JALIL ARAGON
Jalil studied a career in Industrial Engineering and a Master's degree in Industrial Organization. After years of experience in the automotive industry, she began to transition to a more sustainable way of life. For more than a decade she has shared her personal, family, and academic experience with youth and community groups on topics such as: social responsibility, simplicity in everyday life, and environmental education. She is currently collaborating in the Aves Compartidas education program as part of the Willamette- Laja Twinning program.
TARA DAVIS
Tara has worked in conservation for sixteen years focusing on river restoration as well as non-profit management and fundraising. A fourth generation native to the USA’s west coast, she received a Bachelor’s Degree from Santa Clara University, California in Environmental Science and a Masters in Water Resources Management emphasizing watershed health in developing nations from the University of New Mexico in 2006.
In Oregon and abroad, Tara has worked with several diverse civil society organizations on projects concerned with affordable housing, federal wilderness area designation, private land protection, and river restoration. Tara’s master's degree research enabled her to work closely with conservation groups in the Río Laja basin in Guanajuato, Mexico. Over a decade later, this work has transformed into the binational Willamette-Laja Twinning Partnership. To read about Tara’s personal conservation story, click here: Faces of Greenbelt.
APRIL GAYADOS
April has served as the president of Audobon de Mexico since 2014, bringing in her background in community development and environmental communication and education, along with her experiences as a small business owner.
Before moving to San Miguel de Allende, April lived in Palm Springs, CA, where she served on the Sustainability Commission and as president of her neighborhood organization. During this time she helped establish a volunteer group that successfully advocated for a trail and linear park alongside a neglected creek and was deeply involved in a campaign that led to the preservation of several hundred acres of land within the city’s iconic landmark, Chino Canyon. These experiences helped her understand the importance of citizen involvement in shaping a city.
For most of her life April lived in Portland, Oregon. Growing up around rivers, forests and mountains instilled in her a life-long love for nature and wildlife. She believes that when you love something, you want to care for it. Helping children and adults form caring connections with nature through recreation, education and environmental service is the vision she brought to Audubon, resulting in the development of Audubon’s Niños y Naturaleza and Nature in the City programs, which includes the Audubon pollinator garden at Parque Juarez.
JARVEZ HALL
Jarvez Hall is an Oregon native and currently serves as the third Director of the East Metro STEAM Partnership.
He completed his undergraduate degree in Business from Oregon State University (OSU). He also completed his MBA from Willamette University focusing on Business, Government, and Not-for-Profit Management and is currently pursuing a Ph. D. in Leadership. Jarvez served as an Associate Professor of Technology & Entrepreneurship at Concordia University. He has taught courses for Portland State University, Warner Pacific University, Eastern Oregon University, and Portland Community College while also serving as a Business Advisor/Instructor at the Small Business Development Center at PCC.
Jarvez has been increasingly active in the advocacy community including spending time consulting for Small Business Majority. Jarvez also serves on the board of two nonprofit organizations, Tender Loving Care-Think ‘N Try and Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation of Oregon. He is also on the Board of Directors for the Greater Portland Economic Development District, representing the East Metro region.
AGUSTÍN MADRIGAL
Agustin is the Director of Salvemos al Rio Laja, leader of the Laja Initiative as well as the formation of the Willamette-Laja Partnership. Salvemos al Rio Laja has performed large-scale watershed restoration in high priority zones of the Laja. Agustin has close relationships with Laja’s rural communities to deliver cooperative conservation and economic development.
DIONNÉ MEJÍA
Dionné Mejía was a former program instructor for the Willamette-Laja Aves Compartidas program. Dionné is a first-generation Mexican-American from Southern California and she earned her M.S./B.S. in Ecology at the University of California San Diego in 2016. Currently, she works as an Aves Compartidas coordinator and is continuing her studies to become a public school science teacher in Oregon. As a lifelong lover of insects, Dionné has studied arthropods that inhabit rotting cactus in the Sonoran Desert, dung beetles in Costa Rica, and pollinators in the Oregon Coast Range.
KAREN HALL
Karen Hall is the Program Director for Ecological Education at IAE. She manages all aspects of the program, including fundraising, staff supervision (staff development and mentoring), and oversight of program work, budgets and deliverables. In addition, she is responsible for writing and communication, organizational support and collaboration. As a lifelong naturalist, she specializes in helping humans connect more deeply to the non-human aspects of nature.
Karen earned her B.S. in Biology at Western Carolina University in North Carolina. Her master’s thesis (Botany) focused on in vitro growth and chemical extraction/analysis of goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis), an important medicinal plant. She completed this degree and her Ph.D. (Plant Physiology) at Clemson University in South Carolina where she studied ethnobotany with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Karen previously taught college students, designed and led adult outreach programs in South Carolina, worked on urban ecological concerns in Texas and was an administrator with a raptor center in Oregon.
When she isn’t nature-scaping her postage-stamp sized yard, Karen is biking recumbently with her husband, providing lap space for Scrappy, surface designing via computer and dyeing early and often with plants/insects/lichens/mushrooms.
ESTEFANI REYES MORENO
Estefani is an intern for the Willamette Laja Twinning Partnership. She is studying electrical engineering at Portland State University to receive her Bachelor’s degree. Estefani enjoys working with youth, especially the underrepresented, to create an educational impact, as well as creating and participating in solutions for environmental issues. She enjoys reading, drawing, and listening to music in her free time.
ALISON QUOYESER
Alison is the Co-Founder (with Martina Gögelmann) and Co-Director of Amigos Alados. She works with students along the Pacific Flyway to raise awareness of birds and their habitats, watershed ecology, and environmental restoration, as well as to instill cultural appreciation of our friends in Mexico who share the same migratory birds.
Alison received a B.A. from Smith College, a Master of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an elementary teaching credential from the University of California at Berkeley. After working as an architect for 10 years, she taught second and fourth grade for 28 years, and with her students designed and planted a campus habitat garden to attract birds and beneficial insects. Creating hands-on curriculum, project-based learning opportunities, and musical/theatrical performances to teach about the environment, Alison focused on the rainforest ecosystem as a second grade teacher and then local watershed ecology and ornithology as a fourth grade teacher. Since 2017 she has served as a faculty member of STRAW (Students and Teachers Restoring a Watershed), which is the educational arm of Point Blue Conservation Science. Alison has studied the Spanish language for many years as a child and as an adult.
SEBASTIÁN WITHEROW
Sebastian is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Biology and a Bachelor of Science in Sustainability at Oregon State University. He has a passion for social, economic, and environmental sustainability and hopes to see a shift in the public’s perception of environmental issues. In his free time, Sebastian spends time hiking, traveling, and swimming.
CARINA ZEHR
Carina has worked in environmental education for the past 8 years after realizing a passion for connecting people with nature. She earned her B.A. in Environmental Science and Sociology and an M.A. in Environmental Education from Goshen College, Indiana. Her work has taken many forms over the years, ranging from school gardening to forest kindergartens, centering on connecting children to nature. Her own love of nature began as a child playing in the diverse ecosystems of eastern Bolivia, central Argentina and south-central Kansas. She is a recent transplant to the Willamette Valley and enjoys spending as much time outside exploring the area as possible.
