Heather joined CARCD in March 2024. She received a BA in Psychology with a Pre-med emphasis from Humboldt State University (now Cal Poly Humboldt) and an MS in Health Education with a community health emphasis from the University of Wyoming, Laramie. Heather is passionate about the nexus of the environment and healthcare, especially clean air and water for all living things. Heather has had a career in healthcare, philanthropy and nonprofit support. She aided Mariposa County Health and Human Services and the Mariposa County Unified School District in designing and securing funding for a school-based mobile health clinic, designed and led the well water education program for the Integrated Regional Watershed Management Outreach and Education Committee, and in 2022, partnered with the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation and Mariposa Resource Conservation District in securing a 5-year grant for their pollinator habitat program. In addition to her professional career, Heather has served as Chair of the Humboldt State University Advancement Foundation Board, as a grant reviewer for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, as Mariposa County District 3 Planning Commissioner, and as one of three gubernatorial appointees to the Sierra Nevada Conservancy Board. Heather is an enrolled member of the Yaqui Tribal Community in Southern California and provides capacity-building support to Indigenous communities. When not working, Heather is a regular volunteer for the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation, JCF Hospital Foundation, her Yaqui community and stewarding pollinator and wildlife habitat on her cattle ranch in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.