President

Jesse and his family have called Oregon home for over 20 years, drawn to the region's stunning landscapes and vibrant outdoor culture. With a background in leading and building successful software startups, Jesse brings a wealth of experience in leading and growing organizations. He's passionate about protecting Central Oregon's pristine wilderness and fostering sustainable development that preserves our region's unique character.

As President of Central Oregon Landwatch, Jesse is committed to empowering our community to advocate for the environment and ensuring a thriving future for generations to come

Treasurer

Gavin has been on the LandWatch Board since 2019. He moved to Central Oregon from Manhattan with his family in 2017 and was keen to find a role in the safeguarding of the area's exceptional environment and promise. LandWatch with its legal focus, energetic team, and track record of success is a powerful and effective organization. 

An Irish native, Gavin has worked and lived in the UK, Austria and Germany before moving to the US in 2004. He spent 25 years investing in private capital markets and has a track record of building successful businesses and teams for various global firms. He currently works in developing technology for private market investing. 

Secretary

Jeff brings 35 years of environmental consulting and business development experience to help advance the mission of LandWatch. In his career he led teams of scientists, engineers and planners to conduct regulatory and impact analysis, design environmental mitigation and enhancement, and implement agency and public engagement to ensure that ecological and community issues were fully integrated into public projects and programs. Jeff particularly appreciates how LandWatch’s mission promotes the complementary goals of natural resource protection and resilient, engaged communities.

Moving to Central Oregon in 2019 was the realization of a long-time dream for Jeff and his wife, Jen. Whenever he isn’t helping LandWatch realize its mission of creating vibrant communities and protecting wild, open spaces, you can find Jeff skate skiing, ski touring, cycling, hiking or paddling.

Rachel has been active as Vice President of the Foundation she started in 1991 with her husband Adam. Environmental issues have been one of their main concerns. Exploring the great outdoors as well as visiting other countries and cultures have been a big and important part of her life.

Chris works to create Complete Communities as Active Transportation Liaison for Oregon’s Department of Transportation. He is passionate about creating transportation infrastructure that brings people together. By embedding balanced, sustainable, and equitable practices into the bureaucracy of transportation planning and engineering, Chris works to create more livable cities across Central Oregon.

Chris and his wife, Elisa, are passionate about Central Oregon’s wild and open spaces, and spend all seasons enjoying the region’s bountiful outdoor recreation opportunities. They have been grateful to call Bend home for the last 14 years and look forward to spending many more years working to create more Complete Communities and protect our amazing wild lands.

Joe’s entire career has been in the outdoor industry, where he has represented multiple outdoor apparel, footwear, paddling, and camping equipment brands.

As co-owner of the Ohio-based sales agency CW Outdoors, he started representing Columbia Sportswear in 1995. Joe joined Columbia’s management team in 2009, moving to Portland with his wife, Barbara. In 2018, he retired from his role of Senior Vice President of North American Sales. Joe served on The Conservation Alliance’s board from 2015 through 2022. Other past board service includes serving on the board of The Ohio Canal Corridor, now known as Canalway Partners.   

His passions include hiking, skiing, snowshoeing, fishing, hunting and cheering for his beloved Cleveland sports teams.

An environmental policy leader, Jackie Dingfelder brings judgment born of four decades of environmental consulting, an academic’s access to new insights, and an elected official’s leadership abilities.

Jackie currently serves as a Senior Fellow at Portland State University’s Hatfield School of Government, where she earned her PhD after serving as a Fulbright/Ian Axford Scholar in New Zealand. She has also directed two environmental non-profit organizations and served as senior advisor to Portland, Oregon Mayor Charlie Hales where she managed development of Portland’s 2035 Comprehensive Land Use Plan, No-New-Fossil-Fuels Ordinance, and award-winning 2015 Climate Action Plan.

Jackie represented NE and SE Portland in the Oregon Legislature from 2001 to 2013. She chaired the House and Senate Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources committees, where she championed significant environmental, energy and public interest policies including creating Oregon’s first Renewable Portfolio Standard, Oregon’s Global Warming Commission, the Clean Fuels Program, Oregon’s E-cycles computer recycling program, and Oregon’s first marine reserve program, and expanding Oregon’s Bottle Bill.

Since 2017, she has served as President of the Climate Solutions Board, as a Board Member of 1000 Friends of Oregon, and currently chairs the Governance Committee for the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators.

A part-time resident of Bend since 2013, Jackie is now a full-time resident and has explored Central Oregon extensively via bike, skis, kayak and on foot.

Nancy grew up on the east coast but moved to Oregon in 1994, after graduating from law school. She practiced securities law in private practice, including serving as the lead outside lawyer for Nike in its acquisitions of Hurley and of Converse.

Nancy served on the board of the Oregon Zoo Foundation, including leading their Advocacy Committee. While in Portland she also volunteered as a youth lacrosse coach and for the Lincoln High School Counseling Center.

Nancy and her husband, Rob, live at Black Butte Ranch outside Sisters, where they are committed to preserving the well-being of wildlife and the land. Along with her board service at LandWatch, Nancy leads efforts at Black Butte Conservancy, a local conservation organization which sponsors environmental education, hosts community work parties, and supports restoration efforts in collaboration with other local environmental groups.

A fourth-generation Oregonian, Mark began visiting Central Oregon in the early 1960s and started living here in 2010. Mark  earned his Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor degrees in Oregon, before embarking on a 40 year law career in California. His practice advised and represented public entities statewide on construction and environmental issues on large-scale building programs. In his 12 years as a managing shareholder, he helped his law firm grow to be among the largest women-owned firms in the western U.S.

Mark’s community involvement includes chairing the Sisters School District’s construction advisory and oversight committee, and, formerly, serving on the Deschutes County Facility Project Advisory Committee. He and his wife enjoy skiing, hiking, fishing, and cycling in Central Oregon, and enthusiastically support LandWatch and other local and statewide environmental and educational organizations.

Jeff is a retired USGS hydrologist. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Oregon and his Master’s of Science in hydrology from the University of Hawaii. Although his work took him throughout the Pacific Basin, he’s called Bend home for over 20 years. Holistic water issues have been his profession and his passion; these topics are what originally brought him to LandWatch and keep him busy now. He continues to study and educate others about Central Oregon’s unique hydrogeology.

As an executive in the technology sector, Erin has run large scale transformation projects at Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google. She has been able to work at the rare nexus where social impact meets a business need by building and launching programs to help people learn, gain skills for the future, and create economic opportunity. Erin has managed process improvement, product and engineering, and communication channel development, and drove cross-organization strategic alignment for large scale initiatives. She's invested time in developing culture and DEI programs and served as an executive sponsor for Women, DEI, and LGBTQIA+ employee resource groups.

Erin serves on the board at Tetherow. Like a true pacific northwesterner she and her wife, Morgan, love to golf and are active in many adventurous pursuits: hiking, climbing, biking, skiing, and more.

Pete’s public service career started as Legislative Assistant to a State Senator, included several roles within the Oregon Department of Justice, and concluded with eight years as Oregon’s Deputy Attorney General.

In 2009, he entered private civil, administrative, and government affairs practice with a regional law firm. Former clients include the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians; PERS and other State and local public bodies; and, private enterprises. In April 2016, Pete stopped representing clients to serve as Interim Director of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

Since 2016, Pete and his spouse have resided on the banks of Whychus Creek. Between fishing, woodworking, and traveling, Pete takes part in an eclectic mix of local civic activities — including volunteering as Circuit Judge Pro Tem in Crook and Jefferson Counties and serving on the boards of Legal Aid Service of Oregon and the Oregon Law Center, nonprofits that deliver legal services to low income Oregonians. In 2018, Pete was on the volunteer committee that created the Sisters Country Vision Action Plan to help ensure that choices about land use and more are grounded in a broadly shared vision of the community’s collective future.

A life-long Oregonian, Pete has camped, backpacked, and fly-fished all throughout Oregon and across the American West.