Author

Paul C. Sutton is currently an associate professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Denver. His research interests are in the area of ecological economics, nighttime satellite imagery and sustainability. In his spare time he coaches his son’s basketball team, makes stained glass windows and builds stone walls. He lives in Morrison, Colo., with a view of the Red Rocks Amphitheater. For more details consult his website.

Judy Weston is the community programming coordinator for Central Community College –Grand Island.

Julie Hagemeier is general manager of the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film.

George A. Johnson is a retired community person spending extra time stirring up the pot and living off an extravagant pension from the government.

William Beachly is a professor in the Department of Biology at Hastings College, Hastings, Neb.

Johnathan Hladik is an energy policy advocate with the Center for Rural Affairs, a national rural advocacy organization. Prior to joining the center, Johnathan worked as a policy advocate for the Nebraska League of Conservation Voters and a research associate with the Institute for Energy and the Environment. Hladik earned both a Juris Doctorate and masters in environmental policy from Vermont Law School and a B.S. in environmental economics from the University of Nebraska.

Ian Borden is an instructor in theater studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Dan Schlitt is a local peace and justice advocate and former physics professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Stephen J. Dinsmore is currently employed as a wildlife ecologist (associate professor) in the Department of Natural Resource Ecology and Management at Iowa State University. He received a B.S. in fisheries and wildlife biology from Iowa State University (1990), a M.S. in zoology (minor in statistics) from North Carolina State University (1994) and a Ph.D. in fishery and wildlife biology from Colorado State University (2001). His primary interests are avian ecology, population biology, capture-recapture analysis and monitoring animal populations.

Woodrow Nelson is vice president of the nonprofit Arbor Day Foundation. This book review was originally submitted Nov. 22, 2011.

Joanne Steele, owner of Rural Tourism Marketing Group, blogger and trainer on topics of vital interest to small local business owners and entrepreneurs, will be presenting the keynote at this year’s Center for Rural Affairs’ MarketPlace Conference. She is being sponsored by the REAP Women’s Business Center, which is partially funded by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Gene Hunt is administrator of Fort Kearny State Historical Park.

Mark M. Peyton is senior district biologist for the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District.

Jane Renner Hood, Ph.D.. is a consultant and historian who has lived in Lincoln, Neb., for 21 years; prior to that, she lived and worked in Omaha, Chicago and Austin, Texas. Hood has written and spoken widely on the history of women, educational reform, institutional development, philanthropy and the humanities.

Eric Schacht is a recent graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a B.S. in fisheries and wildlife. He has just returned from the southern African nation of Namibia where he completed a fellowship with the Grassland Foundation. Currently, Schacht is the foreman at Fawn Lake Ranch, a Ted Turner ranch property in western Cherry County, Neb. Schacht plans to pursue a masters degree next fall at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks in the field of community-based natural resource management and planning.

Kirsten Drennon is the Lincoln Midwest Ballet Company coordinator at Arts Incorporated.

Jane Griffin is president of the Groundwater Foundation. For more information, visit www.groundwater.org. You may also participate in a series of hands-on education sessions for civic groups, clubs, associations and businesses. To learn more about the series, contact the foundation at (402) 434-2740 or email info[at]groundwater[dot]org (please note “educational sessions” in the subject line).

Brad Stephan, RN, BSN, BA, is currently a registered nurse working for a central Nebraska hospital. Previously, Brad has been an executive director of a hospital-sponsored HMO in central Nebraska, as well as an executive director of a Physician Hospital Organization (PHO) in Kansas.

Local historian Gail Geo. Holmes has written for newspapers in Switzerland, Canada and the United States. He has been an editor of the Regina Saskatchewan Leader Post, co-editor and publisher of The Swiss Reporter in Geneva, Switzerland, and copyeditor at the Omaha World-Herald. He and his wife, Terry—members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—reside in Omaha, Neb.

Amanda Conway is a water quality educator for the City of Lincoln, Nebraska’s Public Works Watershed Management Division.