Staff

Contact: (907) 586-6942 | firstname@seacc.org

Lindsey Ketchel, Executive Director

Lindsey brings vast experience in leadership roles in non-profit, business and government organizations such as Heifer International, the Intervale Center and the Vermont Department of Agriculture.

During her career, Ketchel has had success fundraising, developing coalitions of diverse stakeholders, and managing legislative and advocacy campaigns. She also owned a small sheep farm and homestead in rural Vermont. Lindsey has a deep love of animals and makes daily visits to the beautiful muskegs, beaches and forests of Douglas Island with her dogs.

Katya Kirsch, Senior Assoc. Director and Grants Administrator

A skilled facilitator, Katya has over 30 years of experience with Alaska conservation issues, including more than three years as SEACC's Executive Director and eight years as SEACC's Board President.

Katya helps with SEACC's fundraising, financial management, special projects, transboundary issues, meeting facilitation and more.

She is an avid sea kayaker, and can regularly be found enjoying the beauty of the Tongass on week-long trips to special areas like Misty Fjords, Sea Otter Sound, Port Houghton, Glacier Bay and Lynn Canal.

Buck Lindekugel, Grassroots Attorney

From his time spent on the rolling deck of a purse seiner near Noyes Island, Buck grew to love Alaska's wild salmon and wild places. Buck pursued a career in law with an eye toward combining his love of Alaska with his desire for purpose-driven work. A graduate of the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark in Portland, Buck started his own law practice before joining SEACC's staff in 1990.

To the betterment of seafood lovers everywhere, Buck won a landmark case in 1989 that led directly to requirements for meaningful buffer strips along all salmon and fish streams on the Tongass National Forest, found in the 1990 Tongass Timber Reform Act.

In 2007, Buck received the Alaska Conservation Foundation's Olaus Murie Award for Outstanding Professional Contributions. These days Buck oversees SEACC's grassroots legal program.

Bob Claus, Forest Program Director

Bob is a 25-year Alaska resident, and uses the diverse skills learned in 22 years as an Alaska State Trooper to further SEACC's goals in the rural communities of southern Southeast. Bob enjoys the challenge of working with everyone from local residents to regional agency staff to national and congressional officials in Washington D.C.

Bob is an elected member of the Craig City School Board and serves on several boards and committees supporting alternative rural development. Bob spends his spare time fishing, boating, hiking, kayaking, scuba diving, dog training, and sharing the wonders of Southeast Alaska with family and friends. He is happiest with muddy pants and wet boots.

Bob holds a BA from Northwestern University and an MPA from the University of Alaska Southeast.

Dan Lesh, Communications Director

A lifelong Alaska resident, Dan grew up in Gustavus near the mouth of Glacier Bay in a family that values wild places and wild food. Dan studied at Grinnell College in Ginnell, Iowa (BA in Biology and Environmental Studies), worked on ecological research projects throughout the Americas, and, in 2007, settled back down in Juneau.

Prior to SEACC, Dan worked for the nonpartisan research arm of the Alaska Legislature as an analyst focusing on energy and natural resource issues. He is excited to be working of SEACC, helping communicate Southeast Alaska's conservation values and protect the subsistence way of life he holds dear. In his spare time, Dan is an avid mountain ultrarunner, skier, gardener, and hunter.

Guy was born and raised in a very small community in the Rocky Mountains west of Denver, Colorado. It was a place of deep, dark forests, groves of golden aspen and huge herds of elk and deer in wide open meadows. This place is gone now, replaced by a 6-lane highway, strips malls, and a suburb of 30,000 people where once there were 900.

Guy first moved to Southeast Alaska (Wrangell) in the early 1980s, where he met his future wife. The couple moved south, where they raised three children and Guy earned degrees in biology and education and spent 20 years working as an environmental chemist. During this time, Guy witnessed how both government agencies and corporations circumvent water quality regulations designed to keep our communities and waters healthy.

Guy is a skilled and avid carpenter, hunter, fisherman, science educator, and observer of the natural world. He works for SEACC because the only thing worth doing is leaving the world a better place from having been here.

Joining SEACC in 2011, Bri comes from Cordova where she grew up fishing the Copper River with her dad.

Over the years, Bri has worked as a trail guide, naturalist, logistics manager for a river rafting company in the Chugach National Forest, a mountain bike and trail guide in Tuscon, AZ, and a glacier and ice climbing guide in the Tongass.

After sharing Alaska with others for over 12 years as a guide, Bri is excited to focus on empowering community involvement towards a sustainable and prosperous future in the forests, mountains, beaches, and waters of Southeast Alaska.

When not in SEACC's headquarters, Bri can be found snowboarding, running, mountain biking, berry picking, climbing, and managing her own hand-knit beanie business.

Daven joined SEACC in 2011 after a stint as an intern with SEACC in 2010, where he helped mobilize a successful effort to educate Alaska legislators about community impacts associated with the University Lands Bill.

The son of a carpenter and a nurse, Daven grew up in an elk-hunting family that valued hard work with skilled hands, strong relationships within one's community, and a strong connection to the land. After spending four university years in the Midwest learning about the politics of agriculture, Daven returned to the woods where he volunteered at the Denali dog sled kennel for a year, worked as a park ranger in Yellowstone for four years, and as a forest ranger on Admiralty Island for three. He spent the winter of 2010/2011 working for a wildlife conservation and sustainable development NGO in remote Zambia gaining knowledge, skills, and insights applicable to our wild foods lifestyle here in Southeast.

Outside the office, Daven enjoys running and reading, fishing and hunting, berry picking and backpacking, and is contemplating a trans-Turkey bicycle trip at some point in the next few years. He'd like to recommend several dozen books to everyone he knows, but if he could start with one, he would recommend The Great Remembering by Peter Forbes.

Olivia grew up in San Francisco, spending much of her summers in the Sierra Nevada. She's grateful to live in Southeast, which offers the rare combination of ocean and mountains, as well as a vibrant community alongside the kind of beauty and solitude found only in wilderness. She loves to ski, hike, and forage for wild foods, and her favorite way to explore the many nooks and crannies of Southeast is by sea kayak.

Olivia earned her B.A. in philosophy from Stanford University, and her law degree from Yale Law School. She was a 2009/2010 clerk for Chief Justice Walter L. Carpeneti of the Alaska Supreme Court.

Doug Hanon, Finance Director

Joining SEACC in 2010, Doug previously worked for the State of Alaska for 27 years, most recently as Chief Financial Officer for the Alaska Department of Law. Doug holds a BA in Business Administration from the University of Puget Sound.

James Sullivan, Legislative Organizer

Erik Wortman, Community Organizer

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