Staff

Jeanne Dodds, Creative Engagement Director, directs ESC’s Pollinator Protectors campaign for native plant and pollinator conservation, along with directing youth art programming and creative engagement projects across campaigns. She’s currently researching climate change as a PhD candidate at Falmouth University, UK, and previously earned a Master of Environmental Studies. Her MES thesis focussed on wildlife trafficking, animal welfare, and the use of visual art for biodiversity conservation. After earning a BFA in Photography and a Certificate in Scientific Illustration, she owned and operated an independent arts business for a decade, creating artwork and teaching via artist residencies in the US and internationally. As a long-time arts and environmental education professional, she designed and presented curriculum for schools, museums and non-profits across the Pacific Northwest. She has designed and instructed ecology and visual arts programming for incarcerated individuals in six prisons. Jeanne has presented talks and papers on conservation biology and visual arts at conferences in the US, Rwanda, Greece, Colombia and other locations. She loves experiencing wilderness places and the local ecology of urban and rural spaces.

Dalton  leads our Activist Training Lab and manages a number of different campaigns across the ESC network.

Dalton comes to ESC with nearly a decade of experience in organizing, working both locally and regionally in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, delivering wins on campaigns dealing with a variety of issues. Before joining ESC, Dalton worked as a Regional Organizer for Down Home North Carolina supporting rural communities. He also currently serves on the Boone Town Council as the Mayor-Pro Tempore, where he has championed a number of environmental initiatives. In this role he received the May Thompson Evans award recognizing courage and determination in a young elected official.

Dalton graduated from Appalachian State University in 2021 with a BA in Economics.

Growing up in rural North Carolina, Dalton has always cherished the natural places and native wildlife and has aimed to center environmental issues in his organizing work. He currently lives in Boone, North Carolina and in his spare time can be found exploring Appalachia, playing tennis, reading, and writing.

Susan oversees the operations and programs of the organization. She works closely with Endangered Species Coalition’s board of directors and staff to ensure the financial health of the organization and leads its long-term strategic program development and planning.

Susan Holmes has over 25 years of experience in wildlife campaign management, coalition building, and federal and state conservation policy. Before joining ESC, Susan was the Wildlife Campaigns Director at Environment America. She has also worked for the Wildlands Network, Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, Earthjustice, Sierra Club, and the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. Since her childhood on Long Island and New England, Susan has been passionate about wildlife and wild places. Most recently, she has focused on promoting wildlife corridors and road mitigation and led a coalition to secure the first federal funding for wildlife crossings.   She is also a long-time board member of the Endangered Species Coalition. Susan received her BA from Dartmouth College and is a recipient of Dartmouth’s Nelson A. Rockefeller Distinguished Public Service Award.

Susan lives on Capital Hill in Washington, DC, with her husband and two children. In her spare time, she enjoys exploring wild places, cooking for friends and family, and curling up with a good book. 

Mitch Merry is the Digital Director and has been with the Endangered Species Coalition for more than a decade. He manages the Endangered Species Coalition’s digital operations. He holds degrees and industry certifications in Computer Information Systems and Cybersecurity and lives in Baltimore, Maryland.

Gabby Mora is the Development Associate at ESC. After going vegan in 2015 thanks to the adoption of her dog, Arlo, Gabby left her previous career in higher education to follow her passion for helping animals and the environment by working at nonprofits. Gabby has worked at diverse animal rights, food justice, and political organizations—including as a philanthropic specialist at PETA and a donor relations officer at Farm Sanctuary—before coming to ESC. Originally from Venezuela, Gabby came to the United States on a tennis scholarship at Tusculum College in Greeneville, Tennessee. She graduated with dual degrees in Mass Media and Business, continuing on to complete an M.S. in Advertising and Communications from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and an M.S. in Community Development and Public Affairs from Rutgers University-Camden. Gabby lives in Chicago with her two three-legged pit bulls, Arlo and Mabel, with whom she enjoys going on hikes and watching horror movies.

John Rosapepe, Endangered Species Coalition Pacific Northwest Field Director, combines forty years’ experience as a field biologist and grassroots organizer for conservation organizations. He worked on fisheries and marine mammal research projects in the Bering Sea, the Northern Pacific Ocean and Alaska. He completed a masters in natural resource policy and management from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources, followed by a one year Congressional Sea Grant Fellowship. A change in his career path led community organizing on energy efficiency, renewable energy, salmon and trout restoration, and wilderness designation.

Ryan is an advocate for gray wolves and other imperiled species in Colorado. He holds an M.A. in Environment and Natural Resources and a J.D. from the University of Wyoming. Along with his formal education, he spent nearly 10 years living with wolves, grizzly bears, and bison in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. He brings that knowledge and experience to his work helping people and organizations in Colorado understand how to live peacefully with wolves and other imperiled species.

Tara Thornton, Director of Institutional Engagement for the Endangered Species Coalition, has worked for ESC for eighteen years. She began as the Northeast Representative, then advanced to Program Director, Deputy Director, and now the Director of Institutional Engagement. Tara is working more closely with our hundreds-of-member group in this new role. Ensure they know of any threats to T&E species, their habitats, the Endangered Species Act, and how they can help. In this capacity, she works with our coalition partners to formulate joint strategies and tactics and is an integral part of our leadership team focusing on organizational development. Before joining ESC, Tara worked on environmental and social justice issues for twenty years. She was the Executive Director for the Military Toxics Project, a national non-profit network of neighborhood, veterans’, Indigenous, peace, environmental, and labor organizations representing people affected by military contamination and pollution. Tara co-founded the International Coalition to Ban Uranium Weapons (ICBUW). This global coalition campaigns for a ban on the use, transport, manufacture, sale, and export of all conventional weapon systems containing uranium (usually called depleted uranium weapons). Before that, Tara was a Canvass Director and worked on outreach programs for NGOs and political campaigns in New York, Virginia, South Carolina, and Texas. She earned a B.S. in Communication and Political Science from Ohio University. Tara resides in Maine with her husband and rescue dog. 

Jewel Tomasula, PhD, is the Policy Advisor for the Endangered Species Coalition since 2024. In her role, she coordinates strategic outreach to Congress and collective advocacy on biodiversity policy. Jewel brings first-hand experience on Capitol Hill from her time as a policy fellow for Representative Don Beyer (VA-08), co-chair of the Congressional Endangered Species Act Caucus. Jewel has a PhD in Biology from Georgetown University and researched human-driven impacts on biodiversity in coastal wetlands. During her time at Georgetown, she served as the founding president of her graduate labor union, Georgetown Alliance of Graduate Employees. She has a fondness for plants, from maple trees to cacti to bluebonnets.