The PCEI Staff

Tom Lamar, Executive Director

PCEI's Executive Director since 1990. His twenty one years of experience in the public interest sector has helped PCEI increase citizen involvement in environmental issues. Tom holds an Masters in Science degree in Environmental Science from Washington State University (1985). He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and Anthropology at the University of Delaware in 1982. While at Delaware and WSU, Tom studied the medicinal use of Plants by the Shipibo Indians of the Peruvian rainforest. Tom's work background includes Central American peace organizing in the 1980's. He also worked with the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides for two years as an advocate for pesticide exposure victims. Tom enjoys swimming, running, bicycling, and gardening. He can be reached at lamar@pcei.org.

Polly Fulford,  Office and Volunteer Coordinator.

Polly became involved with PCEI in the fall of 2000 after having recently moved to the Moscow area. Polly attended the solar home tour, volunteered at a Community Garden work day, and rented a plot at the Community Garden. She began working for PCEI in July, 2001. Polly received her BS in Communication Disorders in 1994 from Auburn University and her Masters in Speech-Language Pathology in 1998 from the University of Montevallo. In her spare time, Polly enjoys gardening, reading, and yoga. She also enjoys being outdoors hiking and camping with her husband, Taze, and their two dogs! She can be reached at pcei@pcei.org.

Laurie Gardes, Financial Manager

Laurie holds an MBA from California State University, Sacramento. Her BA is from Occidental College with an emphasis in economics. Laurie volunteers with numerous community organizations and enjoys running and gardening. A member of the popular Moscow performing group The Hot Flashes. Laurie was honored at the 2002 Holiday Party for her five years of service at PCEI. She can be reached at gardes@pcei.org.

Amanda Cronin, Watersheds Program Coordinator

Amanda Cronin holds a B.A. in Biology/ Environmental Studies from Whitman College in Walla Walla , Washington. At Whitman, Amanda participated in numerous watershed projects, with a focus on salmon recovery. Amanda cooperated with the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation to complete an original undergraduate thesis entitled " An Evaluation of Salmon Habitat in the Walla Walla River Basin", which was based on stream habitat surveys she conducted. At Whitman, Amanda also: coordinated projects with the nonprofit group, Save Our Wild Salmon, worked on a watershed assessment of the North Fork of the Walla Walla River, served as captain of the Walla Walla Sweets Ultimate Frisbee teams and was active in the Whitman College and Community Organic Garden. Amanda grew up on Washington's Olympic Peninsula and enjoys visiting her hometown of Port Townsend. She also spent two summers as the City of Port Townsend's Engineering Division intern where she worked extensively on urban wetland restoration. Amanda also enjoys spending time in the backcountry, playing percussion, climbing trees, doing art and being creative. She can be reached at cronin@pcei.org.

Greg Fizzell, Education Program Coordinator

A midwest native, Greg has been through all sorts of natural resource jobs.  He has worked in forestry for the US Forest Service, taught classes at the UI in Natural Resource Sociology, Economics, and Planning (and won teaching awards!), facilitated Snake River Salmon discussions, coordinated the Environmental Education program for Communities Creating Connections in Kooskia, and is currently developing the new McCall Science School for Idaho 6th graders.  When asked why he got into teaching, he said that teaching the next generation is the best way for him to make positive change in this world.

Greg also brings with him a partnership with the University of Idaho.  This partnership will increase PCEI's capacity to expand our Environmental Education program through our connections with the UI McCall Science School, EE advocacy efforts, and other ties with education at the University. In addition to environmental education, Greg's interests include playing with his dog Ukaya and his guitar, studying birds, and experiencing the outdoors with friends and family.  Greg lives with his wife, Erin Rishling in Kendrick, Idaho. He can be reached at fizzell@pcei.org.

Michelle Swinehart, EcoCultural Arts Project Director

Michelle Swinehart is an artist with a BA in studio art from Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA. With a background in sculpture, mixed media, performance, and puppetry, her work explores personal and cultural identity. These include Patterns of Presence, a mixed media installation examining displacement between people and technology, which has exhibited at galleries and arts centers in Walla Walla, and Portland; and DonÕt Look at the Humans, a large-scale puppet performance reflecting on community as diverse groups within itself, which has been performed at venues throughout Washington. She has participated in artist residencies for a variety of community outreach organizations including; The Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University, Tears of Joy Puppet Theater, Vancouver Washington and the Northwest Film Center Portland, Oregon. She has also spent several seasons teaching art to youth at Art On the Hill in Portland Oregon. You can reach Michelle at puppets@pcei.org.

Johanna Kalmus, Trio AmeriCorps Member (Now called Lewis and Clark Service Corps)

PCEIÕs education program welcomes TRIO AmeriCorps Members Johanna Kalmus and Tiffany Cooper to our team. Both Tiffany and Johanna (ÒTif and JoÓ) bring a wealth of outdoor/environmental education experience to the greater Palouse-Clearwater community.

Johanna grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico before attending Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA where she earned a BA in Studio Art. Since receiving her degree, Jo has worked in the San Juan Islands teaching Environmental Education, lead backpacking expeditions for high school students in the Northeast, and worked on wilderness restoration projects in the desert of Southern California. Her interests include art, and Òplaying outsideÓ which she describes as hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, skiing, and sea kayaking. She can be reached at restorestreams@pcei.org

Tiffany Cooper, Trio AmeriCorps Member (Now called Lewis and Clark Service Corps)

Tiffany recently moved here from beautiful upstate New York..."don't laugh" she pleads! Tif was born and raised with the U.S. Army as a family member resulting in many moves to interesting places from Germany to Tennessee. She graduated with a BS in GeoScience from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) in 1998 and later with a MS in Environmental Education and Outdoor Recreation from the State University of New York (SUNY), Cortland. Since then, she has been teaching kids and adults about the natural world. She loves to be outside and to inspire people, big and small, to do great things for the Earth! She describes this year as Òmy year to give backÓ. As an AmeriCorps member she hopes to have a positive effect on all the students she teaches and the greater Moscow community. She can be reached at kidsplanttrees@pcei.org.

  Nathan Queener, Watershed Program Assistant

Growing up in rural Latah County, near Troy, gave Nathan Queener an early appreciation for outdoor work. During the school year Nathan lives in Missoula, Montana where he will be a junior at the University of Montana with a major in Environmental Studies and minors in Spanish and Wilderness Studies. Nathan has completed a variety of conservation related internships and summer jobs including: working at the University of Idaho Forest Resource Nursery, interning with the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute and volunteerings with the Montana State Public Interest Research Group. A dedicated cyclist, Nathan commutes by bicycle to and from his home in Troy to PCEI most days this summer, so watch for him early in the morning!

Sara Robson, Watershed Program Assistant

PCEIÕs stream team has received a burst of new energy from our newest Watershed Program Assistants. It is pure coincidence that Sara Robson and Ken Hobson have rhyming last names.

North Idaho is the home of three generations of RobsonÕs, but she has ventured extensively beyond the Palouse. A peace corps volunteer in Nepal, Robson joined forces with a diversity of individuals, as she worked to spread environmental awareness. Prior to her Himalayan sojourn, Sara was the Whitman County Noxious Weed Control Board Assistant Coordinator. At home in Moscow, RobsonÕs allies include Pete, Jaeger, Maverick, and Floyd (one human, two dogs and a cat). Like any good undercover superspy, Sara is a Òfix it personÓ and enjoys reading, studying noxious weeds and gardening. She also has a distinctive culinary palet: chocolate, mung beans, coffee and Indian food are her favorites! You can reach her at robson@pcei.org

Ken Hobson, Watershed Program Assistant

KenÕs past includes stream restoration experience during three summers at the UI Wilderness Research Station, Taylor Ranch, in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. A 2002 UI Resource Recreation and Tourism graduate, Hobson spent a semester studying restoration in the Sacramento Valley at Chico State and has been employed by the University of Idaho Plant Research Nursery.

Ken's repertoire reaches into the arts as well. He has skills in drawing, painting and sculpting. You can reach him at hobson@pcei.org

Kelly Riley, Moscow Community Garden Coordinator

Kelly Riley began working as PCEIÕs Community Garden coordinator in February this year. KellyÕs bachelor degree in Environmental Design from California State University, Fullerton has allowed her to design interiors, architectural structures, and landscapes for such projects as parks, wetlands and a YMCA camp facility.

You might know Kelly as a small business owner. She and her husband Joe, owned Paradise Creek Bicycles, and later Garden Thyme in downtown Moscow. Since 1986 they have lived and worked at Nora Creek Farm, nestled in the spacious hills outside Troy, Idaho. Their farm started with herbs and strawberries at the Moscow FarmersÕ Market. Now they produce wool products for hand spinners and felters. Kelly has been a shepherd, felter, and spinner for the past fifteen years. With a passion for fiber and the animals that provide it, she creates and markets handmade felt products and conducts workshops and demonstrations at their farm, and at fiber shows, university textile departments, and fiber guilds throughout the Northwest.

Kelly, an organic gardener for over 25 years, sees the Moscow Community Garden as a gathering place for community. ÒThe Community Garden,Ó she says, Òis a way to help people develop a life-long interest in gardening.Ó Kelly seeks to enhance the knowledge and awareness of local food systems and gardening on the Palouse. When KellyÕs not in the garden she enjoys playing with wool, cross country skiing, horseback riding, and taking advantage of other opportunities to be outside in wide-open spaces. You can reach her at makeitgrow@pcei.org

Henry Gardes, Director of Chewing

Henry has his work cut out for him at PCEI, he chews. Currently he is working on a large chunk of rawhide expected to last for about a week or two. You can reach him at rawhide@pcei.org

Flat Stanley, Director of Office Security

Flat Stanley is currently visiting our office, and is spending his time guarding our water cooler, and of course, the earth. You can contact him at flatstanley@pcei.org