Board Members

Marko is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of Lomakatsi. Lomakatsi’s ten regional ecosystem restoration programs and associated workforce initiatives are a primary result of his work. Most essential has been his leadership in the orchestration and formation of collaborative partnerships — partnerships that are strengthened by a wide variety of stakeholders, including federal and state agencies, Native American tribes, organizations, private landowners and community members.

Marko has 26 years of experience working in forestry and ecosystem restoration, from the ground up. He has worked throughout six western states and a variety of ecological communities, most extensively in the forests and watersheds of southern Oregon and northern California. Working locally, regionally and nationally to advance the full spectrum of ecosystem restoration, green job creation and forest-based community revitalization, Marko participates in a variety of strategic coalitions, committees and interdisciplinary teams, both regionally and nationally.

Chris represents the local Fire Chiefs Association on the SOFRC board and through them communicates with both Josephine and Jackson counties. An Ashland native, Chris has worked at Ashland Fire and Rescue since 2002. A graduate of the Oregon State University College of Forestry, Chris worked for the US Forest Service and BLM for 5 years in silviculture, fire, botany, and wildlife, and fisheries biology.

At Ashland Fire & Rescue, Chris coordinated National Fire Plan fire safety grants for 6 years, was a co-author of the 2004 Ashland Community Wildfire Protection Plan and 2005 Jackson County Integrated Fire Plan. He participated in the genesis and ongoing implementation of the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project and led the formation of the Ashland Firewise and Fire Adapted Communities programs. He also coordinates the management of Ashland’s municipal forestlands. Chris works on a team of five western fire departments for the International Association of Fire Chiefs Fire Department Exchange program, or FDX, to help fire departments across the country develop or further wildfire safety programs.

Jim retired from the Oregon Department of Forestry as their fire program analyst in 2005. He was the project lead on Oregon’s Communities At Risk Assessment and led the staff work on the implementation of the Oregon Forestland-Urban Interface Fire Protection Act of 1997. During his 29 years with ODF, he worked in forest management, forest practices, and fire as both a forester and a manager. His fire experience has been primarily related to fire behavior, planning, and management. He served on state incident management teams for 20 years as a Fire Behavior Analyst, Situation Unit Leader and Planning Section Chief, and as an Air Attack Group Supervisor for the district. He was a member of the national Complex Incident Management (CIMC) cadre. Jim has a BS in Forest Management from Oregon State University.

Jim’s work spans in scale from local to state to regional. Locally, he has completed local and county-level CWPP risk assessments, coordinated two county CWPP efforts and a two-county local coordination group, and is assisting in development of landscape forest restoration assessment and strategy. At the state level, he contributed to the Oregon Wildfire and Poverty Report. Regionally, he recently completed his role as the agency project manager for the West Wide Wildfire Risk Assessment, a project sponsored by the Council of Western State Foresters and Western Forestry Leadership Coalition.

Janelle is the executive director of the Applegate Partnership and Watershed Council. She began her career as an Oregon State Police, Fish & Wildlife Division Oregon Plan trooper and went on to be a consultant on wetland delineations and a fish passage project manager. As a leader of the Rogue Basin Coordinating Council (now Rogue Basin Partnership), she worked directly with Oregon’s natural resource agencies and the Rogue Basin watershed councils. Her passion is improving the conditions and coordinating the public use of Oregon’s rivers, streams and natural resources. She earned a B.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences and in Fisheries from Oregon State University and has been with APWC since 2010.

Darren serves as the Southwest Oregon Conservation Director for The Nature Conservancy and has worked in the region since 1987. He collaborated on the Ashland Forest Resiliency Stewardship Project, guiding the Conservancy’s partnership role there and in the Rogue Forest Partners. The Conservancy brings science to bear on project design, multi-party monitoring, community engagement, and a landscape approach. He coordinates the Rogue Basin Fire Learning Network and the Ashland Prescribed Fire Training Exchange. Darren secured grants to research and publish regional fire histories, and ongoing work on stand reconstructions. Darren has published on the ecology and botany of Southern Oregon, a biography of C.B. Watson, southern Oregon’s first conservationist, and is a co-author of the Rogue Basin Cohesive Forest Restoration Strategy. He earned both his B.S. and M.S degrees in biology and ecology at Western Washington University.

Greg was appointed Vice President for Finance and Administration at Southern Oregon University (SOU) in December 2017, where he oversees a broad range of campus operations and works closely with the university President on policy and operational issues. He oversees eight SOU departments: Business Services, Budget Office, Human Resources, Facilities Management and Planning, Campus Public Safety, Information Technology, Service Center and University Housing.

Greg formerly led The Boeing Company’s Consolidated Facilities Operations and Maintenance (CFOAM) program, based in Chantilly, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. He served in the public sector for over 34 years and was also a mission support senior officer in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a Colonel in 2009.

Greg received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Kent State University and a master’s in architectural engineering from Penn State University. He is a registered architect in California.

Jim retired from the Rogue Workforce Partnership as Executive Director in 2022. As the region’s federal and state-authorized Local Workforce Development Board, this non-profit organization catalyzed and created dynamic workforce solutions with leaders from business, K-12 education, higher education, workforce, labor, economic development, human services, healthcare, and other community partners.

Jim also previously served as a Senior Associate at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Deputy Administrator and Regional Manager for the Oregon Department of Human Services, Program Manager at The Job Council, and Assistant Director of Cooperative Education at the University of Arkansas.

Jim is a graduate of Rutgers University with a B.S. in Environmental Planning – an interdisciplinary degree combining masters-level coursework in urban and regional planning with studies in natural resource management, systems thinking, and the ecological sciences. He’s also served as a founding board of director for the George Street Natural Foods Co-op in New Brunswick, New Jersey; board member for the United Way of Jackson County, Oregon; member of the Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, and faculty for the National Governor’s Association Policy Academy on Cross-Systems Collaboration.