Our Team
The Network is operated by staff in California, Colorado and Oregon. Our team supports members with technical assistance, hosts learning groups and creates opportunities to build and exchange knowledge and practice. Our team also supports the development of fire adaptation strategies in states across the nation. FAC Net benefits from the advice and guidance of a number of advisers and researchers working across the fire and social change domains.
Network Staff
Michelle Medley-Daniel
Fire Networks Co-Director
Read Michelle’s Posts on our Blog
Emily Troisi
FAC Net Director
Read Emily’s Posts on our Blog
Tiernan Doyle
Strategy Director
Read Tiernan’s Posts on our Blog
Annie Leverich
Communications Manager
Read Annie’s Posts on our Blog
David Burchfield
Member Services Associate
Read David’s Posts on our Blog
Emery Cowan
Policy and Partnerships Manager
Read Emery’s Posts on our Blog
Susan Tardif
Administrative Manager
Erik Wilke
Online Community Engagement Coordinator
Organizational Partners
FAC Net is part of a multi-organization national partnership dedicated to supporting local solutions for living better with fire. A team of support staff from the Watershed Center, The Nature Conservancy and UC Extension work with–and in service to–hundreds of community leaders across the country.
The work of our place-based leaders and their partners is supported not just by the technical assistance, coaching and pass-through funds managed by our staff team, or the professional development opportunities we facilitate, but by a set of connected peer networks that we’ve fostered to spread ideas and support among those who are best equipped: the practitioners who lead this work on a daily basis.
This work is supported by the USDA Forest Service and Department of the Interior. Our sister networks, the Fire Learning Network, Indigenous Peoples Burning Network, and Prescribed Fire Training Exchange (TREX) program, work in concert with FAC Net to support local leaders as they restore community relationships with fire and place.
Advisers and Researchers
FAC Net works collaboratively with a variety of researchers to provide sound, science-based advice to members and increase the connections between practitioners and researchers. Current research-practitioner collaborations center on better understanding of community adaptation actions, development of metrics for community wildfire adaptation, and the study of regional wildfire practitioner networks. If you are a researcher interested in collaborating with FAC Net, please contact us.
Dr. Travis Paveglio
Associate Professor of Natural Resource Sociology
Department of Natural Resources and Society, University of Idaho
Dr. Heidi Huber-Stearns
Visiting Associate Professor of Practice
The Western Forest and Fire Initiative, University of Michigan
Associate Research Professor and Director of the Ecosystem Workforce Program, University of Oregon
Dr. Branda Nowell
Professor, School of Public and International Affairs, North Carolina State University
Director, Environmental First Year