Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center - February 3 - February 7, 2020

Amber Barrow has been working for the Department of Natural Resources since 2011 as an environmental educator at the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center in Mansfield, GA. She also is a hunter education instructor who teaches at day programs and overnight youth hunting events. She has a bachelor's degree in Biology with a minor in Chemistry from Berry College. Amber grew up fishing with her family but started out learning about hunting at the age of 14. Her grandfather taught her about small game hunting for rabbits and squirrels. Later in college, her boyfriend (later to be husband) taught her about falconry and using hawks and other birds of prey to hunt squirrels, rabbits, and other small game. She fell in love with sport and continues to learn more each and every day about the hunting and its history. She loves to cook all kinds of wild game recipes and loves trying new things while outdoors. She currently goes small game and bird hunting with her husband, loves fly fishing and is licensed falconer in Georgia. She currently flies 3 harris hawks.

Gordon retired as Chief Wildlife Biologist for the State of New York in 2015 following a 35 year career as a wildlife biologist with New York, and now serves with the Northeast Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies as Executive Secretary. Gordon is also very active on various committees of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. An enthusiastic deer and turkey hunter, Gordon especially enjoys taking novice hunters afield, and teaching about our trapping and hunting heritage during the CLfT workshops.

Rob has been involved with CLfT since 2008 and continues to find it motivating, challenging and extremely satisfying. He has served on both the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Board (Chairman) and the F&W Advisory Committee. A "student" of public regulation, he believes in the regulatory process works when all of the "players" understand and fulfill their obligations. Also, a current Trustee and President of the Barre Fish and Game Club, the largest private shooting and hunting club in Vermont. Other relevant credentials include Hunter Education Instructor (30 years), Range Safety Officer, NRA certified Shotgun Instructor and have conducted many education shooting programs for kids and women. Rob grew up in a hunting and fishing culture in Minnesota.
After graduating from college in Biology, he took a position as the Minnesota "Research Co-coordinator for Scientific and Natural Areas" . After 3 years, he when back to school and became a Chiropractic Physician, moved to Vermont and has been in private practice since 1983. He owns and manages a 50 acre wood lot and spends as much time as possible outdoors.

Patt Dorsey is a native Coloradoan and a graduate of “the” Colorado State University. She became a "member of the flock," joining the National Wild Turkey Federation in February of 2019. As the Director of Conservation Operations for the West Region, she supervises biologists and R3 coordinators in 9 Western States. She was drawn to the NWTF because working on forest and watershed health is an increasingly important and urgent issue and the NWTF is implementing on-the-ground solutions with local partners. Before that, she held several positions with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (Boulder district wildlife manager, Hunter Education Administrator, area wildlife manager in Durango and a member of the Director's staff -- Southwest Region Manager). She was recognized as Colorado's Shikar Safari Wildlife Officer of the Year in 2012, presented with the International Hunter Education Association Past President’s Award in 2004, the Jim Jones Outstanding Employee Award in 2000, Most Creative Idea Award in 2008, Teamwork Award and Most Positive Employee awards in 1995.

Patt is an avid outdoors person and naturalist. She enjoys hunting, fishing, writing, photography, gardening and beadwork (using roadkill porcupine quills).

Diane Eggeman was born and raised in Missouri, where she developed a love of the outdoors as a child. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Fisheries and Wildlife Management from the University of Missouri and a Master’s degree from the University of Maine in Wildlife Biology. Diane retired in 2018 from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, where she worked from 1986-2018. She spent more than 20 years managing waterfowl and waterfowl hunting. In 2008, Diane became director of the Division of Hunting and Game Management. In this role, she became passionate about providing the public-trust benefits of wildlife management and conservation, including hunting and other recreation, for Florida’s citizens. Currently, Diane holds a part-time position under contract with Ducks Unlimited, Inc., serving as Integration Coordinator for the North American Waterfowl Management Plan (NAWMP). Diane is a Fellow of the National Conservation Leadership Institute. Diane and her family are avid hunters and anglers and spend much of their free time outdoors.

Dr. Wes Neal received his B.S in from Virginia Tech, and both his M.S. and Ph.D from North Carolina State University. He specializes in research on topics ranging from farm pond management to tropical fish ecology and management to sport fish genetic selection. Wes served as state Extension fisheries specialist in Arkansas for 4.5 years before joining the faculty at Mississippi State University in 2008 in the same role. He is an Extension Professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Aquaculture at MSU. Wes is an avid angler and hunter, with a primary focus on connecting with nature and securing healthy natural meats for the freezer.

Bruce was a career fisheries biologist and manager, after working for state fish & wildlife agencies in Ohio and Idaho, he worked the bulk of his carrer at Montana Fish Willdife & Parks, where he was the Chief of Fisheries. Since his retirement from MFWP, he worked as the R3 Program Manager at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and now as a contract Lead Instructor and R3 Program Lead for One Montana's Master Hunter Program.

RUDOLPH “RUDY” ROSEN, Ph.D., is a former Executive Director of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, where he served in the cabinet for the environment of two governors, and former director of the Division of Wildlife, Fisheries and Coastal Resources for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Rudy recently retired as Professor and Director of the Institute for Water Resources Science and Technology at Texas A&M University in San Antonio, as a Fellow of The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University, and as Research Associate at the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. He also served in international, national, and regional top executive leadership positions in the National Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited, and Safari Club International and its foundation. Rudy has served on over 130 nonprofit and government national and international boards, commissions and committees on fish and wildlife management, and has written over 500 articles, blogs and presentations on organizations, natural resources conservation, policy, and fundraising for conservation. He has often appeared before the US Congress and state legislative bodies to testify on wildlife and fish resource conservation matters.

Bruce Thomas has been with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GA-DNR) since August of 2019. He currently serves as the Hunting and Shooting Education Specialist for the Charlie Elliott Wildlife Center (CEWC) in Mansfield, Georgia, the site of several CLfT workshops each year. He works with any and all programs related to hunting and shooting at CEWC, ranging from “Hunt and Learns” for new hunters, to Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW) activities to summer shooting sports camps. He became a CLfT instructor shortly after joining GA-DNR. He is a certified NRA Instructor for Rifle, Pistol, and Shotgun as well as a certified Hunter Safety Instructor for Georgia.

Prior to joining GA-DNR, Bruce enjoyed a 32-year career in public education, first as a county extension agent with the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, followed by a stint as a high school agricultural education teacher and finally as K-8 school library media specialist. He earned his BSA and MS in Animal Science from the University of Georgia as well as an EDS in Agricultural Education.

He grew up on a small, diversified farm in Georgia and began hunting and shooting at a very early age. Some of his best hunting memories are chasing rabbits and squirrels with a single shot .410 shotgun when he was about 11 years old.

Joli began her career in conservation by volunteering and working seasonal positions in Colorado with the Student Conservation Association, the NPS, USFWS, and the Iowa Conservation Commission while attending and after graduation from the University of Nebraska at Kearney. In 1989, Joli left Colorado to return home to the Midwest to start her 3-decade career as an Iowa Conservation Officer. In 1999, she expanded her role as a law enforcement (LE) trainer with the IDNR, accepting the new position of Training Coordinator and eventually becoming Supervisor of Licensing and Training for fifteen years. Coming full circle, Joli worked her final years back in the field.
Joli’s passions have evolved from LE training and “education through enforcement” to introducing new audiences to conservation and natural resources recreation and appreciation through programs including Outdoor Journey for Girls and Becoming an Outdoors Woman. She also enjoys working with Iowa State University (ISU) in outdoor skills programming, Hunter Education, class presentations, and presenting for over two decades with the Program for Women in Science and Engineering.
Joli enjoys trailrunning, bicycling, and paddling with her partner and dogs. She finds great joy and deep value in bird hunting (especially behind her late, beloved springer, Abbey), firearm and bow hunting deer from a treestand, and sitting in the spring woods calling turkeys. She is excited to spend more time doing all of that--and CLfT!

I taught at Purdue University in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources of 35 years, teaching several courses, including Habitat Management and Wildlife Techniques. Research interests were broad, and included white-tailed deer food relationships and avian breeding biology.
I have taught participants at Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow workshops since shortly after its inception, and try to bring my broad background and eclectic interests to the program.

I taught Dendrology, native shrub, and herbaceous I.D. at Purdue University for 30 years in the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources. My classes were taken by sophomores to Graduate students studying Wildlife and Forestry. My goal was always to impress upon students the value of understanding the importance of plant identification in managing habitat.
My role in Conservation Leaders for Tomorrow is to teach and educate our participants to the best of my ability about wildlife conservation in our country. Every single workshop is a treat and I look forward to next season.