YERC Board of Directors
Kenneth Wilson
Ken Wilson is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at Colorado State University where he served on the faculty from 1991-2020, including Department Head from 2006-2018. He enjoyed teaching over 10 courses ranging from freshmen to graduate level. Ken, his students, and colleagued conducted research on wildlife management, conservation, and ecology related to impacts of human activities on wildlife, population ecology especially of small mammals, and understanding patterns of species richness and our ability to predict species distributions across the landscape. In addition to enjoying work on his old house and more time in nature, he is excited to help YERC fulfill its conservation vision.
Bill Stoddart
Bill Stoddart is president/founder of NorthFork Financial, a fiduciary planning and advisory firm that integrates wealth and purpose and that manages ~$90mm in client assets and 45North Partners, a private wealth advisory firm with ~$30mm in assets that focuses on helping clients make direct impact investments. He is also co-founder and president of HomeStake Venture Partners, an investment firm which promotes community resilience by localizing wealth opportunities in direct collaboration with its portfolio companies. Bill was part of the inaugural cohort of the Just Economy Institute, where he worked with fellow financial activists from across the country as they designed a variety of initiatives to further social justice and environmental sustainability. He has served on the Montana Wilderness School and Headwaters Economics Boards for the past three years and recently joined the Yellowstone Ecological Research Center’s board as well. He also serves on the Board of Cibus Biotechnologies, a HomeStake portfolio company, and is active with several national impact investing groups, including Confluence Philanthropy, Social Venture Institute and Social Venture Circle.
David Gill
David joined YERC’s Board in 2019 after retiring early with 30+ years in the aerospace industry in positions of executive leadership of complex systems designed to capture value for multiple stakeholders. David’s experience as well as personal interests in YERC were matched. David intends to support YERC by bringing his unique outside perspective to support its mission and vision. David is using his current knowledge and learning adaptability to YERC to the development of the innovative field station concept as well as modeling and simulation methods that adapt and evolve to improve science and decision making using verified data and models to one of America’s most important ecosystems and its community of stakeholders. David enjoys traveling, bicycling and hiking through natural areas as well as construction management of projects designed to meet current and future needs of its users.
Dennis Butcher
Dennis Butcher is a retired physician from Jackson, Wyoming where he and family have lived for 41 years. He grew up in northeastern Ohio, with a fascination for any kind of bug. Catching Japanese Beetles earned him a dime for each one quart Mason jar. After earning AB and MS degrees at Brown University, he moved to Cleveland then Denver to complete medical training. He always had a yearning for the West after two family vacations at ages 6 and 12. A serendipitous mix-up in his medical school schedule landed him in Jackson Hole for two months in 1976 and, when a medical practice opportunity arose there in 1979, the decision was an easy one.
Dennis and his wife, Marian, raised two daughters in Jackson. Still enjoying the fishing, hiking and birding of Wyoming in the summers, they spend winters in southern Arizona or the Bahamas.
Dennis became an avid fly fisherman in his early 20s and has been fortunate enough to fish around the world in fresh and salt water. He has served on the Board of the Jackson Hole One Fly since 2001, focusing mainly on stream conservation projects with funds raised at that Event.