John Talberth, Ph.D., Project Manager

Dr. Talberth is President and Senior Economist at Center for Sustainable Economy (CSE), an environmental economics think tank based in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Talberth is Co-director of FCC and focuses his work on forest carbon policy analysis and advocacy based on the underlying science and economics.

Prior to CSE, Dr. Talberth was Senior Economist for the People and Ecosystems Program at the World Resources Institute in Washington, DC and Sustainability Indicators Program Director at Redefining Progress in Oakland, California. His environmental economics career began by working to protect ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest in the late 1980s through CSE’s predecessor, Forest Conservation Council, which he directed. Dr. Talberth holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of New Mexico and a master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon. His undergraduate school was the College of William and Mary in Virginia where he earned a BA in Economics and Political Science.

Dr. Talberth has published extensively on topics that include carbon and ecological footprint analysis, sustainable management of forests and farmland, ocean acidification and warming, marine dead zones, and new indicators of progress. His recent sustainability indicators research has been focused on developing new methods for multiscale Genuine Progress Indicator accounts and use of these accounts to inform policy interventions. Another current research priority addresses the climate impacts of industrial forest practices and a menu of policy solutions to help catalyze a transformation to climate smart alternatives.

Tanner Filyaw, Coalition Coordinator

For more than 15 years, Tanner has been working to promote Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP’s) as a sustainable and ecologically-based forest management strategy for woodland owners in southeast Ohio and the central Appalachian region. Tanner graduated from Ohio University in 2005 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Environmental Geography, and a minor specializing in Environmental and Plant Biology. From 2005 to 2008, he served as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Rural Action’s Sustainable Forestry Program before accepting a staff position as the organizations Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP) Specialist. In this role he regularly conducted workshops, presentations, and provided on-the-ground technical assistance for woodland owners interested in developing sustainable NTFP enterprises, and restoring at-risk forest herb communities. In 2015, after gaining 10 years of experience in the field, Tanner returned to Ohio University and earned a Master’s Degree in Environmental Studies for his research examining mycorrhizal symbiosis in wild-simulated ginseng roots, and the effect of mycorrhizal colonization on root ginsenoside concentrations. After completing his research, he returned to Rural Action in 2017 and continued to serve as the organizations NTFP Specialist, and ultimately Sustainable Forestry Program Director before accepting a position with United Plant Savers in 2021. In his spare time Tanner enjoys spending time with his wife and daughter, and experiments with producing forest-grown mushrooms, maple syrup, American ginseng, and a variety of other edible and medicinal forest products.

Mary Booth, Ph.D

Dr. Booth is a nationally-recognized advocate known for producing high-quality, data-driven arguments. An ecosystem scientist by training, she received her doctoral degree in Ecology at Utah State University, focusing on biogeochemistry and plant ecophysiology. She completed postdoctoral fellowships at the Ecosystems Center of the Woods Hole Biological Laboratory and the Earth Institute at Columbia University. She currently directs the PFPI’s science and advocacy work on greenhouse gas, air pollutant, and forest impacts of biomass energy and has provided science and policy support to hundreds of activists, researchers, and policy makers across the US and EU.

Adam Colette

Adam has a passion for organizing people and fighting the corporations whose practices destroy our earth. While attending UNCA, where he graduated with a BS in Environmental Management and Policy, he began his career in activism as an intern for Dogwood Alliance. Since then, Adam has worked with several organizations to fight coal plants, protect our public water systems and build the sharing economy. In his spare time, Adam loves spending time on/in the rivers of Western NC.

Sonia Demiray

Sonia Demiray is the founder and Executive Director of the Climate Communications Coalition where she applies her communications expertise to advance her lifelong passion for environmental conservation and climate justice, with a strong focus on forest protections. Sonia works with the Forest Carbon Coalition to develop an effective and consistent communications strategy and direct a campaign for the 100+ member groups with the goal to effect policy changes. She graduated in Sciences of Information from the Complutense University in Madrid, Spain, obtained a strategic communications accreditation from McCann-Erickson World Group, and obtained an M.A. in Mass Communications in Baltimore through a full-paid international scholarship. Through her previous communications firm, DemirayINK, she served international, Federal, and regional clients across the Americas and Europe for over 20 years. Sonia is currently enrolled in the Graduate Certification Program on Forests and Climate Change with Oregon State University in order to strengthen her advocacy around forest protections.

Dominick DellaSala, Ph.D.

Dr. Dominick A. DellaSala is Chief Scientist at Wild Heritage (www.wild-heritage.org), and former President of the Society for Conservation Biology, North America Section. He is an internationally renowned author of over 300 science papers on forest and fire ecology, conservation biology, endangered species management, and landscape ecology. Dominick has given plenary and keynote talks ranging from academic conferences to the United Nations Earth Summit. He has appeared in National Geographic, Science Digest, Science Magazine, Scientific American, Time Magazine, Audubon Magazine, National Wildlife Magazine, High Country News, Terrain Magazine, NY Times, LA Times, USA Today, Jim Lehrer News Hour, CNN, MSNBC, “Living on Earth (NPR),” several PBS documentaries and even Fox News! Dominick has served on numerous committees, including White House Council task forces on forests and the Oregon’s Global Warming Commission carbon task force reporting to the governor. He is editor of numerous scientific journals and encyclopedias and has published award-winning books on climate change, forest policy, and scientific integrity. Dominick is motivated by his work to leave a living planet for his daughters, grandkids and all those that follow

Chad Hanson, Ph.D.

Chad Hanson co-founded the John Muir Project in 1996. He first became involved in national forest protection after hiking the 2,700-mile length of the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada with his older brother in 1989. During this hike he witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by rampant commercial logging on our National Forests in California, Oregon and Washington.

Chad finished his Bachelor of Science degree from UCLA after completing the Pacific Crest Trail and then attended law school at the University of Oregon, during which time he also began his career as an environmental advocate working for Native Forest Council and volunteering for the Sierra Club. Chad earned his law degree in 1995, and started the John Muir Project shortly thereafter.

In 2003 Chad returned to school, and earned his Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California at Davis in 2007, with a research focus on forest and fire ecology and the rare wildlife species that depend upon post-fire habitat in forests of the Sierra Nevada and elsewhere in the western U.S.. He has published an impressive list of scientific research papers on forest and fire ecology, wildlife use of burned forest and fire history and trend.

This past year he and Dominick DellaSala, Ph.D. co-edited and authored several chapters in a new book entitled The Ecological Importance of Mixed-Severity Fires: Nature’s Phoenix which is being published by academic publisher Elsevier due out in June/July of 2015.

Michael Kellet

Michael Kellett has been executive director of RESTORE: The North Woods, since co-founding the organization in 1992. In 1994, he developed the original proposal for a 3.2-million-acre Maine Woods National Park, which laid the groundwork for the 2016 designation of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument by President Obama. He co-authored two bills that would designate Reserves on state lands that are permanently protected from logging and other development. He is director of the group’€™s New National Park campaign, seeking to build a nationwide grassroots coalition for 100 new parks across the country. He lives in Lincoln, Massachusetts.

Susan Leopold, PhD

Susan is a board member of the Center for Sustainable Economy and presently Executive Director of one of FCC's member groups – United Plant Savers – who has been a staunch advocate for biodiverse forests not only for climate benefits but for other ecosystem services and economic value that directly impacts local communities such as ecotourism, non-timber products, medicinal and edible plants. She will be working in DC with partner organizations to advance FCC's forest carbon goals before Congress and within natural resource agencies. Susan has a Doctorate in Ethnobotany from Antioch New England, and a Master's in Environment Landscape Design from the Conway School.

Heather MacSlarrow

Heather grew up in Northwest Washington and Hong Kong, both of which gave her an appreciation for wilderness and solitude.  She received her Bachelor's Degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Montana, and from there embarked on a 10-year adventure in public land and Wilderness stewardship with conservation corps across the West from Arizona to Alaska.  She worked with the Washington Conservation Corps, Rocky Mountain Youth Corps in Steamboat Springs, Montana Conservation Corps, Youth Corps of Southern Arizona, Southwest Conservation Corps in Tucson, and Southwest Conservation Corps in Salida.  Her last position in corps was as the founder and Executive Director of the Southwest Conservation Corps in Salida, Colorado.  Heather left corps work to pursue her Masters of Natural Resources through the University of Idaho and work with the Colorado Mountain Club as the Lands Director.  Through these positions, Heather worked with many Wilderness Areas, including: Buffalo Peaks, Collegiate Peaks, Sangre de Cristo, Great Sand Dunes, Spanish Peaks, South San Juan, Weminuche, La Garita, Admiralty Island, Glacier Bay, Wrangell Saint Elias, Misty Fjords, Kenai, Organ Pipe, Chiricahua, Gila, Saguaro, Rincon Mountain, North and South Maricopa Mountains, Superstition, Carlsbad Caverns, Guadalupe Mountains, Selway Bitterroot, Rattlesnake, Mission Mountains, Bob Marshall, Mount Zirkel, and High Uintas.

Heather is highly dedicated to the professional stewardship and management of Wilderness.  She sees this as the key to allowing Wilderness to do what Wilderness does best - facilitate life-changing experiences and maintain important ecological systems, both of which provide essential support for, and strengthen, our communities.

Ernie Niemi

Ernie co-founded FCC in 2013, and currently serves as its Co-director, with a focus on coalition engagement, synthesizing science, and communication with decision makers. He specializes in applying the principles of cost-benefit analysis, economic valuation, and economic-impact analysis to describe the economic importance of natural resources. He formed Natural Resource Economics, Inc. in 2012. From 1978 to 2012, he managed economic and policy analysis for the consulting firm, ECONorthwest, where he was a co-owner, vice president, and senior economist. He also has taught cost-benefit analysis and economic development for the University of Oregon’s Department of Planning, Public Policy, and Management, and taught high-school science as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Uganda.

He has described the economic importance of market and non-market goods and services derived from diverse ecosystems: dryland, montane, riparian, lake, river, forest, grassland, urban, savannah, estuarine, marine, coastal plain, island.

His analyses have addressed resource-management programs for water quantity, quality, and reliability; economic security for at-risk human communities; conservation of at-risk fish, wildlife, and plant species; management of natural-resource risks; adaptation of households, businesses, and communities to expected changes in climate; management of public lands and waters; diversion of surface and ground water for irrigation, livestock, domestic, and municipal-industrial uses; maintenance or enhancement of in-stream flows; water conservation; forest restoration; and floodplain management.

His descriptions of the economic importance of natural resources have covered marginal and aggregate estimation of market value and social value (including cultural value); impacts of resource-management alternatives on commercial and non-commercial (including subsistence) components of surrounding economies; and the distribution of positive and negative economic outcomes among existing groups and across current and future generations.

Much of his work has entailed describing the market and non-market competition for natural resources, identifying externalities associated with different resource uses (costs and benefits that accrue to those outside the decision-making process), and tracing the effects of the externalities on competitive outcomes.

He has presented analytical findings on resource-management issues to congressional, judicial, arbitrative, administrative, multi-national, and scientific/professional bodies.

John Talberth, Ph.D.

Dr. Talberth is President and Senior Economist at Center for Sustainable Economy (CSE), an environmental economics think tank based in Portland, Oregon. Dr. Talberth is Co-director of FCC and focuses his work on forest carbon policy analysis and advocacy based on the underlying science and economics.

Prior to CSE, Dr. Talberth was Senior Economist for the People and Ecosystems Program at the World Resources Institute in Washington, DC and Sustainability Indicators Program Director at Redefining Progress in Oakland, California. His environmental economics career began by working to protect ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest in the late 1980s through CSE’s predecessor, Forest Conservation Council, which he directed. Dr. Talberth holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of New Mexico and a master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Oregon. His undergraduate school was the College of William and Mary in Virginia where he earned a BA in Economics and Political Science.

Dr. Talberth has published extensively on topics that include carbon and ecological footprint analysis, sustainable management of forests and farmland, ocean acidification and warming, marine dead zones, and new indicators of progress. His recent sustainability indicators research has been focused on developing new methods for multiscale Genuine Progress Indicator accounts and use of these accounts to inform policy interventions. Another current research priority addresses the climate impacts of industrial forest practices and a menu of policy solutions to help catalyze a transformation to climate smart alternatives.