The George S. & Dolores Dore Eccles Wildlife Education Center - January 13 - January 17, 2025

Laura is a Certified NRA Shotgun,Rifle, Pistol, Personal protection in the Home, Personal Protection outside the Home, Conceal Carry instructor, and a Certified Volunteer Hunter Safety/Tree stand Instructor for both Illinois DNR and Texas Parks and Wildlife. A Texas Master Naturalist. Besides the shooting sports she enjoys teaching archery, fly fishing, cooking, beekeeping. She is a big and small game hunter, and has traveled extensively to hunt and fish. She is a Certified Master Gardener in Illinois and Florida, a beekeeper and a Nationally Certified Medical Technologist. Was an elected Trustee for the Village of Campton Hills, IL, former instructor at Country Garden Cuisine cooking school. In 2018 She transitioned to Texas. She is a member of Corpus Christi, Texas Pistol and Rifle club, NRA, Mid-Coast Chapter as a Master Naturalist, South Texas Beekeepers,and Sisters on the Fly.

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.

Bill has an M.S. in Wildlife Science from Utah State University. He worked for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources for 36 years as a biologist, wildlife manager, coordinator, wildlife section chief and assistant director. He now enjoys the wonders of the world on a daily basis with his family while on the road and from the porch.

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).

I grew up in Northern Ontario, and spent most of my time outdoors. I complete my Masters in Wildlife Science at Mississippi State. I am currently the Director of Conservation Programs, in the northeast, with Ducks Unlimited, Inc, a 501-C-3 not for profit. I have extensive professional experience in wetland and waterfowl ecology have have worked for DU since 2010 successfully writing and delivering of on-the-ground conservation projects that restored and protected >20,000 acres of critical wetland habitat in the Northeast Atlantic Flyway. I help deliver our conservation programs in 12-states in the northeast where I am part of a conservation delivery team of biologists, engineers, and fund-raising staff that cooperate to meet the goals of conservation partners. In addition to my experiences with DU, my prior work history and partnerships are diverse throughout the Central, Mississippi and Atlantic Flyways and include Bird Studies Canada, Delta Waterfowl, Mississippi State University, USDA- NRCS, Long Point Waterfowl, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. I have worked with a multitude of federal, state, provincial, non-government, and corporate partners in the Atlantic Flyway.

I am an avid waterfowl, upland game, turkey and deer hunter and spend a lot of time in the field with two yellow labs and working on our hobby farm in central NY.

Robert J. Gates is Associate Professor of Wildlife Ecology and Management in the School of Environment and Natural Resources at Ohio State University. Bob grew up and began hunting with his father in east central Wisconsin, after which his family moved to the hunting paradise of eastern South Dakota, where he received his B.S. in Wildlife Science from South Dakota State University. Bob’s graduate degrees were from Montana State University (M.S.) and Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (Ph.D.). Bob’s travels have provided many memorable hunting, fishing and other outdoors activities that he has shared with family and friends in 19 states/provinces in the U.S. and Canada. He is most proud of passing on the hunting and fishing traditions to his younger brother Dale, and to his sons Eric and Jared. Bob is an avid bird hunter who most enjoys hunting pheasants and prairie grouse over pointing dogs (especially Brittanys) and also hunts doves, waterfowl and big game. Bob has taught classes and conducted research with graduate students for nearly 30 years, first at Southern Illinois University, and currently at Ohio State University. His research interests are primarily focused on ecology and management of upland game birds, waterfowl and other wetlands-dependent wildlife, and conservation of wetlands and early successional habitats. He has been a member of The Wildlife Society (TWS) for more than 30 years, serving as state chapter president in Illinois and Ohio, and President

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.

Val grew up in a small town in Upstate NY and was an outdoors enthusiast at an early age. From the time she could say "zoologist", she knew she wanted to work with wildlife and conservation. She spent much of her time hunting and fishing with her family, who instilled an appreciation for wilderness in her and encouraged her love for wildlife. She completed her undergraduate at Cazenovia College, majoring in Environmental Studies. She then ventured to Murray State University for a Master's in Biology where she studied the impacts of roads on a population of copperheads in Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. She returned to the Northeast to Binghamton University for her PhD where she studied movement patterns and population structure of the eastern tiger salamander on Long Island. She then worked for 2 years at the Bronx Zoo as a Curatorial Fellow in the Herpetology Department and then spent a year working for the Wildlife Conservation Society studying bison in Montana. She taught at Green Mountain College, Keystone College, and Hocking College, and served as Wildlife Biology Program Director at each. She is now the program coordinator for Natural Resources Conservation and Management at Paul Smith's College. She is a certified Hunter's Safety Instructor for both archery and firearms. She has taught courses on Hunting History, Ethics, and Management, and Wild Game Preparation. She lives in NY with her husband, 2 kids, and 5 dogs.

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!