STAFF
Executive Director
Jeremy Vesbach
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Jeremy was born in Fairbanks, Alaska and grew up in Hardin, Montana, a small town located at the junction of the Bighorn and Little Bighorn Rivers on the border of the Crow Indian Reservation. Nearly every free moment growing up was spent outdoors. Jeremy graduated from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in a program called “Biological Aspects of Conservation” - which is a field of study designed by New Mexico Wildlife Federation founder, Aldo Leopold. Jeremy moved to Albuquerque in 2002, after several years of working as a journalist and volunteering with conservation causes in Montana and Oregon. Because wildlife and the outdoors have so enriched his life, Jeremy feels privileged to be able to devote his working life to passing on and improving these opportunities for future generations.
Communications Director
Joel Gay
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Joel grew up in Albuquerque’s North Valley and spent his childhood roaming the Rio Grande bosque, as well as fishing, hiking and skiing the mountains of New Mexico with family and friends. His love of the outdoors eventually led him to Alaska, where he enjoyed the northern life for nearly 30 years. He worked at newspapers in Homer and Anchorage, built a house, raised a family and caught a lot of salmon before returning to Albuquerque in 2005. Since then he has renewed his bonds with New Mexico, revisiting the wild and scenic places of his childhood. Most days, however, he can still be found roaming the Rio Grande bosque after work, admiring the conservation efforts of Aldo Leopold nearly a century ago.
Development Director
Michelle Briscoe
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Michelle grew up exploring her family’s small tract of virgin timber on the Cedar River in central Iowa. She learned from her grandfather and father at a very early age the responsibility she and every person has to protect wildlife so it may be enjoyed by future generations of hunters, anglers, photographers, and observers. After graduating from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with business marketing degree and a focus in environmental science, she worked with a variety of nonprofits in the Washington, DC area. Michelle moved to New Mexico in 2003 in search of a lot less concrete and is thrilled by the opportunity to once again be working to preserve the responsible use of wild lands.
Rio Grande Program Director
Alan Hamilton
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A native of Colorado, Alan has lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 1981 with his wife Sarah and daughters Emma and Laura. Along with his family, the cultures and landscapes of New Mexico have become primary sources of inspiration which motivates and informs his work. Dr. Hamilton is presently working as a psychologist in private practice and concurrently as the Rio Grande Program Director for the New Mexico Wildlife Federation. He is also the executive director of BackTalk, a community based therapy program for adolescents, and a board member of several organizations including: Conservation Voters New Mexico, The New Mexico Water Dialogue, and the S.B. Foundation.
Campaign Coordinator
John Cornell
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John grew up in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and developed a passion for the outdoors and hunting at a young age. He pursued this interest in the outdoors and his concern for managing its resources through a degree in Forest Management at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in the mid-1970s. John has had a diverse career in the forest products industry and later in mortgage banking and general contracting. He has been privileged to live with his wife Cindy in rural Southwest New Mexico since 2003 and enjoys the opportunities available to recreate in the abundant public lands New Mexico has to offer. As Campaign Coordinator for Reform of the 1872 Mining Law, John is working to insure that wildlife habitat and clean water are protected for New Mexico’s current and future generations. John is currently President of the Berrenda Creek Ranch Homeowners’ Association Board and of the Hillsboro Community Library Board. He enjoys his days in the field with his Lab, Apache, and Pointer, Sofie.
National Wildlife Federation Regional Director
Kent Salazar
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Kent is a lifelong resident of New Mexico and an avid hunter and outdoors person. His family roots are in Northern New Mexico. He currently lives in Albuquerque, but still has farms in Lucero and Peralta, New Mexico. Kent has a B.S. in Biology from the University of New Mexico, and is retired from the City of Albuquerque Environmental Health Department where he served as a division manager for twenty years. He also worked for Wilson Engineering as an environmental planner and served as coordinator for the Land of Enchantment Clean Cities program, a nonprofit alternative fuels coalition. He currently operates an environmental consulting business.
National Wildlife Federation Regional Representative
John Gale
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After growing up in Idaho and working for the state senate while feeding an outdoors addiction as a whitewater river guide and ranger, John received degrees in Natural Resource Management from the University of Idaho. John later moved to Washington D.C. to direct a variety of grassroots conservation programs for Trout Unlimited. At the end of 2005, John returned to the West, working for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) in Boulder, Colorado. As NWF’s Regional Representative for NM, AZ, UT, and NV, John oversees and collaborates wildlife conservation efforts in those states. His primary goals for state development include building resources that will help NWF and its affiliates grow bigger, stronger, and more financially prepared to face the challenges of wildlife conservation - it’s also nice when he gets to go hunting, fishing, and exploring to appreciate the conservation work that ties him to the office.