1. Board of Directors
2. Honorary Board Members
3. Advisory Council

Board of Directors

Craig Aase is Chief Investment Officer for Macalester College; prior to that he was the Treasurer. His family owns a cabin near Cable in northwestern Wisconsin and he has been on many canoe trips in the BWCAW over the past 30 years.

Reid Carron, Treasurer, is a retired partner of the law firm of Faegre & Benson LLP. Reid received his B.A. from Southeast Missouri State University and his J.D. from the Law School of the University of Missouri. He and his wife, Becky Rom, have three adult sons. Reid has regularly visited the Boundary Waters Wilderness since 1974. His primary outdoor interests are fishing, birding, hiking, canoeing, and snowshoeing.

Dodd Cosgrove retired in 2008 after employment as an Investment Manager at Wells Fargo. Dodd serves as Treasurer of the Board of the Quetico-Superior Foundation. He makes regular trips to the BWCAW; his family owns a cabin on Little Long Lake (outside of Ely) and has ties to Camps Widjiwagan and Warren.

Jeff Evans, Chair, served on the Friends’ board from 1982 until 2003, and joined the Friends’ Board again in 2005. He served as the organization’s Treasurer 1995-2005 and Secretary in 2005-2006. Jeff is a Certified Public Accountant and teaches accounting at Macalester College in St. Paul. He earned his B.B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, and lives in St. Paul. Jeff restores wooden boats as a hobby, is an active birder, and is still trying to perfect his eskimo roll in a sea kayak. He has made over 30 trips to the BWCAW and describes the BWCAW as his “favorite place on earth.”

Pete Fleming, a chemist by training, retired in 2004 after a 36 year career at 3M in primarily technical management. Pete has been an active volunteer with the Friends, serving on the Development Committee as well as working on special projects to inventory roadless areas in the Superior National Forest and improve relations with Ely outfitters. He is a volunteer naturalist at the Dodge Nature Center in West St. Paul and a former member of the city council and planning commission in Woodbury. He holds a BS degree in chemistry from Union College in New York and a Ph.D in inorganic chemistry from Iowa State. Pete is the father of five grown children and lives in Woodbury with his wife, Barbara.

Jerry Greenberg is Vice President of Regional Conservation for The Wilderness Society, and in that role he oversees wilderness and other land protection campaigns in the organization’s 14 field offices. A former TWS Vice President of Communications, Jerry joined the society 13 years ago, after working as a public radio reporter in Los Angeles, and as a forester for the U.S. Forest Service in New Mexico and for a timber company in Georgia. He has a Master of Forestry degree from Duke University. Jerry lives in Madison, WI with his wife, Diana, and son, Alex.

Steve Hoffman is currently Professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul. and was Director of their Environmental Studies Program 1992 to 2004. Steve holds a Ph.D. in Urban Affairs and Public Policy from the University of Delaware. His many publications include Perspectives on Minnesota Government and Politics (Forthcoming, 2007. Editor). His professional involvements include helping arrange the 2006 Annual Meetings of the American Society of Environmental Historians/Forest History Society: Rivers Run Through Them: Landscapes in Environmental History. Steve has served on several boards including Superior Studies at Wolf Ridge (1999-2004), Minnesotans for An Energy-Efficient Environment (now Fresh Energy; Director and Chair, 1994-2003), and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy (Director and Vice Chair, 1993 to 2000). Steve resides in the Twin Cities.

Jon Nelson, a resident of Duluth, Minn., first joined the Friends’ board in 1990 and became an honorary member in 2004. He is the executive director of Residential Services of Northeastern Minnesota, a non-profit organization which helps people with disabilities live in the community. Jon’s volunteer activities include church, coaching basketball, and 4-H. Jon earned his B.S. in Parks, Recreation and Community Education.

Nicole Rom, Secretary, is the Executive Director of the Will Steger Foundation where she works to slow global warming. Prior to working for WSF, Nicole managed the education programs for the National Wildlife Federation’s Great Lakes office in Ann Arbor, MI, where she developed and directed educational programming in the Midwest. Nicole also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Republic of Kazakhstan, speaks Russian, and has traveled extensivley throughout the BWCAW and the world. She received her MS in Natural Resource Policy and Behavior from the School of Natural Resources & Environment at the University of Michigan and a BA in Environmental Studies and Education from Bates College in Maine. Nicole is also an outdoor enthusiast and grew up canoeing and camping in the BWCAW.

Matt Poppleton is currently the District Outreach & Events Administrator for REI. He was employed in various capacities at Wilderness Inquiry and Camp Widjiwagan, and was an Outdoor Science Instructor in Pasadena for two years.

Betsy Schmiesing, Vice Chair, is a partner at the Minneapolis law firm of Faegre & Benson LLP, where she practices environmental and regulatory law. Betsy earned her B.S. in Zoology at the University of Wisconsin and her J.D. at the University of Chicago. Betsy lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with her family. She has visited the BWCAW throughout her life and looks forward to introducing her children to the BWCAW as soon as they can carry a pack. Betsy returned to the Board in 2007 and serves as Vice Chair and Chair of the Policy Committee.

Rolf Thompson is Senior Director of Resource Development at the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, a large human service non-profit in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Prior to Wilder, Rolf served as executive director of YMCA camps that use the BWCAW, including Menogyn on the Gunflint Trail, Widjiwagan on Burntside Lake outside of Ely, and Manito-wish in northern Wisconsin. Rolf was a member of the 1996 BWCAW Federal Mediation Panel, is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, and holds a master’s degree in business from the University of St. Thomas. He has traveled the BWCAW extensively, in all seasons, since 1968.

Barbara West has been superintendent of Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico since May 2005, but is better known in Minnesota for her previous 10 years as superintendent of Voyageurs National Park. Before that posting she served in the Interior Department as special assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs and to the Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks; she was also director of research for the Navajo Reservation’s Shiprock Research Center in New Mexico. She holds an AB degree in Far Eastern language and civilizations from the University of Chicago, and a master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Texas, LBJ School of Public Affairs. Barbara lives at Chaco with her husband, Darrell Knuffke.

Katrina Zabinski is a Supervising Attorney for the Minnesota Judicial Branch, providing community outreach and legal education to the public. Prior to that she provided legal services to Latino families at a non-profit law firm in St. Paul, and she did technology product development for several years in the private sector. Katrina has been organizing an annual women’s canoe trip to the BWCAW since the early ’90s, and currently lives near the lakes in southwest Minneapolis.

Honorary Board Members

Richard Flint, an attorney at Gray, Plant, Mooty, Mooty & Bennett law firm in Minneapolis, served on the Friends’ board from 1992 until 2005, when he became an honorary member. Richard, whose work emphasis is business law, mergers, and acquisitions, lives in Wayzata, Minn. with his wife. In addition to formerly serving as chair of the North Star Chapter of the Sierra Club, Richard is one of the founding members of the Friends and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. He holds a B.A. from the University of Minnesota-Duluth and a J.D. from Northwestern University.

Herb Johnson served on the Friends’ board from 1985 to 2001, when he became an honorary member. Herb served as the organization’s chair from 1985-1990, and lives in Minneapolis with his wife.

Becky Rom is a lawyer at the Minneapolis law firm, Faegre & Benson, where she practices commercial real estate law. Becky, who joined the Friends’ board in 1985 and became an honorary member in 2003, lives in Edina, Minn. with her husband. She earned her B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and her J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law. Becky is a member of the Executive Committee of the Governing Council at The Wilderness Society, and she serves on the board of Milkweed Editions and the Alaska Coalition of Minnesota.

Advisory Council

Chel Anderson is an irrepressible outdoor enthusiast powered by insatiable curiosity. Chel has lived and worked in northeastern Minnesota’s Cook County since 1974. From 1974 -1985 she worked on the Superior National Forest including nine years as a Wilderness Ranger in the BWCAW. She served on the Friends Board from 1987 through 2003. Chel has worked as a lead plant ecologist and botanist with Biological Survey of the MN Department of Natural Resources since 1999. She is responsible for planning, executing and coordinating the Survey’s efforts in data collection, integration and interpretation, providing technical expertise on plant and plant communities to those within and outside the Department and communicating the Survey’s work and results to the public, other agencies, organizations and within the Department.

Lee Frelich (Ph.D., Forestry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1986) is Director of the University of Minnesota Center for Hardwood Ecology, St.Paul, and Senior Member of the Graduate Faculty, in the Natural Resources Science and Management, Ecology, and Conservation Biology programs. He teaches a course on the ecology of fires and other disturbances in forests. Frelich is the author of 60 scientific publications on forest ecology, and has been listed among the top 1% of all scientists in the world by the Science Citation Index in the Ecology and Environment category. Frelich and graduate students have appeared more than 100 times in the news media including such venues as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CBS Radio Osgood Files, public radio and TV, Newsweek and National Geographic. Frelich is also Vice President of the Eastern Native Tree Society, and Chair of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Commissioners Advisory Committee on Natural Areas and Nongame Wildlife. Current research interests include: the big blowdown of July 4th, 1999 in the BWCAW, invasion by exotic earthworms in forests, impacts of deer browsing in forests, and regional patterns of tree height in the eastern U.S.

Darrell Knuffke joined the Friends’ board in 2000. Until his 2004 retirement, he was a senior writer with The Wilderness Society where he had worked since 1985 serving as a regional director in Denver for 10 years and vice president for regional conservation for five years. He temorarily resigned from the Friend’s board from October 2006 until November 2007 to be our interim Policy Director. Darrell studied journalism at the University of Denver. He serves on the board of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, and is a past board member of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). Darrell, who lives in Nageezi, New Mexico with his wife, describes his favorite get-away in the Quetico-Superior Ecosystem as “just about anywhere with water, pine trees, loons, and the prospect of a seeing a wolf.”

Steve Piragis and his wife Nancy are owners of Piragis Northwoods Company in Ely. Steve came to Ely in 1975 as a lake ecologist to work for the U.S. EPA on the Shagawa Lake Project. He subsequently worked for the DNR and taught for two years at Vermilion Community College in the Biology Department. Steve opened his business in 1979 specializing in alternative energy products and quickly evolved the business into a canoe retail and outfitting business. Steve has been a board member of Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness and is a current board member of Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy. Steve is an avid birder and he guides sea kayak trips for Worldwide Paddling Adventures into diverse ecosystems from Greenland to France and Vietnam. The Quetico Superior country remains his favorite to paddle, photograph, fish and recreate with friends.