Bonne Beavers

    Bonne is an attorney with the public interest law firm Center for Justice in Spokane, Washington.   She represents clients on social justice, civil rights and environmental matters, with a particular expertise in the Clean Water Act.

    She received her J.D. from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1999, and her B.A. from Colorado College, Russian Area Studies in 1974.

    Bonne spent 7 years sailing around the world on a Swan 51 sailboat with her husband and son.  Some of her favoriate ports of call include the Island of Niue (the world’s kingdom), Tonga, Port Davey in Tasmania (accessible only by boat), Similan Islands in Thailand (outrageous diving visible 100 feet down), Sri Lanka (war-torn but lovely people), Sumba Island in Indonesia (very traditional), the Mediterranean and Italy in particular.

    Bonne’s interest in environmental matters runs deep.  Bonne was the first woman student body president at her high school in St. Louis and organized Earth Day events on the first Earth Day in 1970.  A trip down the Grand Canyon led to a job as instructor with Outward Bound.  Later, working as a research diver at the marine lab in Santa Cruz, California where she also helped devise curriculum for local elementary school kids.  An environmental law class at UCSC opened her eyes to career possibilities. 

    She thinks that practicing environmental law is extremely important with many forces aligned to exploit resources, and believes it is time to “take back the commons.”

Bonne Beavers checks out secondary treatment at the Spokane Area Wastewater Treatment Plant

Photo:  Rachael Osborn (2005)

Hanna Kliegman

    Hanna is the Information Technology director for the Tonasket School District.  She is a board member and an active volunteer of Okanogan Highlands Alliance, a group that has for many years fought gold mining proposals on beautiful Buckhorn Mountain.   Hanna's (and spouse David's) daughter, Sarah, is a PhD student in Environmental Chemistry at Minnesota, and son Joe graduated from Reed College in Chemistry.

John Osborn at Horse Thief Butte above the Dalles Reservoir on the Columbia River

Photo:  Tom Ring (2005)

Kimberly Ordon

    Kimberly is is an attorney in private practice in Duvall, Washington, who specializes in federal Indian law and natural resource matters.  Ms. Ordon received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Colorado in 1976, an M.A. in Sociology in 1980, and her J.D. from Lewis & Clark School of Law in 1985.

Patti Gora

    Patti serves as Executive Director of Safe Air for Everyone, a non-profit organization whose mission it is to protect public health from the dangers of field burning.      

    As a result of her work with the organization, she has received the Max Dalton Award for Open Government and has been named among Idaho’s “Most 100 Influential People.”  In 2005, she earned the honor of “Woman of the Year” from Washington State University for her 25 years of work to improve the lives of women in her community. Recently widowed, she is raising two wonderful kids (Tim and Annie) who make her very proud to be their mom.

    Patti received a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resource Management from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, and an MA from Bowling Green State University in Ohio in Higher Education Administration.

     She began her career in upstate New York as a residence hall Director at SUNY-Cortland. She moved to Pullman in 1980 as an area director for residence halls at Washington State University, and served subsequently as chair of the WSU President’s Commission on the Status of Women and as a member and chair of the YWCA Board of Directors.

     In the fall of 1986 she became the Executive Director of the Alternatives to Violence of the Palouse and was instrumental in opening the first battered women’s shelter to serve both Whitman and Latah counties. After leaving the ATVP program, she remained active in the Idaho Network to Stop Violence Against Women, receiving a Distinguished Service Award for her legislative work to create protection orders for battered women and in repealing the marital rape exemption under Idaho Law. She brought the “Clothesline Project” to the WSU campus as a means of making violence against women visible and became an adjunct faculty in Women’s Studies, teaching several courses there from 1994-1997, where she earned awards for her teaching.

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Tanya Dvarishkis

Tanya is an attorney with the law firm Hendrickson, Everson, Noennig & Woodward in Billings, Montana, specializing in civil litigation.  Ms. Dvarishkis earned her J.D. from Gonzaga Law School in 2002.

John Osborn

    John is the senior physician at the Spokane Veterans hospital, where he has cared for military veterans since 1986, and where he runs the VA’s programs for HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C.  His medical career is inspired by his mother, Marie Osborn, who is Idaho’s first nurse practitioner and set up the health care system for 6,000 square miles of central Idaho based in Stanley.  John was raised in Boise and Stanley and put himself through college working as fire fighter on hot shot crews for the U.S. Forest Service during the 1970s.

    John’s community service includes:

•Sierra Club’s conservation chair in eastern Washington and Idaho since 1985

•Founder, The Lands Council

•Idaho Wildlife Federation’s “Pacific Time Zone” representative, 15 years

•Idaho Conservation League’s North Idaho regional representative, 15 years

•Washington Wilderness Coalition board member, 12 years

•Co-founder of RENEW, the Regional Ethics Network of Eastern Washington and North Idaho working to improve ethical decision-making along the continuum of health care.

    John edited the journal Transitions for The Lands Council for 12 years, chronicling the historic changes underway in the Columbia River region.  He is a co-author of Railroads and Clearcuts: Legacy of Congress’s 1864 Northern Pacific Railroad Land Grant and has authored and published numerous special reports, including on the Spokane River, Washington's water crisis, and the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial.