Keynote Speaker: Shelton Johnson, U.S. Park Ranger, Yosemite National Park 

Shelton Johnson, a native of Detroit, Michigan, has worked as a U.S. Park Ranger since 1987. His work assignments have included Yosemite National Park, Great Basin National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and park areas within and around Washington D.C.  Johnson previously served with the Peace Corps in Liberia, West Africa.

From 1999 to 2009, Ranger Johnson served as a consultant for the documentary film The National Parks, America’s Best Idea by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan.  He was also featured in the film as an on screen commentator.  On September 25, 2009, Ranger Johnson attended a special screening of segments from “The National Parks, America’s Best Idea” at the White House where he spoke with President Barack Obama about the National Park experience.

Johnson has received numerous awards for his accomplishments with the Park Service, his work in conservation, and for his efforts to document and spread awareness of the history of Buffalo Soldiers: African-American cavalrymen who were employed to patrol Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks after their service in the Philippines and the Spanish-American War. Ranger Johnson was recently given an award from the Yosemite Fund to finance the Sierra Nevada Buffalo Soldier Genealogy Research Project. At Yosemite and venues throughout the country, Johnson has presented “Yosemite through the Eyes of a Buffalo Soldier” – an interpretative performance in which he takes on the role of a Buffalo Soldier to explain their importance to the Park Service. Ranger Johnson has also written a novel, Gloryland, about the Buffalo Soldier experience.

Just to name a few of Ranger Johnson’s many achievements, he was chosen as the Pacific West Regional recipient of the Freeman Tilden Award, the highest award given by the National Park Service for Interpretation in 2002 and 2009; he was named a Colonel from the governor of Kentucky (the highest honor awarded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky) for his work searching for buffalo soldier descendants; and he received a Commendation from the City of Los Angeles City Council, as well as a Certificate of Appreciation from U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer.

Shelton attended Graduate School at the University of Michigan, majoring in Poetry. He has won several writing awards from his alma mater, including a Roy W. Cowden Memorial Fellowship, a Scholarship to the Cranbrook Writer’s Conference, a Michael Gutterman Award, and a Major Hopwood Award in Poetry. 

Speaker: The Honorable Tom Davis

Former U.S. Representative Tom Davis (R-VA) is President and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership. Congressman Davis served seven terms in the United States House of Representatives representing Virginia’s 11th Congressional District. In the House Davis served as Chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, as well as Chair of the subcommittee on Technology and Procurement Policy. Congressman Davis’ vigilant oversight of large dollar federal contracts resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars saved for the taxpayers. Davis also authored significant portions of the 9-11 Implementations Act and under his leadership the Committee conducted oversight on and investigated matters related to the effective administration of government programs of great public interest.

Speaker: The Honorable Martin Frost 

Former Congressman Martin Frost is a keen analyst of politics and policy in Washington, D.C. Frost held a number of leadership positions in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was the Ranking Member of the Committee on Rules and previously had been the Chairman of the Democratic Caucus, the third highest leadership post. From 1979-2005, Frost served as a Member of Congress representing the Dallas-Fort Worth area in north Texas. During the 1996 and 1998 election cycles, Martin was the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, helping his party to a net gain of 14 House seats.

Moderator: Mary Ellen Ardouny, President and CEO, The Corps Network 

Mary Ellen Ardouny has been a long-time champion for youth. Ardouny came to The Corps Network in March of 2008 as Director of Government Relations.She was promoted to Vice President of External Affairs in 2011 and then Interim CEO in May of 2012, prior to being selected as President and CEO in October of 2012. During her tenure, Service and Conservation Corps have become better known programs to lawmakers and policymakers throughout the federal government. Legislation that would expand and bolster youth programs including Service and Conservation Corps has been routinely introduced in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Under Ardouny’s leadership, in 2010 more than $63 million of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act projects were granted to Service and Conservation Corps throughout the country by 15 federal agencies. These projects provided youth with jobs and service opportunities while connecting them to public lands including national parks and forests. More recently, Ardouny has served as a member of the federal advisory committee tasked with providing recommendations to federal land management agencies on how to implement a 21st Century Conservation Service Corps. 

In addition to her productive time at The Corps Network, she has ten years of Capitol Hill experience, including two years on the House Committee on Education and Labor handling postsecondary education, training, and life-long learning programs. She also worked for Representatives Matthew G. Martinez (D-CA) and Nydia Velazquez (D-NY). Before joining The Corps Network, Mary Ellen was Vice President of Government Relations at the Education Finance Council, the national trade association for nonprofit and state based student loan providers. Prior to that, she spent two years as the Assistant to the President of the University of Montana.

Speaker: Wendy Spencer, CEO, Corporation for National and Community Service

Wendy Spencer began her duties as the Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) on April 9, 2012, shortly after her nomination was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. She has a proven track record of nearly 30 years in volunteer management and administration, and she is the first CEO to come to CNCS directly from the field of national service.

Prior to joining CNCS, Wendy served eight years as the CEO of the Florida Governor’s Commission on Volunteerism, commonly known as Volunteer Florida. As the leader of this bipartisan, governor-appointed commission, Wendy managed between $18 million and $23 million in federal, state, and local grants each year. During the state’s record-breaking 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, the agency coordinated donations worth more than $85 million and more than 252,000 volunteers, the largest mobilization of volunteers in the history of U.S. natural disasters at that time. Wendy received the prestigious 2005 Governor’s Award from Gov. Jeb Bush for her leadership of this effort.

Wendy has been recognized nationwide for her leadership in the volunteer sector. In 2006, President George W. Bush appointed Wendy to the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation. And in 2010, she was elected by her peers to chair the American Association of State Service Commissions, the nonprofit association that advocates for 54 state service commissions promoting national and community service across the United States.

Before joining Volunteer Florida, Wendy served as the director of the Florida Park Service, where she oversaw natural resource and recreational management for 158 state parks spanning 600,000 acres. Wendy’s career includes a decade of service at the United Way of Big Bend in north Florida, and she credits her time there with teaching her the principles of recruitment, recognition, and retention of volunteers.

A native of Thomasville, GA, Wendy captured a passion for volunteering at a young age, and her enthusiasm for service ultimately led to her becoming a volunteer manager overseeing large events in Macon, GA. Wendy holds a B.A. in Fine Arts and Speech Communications from Valdosta State University, and she and her husband have four sons, two daughters-in-law, and one granddaughter. Bio and photo from the CNCS website.

Speaker: Carrie Hessler-Radelet, Acting Director, Peace Corps

Carrie Hessler-Radelet was sworn in as deputy director of the Peace Corps on June 23, 2010.

Hessler-Radelet and her husband, Steve Radelet, served together as Peace Corps Volunteers in Western Samoa (1981-1983). She taught high school and helped design a national public awareness campaign on disaster preparedness. Upon completing service abroad, she served as public affairs specialist in the Peace Corps/New England Recruiting Office (1984-1986).

Prior to her confirmation as deputy director, Hessler-Radelet was vice president and director of the Washington, D.C., office of John Snow, Inc. (JSI), a global public health organization, where she was responsible for overseeing the management of public health programs in more than 85 countries.

She has worked in the field of public health for the past two decades, specializing in HIV/AIDS and maternal and child health. Hessler-Radelet was actively involved in the establishment of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and was a primary author on PEPFAR's first strategic plan. She was also a Johns Hopkins Fellow with USAID in Indonesia and assisted the Indonesian government in developing and implementing its first national AIDS strategy.

Four generations of Hessler-Radelet's family have served as Peace Corps Volunteers. Her aunt was the 10,000th Peace Corps Volunteer and served in Turkey (1964-1966), her grandmother served in Malaysia (1972-1973), and her nephew recently completed his service as an HIV education Volunteer in Mozambique (2007-2009).

Hessler-Radelet served as a board member of the National Peace Corps Association and on the steering committee for the U.S. Coalition for Child Survival. She was founder of the Special Olympics in The Gambia.

Hessler-Radelet received her Bachelor of Arts from Boston University and her master's in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health. She and her husband have two grown children, Meghan and Sam. Bio and photo from Peace Corps website.

Moderator: AnnMaura Connolly, President, Voices for National Service 

AnnMaura Connolly is the President of Voices for National Service, a coalition of service organizations that works to advance citizen service policy and she is currently serving as the Campaign Director for Save Service in America.  Voices for National Service was founded in 2003 in response to major cuts in federal funding that threatened hundreds of AmeriCorps programs, the coalition has expanded its work to incorporate Learn and Serve America, Senior Corps, and other national service programs, becoming the leading voice for the service community in Washington, DC and positioning national service as a viable policy solution to tackle unmet needs, expand opportunity, and leverage social capital.  AnnMaura also serves as the Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President of City Year. As CSO, AnnMaura directs City Year’s public policy and public affairs work, manages relationships with national leaders and organizational partners, oversees City Year’s international programs, and collaborates with the CEO on strategic advancement issues. Additionally, AnnMaura is a co-convenor of the ServiceNation campaign.  She has over 20 years of experience in the service field, beginning with her service year in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and including senior management positions at Youth Service America and the Corporation for National and Community Service. She has also acted as an independent consultant to a variety of foundations and nonprofits.

AnnMaura holds a BA in Political Science from the College of the Holy Cross and currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Eli J. Segal Citizen Leadership Program at Brandeis University, the Steering Committee for the Civic Mission of Schools, the Board of Directors for the Be the Change Action Fund, the Leadership Council for ServiceNation, and the Federal Advisory Council of the National Center for Service and Innovative Leadership at The Presidio.

Speaker: Joel Holtrop, Chair, Board of Directors of The Corps Network

Joel D. Holtrop served as the Deputy Chief of the National Forest System Deputy Area at agency headquarters in Washington D.C., from March 2005 until October 2011.

In this capacity, he oversaw the strategic and national program leadership for the 193 million acre National Forest System of forests and grasslands located in 42 states and Puerto Rico. His natural resource management emphasis areas include ecosystem management, engineering, forest management, rangeland management, lands, minerals, geology management, recreation, heritage, wilderness, wild-scenic rivers management, watersheds, fish, wildlife, air, and rare plants.

Holtrop’s love for the outdoors and natural resources started at an early age—11 years old to be exact—when he chose his life’s work after he met a park ranger on a family camping trip. His distinguished Forest Service career spanned more than 34 years. He launched it on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington. He later served on the Eldorado National Forest, California, Mt. Hood National Forest, Oregon, and Hiawatha National Forest, Michigan. Subsequently he became deputy forest supervisor on the Nicolet National Forest, Wisconsin, and forest supervisor on the Flathead National Forest, Montana. He joined national headquarters in 1996 as deputy director of Rangeland Management, moving on to become director of Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air and Rare Plants. He later served as deputy chief of State and Private Forestry for three years.

A Michigan native, Deputy Chief Holtrop earned a bachelor’s degree in forestry at Michigan State University, and a master’s in forest management at the University of Washington. He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award for his alma mater Calvin College in 2007. He has served in a number of natural resource, conservation and leadership organizations throughout the country. Joel is married to Julie and they have three daughters: Katie, Laura and Jessica. His hobbies include distance running, kayaking and hiking.

Speaker: Joe Scantlebury, Board Member, The Corps Network

Joe Scantlebury is a Senior Policy Officer in the United States Program Advocacy Division of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. His grant making focuses on core strategy policy advocacy that advances the foundations College Ready and Postsecondary Success strategies. Both of these strategies aim to address inequity and poverty within the U.S. by increasing opportunities for all students to graduate from high school ready for college and careers and all young adults to complete a postsecondary education credential with labor market value. 

Prior to joining the foundation, Joe was a staff attorney for the Youth Law Center, where he advocated nationally on behalf of children in the juvenile justice and foster care systems. He also helped the Legal Action Center establish the National H.I.R.E. Network, a national exoffender employment clearinghouse, and served as its first Director. He was also Executive Director of STRIVE/ East Harlem Employment Service - a dynamic international workforce development agency. Joe has also served as a Special United States Attorney for the District of Columbia; an impact litigator for the United States Department of Labor-Office of the Solicitor, the Civil Rights Division; and an associate at the New York City labor and employment law firm Eisner, Levy, Pollack & Ratner, P.C.

Joe received his Bachelor of Science degree from the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University, where he was one of the first Cornell Tradition Fellows. He received his Juris Doctorate from New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden-Snow Fellow.

Joe’s most important commitment and greatest blessing is being a parent to his son Preston.

Laura Herrin: Board Member, The Corps Network 

Laura has been with The Student Conservation Association since 2002. In her role as National Director for Community Conservation Programs, she is responsible for SCA’s urban and workforce development programming currently operating in fifteen cities across the country. She brings an extensive background in youth development and family service work to her role. She and her team have tripled the size of SCA’s community conservation programs in the last five years with the summer work programs accounting for much of the growth. Laura has a BA from Wheaton College, and an MS from Springfield College. She has been a certified Wilderness First Responder, an instructor with the Crisis Prevention Institute and a graduate of Leadership New Hampshire.

Speaker: Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior

Ken Salazar, a fifth-generation Coloradoan, was confirmed as the 50th secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior on January 20, 2009, in a unanimous vote by the U.S. Senate.

As Secretary of the Interior, Salazar has launched an aggressive reform agenda to restore Interior’s independence and integrity, overhauling offshore oil and gas development oversight and raising the bar on safety standards; spurred a renewable energy revolution at Interior, with the largest solar energy projects in the world now under construction on public lands in the West and a dynamic plan for renewable energy in America’s oceans; led a bold agenda for American land conservation, partnering with communities to conserve our nation’s crown jewels; and tackled long-standing injustices in Indian Country, including settling the Cobell litigation.  

Prior to his confirmation, Salazar served as Colorado’s 35th U.S. Senator.  As a member of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Salazar helped lead the passage of the 2005 and 2007 Energy Policy Acts, the most significant comprehensive energy bills in decades.  Salazar also helped lead the successful bipartisan effort on the 2007 Farm Bill which included important provisions on energy.  

In the Senate, Salazar also worked to provide affordable health care by fighting to broaden the Children's Health Insurance Program and improving health care for older Americans. He worked to help veterans in rural communities get better access to health care by creating the Office of Rural Health in the Department of Veterans Affairs and by pressing that agency to open new rural outreach clinics in Colorado. He exercised a leadership role in championing a new defense and foreign policy that restores American security and influence around the world and pressed for a change in mission in Iraq to better advance America's national security interests. 

As Colorado’s 36th Attorney General, Salazar led efforts to make communities safer, fight crime, strengthen the state's sex offender laws, address youth and family violence, enhance and enforce Colorado's consumer protection laws, combat fraud against the elderly, and protect Colorado's environment. He established the first-ever Colorado Attorney General Fugitive Prosecutions Unit to apprehend and prosecute fugitive murderers, and led numerous investigations, including the 1999 Columbine High School shootings.  He was awarded the Conference of Western Attorneys General “Profile in Courage” award for his work.

Prior to serving as Attorney General, Salazar served in the Cabinet of Gov. Roy Romer as executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.  There he crafted regulations for oil, mining, and gas operations to encourage safe and responsible development, and worked to uphold Colorado’s interstate water compacts.  As the author and first chairman of Great Outdoors Colorado, Salazar built one of the most successful land conservation efforts in the United States.  The program’s success was a model for President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative to create a 21st century agenda for conservation and outdoor recreation.

A farmer for more than thirty years in Colorado, Salazar was a partner with his family in El Rancho Salazar where they have farmed and ranched the same land in the San Luis Valley for five generations.  He and his wife have owned and operated small businesses, including a Dairy Queen and radio stations in Pueblo and Denver. He earned a political science degree from Colorado College in 1977 and graduated with a law degree from the University of Michigan in 1981 before working as a water and environmental lawyer with some of the top firms in the West.  Salazar and his wife, Hope, have two daughters, Melinda and Andrea, and one granddaughter, Mireya. Bio and photo from the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Speaker: Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality

Nancy Sutley is the Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ). In her role as Chair, she serves as the principal environmental policy adviser to the President.

Prior to her appointment, Sutley was the Deputy Mayor for Energy and Environment for the city of Los Angeles, California. She represented Los Angeles on the Board of Directors for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and served on the California State Water Resources Control Board from 2003- 2005. Sutley also worked for California Governor Gray Davis as Energy Advisor, managing state and federal regulations, legislative affairs, finances and press relations. She served as Deputy Secretary for policy and intergovernmental relations in the California EPA from 1999-2003. She advised on water and air pollution policy, and established budget and legislative priorities. During the administration of President William J. Clinton, Sutley worked for the EPA as a Senior Policy Advisor to the Regional Administrator in San Francisco and special assistant to the Administrator in Washington, D.C.

Moderator: Harry Bruell, President and CEO of Southwest Conservation Corps  

Harry Bruell, CEO & President, has been with the Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC) since 2004 and has worked with service and conservation corps since 1991. SCC provides service and work opportunities for a diverse group of individuals to complete important conservation and community projects for the public benefit. During his tenure with SCC the agency increased its annual revenue over tenfold and expanded from one office in Colorado to four offices in Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. In 2011, SCC provided paid service opportunities to over 850 young people serving in 22 states. From 1994 to 2004 Harry worked with the National Association of Service and Conservation Corps (now The Corps Network), most recently as Chief Operating Officer and previously as Vice-President. Harry began his work with corps at the Durham (NC) Service Corps in 1991. Harry co-founded the national Public Lands Service Coalition in 2009 and the Mountain Alliance of Conservation Corps in 2005. He serves on numerous Boards including as Chair of The Corps Network’s Corps Council, Treasurer of Veteran Green Jobs and Advisory Group member of the Western Governor Association’s Get Out West Initiative. In 2011, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar appointed Harry as Chair of the 21st Century Conservation Service Corps Federal Advisory Committee.