Meet our Board of Directors
From left to right in front row: Jill Silver (with Jollie), John Woolley.
Standing: Connie Gallant, Nancy Woolley, Kevin Geraghty, Bonnie Phillips,
Jim Scarborough, Marcy Golde, and Peggy Brutton Edwards. Not pictured: Toby Thaler.

Executive Director Bonnie Phillips (Olympia) has been active on forest issues since the mid 1980s. Working through the Pilchuck Audubon Society and National Audubon Society she served as plaintiff representative on the Northern Spotted Owl and Marbled Murrelet lawsuits and helped form Audubon's Adopt-a-Forest program. She also became active on state and private forest issues in the late 1980s. During the 1990s, Bonnie was a founding Board member, and later staff person, for the American Lands Alliance; a founding Board member of the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance; and a founding Board member of the Western Land Exchange Project.

In 1996-98 she was Campaign Coordinator for the ForestWater Alliance, a 21-member coalition in Washington, Oregon and Northern California. Time Magazine named her as a Hero for the Planet in their December 1998 issue. Bonnie received her Master's degree in Environmental Studies from the Evergreen State College in 2005. In addition to her thesis on The Policy of Extinction: The Case of the Northern Spotted Owl, she has done research on forest restoration, the National Forest Management Act, and Ethics and Leadership

Chair John Woolley (Sequim) is a thirty-year resident of the Sequim area and a retired teacher of politics, the environment, history, and the social sciences. John holds a B.A and M.A. in Transportation and International Business from the University of Washington and a Teaching Certificate in Geography from Western Washington State College, where he attended Huxley College. John is on the Board of the Washington Trails Association and the Olympic Park Associates. John is particularly interested in promoting wilderness ethics and is Chair of OFCO's Olympic Wild Committee. John and his wife Nancy have been hiking on the Olympic Peninsula since the 1960s. He is OFCOs expert on "knowing the local dirt."

Vice Chair Connie Gallant (Quilcene) was born and raised in Guantanamo, Cuba where she spent her childhood exploring the local mountains, playing in the rivers, and gorging on sugar cane. She went to school in Boston, Massachusetts where her family settled after arriving from Cuba in 1962.

Connie is president of RV Consumer Group, a nonprofit consumer advocate organization dedicated to researching the safety of recreational vehicles. Based on the Olympic Peninsula, Connie's professional experience includes administration and management, writing, editing, web design, and photography. She has been active in local politics since moving to Quilcene in 1982, where she volunteered to teach martial arts to adults and children, and self-defense classes for women. Prior to moving to Washington State, she lived in San Diego, California, working in the Research/Development Department of a large corporation, and ultimately forming her own business as a fashion and nature photographer. With her husband JD Gallant, Connie managed a lodging resort in the Sierra Nevada where she learned the importance of balancing nature with human habitat. She is an active member of a number of wildlife organizations. As a member of the OFCO board, she serves as webmaster and photographer.

Secretary Peggy Bruton Edwards (Olympia) spent the first 50 years of her life in Washington, D.C., where she worked as an editorial consultant and was a long-time environmental activist. She moved to Olympia, WA in 1991 with her husband, David Edwards, after living for several years in southern Italy. She has also lived in Asia (Thailand) as a Peace Corps Volunteer. She is currently Forest Issues portfolio chair for the Washington State League of Women Voters. Peggy is OFCOs Newsletter Editor. She is also one of the most connected persons in Olympia and we go to her for guidance in building a stronger program in Olympia.

Treasurer Nancy Woolley (Sequim) is an English teacher and currently Librarian at Sequim High School. She and her husband John have lived in the Sequim area for more than 30 years. An avid reader and hiker, Nancy has traveled extensively in the western States, van camping, day hiking and backpacking. She holds B.A.s in English from the UW and in Consumer Science from Western Washington State University. Nancy has been the Secretary of the Sequim Education Association for a number of years.

Kevin Geraghty (Seattle) has a Masters' degree in public policy from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago. He works as a statistical and economic consultant in the field of energy conservation. He has been involved in public lands conservation advocacy in the Pacific Northwest for the last decade, and currently serves on the boards of several nonprofit conservation groups. Although an aficionado of natural landscapes in general, he is particularly passionate and knowledgeable about forests. Issues surrounding roads and timber sales on west-side federal lands have absorbed most of his efforts in the last few years.

Marcy Golde (Seattle) moved to Washington State in 1960 and started volunteering with the Washington Environmental Council (WEC) in 1979. She has focused on forestry, wildlife and water issues, especially as they relate to State and private forest lands, including several intensive forestry negotiations. She also directed a three year program to implement the Timber, Fish and Wildlife negotiated agreement, which she helped negotiate. The WEC program had part time staff in each of the seven DNR regions from 1988-1991, who monitored state and private timber sales and joined Inter-disciplinary field visits.

Marcy has continued to volunteer for WEC, trying to prevent the Board of Natural Resources from reducing fish and riparian protection and increasing the harvest level. That effort failed, but a successful lawsuit overturned that decision. Now WEC and the other plaintiffs, including OFCO, are working on a negotiated settlement. She has also worked with the Washington Forest Law Center consulting with the Conservation Caucus on the Forest and Fish Agreement. Marcy has also served on the boards of Earth Ministry and the Northwest Fund for the Environment. In 1999 she joined the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Committee and has just completed her second and last term. In 2004 Marcy joined OFCO's board and our budding state forest issues committee.

Jim Scarborough (Bainbridge Island) was born to a coal mining family in the Appalachians, forming an early bond to deep forests and rugged mountains. He arrived in the Northwest via Alaska in 1995, wherein he immediately began exploring the Olympics and Cascades at a near-frenetic pace. Jim holds M.A. and Educational Specialist degrees from James Madison University and currently works as a school psychologist to pay the bills, yet never ceases his dreaming of wild landscapes.

Jim spent three years as a volunteer with the Wild Washington Campaign before joining OFCO's Board as a founding member. He and Tim McNulty of Olympic Park Associates (OPA) led an effort to formulate a new Wilderness proposal for Olympic National Forest. Jim wrote a briefing booklet and hiking guide to accompany this proposal, the latter of which can be found on OFCO's Web site. Jim also serves on the Board of OPA. He is the Chair of our ONF monitoring program, writing our technical letters for the record and coordinating administrative appeals for OFCO.

Jill Silver (Port Townsend) is a Washington State native who lives and works on the Olympic Peninsula, where she's watched the landscape change over her lifetime. An environmental scientist with experience in fish habitat restoration, watershed assessment, and development of watershed-scale conservation programs, she holds a B.A.S. in Environmental Studies and Sciences from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington (where she never wanted to stop learning!). She is active in marine, forest, wetland, and invasive species issues in her work as Watershed Program Manager for the non-profit 10,000 Years Institute, and as a volunteer or board member of Olympic Coast Alliance, the Forests and Fish Wetland Scientific Advisory Group, and the Jefferson County Noxious Weed Board.

Toby Thaler (Seattle) received his law degree (J.D.) in 1978 at the University of Washington Law School. Since that time he has been a successful advocate for natural resource conservation. He has a wide range of experience in natural resources law, including work with three Native American Tribes on the East side of the Olympic Peninsula, Seattle City Light, Washington Environmental Council, and Washington Forest Law Center. In addition to his membership in the Washington State Bar Association, he is also admitted to practice in U.S. District Courts and U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Toby has also offered his pro bono legal services to various environmental organizations, including the Washington Environmental Council. Now OFCO will receive the benefits of his experience as he joins our state forest team.