Management Team

Dr. Holly Hartmann, Director, Arid Lands Information Center
CLIMAS - University of Arizona
Director, Carpe Diem West Academy

Dr. Holly Hartmann is Director of the Arid Lands Information Center at the University of Arizona (UA). She is a co-investigator within the Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) and leads the scenario development team within the UA Science and Technology Center for the Sustainability of Semi-Arid Hydrology and Riparian Areas (SAHRA). Holly is a national leader in research related to the development of decision support tools for climate, water, and other resource management applications, especially linking research with the needs of decision makers and moving research into agency operations. Current research projects include quantitative verification of climate and hydrologic forecasts; improving communication of probabilistic forecasts and uncertainty; incorporating complex integrated models and climate change within a scenario planning framework; and decision support tool development. Holly has been a Carpe Diem West team member since 2008.

Bill Mitchell, President
Flatcoat Consulting & Alki Fund

Bill works with primarily with non-profit groups focused on energy and natural resource development that threaten endangered but intact ecosystems and working ranchlands in the Northern Rockies, western Canada and Alaska. Traveling regularly throughout the this region, he helps to link groups together, encourages strategic thinking about their work and advocates for their financial support. Over the years, Bill has worked on both sides of the foundation desk, seeking to leverage support for grassroots and regional groups working on environmental stewardship, social and economic justice and nuclear safety. He has been an advisor to the Alki Fund at Tides since its inception in 1991. Bill has been a Carpe Diem West team member since 2007.

Karl Morgenstern, Drinking Water Source Protection Coordinator 
Eugene Water & Electric Board

Karl is the drinking water source protection coordinator for the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB). He has spent the last eleven years at EWEB developing and implementing a drinking water source protection program to safeguard Eugene’s sole source of drinking water - the McKenzie River. Prior to EWEB, Karl spent 10 years at the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and seven years as an environmental consultant managing high priority cleanups at abandoned hazardous waste sites and responding to hazardous material spills. He received a bachelors degree in geography from the University of Kansas. Karl is on the Board of Directors of the East Lane Forest Protection Association; serves as Vice President on the Board of Directors for Cascade Pacific Resource Conservation & Development; and is President for the Oregon Association of Resource Conservation & Development Councils. 
 

John Shepard, Senior Advisor
Sonoran Institute

John Shepard is a Senior Adviser at the Sonoran Institute, responsible for ensuring that the mission and vision of the organization are realized through long-range strategic planning and effective program development, implementation, and evaluation. John is currently leading the Institute’s efforts to appropriately site utility-scale solar projects in Arizona and more effectively integrate local land-use policies and water management in the Colorado River basin. In prior years, he launched the Institute's training programs on community land-use planning for rural western county commissioners and partnership building for public land managers and gateway communities. He also established Building from the Best of Tucson, a project that promotes development consistent with Tucson's building traditions and appropriate for a desert community. Before joining the Institute, John worked for seven years in resource development at The Wilderness Society. John has been a Carpe Diem West team member since 2008.
 

Kimery Wiltshire, CEO & Director
Carpe Diem West

Kimery Wiltshire is CEO & Director of Carpe Diem West. For over twenty years, Kimery’s work has focused on building strategic, solution-oriented partnerships to meet environmental challenges. 

She is the former Director of the Kenney Foundation, where she worked on initiatives to protect and restore river systems in the western United States. Kimery has led the development of a number of successful projects, including the Diversity Network Project, supporting social justice and housing in the context of urban environmental health; Resources for Community Collaboration, which provided funding and training for western rural communities to more effectively engage in resource decision making; the Sustainable Business Ratings System, an innovative means of assessing companies’ environmental, economic and social performance; and Girl Scouts Save the Bay, which grew to involve the 100,000-strong Northern California Girl Scout community. 

A bred, born and raised daughter of the American West, Kimery has to be reminded that occasionally important things do happen east of the 100th meridian.