Staff Directory – Curry Watersheds

Liesl Coleman

Curry SWCD District Manager

Liesl Coleman is our happy and hard-working District Manager here at the Curry SWCD. If you have a question… I bet she has the answer!

One of the things she loves most about the work of the Partnership is that we are building relationships that lead to enduring, thoughtful, respectful stewardship of our watersheds.

Allison Dawn

Monitoring Program Coordinator

Originally from a small town in the Sandhills of North Carolina, Allison attended the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill where she graduated with honors in environmental science as a first-generation scholar. Her variety of independent research experiences in college affirmed her desire to pursue a Master’s degree in Wildlife Science with the Geospatial Ecology of Marine Megafauna lab at Oregon State University. Here she was the graduate student lead for a long-term gray whale ecology monitoring project that simultaneously offered hands-on internship opportunities for local high school and undergraduate students. After being immersed in Port Orford for three consecutive summers she fell in love with the Southern Oregon Coast and is excited to contribute to the extensive efforts of the Curry Watershed Partnership as the Monitoring Program Coordinator. When she is not scheduling sampling efforts, wrangling data, or in analysis mode, Allison can be found birding, hiking, and/or watercolor painting.

Barbara Grant

CREP Technician - Coos County & Curry County

Barbara holds a BS in Environmental Science with an emphasis in Hazardous Materials and Water Quality and coursework in NEPA and GIS, continuing education in streambank and wetland restoration. She has been the Coos/Curry CREP Technician since 2004 as well as an NRCS-certified Farm Planner. She also has training in Forage and Pasture Management and is an OSU Extension Service Master Watershed Steward.

Barbara currently coordinates NRCS delivery or performs the inventories and planning required under NEPA/ESA/NHPA, writes Biological Evaluations for species not covered by programmatic EA process, is trained in Endangered Plant survey protocols and in NRCS Cultural Resource field survey protocols, writes ODF-approved planting plans and researches native plants for projects. She is familiar with Best Management Practices, native forest vegetation, soils, and established farming practices in our region. She has developed excellent landowner relations, has fostered outstanding interagency cooperation, and has served as the point of contact for all agency and landowner CREP technical questions in the two counties for more than 7 years.

Drew Harper

Riparian Management Coordinator

Drew Harper hails from Ohio, but found his love of the West Coast early on. He has previously worked for the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife here in Gold Beach, and for the Burns Paiute Tribe. He has a B.S. in Geology from Ohio University, attended Graduate School at Washington State University, and has diverse work experience ranging from carpentry to fish biology. We are happy to have him back in the area and working on riparian areas with the District!

Robbie Lascheck

South Coast Watershed Council Coordinator

Robbie grew up in the foothills of the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, where he spent a majority of his formative years taking full advantage of the majestic beauty of the mountain lakes and crystal clear rivers that carve their way through this rough and rugged landscape. That passion for the environment led him on a meandering path ending up in Oregon, where he immediately fell in love with the myriad of amazing people and places here. Over the past 10 years he’s lived in Bend, Eugene, and Portland, received a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science from the University of Oregon, and Master of Environmental Management from Portland State University, and worked directly with state, regional, and local agencies and groups on a variety of natural resource monitoring projects. These experiences have given him an extensive toolset of skills related to natural resource monitoring, data analysis and management, GIS, and others that he’s able to apply to his position as South Coast Watershed Council Coordinator.

Ma'yet

Youth Education Program Coordinator

Ma’yet (pronounced My- yet) and was born and raised in Chicago. Ma’yet’s impressive background includes a B.S. in Biology, a M.A., in teaching, seven years managing EPA compliance programs for the City of Dallas, and over six years of experience as a science teacher.

When not working, you can find them hiking, backpacking, and expanding their nature photography portfolio. In 2020, Ma’yet picked up their first camera and began photographing nature. Ma’yet’s passion for photography and nature allows them to bring somewhat inaccessible aspects of nature into educational settings to provide a more vibrant experience.

Erin Minster

Technical Coordinator

Erin was raised in a small rural town in Pennsylvania and received a BS in Geology from the University of Pittsburgh. She has lived in southwest Oregon working on land use, land development and resource management issues on public and private lands since 2002. She “found” Gold Beach as an intern with GeoCorps at the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest (RRSNF). That summer the historic Biscuit Fire burned much of the RRSNF which lead to an opportunity to stay and work in this beautiful and diverse part of the country. Having grown up in the woods back home, the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon captured Erin’s heart.

Erin is responsible for the GIS program and management of the District’s vast collection of monitoring and assessment data. She assists the staff with their technical needs, performs field investigations and keeps our digital world in order (or at least she tries to).

Bethy Myers

Youth Education Program Outreach Aide

Bethy Myers is excited to begin her new position as Outreach Aide for CWP. When she’s not in the classroom or the CWP office, she enjoys cooking, participating in shows at the Rogue Playhouse, and reading.

Jen Nelson

Youth Education Program Specialist

Jen grew up in Wisconsin, but moved out west in 2016 to study Environmental Science at the University of San Diego. There she received her bachelor’s degree along with minors in Spanish and Peacebuilding. She has recently discovered her passion for farming (specifically organic produce) which brought her to Langlois, Oregon! She completed an apprenticeship with Rogue Farm Corps last summer at Valley Flora Farm where she continues to work and learn. She is excited to connect community outreach and watershed education with our local food systems.
When not working you can find her surfing up and down the coast, foraging herbs and mushrooms in our beautiful forests, snowboarding in the Cascades, or snuggled up by the fireplace with her dog and a good book!

Tammy Schnapp-Wills

Operations Coordinator

As a recent transplant to Curry County, Tammy fell in love with this area after taking numerous trips
here to visit family, while fishing on the Rogue for salmon and steelhead. Tammy said, “I should have been born an Oregonian!”

She was raised on a small ranch in California riding horses, playing in the fields and garden, tending to livestock, and actively involved in 4H. She holds a BA and brings with her over 16 years of nonprofit administration and operations experience.

Matt Swanson

Contracted Restoration Project Manager (Swanson Ecological Services, LLC.)

Matt has a BS in Environmental Science and Public Management (1995, Indiana University), and 19 years experience as a restoration consultant in Oregon. Fifteen of those years have been on the southern Oregon coast designing, implementing, and monitoring watershed restoration projects for Curry Watersheds Partnership.

Kelly Timchak

Lower Rogue Watershed Council Coordinator

Kelly grew up stomping around in the creeks and rivers of Missouri, and even as a small child she knew she wanted to work in the water. Her love of fisheries took her to Washington, Oregon, and then to Canada in New Brunswick and Manitoba. Her travels eventually lead her to return to Oregon and work on the Rogue River, here on the beautiful South Coast.

She took a position as the Lower Rogue Watershed Coordinator in May 2012, previously working for the Port Orford Ocean Resource Team and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Kelly holds a B.S. in Wildlife Biology from Southeast Missouri State University and a M.Sc in Fisheries from the University of New Brunswick (Canada). In her spare time she enjoys hiking, rafting, swimming, baking, and traveling with her family. Stop by the office and see Kelly to learn how you can help the Rogue River today!

Dustin Williams

Vegetation Management Foreman

As a native Oregonian and lifelong Oregon coast resident, Dustin has nearly 15 years of experience working in the conservation field. Dustin has been with the Curry SWCD for over 6 years, 4 of which he has been a licensed pesticide applicator. As the Vegetation Management Program’s primary force for on-the-ground project implementation, Dustin has successfully planted over 80 riparian restoration sites and nearly 50,000 trees with the help of the District’s planting crew.