Jim Adams, Director of Alaska Natural Resource Center, Anchorage, AK
Contact Information:
Office: 907-339-3902 (x.3902)
Email: adamsj@nwf.org
Adams leads National Wildlife Federation’s efforts to make conservation a priority for Alaska’s residents. The Alaska office’s efforts to promote sustainable tourism and sustainable energy production link communities’ environmental and economic concerns while its educational program empowers teenagers to participate in government and make certain their voices are heard. Before he became director, Adams served as the Alaska office’s staff attorney, where he focused on wetlands protection, worked extensively on the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act, and worked to protect Alaska’s Copper River Delta and Prince William Sound from industrial development through grassroots organizing, agency planning processes, and litigation. He holds both a J.D. and Master’s degree in philosophy from Duke University and an undergraduate degree from Williams College.

Andy Buchsbaum, Regional Executive Director, Great Lakes Natural Resources Center, Ann Arbor, MI
Contact Information:
Office: 734-769-3351 (x.35)
Email: buchsbaum@nwf.org
Major projects of the Center include water management reform; reduction of persistent, bioaccumulative toxic substances, through NWF’s Clean the Rain Campaign; enforcement of water quality standards; and place-based restoration projects, focusing on Lake Superior and Detroit. Buchsbaum has testified on a wide range of Great Lakes issues before state, regional and national government bodies, including the International Joint Commission, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Michigan legislature, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, and the Indiana Department of the Environment. He also is the chair of the Education Committee for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Centennial Celebration at the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge in September, 2003. Buchsbaum has a B.A., Magna Cum Laude in Government from Harvard College; J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law, University of California; and a Master of Laws from Georgetown University Law Center. For the past five years, he has taught environmental law courses at the University of Michigan Law School.

F.G. Courtney, Director, Southeastern Conservation Programs, Natural Resource Center, Atlanta, GA
Contact Information:
Office: 404-876-8733 x226
Email: courtney@nwf.org
Courtney leads teams conducting regional campaigns to address global warming, recover the endangered Florida panther, restore the native Longleaf pine ecosystem, and develop the next generation of urban environmental leaders in Atlanta. She previously served for three years as Director of national grassroots outreach in NWF’s Office of Congressional and Federal Affairs, mobilizing citizen action across the country around federal and state initiatives, two of which included a successful campaign against a massive sell-off of public lands, and repeated defeat of Arctic Refuge drilling proposals. Prior to that, F.G. was a Regional Organizer, working with NWF’s members and state partner organizations to promote regional conservation and education campaigns, including initiatives around Lower Mississippi River Basin bottomland hardwood ecosystem restoration. Before joining NWF, she served as Program Director for Community Rights Counsel, a Washington, DC-based public interest law firm defending laws that make communities environmentally healthy and socially just. For three years she directed legislative and regulatory policy at the Georgia Wildlife Federation. Courtney is a graduate of the University of Georgia School of Law and Vanderbilt University, with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science.

Montgomery Fischer, Director, Northeastern Conservations Programs, Natural Resource Center, Montpelier, VT
Contact Information:
Office: 802-229-0650 (x.308)
Email: fischer@nwf.org
Monty Fischer is a senior staff member of the National Wildlife Federation where he serves as Director of the Northeast Natural Resources Center, located in Montpelier, Vermont. He has been with NWF for seventeen years, having served in a variety of roles including Acting Senior Vice-President for Conservation Programs and Water Resources Protection Policy Director. Previously, he held the position of Executive Director of NWF’s affiliate the Vermont Natural Resources Council and Legislative Director for Vermont’s member of the U.S. House of Representatives. For a number of years, Monty was on the faculty of the University of Vermont. Prior to that for a decade Monty was a staff member of the New England River Basins Commission, authoring many integrated watershed management plans throughout the region. For many years he owned a commercial eel fishing business on Lake Champlain and co-operated a maple sugaring business in Vermont’s Mad River Valley. He is an active community leader, having served as Vermont chair of the Lake Champlain Committee and as founding chair of the Champlain Maritime Society. He continues to serve on the Vermont Governor’s Council of Environmental Advisors, recently completing more than a decade as chair. He holds a Master Degree from the Institute of Environmental and Natural Resources at the University of New Hampshire.

Tom France, Director and Counsel, Northern Rockies Natural Resource Center, Missoula, MT (Western Wolves, Grizzlies)
Contact Information:
Office: 406-721-6705 (x.6705)
Email: france@nwf.org
In 1981, France accepted a position with the NWF and is currently Director and Counsel of the Northern Rockies Natural Resources Center (NRNRC). France currently sits on the Board of Directors for both the Five Valleys Land Trust and High Country News. He has been involved in campaigns to restore wolves to the Rockies, reintroduce grizzlies to the Seaway-Bitterroot and to reform hard rock mining in the West. France also served on the Missoula Mayor's Roundtable and currently serves on the Governor’s Yellowstone Grizzly Bear roundtable. He was lead counsel in Montana Environmental Information Center v. Dept. of Environmental Quality, which established a fundamental right to a clean and healthful environment for Montana residents and National Wildlife Federation v. Dept. of Environmental Quality, which required the full reclamation of hard rock mines, including open pits. France has a BA in History/Political Science and his Juries Doctorate from The University of Montana.

Susan Kaderka, Regional Executive Director, Gulf States Natural Resource Center, Austin, TX.
Contact Information:
Office: 512-476-9805 (x.752)
Email: kaderka@nwf.org
As the director of the National Wildlife Federation's Gulf States Natural Resource Center in Austin since 1999, Kaderka developed and launched the Texas Living Waters project, which over the past six years has reformed Texas water law to better protect instream flows, improve groundwater management and foster aggressive water conservation. She has also been a vocal advocate for the restoration of Louisiana’s deteriorating coastal wetlands, serving since 2003 on the Louisiana Governor’s Advisory Commission for Coastal Restoration and Conservation. More recently she has been involved in educating river advocates and watershed groups on how global warming is expected to impact river ecosystems in the U.S. Kaderka has more than 15 years experience in environmental program management, in both the non-profit and state government sectors, as well as five years experience as a policy analyst and director of policy research for the Texas Legislature. She holds a Master's degree in Journalism from the University of Texas.

Dr. Steve Torbit, Regional Executive Director, Rocky Mountain Natural Resource Center, Boulder, CO (Ungulates)
Contact Information:
Office: 303-441-5157 (x.5157)
Email: torbit@nwf.org
Torbit is trained as an ungulate nutritional ecologist, wildlife physiologist and disease ecologist. His areas of expertise include agriculture and energy impacts on wildlife, particularly in the intermountain West. His research subjects have included mule deer, elk, and pronghorn and bighorn sheep. He ran the black-footed ferret program for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and also has worked for wildlife agencies in Wyoming and Colorado. Torbit holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, a master’s degree in zoology and a doctorate in wildlife biology from Colorado State University.

James Schroeder, Senior Environmental Policy Specialist, Western, Natural Resource Center, Seattle, WA
Contact Information:
Office: 206-285-8707 (x.108)
Email: schroederj@nwf.org
Before joining NWF in 2005, James Schroeder worked for King County in Washington State, where he was program manager for the Strategic Initiatives Section, and co-chair of the Snohomish Basin Salmon Recovery Technical Committee. He directed a committee of local state, tribal, and federal agency scientists in developing the scientific foundation for a regional recovery plan for threatened Puget Sound Chinook salmon and bull trout. Schroeder has considerable experience implementing the Shoreline Management Act, Clean Water Act and Endangered Species Act for King County and the State of Washington. Schroeder has a master’s degree in environmental policy and conservation biology from Tufts University and a bachelor’s degree in biomedical ethics from Brown University.