Staff Biographies

Pat Ford, Executive Director

Pat has lived nearly all his life in Idaho, but only became an Idahoan when he returned after four years of college in New York City. He has been a full-time conservationist since 1977, except for six years when he wrote about conservation (mostly for High Country News). Pat helped found the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition in 1992, and has worked for it since. He has also served on the boards of seven conservation organizations in Idaho, the Northern Rockies, and Northwest. Pat lives in Boise, fortunately near his two daughters, grandson, and the mountains of central Idaho. Pat has made salmon the center of his work for 13 years because no other creature and set of creaturely connections to nature and culture have taught him more about oh so many things.

Dan Drais, Associate Director

Dan has worked on conservation and land use issues since moving to Seattle almost 20 years ago. In addition to practicing with private law firms, he has worked with Seattle Audubon, the Seattle Commons, and the Federal Transit Administration. As a volunteer, he has provided legal services to homeless people and served on the board of the Seattle Shakespeare Company. Dan graduated from Dartmouth College and holds a law degree from the University of Virginia.

Nicole Cordan, Policy and Legal Director

Nicole Cordan has been the Policy & Legal Director at Save Our Wild Salmon (SOS) since 2000. Before joining SOS, she was the Acting Regional Director of the National Wildlife Federation's Western Natural Resources Office in Portland, Oregon. Nicole has been working both in the courts and in Congress on endangered species issues and specifically on salmon protection and restoration for over a decade. Before moving to Portland, Nicole worked in Washington, DC lobbying for the enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, climate change legislation, clean energy policies, and wetlands protection. She now serves on the board of the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. Nicole earned her J.D. from Lewis and Clark Law School and her B.A. at the University of Michigan. She lives in Portland with her partner Jeffrey, her two cats, Winnie and Biko, and her dog, Zoe.

Joseph Bogaard, Outreach Director

Joseph has worked for Save Our Wild Salmon since 1996. While much of his early work focused on managing the organization's technology infrastructure, he now works on the Columbia & Snake Rivers Campaign, collaborating with the coalition partners to educate the public and build support in Congress for lasting solutions to restore healthy, self-sustaining, harvestable populations of wild salmon and steelhead in the Columbia basin. Joseph first got hooked on North west salmonid recovery while in graduate school where he authored a paper in the mid-1990s exploring the then-relatively recent Snake River salmon and steelhead listings under the Endangered Species Act, and how it might impact the region and its federal lands and dams. Before joining the SOS team, Joseph spent many years teaching and working in the forests and mountains of the West. Today, Joseph lives on Vashon Island with his wonderful wife Amy and two children Liesl and Jeremiah.

Sam Mace, Inland Northwest Project Director

Originally from Coos Bay, Oregon, Sam Mace has worked on behalf of forests, fish and rivers for 15 years. She first moved to eastern Washington in 1994 and joined efforts to restore the Snake River in 1998 as the Salmon and Steelhead Project Coordinator for Washington and Idaho Wildlife Federations based in Spokane. In 2000 Sam moved back to Oregon where she worked for Trout Unlimited. Homesick for snow, desert, the palouse and the Snake River, Sam returned to eastern Washington in 2004 as Save Our Wild Salmon's Inland Northwest Project Director. Sam spends her free time hiking, fishing and floating western rivers and looks forward to doing a trip on a free-flowing lower Snake River some day in the future. She has a B.A. in History from Reed College.

Rhett Lawrence, Policy Analyst

Rhett joined SOS in May 2006 following 5 1/2 years as an Environmental Advocate on clean water and toxics issues with OSPIRG, the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group. Before moving to Oregon in December 2000, Rhett practiced environmental law in Savannah, Georgia, and was Assistant Director of Defenders of Wild Cumberland. Prior to that, he was a Legal Aid lawyer in rural south Georgia for 5 years. A native of South Carolina, Rhett graduated from Emory University in 1990 with a B.A. in English and Philospohy and got his J.D. in 1993 from the University of Georgia School of Law. Rhett and his wife, LeeAnn Friedman, enjoy music, backpacking, and paddling. Rhett intends to have their baby daughter Camille on top of Mt. Hood with him in May 2018 to celebrate his 50th birthday.

Gilly Lyons, Washington DC Representative

Gilly Lyons has been working as SOS's Washington, DC Representative since October 2003. Prior to joining the SOS staff, Gilly spent six years as grassroots coordinator for the Oregon Natural Desert Association (an SOS Coalition member) in Bend and Portland, OR, and two years as legislative advocate for the National Public Lands Grazing Campaign in Washington, DC. Despite all those years as a terrestrial activist, she has been enchanted by Columbia Basin salmon since working on the Oregon Clean Stream Initiative in 1996. Gilly, who hails from New York City, holds a masters of science in environmental studies from the University of Montana. She's not much of an angler, but keeps intending to take lessons.

Bobby Hayden, Western Regional Representative

From the brooks and streams of the Appalachian range in central Pennsylvania, Bobby Hayden has lived in Oregon for the last ten years. After receiving his degree in Political Science from the University of Oregon in 2003, he has worked in a variety of industries throughout the Northwest. As the Western Regional Representative for the Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition, Bobby is impassioned by the opportunities of a restored Snake River in the Columbia basin. He joined the campaign in late 2006 following stints with the Service Employees International Union, (Local 503), and America Coming Together.

Emily Nuchols, Communications Manager

Emily comes to us from the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, where she managed outreach and media activities for a land trust working to protect the mountains of Western North Carolina and East Tennessee. Upon joining SOS in late 2007, she returned both to her Northwest roots and her passion for salmon. A native of Spokane and a graduate of the environmental journalism program at Western Washington University, Emily previously spent several years working for the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, a local nonprofit dedicated to returning wild salmon runs to Whatcom County, where her involvement progressed from volunteer to a paid member of NSEA’s education and outreach staff.

Kristie Miller, Administrative Manager

Following a 20-year career as a Commissioned Office with NOAA, Kristie joined SOS in mid-2007 as Administrative Manager. Most recently posted at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle as the Executive Officer for the Environmental Conservation Division, she previously served as the Associate Director of NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic & Meteorological Laboratory in Miami, FL. During her tenure at NOAA, Kristie served as the Executive Officer for various research vessels, both while at sea and in port, with responsibility for providing logistical, administrative and budgetary support to NOAA research facilities. She is now pleased to be putting those skills to use on behalf of environmental and conservation causes.