Board Members
  Contact Us
  Bylaws (pdf)
       
  OLA Board of Directors  
       
  Roger Edwards
PRESIDENT
 

 
 
Roger Edwards is a long time OLA member, who is a retired microbiologist for the Portland Water Bureau. In addition to overseeing the analyses for bacteria, algae, and zooplankton at the Bureau's Water Quality lab, he also was paid to wander about in the Bull Run watershed, where he collects water samples from the streams, lakes, and reservoirs there. He is a Portland native who graduated from the University of Portland, and then did enough practical biology to earn a master's degree from Northeastern University in Boston. “New England was an interesting place to visit, but I don't regret coming back to the Pacific Northwest.” He enjoys being in OLA if for no other reason that the excuse it gives him for trips to the many lakes here.

 
   
  Mark Rosenkranz
PAST PRESIDENT

 
 
Mark was introduced to the Oregon Lakes Association in 1996 when a graduate student at Portland State University and has been studying lakes in Oregon for over 10 years. While at PSU and completing a Masters Degree in Environmental Management he also worked on several lake related projects. These included writing a vegetation management plan for Lake Lytle, writing the Oregon version of an Aquatic Vegetation Management Guide and co-designing and building websites for the Center for Lakes and Reservoirs, and the Oregon Lakes Association. Mark graduated from PSU in 2001 and is currently the Water Resource Specialist for the Lake Oswego Corporation in Lake Oswego, Oregon.
 
   
  Toni Pennington
TREASURER


 
   
Toni recently completed her PhD in Environmental Sciences and Resources at Portland State University. For her dissertation research, Toni examined factors that influenced the photosynthetic rates and carbohydrate content of Egeria densa (Brazilian elodea), a highly invasive freshwater plant. Currently, she works as an Aquatic Biologist for Tetra Tech, Inc. in Portland, Oregon. Toni has been a member of OLA since arriving in Oregon in 2000. In addition to being Treasurer for OLA, she is a member of the North American Lake Management Society, the Western Aquatic Plant Management Society (Scholarship Chair), and the Aquatic Plant Management Society.
 
     
  Karen Williams
SECRETARY

 
 
Karen works in the Water Quality Section of the Northwest Region of DEQ. My current responsibility is to develop Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) for the Molalla River. Though it's currently a lower priority, I am also responsible for developing a TMDL or another appropriate plan to address Blue Lake's (East Multnomah County) aquatic weed, algae, and pH problems. Previously, I was responsible for implementing TMDLs in the Clackamas, Sandy, and Lower Willamette basins. This involved work with cities and counties to develop implementation plans, and overseeing grants from our non-point source program that funded water quality restoration projects. I began work with DEQ in 1998 as the Volunteer Monitoring Coordinator at the DEQ Laboratory. That job allowed me to train volunteer groups (mostly watershed councils) all across the state who were building or maintaining water quality monitoring programs. I'm a hydrogeologist, with an undergraduate degree in geology and an M.S. in hydrogeology.
 
     
  Jennie Bricker
BOARD MEMBER

 
 
Jennie Bricker has been a member of OLA since 2005. She is an attorney who specializes in water rights and waterways ownership. She grew up in the Klamath Basin, where she inadvertently ingested blue-green algae while swimming, sailing, and canoeing in Upper Klamath Lake. She now represents several water users in the Klamath Basin general stream adjudication.
 
     
  Jesse Ford
DIRECTOR


 
 
Jesse Ford is a relative newcomer to OLA. Her bachelor’s degree in Biology from Swarthmore College (PA) introduced her to the study of the ecology; her subsequent Masters from Yale and Ph.D from the University of Minnesota instilled a life-long love of paleoecology as a window into the developmental history of lakes as well as landscape evolution at the watershed scale. Over the years, she has worked on various aspects of lakes, streams, and wetlands of northern environments. In the PNW, projects have included research on the recent paleolimnology of Lake of the Woods, OR and Wapato Lake, Chelan County, WA, as well as the potential for productive climate-relate paleolimnological studies on lakes of the mid- and south coasts of Oregon. Other society memberships include the American Fisheries Society, the Arctic Institute of North America, Sigma Xi, and the Ecological Society of America, where she co-founded the Traditional Ecological Knowledge section.
 
     
  Al Johnson
DIRECTOR


 
 
Al currently works as a Hydrologist and lake specialist for the U.S. Forest Service. His academic background includes the study of freshwater ecology and he earned a Master’s Degree in biology from the University of Oregon. His experience includes over ten years of involvement of with the management of lakes on national forests and participation in research projects concerning Waldo Lake located on the Willamette National Forest. Since early 2003, he has also worked with representatives from various agencies on the Diamond Lake Restoration Project located on the Umpqua National Forest. In addition, Al has provided information and organized training for several agencies dealing with potentially toxic blue-green algae blooms in lakes.
 
   
  Ben Johnson
DIRECTOR

 
 


Ben Johnson graduated from the University of Oregon in 2003 with degrees in physical geography and geology. After graduation he worked as an Envircorps team leader in Portland, and a docent for Riverlink in Asheville North Carolina. Ben is currently a full time graduate student at Portland State University, studying the impacts of urbanization on watershed hydrology and biogeochemical cycles. More specifically, he is looking at the effects of urbanization on riparian and hyporheic denitrification in the Willamette Valley. In addition to his Graduate studies, Ben is working as an intern at the Lake Oswego Corporation, becoming intimately involved with the management of an urban lake.

 
   
  Paul Robertson
DIRECTOR
 
 
Paul is a native of Lincoln County, Oregon, an area he returned to in 2003 and now finds himself managing his childhood fishing grounds, Devils Lake. An environmental scientist by trade, Paul has ten years of work experience in the field and currently serves in the public sector as the Lake Manager for the Devils Lake Water Improvement District. Previous employment includes work in Oregon’s Coast Range as a stream surveyor, work as an analytical chemist in London, England, and work as a pollution abatement operator and water chemist in Burlington, Vermont. Paul's educational background includes a Masters of Science in Environmental Diagnosis from Imperial College London and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Vermont. His research interests include limnology, aquatic chemistry, and instrumental analysis with a specialty in radionuclide analysis by Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry, or ICP-MS.
 
   
  Steve Wille
DIRECTOR

 
 
Steve is a native Oregonian, currently employed as a biologist by the United States Department of Interior-(DOI) Fish and Wildlife Service in the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Office. He previously worked in private consulting where he gained experience in lake restoration, lake and stream water quality surveys, urban storm runoff research, phytoplankton and zooplankton interactions, wetland ecology, and watershed planning. While working for the Service he has worked extensively with federal permitting requirements under section 404 of the Clean Water Act, and practical aspects of the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and the Endangered Species Act. He is a certified instructor for the DOI to teach motorboat operation and safety on the west coast. His research passion is the ecology of vernal pools and temporary waters. In his free time he enjoys international travel, salmon and steelhead fishing, and boating, and participates in local community athletics as an Oregon School Athletic Association certified wrestling referee.


 
       
   
 
 
     
     
  Roger Edwards
PRESIDENT
 
 

Mark Rosenkranz
PAST PRESIDENT

 
  Toni Pennington
TREASURER
 
  Karen Williams
SECRETARY
 
  Jennie Bricker
DIRECTOR
 
  Jessie Ford
DIRECTOR
 
  Al Johnson
DIRECTOR
 
  Ben Johnson
DIRECTOR
 
  Paul Robertson
DIRECTOR
 
  Steve Wille
DIRECTOR