With a shared vision about their future and a wealth of accessible data to support decision making, forests in the western United States are healthy and adapting to climate change. Indigenous practices are the dominant management paradigm, and forests provide diverse benefits to people and wildlife, including habitat, water, carbon storage, recreation, cultural connections, and economic activity. Fire is a natural part of forests without posing a severe risk to communities or water sources.
We focus on what’s possible.
We use the best information as the basis for sound decision making.
We create vivid stories to make meaning and break through.
We look decades into the future to map a path forward.
We work at wildfire-relevant scales, such as watersheds and landscapes.
Brent has twenty-five years of experience in forest restoration and protection. Brent has led multiple collaborations of public-private-tribal entities to identify shared priorities, develop long-term, science-based strategies, secure resources, and implement targeted conservation solutions. She has co-created a series of ecosystem service finance opportunities for climate-smart land managers; these include a tropical butterfly farm, certified timber cooperative, carbon offset methodology, watershed restoration fund, and tribal forest bank. At VP Data Commons and her prior employer, Brent has been integrating data and technology in applied conservation projects and expanding access to new technologies for underserved landowners. Contact Brent.
Alister comes to Vibrant Planet Data Commons with over 20 years of combined experience in geospatial sciences, cartography, data visualization, web design and development. His career has been dedicated to assisting wildlife, academic, cultural, environmental, and natural resource management efforts in various sectors utilizing GIS and web technologies. As the founder and Creative Director of WayFind LLC, a creative agency specializing in geospatial technologies and visual storytelling, Alister continues to work with various sectors that share his passion for making the world a better place.Initially focusing on UI/UX and system design at VPDC, Alister now concentrates on developing various methods for users to visualize, comprehend, and access VPDC data. His approaches include mapping, creating Jupyter Notebooks, providing technical translations, and more.
Beth is providing strategic grants fundraising and operational support to Vibrant Planet Data Commons. She brings 15 years of experience in the nonprofit sector, working with small and mid-sized organizations on resource generation, program design, and administration, most recently as the Director of Grants & Funder Impact at Ecotrust. Beth holds a BA from Kenyon College and a Master of Arts in Law & Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University where she focused on international environment and resource policy, as well as nonprofit management. Beth is passionate about forests and their role in ecological, spiritual, and community renewal, and she adores adventuring around the Pacific Northwest with her husband and young daughter.
Bryce A. Denton is VP Data Commons' Chief Financial Officer. Bryce’s vision to drive consulting partnerships into an immersive and engaging experience led to the founding of Moun10 Partners in late 2010. Before that, he spent nine years focusing on both operational and strategic applications of financial accounting. For the last 12 years, Bryce has primarily worked with environmental nonprofits and for profit organizations in the outdoor industry. He has worked with global clients such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), High Carbon Stock Approach (HCSA) and the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN). He has a bachelor's degree in accounting and a masters degree of business administration, with a focus on entrepreneurship. He lives and adventures in the mountains of Colorado with his wife, daughter, and beloved black lab.
Maria is a seasoned product leader with over 20 years of product management experience in Silicon Valley, with industry experience that spans the sciences, insurance, and social media. She has conceived and built innovative analytics and enterprise applications at Facebook, Guidewire, and Informatica, and has managed products and advised at Palantir, Hearsay Social, and National Ignition Facility. Maria specializes in building out scaled, analytical platforms that power decision making. She’s currently working at Vibrant Planet.
Mike is a versatile and results-focused consultant, experienced across a variety of technical, analytical and research design functions including data collection and analysis, tool development, decision support, econometrics, land use modeling, impact analysis and GIS. Mike has extensive knowledge of and experience in natural resource management and conservation particularly related to spatial and non-spatial information systems to facilitate management and conservation of fisheries, forestry and sustainable agriculture. Mike also has proven leadership skills including oversight of highly skilled and diverse staff, contribution to strategic direction and ability to build diverse teams to achieve research goals. He is passionate about leveraging data, technology and science to make a lasting difference in equitable outcomes related to natural resource management, community well-being and conservation. Formerly a long-term resident of the Pacific Northwest, Mike currently lives in San Diego with his two young daughters.
Brad is supporting Vibrant Planet Data Commons' strategic framework development. Brad founded Groundwork Strategies to bring communications expertise, deep issue understanding and a broad network to organizations that are advancing solutions to challenges facing our climate and forests. Over the past 20 years, he has worked with a wide array of conservation and sustainability organizations, including the Bullitt Foundation, Climate Solutions, ClimateWorks, Forest Stewardship Council, The Nature Conservancy, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Trust for Public Land, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. From strategy and message development to website production and social media, Brad uses communications as a tool to bring people together, set a course and make a difference. Brad has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Brown University and a master’s degree in Watershed Systems and Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He lives in Seattle, where he serves on the board of directors of Seattle Parks Foundation.
Georgia is founder and principal consultant at Geo Consulting. Georgia has been focused on building regenerative economies for nearly a decade. Her work in supply chain development for agricultural and forest fiber products includes community-led feasibility planning for regional wood products within sustainable, long-term yields on Southeast Alaska’s Prince of Wales Island as well as wood waste recovery and TEK-led ecosystem restoration in the Portland Metro Area. Previously, Georgia supported Wisewood Energy’s project development of community-scale biomass energy systems in the fire-adapted and rural landscapes of western North America.
Bill is a Professor of Forest Ecology and Forestry at the University of Vermont. There he directs the Carbon Dynamics Laboratory and is a Fellow in the Gund Institute for Environment. His research spans a range of fields related to forest conservation and sustainability. These include forest ecosystem dynamics, forest fires and disturbance ecology, riparian ecology, forest carbon and climate, old-growth forests, and ecologically-based forestry practices. Geographically Dr. Keeton works in several regions of the U.S., as well as eastern Europe, the Himalayan Mountain Region, and Chilean Patagonia. He chairs the IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations) Working Group on Old-growth Forests, and serves on the boards for Science for the Carpathians and the Vermont Land Trust. Bill worked as a Fulbright Specialist in Ukraine (2008) and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Austria (2021). He recently co-edited the book “Ecology and Recovery of Eastern Old-Growth Forests,” published by Island Press (2018). He holds a B.S. in Natural Resources from Cornell University (’90), a Masters in Conservation Biology and Policy from Yale University (’94), and a Ph.D. in Forest Ecology from the University of Washington (2000).
Bettina is the CEO and Board Chair of EFM, a forestland investment management organization that manages 120,000 acres of forests located in Oregon, Washington, California, and Nevada. Bettina helped launch EFM and joined the company as CEO in 2008. She has spent the past 30 years working to promote economic viability, social equity, and environmental health in the Pacific Northwest with a particular focus on forestry. Bettina has over 30 years of experience in banking, impact investing, and fund management. She also has significant expertise in ecosystem service markets, particularly the forest carbon market where she is involved in developing protocols for forest carbon projects at the state and federal levels. Previously, Bettina was Vice President at Ecotrust for forestry programs and the Natural Capital Fund, a fund which invests in key businesses and initiatives in the conservation economy. Prior to joining Ecotrust in 1993, she was a vice president and commercial lender at First Interstate Bank of Oregon. Bettina has an MBA from the University of Chicago.
Yuko is a senior director of engineering at Lyft, responsible for the strategic direction, vision, growth and performance of Lyft’s customer experience and safety. As a seasoned professional, with more than 20 years of experience, particularly with data, machine learning, and software engineering, Yuko is known for intelligently driving product experience, using data and ML. Before Lyft, Yuko was a director of engineering at Square for 2.5 years, responsible for product analytics, science and engineering for Square’s core products and infrastructure. Yuko is also known as the strong advocate of diversity and inclusion in Silicon Valley, and has influenced the company culture through public speaking, program evangelisms, and deep connection in the women engineering community. Yuko is a mother of two young kids, living in Marin County. Making the world better for our youth is important to Yuko, and she is looking forward to using her backgrounds in data and engineering to make a difference in the climate change and global warning through VP Data Commons.
Alex spent 4.5 years as a Research Manager on Meta's Data for Good team. This team released over 25 privacy-protecting datasets to assist with natural disasters, public health, poverty, and climate change. Before that Alex led the growth team at a startup scaling the company to 35 countries over 3 years. Prior to this he worked on access to information and Internet programs for 6 years at an international NGO called IREX; first in Ukraine, next in Namibia, and then in Washington DC. He served as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching mathematics in Namibia from 2006 to 2008. Alex holds a BS in physics from the University of Illinois, and an MS from the University of Michigan (where he also taught astronomy.) He has served as a board member of School to School International since 2016 and as chair since 2021.
Collecting, managing, mapping, and efficiently sharing the best data products to make them easily accessible to scientists and land managers. Partnering with scientists to make it easier for them to share their data.
Translating data products into vivid, meaningful stories and educational experiences that shape public opinion and offer policy guidance about the future of forests in the western United States. Focusing initially on pilot watershed landscapes designed to shift the narrative around fire from acres burned to good vs. bad fire and to focus on restoring natural processes.
Bringing diverse partners together to forge consensus about a long-term vision for forests in the western United States, supported by the best data and vivid storytelling.