Senior Fish Health Specialist, Fish Health Services, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Tony collected and raised tropical freshwater fish as a child in Cuba. After moving to the United States, he began raising a variety of tropical fish through high school and college and became interested in fish diseases. After graduating from Portland State University in Biology, Tony went to OSU and received his Masters and Doctorate in Fish Health at Oregon State University, focusing on parasites and diseases of fish.

As the Senior Fish Health Specialist for Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Tony continues to do diagnostics at a few hatcheries. Most of his work now entails management of the Fish Health Services program for the State.

Sauvie Island Wildlife Area, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Sue was born in Wisconsin on a dairy farm and grew up surrounded by wildlife, including turtles. Her early forays drew her to the woods where she was fascinated by wildlife. The strong conservation ethic instilled by her parents, led Sue to pursue a career to protect and help wildlife.

Along the way to becoming a biologist, Sue got sidetracked in college by several other interests. She trained show horses for about seven years, then left that profession and became a lead singer in several bands in nightclub acts and USO tour bands for the next 5 years.

In 1982, Sue moved to Oregon and finished her degree in biology. After college, Sue worked for the US Forest Service for 5 years, which included a short stint in Hawaii conducting research on humpback whales. In 1993, Sue took a job doing habitat restoration work for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife where she is currently employed. Besides working on habitat restoration, Sue spearheads conservation efforts to protect Oregon's native turtle species -- the western painted and western pond turtles. Working with local landowners, agencies and local cities, Sue is involved with habitat enhancement projects of turtle habitats, with the goal of protecting and increasing native turtle populations.

Sue's volunteer activities have included assisting with songbird surveys in Greece and conducting nesting surveys for leatherback sea turtles in Costa Rica.

AquaFish Collaborative Research Support Program

Jim Bowman has degrees in aquaculture from Auburn University and Oregon State University, and has been involved in aquacultural work in Southeast Asia, the southeastern US, the Caribbean, and Africa since 1970. He has training and experience in pond site evaluation, pond construction, soil/water interactions in ponds, and pond management, both for research/production ponds and for watershed/recreational ponds. Jim came to OSU as a graduate student in 1984, has been a member of the faculty of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife since 1994, and currently serves as Outreach and Capacity Building Coordinator for the AquaFish Collaborative Research Support Program.

Watershed Health Specialist, OSU Extension Sea Grant

Sam Chan is an Assistant Professor working on watershed health and aquatic invasive species with Sea Grant Extension in Oregon State University. Sam’s work focuses on understanding the pathways for invasive species to arrive and education and research on their prevention. Sam is currently the Chair of the Outreach and Education for the Oregon Invasive Species Council and served as the Chair of the Council in 2006. Prior to joining the Sea Grant Extension Program, Sam served as research plant physiologist with the USDA Forest Service studying the management and restoration of riparian forests, streamsides and wetlands.

Santiam Valley Ranch -- Warm Water Fish Farm and President, Hydrokinetic Systems

Ken grew up in what was a semi-rural part of Portland, surrounded by ponds and sloughs formed by the Columbia River, that were heavily populated with turtles, carp, multiple species of warm water fish and even an occasional salmon. It was here that he learned to love fish and wildlife, and later became adept at fly fishing and tying flies.

After graduating from Portland State University in chemistry, he worked in the wood products industry before starting his own business in the eighties, building wastewater and water purification systems for industrial and high tech clients. Since the mid-nineties he has focused his efforts on recovery and reuse of water through membrane based systems.

Ken combined his childhood affinity towards fish and wildlife, coupled with 30 years of water purification experience, to design an aquaculture re-circulation systems at Santiam Valley Ranch. Here, nineteen ponds produce an array of warm-water fish, which are collected and held in the current fish holding facility using a combination of bio-filtration, ozone and ultraviolet to produce pathogen free re-circulated water.

Santiam Valley Ranch is licensed by Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife as a Fish Propagator since 1982, and provides largemouth bass, bluegill, black crappie, pumpkinseed, yellow and brown bullhead catfish, channel catfish and mosquito fish to pond owners in Oregon and Washington.

Department of Fisheries & Wildlife, Oregon State University

Stan got his B.S. degree at the University of Tennessee in 1971, working in the fish museum with Dave Etnier and working on Lake Michigan in the summers. He received his M.S. and PhD degrees from Oregon State University in 1974 and 1980. He worked for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in the Pacific Northwest from 1977-1981. He has been a faculty member in the Department of Fisheries & Wildlife at OSU since 1981. Stan has been a leader of the Stream Team at Oregon State for more than two decades. He has studied streams, rivers, and lakes in the Pacific Northwest, and has been leading studies of the Willamette River for the last 15 years. His recent research with David Hulse produced a book entitled “Willamette Basin Atlas: Trajectories of environmental and ecological change” in 2002. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the study of limnology and freshwater ecology at OSU for more than 25 years.

Manager, Desert Springs Trout Farm

Ethan is a native of Oregon who, with the exception of a couple years in Alaska, grew up on the coast. In 1982 he moved to central Oregon and upon high school graduation entered the local work force. He returned to Alaska in 1987 where he worked as a commercial fisherman for 5 years.

In the spring of 1993, Ethan was lured to Summer Lake by his father and business partners to manage their newly acquired fish hatchery. He has found this to be a both challenging and rewarding career. For the past 15 years, he has managed Desert Springs Trout Farm, raising 4 children and around 8 million trout.

Habitat Biologist, High Desert Region, Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife

Larry has worked for 21 years with the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife. During that time he has worked with the fish screens program in Enterprise, on Elkhorn Wildlife Area and Fern Ridge Wildlife Area, and currently works with habitat protection, restoration and improvements on private lands as a Habitat Biologist for ODFW in Bend. He works as manager of the Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management Program in Deschutes County. He also works as the Access & Habitat Program regional coordinator, developing projects to improve habitat and provide public access to private lands for hunting, fishing and viewing recreation.

As an immigrant from Iowa and graduate of Iowa State University, he has come a long way from corn, hogs and soybeans. Larry grew up on a livestock and crop production farm, where he developed his passion for the wild things living in the terrestrial and aquatic habitats of the farm. He graduated with a bachelor degree from the Fisheries and Wildlife program at ISU, and moved to Oregon 23 years ago in pursuit of employment and adventure. Happily, he has found both!

Agribusiness Management Consultant

Dr. Schmisseur, an emeritus faculty member in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at Oregon State University, is an agribusiness management consultant. He has just recently completed a study to identify and assess market opportunities and strategies for Oregon’s freshwater aquaculture producers. Other consulting efforts have evaluated market share of fresh and frozen fryers in Western Oregon for Foster Farms Inc. of Los Angles, CA and evaluated the economics of producing fuel grade alcohol from farm-produced grains, residues, and specialty crops for Ethanol International Inc of Denver, CO.

During his 33 year tenure at Oregon State, Dr Schmisseur was Head Undergraduate Advisor for his department, taught management, macroeconomics, and computer applications courses, and did resource economics research in irrigation water management, dry land range management, waste thermal and geothermal fluid utilization for agriculture applications, and evaluated risk and uncertainty for Jordan wheat farmers adopting U.S. wheat varieties and production technologies.

Dr. Schmisseur was born and raised on a dairy farm just outside East Saint Louis Illinois. He is a graduate of Dairy Science at the University of Illinois, Dairy Management at Purdue, and Production Economics at Purdue.

Environmental Sciences & Resources Director, Center for Lakes and Reservoirs, Portland State University

Mark has a B.S. in biology from Iowa State University, and M.S. in Environmental Science and Engineering from the University of Washington, and a Ph.D. from the University of California-Davis. He has been on the faculty at Portland State for 14 years where he is the director of the Center for Lakes and Reservoirs and the Aquatic Bioinvasion Research and Policy Institute. He is also a research associate at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He is in his third term as chair of the Oregon Invasive Species Council. He wrote and is responsible for implementation of the Oregon Aquatic Nuisance Species Management Plan and works closely with the Departments of Agriculture, Fish and Wildlife, and Environmental Quality on aquatic invasive species management. His research includes work on the biology and management of aquatic weeds in Oregon, Wyoming, California, Idaho, Washington and Alaska, Vietnam, and Panama.

Restoration & Enhancement Coordinator, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Laura Tesler works for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Salem and has been involved in the fisheries field since 1991. In her current capacity at ODFW, Laura is the Coordinator for the Fish Restoration and Enhancement Program, a program that enhances angling opportunities across Oregon by distribution of grant funds.  Laura also manages the Grass Carp Stocking program for Oregon. Laura graduated from Oregon State University with a B.S. in Fisheries Science in 1996. 

Originally hailing from Michigan, Laura grew up fishing for bass, walleye, pike, brook trout, muskellunge, perch, and many varieties of “panfish”. Laura is involved with the the North American Native Fish Association, NW Steelheaders, Trout Unlimited, and Oregon Trout. Laura just completed Rescue Diver SCUBA certification and is working towards Divemaster certification.