Board Of Directors

Teresa Benson

Teresa recently retired from the US Forest Service after 34 years of service starting as a Wildlife Biologist and retiring as Forest Supervisor of the Sequoia National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument.  During her career she also worked in Chugach National Forest in Alaska and the Tahoe National Forest in California.  In addition to wildlife conservation work, Teresa also focused on forest fuels management, restoration of fire-impacted landscapes, tribal relations, and providing quality visitor services.  Since retiring in January 2024, Teresa has been involved with the Giant Sequoia Lands Coalition, the Tule River Indian Tribe, Save the Redwoods League, and the National Association of Forest Service Retirees (California representative on National Board).  Teresa is excited to join the Board of the Southern Sierra Research Station, having been a supporter of the SSRS since it first began in 1991. Teresa and her husband, Andy, consider the Southern Sierras to be their home.  Andy has one son who Teresa helped to raise, and they have 4 grandsons.  Teresa and Andy (and their Airedale Terrier Kya) love to travel, hike, camp, spend time with their grandchildren, and explore public lands.

Jamie Uyehara

I am honored to be on the Board!  My graduate studies led me to the Kern Valley in 1988 to study willow flycatcher vocalizations and nest searching behavior in cowbirds.  And, my life has been enriched with the wonderful people and projects here! 

I recently retired from the Angeles National Forest as the Resource Officer (2013-2025), a position overseeing programs in life sciences, physical sciences, GIS, and NEPA.  My priorities were initiating projects and partnerships to inform and implement management activities, including funding Pasadena Audubon Society for a Motus station.  My previous positions included Fuels and Forestry Manager for the Los Padres National Forest in which the team restarted broadcast burning (2010-2013); Environmental Scientist at Vandenberg AFB specializing in riparian restoration (2007-2010); Threatened, Endangered, and Sensitive (TES) Program Coordinator for the four SoCal National Forests (2005-2007); and wildlife biologist on the Los Padres NF (1999-2005) where I started and analyzed population monitoring of listed fish, amphibians and riparian birds.  And always, I volunteered for conservation activities including presentations at the KRRS WIFL workshops (habitat definitions, cowbird effects, and reporting database), trail maintenance, weed removal, nursery work, reseeding and replanting.

Daniel S. Cooper, PhD

Dan first visited the Kern River Valley as a birder in high school in the late 1980s and returned after college in the mid-90s for a job with what was then called the Kern River Research Center. For two seasons, he searched for Yellow-billed Cuckoo nests, and assisted in banding, nest-monitoring, and in the fall, helped launch the Turkey Vulture migration watch. After earning a Master’s in Biogeography (UCR ’99), Dan worked as a program director at Audubon California, serving as Director of Bird Conservation, and writing Important Bird Areas of California. Dan left Audubon to work as an independent ecologist in 2005, but returned to school in 2017, earning a PhD in Biology at UCLA (’20). In 2022, he joined the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains to work full time as a Principal Conservation Biologist. Dan also teaches at Cal State Long Beach (Ornithology) and at UCLA’s Institute for the Environment and Sustainability, and has served on several conservation, science and planning boards. In 2016, Dan bought 6 acres with a mobile home near Audubon California’s Kelso Creek Sanctuary, which keeps him connected to the Kern Valley. He and his family are based in eastern Ventura Co. near Thousand Oaks.

Robert A. Barnes

Bob has a long time interest in the Kern River Valley, the Southern Sierra, and SSRS. He has been actively involved in multiple conservation organizations in this area including serving on the board of Kern Community Foundation, California Wilderness Coalition, Kern River Valley Community Fund, Kern River Valley Heritage Foundation, Kern River Valley Chamber of Commerce, and Tulare County Audubon Society. During this time he helped to get multiple pieces of legislation passed to create wilderness areas in and around the Kern River Valley. As a co-founder of the Southern Sierra Research station in 1991, he was the first chair of its Board of Directors. Bob has a long-standing interest in birds and riparian conservation including chairing the California Riparian Habitat Joint Venture. He conducted one of the most extensive surveys of the riparian bird community in the Kern River Valley which involved walking several hundred miles in the South Fork of the Kern River. This work, his work as Audubon California Bird Conservation Programs Director, and his frequent guided bird walks have made him one of the local experts on birds and conservation in Southern California.

Melanie Branson

Growing up overseas led Melanie to appreciate the diversity of nature, especially birds and mountains. This background and her love of science led her to study Animal Physiology at University of California, San Diego, where she earned her Bachelor’s degree. With no immediate plans to go to graduate school, Melanie joined the U.S. Navy where she trained to be a Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal Diver. Enjoying Navy travel, teamwork and missions, she stayed for a full 20 years before retiring and moving into teaching science at Burroughs High School in Ridgecrest, CA where she still currently works. During her teaching career, Melanie earned a Masters in Education and then in Biology, where she focused her research on the population size and habitat patterns of the migratory Snow Goose in the Indian Wells Valley. Melanie has become fully immersed in the local conservation environmental organizations as a board member on the Kerncrest Audubon Society, Eastern Kern County Resources Conservation District, the CalPAC Methodist Church EcoMinistries Team, and as the Event Coordinator for the annual Conservation in the Indian Wells Valley Day at the Maturango Museum. When not working, Melanie spends her free time backpacking in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains, gardening, birding, traveling, and enjoying her various animals at home.

Chris Spurgeon

Chris’s fascination with birds began in college where he studied ornithology, with a particular interest in the evolution of bird behavior. During his college years he became an intern at National Public Radio, which led him away from ornithology and into careers in public broadcasting, online communication, and web programming. His interest in birding was rekindled about a decade ago when his family moved to southern California and he was blown away by the variety of local bird life. Chris describes himself as a perpetually beginning birder, and surely holds the Pasadena Audubon Society record for the greatest number of confused and incorrect bird identifications.

Reed Tollefson

Reed has worked in Kern County for 30 years on wildlife habitat protection and restoration in the watershed of the South Fork Kern River.  He started at Kern River Preserve in 1987 as a seasonal Restoration Ecologist and ended as the Preserve Manager for The Nature Conservancy in 1997.  In that year, he hired on with the new owner as the Preserve transitioned to the National Audubon Society. Since that time, he has worked to triple the size of the Preserve from 1,100 to 3,330 acres and raised 4.5 million dollars to establish a dedicated management endowment. He has also worked with a range of partnerships to support the protection of over 25,000 acres of land in Kern County with an emphasis on the South Fork Kern River Watershed and Transverse Range Wildlife Corridor. Before coming to California, he worked with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama comparing bird species diversity in secondary and primary rainforest. He also worked in Integrated Pest Management in cotton and other row crops in Maricopa County Arizona. Reed has a B.S. in wildlife management from Arizona State University.