Coast Salmon Foundation

The Coast Salmon Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established as the fiscal sponsor for the Coast Salmon Partnership. The Foundation secures diverse public and private funds to empower the Partnership’s durable salmon recovery outcomes in watersheds throughout the Washington Coast Region.

The Foundation Board of Directors share a commitment and passion for the protection and restoration of salmon, steelhead, and char across the Washington Coast Region. The Board is focused on three priorities identified in the Foundation’s 2024-27 Strategic Plan – (1) Fiscal Stability, (2) Board Development, and (3) Communication and Outreach.

Interested in joining the board? Please contact our Executive Director Mara Zimmerman for more information.

Coast Salmon Foundation Board of Directors

Chris Drivdahl

Shelton, Washington

Chris worked in habitat management and policy positions for more than 40 years before retiring in 2011. Her positions went from natural resource surveys for the Bureau of Land Management in Nevada to several assistant director positions in the WA Department of Wildlife and WA Department of Fish and Wildlife. She moved to the Governor’s Salmon Recovery Office in 1998 to guide development of the state’s salmon recovery plan. She has a BS in Environmental Sciences from Sierra Nevada College in Nevada and a MS in Geology from University of California Santa Cruz. She lives in the Shelton area, with her husband and two rotten cats, where she practices bread-making, taking pictures of everything that moves, and beach walking.

Francis Estalilla

Aberdeen, Washington

Francis is an eye surgeon and business owner in Aberdeen, Washington. He is an avid fisherman and outspoken advocate for wild salmon. When you can’t find him in the office it is because he is off chasing king and silver salmon in the bays of southwest Washington or the Columbia River. Francis grew up in Kenai, Alaska where he returns each year to celebrate the return of king salmon. He is actively engaged in fishery management issues wherever he goes. Currently, he serves on the WDFW Salmon Advisory Groups for both Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay. Francis is a 27-year resident of Aberdeen, where he enjoys the way of life afforded by living on the Washington Coast. He sees habitat restoration as a long-term need for sustainable salmon returns to the Washington Coast. Francis has a deep understanding of the fisheries and the policy issues affecting salmon and the southwest coast of Washington specifically.

David Finkel

Seattle, Washington

Tom Kollasch

Astoria, Oregon

Tom is the Watershed Restoration Program Director for the Pacific and Grays Harbor Conservation Districts. His team manages multiple assessment, design and restoration projects funded through a diversity of state and federal grant programs and engages in public outreach activities for the Chehalis Aquatic Species Restoration Program within Grays Harbor County. Tom previously worked at the Ellsworth Creek Nature Preserve for the Nature Conservancy where he managed a large-scale watershed restoration project and was awarded state and federal grants to acquire land, decommission roads, restore streams, and restore forest stands. Tom has been a member of the Willapa Bay Lead Entity continuously since 2003 and has served as their Lead Entity Coordinator since 2015. His current work includes assessing and prioritizing fish barrier culverts and a pilot watershed restoration program in the Middle Nemah River. Tom currently serves as Chair of the Coast Salmon Partnership.

Katie Krueger

Forks, Washington

Katie Krueger has been on the Board of the Coast Salmon Foundation since its establishment, first as a representative for the Quileute Tribe in La Push, and after retirement (so a one-year hiatus) as the designated board member of the North Pacific Coast Lead Entity (where she serves as a citizen representative on a volunteer basis for Clallam County). For Quileute she was an environmental attorney, policy analyst, grant writer, and representative to state and federal committees on environmental issues, including NPCLE, the Coast Salmon Partnership, and the Foundation. She has been a presenter at EPA, USFS, and NOAA conferences and local bar associations and part of the US v Washington litigation team for Quileute. In 2019 she received an award from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law for her work on treaty rights and government programs during her career. Before moving to Washington in 1995, she was an attorney for the City of Houston, Dow Chemical, Standard Oil, and Gulf Oil (TX and IL) and worked on a wide variety of federal environmental matters. Before practicing law, she was a geologist for the Field Museum of Natural History (Chicago) and Gulf Oil (New Orleans).  Her law degree (1980) is from Northwestern University (Chicago), and her BS (1965) and MS (1968) in Geology are from Tulane University (New Orleans).  She has taught geology as an adjunct professor at University of Illinois’ Chicago campus. 

Rich Lincoln

Olympia, Washington

Rich was the founding Executive Director and now a Senior Advisor of Ocean Outcomes, an international nonprofit and consultancy that collaborates with communities, industry, government and civil society partners to improve the sustainability of aquatic resources, high-risk fisheries, the seafood supply chain and community well-being through a lens of environmental, social and economic dimensions. He has 40+ years of global experience in fisheries research, management, policy, and sustainability. His prior positions included International Policy Director for the Marine Stewardship Council, Program Director at Wild Salmon Center and various fisheries research, management and policy roles with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. These latter roles included: ocean salmon fisheries monitoring, development of ocean coho and chinook mixed stock fishery impact models, wild coho productivity research in the Chehalis and Puget Sound basins, hatchery supplementation evaluation in the Yakima basin, and statewide wild salmonid policy development. Rich also served as bilateral chair of the Pacific Salmon Commission’s Fraser River Panel and contributed to the development of co-management plans with Pacific Northwest treaty Indian tribes. Rich advised UN-FAO’s development of inland fisheries ecolabelling guidelines, served as a member of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council, and is a U.S. Commissioner designee to the North Pacific Fisheries Commission.

Bob Russell

Adna, Washington

Bob brings a lifetime of experience in industry, deep personal and professional connections in Lewis County, and strong interpersonal skills to the Foundation board. He retired from the pulp and paper industry in 2019, served on the organizing committee for the George Washington Bicentennial Committee for the City of Centralia, and currently serves on the Lewis County Planning Commission. Bob developed a profound interest in salmon and wetlands through interactions on his property in Adna, Washington, and has a passion for communicating the importance of both salmon and wetlands to residents in the upper Chehalis River basin.

Mark Swartout

Lacey, Washington

Education:

• S.Finance – Iowa State University
• Masters of Environmental Studies – The Evergreen State College

Related Experience:

• 3 years U.S Army Finance Officer
• 23 years Thurston County Natural Resources Program Manager. His duties included being the alternate for Chehalis Watershed Planning, Chehalis Flood Authority, and Chehalis Salmon Habitat Work Group

8 years Chair of the Coast Salmon Partnership

2024 Meeting Schedule

The Coast Salmon Foundation Board of Directors meets at the Coast Salmon Foundation office, 100 South I Street, Suite 103 in Aberdeen, WA from 12 pm to 3 pm, unless otherwise indicated. Members of the public are welcome.  Directions for virtual access are provided in the meeting agenda.

Agenda

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Financials

 
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