Board and Staff

Olivia Mercado was born and raised in Southern California. She traveled north to attend San Jose State, then stayed to teach middle school for six years. She later developed her own Chicano Studies curriculum at UC Santa Barbara. She also spent time as Division Dean of Intercultural Studies at De Anza College. "An act of lunacy," she says with a chuckle. While she enjoyed the opportunity to help immigrant students, she hated the paperwork and missed teaching.

In 1985, Olivia left De Anza, and spent a year puttering and traveling to Mexico and Guatemala. A chance stop on a camping trip brought Olivia to our area for the first time in the late 1980s. The crab, bread, and wine she enjoyed at Nehalem Bay State Park "made a lasting mark," and she moved to Bayside Gardens full-time five years later. Olivia has given her time and talents generously to the Trust, pitching in during work parties, performing bird monitoring surveys, working to establish an education program through the Trust, and as a vital member of our grant writing team. She currently serves as Board Chair.

Board and Staff
Board Members
	Nancy Chase lives in Arch Cape and Portland. She joined our Board in May of 2006. She has a degree in landscape architecture from Washington State University. Nancy spent her career working in the Portland Metro area for the preservation of parks and natural areas. Until June of 2005, she was the manager of the open space acquisition program for Metro. The open space program implemented a $136 million bond measure purchasing over 8,000 acres in the Portland area. She now works as Acquisition Manager for Portland Parks and Recreation, Natural area and open space planning. Nancy spends some of her spare time volunteering on preservation and restoration projects across the nation. She serves on our Board because "I love the Oregon coast and I want to help preserve its scenic beauty and wildlife values."
	Georgenne Ferdun has been interested in bugs, plants, and critters from an early age. While going to college, graduate school, and raising her family she continued her strong interest in the natural world around her. When she retired from her career in the public library system, she and her husband moved to Nehalem. She joined the Lower Nehalem Watershed Council, becoming active in the water quality monitoring program. In the spring of 2002, she learned that the Anderson Farm with its close connection to the estuary and its long stretch of Alder Creek was for sale. She saw the potential for preservation of open space, restoration of the creek, and community uses. In May 2002, she became a founding board member of the Lower Nehalem Community Trust. She is currently the Trust's Treasurer.
	Doug Firstbrook has lived in the Nehalem Bay Area since 1976 when he arrived in Manzanita, only to realize he was down to his last $200. Rumor has it, that if he gets $200 together again, he's leaving. In the interim, Doug was a co-founder for the Nehalem Bay Little League, co-founder and chair (97-98) for Lower Nehalem Watershed Council, and served on the Manzanita Planning Commission. Greatly influenced by the Lopez Island Land Trust, where he spent a vacation working on an affordable housing project, Doug is a founding board member who sees the Trust as an opportunity to be a voice for wild ones, while seeking creative ways to reintegrate our domestic economy, and our deeper selves.
	Olivia Mercado was born and raised in Southern California. She traveled north to attend San Jose State, then stayed to teach middle school for six years. She later developed her own Chicano Studies curriculum at UC Santa Barbara. She also spent time as Division Dean of Intercultural Studies at De Anza College. "An act of lunacy," she says with a chuckle. While she enjoyed the opportunity to help immigrant students, she hated the paperwork and missed teaching. In 1985, Olivia left De Anza, and spent a year puttering and traveling to Mexico and Guatemala. A chance stop on a camping trip brought Olivia to our area for the first time in the late 1980s. The crab, bread, and wine she enjoyed at Nehalem Bay State Park "made a lasting mark," and she moved to Bayside Gardens full-time five years later. Olivia has given her time and talents generously to the Trust, pitching in during work parties, performing bird monitoring surveys, working to establish an education program through the Trust, and as a vital member of our grant writing team. She currently serves as Board Chair.
	David Sip grew up on a small farm in South Dakota raising pigs, corn & oats. In 1998 he earned a B.S. Degree in Horticulture from South Dakota State University. Upon graduation, David moved to Portland and became a certified arborist through the International Society of Arboriculture. David moved to the North Coast in 2000 and started his first plant health care firm. David currently owns EcologicTree, LLC. He performs all phases of tree/landscape care and installation & is licensed with Oregon CCB and LCB. After seeing many trees in local communities needing to be removed due to construction damage, he began emphasizing tree preservation and planning our urban forest for future generations. By joining the LNCT board, David hopes to help expand outreach opportunities to all ages of the public about current arboricultural standards and the benefits of trees.
	Rivena Edmons is known to many in the community as the Teller Coordinator at U.S. Bank in Manzanita. She says that working for the conservation of land in our local area brings back memories of growing up on her family's farm in the Philippines. Rivena hopes someday to help restore the forest near their farm. Meanwhile she will focus on learning more about the native habitat in the Lower Nehalem watershed while working with the Trust. Rivena brings a knowledge of several languages, fiscal monitoring experience and a commitment to conservation and restoration to the LNCT Board. After graduating from high school in the Philippines, she attend college in Cebu and is also a certified midwife. Rivena lives in Neahkahnie with her husband, "Troop" and their son Jed, a Neahkahnie middle school student.
Staff
	Erich Miller came on board as LNCT's new administrative staff in March 2009 but is far from new to the Trust. He first became acquainted with the Trust as interim manager starting in November 2007, working in that position until March 2008. He continued on as a project manager for the Vosberg Creek OWEB grant until November of 2008 and helped organize the 2009 Estuary Clean-up event. Erich is originally from rural Northern Indiana, but got the traveling bug early and has lived in China, Thailand, Washington DC and Denver since leaving home. He received his Master's Degree in International Relations from the University of Denver in June 2007.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Contact Us - Related Sites - Site Map Lower Nehalem Community Trust - All Rights Reserved.

Board and Staff

Board Members

Staff