Acting Executive Director Steve Cotton served on Trustees for Alaska’s Board of Directors for two years before stepping into his current position. His intimate familiarity with Alaska – and particularly rural Alaska – extends over more than 30 years. While a staff attorney and later deputy director at the Center for Law & Education at Harvard University, he was lead counsel in Tobeluk v. Lind (commonly known in Alaska as the “Molly Hootch case”), which changed the face of rural education in the state by securing local high schools in more than 100 Native villages. Steve has served as First Assistant Inspector General of Massachusetts and General Counsel of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and was one of the national organizers of the first Earth Day.

Legal Director Victoria Clark is a graduate of Golden Gate University School of Law, and received certificates in Environmental Law and Public Interest Law. Before joining Trustees for Alaska's staff in 2003, she worked in Santa Barbara, California as a Staff Attorney with the Environmental Defense Center and in private practice representing local environmental non-profit groups. Her work focused on public interest environmental law in the areas of citizen enforcement, especially in the area of water quality, and land use. Vicki received her undergraduate degree in Aquatic Biology from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Senior Staff Attorney Rebecca (Becca) Bernard is a 1995 graduate of Stanford Law School, where she concentrated on environmental and natural resources law. Following a clerkship with Judge Joseph T. Sneed of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Becca worked as a Staff Attorney with the Sierra Club and then as an Associate Attorney with Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund. Becca joined Trustees in early 2001. Prior to law school, Becca worked for the California and Texas chapters of The Nature Conservancy.  Becca was recently named one of The Best Lawyers in America .

Senior Staff Attorney Mike Frank is a cum laude graduate of University of Michigan School of Law, and has practiced law in Alaska for more than twenty years. Much of his practice has focused on legal issues surrounding natural resource management, environmental protection and pollution prevention, including his tenure as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alaska, during which he was supervising attorney for the Alaska Department of Law's Natural Resources Section. Mike joined Trustees for Alaska in 1998, and his work at Trustees has focused on clean air and water issues and protection of natural resources in America's Arctic.

Senior Staff Attorney Nancy Wainwright is a graduate of the University of California Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Nancy worked as staff counsel for the California Coastal Commission and as a Deputy Attorney General for the State of California Land Law Section before coming to Alaska in 1986. Nancy was in private practice in Alaska until she joined the staff of Trustees in 2008. Her private practice focused on coastal zone management, natural resource law, land use, state and federal oil and gas matters, and oil spill contingency planning.  Nancy has represented local governments, tribal governments, fishing organizations, environmental organizations and individuals in the area of environmental and natural resource law. 

Staff Attorney Brian Litmans joined Trustees for Alaska in the spring of 2007. Brian is a 2001 graduate of the Lewis & Clark Law School and received a Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law. Brian was also a member of Lewis and Clark's Environmental Law Review. While at law school, Brian worked with several environmental organizations including the Center for International Environmental Law, Defenders of Wildlife, the National Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Club, the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, and the Pacific Environmental Advocacy Center. Since graduating from Lewis & Clark, Brian has worked as a solo practitioner, handling a variety of environmental cases for non-profit organizations across the country. Those cases focused on management of our public lands and protection of endangered species. Prior to law school, Brian worked in Washington, D.C. with the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Brian's practice at Trustees for Alaska includes climate change, public land management, and mining issues.

Staff Attorney Emily Anderson earned a law degree and a Masters of Studies in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School in 2006. Before law school, she worked for five years as an environmental educator in Minnesota, Michigan, and Washington, teaching children aged K-12 about watershed and wilderness values.  She became very interested in Alaska environmental issues, during law school, while working with the Eyak Preservation Council in Cordova, Alaska and later as an extern for Trustees.  Prior to joining Trustees for Alaska, Emily served as a Superior Court law clerk for Judge Kari Kristiansen in Palmer, Alaska.  Most recently Emily also worked with Prince William Soundkeeper and Cordova District Fishermen United on the “The Whole Truth” campaign, an effort to bring national awareness to the nineteen year legal battle waged by fishermen and Native Alaskans against Exxon for harm caused by the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. 

Staff Attorney Austin Williams joined Trustees for Alaska’s staff in the spring of 2009. Prior to joining Trustees, Austin lived in Wyoming, working for Trout Unlimited on energy development issues throughout the Rocky Mountain States. Austin is a 2007 graduate of the University of Oregon School of Law, where he earned a certificate of completion in Environmental and Natural Resources Law, competed in the Pace National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition and served as Articles Editor for the Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation. Prior to law school, Austin worked as a fisheries technician in Southeast Alaska and Northern Idaho researching the effects of timber harvest and impoundments on salmon and steelhead.

Support Staff

Finance and Operations Director George Page joined the staff in 2004.  George earned a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and prior to joining Trustees, worked as an electrical engineer, operations manager and quality manager for an international products testing company.

Development Associate Tracy Lohman joined the staff in 2008. Tracy earned a B.A in Communications from Slippery Rock University in 1987. Prior to graduation, Tracy spent a year in Japan as an exchange student where she studied Japanese. Upon returning to the US, Tracy landed her first job working for a non-profit exchange program in Washington, DC and has continued to work in the non-profit sector ever since. Tracy most recently served as the executive director of Alaska Community Share, a coalition of 42 Alaska-based non-profits, of which Trustees is a member. As a seventeen year resident of Alaska, Tracy has long been a strong advocate for the protection and sustainability of Alaska’s natural environment and looks forward to bringing her 20 years of non-profit development experience to Trustees. When not working, Tracy and husband Tom spend time with their two boys, ages six and four, enjoying the many splendors of Alaska. As a side note, Tracy and Tom first met in 1991 at the Trustees’ office. It wasn’t until Tom moved back to Anchorage from Barrow that they were able to reconnect and marry in 2000 ~ the rest is history.

Paralegal Karen Nash Joynt earned her Paralegal Certificated from the University of Alaska Anchorage. Prior to joining Trustees in 2008, Karen completed her MA in Library Science at the University of Arizona in 1996 and worked as a library media specialist in the Matanuska Susitna School District until 2002. Karen and her husband, Steve raised two children in the Valley and continue to enjoy the innumerable recreational opportunities in Alaska.