Abbie Strickland (she/her)

Abbie is a Transportation Planner with the California Coastal Commission and previously worked as a Land Use Planner for the County of Humboldt. She also serves as a member of the City of Arcata Planning Commission. Abbie earned her A.S. in Natural Sciences prior to transferring to Humboldt State and obtaining a B.S. in Environmental Science and Management with a concentration in Planning & Policy in 2020. She interned for EPIC in 2020 and has sought to contribute to their mission since. She is passionate about public service, planning, and improving the quality of life for current and future generations. 

Jennifer Marlow (she/her)

Jennifer is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Law in the Department of Environmental Science & Management (ESM) at Cal Poly Humboldt, where she is also a member of the Sea Level Rise Institute and faculty co-chair of the ESM Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee.

After earning her Juris Doctorate from the University Washington School of Law in 2010, Jennifer co-founded and co-directed Three Degrees, a climate justice project at the University of Washington School of Law, which later became the nonprofit Three Degrees Warmer and home to an eight-year partnership with Re-Locate and the Iñupiaq village of Kivalina, Alaska. Jennifer also managed Re-Locate LLC, a small business in Anchorage, Alaska, dedicated to the research and development of relocatable, decentralized water and sanitation infrastructure for rural Alaskan communities.

Jennifer moved to Humboldt County in 2019, and has since founded the 44 Feet Project, a research collaborative examining the long-term futures of a spent nuclear fuel site on Humboldt Bay. Jennifer is excited to participate in important decisions and negotiations about how and where to leverage EPIC’s influence, and bring her training in environmental law, climate justice, and conflict resolution to support EPIC in the fundamental role it will inevitably play in shaping Humboldt’s future.

​Will Suiter (he/him)

Will is a Humboldt County-based small business owner and professional photographer who studied forestry at Humboldt State University, with a concentration in restoration and operations. He didn’t go to business or art school, but has built a successful creative business on his own terms through constant learning, adapting, and reorienting his approach as needed. As a generally outside-the-box thinker, Will can offer insights and ideas that may be unconventionally effective.

As a professional photographer, Will has seen firsthand the scale of impact that strong, engaging visuals have on an audience, and also has a great deal of experience, practical skills, and network connections in the field of visual communications. He would like to primarily contribute to EPIC as a board member through offering his ideas, skills, experience, and insights to strengthen marketing efforts, outreach, and communication with current EPIC supporters and potential new supporters to garner increased awareness and support for EPIC and the issues it addresses through media and public education.

Will strongly believes in a holistic approach to conservation and sustainability, and that meeting humanity's need for natural resources and infrastructure while integrating sustainability and environmental protections are not mutually exclusive. With EPIC uniquely positioned in an area and time where resource extraction and development have made great strides towards sustainability, but still have a ways to go towards being truly sustainable and environmentally conscious, Will is thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with others at EPIC and within the community who are passionate about protecting our environment.

Marie Garabedian (she/her)

Marie is a practicing California attorney working in the public interest sector and represents some of the most vulnerable within our community. She received her Juris Doctorate from California School of Law during the pandemic with the goal of practicing on the North Coast.

Marie was originally drawn to Northern California 23 years ago by the majestic yet threatened coastal old growth forests and immediately fell in love with the area. She joined the ongoing campaigns to halt and change the outdated logging practices that had already reaped so much environmental destruction. She has been following EPIC's work for many years and is excited to join the team!

Peter Lehman

I serve on the EPIC Board of Directors for two main reasons. I strongly support EPIC’s efforts to protect our precious planet—especially its wild places—and I feel I add an important voice to the Board. As a trained scientist (a PhD in physical chemistry), I understand the urgency of addressing climate change and I have dedicated my life to doing so as a teacher, researcher, engineer, and laboratory director focused on the promotion and development of renewable energy. In 1989, I founded the Schatz Energy Research Center at Cal Poly Humboldt and served as the Center’s director for its first 24 years. I have led groundbreaking projects in fuel cell and hydrogen technology and local microgrids, most recently working with Humboldt Transit Authority to initiate zero-emission transit service on the North Coast. I serve on the City of Arcata Planning Commission, promoting housing and non-motorized transportation for the City. My professional life aside, I love wild places and understand the importance of them to our nation’s and our personal well-being. I am an experienced wilderness traveler. I have spent many summers canoeing on rivers and lakes in arctic Canada and Alaska and on rivers in California. I have backpacked many miles in the Sierra, the Wind Rivers, the North Cascades, and the Rocky Mountains. I am honored to help EPIC protect the health of Mother Earth.

JP O'Brien (he/him)

JP is a Northern California native, raised in the mountains of Trinity County where he also worked as a wilderness patrol ranger in the Trinity Alps. Subsequently, JP earned a Bachelor of Science in applied physics, a graduate certificate in applied spatial statistics, and a Ph.D. in climate and atmospheric science.

He did his postdoctoral work at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado and is currently a research affiliate with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. His research focuses on understanding climate variability in a world subject to both natural and anthropogenic forcings. With a focus on mid-latitude dynamics, this entails the study of tropical–extratropical interactions, coupled ocean–atmosphere interactions, and modes of variability that modulate the statistics of extratropical cyclones, anticyclones, and atmospheric rivers. JP currently lives in Fort Bragg, California, and advocates for the protection of our forests, ecosystems, and the planet.