Dr. Larry Stevens is the Curator of Ecology at the Museum of Northern Arizona, and the Director of SSI. He received his Ph.D in Zoology from Northern Arizona University in 1989, and served as the ecologist for Grand Canyon National Park from 1989 to 1994. Well respected in the field of ecology, Dr. Stevens was the editor for Red Lake Books, has served on many ecological councils in Arizona, conducted research on biogeography, springs ecology, and published extensively in peer-reviewed journals. Learn more about Larry's work - Curriculum Vitae.
Dr. Joseph Holway - Assistant Director
Dr. Joseph Holway first worked with SSI from 2015-2018 as a field technician before starting graduate school. He earned his PhD in Environmental Life Sciences from Arizona State University in 2024 and was a 2021 Fulbright Research Scholar in Cambodia. His dissertation research focused on the impacts of hydrologic variance to food security in the Lower Mekong Basin. Dr. Holway was born and raised in the Southwest where he developed an appreciation and curiosity for water, particularly in arid environments. He is thrilled to be back at SSI working to promote the scientific understanding and stewardship of springs ecosystems across the globe.
Jeri Ledbetter - Program Manager and cfo
Jeri Ledbetter is the Program Manager for SSI. She holds a Masters in Geographic Information Systems from Pennsylvania State University and is the head developer of Springs Online. She has conducted springs research for SSI as well as consulted for Northern Arizona University. She is also a well respected member of the Grand Canyon river runner community. View her Curriculum Vitae here.
izzie Speer - project Manager
Izzie Speer is our Project Manager. She holds a Masters in Environmental Science from Washington State University. With a background in beaver ecology and management from time spent in Washington and her native UK, and fisheries, amphibian and mollusc surveying while living in Utah, she enjoys getting her feet wet! An avid outdoor enthusiast, Izzie is most likely to be seen up a mountain, river running, dangling from a rope, or faceplanting into a snowdrift, usually with a huge grin on her face!
Izzie measuring channel entrenchment in Washington State.
Jeff Jenness - GIS analyst
Jeff Jenness is a wildlife biologist and GIS analyst with 16 years experience chasing spotted owls for the USFS, and over 30 years running his own GIS consulting business. In addition to teaching GIS classes for the NAU School of Forestry, Jeff is the lead GIS Analyst at SSI. View his Curriculum Vitae here.
Lauren Vanier - Data Technician
Lauren Vanier has lived in Flagstaff since 2008, and graduated from Northern Arizona University with a BS in Environmental and Sustainability Studies in 2022. Her fascination with springs began with finding them on maps (little mysteries!), and was greatly inflated by a lecture by Dr. Stevens on the subject. Working with the SSI has only made finding water in arid environments all the more exciting.
Board of Directors
Barbara Hall - President
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 - Secretary
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 - Develpment 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 split their time between Phoenix, Arizona and Durango, CO where they are working to restore their property, establish an orchard and raise sheep along the Animas River.
joel barnes
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.
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.
Kit macdonald
Bio and photo coming soon!