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 Youth 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 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.

Monique De La Luz, Monique De La Luz, CREC’s Administrative Specialist was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She loved being out doors as a kid and traveled a lot as well. She took a break from school and started working in Downtown Los Angeles and after many years decided she needed a change in pace and moved with her family to Williams, AZ in 2002 where she had vacationed every summer to visit family. While in Williams, she worked for the school district and coordinated an After School program. Soon after she started working for the County Emergency Services and learned about the CREC program. She loved meeting all the great CRECers coming through, and in 2007 she decided to join the CREC staff. She still continues to volunteer in the community and for the schools here in Flagstaff. She took another big step recently and decided to go back to school to further her education in “she will let you know as soon as she decides.” When she is not working, she loves spending time with her great kids and husband playing softball and just enjoying LIFE.

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 two dogs.

Pat Kelly Pat Kelly, CREC Woodsboss, was born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. He grew up working in his dad’s warehouse, building children’s playground equipment. Pat began doing conservation work with CREC in the summer of 2003 and went on to be a Crew Supervisor until 2006. He then went on to work various conservation-related jobs in Oregon and was on a Forest Service trail crew in Southwestern Colorado before returning to CREC. When not working his ass off, Pat enjoys climbing, kayaking, mountain biking and fishing.

Chris Ives, CREC's Field Operations Support hails from the town of Montgomery, New Jersey where he grew up working on his grandfather's beet farm and exploring in the nearby Sourland Mountains. After high school, he attended King's College in the historic city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania where he played varsity lacrosse and studied American History. After college Chris spent a summer building hiking trails at Philmont Scout Ranch in northeastern New Mexico, quickly realizing his love for conservation work and teaching in a more hands on environment. This led to a series of conservation jobs and apprenticeships, including forest restoration in Oregon and Nova Scotia, horse logging in New York state, technical trail work with the New York New Jersey Trail Conference at Bear Mountain State Park, and stints with both the Northwest Youth Corps and Southwest Conservation Corps. Chris is looking forward to nailing his boots to the floor for a while to invest himself in the CREC program, as well as spending some time getting into organic gardening and hopefully making it back out onto the lacrosse field.

Megan Gray
Megan Gray, CREC’s Logistics Specialist, was born and raised in northeast Ohio and never misses an opportunity to show her Ohio pride. Megan attended the University of Akron, and received her B.S. in e-Marketing and Advertising with a minor in Media Productions and immediately jumped into the workforce as an Account Manager at an elite Interactive Agency in Cleveland, Ohio. It didn’t take her long to grow restless in the cubicle world, and she soon found herself in Flagstaff working as a corps member for CREC and later joining the staff. When not working, Megan enjoys kicking the soccer ball around, cheering on the Cleveland Browns and singing her favorite Celine Dion songs as loud as possible.

Dyana McPherson
Dyana McPherson, CREC’s ECC Program Coordinator, was born and raised in San Diego County. Dyana has always been an avid camper and hiker since she was a child. Her love of Redwood country took her to Fortuna, CA as a Corpsmember for the California Conservation Corps Salmon Restoration Project and as an Intern for California Department of Fish and Game. Once her CCC term was up she then headed back to San Diego to be a Conservationist I for the CCC. Dyana ran crews for three years with the CCC, then returned to Northern California to live and work for CA Parks and Recreation. For the last eight years Dyana has been living in Kingman, AZ where she stayed home with her young children and attended Northern Arizona University’s college of Education. Dyana enjoys being a mom and spending time with her family.