Board of Directors
Joel Barnes - President
Dr. Joel Barnes is a Professor Emeritus in Environmental Studies, Sustainability, and Adventure Education at Prescott College, where he’s been teaching classroom and field-based courses since 1985. Through his small business, Riparia, he also works with river and watershed restoration projects in the American Southwest. His doctoral work focused on assessing Wild and Scenic River designation for the Grand Canyon’s portion of the Colorado River and its tributaries; it also included restoration projects in the Granite Creek Watershed around Prescott, Arizona. A common thread throughout Joel’s research and teaching includes a sustained passion for flowing water, river systems, and watersheds in both wilderness and urban settings. If he’s not working on a river, then he’s usually playing on one with friends and family. He's an avid birder and plant geek, rarely heading out the door without a few natural history guides in-hand. For more detail on Joel’s background, see his Curriculum Vitae here.
Kit Macdonald - Vice President
Kit Macdonald serves as Vice President of the Springs Stewardship Institute's Board of Directors. A retired U.S. Forest Service soil scientist and natural resource specialist, Kit brings extensive experience in watershed management, forest ecology, wetlands, and ecological restoration. During his career with the Kaibab National Forest, he worked on projects involving soil and water conservation, riparian ecosystems, and forest restoration across northern Arizona. Kit holds a master's degree in Forest Science and brings valuable expertise in public lands management and natural resource conservation to SSI's mission of protecting and restoring freshwater springs.
Joe Gurrieri - Secretary
Joe Gurrieri serves as Secretary of the Springs Stewardship Institute's Board of Directors. A retired U.S. Forest Service hydrogeologist, Joe brings extensive experience in groundwater science, water resource management, and springs conservation. During his career, he served on the Forest Service's National Groundwater Technical Team, providing hydrogeologic expertise to national forests across the country. He has also contributed to research and guidance on sustainable spring development, rehabilitation, and restoration. Joe holds a master's degree in Geology from the University of Connecticut and brings valuable scientific and technical expertise to SSI's mission of conserving freshwater springs.
Barbara Hall
Dr. Barbara L. Hall retired as an environmental engineer for the U.S. Air Force where she managed soil and groundwater restoration activities and programs under CERCLA as well as environmental compliance programs for stormwater, industrial wastewater, and fuel storage tanks. Dr. Hall received a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech, a master’s degree in Biomechanics from Penn State, and a Ph.D in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Utah State University. During her 30+ year career in engineering, Dr. Hall worked in the aerospace and power generation industries, in academics, at a national research laboratory, in environmental consulting, and as a civil servant. Her primary research and programming interests are in performance monitoring associated with natural and engineered systems. She enjoys mentoring young engineers and scientists. Dr. Hall was raised in New Hampshire and Virginia and lives in Salt Lake City where she spends her time enjoying outdoor activities, traveling as much as possible, and hanging out with dogs. She has been spent a good deal of time over the last 20+ years running western rivers, often fortunate to be in the company of geomorphologists and ecologists.
Darah Farrar - Treasurer
Darah graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor's degree in public management from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. She has worked for U-STOR/CAR-GO Self Storage for 25 years where she has held several positions including commercial retail center property manager, bookkeeper, HR/Payroll Manager, and Senior Auditor. She has been the President since 2012 where she oversees 57 properties in 4 states. Darah holds an active license as a managing real estate broker in the state of Indiana and is registered Notary. In addition, she volunteers as a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate for Children) and works in conjunction with the Foster Care system in Indiana. Darah is the proud mother of 4 children she shares with her husband Sam. The children range in age from 12 to 18 and keep her very busy outside of work and volunteering.
Jaquelyn Ledbetter
Jaque has over 20 years of experience working on on and offshore drilling rigs, including nine years sailing onboard the JOIDES Resolution. She first sailed as a shipboard scientist on Leg 135 and published her results the following year. As a Technician for ODP, she worked in the XRF, XRF, Underway Geophysics and Downhole Tools labs while working with the other technicians to process the thousands of meters of core and many thousands of samples collected on each two month cruise. She then transferred to an industry position, first as a mudlogger, quickly moving up to a Lead Data Engineer position working both in the North Sea and Kazakhstan. In 2005, she moved from mudlogging to Wellsite Geology, working for Sunburst Consulting geosteering wells primarily in the Willilston Basin. She was then offered a position with RPS Energy Services and continued to build her experience as a wellsite geologist working working both in the US and in Canada. Since 2011, she has been working for Petrotechnical Resources of Alaska, working on a coil tubing rig on the North Slope.
Jim Holway - Development Chair
Dr. Jim Holway is passionate about sustaining the water resources and the communities and cultures of the southwest. He recently retired after a 40-year career in western water and land management. He previously served as Assistant Director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, an elected Board Member of the Central Arizona Project, a Professor of Practice at Arizona State University, Director of the Watern Lands and Communities Program for the Sonoran Institute and most recently as the Founding Director of the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy. Dr. Holway earned a Ph.D. and Masters degree in Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina and a Bachelors in Political Science from Cornell University. He was raised on the east coast and moved to Arizona for most of his career. Jim and his wife now live in Durango, CO where they are working to restore their property, establish an orchard and raise sheep along the Animas River.
Collaborators and Research Associates
Dr. Gary Alpert
Dr. Gary Alpert, also known as the Global Ant Coordinator, is internationally respected as an authority on ant taxonomy. He has taught as an associate professor of entomology at Harvard University and the University of Massachusetts. He has worked at the forefront of transitioning traditional methods of study into contemporary, web based tools. As the coordinator for these projects, the Global Ant Project and the AntWiki Project, he has created a forum for the exchange of technical information on Formicidae and collaboration with scientists and students around the world. Originally from the Seattle area, Dr. Alpert received his B.S. in Psychology from Washington State University (1969), as well as his M.S. in Entomology (1972). He then completed his Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University in 1981. His passion for biology and biodiversity extends to native cultures, having worked with the Navajo Nation as a collaborator and instructor on the creation of Navajo Nature (http://navajonature.org/), an online repository for information on the natural environments of the Navajo Reservation. Dr. Alpert has enthusiastically studied the native species of the Colorado Plateau, and is working with the Springs Stewardship Institute on understanding invertebrate distributions. View his Biographical Sketch here.
Ed Schenk - Consultant
Ed Schenk received his Bachelors in Geology from Hanover College and a Masters in Water Resources from Indiana University. Ed was formerly a research ecologist/geomorphologist with the USGS National Research Program and a physical scientist for Grand Canyon NP. He currently works for the City of Flagstaff. He has authored over two dozen articles on river and wetland restoration and chaired three research symposiums. When not in the office you can find Ed out on the trails surrounding Flagstaff and Sedona or canyoneering.