Advisory Board

A Wyoming native from Jackson, John Turner has served as Assistant Secretary for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, President and CEO of The Conservation Fund, and Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Norm Christensen is Research Professor of Ecology and Founding Dean of Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment. His research includes studies of the causes and consequences of fire in grasslands, shrublands and forests, of the impacts of human land use and land abandonment on ecosystem change and species conservation, and of the influence of global warming patterns of ecosystem change.

Gary Collins, an enrolled member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, has been the Tribal Liaison and policy advisor to the Wyoming Governor's Planning Office since 2007. He is the Vice President of the Mni Sose InterTribal Water Rights Coalition, a nonprofit organization protecting the health, education and welfare of Missouri River Basin tribes.

Brent Eastman is emeritus Chief Medical Officer and N. Paul Whittier Chair of Trauma at Scripps Health in San Diego, CA. A general, vascular, and trauma surgeon, Brent is a long-established leader on the issue of trauma and emergency surgical care and was a founder of the San Diego County Trauma System. Born into a railroading family in Evanston, Wyoming, Brent holds degrees from the University of Wyoming and the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. At Scripps Health, he pursued a full-time surgical practice for over 40 years. In 2012-13, Brent served as 93rd President of the American College of Surgeons, the largest scientific and educational organization of surgeons in the world.

Mike Healy operates the LU Ranch in northwestern Wyoming, managing cattle and related issues on public land use, conservation easements, endangered species, hunting, and oil and gas exploration. He previously served in Wyoming State Senate, on the advisory board for the Wyoming Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, and as President of the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission. Mike is a longtime member and past VP of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, and is currently President of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wyoming board of directors.

Jim Magagna is a native of Rock Springs and a lifelong sheep rancher in southwestern Wyoming. He's been President of the American Sheep Industry Association and President of the National Public Lands Council. He has represented agriculture on many national, state and local councils and advisory boards, and has served as Director of the Wyoming Office of State Lands and Investments. He has been with WSGA since 1998.

Todd Parfitt was appointed Director of the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality by Governor Mead in October 2012. He has over 29 years of experience in the environmental field, including 19 years with the DEQ. Prior to becoming the Director, Mr. Parfitt spent seven years as the DEQ Deputy Director and as the Administrator of DEQ’s Industrial Siting Division. Mr. Parfitt has a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources, Fisheries Management and a master’s degree in Public Administration with an emphasis in environmental policy both from The Ohio State University. Mr. Parfitt is a graduate of Leadership Wyoming, Class of 2008.

Larry Wolfe is a partner in the Cheyenne office of Holland & Hart, a regional law firm of 430 lawyers with offices in seven Western states and Washington, D.C. He practices energy (conventional and renewable), natural resources, environmental, tax, litigation and administrative law. He has an active governmental relations practice in Wyoming. He is a member of the UW Foundation Board of Directors and serves on the Management Committee of the Wyoming Business Alliance. He is a graduate of the University of Wyoming College of Law, 1980.

Whitney MacMillan retired as Chairman and CEO of Cargill, Inc. in 1995. He serves on the boards of the International Peace Institute, the Western NIS Enterprise Fund, the Yale President's Council on International Activities, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, The Burton K. Wheeler Center, and the National Academy of Sciences Division on Earth and Life Studies. With his wife, he operates a cow/calf ranch in Montana.