Stephen Efner

Steve is a runner and a founding board member of Runners for Public Lands, where he serves as Board Secretary and helps with IT and website development. He is passionate about grassroots fundraising and creating sustainable systems to support conservation efforts. Steve has a background in IT and enjoys finding practical solutions to enhance organizational operations. In his free time, Steve enjoys gardening with a focus on sustainability, soil health, and regenerative practices. He lives in Ventura, California, with his family.

Vic Thasiah

Vic is a runner and Professor of Environmental Studies and Religion at California Lutheran University. He works on projects that reimagine conservation, finding common ground between people who care about wild places on the one hand and urban nature on the other. Vic also serves on the board of directors of Los Padres ForestWatch, and has a background in U.S. social policy analysis and global humanitarian work, primarily in East Africa. He loves backpacking, and traveling in Southern Europe with his wife. Vic lives in Ventura, California, with his family.

Bryant Baker

Bryant served as one of RPL’s founding members of the Board of Directors. After six years on the Board, Bryant became the organization’s first Director of Advocacy and Education in late 2025.  He was previously the Director of Conservation & Research at Los Padres ForestWatch, where he worked to protect lands along California’s Central Coast for nearly a decade. In addition to being a public land advocate, Bryant is a GIS analyst and cartographer who has co-authored several peer-reviewed papers on landscape ecology and management. His maps and analyses have been featured by the Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, San Diego Tribune, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Montana Free Press, and many other media outlets. Bryant is also an avid naturalist and an award-winning photographer whose work on California native plants and ecosystems has appeared in books, magazines, and newspapers. He considers himself a “casual” trail runner who frequently stops to look at plants. Despite the last name, Bryant is not related to RPL’s Executive Director.

Laura Alonzo-Ochoa

Laura was the Co-founding President at RPL, and has been a part of the board off and on for the past few years. She has over two decades as an educator at the high school level, currently serving as the Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Laura really enjoys creating community, being a voice for the voiceless, and advocates for equitable access to outdoor spaces. Laura grew up in South Oxnard and would consider herself an everyday average runner who loves connecting with the land. She currently resides in the ancestral lands of the Utes, also known as Leadville, Colorado with her family.

Jason Keith

Jason is an attorney, a 23+ year veteran as the Access Fund’s Policy Director, serves as Senior Policy Advisor for the American Mountain Guides Association, and is the Managing Director for Public Land Solutions, a non-profit that works on issues related to outdoor recreation management, conservation, and economic development. Jason co-directs Moab, Utah’s Running Up for Air race and lives in Moab with his family.

Tia Bodington

Tia has directed the Miwok 100K Trail Race for over 20 years and is the former Managing Editor of UltraRunning Magazine. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Western States 100 since 2012. A master’s degree in business with a focus on sustainability inspired Tia to develop and market custom reusable coffee packaging for small roasters and bulk coffee bean sellers. Tia lives in southern Oregon, with frequent travels to visit her children and to run obscure international trail races.

Zoë Rom

Zoë Rom is a journalist and writer specializing in environmental science, policy, endurance sports, and public land. She currently hosts and produces Your Diet Sucks and The Trailhead podcasts, and is co-author of the book Becoming a Sustainable Runner with Tina Muir. Zoë is an ultrarunner with top finishes at the Rio Del Lago, Run Rabbit, and Leadville 100s. You can find her running or doing stand-up comedy or performing with Consensual Improv in Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley.

Tim Tollefson

An appreciator of the imperfect, Tim believes that access to outdoors is essential for community health and that our next step, no matter the size, should be taken together. He is founder and head crafter of mammoth trailfest., one of America’s largest trailrunning events that was created to offer opportunity, access, and education through running. Tim is a professional runner for Craft Sportswear, 3x USATF Trail National Champion, 2x Olympic Trials Marathon Qualifier, advocate for mental illness awareness, and an outpatient orthopedic physical therapist

Tim and his wife, Lindsay, are parents to Nacho – a rollicking 12lb doodle – and reside in Mammoth Lakes, CA where they enjoy running and repurposing things from old

Wookie Kim

Wookie Kim is the Legal Director at the ACLU of Hawaiʻi, where he defends civil rights and civil liberties through litigation, lobbying, and community advocacy. His work focuses on issues such as police misconduct, criminalization of poverty, bail reform, reproductive freedom, gender equity, and freedom of expression. Wookie is also an educator, having taught high school English and journalism in D.C. Public Schools and legal writing at the William S. Richardson School of Law. Outside of work, Wookie trains for 100-mile trail races and enjoys exploring the trails and beaches of Hawaiʻi with his wife and daughter.

Kathleen Baker

After serving on the Board of Directors, Kathleen Baker was selected as RPL’s executive director in 2022. She comes from a career in federal, state, and local government program development, policy implementation, and operations with 20 years of experience in Emergency Management and Preparedness. Kathleen is a Ventura, CA-based runner and backcountry adventurer, the mom of two fearless boys, and is married to her husband Josh – a professional ocean engineer and deep-sea diver. Kathleen is also the founder and 13-year race director of the grassroots, community-focused, Mount Laguna Trail Marathon in San Diego, California.

Naz Ahmed

Naz Ahmed (pronouns she/her) is a program and partnerships leader with more than a decade of experience overseeing board facing, mission driven initiatives in environmental advocacy and outdoor recreation, whether through serving on a working board with Treasurer duties for an international non-profit with operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan requiring access to extremely high mountains, or her work leading grant giving strategy for REI in the Sierra-Tahoe region and the Mid-Atlantic.

Naz currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Surfrider Foundation’s DC Chapter as head of campaigns. A trail runner who visits local trailheads multiple times a week, surfs on state and national beaches, and skis on forest land, Naz is passionate about public land access and advocacy, ensuring measurable results, inclusive practices, environmental justice, and expanding equitable access.

John Garder

John Garder has been a professional conservation advocate for federal lands based in Washington, DC, for over twenty years. He is an advocate for funding and staffing for national parks in his role as Senior Director of Budget & Appropriations at the National Parks Conservation Association, a role he has held for fifteen years. He was a board officer at the Winter Wildlands Alliance for nine years, helping their mission to preserve winter landscapes and human-powered access. He has an M.S. in Resource, Policy, and Behavior from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment and a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He doesn’t live anywhere in particular but maintains a home in the mountains of West Virginia in Canaan Valley. He is an avid outdoorsman whose pursuits include but are not limited to backcountry and front-country skiing, whitewater rafting, canoeing, trail running, and mountain biking.