Speakers

Dixie Alexander recently started working for Tanana Chiefs Conference as the new Cultural Program Director at the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center.

Dixie was born in Fort Yukon and raised with her 12 Gwich’in brothers & sisters. Her parents are the late Silas Alexander, Sr., of Fort Yukon and Charlotte Douthit of North Pole. She has one daughter Rita Jewel who is 30 and son Silas Walter who is 21 years old. Over the past 30 years she has worked with many local business and organizations as an independent contractor. You may have seen her working in the summer months on the Riverboat Discovery for the last 20 years where she shared our rich Athabascan history and lifestyle.

Dixie loves to teach and will share our culture by teaching workshops like: beadwork, caribou hair tufting, porcupine quill work, sun catcher, caribou hair and porcupine quill dying, willow root baskets, quill work on birch bark, birch bark sewing basket, mask making, moose & caribou tanning, drum making, doll making, canvas boots, caribou leg skin boots, snowshoes, fish skin baskets, canvas canoe, birch bark canoe, fish wheel, tool making, carving wood, ivory carving, racing sled, freight sled, toboggan, gun case and frames for drying furs.

She’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas, and invites you to contact her at 907.459.3740, velma.alexander@tananachiefs.org, or drop by to check out what TCC has going on across the street at the Morris Thompson Center.

Natalie Bartley is an Idaho-based outdoor writer and photographer who authored the trail guidebooks “Best Easy Day Hikes Boise” and “Best Rail Trails Pacific Northwest,” and the recently released mobile app travel guide “Boise’s Best Outdoor Adventures.” For over 10 years Natalie’s contributed weekly freelance outdoor content to The Idaho Statesman and monthly content to newspapers and magazines serving families and seniors. When she is not at her desk, she enjoys mountain biking, hiking, whitewater kayaking and traveling abroad. Find her at www.nataliebartleyoutdoor.com.

Chris Batin has been a member since 1979. He is the 2012 conference local chair. He is also editor and publisher of Alaska Angler, and Alaska Hunter Productions and Video Productions.

Phil Bloom is Director of Communications for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and editor of IDNR’s bimonthly magazine, Outdoor Indiana. Prior to joining IDNR in 2007, Bloom spent 33 years in the newspaper business, including most of the last 17 as outdoors editor for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. He also is past president of OWAA.

Bruce Cochran graduated from Oklahoma University in 1960 with a B.A. in design. He worked as a humor writer/illustrator for Hallmark Cards from 1960 – 1962 and has freelanced as a writer, cartoonist and illustrator since then. Cochran drew daily sports cartoon for USA Today from 1983 – 1991. He has 10 humor/cartoon books published by Willow Creek Press and his work appears regularly in Wyoming Wildlife, Outdoor News, On Wisconsin Outdoors, Pheasants Forever Journal, Wildfowl, Gundog, Ducks Unlimited magazine, Delta Waterfowl and other publications. He also writes and illustrates a regular humor column for Wyoming Wildlife News. Bruch won first place in the magazine humor category of OWAA’s EIC contest in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2009, and 2010. Life Sponsor: Ducks Unlimited. Life member: NRA. Member: Pheasants Forever, Trout Unlimited, OWAA and Outdoor Writers of Kansas.

Shelley Crant has 19 years of working with outdoor writers on story ideas and area updates, in her role for the Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel VCB. As part of her media communications efforts, she’s a connector for resources (properties, guides, attractions) coordinating itineraries for visiting journalists. She’s passionate about her beautiful part of Southwest Florida and knows that there are endless stories waiting to be told.

Lisa Densmore began her broadcast career in 1991 as a commentator for ESPN’s skiing coverage. Since then she has worked for many networks including NBC, CBS, VERSUS, The Outdoor Channel, The Travel Channel, Outside TV and A&E. Host, Reporter, Producer, Field Producer, Director, Videographer, and Writer, Densmore has a breadth of experience that is rare in the television industry. For the last eight years, Lisa has also co-hosted and worked as a field producer for Windows to the Wild (PBS) for which she has garnered three Emmys – two as a host and one as a producer – and numerous Tellys. In 2004, the OWAA bestowed its prestigious President’s Award, naming her the “Best of the Best” in film and video for her work on Wildlife Journal (PBS). She also produces vlogs for AudubonGuides.com and will release her second documentary film, called “Passion for Snow,” later this fall. An accomplished outdoors-person, Lisa draws on her skills as an avid skier, angler, huntress and backcountry adventurer in all of her work.

Deb Ferns is a co-founder of the women’s action shooting camps, Babes with Bullets, held across the country since 2004. She writes a column, “Outside My Comfort Zone,” and is the executive producer of the Babes with Bullets webisodes hosted at OutdoorChannel.com. Ferns is also a board member of the Women’s Outdoor Media Association. She and her husband, Gary, along with their two daughters, are active in several shooting sports, though her favorite is multi-gun competition events utilizing a rifle, pistol and shotgun. When not at a gun range, Ferns can usually be found teaching yoga at the local senior center in her hometown of Tucson, Ariz.

David FitzSimmons is a freelance photographer and writer as well as a university professor. David photographs and writes for various magazines, including Popular Photography, Professional Photographer, Outdoor Photographer, and Shutterbug, newspapers, and online publications. His 100+ calendar credits include numerous titles by BrownTrout and Barnes & Noble. David is currently at work on a handful of books. His most recent books include Animals of Ohio’s Ponds and Vernal Pools (Kent State UP, 2011) and Curious Critters (Wild Iris, 2011).

One of four Sigma Pro photographers in North America, David presents seminars and workshops to a wide variety of audiences, from public school groups and college classes to nature centers and civic organizations. His works have been exhibited at the Roger Tory Peterson Institute, the National Center for Nature Photography, and at the Telluride Photo Festivals, among other venues.

David, a former high school English teacher, has been teaching for 20 years. He is a professor at Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio. He holds a Ph.D. in English from Ohio State University, with a specialty in narrative theory—investigating the components of storytelling—something that influences his photography and writing.

David was inspired to photograph and write about nature by his parents, Mick and Judy FitzSimmons, active environmentalists and life-long teachers, and he is assisted in his natural history endeavors by his wife, Olivia, a naturalist, and his two daughters, Sarah and Phoebe.

To see more of David’s work and to know more about seminars and photo workshops, visit www.fitzsimmonsphotography.com.

Read more about David’s award-winning children’s picture book, Curious Critters—which has been featured on ABC-TV, NBC-TV, talk radio, The Huffington Post, Animal Planet.com, School Library Journal, and over 100 other media outlets—at www.curious-critters.com.

Brent Frazee of Parkville, Mo., has been the outdoors editor for The Kansas City Star for 32 years.
During that time, he has won more than 50 national, regional and state awards for his writing and photography.
After graduating with honors from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, he started his career in 1974 with the Woodstock (Ill.) Dailey Sentinel. From there, he moved on to the Racine (Wis.) Journal, where he was an assistant sports editor. There, he started his outdoor writing after readers complained about no one covering the booming salmon fishing on Lake Michigan.
“Our editor asked if any of our writers had experience with fishing and hunting,” Frazee said. “Everyone else took a step back, I took a step forward and I got the job by default.”
Frazee has been married to Jana, since 1973 and they have three adult children,— Becky, Jenny and Scott. They live on a lake in a Kansas City suburb with their two best buds, their Labs Zoey and June.

Mark Freeman anchors the Oregon Outdoors section and also contributes to environmental coverage at the Mail Tribune newspaper in Medford, Ore. Freeman covers everything from fisheries and wildlife to hunting, angling and Endangered Species Act issues, toggling regularly between the news and Lifestyle pages as well as the blogosphere. Since Freeman works for three different editors, he considers himself to have no actual boss. He’s been at the newspaper in this capacity since 1989, has been a member of OWAA since 1993 and is now on the OWAA Board of Directors.

Former State Senate President Rick Halford is well-respected for his role as a political leader in Alaska. A popular Republican, he served for nearly 25 years in the Alaska State Legislature, with multiple terms as both Senate President and Senate Majority leader. He retired as Senate President in 2003. With about 10,000 hours in the air over Alaska as a commercial pilot and big game hunting guide, Halford has a 44 year view of Alaska’s incredible values in renewable and nonrenewable resources. He’s an avid outdoorsman, and now spends his time working to protect Bristol Bay.

He has six children, and he lives with his wife, splitting his time between Chugiak and Dillingham.

Chris Hunt is the national communications director for Trout Unlimited. He blogs at TU.org, and on his personal blog at eatmorebrooktrout.com. Chris is a former newspaper journalist and a freelance writer who focuses on fly fishing and conservation. He’s the conservation editor of Southwest Fly Fishing and writes frequently for other magazines and online publications. He lives in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Judith Kleinfeld is professor of psychology and founder of the Northern Studies Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Her doctorate is from Harvard University.

Larry is an outdoor writer, photographer, author and entrepreneur who sold his first article in 1971. He has authored over 2,000 magazine articles and 21 books and has approximately 10,000 photo credits in magazines, catalogs, books and electronic media. His outlets include “Outdoor Life”, “Sports Afield”, “Field & Stream”, “Bassin’”, “In-Fisherman”, “Florida Sportsman”, “Bassmaster”, “Saltwater Sportsman”, “Caribbean Travel & Life” and over 100 other print publications. He founded Larsen’s Outdoor Publishing in 1986 and many of LOP’s 46 book titles sold 20,000 to 40,000 copies before he sold the company to a major publisher/distributor in 2009.

Over the years, Larry has also been involved in numerous projects and peripheral activities to supplement his freelance outdoors and travel magazine work and enhance his “bottom line.” He is Publisher/Editor of two money-making websites. His PeacockBassAssociation.com operation involves membership sales, book, video and product sales, fishing tour hosting, and other promotional vehicles. He has traveled to South America over 75 times in search of the largest peacock bass in the world and has caught 28 over 20 pounds so far. He was inducted into the Fresh Water Fishing Hall of Fame in 1999.

Alan Liere, of Spokane, Washington, is an award-winning back-page columnist for half-dozen national magazines. He also contributes weekly columns to two newspapers. He graduated twice from Eastern Washington University – once with a BA in Education and again with an MFA in non-fiction writing. After teaching school for 30 years, Liere retired to his country home where he just finished his fourth book, a collection of outdoor humor. He is a member of Northwest Outdoor Writers’ Association and OWAA.

Collections Manager, Ethnology and History, University of Alaska Museum of the North

With over 15 years of hands-on experience in collections management, exhibition development and advocacy of best practices and museum professional standards, Angela works to communicate how and why collections and museums are vital to our modern society. Whether it is through her work at the University of Alaska Museum of the North or any one of the professional organizations in which she is an active participant, museums are a part of her life and she is passionate about sharing that love. Her current goals include improving the collaborative and cross-disciplinary activities and research in the museum field, both in her own institution and across the nation.

LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/angelalinn
Blog: http://akethnogirl.wordpress.com/

Paul Queneau grew up hunting, fishing, biking and backpacking in Colorado, and now writes about his favorite pastimes as Conservation Editor of Bugle magazine at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. He lives in Missoula, Montana, with his wife Laura and two young sons, Liam and Jackson.

John Quinley is the National Park Service’s assistant regional director for communications and partnerships in the Alaska Regional Office. An Alaska resident for 31 years, his first career was in journalism. After earning a degree in history from the University of California, Irvine, he worked in Southern California as a radio news reporter, then for newspapers as a sports editor and general assignment reporter. He moved to Kenai, Alaska, in 1981 to the Peninsula Clarion newspaper where he worked as a reporter covering city government and natural resource issues. In 1985, he moved to the Anchorage Times where he spent three years as a reporter and city editor. In 1988, he began working for the National Park Service in communications. He serves as the Service’s principal spokesperson in Alaska, has worked extensively with writers and broadcasters, and served as an information officer on several high-profile incidents including multiple search and rescues on Mount McKinley, and the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon oil spills. When not working a phone or computer, John enjoys time at a family cabin south of Denali state park, nordic skiing in Anchorage, shooting ducks in September, and sockeye salmon on a fly line. He’s married and has two adult children.

Kevin Rhoades, www.KevinRhoades.com, is a former executive director of Outdoor Writers Association America who specializes in producing quality print books and e-books. Kevin makes titles for self-published authors and small, independent book publishers.

A professional ornithologist, keynote speaker, and environmental consultant, John C. Robinson holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Iowa State University. He has published six books about nature and birds, including “An Annotated Checklist of the Birds of Tennessee,” “Secret of the Snow Leopard,” and “North American Bird Reference Book.” He has also led professional birding and natural history tours to exotic and picturesque locations from southeast Arizona to South Africa. For more than 30 years, Robinson was an ornithological biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service. He was also chief ornithologist with the Scotts Miracle-Gro company. Robinson is an advocate for minorities in bird-watching and nature and has spent the past 13 years conducting research on how to connect youth to nature through bird-watching. He is currently on tour speaking about his most recent book, “Birding for Everyone: Encouraging People of Color to Become Birdwatchers.”

Glenn Sapir has worked as an editor and writer for national and regional publications since 1970 and has been a member of OWAA since 1975. He currently serves as the director of editorial services for the National Shooting Sports Foundation and the outdoor correspondent for Gannett’s Journal News. He has long possessed a desire to integrate both participation in the outdoors and readership of the publications for which he has worked. He has also identified the lack of cultural and ethnic diversity in the outdoor communicator groups to which he belongs and has hoped to expand their diversity. However, he admits to having had a lack of success in all of these endeavors. Perhaps from failure, he can offer a few ideas that may help.

Ashley Schroeder is publications editor for OWAA. She solicits and works with editorial submissions for Outdoors Unlimited and edits, designs and oversees publication. She is also OWAA’s webmaster. As a freelance designer, Schroeder focuses on Web and print design, with projects ranging from publication redesign to website customization. Schroeder graduated from the University of Montana with a degree in print journalism and a minor in media arts. She hails from Gillette, Wyo., where her outdoors experience included summer backpacking trips and surviving windy winter blizzards. Schroeder enjoys her relocation to Missoula and gets her fill of fresh air by snowboarding and soaking in hot springs.

Born in 1940, photographer LeRoy Zimmerman’s interest in photography began in Oskosh, Wis. as a very young boy. His passion for photography began to get serious in 1967 when he discovered a panoramic format could be realized by using 3 frames of 35mm film to make up a single image. Since that summer day, he has done nothing else but panoramic filming.

A visit to Alaska in 1968, followed by two more visits, prompted his permanent residency in 1974. Alaska is a perfect place to be a panoramic photographer due to the magnificent natural world all around, hence he continues to make it his home. In 1984 realizing he had never filmed the auroras in panorama, he developed a special camera set up that enabled him to start down that path, and he became the pioneer in that field. So began not only a love affair with Alaska’s natural beauty, but a love affair with the auroras as well.

In 2007 the United States Postal Service released the first ever sheet of stamps featuring the auroras to celebrate the Polar Year and featured one of LeRoy’s panoramas as the header of that stamp sheet. He knows that this image has found its place, and he considers his well-placed aurora panorama to be the highlight of that stamp issue.

Now you can find as his photos incorporated into a unique visual experience called PhotoSymphony at the Mt. McKinley and the Copper River Princess lodges in Alaska and at the Ice Museum within the Lacey Street Theater in Fairbanks.