Science Policy Forums

Monica Lear has worked in natural resource management for 28 years. Past professional experience includes state government management at the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as county agent in New Orleans, Louisiana for the LSU AgCenter, and as an extension agent in Arlington County, Virginia for the Virginia Tech/Virginia Cooperative Extension.

Prior to joining the USDA Forest Service in June 2014, Dr. Lear was the Deputy Associate Director of the Urban Forestry Administration and District of Columbia State Forester at the District of Columbia Department of Transportation in Washington, DC.  At the Forest Service, she was the Director of Forest Health Protection in State and Private Forestry, Associate Deputy Chief in Research and Development and currently Station Director at the Rocky Mountain Research Station.   She has served on national advisory councils and taskforces in Urban and Community Forestry and held leadership positions in regional and national state forester associations. She has earned Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Plant Health and a B.S. in Horticulture from Louisiana State University.

Erich Schaitza is a forest engineer who has worked at Embrapa for 32 years. His experience ranges from research in wood technology and small-scale industrialization, integrated energy system technology, and integration between research and extension to management of multi-institutional programs for soil, water, and biodiversity conservation.

This diverse professional experience has served him in roles such as Deputy Head of Communications and Business. International Coordinator for Embrapa Forestry, Coordinator of the Embrapa Regional Office for Africa in Accra, Ghana, and currently as Head of Embrapa Forestry.

In IUFRO, he took an active role in the Latin American and Caribbean Information Systems Network and served as Brazil's representative to the International Council. He currently is the President´s Nominee to Latin America.

In his opinion, one of the main challenges in the areas of forests and agriculture right now is adapting to climate change and changing the way we farm. Fire prevention and control is a strategic point in this process of adaptation. 

Randy Moore was sworn in as Chief of the USDA Forest Service in August 2021.

Previously, he served as Regional Forester in the Pacific Southwest Region in California from 2007 to 2021, where he had responsibility for 18 national forests covering one-fifth of the state on 20 million acres of land. Additionally, he oversaw State and Private Forestry programs in California as well as Hawaii and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands. Previously, Randy served as the Regional Forester for the Eastern Region headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisc., for five years.

Randy started his career in conservation in 1978 with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in North Dakota. His Forest Service career began on the Pike and San Isabel National Forests in Colorado and the Comanche and Cimarron National Grasslands in Kansas. He served as Deputy Forest Supervisor on the National Forests of North Carolina and the Mark Twain National Forest in Missouri before serving as Forest Supervisor of the Mark Twain National Forest. Randy also has national-level experience in Washington, D.C., serving as acting Associate Deputy Chief for the National Forest System and the National Deputy Soils Program Manager.

Randy earned a bachelor’s degree in plant and soil science from Southern University in Baton Rouge, La. He and his wife Antoinette have two sons, a daughter-in-law and two grandsons.

Yucundo Araón Estrada was born in Chiapas, México. He is an Agricultural Engineer specialized in Forests since 1978, graduated from the Autonomous University Chapingo, Mexico. He holds a Master's Degree in Sustainable Forest Management from the Colegio de Postgraduados México. He has worked in State and Federal agencies, as well as Forest Service Provider at the private level, is a Forestry Expert, and has worked in the Forest Industry. He has participated in the coordination and elaboration of two State Forest Laws and their Regulations, as well as a National Forest Law.

He has over 20 years of experience in wildfires. He coordinated the National Fire Management Center of Mexico and is currently the Undersecretary of Forest Development and Botanical Gardens of the Government of the State of Chiapas. He has had national and international training in the United States of America and Canada in wildfires, in the Forest Fire Hazard Prediction System and in the Incident Command System. He has been Commander of the "Mexican National Incident Team" in complex forest fires. He is a national and international instructor in the Incident Command System and Incident Management Teams in several countries in Central and South America.

Sarah McCaffrey is a Research Forester in the Human Dimensions program at the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station.  Her research focuses on the social aspects of fire management. This work has included projects examining wildfire risk perception and risk communication, social acceptability of prescribed fire and thinning, incentives for creation and maintenance of defensible space, and social issues that occur during and after fires such as evacuation decision making and agency-community interactions.  More recent work is examining barriers to use of fire as a management tool and how the fire management system might better allow for more holistic consideration of both social and ecological concerns.  She received her BA from Stanford University and her PhD in Wildland Resource Science from the University of California at Berkeley.

Dr. Dan Thompson has worked as a wildfire research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service since 2011.  His research is focused primarily on boreal wildfire and its impacts using an environmental physics framework.  He is a member of the Canadian Forest Service Fire Danger Rating Group that is revising the Canadian Fire Weather Index and Fire Behaviour Prediction systems in anticipation of a large 2025 system update.

He is the science co-lead for the Pelican Mountain experimental fire project, funded by Alberta Wildfire Management Branch out of Wabasca, Alberta.  The project has yielded two large experimental crown fires (2015 and 2019) and numerous smaller experimental fires to investigate fuel treatment impacts on fire behaviour and associated ecological impacts.

His interest in the application of his research and wildfire science overall extends to his training and designation as a nationally-certified Fire Behaviour Analyst, where he provides projections of fire behaviour and spread to Incident Management Teams. Notable deployments include Fort McMurray 2016, British Columbia 2017 and 2021, and Prince Albert National Park 2018.

Aida Baldini Urrutia is a Chilean forest engineer currently working at the Chilean National Forest Corporation (CONAF) as Manager of Protection Against Forest Fires.

She has broad professional experience as a professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco (Argentina), Academia de Guerra do Chile, and as an international consultant for various Latin American countries.

Frank Kanawha Lake received a Bachelor of Science degree from University of California-Davis (1995) in Integrated Ecology and Culture with a minor in Native American Studies. In 2007 Frank completed his Ph. D. graduate degree from Oregon State University, Environmental Sciences Program. He is currently working for the US Forest Service-Pacific Southwest Research Station, Fire and Fuels Program, on tribal and community forestry and related natural resource issues. His research focuses on restoration ecology and the incorporation of Indigenous knowledge into landscape restoration strategies, wildland fire and forest management in the Pacific Northwest and northern California. He has a research interest in wildland fire and management effects on cultural resources and tribal values. He is a fireline qualified Resource Advisor and has worked with tribes, agencies, organizations, and Incident Management Teams on wildland fire assignments. Frank serves as an advisor to TNC’s Indigenous Peoples Burning Network. Recently, more of his focus is working with tribes and for how indigenous knowledge can be incorporated into scientific climate change research to support tribal vulnerability, adaptation and mitigation planning and related strategies. Frank as many co-authored articles, book chapters, webinar and other technology transfer science products co-developed with a diverse range of collaborators. He has served as leadership of the TEK section of the Ecological Society of America from 2014-present. For the Pacific Southwest Research Station, Frank is the Tribal Liaison & Climate Change contact, and lead coordinating scientist for the Redwood Experimental Forest and Western Klamath Restoration Partnership landscape collaborative. Frank is of mixed American Indian, Mexican and European ancestry.

Balbina Maria Araujo Soriano is a meteorologist with a doctorate in agrometeorology.

She is currently a researcher at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation for Agricultural Research, Pantanal Agricultural Research Center (Embrapa Pantanal), vice-president of the Inter-Institutional Commission on Preventing and Combating Forest Fires in Mato Grosso do Sul, and member of the Corumbá (MS) Municipal Commission on Preventing and Combating Forest Fires in the Pantanal.

She has experience in the area of geoscience, with an emphasis in meteorology.

Ross Smith joined the Forestry Commission of New South Wales, Australia, in 1963 as a Cadet, completing a Bachelor Degree in Forest Science.  He worked in several field locations in the Central and Southern Highlands of NSW until 1983, managing indigenous hardwood forest and exotic Pinus spp plantations.  He was responsible for oversighting all forest fire management operations including planning, suppression and prescribed burning and developed very close liaisons with volunteer bush fire brigades.

From 1983 onwards, he worked in the Fire Management section to initially develop state-wide fire management training programs for professional staff, later becoming the Deputy Fire Management Officer for the State with responsibilities covering the whole gamut of fire management operations. In 1994, he transferred to the NSW Rural Fire Service, a volunteer- based fire management organization responsible for rural fire management across about 90% of NSW.  Initially, he had carriage of State-wide Planning and Research, later on taking on the role of Assistant Commissioner.  This organization then numbered about 72,000 volunteer firefighters and 500 full time staff.

While working at the Rural Fire Service he undertook a number of assignments on behalf of the NSW and Federal Governments, working with Asia Development Bank and World Bank in South East Asia, China, Croatia, Bulgaria Russia and India, mostly on forest fire related projects.  One of his key mantras was always to try to identify the substance of particular problem areas and then to develop a potential solution that met the cultural, social and financial constraints that existed in the client country. He continues to periodically undertake similar assignments, mostly for the World Bank, and sometimes provides fire related evidence in litigation matters locally. Including several years as a junior bush fire brigade member from when he was about 14 years of age, he has been involved in some form of rural fire management for more than 60 years and has filled every role from front-line firefighter to co-ordinator of large and extreme fire events.

William Matthew “Matt” Jolly is a Research Ecologist in the Fire, Fuel and Smoke Science Program of the US Forest Service, Fire Sciences Laboratory in Missoula, MT.  He received a BA in Environmental Science from the University of Virginia and a PhD in Forestry from the University of Montana. He is the principal scientist for the US National Fire Danger Rating System and he is the project manager for the Wildland Fire Assessment System (WFAS), a system that provide critical decision support tools for wildland fire preparedness and response. His research explores how wildland fuel characteristics vary across space and time and how these variations impact wildland fire potential. Ultimately, his work will lead to improved wildland fire decision support tools that can keep firefighters and communities safer and more informed.