WRK Advisory Council

The Willamette Riverkeeper Advisory Council supports the Willamette Riverkeeper Organization. It provides guidance, a liaison to the community, and perspectives on the Willamette River.

David LabbY

David Labby Md, PhD, is a retired physician, cultural anthropologist, environmental advocate and researcher.  Before retiring he was the founding Chief Medical Officer of Health Share of Oregon, the state’s largest medicaid Coordinated Care Organization.  He has had a varied career, from union activism as a steelworker in Gary Indiana, to researching how adverse life events drive poor health outcomes.  He lives in NE Portland and enjoys hiking, xc skiing, and hanging out with his family and friends.

Dan Rodgers

Dan has an extensive background in accounting and finance. He started his career in public accounting at PwC before moving into private industry, with roles at McCormick & Schmick's and Nike. He then joined New Seasons Market, where he spent nearly 12 years supporting and leading the finance and accounting functions. Most recently, he joined CTL Inc, an education tech company based in Beaverton. He enjoys spending his free time with his family and exploring the outdoors in the great PNW. He is passionate about supporting the local food economy and has been the Treasurer of the Portland Farmers Market since 2021.

Daniel Rohlf

Professor Dan Rohlf teaches Wildlife Law; Public Lands; Law, Science, and the Environment; Sustainability in Law and Business; and other courses in the law school’s environmental and natural resources program. He also works with the law school’s online LLM and MSL programs. He has been at the law school since 1988.

Professor Rohlf is also a co-founder and the current director of Earthrise Law Center, the law school’s domestic environmental law clinic. Much of his legal work with the clinic has focused on protection of endangered species and their habitat – particularly efforts to protect salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Basin.  Originally trained as a geologist, Dan’s expertise includes management and protection of biodiversity, particularly endangered species and their habitat. He is also interested in the interaction of law and science, and legal efforts to make society and businesses more sustainable.

Dan’s research and publications have also centered around conservation of biological diversity. He is the author of The Endangered Species Act: A Guide to Its Protections and Implementation, which won the National Wildlife Federation book award. He has lectured and published widely in both legal and scientific journals on topics related to protecting and managing biodiversity. Dan received his BA degree in geology from Colorado College and his JD from Stanford. After law school he served as a clerk for Justice Jay Rabinowitz of the Alaska Supreme Court. He is an avid cyclist, hiker, cross-country skier, and outrigger canoe paddler.

John Sutter

John D. Sutter is an award-winning environmental journalist, documentary filmmaker, and media educator with more than 15 years of experience in climate storytelling and investigative reporting. He is an assistant professor of environmental media at the University of Oregon and teaches a reporting course called Living in Our Valley, focused on environmental issues in the Willamette Valley. His work has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, the Investigative Reporters and Editors Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award, the Peabody Award, and the Foreign Press Association Media Award. He has also received two national EMMY nominations—for environmental reporting and for new approaches to documentary storytelling.

Mike Houck

Mike Houck, Director of the Urban Greenspaces Institute (www.urbangreenspaces.org), works on local, regional, and national urban park and green space issues. He served as Portland Audubon Society’s Urban Naturalist for over three decades and has worked for over fifty years promoting the integration of the built and natural environments in the Portland-Vancouver region. He is an advocate for planning and on-the-ground implementation of climate adaptation strategies to combat the many negative effects of climate change on humans and ecosystems. 

He co-founded The Intertwine Alliance (www.theintertwine.org) which is dedicated to creating a world-class park, trail, and natural area system for the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan region. Mike co-founded and serves on the ‌board of directors for The Nature of Cities (www.thenatureofcities.com). He is co-editor of Wild in the City, A Guide to Portland’s Natural Areas (OHS Press, 2000) and Wild in the City, Exploring The Intertwine (OSU Press, 2011). He has also co-edited two editions ofThe Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology.

Zee Searles Mazzacano

Zee Searles Mazzacano, Ph.D. (they/them) is an entomologist, invertebrate ecologist, and NAUI-certified scuba instructor. They are the Owner and Principal Scientist at CASM Environmental LLC, where their work focuses on terrestrial and aquatic insects, freshwater mussels, and other invertebrates. Zee has a B.S. in Genetics & Cell Biology and a Ph.D. in Entomology from the University of Minnesota. Their research and teaching have taken them from river bottoms to tree canopies and from universities to fish & wildlife agencies, non-profits, and independent consulting. They provide research, education, and training to enable natural resource agencies, non-profit organizations, and educators to assess and preserve invertebrate species, habitats, and ecological functions; and to help youth and adults to investigate, understand, and appreciate the roles of insects and other invertebrates in the natural world. Zee is happiest in, on, or under the water and has spent many years paddling and swimming in the Willamette River.

Mark Niemann-Ross

Mark Niemann-Ross is an author, educator, and long-time paddler. Introduced to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness as a young teen, Mark has paddled rivers and lakes in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Quetico Provincial Park, Quebec, the Northwest Territories, and the Arctic Circle. He built a cedar-strip canoe with his wife and can roll an ocean kayak.

Most recently, Mark served as the President of Oregon Ocean Paddling Society, dealing with organizational dynamics, paddling safety and access, and providing safe opportunities for new paddlers.