Doug Bruchez is a fifth-generation cattle producer in Colorado at Reeder Creek Ranch. He is also a board member of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association and his local Colorado Parks & Wildlife Habitat Partnership Program committee.

Dr. Kelly Dunning is the Timberline Professor of Sustainable Outdoor Recreation and Tourism. She holds a PhD from MIT in Natural Resources and Conservation Planning, an MS from Oxford University in Environmental Policy, and a BA from the University of Florida.

Her research focuses on conservation policy in places where tourism is an important part of local identity. Dunning looks at vulnerable ecosystems, like coral reefs, that are popular among tourists and determines the best management policies for biodiversity and livelihoods. Dunning works hand-in-hand with rural communities, such as Colorado ranchers working on wolf reintroduction challenges, providing environmental dispute resolution insights. Dunning is an Affiliate Scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, an NCAR Early Career Innovator, a National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Early Career Fellow, and has received funding from places like the National Science Foundation.

Prior to her lab at Wyoming, she ran the Conservation Governance Lab at Auburn University. Dunning currently advises the Congressional Sportsmen and Women’s Club at the University of Wyoming, runs the New to Hunting program with Delta Waterfowl which teaches faculty and students to hunt, and runs a veterans mentoring program called Green to Green.

Rob Edward is a co-founder of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project, along with his friend and long-time colleague Mike Phillips of the Turner Endangered Species Fund. For the past three decades, Rob has followed his passion to make the world a better place, particularly for the native wildlife of the West.

From 1994 to 2009, Rob worked professionally to restore native carnivores to the American West—a passion he still pursues in a volunteer capacity. From 2019 through 2020, Rob helped to lead the Rocky Mountain Wolf Action Fund’s successful ballot measure to reintroduce wolves to Colorado. Now, Rob volunteers as the President of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project’s board.

Rob’s articles and essays about gray wolf conservation are featured in several books and newspapers. When not knee deep in wolf politics, Rob and his wife Anne are out photographing bears and wolves in the wilds of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado - or hanging out with their friends at one of the Front Range’s ubiquitous house concerts.

In 2024, Chip started Wild Ranch, a non-profit interdisciplinary effort to help connect the dots between quality of life in Colorado and privately held working wild landscape and to help bridge the urban/rural divide around predator conflicts.

When not volunteering his time for Wild Ranch, Chip is the Science and Creative Director at ECOS, a natural history interpretation and conservation communications design firm he co-founded with his wife Jill in 1991. A seasoned designer, writer, sculptor, photographer/film maker, educator, and biologist, Chip is responsible for the blend of art and science on most ECOS projects. Chip has worked in the field of conservation education for 35+ years, conducting projects for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, World Wildlife Fund, Conservation International, MacArthur Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, USDA, BLM, National Park Service, Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, along with many state and city natural resource agencies throughout Colorado and the West. A Colorado native, Chip received a MS from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a BS degree in ecology from from Lewis and Clark College. 

Holly Lutz is Associate Curator of Mammals at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) and Adjoint Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Colorado Denver. She joined the museum in 2024 after completing postdoctoral appointments at Scripps Research, the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, and the University of Chicago. At DMNS, she oversees the museum’s mammal and parasite collections and develops interdisciplinary research programs and partnerships with both domestic and international collaborators. Her collections-based research involves leading remote field expeditions across Africa and the Americas to study avian and mammalian biodiversity, host-microbiome dynamics, and the eco-evolutionary drivers of emerging zoonotic diseases.

Dr. Lutz holds degrees from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Cornell University, where her dissertation focused on the ecology and evolution of malarial parasites in wild birds and bats. She has authored more than 35 peer-reviewed publications, including contributions to Nature Microbiology, Molecular Ecology, Immunity, and Journal of Biogeography. Her work has been supported by grants from the NSF, National Geographic, and Schmidt Ocean Institute. In 2022, she was honored with the Maxwell-Hanrahan Field Biology Award, recognizing her leadership in advancing biodiversity science and One Health research.

Shelby Neiberger's roots run deep in the rugged landscapes of Northwest Colorado. Growing up on her family's ranch, she honed her skills in raising cattle and quarter horses from a young age. As an active member and leader in 4-H and FFA, Shelby's passion for livestock and agriculture blossomed early on.

Shelby went on to earn her bachelor's degree in Animal Science with a minor in Agriculture Business from Colorado State University, where she specialized in beef and sheep systems. With experience in cattle genetics, animal nutrition, and animal health, Shelby has built an impressive foundation in livestock management. For the past 5 years, she has applied her expertise as a Brand Inspector, further expanding her knowledge of livestock operations.

When she's not working, Shelby enjoys an active lifestyle, pursuing her interests in sports, hunting, and fishing alongside her husband, family, and friends. Shelby's lifelong commitment to agriculture and the outdoors has shaped her into a well-rounded professional ready to make an impact.

Dr. Rebecca (Becky) Niemiec is co-director of the Animal Human Policy Center and an Associate Professor in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources Department at Colorado State University. She has served as the manager of the Bureau of Animal Protection for the state of Colorado, where she and her team addressed domestic animal mistreatment throughout the state. She has authored over 30 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has led stakeholder processes and conducted social science research focused on the human dimensions of conservation and animal protection. Dr. Niemiec has a PhD in Environment and Resources from Stanford University and B.A. in Ecology and Environmental Studies from Dartmouth College.

Eric Odell has been working for Colorado Parks and Wildlife for over 25 years. In that time he has worked in nearly all ecosystems throughout the state, from the eastern shortgrass prairie to the western mountain landscapes. His focus has been on work prioritizing the conservation of rare or imperiled species. This has included black-footed ferrets, river otters, Canada lynx, wolverine, and most recently gray wolves.

He is the Wolf Conservation Program Manager for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. In this role, he led the development of Colorado's Wolf Restoration and Management Plan. After the Park and Wildlife Commission's unanimous approval of the Plan in May of 2023, Eric led the field implementation of the restoration of wolves to western Colorado. He is the biological and technical lead on wolves for the agency. 

Tim Ritschard is a 5th generation rancher and President of the Middle Park Stockgrowers Association. Middle Park was the first location of where wolves were released. 

Tim was the voice for Middle Park producers during early wolf reintroduction, sharing ranchers' experiences of what was going on with wolves on the ground with the general public. Tim's involvement with the Colorado wolf reintroduction was driven by a desire to advocate for the agricultural industry through wolf reintroduction, a challenge producers had not faces in almost 80 years. Tim hopes to share the true impacts that are happening on the landscape. 

Dylan Roberts is the State Senator for Senate District 8 which includes many of the counties directly impacted by wolf reintroduction in Northwest Colorado. He serves as the Chair of the Senate Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee where he has led legislation to modify and improve the wolf reintroduction program to address local needs such as conflict minimization, depredation compensation, and legal protections for impacted ranchers.

Dylan was raised in Routt County and he lives in Summit County with his wife Sarah and two kids, Teddy and Claire. 

Carl Safina’s bestselling lyrical non-fiction writing about the living world has won a MacArthur “genius” prize; received Pew, Guggenheim, and National Science Foundation fellowships; earned book awards from the National Academies, the Lannan Foundation, and Orion Magazine; and been recognized with John Burroughs, James Beard, and George Rabb medals. Two of his many books have been New York Times Notable Books of the Year. 

Safina grew up raising pigeons, training hawks and owls, and spending as many days and nights in the woods and on the water as he could. His studies of seabirds earned him a PhD in ecology from Rutgers University. He then spent a decade working to ban high-seas drift nets and to overhaul U.S. fishing policy.

He is the first Endowed Professor for Nature and Humanity at Stony Brook University, and founder of the not-for-profit Safina Center. His writing appears in the New York Times, Time, The Guardian, Audubon, National Geographic, on the Web at CNN.com, Yale e360, and elsewhere, and his PBS series Saving the Ocean can be viewed online. He has been a featured guest of Bill Moyers, Martha Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Oprah Winfrey. Carl serves on the national board of the American Bird Conservancy. He lives on Long Island, New York, with his wife, Patricia, and their dogs and feathered friends. 

Courtney Vail is a wildlife biologist, social scientist, and seasoned strategist who has worked within the conservation and animal welfare field for over 30 years, spearheading domestic and international policies and campaigns to protect marine and terrestrial wildlife through leadership positions in the government, nonprofit and private sectors.

She is the Director of the Lightkeepers Foundation, a think tank dedicated to advancing compassionate solutions in the environmental and humanitarian sectors. She serves on the Board of Directors for several marine conservation organizations, and currently serves as Board Chair of the Rocky Mountain Wolf Project where she is helping to restore gray wolves to Colorado.

She believes that social tolerance for wolves and for each other will determine the future for wolves in Colorado, and she has focused her efforts on supporting western livelihoods through field work, conflict mitigation, community outreach, and fundraising. 

Adam VanValkenburg is a fourth-generation rancher based in Walden, Colorado, where he raises Simmental-Angus cattle on land his family has stewarded for generations. Deeply rooted in the traditions of North Park ranching, Adam served as president of the North Park Stockgrowers Association from 2019 to 2022, advocating for local producers and sustainable practices. Since 2020, he’s been at the forefront of addressing the region’s evolving wolf management challenges, balancing wildlife conservation with the realities of ranch life.