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Nancy Bailey lives in Weitchpec, California and works at the Mid Klamath Watershed Council (MKWC) in Orleans as a Project Coordinator, concentrating her work in the Fire and Fuels and Native Plants programs of that organization. She was a forest worker for many years, planting trees for the USFS and various private timber companies from 1981 until 1998. During those years, and since, she has also done stints of survey work including plantation inventories, stand exams, mollusk surveys, and spawning salmon surveys. Wanting some academic backing for this woods work, she received an AS in Forestry from College of the Redwoods in 2001. With her BA in Women’s Studies/Anthropology (UC Berkeley 1977) and a term in the Peace Corps as an environmental advisor (Lesotho 2001-2003), her understanding of forest work has blended with her experience and background in human resource, environmental justice, and equal opportunity issues. She sees clearly how social and environmental issues are inseparable.

Marko Bey is a co-founder of the Lomakatsi Restoration Project and is the Director of Operations and Contract Administrator. He supervises work crews and serves the organization as one of the core planners and designers for the development and implementation of ecological restoration programs and projects. Prior to co-founding Lomakatsi in 1995, Marko spent 8 years working on forestry contract crews on federal land contracts as a member of the mobile workforce where he worked in over six different Western states as a lead laborer, inspector, agency liaison, and crew boss. He has over two decades of experience in grassroots community organizing as well as in the field of ecosystem management and restoration ecology, with a wide range of on the ground expertise in watershed and riparian restoration, oak woodland restoration, reforestation, restoration forestry, fuels reduction, technical work, and developing and directing worker training programs. He has co-managed contracts and cooperative agreements with many federal agencies, non-profit organizations, and private landowners. Marko lives with his family in the southern Cascades between Ashland and Klamath Falls.

Diane Bush is Coordinator of Public Programs at the Labor Occupational Health Program at the University of California, Berkeley. She has over 20 years of experience developing, coordinating, conducting and evaluating training programs in occupational safety and health. Her current interests include community-based interventions to prevent occupational injury among young workers and other hard-to-reach workers, and interventions to promote implementation of effective health and safety programs among small businesses.

Santiago Calzada has been a forest worker since 1973. He has had various forest jobs planting trees, thinning, piling brush, fire protection, all phases of restoration and generally all phases of forest work. Born in Apozol, Zacatecas Mexico, he now lives in Medford, Oregon. He is the proud father of five children and grandfather to four. He has a lifelong history of helping people. He has been an active member of the Alliance for four years, participating in a forest worker forum in Eugene, Oregon as well as representing the Alliance at Week in Washington meeting with officials and presenting forest worker views from his unique perspective.

Wayne Fitzpatrick received an AAS Degree in Forest Technology in 1975 and has been doing forest work ever since. He has worked with government agencies, co-ops, and private contractors in fighting fires, reforestation, silviculture, tree planting, and studying the growth patterns and habits. Wayne’s deepest concern is ensuring workers’ livelihood through the practice of sustainable forestry.

Cece Headley started working in the woods as a tree-planter in 1978. She was a member of the Hoedads cooperative throughout the 1980s. Today she works on technical forestry surveys contracted through the Forest Service. Cece became involved with the Alliance because of her belief that workers can impact the conditions of their work by working together. One of her main objectives in working with the Alliance is a sense of duty to empower other forest workers and create opportunities for folks who see working in the forest as their life’s work.

Pam Tau Lee is a founding member of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network and is the environmental justice program coordinator at the Center for Environmental and Occupational Health Center at the School of Public Health, U.C. Berkeley. She has been active in environmental health issues for two decades. Her experience began while doing community work in San Francisco Chinatown (open air, housing, TB), worker occupational health followed by involvement in national environmental justice issues and policy work. She is nationally recognized for her work in applying participatory action research methods. She was the field director for two major studies in San Francisco and Las Vegas researching the health of hotel workers. These studies led to significant changes regarding workload and work organization issues for hotel employees. She is currently working in partnership with a community based organization, public health department, and university researchers to study the socio-economic and worker health and safety issues of immigrant restaurant workers in San Francisco. She helped initiate the Working Immigrant Safety and Health Coalition in California. Ms. Lee has been appointed to terms on the National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee subcommittees on public participation and enforcement. She currently serves on the National Occupational Research Agenda Liaison Committee. This is a program of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

Denise Smith served as the Executive Director of Alliance of Forest Workers and Harvesters from 2003 until April 2009. During her tenure she focused on outreach and organizing with multicultural forest workers and harvesters, education of labor laws and worker rights, environmental sustainability and monitoring, supporting social and economic justice for the people on the ground in the woods. Under Denise’s leadership, the organization matured to have an effective voice in the decisions that shape the everyday realities of forest workers and harvesters. She gained the respect and admiration of our membership, constituency of workers and harvesters and other grassroots folks and organizations. From Latino contract forest workers, to SE Asian and other race mushroom harvesters, to Native American NTFP cultural harvesters, she is recognized as someone who is always accessible, willing and able to address their needs and concerns.

Will Prust lives in Ashland, Oregon with his wife Barbara Sibley. As an undergraduate Will studied American History at Santa Clara University where he focused on Industrial Relations and Labor History. He got his M.A. from the University of Washington where he majored in American Diplomatic History studying the history of America's support of dictatorships in Central America and the Middle East. Since moving to Ashland in 1994 Will has been actively involved in the political campaigns of local Democrats. He and his wife contribute to local organizations like Jackson County Fuel Committee, the Ashland and Talent Food Banks, and Access to help offset the high costs of food and electricity for the elderly, disabled, and working families. The land currently used by the Alliance for its community garden project was donated by Will and Barb.