Dr. Jack Bell is an analytical chemist with extensive experience in identification and measurement of environmental toxics.  In addition to teaching at the university level and conducting environmental research, Dr. Bell helped scientific instrument manufacturers design, test, and market new analytical tools.  At Kwiaht, he provides technical support to water quality studies and supervises the training of interns in chromatography and mass spectrometry.  Dr. Bell was born and raised on San Juan Island.

Charlie Behnke is an enthusiastic naturalist and hunter-gatherer with extensive firsthand knowledge of birds, fungi and plants, and a B.Sc. from the Evergreen State College in biology, ecology and food systems.  A Northwest native, he worked as a field naturalist for the Alamos Wildlands Alliance in Sonora, Mexico, as an assistant teacher at a bird banding station in southeast Oregon, and researching plant ecology along the Colorado River.  Charlie now calls Lopez home, and is co-leader of the Lopez Island Conservation Corps as well as a Kwiaht biologist.

Aileen Murphy grew up in Portland, Maine and earned her BA from Smith College before moving to San Juan Island in 2008.  Formerly a naturalist and earth science teacher at San Joaquin Outdoor Education, she currently works both as a sea kayak guide and as the science educator and volunteer coordinator for the Friday Harbor Marine Health Observatory.

Madrona Murphy is a Reed graduate in botany and political science who worked as a technician at the University of Washington’s Center for Cell Dynamics at Friday Harbor Laboratories before establishing and managing Kwiaht’s genotyping laboratory.  She also conducts botanical surveys and designs re-vegetation plans for restoration projects.  A native Lopezian, Madrona is currently pursuing studies of local populations of salmon, coastal cutthroat trout, camas, small mammals, and Island Marble butterflies.

Kelley Palmer-McCarty is a Lopez-born senior in wildlife biology and ornithology at Western Washington University’s Fairhaven College with extensive training in bird identification, handling and banding from the Seattle Audubon Society.  Kelley helped organize and train the Fisherman Bay bird monitoring team in 2010, and the Iceberg Point seabird monitoring team in 2011.  She is also an accomplished artist.

Audrey Thompson recently completed a Master’s degree in organismal biology at the University of Montana with a thesis on trophic dynamics and marine-derived nutrient cycling in rivers of the Western Kamchatka tundra, where she studied for three years. Now a biologist with the Wild Fish Conservancy, Audrey works on Rainbow trout in Icicle Creek; sea lice/aquaculture research on Vancouver Island; local restoration and conservation projects; and nearshore salmon trophic ecology for Kwiaht.

Amanda Wedow grew up in suburban Chicago, relocating to the Pacific Northwest in 2004 to pursue interests in agriculture and natural science at the Evergreen State College, where she obtained degrees in botany and biology.  After participating in field studies in Washington, Oregon, and Arizona, Amanda moved to Lopez Island in 2010 where she is both a wildlife biologist at Kwiaht and co-leader of the Lopez Island Conservation Corps.

PAST ASSOCIATES

Dr. Anne Beaudreau is a native Rhode Islander who relocated to Washington State after earning her AB in biology at Harvard to pursue a graduate degree in fishery and aquatic sciences at the University of Washington.  Her graduate research focused on the role of lingcod in nearshore marine ecosystems of the San Juan Islands.  At Kwiaht, Anne helped train and supervise citizen science teams.  Anne is currently doing postdoctoral research at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

Anne Harmann holds a BA in neuroscience from Carleton College and took advanced training as a Pelagic Ecosystem Research Apprentice at Friday Harbor Labs.  She worked as a naturalist and field science educator at the Moran Outdoor School and the Olympic Park Institute, and shared her love of sea kayaking and marine ecology through guiding in the islands and abroad.  She now works at Montana State University.