Chapter Home - Sierra Club Staff
Sierra Club Staff
Jenny Bedell-Stiles
Sierra Student Coalition Organizer
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Jenny Bedell-Stiles Zion National Park Utah
Jenny began organizing as a college student at the University of Oregon, leading a campaign to pressure campus housing to give dorm residents the option of purchasing wind power to cover their personal energy consumption. She also spearheaded a project to gather data for a university greenhouse gas audit.
After graduating in 2006 with an Honors degree in Environmental Studies and Political Science, she accepted a position with Green Corps, the environmental leadership training program. In the following year she traveled across the country, organizing for Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters, Minnesota Environmental Partnership, and Vermont Public Interest Research Group. Her experiences further solidified her commitment to student organizing, addressing the climate crisis, and love for her Portland home.
Upon returning to Portland, Jenny helped launch the Cascade Climate Network, the Pacific Northwest’s regional student climate activism group. After a brief foray into the national political scene with the National Environmental Trust and organizing for Earth Day with Focus the Nation, Jenny is stoked to have returned to her roots in the Northwest, working with the most passionate students to organize and create climate solutions!
When not working with fantastic, inspiring young people, Jenny can often be found biking and walking the streets of Portland, hiking, reading movement and non-movement books, watching $3 movies, and tossing around frisbees.
Contact Jenny at:
(503) 238-0442 x305
jenny.bedell-stiles@sierraclub.org
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Robin Everett
Move Beyond Coal Campaign Organizer
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Robin Everett
Robin Everett began her work with the Sierra Club as a volunteer in 2003. She spent four years working to protect the Cleveland National Forest in Southern California from destructive projects such as a proposed hydro-electric pump storage project in a pristine canyon and a proposed toll road tunnel through the forest.
In 2007, she began working for the Sierra Club full-time on the Friends of the Foothills Campaign which sought to stop the construction of a six-lane toll road through California’s 5th most popular state park, San Onofre State Beach. This campaign succeeded in protecting the state park largely in part to overwhelming public support, in which 3,000 people came to a public hearing to protest the toll road.
Now Robin seeks to help Oregon reduce its dependence on coal power and will work to provide Oregonians with clean, renewable energy. Coal fire power is one of the leading causes of global warming, and she cannot wait to see the day when Oregon will no longer contribute to this very serious problem.
To learn how you can help contact Robin at robin.everett@sierraclub.org
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Jeff Hickman
Hunter/Angler Organizer
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Jeff with a native Oregon winter steelhead
Jeff grew up in a lodge on Mt Hood, which provided the perfect setting, to explore and learn in depth the wild lands, rivers and streams of our region. He comes to the Sierra Club with an education in Fisheries Biology and a wealth of experience in the fly fishing industry.
As a professional fly fishing guide throughout Oregon’s Coast and Cascade Ranges, Willamette Valley and high desert river systems for the last six years, Jeff brings a unique and experienced perspective to building the Sierra Club’s alliances within the fishing and hunting community.
His passion for guiding in the northwest eventually brought him to Alaska where he spent five consecutive summers guiding on the Kanektok and Arolik Rivers. All of this experience has given him a passionate, inside-view of our pressing local, statewide and national fish and wildlife issues.
Jeff’s conservation plan involves strengthening the Club’s alliances with local fishing groups, and engaging current Sierra Club members in fish and wildlife related projects. His current projects include protection of key habitat areas through a Salmon Sanctuary campaign, providind native fish with clean and safe areas to spawn and rear in, expanding access to public lands, rivers and streams, and working towards the removal of four out-dated dams on the lower Snake River.
Stay abreast with current events, projects and issues by monitoring Jeff’s environmental fly fishing blog: The River Writes. The blog also displays some of Jeff’s photography and recent piscatorial catches.
Contact Jeff at:
(503) 238-0442 x306
jeff.hickman@sierraclub.org
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Cesia Kearns
Move Beyond Coal Campaign Organizer
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Cesia Kearns Rocky Mountain National Park Colorado
Cesia is grateful for growing up in a wonderful Air Force family discovering the country and the world, and is delighted to continue exploring in the beautiful Northwest.
Cesia graduated from Minnesota State University, Mankato in 2004 with a B.F.A. in Sculpture and a B.S. in a multidisciplinary degree combining Ethnic Studies, Anthropology, and Theatre Design. She discovered the transformational power of community organizing as a student area coordinator with Amnesty International, and as an assistant with the Kessel Peace Institute, educating Southern Minnesota communities on issues related to peace and social justice. Her love for environmental issues is rooted in a spiritual connection to the resources that sustain and inspire us, and the deep belief that the protection of human rights and our environment are critically interdependent.
In the 2004 elections, Cesia started with the Sierra Club in Minnesota on the Environmental Voter Education Campaign. She spent the next four years organizing to advance regional clean energy solutions and build public demand to end the “Midwest Coal Rush”, including victories such as a state mercury emissions reduction standard, renewable electricity standard, and global warming solutions goals. Her additional work with allies has delayed two coal-fired power plant proposals, creating more opportunity for wind power and green jobs in the Midwest.
Cesia considers it an honor to be working on this visionary effort for Oregon and the Northwest to lead the nation in ending our addiction to coal. She looks forward to working with Oregonians on this exciting journey for U.S. world leadership in creating a future built on a clean, renewable energy economy. When she’s not organizing, Cesia loves exploring the outdoors, tending to her stack of unread books, eating ridiculously good food, and reveling in the arts.
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Joy Keen
Administrative Assistant
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Joy Keen
Joy Keen grew up in Michigan where her first work as an environmental activist was as a 15 year-old, fighting a landfill that was about to be sited on the Grand River near her home. Soon after moving to Oregon in 2000, she fell in love with Oregon’s forests and joined the campaign to stop the Eagle Creek timber sale.
She is now the Board President for Bark, who works to prevent destructive logging practices on Mt. Hood and protect it for clean water and wildlife. She has been active in Bark and Sierra Club’s work to stop liquefied natural gas pipelines from being built in Oregon. Before joining the Sierra Club’s staff in Oregon, Joy was the office manager for the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. Her hobbies include metalsmithing, gardening and eating local food.
Contact Joy at:
(503) 238-0442 x300
joy.keen@sierraclub.org
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Ivan Maluski
Conservation Program Coordinator
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Ivan Maluski
Ivan Maluski has worked on environmental and natural resources policy in Oregon since the early 1990’s. After working for a variety of conservation organizations, he joined the Sierra Club’s staff in Oregon in 2003 in an effort to stop the worst abuses of the Bush administration’s “healthy forests” policies.
Since then, his work has expanded to include not only public lands protection and wilderness advocacy, but also renewable energy policy, prevention of air and water pollution, and representing the Sierra Club at the State Capitol in Salem on a range of issues. In his “free time” he grows vegetables and raises chickens and goats on a small six-acre farm in Colton.
Contact Ivan at:
(503) 238-0442 x304
ivan.maluski@sierraclub.org
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Brian Pasko
Chapter Director
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Brian Pasko at the summit of Mount Hood
Brian has a long history with the Sierra Club – both as a volunteer and member of the staff. He re-joined the Sierra Club’s staff as the Oregon Chapter’s first Director in 2008.
Prior to returning to Portland, he served as the Policy Director for the Friend of the Boundary Waters Wilderness. He also served as the Sierra Club’s lobbyist in Minnesota, where he was a principal negotiator in the passage of nation-leading laws related to mercury, renewable energy, and global warming. Prior to becoming a lobbyist, Brian practiced law and, among other subjects, litigated federal Clean Air and Clean Water Act cases on behalf of private citizens and non-profit organizations.
Brian earned his bachelor’s degree in 1999 from Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, where he graduated magna cum laude and was a triple major in environmental policy, environmental studies, and biology. While at Northland, Brian was awarded a coveted Morris K Udall scholarship for his achievement and commitments in environmental policy.
In 2002, Brian earned his juris doctorate from the Northwestern School of Law of Lewis and Clark College, along with a certificate in environmental and natural resources law. During law school, Brian served as an associate editor of the Law Review and published research relating to national forest policy and the development of national forest management plans.
Brian is an amateur photographer, avid hiker and backpacker, and an experienced Wilderness canoeist. He, his wife, and their dog explore Oregon’s wilderness as often as they have the chance. You can always view photos of their recent adventures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/brian.pasko.
Contact Brian at:
(503) 238-0442 x301
brian.pasko@sierraclub.org
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Asante Riverwind
Eastern Oregon Forest Organizer
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Asante Riverwind
Asante Riverwind began activist work on ecological and social justice issues in 1968 at age 15. He has worked in the Pacific Northwest and Western States regions since first coming to Oregon in 1974.
Over the years he has worked with organizations ranging from Students for a Democratic Society, Greenpeace, the Columbia River Bioregion Campaign, Coalition Organizing Hanford Opposition, and many others; and helped co-found a number of organizations including Seattle Nonviolent Action Group, Cedar River Action Group, Racine Movement, Direct Action Network’s WTO actions in Seattle, and others.
In 1991, he co-founded the League Of Wilderness Defenders – Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project in eastern-central Oregon, which he co-directed for 13 years before co-founding the Dragoon Conservation Alliance in Arizona.
Asante joined the Sierra Club’s staff as the Eastern Oregon Forest Organizer in January 2006 where he has helped to achieve many legal ecological victories and has been involved in extensive ecological education efforts, including hikes, publications, and speaking events.
Asante has studied directly from wild nature – our “best teacher,” living in tipi’s year round for over 13 years near eastern Oregon’s Umatilla National Forest – and continues to hike, camp, and kayak across western North America. He is also an artist, poet, and musician, specializing in paintings, drawings, sculpture, writings, and music inspired by dream visions and wild nature. He has three grown sons, and one grandson, all of whom help inspire his ongoing efforts to help protect nature and encourage us all to enjoy life in balance with this beautiful living Earth.
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Olivia Schmidt
Olivia Schmidt began her activist work advocating for equal access to the Hispanic non-English speaking population in her hometown of Chico, California. Beginning at age thirteen promoting bi-lingual social services for students and women she moved on to providing volunteer translation services for migrant workers when she moved to Oregon in 2000.
Becoming a resident of Southern Oregon in the midst of the Biscuit Fire catastrophe highlighted the importance of environmental preservation and the growing issue of climate change. Viewing climate change as fundamentally an environmental and social justice issue, Olivia transitioned into environmental activism in an effort to address global climate injustice through working on regional environmental issues.
Beginning in late 2007 Olivia became aware of proposed Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) development in the Pacific Northwest. Seeing that development as a perpetuation of social injustice through US reliance on foreign sources of energy, the advancement of climate change through continued use of fossil fuels and the immense detriment to Oregon’s environment, Olivia began her collaboration with the anti-LNG coalition. Her work to stop proposed LNG import terminals and related pipelines includes organizing directly impacted communities on the pipeline routes associated with the proposed import terminals and coordinating outreach and communication for the coalition.
Olivia graduated from the University of Oregon cum laude in 2007 with two Bachelors Degrees in Spanish and Art History. When not working to stop fossil fuel development in the Pacific NW, Olivia can be found reading Spanish-language literature, spending time with extended family in Eugene, visiting the Columbia River Estuary and camping in Mt. Hood National Forest. Having lived in Oregon for nearly 10 years, Olivia considers Oregon home and celebrates the clean air, clear water, plentiful forests and vital waterways that drew her to the state.
Contact Olivia at:
(971) 533-2390
oliviariver@gmail.com
