Advisory Board

Based in Bozeman, Montana, Renee Callahan has over 30 years of professional experience in federal, state, and administrative law, policy, and research. As Executive Director for ARC (Animal Road Crossing) Solutions, Renee leads an interdisciplinary non-profit think tank working to ensure wildlife crossings are built whenever they are needed while spearheading ARC’s efforts to inspire innovative, nature-based policies and climate-smart wildlife infrastructure solutions.

Stephan Chenault is Director of Foundation Relations at The New York Botanical Garden and has substantial experience in not-for-profit management and environmental advocacy. His early experience as an environmental activist included volunteer work with the Sierra Club, where he served as a member of the Executive Committee of the New York City Group, Conservation Chair, Environmental Justice Committee Co-Chair, and Volunteer Coordinator; and initiated or served on several committees, including the Endangered Species Committee, Forest Committee, and Wildlife and Wilderness Committee. He also served as Vice President of the Board and Chair of the Development Committee for Magnolia Tree Earth Center, a conservation, cultural, community, and environmental justice center in the Bedford Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, NY, where he wrote and was awarded grants from private foundations for the “Magnolia Tree Earth Center Community Revitalization Project.” He has also worked on international hunger and poverty issues through RESULTS, and on homelessness issues with the Coalition for the Homeless and other homeless service and advocacy organizations. He currently volunteers with 350nyc on climate change issues. Stephan has a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College, Master of Science Degree in Education from Long Island University, and certificates in field botany from The New York Botanical Garden and in conservation biology from Columbia University Earth Institute.

Mckenzie Dice is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. She completed her bachelor’s degree at the University of Minnesota Morris in Environmental Science and German. Mckenzie now studies the polar atmospheric boundary layer, which is of critical importance for understanding climate change in the polar regions, and the threat it poses to the species and people who live there. Mckenzie is passionate about animals of all kinds, and wants to help the Endangered Species Coalition to protect animals all over the world that are at risk of being affected by climate change.

Jennifer Ebisemiju Madar is the Principal of Madar Marcom, a Boston-based marketing communications consultancy committed to crafting communications that enable organizations to present themselves more effectively by sharing their mission, vision, values, and stories. She has an undergraduate degree in History from Yale University, and she  is especially passionate about helping socially responsible organizations to develop compelling cases for engagement and support.

Earlier in her career, Madar held management positions at several Boston and New York advertising agencies. She subsequently held director positions at several Boston nonprofits, including Mass Audubon, where she led the revamp of its communications channels, branding, and messaging with an emphasis on a broader environmental focus. She enjoys nothing more than the Great Outdoors and is honored to play a role, however small, in its preservation.

Jean Flemma provides strategic guidance and policy analysis for non-profits and foundations regarding the development and implementation of political, legislative, and administrative strategies related to natural resource conservation. She previously worked for more than two decades for the United States Congress and served on three committees for five committee chairmen or ranking members. Most recently, she was a Senior Policy Advisor for Ranking Member Raul Grijlava on the Committee on Natural Resources. During her time on the Hill, she worked to protect bedrock environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Magnuson-Stevens Act. In addition to her congressional work, Jean also served as the Executive Director of Prairie Rivers Network, a statewide non-profit in Illinois focused on protecting clean water and wildlife habitat. She started her career in public policy on Capitol Hill as a Sea Grant Fellow from the University of Washington, where she also earned her master’s degree in Marine Policy. She has an undergraduate degree in economics from Middlebury College.

Rodrigo Garcia serves as the Chief Investment Officer and Chief Financial Officer for the Illinois State Treasury. In this pivotal executive post, Garcia directs the treasury’s combined $25 billion fixed income, equity, and venture capital portfolios, all investment and financial professionals, multiple asset classes and related banking and financial services in order to maximize portfolio returns and bolster the Illinois macro and micro economy.

He holds two post-graduate degrees, one in finance from the University of Illinois and one in public policy from Northwestern University and recently completed a senior executives program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Garcia was previously the Director of the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs and a member of the Illinois Cabinet, and has also worked for Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc. and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

Garcia serves as the Chairman of Student Veterans of America and the National Hispanic Life Sciences Society and as Board Vice President for Teatro Vista Theatre Company. Garcia has also been named one of the “Top 100 under 50” Executive Leaders by Diversity MBA Magazine and was recognized as a “Rising Star” by the National Society of Hispanic MBA’s.

He is an avid entrepreneur, a successful financier, and an angel investor.

Major General Michael R. Lehnert is retired as the Commanding General of Marine Corps Installations West. As Commanding General, he was responsible for environmental stewardship of seven major Marine installations. Major General Lehnert began his career with the Marines in 1973. During his 36 years of service, Major General Lehnert was stationed in North Carolina, Texas, Oregon, Virginia, California, Panama, Japan, the Philippines, and Cuba and led Marines during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Throughout his career, Major General Lehnert has championed the cause of environmental stewardship in the Marine Corps. He was most recently stationed at California’s Camp Pendleton, home to eighteen threatened or endangered species. Under General Lehnert, Camp Pendleton pursued extensive stewardship of species, including restricting maneuvers during the nesting season of California least tern and Western snowy plover, and clearing miles of invasive species to protect the endangered arroyo toad. Under his command, the Marine Corps accomplished significant successes on other installations, protecting the Sonoran pronghorn antelope in Yuma and the desert tortoise at 29 Palms. During his nearly 5 years in command of the West Coast bases, his installations received numerous awards for protecting the environment and for energy conservation. He is also the National Conflict Resolution Center’s 2010 National Peacemaker Honoree. 

Ariane Lemaire is a Duke University undergraduate student deeply passionate for intersectional environmental justice, ecology research, and international relations and politics. She has completed coursework at Harvard University, conducted research on the embryonic development of Pacific purple sea urchins in response to pollutants in the La Jolla region with the University of California San Diego, and earned an advanced science research certification under the expertise of Mario Capecchi, a Nobel Laureate in Medicine. In recognition of Ariane’s academic achievements as a Mexican-American student, she was selected as a National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholar. Ariane serves as Co-Chief Operating Officer at the Am4All Foundation, a Forbes-featured nonprofit providing volunteer opportunities to youth worldwide through partnerships with renowned humanitarian organizations like Make-A-Wish, Feed the Children, and the Tyler Robinson Foundation. In this position, she oversees over 500 volunteers and leadership team members from around the globe and received the Gold President’s Volunteer Service Award from President Biden for her work with the Foundation. Previously, Ariane volunteered on voter outreach campaigns with Warnock for Georgia, OneMillionOfUs, and the Audubon Society. She has also organized various grassroots projects to assist her community, including associated with her former role as an Activist Training Lab Fellow with the Endangered Species Coalition. In her spare time, she works at a native plant nursery that grows and retails vegetation beneficial to pollinators and wildlife.

Working from Washington, D.C., Bart Melton currently leads the National Park Conservation Association’s (NPCA) Wildlife Program, focusing on the critical issues facing national park wildlife nationwide. He began his career with NPCA in the Southeast Regional Office in 2007 and most recently served as NPCA’s Northern Rockies regional director, where he led NPCA’s work in North Dakota, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.

Bart has expertise on many natural resource policy issues, including wildlife, climate change, energy development on public lands, and other conservation challenges facing the national park landscapes. 

Bart has an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of Tennessee and a Master’s of Public Administration with a Graduate Certificate Degree in Not-for-Profit Management from the University of Oregon.

Ruth Musgrave has worked in wildlife and conservation law and policy for over two decades. In 1990, she founded and was director of the Center for Wildlife Law at the Institute of Public Law, University of New Mexico School of Law until the center closed in August 2011. She managed numerous projects concerning wildlife and biodiversity law, including training, youth civics education, facilitation, legal and policy research, drafting legislation, and policy analysis. Ruth was project manager and lead author of the Federal Wildlife and Related Laws Handbook and the State Wildlife Laws Handbook, and was editor of the Wildlife Law News Quarterly and online “Wildlife Law News Weekly Alerts” from 1993 to 2011. She has been a visiting associate professor and an adjunct professor at UNM School of Law, teaching wildlife law, biodiversity and the law, advocacy, and intellectual property law. Ruth is a trustee of the Frances Seebe Charitable Trust, and sits on the board of directors of several wildlife organizations. She is also president of Wildlife Policy Consulting Associates based in Olympia, Washington, and advises agencies and nonprofits on wildlife and environment policy issues. She currently works with the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators as their conservation and climate adaptation coordinator.

Ron leads and coordinates Wildlands Network’s science programs across North America, with an emphasis on habitat connectivity mapping, road ecology, and species conservation. He also directs an extensive
camera-trapping project in the red wolf recovery area in North Carolina and is an enthusiastic public advocate for red wolf conservation and the protection of a range of endangered species, from wolves to timber
rattlesnakes. Ron has testified before Congressional staff in DC and has been extensively quoted in the media, including the Washington Post, The Guardian, USA Today, and the Associated Press.

Ron received his Ph.D. in Environmental Science and Policy in 2009 from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University, where he studied the response of wildlife to urbanization and vehicle traffic in the Sandhills region of North Carolina. Ron earned a B.S. in Biology from North Carolina State University and an M.S. in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Between 2013–2015.