GBBO Board Members
Keiba Crear is the Manager of the Environmental Monitoring and Management Division for the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). Ms. Crear has been working with SNWA for 19 years and manages a team of biologists responsible for native restoration and biological monitoring in the Las Vegas Wash. She also responsible for SNWA’s Sustainability initiatives.
While employed for SNWA, she has helped facilitate the formation of the 31-member Las Vegas Wash Coordination Committee and has been instrumental in the creation and implementation of the Las Vegas Wash Comprehensive Adaptive Management Plan. She developed the Las Vegas Wash Mainstream Water Quality Monitoring Plan, Wetland and Riparian Restoration and Enhancement Program, Las Vegas Wash Community Outreach Programs, and is involved in numerous other research projects.
She graduated from Howard University in Washington, DC, with a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences. Keiba also believes in supporting her community as she serves as a Trustee on the Clark County Library District and the Library Foundation.
She is a native of New Orleans, Louisiana, and is married to Cedric Crear. They reside in West Las Vegas and have two beautiful daughters, Hagan and Kennedy.
Dana Hartley is a former employee of the Great Basin Bird Observatory who is currently servingas the Treasurer of the organization. He has a BS Degree in Business Management, BS in Computer Science, and is currently completing a MS in Geospatial Information Science and Technology.
In addition to being an avid birder and father of three, Paul is a faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) in the department of Mathematics & Statistics. He is also a faculty member of the Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Biology (EECB) graduate program at UNR. Paul has a B.S. degree in Mathematics and another B.S. in Biology and Chemistry, both from the University of Southern Colorado (now Colorado State University – Pueblo), and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Cornell University. Prior to moving to Reno in 2015, Paul was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Mathematical Biosciences Institute at The Ohio State University. Paul’s interest in birds has its roots in a childhood spent exploring the diverse habitats surrounding his hometown of Pueblo, CO. During his late teens, Paul’s birding interests continued to grow while he served on the board of the Arkansas Valley Audubon Society, and this trend continued through graduate school thanks to the strong birding community in Ithaca, NY. Paul has helped lead field trips for various organizations, and in May 2016 Paul was part of a team of four Reno-area birders who set a new state “Big Day” record of 171 species. Paul also currently serves on the Nevada Bird Records Committee.
Jeri acquired her love of birds and other wildlife growing up in her hometown of Jamestown, North Dakota. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in wildlife biology from Colorado State University, Fort Collins in 1993, and her Master of Science degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1998. She was a contractor for the Bureau of Land Management in Las Vegas while conducting research for her Master’s thesis on the use of mesquite woodlands in southern Nevada by phainopeplas and other avian species. Jeri worked as a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Las Vegas from 1999 until 2012, serving as the lead for Endangered Species Act related bird conservation, regulatory, and recovery actions in southern Nevada. She relocated to the Reno Fish and Wildlife Office in 2012, where she worked until she retired in 2019. Jeri was a member of the pioneer crew of the Nevada Statewide Bird Monitoring Program in 2002, and assisted with the Nevada Breeding Bird Survey and the development of the Nevada Comprehensive Bird Conservation Plan. She is a member of The Wildlife Society and Western Field Ornithologists. Her interests include hiking, gardening, nature and bird sketching, and sourdough bread baking, and she and her husband Jon enjoy traveling abroad to explore the fascinating cultures, history, and wildlife of other countries.
Laura retired from the Nevada Department of Wildlife with her last 10 years of service as the Division Administrator for the Wildlife Diversity Division. She was a Staff Habitat Biologist at NDOW before becoming Division Administrator. After retirement from NDOW, she worked for several years as a Conservation Planner for the Walker Basin Conservancy in Yerington, Nevada. Prior to moving to Nevada, Laura was a Regional Wildlife Biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Her current interests are travel, birdwatching, hiking, skiing, painting, and photography. She was born and raised in northeastern Kansas and received her B.S. in Biology from Kansas State University and then a M.S. from Texas Tech University in Wildlife Biology. She and her husband Ernie have lived in Carson City for 27 years and have two grown sons.
Jeanne has been interested in birds since she was four years old growing up in Pennsylvania; this led to a degree in biology from Shippensburg State College (now Shippensburg University). During the last semester in college, she was an intern at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Kempton, PA, and eventually worked there. Career highlights include banding birds for Louisiana State University; counting raptors on migration in Veracruz, Mexico; working as a General Biologist for the California Condor Recovery Program at Hopper Mountain NWR; volunteering at Ruby Lake NWR banding at the MAPS station, and establishing a new MAPS station at Mary’s River in Elko County; contracting with Great Basin Bird Observatory as a Field Ornithologist during the Breeding Bird Atlas; working for a variety of federal agencies as a contractor and in administrative positions; banding hummingbirds at Red Rock Canyon NCA; serving for ten years on the Nevada Bird Records Committee, writing and publishing NBRC reports in Western Birds; finishing out her career with Get Outdoors Nevada, and retiring in February 2023. Besides watching and photographing birds, butterflies and odonates, Jeanne also fills her time volunteering at national wildlife refuges.
Willie is a native of Nevada and has a BS degree in Wildlife Management from Utah State University. He was employed by the Nevada Department of Wildlife for thirty years and was director of that agency for over sixteen years. He is a past president of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. He was an original member of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Board and a long serving member of the Intermountain West Joint Venture Board. He makes his home in Reno, Nevada, and continues to pursue his passion for productive and sustainable lands and wildlife.