President

Gordon Gray is a passionate advocate for the preservation and protection of natural resources. He has over 20 years of experience in marketing, client experience management, strategy development, and executive coaching, and has worked as a strategic leader with a variety of organizations, including Charles Schwab, Oracle, and Levi Strauss. He is currently working as an executive coach and health, wellness and fitness coach here in Ashland having moved here from the Bay Area over three years ago.

Gordon is a graduate of UC Davis and St. Mary's College, and holds a BA in Organizational Sociology and a master's degree in Financial Analysis and Behavioral Economics.

Gordon is excited to join the Board of Directors of the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy and contribute his skills and experience to the organization's mission of protecting the region's natural heritage. He is a strong believer in the power of collaboration and is committed to working with and inspiring our community to find innovative solutions to the challenges facing our environment.

Vice President

Stasie is the Indigenous Partnerships Program Manager for Vesper Meadow Education Program and brings a wealth of experience to her position; blending her various backgrounds in psychology, program development, community building, DEI and Indigenous wellness facilitation, and environmental advocacy. Stasie is excited to bring her expertise, insight, and strategic planning capabilities to Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, in particular, to serve the Indigenous descendants of the homelands that SOLC stewards. 

Treasurer

Heather is a southern Oregon native and is currently a CPA and CFO working with private family-run businesses where her work crosses into land use and conservancy. An avid outdoors woman, Heather takes advantage of local public lands for trail running, skiing, hiking, and rafting. As a new board member Heather is focused on long-term good of the Rogue River region.

Read interview with Heather

Secretary

Ingrid has lived in the Rogue Valley since 2003, and has had the privilege to steward 2 beautiful acres near Emigrant Lake since 2013 where she is learning how to develop legal frameworks around rights of nature to reindigenize and rematriate privately held land and where she grows most of her own food. She is a founder of the Accounting Alchemy Network, volunteers as a course moderator for the Pachamama Alliance, and participates in several other organizations and communities. Ingrid professionally coaches businesses and organizations around developing regenerative and values-based approaches, and teaches courses on networking, leadership, mental fitness, and regenerative accounting principles. When Ingrid is not actively working to heal the world, she is usually playing Irish music, frolicking with her goats, doing a Joe Dispenza meditation, or having a deep conversation about quantum physics & chaos magick.

Billy Crawford oversaw administrative operations for outpatient physical therapy at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center for over 20 years and has been an advocate for wild spaces and education since Boy Scouts in the 1960’s. Volunteering with SOLC since moving to Ashland in 2018, Billy holds degrees in history and English from East Texas State University. He is excited to help advance the mission of the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy to protect our natural heritage by supporting education and awareness for the next generations. He enjoys hiking, trail running, yoga, and volunteers with the Ashland Community Health Foundation. 

Dan is the General Counsel & Corporate Secretary at Medford Fabrication and has served on numerous boards and commissions regionally and statewide including Britt Music and Arts Festival, Oregon Environmental Council, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Oregon Water Resource Commission, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, Southern Oregon University Foundation, and many others. Dan enjoys gardening, travel, fishing, rowing, kayaking, Nordic skiing, and cycling.

Read interview with Dan

Erica Alexia Ledesma comes from a lifetime as a Rogue Valley resident and non-profit leadership. She is the found­ing executive director at Coalicion Fortaleza, a community-based organization rebuilding the BIPOC solidarity economy and resi­dent-owned communities from the ashes of wildfires. Erica is a first-generation Xicana born and raised in Southern Oregon, currently based in Takelma Land (Medford, Oregon), with ancestral roots in Nayarit and Zacatecas, Mexico. A visual artist, story keeper, youth mentor, and community organizer, her work centers art and the pow­er of telling and reclaiming our stories as a means of remembering and spiri­tual healing. Erica received Bachelors degrees in Ethnic Studies, Cultural Anthropology and Spanish from the University of Oregon. But she would say that a lot of her experience comes from being chismosa and curious.

Donald is recently retired from 45 years as a real estate lawyer, focusing largely on conservation work. He helped found several land trusts in California and is a founder and initial board member of the Land Trust Alliance. He has been an active volunteer with SOLC for 10 years including about 8 years of prior board service.

Read interview with Donald

Ken Gersten is an engineer, business executive, and strategic advisor whose lifelong appreciation for the natural world has shaped both his personal interests and his commitment to conservation. He has served in senior leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies and entrepreneurial ventures, helping organizations achieve meaningful and lasting public benefit.

Ken has been recognized for helping organizations clarify their purpose, build strong leadership teams, and develop strategies for sustainable success. He believes that successful organizations achieve their greatest impact when mission, culture, and people are aligned.

His commitment to mission-driven work extends beyond business—as a Founding Advisor to the National Kidney Registry, Ken helped advance a program that has facilitated more than 10,000 living donor kidney transplants and transformed the field of kidney paired donation.

After relocating to Southern Oregon, Ken deepened his appreciation for the region’s extraordinary natural heritage and enduring conservation ethic. He enjoys hiking, observing the area’s diverse flora and fauna, gardening, and taking advantage of Ashland’s vibrant arts community. Ken is honored to serve on the Board of the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy.

Kris brings more than 15 years of experience working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management where she partners with Oregon and Washington on land use, resource management and community resilience work. She and her family relocated to Southern Oregon from Portland two years ago and are enjoying exploring all of the fantastic outdoor recreation and community activities in the region.

Read interview with Kris

Jordan Bruyn-Fry (she/her) is an enrolled member of the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians and Executive Director of Rogue Action Center (RAC), a community-based nonprofit whose mission is to grow organizing power and leaders for a just and thriving Southern Oregon. As a first-generation college graduate, Jordan studied Criminal Justice/ Criminology and Native American Studies as a Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Scholar at Southern Oregon University. Jordan is passionate about cultural revitalization, community healing and decolonization. As Executive Director of RAC, she is dedicated to developing new leaders and enjoys finding collaborative solutions to reach our collective liberation. Located in rural Jackson County, Jordan gladly spends her free time beading, attending cultural activities, and hanging out with friends, family or her farm of critters,

Riley is a passionate outdoorswoman who enjoys human-powered adventure in her free time. She loves trying to identify flora and fauna and learning about the systems that make the Rogue Valley unique. Professionally, Riley is an accountant for nonprofit organizations and supporter in particular of those with missions prioritizing environmental conservation and social justice. She is excited to be a member of this board and is proud to support an organization with longstanding meaningful work in the preservation of the Rogue Valley and beyond.

Robin brings thirty-five years’ experience in wildland resources management to the board. She was a fisheries technician for California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife (then Fish and Game) prior to her main career as hydrologist for the US Forest Service. Most of that was spent on the Klamath National Forest, including nearly a decade in the negotiations over Klamath River hydroelectric dams relicensing. After retiring from the USFS, she worked as a hydrologic consultant for the City of Yreka, CA.

Early on, while working on her B.S. in Community Development at the Pennsylvania State University, she interned with the Yavapai tribe for six months, performing a population census and organizing a community newsletter, a children’s day camp and a youth club that worked on projects such as riparian restoration.

She later changed careers and earned an M.A. from the University of California at Davis.

Robin’s community volunteer work included Meals on Wheels delivery to seniors in Jackson County, the Etna (CA) Lions Club and the Friends of Etna Library board of directors. She is a founding member of the Friends of French Creek, which for advocates for consistency with Siskiyou County-adopted land use plans when considering commercial development. She volunteers for Rogue Rowing helping the para- and novice rowers’ teams.

When not rowing herself on Emigrant Lake, Robin loves road biking, hiking and spending time with her two grandchildren.

She has served on SOLC’s Lands Committee for two years and the stewardship team for three.