High Country News - For people who care about the West

Board of Directors

Annette Aguayo

Secretary
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Annette Aguayo is the secretary of the High Country News Board and has served on the board since 2004. A longtime employee of the Southwest Research and Information Center, an environmental and social justice group, she is the editor of the group’s quarterly publication — Voices of the Earth.

Caroline Byrd

Past President
Missoula, Montana

Caroline Byrd, who has served on the board of High Country News since 1997, is a former board president as well as a former High Country News intern. Ms. Byrd is the western Montana project manager for The Nature Conservancy and previously served as an attorney with the Wyoming Outdoor Council. For many years, she worked throughout the West as an instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School.

Bob Fulkerson

Reno, Nevada

Bob Fulkerson, who has served on the board of High Country News since 2008, is the co-founder and executive director of the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada. Mr. Fulkerson teaches courses on racism and privilege as an adjunct professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, and also serves PLAN as an anti-oppression trainer. He serves on the board of directors for Wincall Institute and is on the fund-raising committee for Note-ables. In 2005, Mr. Fulkerson received the Leadership for a Changing World award.

John Heyneman

Flagstaff, Arizona

John Heyneman, who has served on the board of High Country News since 2004, manages the North Rim Ranch on behalf of the Grand Canyon Trust. Mr. Heyneman has also ranched in Wyoming, managed a Venezuelan dairy and fruit farm, worked on a Montana governor’s race, and been on the board of the Powder River Basin Resource Council and the Yellowstone Art Museum.

Laura Hubbard

Hailey, Idaho

Laura Hubbard, the state director for The Nature Conservancy in Idaho, began serving on the board of High Country News in 2008. Ms. Hubbard previously worked with The Nature Conservancy’s Arizona Chapter as well as the Wyoming and Montana Chapters in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem. Prior to joining The Nature Conservancy, she practiced law in Arizona. Ms. Hubbard spent the first 10 years of her career as a wilderness guide, horse-packer and Iditarod dog-sled trainer, and has worked as an apprentice Western saddle maker from the Rocky Mountains to Alaska and south to Baja, Mexico.

Daniel Luecke

Boulder, Colorado

Daniel Luecke has served on the board of High Country News since 1988. Mr. Luecke is an environmental scientist and hydrologist who has worked for more than 30 years on water resources, aquatic habitat protection, and other environmental issues. He has served on several advisory committees, including the Colorado Water Resources Research Institute Advisory Committee on Water Policy Research, Denver Metropolitan Water Roundtable, California Department of Water Resources Technical Advisory Committee on Desalination, Advisor to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the EPA Integrated Environmental Management Program Advisory Committee. Mr. Luecke has been an environmental representative on both the Platte River and Upper Colorado River recovery program committees.

Felix Magowan

Treasurer
Boulder, Colorado

Felix Magowan is treasurer of the High Country News Board and has served on the board since 2003. Mr. Magowan is director of business development for Competitor Group Inc.- an endurance sports event and media company. He co-founded and was previous CEO of Inside Communications Inc., a sports publisher. Mr. Magowan serves on the board of directors for GSM Media (publisher of Mountain Gazette), The Clarkson Company and the Turnip Top Foundation. He is a former director of the International Mountain Bicycling Association, Bicycle Colorado, Ramgow and Pearl Izumi.

Bill Mitchell

Vashon Island, Washington

Bill Mitchell has served on the board of High Country News since 1997 and has been a subscriber since 1972. Mr. Mitchell is currently the principal of Flatcoat Consulting and is advisor to the Alki Fund of the Tides Foundation. He is a former program officer for the Seattle-based Brainerd Foundation and has over 30 years’ experience in the non-profit sector, with his efforts concentrated on endangered ecosystems, hard-rock mining and energy development in the Pacific Northwest and the Northern Rockies, nuclear weapons issues, community organizing, and state, regional and national policy work.

David Nimkin

President
Salt Lake City, Utah

David Nimkin, the current president of the High Country News Board, has been a board member since 2003. He is the southwest regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association. Mr. Nimkin founded and is the long-time board chair of the Utah Microenterprise Loan Fund. He is also the co-founder and current board vice chair of Buy Local First Utah. Mr. Nimkin is on the executive committee of the Fourth Street Clinic and on the board of the Colorado Plateau Archeological Association. He has also served as chief of staff to Salt Lake City Mayor, Rocky Anderson; was a partner at Confluence Associates-- a private firm engaged in sustainable development projects throughout the Western US and Mexico; and acted as former state director of the Utah Small Business Development Centers.

Luther Propst

Tucson, Arizona

Luther Propst has served on the board of High Country News since 2005. He co-founded and directs the Sonoran Institute, whose mission is “to inspire and enable community decisions and public policies that respect the land and people of the West.” Mr. Propst has authored and co-authored several books including: Balancing Nature and Commerce in Gateway Communities; Creating Successful Communities: A Guidebook to Growth Management Strategies; and Managing Development in Small Towns.

Susan “Tutti” Skaar

Bozeman, Montana

Susan “Tutti” Skaar has served on the board of High Country News since 2005. Ms. Skaar is vice president and financial consultant with D.A. Davidson & Co. She served as past president of the Gallatin Valley Land Trust, the Bozeman Business and Professional Women’s Organization, the Bozeman Public Library board and several neighborhood-planning groups. Prior to D.A. Davidson, Ms. Skaar was the Group Travel Director for Off the Beaten Path, and Office Manager at the Montana Wildlife Federation.

Dan Stonington

Seattle, Washington

Dan Stonington has served on the board of High Country News since 2005. Mr. Stonington, who is the program manager for the Cascade Land Conservancy, worked as a field organizer for the “NO on Initiative 933” campaign. Prior to that, Mr. Stonington worked for three years as an environmental consultant for Ross & Associates in Seattle.

Luis Torres

Santa Cruz, New Mexico

Luis Torres, who has served on the board of High Country News since 1996, has been a community organizer since the 1960s. His work in community forestry began in the late 1980s, when he was employed by the Southwest Research and Information Center. Mr. Torres helped organize the Madera Forest Products Association, which worked on developing a new forestry economy based on cutting small trees, and he co-founded the National Network of Forest Practitioners. 

Andy Wiessner

Snowmass, Colorado

Andy Wiessner, who has served on the board of High Country News since 1986, is the organization’s longest-serving board member. Mr. Wiessner is public lands consultant with Western Land Group, which specializes in federal land exchanges and land use issues. He served as staff assistant and counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittees on Mines and Mining (1975-1976) and the Subcommittee on Public Lands in Washington, D.C. (1977-1985). Mr. Wiessner also serves on the board of the Wilderness Workshop and the Wilderness Land Trust, -- a non-profit specializing in the acquisition of wilderness inholdings. Other past board service has included organizations such as: Eagle Valley Land Trust, American Wilderness Alliance, Clear Creek Land Conservancy and Eagle County Citizens for Open Space.

Florence Williams

Vice President
Boulder, Colorado

Florence Williams is the vice president of the High Country News board and has served on the board since 2005. Ms. Williams is a former High Country News intern and staff writer who has gone on to write for many publications, including High Country News, The New York Times, The New Republic and Outside Magazine, where she is a contributing editor. She has earned awards from the American Society of Journalists and Authors and other organizations.