years he volunteered and served on the board for UCF which made locally grown produce accessible to all people. Jon currently serves on the board of the Sathi Fund which empowers grassroots social innovators in the developing world.
Jane grew up on a farm in Virginia riding horses and dreaming of being a cowgirl. She attended college in Denver and photography school in Aspen, which cemented her love of the West and she never left. Over the years, she lived in Denver, Aspen and Boulder taking on various jobs, including working for Celestial Seasonings in Boulder. She spent the 80’s and 90’s up Divide Creek south of Silt farming and training horses, during the beginning of the oil and gas boom in Garfield County. This is where she came face to face with the true horrors of the impacts of oil and gas development on kids, farmers, ranchers, people, and community. Her pastoral community turned industrial. With seven wells across from her, headaches were intolerable, her neighbor and best friend died of a leukemia caused by benzene exposure. The many fields that were once irrigated became bare and crossed with roads and there were trucks daily going to and from the wells. Forced to flee Silt she found home in the North Fork Valley. She is a student of Allan Savory’s Holistic Resource Management program, and advocates for holistic land management based on sound decisions, which include understanding the ecosystem being affected. She is currently a landscape painter, photographer, avid gardener, and proud owner of 3 wild dogs and 6 big cats. Jane brings to the CHC Board a diverse background and experience in land management, conflicts between farmers/ranchers and industry, commitment to protecting our air and water and ability to be self-sufficient, and pure love of life, our beautiful and unique lands, and most importantly, respect for the ecosystem upon which we depend.