Contributors
Robert L “Bob” Bartlett, PhD is a retired public sociologist and a storyteller, avid fly fisherman, and lover of rivers. A fifth-generation African-American, Bob he grew up in West Virginia on a tributary of the Potomac River.
Shawn Bailey has a PhD in environmental history from the University of Montana, where he researched and fished the headwaters of the Columbia River. He teaches history at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and lives in Chicago with his wife and son.
Greg Gordon was born at the junction of Cherry Creek and the South Fork of the Platte River and spent much of his adult life living along the Clark Fork and Dearborn rivers. He now lives a short walk from the confluence of Hangman Creek and the Spokane River and is a professor of Environmental Studies at Gonzaga University.
Margo Hill, JD, MURP, is a Spokane Tribal member and grew up on the Spokane Indian reservation. She serves as the Associate Director of Small, Urban, Rural and Tribal Center on Mobility (SURTCOM). Dr. Hill earned her Juris Doctorate from Gonzaga School of Law and her Master of Urban and Regional Planning from Eastern Washington University and served as the Spokane Tribal Attorney for 10 years and as a Coeur d’Alene Tribal Court Judge and currently teaches at Eastern Washington University.
Heidi Lasher began floating western rivers in inner tubes, gradually moving on to rubber rafts, plastic kayaks, and wooden canoes. She holds master’s degrees in public administration and nonfiction writing. She spends her time writing, working as a communications consultant, parenting teenagers, and scheming her next river trip. She lives in Spokane, Washington.
Char Miller is the W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History at Pomona College, located in the Wanawna/Santa Ana River watershed on Tongva lands in Southern California. He is the author of Natural Consequences: Intimate Essays for a Planet in Peril (2022); West Side Rising: How San Antonio’s 1921 Flood Devastated a City and Sparked the Rise of a Latino Environmental Justice Movement (2021); San Antonio: A Tricentennial History (2018); and editor of On the Border: An Environmental History of San Antonio (2001, 2005). And two new books: Burn Scars: A Documentary History of Fire Suppression, from Colonial Origins to the Resurgence of Cultural Burning Natural Consequences: Intimate Essays for a Planet in Peril. https://www.pomona.edu/directory/people/char-miller
Brian Murphy, PhD, is passionate about working on the ground with local communities, providing technical assistance and innovative solutions that support leaders working to ensure their communities and rivers are healthy and resilient into the future. He has worked in the water resources engineering and river science field for over 20 years as a licensed professional engineer. Born and raised in Spokane, Washington, he lives and works in Denver, Colorado, on Arapaho and Cheyenne lands.
Bryan B. Rasmussen is Professor of English and affiliated faculty in Environmental Studies at California Lutheran University. He writes about conflicts between conservation and environmental justice at the urban-wildland interface. He is a contributing science writer for the Robert T. Moore Lab’s Mexican Bird Resurvey Project, a certified California Naturalist, and a volunteer educator for the Friends of the Los Angeles River.
Marian L. Rice, grew up exploring the watersheds in the Cascades of Oregon. As a result of her love of the outdoors, both her MPA and Ph.D. research at the University of Utah focused on the interplay of energy extraction and environmental justice in Utah. Combining her experience as a practitioner, she is interested in research on environmental justice, contaminants of concern, and resiliency to climate change.
Kirsten Rudestam has a PhD in Environmental Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her current research focuses on the dynamics of contested and emergent groundwater use practices within California’s Central Coast.
Jennifer Stevens is the Director of the Arts & History Department at the City of Boise and is affiliated faculty in Urban Studies and History at Boise State University. She studies and writes about the urban environment in the West, and lives with her husband in Boise, Idaho.
C. Ian Stevenson is the Director of Advocacy for Greater Portland Landmarks, a non-profit preservation organization in Portland, Maine. Ian holds a PhD in American & New England Studies from Boston University. A scholar of the built environment and environmental history, Ian has written about dams, summer vacation architecture, and railroads. Originally from Yonkers, NY, he now lives with his wife and son on Peaks Island in Maine. www.cianstevenson.com
Chris Young, Ph.D. (History of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota), has taught biology, natural history, and environmental studies at Alverno College in Milwaukee since 2000. He began volunteering with the UrbanEcology Center in 2017 and more recently has been working as a consultant to develop ways of sharing the UEC model with other cities. He is an affiliated professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. https://uwm.edu/conservation-environmental-science/people/young-chris/
Rewilding Urban Rivers 