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People & Partners

Above: Ralph Zimmerman, DVM, donating professional expertise to check a sedated beaver.

 

Featured Donor

The Green Sheep Fund…

… because people are the engine of good works

What a great name for a family charitable fund! Not quite the black sheep, but better, the green sheep.

The Green Sheep Fund will be funding part of our 2023 expedition into the Pecos Wilderness to monitor climate and pika. We are so honored and grateful for their support.


Thank you, Green Sheep Fund.

Board of Directors

 

Cathryn Wild

Cathryn Wild founded Seventh Generation Institute in 2006, after observing that typical conservation efforts were often slow, expensive and less than effective. In response, she molded the vision and approach of the Institute: "New School" conservation.

Together with the other members of the Institute’s board of directors, she has developed Seventh Generation Institute’s programs and approach. Her true passion lies in applied work that makes a difference and at the Institute she has performed the majority of field work, analysis, technical writings, outreach etc.

Formally trained in conservation biology, sustainable agriculture and education, she has expanded her skills and knowledge through the years. Some highlights of her work prior to founding Seventh Generation Institute:

  • As a contractor with the Wildlife Conservation Society, she worked with local community members, tourism-based businesses, and government officials to develop a management plan for the Sandy Bay-West End Marine Reserve in Roatan Honduras and a sustainable tourism plan for the Santuario de Fauna y Flora Otun-Quimbaya, Colombia.

  • As a contractor with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) she worked on a community-driven process to revise the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary’s management plan and designate the first marine protected areas around the islands.

  • At the California State Coastal Conservancy she completed numerous project analyses, land acquisitions and a gap analysis of the nine Bay Area counties.

In addition to her work at the Institute, Cathryn is a member of the Society for Ecological Restoration and the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management and regularly donates her professional time to their work.

She holds an M.S. in environmental management, with an emphasis in conservation biology, from the University of California at Santa Barbara and a B.S. in Agricultural Education and teaching credentials in Life Science and Vocational Agriculture from the University of California at Davis.

“As a child, I spent all my time wandering in the fields and woods near my family home and it broke my heart to see them turn into suburbs, acre by acre. I can’t imagine a world where children - and everyone - cannot find that refuge in nature.

Later, I put myself through college and worked at a wide variety of odd jobs. I don’t regret any of those odd jobs, because I learned something at each one and got to know a lot of people with different ideas and values. Now in my work at the Institute, I am able to communicate with a wide variety of people and find common ground.

I am also insatiably curious and a person who must spend some time outside every day. I have been lucky to travel to some of the most awe-inspiring natural places which has further fed my curiosity and love of wild places. Perhaps Ray Bradbury best expressed the experience of travel: “Stuff your eyes with wonder....” How can one travel and not expand one’s understanding of the world, nature and people? How can one view the grand sweep of nature, feel the tingles run up your spine and not want future generations to enjoy such spine-tingling moments?

It was inevitable that I would end up in the conservation field trying to incorporate sustainable use, innovation, science and collaboration. Everything I’ve experienced in life is wrapped up in the Institute’s “New School” approach to conservation.”
— Cathryn Wild

 

William J. Morris

William (Bill) Morris, president, is a life-long supporter of conservation and sustainable use. Since the founding of the Institute, he has played dual roles, the first, as board president and the second as the very hands-on Operations Director, described below, where he uses many of the skills he developed in his career in construction management. He was a volunteer in Honduras and Colombia, where he worked with residents to build local resource management skills that couple sustainable use with small-scale agriculture and ecotourism. Bill cherishes the natural heritage of the Rocky Mountains and the open spaces of the western United States. He presently resides in Santa Fe New Mexico where he has the opportunity to enjoy open space all year.

Lisa Degen, DVM

Lisa Degen, vice president, is a veterinarian with a long-standing interest in wildlife veterinary medicine. She is an advocate of personal volunteerism, serving on several professional veterinary boards and as an adult literacy volunteer, in addition to her work with 7GI. Dr. Degen resides in Florida where she owns the Village Animal Clinic in partnership with her husband, and (somehow) finds time to be a mom.

Cynthia Wagstaff

Cynthia Wagstaff, secretary, is an artist, writer, surfer and dynamo who helped launch Seventh Generation Institute and has been an integral part of the organization since the beginning. Semi-retired, she divides her personal time between the wilderness of Idaho and the remote regions of Baja California Sur. She writes and illustrates children's books, cares for abandoned dogs and enjoys long walks on the beach.

Michael Moore

Michael Moore is the Institute's treasurer. An avid hiker, skier and self-described vagabond, Mr Moore grew up on a family sheep ranch and was educated as an economist. He has lived in small towns around the western US, as well as traveled extensively internationally. He is interested in the impacts of large-scale economic change on local communities and environmental systems. Now retired, he resides in Washington state.

Advisory Board

Lucy Moore

Lucy Moore has been an environmental mediator, facilitator and trainer since 1981. She has worked with government agencies, communities, tribes, organizations and individuals to improve working relationships within and among entities, build public collaboration and improve cross-cultural understanding. She has helped groups solve problems, reach consensus, or negotiate outcomes related to endangered species, water rights, noise pollution, hazardous waste clean-up, mine closures, Superfund sites and land use conflicts.

James Rogers

The general manager of the Winecup Gamble ranch, James Rogers is a renaissance man without equal. He is an expert on all the things that are needed to successfully run one of the largest ranches in the US and all around good person as well.

 

Current Staff

Cathryn Wild

Executive Director. See a profile of Cathryn Wild above.

Bill Morris

Bill Morris is the Institute's Operations Manager - a fancy way of saying he's a jack of all trades. He has thirty years of experience managing people and projects, which comes in handy during a typical hectic field season at the Institute. He coordinates and trains contractors, live-traps beaver, surveys for pika, pushes the buttons and twirls the dials on the Institute's various cameras and - oh, yes, he is also the Institute's president (see above). He enjoys all things "outside."

Ralph Pastor

Ralph Pastor created and maintains the website and handles the mountain of administrative tasks for the Institute. We are extremely pleased to have him working with us.


Past Interns and Assistants

Chyanne Stowell, Kathy Brown, Anita Romero

Sure-Footed Partners

Meet Pearl the mule and Poptart the donkey. Yes, some of our partners are the four-footed kind. They can carry a mountain of supplies and equipment into the toughest places for monitoring climate and pika. And they never complain.

Financial Supporters


Friends of the Institute

Partners Are Important. How important? They make the work happen. It’s that simple.

The Institute gets the limelight, while our partners work more quietly in the background. But we never forget that our accomplishments are also our partner's accomplishments.

Some donate funds. Others contribute sweat, ideas, skills, knowledge, talent, time and energy. The Institute appreciates all of you. And this page is all about appreciation.

A few special individuals and organizations, current and through the years:

  • Sally Thomson of Sally Thomson Photography, many of her photos are seen on this site.

  • Jennifer Steketee, DVM, and Ralph Zimmerman, DVM (pictured at work on the top of this page) who have donated professional time to attach radio transmitters and ensure the health of beaver prior to relocation.

  • Michael Pergeson - always willing to lend a hand and make us laugh.

  • Nancy Baczek - now retired from USFWS. We miss working with you.

  • Lucy Moore - mediator, author, all around sharp lady and member of the Institute's advisory board.

  • Michael Bain, Brian Bean, Chris Black, Julia Davis, Christa and David Franklin, Jon Griggs, Kim and Terry Mitchell, Lew Pence, and James Rogers - the innovators who have donated time to the Institute, become friends along the way, and are leading the way in sustainability.

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