Marilyn Heiman, Director, joined the Pew Environment Group in January 2009 as director of the U.S. Arctic Program. Before joining Pew, Marilyn was campaign manager for the International Boreal Conservation Campaign, which works to protect one of the largest forest ecosystems on Earth. She served as the Secretary of Interior’s Alaska policy advisor during the Clinton administration. In that capacity, she coordinated activities of the Bureau of Land Management, the Minerals Management Service, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska. As Alaska representative to the Secretary of Interior, she served on the six-person Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council.
Previously, she was special assistant on natural resources and oceans for Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles and was director of his statewide transition team after his election in 1994. Prior to that she worked as an aide to the House Resources Committee in the Alaska legislature during the Exxon Valdez oil spill and was staff to the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Commission. Marilyn holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley. She currently serves on the board of the Puget Sound Keeper Alliance.
Eleanor Huffines, Manager, recently moved to Washington D.C after 18 years in Alaska. Before joining the Pew Environment Group, Eleanor was the Alaska director for The Wilderness Society. In that role, she worked extensively with local communities, government personnel and members of Congress to influence policy affecting the environment, subsistence cultures and sustainable development. Eleanor served as policy and conservation director for the National Outdoor Leadership School. Eleanor has served on the Bureau of Land Management Resource Advisory Council, Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council and Trustees for Alaska Public Interest Law Firm board of directors. She has been fortunate to spend a significant portion of the last 14 years guiding people from around the world paddling, hiking and climbing throughout Alaska and the West.
Henry Huntington, Ph.D., Science Director, is an Arctic scientist specializing in human-environment interactions including research on traditional knowledge. He is the author or co-author of more than three dozen scientific papers and numerous publications, ranging from the conduct of social science research in indigenous communities to the impacts of climate change on marine mammals. He has worked among and in collaboration with the Yupik, Inupiat, Inuvialuit and Inuit, as well as other Arctic indigenous peoples. His research has involved many Arctic indigenous organizations and international institutions including the Arctic Council, Inuit Circumpolar Council, Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, the North Slope Borough and the Hamlet of Clyde River, as well as government agencies such as the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission and Environment Canada. Henry lives in Eagle River, Alaska.
Mary Engel, Communications Manager, spent a decade at the Los Angeles Times as an editorial writer, regional editorial page editor and reporter. She wrote the editorials for a series of stories on mismanagement, racism and abuse at a public hospital, for which the paper was awarded the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Previously, she wrote editorials for the Anchorage (AK) Daily News and for the Albuquerque (NM) Journal. In 2005-2006, she was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mary lives in Seattle, Washington.
Raychelle Daniel, Senior Associate, has more than 10 years of experience as a marine ecologist. She was born in a tiny village near the mouth of the Kuskokwim and Bering Seas in Alaska. This influenced her academic interest in studying marine mammals. She has worked on marine mammal research projects in the Beaufort Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. She also has done research on tropical ecosystems in the Pacific. Most recently she was a conservation scientist with the advocacy group Ocean Conservancy. She obtained a bachelor’s of science degree at the University of Alaska in Juneau and a master’s degree in science at the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre. Raychelle lives in Anchorage, Alaska.
Melissa Prior, Associate, earned her master’s degree in international environmental policy at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, focusing on the interaction between international trade and environmental institutions. She has more than nine years of experience working with non-profits including the ocean conservation group, Oceana. Melissa lives in Seattle, Washington.
Ellie Humphries, Administrative Associate, has over six years of experience in fundraising, project management and policy research for nonprofits and public agencies. She has a bachelor's in biological anthropology and recently earned her Master's of Public Administration in environmental policy at the University of Washington. Ellie lives in Seattle, Washington.
