WGF Hires First Exec. Director, Communications Staff

To Our Members and Supporters,

I’m excited to announce important developments for Wisconsin’s Green Fire!

Our Board of Directors is pleased to announce a leap forward in our capacity to do the important conservation work our nearly 500 members have supported since 2017. As you may be aware, during this time we have been building our work groups and natural resources policy initiatives, defining our priorities, and bringing sound science to decision makes and leaders in Wisconsin.

We start 2019 with the exciting news that we have hired our first Executive Director, Fred Clark, effective February 1st. Fred is a founding member of Wisconsin’s Green Fire and has served on our board as chair of our development committee, as well as our treasurer. He has 30-year career in Wisconsin conservation, including expertise in sustainable forestry, private business, non-profit leadership, and as a former State Assembly Representative. We are looking forward to tapping Fred’s expertise in many areas, from administrative management to support for our work groups.

We’re also adding two other positions. Nancy Larson, formerly our Administrative Coordinator, is transitioning through February into a more specialized role as part time Communications Coordinator. Nancy will assist our work groups, and enhance our digital presence and visibility with news media. Nancy is a talented communicator with a long conservation background and we are excited that she’ll be able to use her many talents in a way that is close to her heart.

Ruth Ann Lee will start in February as our new Administrative Coordinator. Ruth Ann has a 17-year history with the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation and also works with the Wisconsin Green School Network. She will contract with us part-time to manage many of our business functions. Paul Heinen is continuing as our part-time legislative liaison in Madison – an especially important role as the new administration and legislature prepare to begin work on the state budget.

We are located throughout the state: Fred and Paul are in Madison, Nancy in Ashland, and Ruth Ann in Poynette. Our mailing address will remain in Rhinelander. You can still reach us at info@wigreenfire.org, but we expect to share updated email and phone contact information with you soon.

Together, our board, volunteer leaders, and our new staff are forming a powerful team. One of our top priorities for this year is to support a revitalization of our conservation traditions during a new era in Wisconsin government. Internally, we want to increase the effectiveness of our work groups and more fully engage our members and volunteers. We’ll now have more capacity to meet those goals.

I hope you will join me in welcoming Fred, Nancy, Ruth Ann, and Paul in their roles and I look forward to accomplishing more together with you in 2019! Thanks for all you do and for supporting our work.

Sincerely,
Terry Daulton, President