D. James Baker

Jim is an oceanographer, author and space-technology consultant based in Philadelphia. Most recently, he served for several years as president and CEO of the Academy of Natural Sciences, a Philadelphia museum that is an international leader in biodiversity research.

From 1993 until late 2001, he led the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he had responsibility for America's weather prediction and warning services, environmental satellite and information systems, marine fisheries and coastal-zone management, and oceanic and atmospheric research. During that period, he also served on the interagency Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, the President's Council on Sustainable Development, and the International Whaling Commission. Prior to joining NOAA, he was president of Joint Oceanographic Institutions Inc. Earlier he was dean of the College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington. He is the author of the 1990 book, Planet Earth—The View from Space, published by Harvard University Press.

Reese Cleghorn, Trustee (College Park, Maryland)

Reese is a distinguished professor of journalism who teaches courses in ethics and persuasive writing at the University of Maryland in College Park. He was dean of the university's College of Journalism for two decades. Reese came to Maryland in 1981 from the Detroit Free Press after a 30-year career of reporting, editing and editorial writing at several newspapers, including the Charlotte Observer and Atlanta Journal Constitution.

He co-authored the 1967 book, Climbing Jacob's Ladder, which examined the civil rights movement and the rise of black politics in the South. He also has contributed to eight anthologies on racial, urban and other social problems and has written more than 250 magazine articles. While dean, he led efforts that built Maryland 's journalism program into one of the nation's very best. As a result of his efforts, the college publishes American Journalism Review and operates the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the Hubert H. Humphrey Journalism Fellowships Program.

Bebe Crouse, Trustee (Bozeman, Montana)

Bebe is an accomplished reporter, editor and documentary maker. In late 2006, she traded the humidity and politics of Washington, DC for a slower paced life in Bozeman, Montana. Prior to that move, Bebe spent nearly 10 years as the Western and Environment Editor at National Public Radio. She worked as a reporter in Oregon and California, as well as Mexico and Central America—where she covered the civil wars in Nicaragua and Guatemala, timber wars in Oregon and water wars throughout the West. Bebe also spent five years at CBS News in New York, where she wrote radio commentary for Dan Rather and Charles Kuralt, and produced television segments for the network. She was part of a team that produced the first live U.S. television broadcasts from Cuba, during the Castro-Gorbachev summit. Her work has been recognized with Dupont, Casey, Robert F. Kennedy, Headliner and Society of Professional Journalism Awards as well as an Emmy nomination.

She is now working as a consultant for non-profit science and conservation organizations to help them improve their communications. She believes that too often, the scientists, economists and other specialists, who have the sort of unbiased data that is essential to good conservation and land use decisions, lack the skills to cut through the overwhelming din of conflict surrounding these issues. Her goal is to help them lose the jargon and become effective and compelling story-tellers—a goal not unlike that of a good journalist!

Diane Hawkins-Cox, Trustee (Atlanta, Georgia)

Diane is a senior producer for the science and technology unit at CNN in Atlanta. She joined CNN just months before the cable network was launched in 1980. She has been a co-producer of Next@CNN, a weekly hour-long newsmagazine focusing on technology, science, environment, and space, and the producer of Earth Matters, a weekly half-hour news magazine on global environmental issues. Along with colleagues in the CNN Environment Unit, Diane won a national Emmy for "In Nature's Wake," a CNN special program about the 1993 Mississippi River floods, and the Cable ACE Award for coverage of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio.

Before joining CNN, Diane was a writer and producer with KCMO-TV (now KCTV-TV) in Kansas City. In 2006, she served as a juror for the first Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on the Environment. In addition to being a member of IJNR's Board of Trustees, she serves on IJNR's Council of Advisors.

Amy Marasco Newton (McLean, Virginia)

Amy Marasco Newton serves as chair of the executive board of the Newton Marasco Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works collaboratively on issues of environmental stewardship. She is also an executive-management consultant with nearly three decades of experience in serving such diverse clients as government agencies, public and private sector companies and nonprofit groups. Her areas of expertise include environmental programs, education and outreach and affordable housing.

As a co-founder of an environmental consulting firm with more than 350 employees, she coordinated more than a million hours of consulting services to programs of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She also led numerous management studies, facilitated strategic-planning retreats and coached clients on ways to improve their organizational and management practices.

Patrick A. Shea (Salt Lake City, Utah)

Pat Shea is a prominent Utah lawyer, educator and businessman. He practices real-estate law with emphasis on mining and environmental issues and the conservation and development of publicly owned lands. In the late 1990s, he served as Director of the Bureau of Land Management and as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals. In that capacity, he oversaw the BLM, Minerals Management Services and Office of Surface Mining. During his tenure, these three federal agencies had a combined budget of more than $2.5 billion and responsibility for management of more 270 million acres of land and for all off-shore drilling and natural-gas production in the United States.

He has been an adjunct professor of political science at the University of Utah and has taught law school courses Brigham Young University. He also has served as president of City Creek Canyon Park, a natural history park in downtown Salt Lake City.

Chris Wood (Washington, D.C.)

Chris Wood is the chief operating officer of Trout Unlimited. He began his work at Trout Unlimited as head of conservation programs in 2001. Before that, he served as the senior policy and communications advisor to the Chief of the U.S. Forest Service for four years.

Chris started his career as a temporary employee with Forest Service Research in Idaho. He also has worked for the Bureau of Land Management and American Rivers, a river-conservation group. As an avid fly fisher, he is ecumenical, known even to stalk the wily carp of Washington, D.C.

Abigail Holman, Trustee (Fayette, Maine)
We are deeply saddened that Abby Holman was killed in a skiing accident on April 7, 2007.

In Remembrance

Abby Holman won election in November 2006 to represent House District 83 in the Maine Legislature as a Republican. She was a former executive director of the Alliance for Maine's Future, an economic-development advocacy group, and of the Maine Forest Products Council. Prior to holding those jobs job, she practiced law at the Portland firm of Pierce Atwood, served as press secretary for U.S. Senate candidate Olympia Snowe, and worked as legislative director and counsel to then-Governor John R. McKernan. Abby was the widow of Andrew Weegar, who died in April 2005 at age 41. His and Abby's many contributions to IJNR are highlighted on our In Remembrance page.