Our staff is committed to TRK's mission to protect and restore the Tualatin River watershed. We use our expertise to build advocates through engagement, restoration, river access, and education. We are all Riverkeepers.
Growing up in southern Ohio, Glenn and his brother spent long days exploring the creek near their family's home, following it to the Little Miami River near the confluence of the Ohio River. Glenn's love of the outdoors eventually led him to Colorado, where he spent a number of years leading community-based and international immersion programs at the University of Denver before serving as Executive Director of Bluff Lake Nature Center, an urban wildlife refuge and education center in Denver.
Glenn has a passion for advancing opportunities for underserved communities, work that has been at the core of his career. In his free time, he spends considerable time with his partner and family exploring the Northwest by bike, foot, and paddle. A passionate music fan, Glenn volunteers with the Pickathon Music Festival and consistently seeks out new artists. Glenn lives with his family in Northeast Portland.
Mark grew up paddling Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes and rivers and since then has been a teacher, naturalist, guide, program developer, trainer, and facility manager in western New York, Montana, and Oregon. Prior to joining the Tualatin Riverkeepers staff he coordinated Portland Audubon's annual Birdathon fundraising campaign, guided hiking and paddling trips for NW Discoveries, and developed programming for Road Scholar throughout the western US.
Mark volunteers as a board member of the North Clackamas Urban Watershed Council and Portland Nordic Club. His other interests include nordic skiing, traditional archery, and paleo-archaeology.
Erik grew up in SW Portland and developed a passion to care for the land while visiting the many parks, forests, streams, and rivers throughout the Portland area. He has spent the past 10 years working with volunteers and engaging community members throughout Portland and Vancouver, WA to develop projects that provide environmental education, increase access to nature, and care for the land. These projects have varied in size from multi-acre reforestation, to small sidewalk planting areas, and many habitats in between. All along the way, relationships with community groups and volunteers have played a key role in project engagement and success.
When not at work, Erik enjoys riding his bicycle, searching for wild edible foods, and learning more about ways we can all better connect and care for plants, water, soil, wildlife, and fungi.
Kelsey grew up in Seattle, where countless days at local parks and beaches along the Puget Sound with her family inspired a lifelong pursuit of protecting natural spaces. Since moving to Oregon in 2010, she has continued to explore the Pacific Northwest’s forests, mountains, and rivers — adventures that eventually led her to Lewis & Clark Law School, where she earned her J.D. with a certificate in Environmental and Natural Resource Law. She is particularly interested in nurturing the environmental advocate through meaningful outdoor recreation that inspires lasting connections to nature.
Kelsey tries to get outside as much as she can. She is often joined by her partner and their pup, Olive, and spends most of her time on the trail, slowing everyone down so she can look at weird mushrooms or take pictures of the intricate patterns in tree bark and the riotous colors of wildflower fields.
Jessica is a second-generation Oregonian who grew up camping mostly on Mt. Hood. She’s fished a few times, a crabbed a few times, caught a lot of frogs... and somewhere along the line, it shaped her soul.
Following a BS in education from Western Oregon University, and long career in the field, Jessica is now a homeschooling mom of 2 young children who also have a deep love of the outdoors. As a co-admin at Wild Recess, a local nature-based adventure and education co-op, she has the opportunity to instill an appreciation for the outdoors in people of all ages.
Volunteerism has driven her all over this world, from supporting the nurses in a failure to thrive clinic in Romania through Global Volunteers to helping rebuild the brackish coastline of the Louisiana bayou with In Good Company and, of course, our own "backyard" here in the PNW. Before joining the team, Jessica was a volunteer with our Stewardship program, where she helped maintain Dirksen Nature Park’s oak savanna habitat. You’ll often find Jessica, her husband, and two children camping, backpacking, bicycling, or kayaking all across Oregon and Washington. Her favorite place to kayak on the Tualatin River is simply upstream of the 99W launch and she can’t wait to share this excitement with the Riverkeepers community!
Chris is serving as a Confluence AmeriCorps member for Tualatin Riverkeepers. He developed an interest in environmental justice and climate action as he learned more about the environmental issues being faced by his generation, and decided to pursue a degree in environmental studies. Working through multiple internships, he has a lot of experience in working on environmental advocacy. He also helped extensively with a restoration project on his campus during his schooling. Chris will be serving his AmeriCorps term as TRK's Community Stewardship Coordinator, working with volunteers on restoration projects throughout the Tualatin River Watershed. Outside of work Chris spends time reading books or working on community issues as an activist.
