In no particular order, CREC's staff consists of:

Jeff Davis, CREC’s Senior Administrative Coordinator, was born and raised in New York City before moving to the Adirondack region of Upstate New York. After stints in Vermont and New Orleans during his late teens he moved West and has since been directly involved in the conservation world for the last nine years. He has previously worked for three other corps programs--most notably Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, Steamboat Springs where he started out as a backcountry crew supervisor before ending as their full-time Project Manager. Jeff recently moved to Flagstaff from Girdwood, Alaska secure in the knowledge that Northern Arizona has a place in his heart, being an alumni of Prescott College. Jeff has been to all 50 states and has trekked and traveled throughout South America and the Carribean. When not pursuing his love of conservation, Jeff is also intensely passionate about traveling, cooking, creating music, live music, playing and trekking in the outdoors, and reading and writing, although not necessarily in that order. Chess and Yoga rank high on his leisure list as well.

Allison Laramee, CREC's Projects & Partnerships Coordinator, was born and raised in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. Ali attended college at Warren Wilson College in Asheville North Carolina where she majored in Environmental Studies, played on the women’s soccer team and worked for the Natural Resources Crew. Thus she began her career in conservation work. Ali has served in several positions with conservation corps over the years, including a member with Northwest Conservation Corps, a crew leader and VISTA with Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC) and as a supervisor with American Conservation Experience. Ali most recently worked as a Program Coordinator for SCC developing and implementing a youth Community Corps program for 14 and 15 year olds. While not active in conservation work, Ali enjoys cross country and tele skiing, African dance, canoeing, knitting and joining folks at the gym for step/power/funk class.

Alan Kaufmann, CREC’s Sr. Field Operations Coordinator, is fond of saying that he is “kinda from all over”. After stints in MD, VA, MI, and CA, he attended Pomona College, earning a B.S. in Geology with minor concentrations in Ecology and Anthropology. He spent time in ID, CO, MN, NM and VT (plus as few others) before coming to Flagstaff in 1997 to pursue a Master’s degree in Forestry from NAU. He has now lived here longer than anywhere else, and considers Northern Arizona his home. Alan’s career has been somewhat bipolar, flipping back and forth between outdoor education and natural resource management. He has led over 100 wilderness trips for Boy Scout high adventure bases in MN and NM, and a wilderness therapy program here in Northern Arizona. He has also worked on a wilderness trail crew, led an integrated pest management crew, and worked for four seasons in fire management. Before coming to CREC, he managed the equipment vehicles and facilities for the NAU School of Forestry while delivering pizza on the side. When not at work, Alan pursues his interests in primitive survival skills, Taoist practice (Qi gong, meditation, herbalism), playing music on the banjo and Native American flute, reading copious amounts of science fiction (as well as any other good book he can get his hands on), and spending time in the company of trees and other friends.

Olivia Markham, CREC’S Interim Shop Manager, was raised in the small, rural farm town of Flora, Illinois but realized her love for the outdoors and the West as a young teenager. After completing her B.S. in Geography at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Olivia moved to Flagstaff to obtain her M.A. in Geography from NAU and is focusing her studies in outdoor winter survival and snow structures, in particular, quinzees. After a short stint with CREC as a corpsmember in 2005, Olivia tried her hand at a variety of jobs but soon missed the feeling of a chainsaw in her hands and the company of fun loving corpsmembers. When not turning up earth for trails or working on saws in the shop, you can find Olivia’s feet strapped to skis, wandering through canyons, pedaling in the woods, or propelling her through tranquil swimming holes.

Matt Mrazek, CREC's Youth Programs Coordinator, grew up camping and recreating outdoors. After graduating from Kent State University Matt took a job with a wilderness therapy program where he slept in handmade shelters and led backpack, canoe, and mountain bike trips with at risk youth in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina for several years. After struggling with the decision to move on, Matt traveled across the country and settled in Flagstaff, where he has volunteered for several youth organizations and married his wife on the San Francisco Peaks. Matt took a job with CREC in November 2004 reaffirming his passion to work with youth in the outdoors.

Miquelle Scheier, CREC's Senior Manager, started life in southern California, splitting her time between the ocean and her horses. After attending several colleges in California, she finished her degree at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff. While serving as a VISTA volunteer on the Navajo Reservation Miquelle fell in love the Southwest, its endless blue sky, and all the varied landscapes it has to offer, and knew that it would be her home. It was in Flagstaff that she fell in love, raised her family, and has happily lived and worked for the last 35 years. While Miquelle's background is in Social and Human Services, her love is youth development, where she has spent most of her professional career developing programs and hoping to make a difference for young persons looking for an opportunity to discover the things that they were meant to do, and to explore this wonderful Southwest that she calls home. When CREC was looking for a home in 1999, Miquelle brought it into the Community Services family of programs, and, according to her, the development of CREC has been one of the things of which she is most proud.

Ehren Siebert, CREC’s Field Operations Program Coordinator, was born in Agana, Guam, and raised as an Air Force brat all over the country. Since high school, Ehren has pursued several different fields of study, including philosophy, religion, film, electrical engineering, and finally settling on the culinary arts. After culinary school in Ohio, he moved to New Orleans, where he cooked for two years, and met his fiancée-to-be, Kendra. Along came Hurricane Katrina, which relocated both of them to Arizona, where they began working for CREC. Once his 900-hour term was finished, he went back to cooking at a restaurant in downtown Flagstaff. Unable to stay away, however, he soon came back to CREC as the Assistant Shop Manager, and since January has been trying to replace the irreplaceable Dani Nelson. Ehren and Kendra will be married this June in Indiana, her home state. They enjoy hiking with their dog Zoe, traveling around the Southwest, and cooking fantastic meals.

Katie Shepley, Katie Shepley, CREC’s Training and Education Coordinator hails from the great state of confusion known as Connecticut. During her junior year at Mary Washington College, Katie braved the elements and studied abroad with Costa Rican Rainforest Outward Bound School where she spent a semester hiking across Costa Rica, surfing, figuring out how to get out of hip deep mud, whitewater kayaking, high alpine mountaineering, and teaching at a local village. It was here that Katie’s love for teaching and the environment solidified, and her love for travel and new places became a passion. After graduating with two degrees, one in anthropology and another in psychology, she set out to quench her wander lust which lead her to places like Australia, Guatemala, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, and finally to Arizona where she worked as a supervisor with American Conservation Experience and then as a Corpsmember, YCC mentor, and supervisor with CREC. When not at work you can find her singing and playing guitar, freezing in 70 degree weather, and van-ering when the opportunity arises.

Dustin Woodman, CREC's Program Manager, was born and raised in Tucson, Arizona. His love for the environment and his outdoor skills were developed in the arid Sonoran Desert, and he is still known to hug a Saguaro or two on occasion. In 1997, Dustin moved to Flagstaff to join the Northern Arizona Conservation Corps in their first year of operation. Since then, he has owned his own business specializing in energy efficient home renovation and worked as a river guide on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. A graduate of Northern Arizona University and married to his wife, Nicole, he has rejoined the CREC team to further his goals of community involvement, environmental conservation and stewardship. Dustin enjoys backpacking, hiking, mountain biking, playing the drums, and continually being reminded of the virtues of patience while playing with his three dogs.

Aaron T. Grant, Aaron T. Grant/ ATG, MACC Crew Supervisor was born and raised in downtown Houston, TX. He went to college in Houston, Albuquerque NM, Denton TX, and Flagstaff. He worked for CREC in the summer of 2004 and only wanted to return for the two years after that. He returned to CREC in 2006, then worked for the National Park Service for the year of 2007. His favorite part of the Park job was serving as the Project Partner for CREC and ACE crews. Now he is extremely happy to be back at CREC. Aaron enjoys camping, playing Frisbee; hanging out with other CRECer’s doing conservation work, and eating and making Mexican food. Aaron loves living in, seeing, exploring, and working in the Great American West.

Mike Murphy, Mike Murphy, CREC 1700 hour supervisor, was born and raised in Farmington Hills, MI which is a few miles outside of Detroit. He graduated with a BS in computer aided design and manufacturing from Eastern Michigan University. He spent four months in 2005 hiking on the Appalachian Trail. He joined CREC as a Corpsmember in January 2007. In May of 2007 he became a YCC co-leader with CREC and in September of 07 he became an assistant crew leader for a 900 hour term. He enjoys anything outside, especially hiking, snowboarding, and climbing.