BOARD OF DIRECTORS

 Renee Huckle Mittelstaedt is a fifth generation northern Michigander whose love of the region’s lakes and rivers influenced the return to her childhood hometown of Traverse City. She is the current chair of FLOW’s Board of Directors.

Renee spent more than 20 years in the media industry, most recently as President and CEO of Huckle Media, LLC., which published daily and weekly newspapers, shoppers, magazines and websites in southern Minnesota. She served as a director on the national Inland Press Association and Foundation boards and co-chaired the Inland Family Owner’s Committee and annual conference. In addition to serving as Editor and Publisher of the Northfield (MN) News, she also held several community leadership positions including president of the Northfield Area United Way Board, and director of the Northfield Rotary Club and Downtown Development Corporation. Her media career began at the University of Michigan newspaper before joining Gannett’s Lansing State Journal.

Beyond supporting FLOW’s mission to protect the Great Lakes, Renee’s community involvement in Traverse City includes serving on Impact100 Traverse City’s board of directors, Rotary District 6290’s Life Leadership Conference staff and committee, and as a volunteer for Safe Harbor. She is a certified ski instructor and coach for the Grand Traverse Ski Club and enjoys skiing, singing, boating, biking and traveling.

Renee holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of St. Thomas. She lives on Old Mission Peninsula with her husband and daughter.

Benjamin Muth, an attorney based in Ann Arbor, teamed up with the National Wildlife Federation as the lead organizer of the “Oil and Water” film tour in Charlevoix, Kalamazoo, Ann Arbor, and Chicago in 2015-2016, which advocated for a shutdown of the Line 5 pipelines in the Straits of Mackinac. Muth also assisted the implementation of the Line 5 Michigan Business Coalition. And he conducted voter outreach and a candidate education campaign in Ohio surrounding harmful algal blooms.

Sarah Naperala has over 20 years of experience and has worked in the not-for-profit, research, technology and education fields. Most recently, she held leadership positions for over eight years as Human Resources Director and Special Projects Manager at Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (GTRLC). Today, Sarah supports non-profits as a consultant for various needs, including but not limited to: providing guidance and training to develop people (board and staff) and systems (policies, procedures, practices) to meet the goals of the organization; leading focus groups and gathering data to support project evaluation and decision making (public engagement and internal capacity audits); fund development review, training, and preparation of fund development strategic plans; guiding land trust’s to assess and prepare for first-time or renewal of Land Trust Accreditation status. In addition to her commitment as a member of the FLOW Board of Directors, Sarah volunteers in various roles for the Traverse City Area Public Schools, and as community coordinator for the Orchard Heights Neighborhood of Traverse City, Michigan. She recently collaborated with neighbors, city staff, city commissioners and funders to develop a site plan and implementation schedule to improve a 3-acre neighborhood city park. Sarah holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Michigan Technological University and resides in Traverse City, Michigan with her husband, and two children.

Lisa Wyatt Knowlton’s Education Doctorate includes specialties in management and policy. She holds a Masters of Public Administration and Bachelor of Arts in International Relations.

Twice she has served as CEO; with a trade association and a foundation. Additionally, her work history includes extensive assignments as senior counsel for a broad range of management and leadership issues in the private and public sectors. Past clients have included the Gates, W.K. Kellogg, Ford, and Ball Foundations as well as renowned associations, non-governmental organizations, and network charities such as Feeding America.

She has managed complex change initiatives and has served as a strategic planner, facilitator, and trusted advisor. As a Kellogg Leadership Fellow, Lisa worked in Central America, Europe, and Asia focused on microenterprise. Her areas of specialization include organization effectiveness, leadership, change management, systems thinking, and strategy. Lisa is a learning leader.

She speaks Spanish, is an adjunct university faculty (Notre Dame and Grand Valley State University), and authored a text on logic models used by Harvard University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Bank, Packard Foundations, and leading development institutions worldwide.

Lisa is managing principal for Wyatt Advisors (see: www.wyattadvisors.com), a resource for effective people and organizations. Lisa is an advocate for adoption, Great Lakes protection, and an avid cyclist. She is a board member with a refugee-serving collaborative. Recently, she established an education fund for girls in Peru.

Gary Appel is Director of the U.S. Department of Education funded Great Lakes Comprehensive Center (GLCC) and a Principal Consultant at the Washington D.C. based American Institutes for Research. As director of GLCC, he oversees capacity building technical assistance to the state education agencies in Michigan, Ohio and Indiana.  Previously, Appel worked for the Michigan Department of Education, where he was a professional development coordinator for a National Science Foundation statewide mathematics and science systemic reform initiative. Appel earned a master’s degree in science education from the University of Michigan and went on to direct the Life Lab Science Program in Santa Cruz, California. He is the co-author of Leading Lesson Study: A Practical Guide for Teachers and Facilitators, a book on a Japanese approach to teachers’ professional learning, and The Growing Classroom, a book for teachers on using school gardens as living laboratories for the hands on study of science in elementary schools.

Barbara was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Michigan from 1987 – 2003 and 2008 – 2011 where she served in the Attorney General’s Finance, Executive, Transportation and Municipal Affairs Divisions. She is a co-author of the chapter “Power to Formulate Local Policy,” Michigan Municipal Law, published by Institute of Continuing Legal Education, 2012.

Barbara also worked as an Administrative Law Judge and served as 92nd District Court Judge by appointment of Governor Jennifer Granholm.

Barbara served fourteen years on the Mackinac Bridge Authority and is currently a member of the St. Ignace Downtown Development Authority Board.

Barbara received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Vermont and a Juris Doctor from Cooley Law School.

Upon her retirement from the Attorney General’s office in 2011, Barbara returned to her native St. Ignace and Mackinac County where she currently resides.

JoAnne Cook, a member of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa/Chippewa Indians, is from Peshawbestown, Michigan. Her previous professional experience includes one term on Tribal Council (2012-2016) and with Tribal Courts as a Tribal Court Judge for two tribal communities (1994-2011). She received her Business Administration degree from Ferris State University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Wisconsin School of Law. 

JoAnne Cook was involved in the organization and development of two alternative courts: Peacemaking and Healing to Wellness Court (Drug Court). The alternative courts utilize tradition and culture which allows for healing and restoring balance for those involved.  She has begun consulting with native and nonnative communities who are either developing Peacemaking or a Healing to Wellness Court. 

She believes tradition and culture is vital to the Anishinabe way of life and has continued her learning about the 3 Fires people. JoAnne has presented to various communities on the way of life and culture of the Odawa. In addition, she previously taught Business Law for Northwestern Michigan College (NMC) and a course at NMC Extended Education, titled Native Law and Culture. JoAnne is currently teaching a short course, History of the Anishinaabek for NMC Extended Education. 

Phil Ellis is trained as a Clinical Psychologist and recently returned to part-time clinical work. He enjoys hiking, fly fishing, and spending as much time outdoors as possible. Phil believes that our resources are precious and that we are responsible to protect and steward them, now and for the benefit of future generations.

Joel Evenhouse is a registered investment adviser at Betterment in Traverse City, Michigan, working in the traditional financial services and investment management industry for most of his career. Joel is an outdoor enthusiast who likes to mountain bike, ski, SUP, fish, and explore all the area beaches. Joel earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Hope College.

With degrees in fisheries, Brett Fessell’s work over decades has ranged from negotiating tribal treaty rights to watershed restoration. Although forged in formal Western science-based education and technical training, his career was truly honed and tempered through immersion within the intricate Indigenous perspectives of the natural world.

The insights and abilities gained through life and work have afforded Brett a unique capacity in relating common and familiar perceptions of river health and service with the vastly unfamiliar, complex and multi-scale processes, functions and unperceived values of rivers, their watersheds and the life upon which they depend. Relevant specialties include: Watershed and river ecology, hydraulics and hydrology, geomorphology, grant writing, administration, project management and associated education and outreach.

Brett earned a Bachelor of Science in Fishery and Wildlife Management from Lake Superior State University and a Master of Science in Fishery Management from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Matthew L.M. Fletcher is Foundation Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law and Director of the Indigenous Law and Policy Center. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law, the University of Michigan Law School, the University of Montana Blewett School of Law, and Stanford Law School. He is a frequent instructor at the Pre-Law Summer Institute for American Indian students. He sits as the Chief Justice of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians Supreme Court and also sits as an appellate judge for the Colorado River Indian Tribes, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians, the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska, and the Tulalip Tribes. He is a member of the Grand Traverse Band.

He is the Reporter for the American Law Institute’s Restatement of the Law of American Indians. His newest book, Ghost Road: Anishinaabe Responses to Indian-Hating, was published by Fulcrum Publishing in 2020. His most recent law review articles appeared in the California Law Review, Michigan Law Review, and Stanford Law Review Online. His hornbook, Federal Indian Law (West Academic Publishing), was published in 2016 and his concise hornbook, Principles of Federal Indian Law (West Academic Publishing), in 2017. Professor Fletcher co-authored the sixth and seventh editions of Cases and Materials on Federal Indian Law (West Publishing 2011 and 2017) and two editions of American Indian Tribal Law (Aspen 2011 and 2020), the only casebook for law students on tribal law. He also authored The Return of the Eagle: The Legal History of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians (Michigan State University Press 2012), and American Indian Education: Counternarratives in Racism, Struggle, and the Law (Routledge 2008). He co-edited The Indian Civil Rights Act at Forty with Kristen A. Carpenter and Angela R. Riley (UCLA American Indian Studies Press 2012) and Facing the Future: The Indian Child Welfare Act at 30 with Wenona T. Singel and Kathryn E. Fort (Michigan State University Press 2009). Professor Fletcher’s scholarship has been cited by the United States Supreme Court; in more than a dozen federal, state, and tribal courts; in dozens of federal, state, and tribal court briefs; and in hundreds of law review articles and other secondary legal authorities. Finally, Professor Fletcher is the primary editor and author of the leading law blog on American Indian law and policy, Turtle Talk.

Professor Fletcher graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1997 and the University of Michigan in 1994. He has worked as a staff attorney for four Indian Tribes – the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, the Suquamish Tribe, and the Grand Traverse Band He previously sat on the judiciaries of the Grand Traverse Band, the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians; and served as a consultant to the Seneca Nation of Indians Court of Appeals. He is married to Wenona Singel, a member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, and they have two sons, Owen and Emmett.

Douglas Jester is a partner at 5 Lakes Energy and specializes in utility regulation and energy policy, research, and modeling.

Prior to joining 5 Lakes Energy, Doug served as senior energy policy advisor at the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor, and Economic Growth, where he applied scientific, engineering, and economic principles to the formation and adoption of energy policies for the state of Michigan.

Doug also served in various capacities at the Michigan Departments of Natural Resources (DNR) and Environmental Quality (DEQ) including chief information and technology officer at the DEQ and director of strategic planning at the DNR.  While at the DNR he personally conceived and led the efforts to develop Michigan’s first-in-the-world automated system to issue hunting and fishing licenses for which he was recognized by the Smithsonian Museum and ComputerWorld Magazine in 1994.  His work with the Los Alamos National Laboratory was used to develop ecosystem simulation models for managing Great Lakes fisheries and water quality.

Beyond his state of Michigan experience, Doug was director of government application solutions for MCI, chief technology officer of the Board of Automated License Systems, Inc. of which he was a member, a multi-year consultant to Verizon where he developed the company’s Smart Grid product architecture, design and implementation plans; and managing editor of the North American Journal of Fisheries Management for the American Fisheries Society.

Doug holds degrees from New Mexico State University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University.  He is an adjunct faculty member at Michigan State University.

He and his wife, Colleen, reside in East Lansing, Michigan, where he active in the community and a formerly served as mayor.

Bob Otwell has been a member of the FLOW board since 2013. He is the founder of Otwell Mawby PC, a Traverse City environmental consulting firm. He has degrees in Civil Engineering and has experience in groundwater and surface water hydrology, along with environmental studies and clean-up. Bob did a career switch and was the executive director of TART Trails from 2001 to 2010.

Bob and his wife Laura have three grown daughters and reside near downtown Traverse City. They utilize bicycles for most of their transportation needs.

Mike Vickery is past chair of FLOW’s board and as an advisor on strategic environmental communication, community engagement, and organizational capacity-building. He is an Emeritus Professor of Communication, Public Affairs, and Environmental Studies at Alma College where he was founding chair of the Department of Communication and served as Co-Director of the Center for Responsible Leadership.

Mike holds a PhD in Communication. His graduate work focused on public discourse and controversies related to technical and social value-conflicts. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at the University of Texas-Austin, the University of Arizona, Texas A&M University, and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. His areas of teaching, consulting, and applied scholarship include environmental rhetoric, risk communication, public health communication, and organizational communication.