Kim Dinan is a freelance writer and blogger. Her work has appeared in Northwest Travel Magazine, OnTrak Magazine and Parks and Recreation Magazine, among others. In 2014, Dinan and her husband were hired by Backpacker Magazine’s Get Out More Tour and hiked and camped their way around the U.S. while delivering presentations about the outdoors along the way. Her blog was named one of the best outdoor blogs by USA Today, and Sourcebooks will publish her forthcoming travel and adventure memoir, “The Yellow Envelope,” in April 2017. A general outdoors junkie, she has been lucky enough to hike and backpack all over the world. You can find her online at www.so-many-places.com.
Debbie Hanson is a freelance writer based in Fort Myers, Florida. Her work, which focuses on freshwater and saltwater fishing, has been featured in publications such as Florida Game & Fish magazine, USA Today Hunt & Fish, BoatUS Magazine and Times of the Islands Magazine. You can read her weekly angling-related blog posts at TakeMeFishing.org and visit her personal blog at Shefishes2.com. She graduated magna cum laude from Western Illinois University in English and journalism. Connect with Hanson on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/in/debbiehanson or via Twitter @shefishes2.
Ryan Hughes is a lifelong hunter, fly-angler and surfer from Santa Rosa, California. He is 21 years old and a senior at the University of Nevada, Reno, studying journalism. His passion for outdoor writing was sparked at the beginning of his freshman year of college, while working on his associate’s degree in social and behavioral science at Santa Rosa Junior College. He began writing stories of his hunting adventures and sending them to friends and family. Meanwhile he spent his days off surfing and hunting with a bow, rifle, or spear-gun. After transferring to Nevada, Hughes decided to pursue his passion for writing by studying journalism and has landed various writing jobs like working for liveoutdoors.com and freelance writing for several publications. Recently he had the opportunity to write as an intern with theinertia.com, in Boise, Idaho.
Jim Mosher is a retired natural resource and wildlife ecologist. He grew up in and around New York’s Adirondack Mountains. Following graduate school, he spent considerable time in the Intermountain West and on Alaska’s North Slope. He taught in the University of Maryland’s wildlife management program before managing nonprofit conservation organizations. He served as the Isaak Walton League of America’s conservation director and as executive director and board member of the North American Grouse Partnership and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. He served a two-year appointment as deputy assistant secretary for the Department of Interior’s Fish, Wildlife & Parks Division. Mosher is an upland bird hunter and an avid sailor. He has cruised coastal waters from New York to Key West. His writing and photographs have appeared in Outdoor America magazine, Grouse Partnership News, Spinsheet and the Bay Journal. He maintains a personal blog at www.chesapeaketidings.com.
Charlotte Orr is a graduate student at San Jose State University, where she studies journalism and mass communications. Her specialty and passion is working on environmental campaigns. Orr spent about five years working for Tuleyome, a northern California conservation organization. There she managed media and communications for the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument campaign, which was successfully designated by President Obama in 2015. This year, Orr spent her summer interning at The Wilderness Society in Seattle, where she provided communications support for several campaigns and conservation efforts in the Pacific Northwest. She is hoping to complete her master’s degree in December 2016.
John Pickles is a wildlife, nature and travel photographer. He has photographed in the U.S., Canada and Mexico and made extended trips to China, India and Iceland. He won first grand prize and best of contest awards in the Valley Land Fund and Coastal Bend wildlife photo contests in Texas. Pickles leads photo tours to Alaska, Iceland, Yellowstone National Park, Grand Teton National Park and guides photographers on south Texas ranches. He is active in the New Orleans area in photography-related organizations, is a certified Louisiana Master Naturalist and conducts photography classes. His publishing credits include Nature’s Best Photography magazine, Ranger Rick, My Big Back Yard, Trailer Life, Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine and books produced by the Valley Land Fund and Coastal Bend wildlife photo contest. His images are represented by the Alamy stock agency. His photo essay “Sundance” is in the ibooks store. His website is www.voyagerphotography.com.
Mike Rice grew up hunting, fishing, skiing and climbing in the mountains of northern New England. After spending his first 30-plus years following the jack-of-all-trades career program, he located to Boston’s south shore where he was introduced saltwater fly-fishing. In 2000 he started Mud Dog Saltwater Flies as a “full-time part-time” side business and has been tying flies for east coast fly shops and guides since. Rice wrote regularly for the now defunct Fly-fishing New England and Flyfishing Mid-Atlantic States magazines, has given presentations and tying lessons at fly shops and fishing clubs and is an ambassador for the American Museum of Fly Fishing. In 2013 he started his blog, http://backwaterflats.blogspot.com/ to tell the stories of the people, places and fish he encounters on the water. He looks forward to creating new relationships through the OWAA and developing his writing abilities and opportunities.
Since Lynn Starnes was a child with a Brownie camera, she has taken photographs of everyday moments. The difference is her everyday world is wilder than that of most Americans. She gets the most pleasure from tracking and photographing animals with a camera in their most calm, intimate moments. Starnes’ life work is a combination of aquatic ecology, in which she has a degree, and documenting that world in photographs. She worked for 38 years as a fisheries and wildlife biologist in a number of federal agencies. This academic background afforded her access to a wide variety of animals and habitats. She has tagged and released animals, conducted research, written peer-reviewed articles and managed programs conserving and enhancing animals and their habitat. She dedicated her life to wildlife and its habitat and continues in retirement. She feels more comfortable in the woods than in any city. She currently sells her photography in her gallery and on her website www.greatwildlifephotos.com.
Mary Terra-Berns is a biologist and freelance writer with a master’s degree in fish and wildlife sciences from Texas A&M University. She has worked on a variety of research and management projects focusing on rare species such as wolverines, Canada lynx, red-cockaded woodpeckers and many other species. As the environmental staff biologist for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game’s Panhandle Region, she was the primary technical writer and worked with other agencies and the public on wide ranging and complex land use issues. Terra-Berns has published several articles in Sandpoint Magazine, Bonners Ferry Living Local magazine and Idaho Game Warden Magazine. She’s also written numerous technical documents. As often as possible she is outside hiking, fly-fishing, running, biking, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and traveling. ♦
Welcome to OWAA
