Meet Our Board of Directors

Susy Boyd holds a Master of Natural Resources degree from Oregon State University with an emphasis in Forests and Climate Change.

Stacy Doolittle is an avid conservationist who has resided in Joshua Tree for the past 17 years. She is an elected director on the Board of the Joshua Basin Water District. In her volunteer time, she serves as vice-president on the Board of the Morongo Basin Conservation Association. She is now a "climate steward," after completing classwork with Collin Barrows of UCR-Palm Desert. In her past working life, she created innovations in the areas of learning and technology, marketing and international project management for the Fortune 50 companies Boeing, and Dell Computer. Before that, she worked for PBS stations as an award-winning writer-producer. She handles the communications aspects of the Mojave Chapter, including the newsletter and website.

Melanie Davis is a field botanist for the Center for Conservation Biology at UCR-Palm Desert.

Her main professional interest is ecology, with an emphasis on botany and what plants can tell us about desert ecosystems and the changes within them. The area that holds her greatest interest is plant ecology and rare, endemic desert plants. From a young age botany was her entry point into being a naturalist.

Recently Mel headed up the study design and field work for avian surveys conducted in the Mojave.

She also have a passion for desert reptiles (although specifically snakes).

To surmise: Plants, Birds, and Herps, as well as general ecology.

A California native, Jim Andre attended UC Davis, Humboldt State University and UCLA where he studied plant ecology. Prior to his longtime leadership at Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center,  his career included stints with The Nature Conservancy, Inyo National Forest and BioSystems Analysis, Inc., where he acquired a broad training in botanical research, conservation biology and natural areas management. He has authored books about the area and is a well-respected rare plant expert.

Drew Kaiser currently works for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. He has been the botanist for Mojave National Preserve and is currently the President of the Southern California Botanists organization. He has a BS in Botany and masters degree in Natural Resource Stewardship. As a botanist for the Mojave National Preserve, he was featured in a New York Times article about wildfires.

A former ranger at Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency, Jane-Spider Fawke now lives in Joshua Tree. She is heavily engaged in local activities, such as improving the beautiful and fragile Morongo Canyon Preserve, or teaching elementary students about reptiles . She was a volunteer creator of a school garden in the past  Prior to her life in conservation, Spider was involved in the world of high fashion.

Arch McCulloch lives in the California Hi-Desert. He and his have lived in Morongo Valley since their retirement in 2015. Arch vacationed and camped here as a teen. Arch shares: I love living up against the mountains bordering Sand to Snow National Monument, watching the ridges changing color at sunrise, the sky over San Jacinto Peak at sunset, the wildlife and blooms as the seasons change, and fellowship with the great people who live in this area.