Tributary Fund Staff
BETSY GAINES QUAMMEN, Founder/President, founded The Tributary Fund after visiting the Eg-Uur watershed and Dayan Derkh Monastery ruins in 2002 and falling in love with the rivers, landscapes and people of Mongolia. Betsy has a Master’s of Science from University of Montana in Environmental Studies and is a PhD candidate at Montana State University in Religion and Environmental History. She lived in Kenya and worked for Swara (the magazine of the East African Wildlife Society) and has served on the national board of directors for the Sierra Club and for American Wildlands. Over the years, she’s worked with the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Montana State University’s Center for Native American Studies and Wallace Stegner Chair, and many other conservation groups.
SUSAN HIGGINS, acting Executive Director/Program Director, has a 25-year career in natural resources management with a focus on linking watershed science with policy change at the local, state and federal levels. As a trained facilitator, she has enjoyed collaborations with public agencies, community groups, and university science researchers. Susan holds an undergraduate degree in biology and a masters in natural resources management. Currently she is the chair of the Bridger Ski Foundation Nordic Committee.
CLAIRE SANDS BAKER, Community Outreach Director, joined The Tributary Fund with almost twenty years of non-profit management and development experience. Previous positions have focused on education and the arts, however, Claire’s favorite approach to any project is multi-faceted and community-centered. With an art history degree from Scripps College in Claremont, California, she has worked for Self Enhancement, Inc. (inner-city youth development in Portland, OR), Montana State University College of Arts & Architecture, the Portland Art Museum and the Danforth Arts Center (Livingston, MT). Claire currently serves as board secretary for Big Sky Youth Empowerment Project and the Institutional Advancement Committee at Scripps College.
CHULUUCHIMEG LUVSANDASH, better known as Chimga, is TTF’s Mongolia Program Manager. Chimga grew up in Hovsgol Province near the Eg River. After university in Ulaanbaatar, she worked as an educator and translator. She is in charge of promoting biodiversity awareness through seminars on fisheries research, mining impacts, environmental laws, and sustainable business. Chimga also works hand-in-hand with area schools and the Buddhist leadership at the Dayan Derkh and Gandan Monasteries.
NAWANG EUDEN, contracted as our Bhutan Program Coordinator, is Bhutanese and currently lives in Bhutan with her husband and new baby girl. As a post graduate, she received her undergraduate degree in Canada and hopes to someday pursue a masters. In her internship, she surveyed Bhutan’s monastic schools and has served as a terrific advisor to TTF with regard to areas of conservation interest for monasteries. TTF is keeping her as contracted staff, particularly as we organize a large Conservation and Compassion workshop for Bhutan’s monastic body in September 2011.
CHARLIE CONN, recently joined TTF on contract to help operate the Taimen Fund, a fund designated for taimen conservation in Mongolia. Whether landing the largest taimen of the season in Mongolia, diving into an Amazonian river to free a fish from a snag, or simply floating down the Yellowstone River, Charlie is one of the great, undiscovered personalities in the fishing business. With a quick wit, and agile fishing mind, Charlie is a great teacher who makes every day on the water enjoyable. He has guided throughout the world, and his knowledge of the world of fly-fishing and particular love of taimen and Mongolia will aid him as he serves as a liaison between taimen scientists, anglers and Mongolian ecotourism in conservation efforts.
TTF is thrilled to have two amazing interns:
HANNAH KREITZER is preparing for her senior year at Unity College in Maine by spending the summer interning for TTF in Bozeman. She happened to write a paper on taimen for an aquaculture class last year…and then ended up meeting Betsy in Massachusetts last summer. Fortunately, a match was made. As an environmental writing major, she is putting her writing skills to use on our blog, in grant-writing and in articles for Montana magazines. She has also done some nice wildlife illustrations which will appear in future TTF projects and publications. We don’t want to lose this great gal at the end of July and are hoping to include her in some grants for future projects.
KELSEY LARSON is an entering junior at Bozeman Senior High School. She has been working with the Green My Faith program and has developed a youth group curriculum. This innovative young woman also helps with general office tasks. We are thrilled that she endured the rigorous selection process of the Telluride Association Summer Program at Cornell University where she is spending six weeks this summer. Hopefully, they are giving her all sorts of fun economics challenges.
