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Board of Directors
MARK SOGGE
President
Mark was lucky enough to be brought to the Chilkat Valley as a child and has made it his home ever since. An early interest in natural history led him to pursue studies in aquatic ecology, and a love for the sea led to a career as a commercial fisherman. Mark also pursued an interest in habitat restoration and worked as a consultant for the State of Alaska designing and constructing restoration projects throughout Southeast. He spearheaded the founding of the Takshanuk Watershed Council in 2002 and served as its first coordinator. Mark is now retired from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, having ended his career working as the manager of the commercial fisheries in Northern Lynn Canal.
SCOTT RAMSEY, PhD
Vice President
Scott has been working as a wilderness guide and environmental educator in the Chilkat Valley for over 20 years. He has a PhD in Sustainable Education and is the director of the Alaska Outdoor Science School. AOSS brings students from around the world to the Chilkat Valley for multi-day courses in environmental education and sustainability. Scott lives off the grid with his wife and little girl.
RICHARD CHAPELL, PhD
Secretary
Rich moved to Haines in 2003 with a young family and stayed because it is a great place to raise kids. He worked for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game as the Haines area sport fishery management biologist until his retirement in 2022.
BEN KIRKPATRICK
Treasurer
Ben came north on the ferry in 1981 with his canoe and brother in search of the "wilds of Alaska." Southeast's combination of mountains and sea proved so enticing that he has been here ever since. In 1990, Ben completed a four-month solo canoe trip, starting in Juneau, ascending the Taku River, and ending hundreds of miles north in the Northwest Territories. He was a fish habitat biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game for ten years. Since retiring in 2008, Ben has been deeply involved with the Takshanuk Watershed Council, the Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition, and Rivers Without Borders; three relatively small organizations that have had an outsized impact on their communities and the region. His home is off the grid south of Haines.
NORMAN HUGHES
Board Member
Norm first visited the Chilkat Valley in 1982 to fish for coho salmon. He moved to Haines in 1984 to take up commercial salmon gillnetting and has been the owner and captain of the F/V Chilkat since 1988. He serves on several fishery-related community and non-profit boards including the United Southeast Alaska Gillnetters Association, Douglas Island Pink and Chum, and the Lynn Canal Gillnetters Association.
EMILY McMAHAN
Board Member
Emily works as a Public Health Nurse, and has lived and adventured with her family in and around Haines for about ten years. Her two sons have thrived in many of TWC’s education programs, such as Chilkat Forest Investigators, Stream Team, Garden Camp, Tracking Club, Snow School, and Nature Hiking. Emily hopes to support current and future projects of TWC to
strengthen the health and wellbeing of the Chilkat Valley and its future inhabitants.
TIM McDONOUGH
Board Member
Tim and his wife Ann moved to Haines from Bethel Alaska in 1984. Tim taught 4th, 5th, and 6th grade at the Haines School and Ann was the Haines Borough Public Library director until both retired in 2005. Active community involvement has always been a priority in their lives. Tim is also the chair of the Upper Lynn Canal Fish and Game Advisory Committee, the secretary of Hospice of Haines, and until recently, the treasurer of the Alaska Chilkoot Bear Foundation.
CYNTHIA ADAMS
Board Member
Wanderlust brought Cynthia to Alaska from Idaho in 1981. Beginning in Skagway, working summers through college, she connected with the adventure opportunities, the visual beauty of every day, and the community. Working in tourism through the 80s, guiding locally and internationally during the 90s, commercial fishing for the last 24 years, and it turns out she's made a life here. Haines is happily Cynthia's home town now, when she is not traveling the world.
KIP KERMOIAN
Board Member
Kip founded a wilderness club, “Wilderness Bound”, at a junior college in California before moving to the Brooks Range in 1975. Immersed in a subsistence lifestyle--a practice that continues today--and working on numerous fish and wildlife projects for the Alaska Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, USFWS, USGS, ADF&G, and as a private contractor, he has become intimately involved with the importance of healthy watersheds. He is a member of the Upper Lynn Canal Fish and Game Advisory Committee, the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve Advisory Committee, and the Hospice of Haines board of directors.
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