Presenter Bios

Lucas St. Clair

National Board Chair

Lucas was born in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine and spent his childhood in a hand-built log cabin with few amenities and a focus on living in harmony with nature . After graduating from high school Lucas immersed himself in outdoor wilderness adventures: hiking the Appalachian Trail, paddling the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, and fine-tuning leadership and technical skills with the National Outdoor Leadership School in Patagonia . He then pursued an interest in organic and sustainable food, and graduated from the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu Cooking School in London . Following his graduation, he worked in the food and wine industry for nearly a decade in New York City, Seattle, and Maine . Lucas is an avid fly fisherman, boater, and mountain climber. Lucas is now the President of Elliotsville Foundation, Inc ., a private operating foundation in Maine whose mission is to advance the dynamic relationship of innovative land conservation and community-based economic and community development in Maine . On August 24th, 2016, Elliotsville Foundation completed a multi-year campaign to establish Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument with an 89,000-acre donation of land to the National Park Service . Elliotsville continues to support the Katahdin Woods and Waters as well as conduct work to build more outdoor recreational infrastructure in Maine . Lucas is a former congressional candidate in ME-2 and now serves on the boards of the Quimby Family Foundation, Maine Conservation Voters, Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters, Maine Public, and the Northern Forest Center . He chairs the National Board of the Trust for Public Land and serves on the National Park Foundation’s National Council . He lives in Falmouth, Maine with his wife, Yemaya, and their two children .

Hawk Rosales

Indigenous land defender and consultant

Hawk is of Ndé (Apache) lineage. An Indigenous artist, land defender and student of nature, he works with Tribes and conservation organizations to design and implement initiatives that protect, restore and return Indigenous People’s traditional lands and waters . From 1990 to 2021, he directed the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a consortium of Tribes re-establishing traditional and land tenure through cultural protection, education and advocacy . He coordinated acquisition of 4531 acres of Sinkyone land in Northern California for the first intertribal network of protected areas, and has designed and led numerous efforts to support ecosystem healing . Hawk has written and co-produced documentaries on protection of Indigenous lands and waters . He co-led Tribal efforts in the process to establish a network of 124 marine protected areas along California’s coastline, and authored two law journal articles on the topic . He has co-developed several culturally focused conservation easements, and led numerous Tribal partnership endeavors with California State Parks . Hawk is the recipient of a Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Fellowship . He also is a recipient of the California State Parks Dewitt Award for Partnership . In 2013, he was appointed by the Natural Resources Agency Secretary to serve on the Parks Forward Commission, formed to re-design California’s system of 279 state parks . He currently serves on California’s Expert Assessment Group for the Green List, convened by International Union for Conservation of Nature in partnership with Ocean Protection Council and Department of Fish and Wildlife, to evaluate the state’s MPA network . Hawk is on the steering committee of the UC Hastings Indigenous Law Center and a board member of California Council of Land Trusts . He was a featured artists at UC Hastings Law’s art exhibit Ripples (May 2022) .

Shelby Semmes

Vice President New England Region, Vermont & New Hampshire State Director

Shelby Semmes serves as our VP for New England, leading the teams and mission delivery across Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, and Massachusetts . She previously served as the Vermont/New Hampshire state director, as project manager in the California office of The Trust for Public Land, and as an independent consultant focused on the conservation sector’s alignment with impact investment . Semmes holds a BA from Barnard College and a Master of Forestry degree from the Yale School of Environment where she was a Doris Duke Conservation Fellow . She lives in Warren Village, Vermont, with her husband Grady, sons Sylvan and Ravi, and dog, Obi Wan .

David Patton

Associate Vice President Lands Initiative and Field Programs

David Patton is an experienced leader focused on connecting people to parks and the outdoors . His 20+ year career has centered on public lands and park creation, conservation, and social justice. Specifically, he has lead diverse teams improving the quality of life for communities in both urban and rural areas utilizing public space to ensure a sustainable future, advocating for and facilitating the protection and improvement of our public parks, and addressing social justice, education, and health equity issues . As a member of TPL’s National Field Leadership Team, David drives the implementation of TPL’s national strategic initiative focused on land conservation . His experience guides his efforts to create a future where every community enjoys equitable access to public lands for healthy outdoor recreation, natural climate benefits, and social, cultural and historic representation . Previously, David led TPL’s Pacific Region to create quality parks and conserve natural areas that are a fundamental requirement for sustaining healthy, equitable, resilient communities . This included working alongside communities to ensure all residents live within a ten-minute walk of a quality park, protecting and creating access to public lands, and conserving watersheds and working lands . When not at work, David enjoys hiking, swimming and camping with his wife, Sarah, and two kids, J and Sam . He has a goal to visit every National Park with his family . He also enjoys playing, coaching and advocating for youth sports including coaching his kids ice hockey and basketball teams .

Danielle Denk

Community Schoolyards™ Initiative Director

Danielle is the Community Schoolyards™ Initiative Director at Trust for Public Land where she works across the organization and with partners to advance the Community Schoolyard movement . In her eleven years at TPL, she directed and managed The Parks for People Program in Camden and Philadelphia, working directly with schools and communities to transform asphalt schoolyards into vibrant, healthy, climate-smart hubs . With over 25 years’ experience in public space design and community organizing, her career has been formed by the needs of the people—so that everyone has access to a high-quality public space. Danielle has a professional degree in architecture and urban design from Kent State University and a master’s degree in landscape architecture from The University of Pennsylvania . When not working, Danielle can be found hiking with her family and dogs on the trails in the Wissahickon Valley in Philadelphia .

Jocelyn Imani

PhD, National Director of Black History & Culture Program

Dr . Jocelyn Imani is a storyteller, educator, and community builder with over a decade of experience as a public historian; she joined us as national director of our Black History and Culture program in 2022 . In her work, she is focused on reimagining how Black history and culture sites are activated and aims to make shared spaces more relevant and accessible to all populations . Prior to joining TPL, Dr . Imani spent time as an interpretive ranger with the National Park Service, served as historian at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, and worked in the Office of Curatorial Affairs at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture .

She has taught U .S . history at Fisk and Howard Universities, as well as Washington Adventist University, Coppin State University, and others . She is also particularly dedicated to the development of strong children, a passion reflected in her founding of the Big Brown Get Down, an annual community event that connects upwardly mobile professionals with middle and high school students from underserved communities .

Dr . Imani holds a PhD in African diaspora and public history from Howard University and a BA in history from Fisk University . An avid fan of arts, music, and culture, Dr . Imani comes from a long line of musicians and sang before she spoke . A proud daughter of the South, she is a native of Nashville, Tennessee .

Bianca Shulaker

Parks Initiative Lead and Senior Director of the 10-Minute Walk Program

Bianca Shulaker is Trust for Public Land’s Parks Initiative Lead and Senior Director of the 10-Minute Walk Program . She has been with TPL for the past ten years, and previously held positions in TPL’s Federal Affairs and Planning & Research teams, where she focused on funding for parks and national programs, impact evaluation work, and urban planning projects . She has been published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, Preventive Medicine, and by the American Institute of Architects . She has a Master of Planning degree from the University of Southern California, and a BS in Environmental Science, with minors in Environmental Engineering and Public Policy, from UCLA .

Cary Simmons

Director of Community Strategies

Cary Simmons is our director of community strategies . He is our leading expert on innovative community engagement and partnership models that deliver powerful social outcomes, and his team leads our national partnerships and collaborations around creative placemaking, welcoming and belonging, and civic engagement .

Cary has worked at the organization for seven years, previously in a field leadership role in the Northwest, where he developed more than a dozen neighborhood parks and schoolyards across Washington, Montana, and Wyoming . Prior to joining us, Cary led several nationally significant memorial design and city park development projects at AECOM, based in Washington, DC . He has also worked previously at the Smithsonian Institution, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and the Urban Resources Initiative . He earned his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas and his Master of Environmental Management from the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale University .

Emily Patterson

Managing Director, Colorado Parks for People

Emily is passionate about community and equitable access to nature . Her career has centered on the creation of public spaces including work with local, state, and federal partners . She has been with Trust for Public Land (TPL) since 2012 . As the Parks for People Managing Director, Emily oversees Colorado’s park, schoolyard, and trail initiatives . The program has improved access to nature in communities across Colorado in both urban and rural places including Denver, Colorado Springs, Alamosa, Aurora, Greeley, and Clifton . Emily established the Colorado CORE strategy (Community Outreach with Resident Experts) which places community members at the center of our work through meaningful, long-term partnerships with community-based organizations, job opportunities for youth, and career pathways for rising leaders .

Jeresneyka Rose

Colorado CORE Fellow

Jeresneyka is a Colorado CORE Fellow at Trust for Public Land . She was born in Brooklyn, NY, and moved to Colorado when her father was stationed there at the age of 10 . She is a virtual artist and community advocate . Before joining TPL’s CORE Fellowship, she championed efforts of art accessibility, social justice, and health equity for her community in Southeast Colorado Springs and freelanced art gigs across the country .

Chris Urias

Colorado CORE Fellow

Chris is a Colorado CORE Fellow at Trust for Public Land. Chris grew up in Denver, Colorado . His parents, Juana and Bladimir, are from El Salvador . Before joining TPL’s CORE Fellowship, Chris worked for Environmental Learning for Kids (ELK) as a Program Coordinator for the six years . Chris is passionate about his community and loves helping connect youth and families to the outdoors . Chris enjoys camping and spending time with his partner, family, and friends .

A group explores the new Bethel Community Forest in Bethel, Maine .

Keynote Speaker

Shelton Johnson

Author, Public Speaker, Park Ranger: National Park Service at Yosemite National Park

Shelton Johnson was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1958, the son of a Seamstress and a Soldier . His maternal and paternal grandparents were Black Indians from Oklahoma Territory and South Carolina respectively . He had one older brother and they all lived together with his maternal grandparents for the bulk of his childhood in Motown .

Due to his dad’s military career, they also lived for 3 years in Germany and England . The Bavarian Alps were the mountains that first awakened his sense of wonder.

Shelton graduated from Detroit’s Cass Technical High School in 1976 with a diploma in Classical Music . By 1977 he was a college student at Wayne State University in Detroit . He eventually transferred to the University of Michigan where he received a B .A . in English Literature in 1981 and won a Major Hopwood Award in Poetry .

After college, he briefly served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Liberia, West Africa teaching 7th grade English . Returning to the States he was accepted into the M .F .A . Program in Creative Writing (Poetry) in 1983 at the University of Michigan . After a year as a graduate student in this program he spent the following summer working for a Concessionaire in Yellowstone National Park .

That summer of 1984 would eventually spark his career with the National Park Service . By 1987 he was an N .P .S . Ranger at the West Entrance to Yellowstone National Park .

After 5 years in Yellowstone, he worked in Washington, D .C ., Great Basin National Park, and finally Yosemite National Park where he was introduced to the park’s African American history, including the relatively unknown legacy of the Black troops who served in both Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks .

For the past 25 years he’s worked on connecting African Americans, and other people of color, to the National Parks, using history as a tool for social change . Black people are the one ethnic group in the U .S . least likely to visit a National Park and changing that fact has become the foundation for his passion to forge a bridge between the African American community and America’s Best Idea .

That work eventually led to media coverage in The L .A . Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Associated Press, the New York Times, The New Yorker, U .S .A . Today, the Guardian, Sunset Magazine, ABC, CBS, and NBC regional and national news, National Public Radio, PBS in San Francisco and Cleveland, OH ., and ultimately Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan’s PBS documentary film, “The National Parks, America’s Best Idea” in 2009, and “The Oprah Winfrey Show” in 2010 .

He received two additional national awards. The first was the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award from Outdoor Afro, a national park advocacy organization that was created by Rue Mapp to encourage African Americans to venture into the Great Outdoors. This is the first significant recognition that he has received from the African American community regarding his work to connect African Americans to their national parks .

The second national award was from the National Park Trust in Washington, D .C ., and he was their recipient for the 2022 American Park Experience Award (APEX) . Previous recipients of this award include Ken Burns, Dayton Duncan, former Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, and former Secretary of the Interior & U.S. Senator Ken Salazar who is also the current U.S. ambassador to Mexico. Shelton is the first National Park Ranger to receive this award, but the greatest honor was to have this award presented to him by Robert Stanton, the first African American Director of the National Park Service, and who has been his mentor for many years .

25 years after intentionally engaging the media as a means of amplifying this once lost history, the number of people aware of this legacy has grown from several thousand to over 100 million here in the U .S . and around the world .