Meet the team
Chad Hanson Ph.D.
Director and Principal Ecologist
Chad Hanson co-founded the John Muir Project in 1996. He first became involved in national forest protection after hiking the 2,700-mile length of the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada with his older brother in 1989. During this hike he witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by rampant commercial logging on our National Forests in California, Oregon and Washington.
Chad finished his Bachelor of Science degree from UCLA after completing the Pacific Crest Trail and then attended law school at the University of Oregon, during which time he also began his career as an environmental advocate working for Native Forest Council and volunteering for the Sierra Club. Chad earned his law degree in 1995, and started the John Muir Project shortly thereafter.
In 2003 Chad returned to school, and earned his Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California at Davis in 2007, with a research focus on forest and fire ecology and the rare wildlife species that depend upon post-fire habitat in forests of the Sierra Nevada and elsewhere in the western U.S.. He has published an impressive list of scientific research papers on forest and fire ecology, wildlife use of burned forest and fire history and trend.
This past year he and Dominick DellaSala, Ph.D. co-edited and authored several chapters in a new book entitled The Ecological Importance of Mixed-Severity Fires: Nature's Phoenix which is being published by academic publisher Elsevier due out in June/July of 2015.
Rachel M. Fazio
Associate Director and Staff Attorney
Rachel Fazio was inspired to fight for creatures who cannot speak for themselves after seeing the Greenpeace harp seal special on PBS when she was barely 9 years old. She decided early on that she would pursue this fight as a lawyer.
Rachel graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a Bachelor of Science in Conservation and Resource Studies. She then worked for a small company helping other companies comply with regulations regarding hazardous materials and public safety before attending McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. During law school she interned with the United Nations Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya and worked with several state agencies including the Department of Oil Spill Prevention and Response.
After law school Rachel worked briefly in the corporate world before finding a place with the John Muir Project in 1998. Since being with the John Muir Project, Rachel has filed numerous lawsuits against the United States Forest Service for violating federal environmental laws when planning their timber sales, and she has protected hundreds of thousands of acres of vital forest habitat from destruction. Over time her duties have expanded to encompass more than just litigation, but also developing strategy, day to day accounting, mobilizing staff and volunteers and creating this website.
Rachel is looking forward to finding more creative ways to introduce people to national forest issues and the amazing habitat in need of protection.
Jennifer (Jenn) Mamola
Forest Protection Advocate
Jennifer joined the John Muir Project's Washington D.C. office in Fall 2019 as our Forest Protection Advocate.
Prior to joining John Muir Project as staff, Jenn spent five years fighting for the health, safety, and security of Peace Corps Volunteers on Capitol Hill.
She is a golden gal, born and raised in Southern California after which she moved to the Bay Area to attend St. Mary's College and lived there for almost a decade before she joined the Peace Corps. Jenn embraced nature as part of her healing process after recovering from the tragic auto accident that cut her Peace Corps service short. She has explored the 48 contiguous states and almost half of America's National Parks and enjoys strolling through any wilderness without cell service.