Board of Directors
Sandy Skrien
Secretary Sandy Skrien retired from the US Forest Service working as the National Program Manager for Wilderness for the Forest Service in Washington DC after 40 plus years. Sandy served on and chaired the Interagency Wilderness Steering Committee and with peers in the Washington Office and regional offices on wilderness policy and programs. She was the advisor to the Chief’s Wilderness Advisory Group.
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Sandy grew up near the BWCAW on the Canadian border in Minnesota and began her career on the Superior National Forest writing wilderness permits, working as a wilderness ranger, winter and summer trails crews and YCC crew leader. She spent 20 years on the Tongass National Forest working in two large visitor centers and on two districts as recreation, wilderness, land and minerals staff officer. She returned to the Superior to be the Public Service Team Leader for eight years before serving in the Washington Office.
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She has a BS in Biology, a minor in Environmental Studies from St. Cloud State University and an emphasis in secondary education. A lifelong learner, she completed post graduate classes in several states and completed a two-year lay ministry course in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. She has served as a lay minister and music minister in three ELCA congregations in Alaska and Minnesota.
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Sandy’s lives in Minnesota with her husband Wayne and yellow labs Cedar and Juniper. They have children, grandchildren and great grandchildren in various states. Sandy and her husband enjoy boating, fishing, gardening and wood carving.
N (Taylor) Taylor
Taylor retired from the Forest Service in May 2025 as the Wilderness-Wild & Scenic Rivers program manager for the Pacific Northwest Region. She was in the same position for the Eastern Region of the Forest Service before moving to Oregon and spent time on the Rio Grande (Colorado), Custer-Gallatin (Montana), and Humboldt-Toiyabe (Nevada) National Forests working in recreation and natural resources. Because retirement from federal service came much earlier than expected, Taylor has happily stayed engaged with the Society for Wilderness Stewardship, River Management Society and other organizations focusing on community building and training to support people who are engaged in stewardship and management of these unique lands and waters. Before the Forest Service, she was a ski patroller with emphasis on her work as an EMT and SAR dog handler. The constant in her life is a deep love of being outdoors in the high desert and mountains year round with her canine friends (border collie mix Anna is in the photo).
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Leah Zamesnik
Leah Zamesnik is the Partnership Coordinator with the National Forest Foundation based in Missoula, Montana where she is implementing partnership strategies in forest and regions across the country in order to help build agency capacity and resources. Previously, she worked for conservation and Wilderness advocacy organizations in Jackson, Wyoming where she partnered closely with the Forest Service on multiple collaborative projects, including Wilderness inventories, educational outings, a new direction for Big Horn Sheep management, and multiple NEPA projects. It was in Jackson that her love of Wilderness grew as she spent countless hours finding Solitude in the Gros Ventre, skiing in the Jedidiah Smith, and standing in breathless awe of the beauty of the Bridger. Leah graduated from Colorado State University with a Master's of Science in Human Dimensions of Natural Resources and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from the College of William and Mary. In her spare time, you can find her in a hammock reading, chasing her dog in Wilderness throughout the country, failing at self-taught craft projects, and video-chatting with her nieces.