Given her passion for hiking trails, Lauren Braden jumped at the chance to join the staff at Washington Trails Association (WTA) as the Communications and Outreach Director in 2003. WTA protects hiking trails and wild lands, takes volunteers out to maintain trails, and promotes hiking as a healthy and fun way to explore the outdoors. Lauren coordinates WTA’s media relations, messaging, outreach, and publicity. She developed WTA’s Families Go Hiking program in 2005m an educational and outreach program aimed at encouraging families to hit the trails.

About our Program:
Washington Trails Association has long had an interest in connecting kids with nature; our co-founder, guidebook author Ira Spring, coined the term “greenbonding.” In 2005, WTA launched a campaign aimed at families with kids of all ages to hit the trails. Families Go Hiking comprises educational materials, hands-on outreach, guided hikes, and workshops. In 2007, the organization added staff, youth programs coordinator Krista Dooley, to support this program and our high school trail maintenance field work.

Sheila Feldman Buckmaster, a senior editor at National Geographic Traveler, lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where she keeps a close eye on the local osprey, eagles, deer, rabbits, and fox.

In addition to editing feature stories, she is responsible for editing the Real Travel and Long Weekend sections of Traveler.

During her thirty-plus-year career, she has edited travel and wine publications for physicians; started a food, wine, and travel story/photo service for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate International; worked on staff at National Lampoon, Skiing, and Penthouse; and written for Elle, Harper's Bazaar, The Washington Post, and Washingtonian. She edited and wrote portions of a book on Eastern Shore landscape painter Kevin Fitzgerald.

She has ridden horses through Patagonia, the Italian countryside, Loire Valley, and along Maryland's rivers. Other pleasures she persues: gardening, cooking, and knitting.

Andy Dumaine is the Chief Marketing Guy for shrinkingfootprint.

Andy has plunged into the Orinoco River and been pushed into the Arctic Ocean.  He has been chased by elephants in Zambia, t-shirt vendors in Bali and motorcycle cops in Jamaica.  

Between trips Andy is an award-winning copywriter and creative director with twenty years in the advertising business.   He worked at some of the top global agencies—DDB and Ogilvy--before making the leap to agency owner in 1996.   His Baltimore-based creative firm, The Campbell Group, attracted some of the world’s most-recognized brands including National Geographic, Intercontinental Hotels and Resorts, The Ford Motor Company, Puerto Rico CVB and Baltimore CVB.   He has developed campaigns for airports, organic dog biscuits and everything in between.

Andy has seen how increasing tourism revenues can increase pressure on people and place.   His experiences sparked an interest in new tourism models that produce greater economic benefits with fewer side effects.  He recently launched a new venture, shrinkingfootprint, to develop low-impact tourism strategies for destinations and travel partners. 

Martin LeBlanc is the National Youth Education Director for the Sierra Club, based in Seattle, WA.

He was a troubled youth who had his life turned around through an outdoor experience as a teenager. Martin has worked as an outdoor educator in Seattle, and served as outdoor-education advocate for Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Martin believes that we "owe the next generation of American children a special place in nature so they can be empowered to solve the environmental challenges of the future."

Most recently Martin has been appointed Vice President of the Children and Nature Network www.CNatureNet.org

Laureen Lund has been the marketing director for Gig Harbor for eight years.

In that time she has built a tourism program and branded the community as a wonderful destination for visitors and a great place for residents. Gig Harbor is Washington's Maritime Village.

In 2005 Laureen got the idea for Healthy Harbor while at the State Tourism Convention and listening to a wildlife presentation. Laureen spent the next year thinking about and creating Healthy Harbor.

Healthy Harbor is a community health initiative. The goal behind Healthy Harbor is to get community members working, playing and interacting together. Nothing can make a healthier community than residents who spend time together. It's about personal health and being active, it's about environmental health and being pro-active, it's about cultural health and being interactive and it's about social and community health and working together to both build and maintain the things we love about living, working and playing in Gig Harbor.

It's my belief, that if the community loves itself, it will reflect positively on visitors in a way that will create economic growth. No one wants to visit an unhappy town. There is a way to work together towards overall community health but everyone needs to plays a role.

Jim Nelson’s career was in education for more than forty years, with picture-taking as a lifetime hobby. Now in his mid-seventies, photography has become his fun passion. Gig Harbor is home, and the natural primary focus of his images, but his portfolio also holds dramatic shots of animals, flowers, nature and scenes from all over the United States, Europe and Africa.

He graduated from Stadium High School in Tacoma in 1951, and went on to graduate with BA & MA degrees from the University of Puget Sound (UPS). He married Jan, his high school sweetheart, and focused his camera on their young family of four children. He taught in the public schools two years, and returned to UPS where he served as Director of Admissions for six years.

Jim then became a Vice President of the College Entrance Examination Board. He and the family moved east to New Jersey, with Jim commuting daily into New York City. For one year, he served with the Dept. of Education in Washington, D.C., as Director of all Federal Student Aid Programs.

During his twenty-five year career with the College Board, Jim traveled widely, visiting all fifty states, and much of Canada, Puerto Rico, Latin America and the Caribbean. He always carried a camera with him.

Jim and Jan took early retirement and returned home to the Northwest in 1988. They expanded their travel horizons and picture-taking to include much of Europe, Africa, Australia and New Zealand. Children and grand-children in New Jersey, Florida and Arizona also give them excellent reasons to travel and capture images here in the U.S.

The past few years have seen an increasing demand for Jim's photographs, including large-sized copies for many homes and businesses. Several tourism and visitor’s bureaus feature his scenic photography, and more than a dozen businesses use his images on their Internet sites and in their ads. He has been featured in one-person shows and has many awards.

Bob graduated from Stadium High School in 1951. In 1953, while majoring in Forestry and Radio /Television Production at Washington State College (University), he bought a Kodak Signet 35mm camera for taking slides during his summer job with the Forest Service. A Konica/Minolta A-2, a Canon 30D and a Panasonic FX07 are the working cameras with him to date and a variety of lenses. Photography has been a love throughout all his numerous experiences as a life guard; WSC Cheerleader; Forest Service Trail Crew; truck driver/salesperson for Northern Fish Products; and  the first student assistant Manager of the new swimming pool at College of Puget Sound in 1956 and an owner of various business’, but never fully a photographer by choice until the last number of years in retirement.

After graduating from CPS with a BA in Ed in 1958, he became a teacher at Curtis Jr. & Sr. High in University Place, WA where he taught English, Art, Pottery, Stagecraft, Speech and Drama and then to Marketing Education, as the coordinator, teaching Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Salesmanship, Merchandising, Personnel Management and Introduction to Marketing. His leadership roles have included being  President-Elect of the University Place Education Association, as well as, Treasurer. During the period between 1965 and 1970 Bob was a full time potter making hand thrown stoneware pottery just south of Fircrest, having stepped out of teaching to form a company, Newton Pottery. Bob’s pottery became a full and growing business that distributed pottery to over 37 different outlets throughout the Northwest. The 24 cubic foot gas fired kiln was loaded and emptied on a continual basis to meet the demand for his products. That experience encouraged further education in business and in 1970 teaching was again the vocation of choice along with the thriving pottery production. In 1970, Bob married his wife, Barbara, which immediately enlarged the family to six as a “Brady Bunch”. His interest in taking pictures became stronger as he filmed the many activities of that ambitious family. During 1978, Bob formed a new corporation, Sailing North, Inc., which imported boats from Taiwan. Photography was still a hobby at this time. This did, however, start his education in photographing the company’s activity and the travel in our sail boat to the upper regions of Puget Sound. The corporation dissolved in 1987 after nine years of excitement. Becoming President of the SeaFox Estates Homeowner’s Association  of Gig Harbor capped his leadership roles going into retirement.

Bob retired from teaching in 1992 and it was time to enjoy the “golden years”, photography became an obsession later when he found himself photographing the activities at his church and exhibiting. After receiving numerous awards in local photo shows, Bob was motivated to start doing some commercial work. His clients included: Smith-Western Company, shooting details at the Wynn, Venetian, and Caesar’s Hotels in Las Vegas, as well as, work for John L. Scott Real Estate doing website and houses for market and also website photos for Classic Reflections Coachworks. Recently, Tacoma Convention and Visitor’s Bureau contracted Bob along with a long-time friend, Jim Nelson, to take photos of historical sites of Pierce County for the 2007 visitor’s brochure.

Strong interest in creating something unusual from the straight photograph has intrigued and inspired Bob’s creative instincts. He likes detail, line, form, texture, and added strong color, as well as, objects and animals in nature as subjects. It is not uncommon to see him on his stomach aiming his camera at something near the ground surface. Recent travels to Alaska, Europe and Mexico have given his  photography the practice  needed to school his eye. While cruising on the Rhine, Main and Danube Rivers recently, and seeing the medieval castles and villages, Bob came upon a wealth of subjects.

Taking one day at a time and enjoying the complete beauty of nature and the seasons has become a passion, if not an obsession. Seeing a finished photo on paper is similar to opening a present or the gas-fired kiln of years past and seeing the newly fired and glazed stoneware pottery.