Clinton Begley
Executive Director
Clinton serves as Executive Director of American Whitewater, bringing more than 20 years of nonprofit experience and a long history of involvement with the organization as a volunteer and advocate. He first connected with American Whitewater as a volunteer river-page editor in 2004 and has since supported its work through grassroots advocacy, public testimony, and organizing local fundraisers and events. Clinton has lived, worked, and paddled across many of American Whitewater’s regions, including hist start paddling flooded rivers and creeks in Missouri and Illinois, time leading canoeing and rafting trips throughout the Southeast, chasing spring melt in the Clark Fork and Flathead watersheds of Montana, and kayaking with the Merrimack Valley Paddlers affiliate club in the Northeast. He holds an A.A. in Psychology from John Wood Community College, a B.S. in Parks, Tourism & Recreation Management with a minor in Nonprofit Administration from the University of Montana, and an M.S. in Recreation Management and Policy from the University of New Hampshire, and now lives along the McKenzie River in western Oregon.
clinton@americanwhitewater.org
Kevin Colburn
National Stewardship Director
As National Stewardship Director, Kevin plays a leadership role in the organization’s program work while leading projects in the Southeast, Mid Atlantic, and Northern Rockies. In the years since he started with American Whitewater in 2001, Kevin has led our efforts to restore flows to numerous dewatered rivers, to defend the right to float in several states, and to protect hundreds of miles of rivers through designations and acquisitions. He also oversees our website and app development. Kevin attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville where he earned an undergraduate degree in environmental studies, with an emphasis on field ecology. Kevin then headed west to the University of Montana to get a masters degree in environmental studies that was focused on stream restoration and ecology. Based in Asheville again following a decade in Montana, Kevin continues to manage projects across his regions and to explore rivers by packraft, kayak, and raft.
Scott Harding
Stewardship Associate
Scott joined American Whitewater in late 2019 and works across all regions to help advance AW’s river stewardship mission. Whitewater rivers have been a central part of his life since learning to paddle on the Chattooga River at age 13 and he has been guided through life by a passion to enjoy, protect, and restore rivers. He has worked as a hydrologist, a professional outdoor adventure photographer, a kayak instructor, and as an advocate for restoration of the Klamath River system, including dam removal, clean water, and healthy tributaries. Prior to joining American Whitewater, he was working with the Salmon River Restoration Council on forestry and fire issues as they relate to watershed restoration and salmon recovery. Scott is based on Northern California’s wild and scenic Salmon River, conveniently located at a put-in and take-out for some of the best whitewater in the nation. In addition to paddling a variety of whitewater craft, you’ll find him flying his paraglider, hiking, biking, and putting in the work of off-grid, backcountry living with his girlfriend, cat, and chickens.
Heidi Heisler
Finance Director
Heidi was born and raised in Oregon’s Willamette Valley where she grew up outdoors camping and fishing throughout the state along with enjoying summer floats on the McKenzie and Willamette Rivers. Previously, she worked for the nonprofit, Long Tom Watershed Council (LTWC) as their Finance Director for nine years. In addition to working for LTWC, she also teamed up with multiple regional partners and assisted with budgeting and tracking for collaborative funding efforts. Heidi currently lives with her husband, raising their triplet daughters. She enjoys watching them grow and find their love for the outdoors.
Hattie Johnson
Southern Rockies Restoration Director
Hattie is the Southern Rockies Restoration Director, leading the regional stewardship program alongside Kestrel Kunz. Hattie joined the American Whitewater team in early 2019 after years of working as a contractor and volunteer for the organization. Paddling became a central force in her life when she started river guiding on the Ocoee River. Guiding rafts took her around the country, eventually landing her in Colorado where she calls home to this day. Prior to joining the American Whitewater team, Hattie worked as a Landscape Architect at a mission-based engineering firm focused on enhancing and revitalizing the social, economic, and environmental value of rivers. This work was foundational in gaining an understanding of the connection of western communities to their waterways and how that connection encompasses long standing law and tradition as well as constant evolution. Hattie has a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Georgia. Hattie is based in Carbondale, Colorado and enjoys paddling, backcountry skiing, and biking with her family.
Kestrel Kunz
Southern Rockies Protection Director
Kestrel serves as the Southern Rockies Protection Director, co-directing the region with Hattie Johnson. Through deep collaboration, Hattie and Kestrel take on the three pillars of American Whitewater’s mission: Protect, Restore, and Enjoy, sharing the responsibilities of the last pillar. Kestrel directs local, state, and federal efforts to protect rivers in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona using tools like the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, environmental planning, Outstanding National Resource Waters, and local collaborative water management efforts. Kestrel grew up paddling with her family on remote, wilderness rivers in Quebec, and later found her passion for protecting rivers while kayaking in Ecuador during high school. Kestrel has an interdisciplinary Bachelor’s of Arts and Sciences in water resources and environmental policy and a graduate certificate in Geographical Information Science. On the weekends, Kestrel can be found ski patrolling in Crested Butte, mountain biking, and exploring new rivers.
kestrel@americanwhitewater.org
Theresa L. Lorejo-Simsiman
California Stewardship Director
Theresa brings more than two decades of experience advancing river protection through hydropower relicensing, public-lands advocacy, and coalition-based campaigns across California. A whitewater kayaker since 1999, she played a key role in the FERC relicensing of the Upper American River Project, helping secure a landmark settlement that delivered year-round recreational flows on the South Fork American River below Chili Bar, new flows below Slab Creek Dam, and releases on South Silver Creek below Ice House Reservoir. She wrote the first grant to establish the Coloma–Lotus boating shuttle—still in operation on the South Fork American River today. She elevated recreation as an outstandingly remarkable value during advocacy for the State Wild & Scenic River designation of the Mokelumne River, and helped secure $11 million for future improvements at the Ward’s Ferry takeout on the Tuolumne River. She works closely with Tribal partners, conservation organizations, local communities, and public agencies to ensure river management decisions reflect cultural, ecological, and recreational priorities.
theresa@americanwhitewater.org
Bob Nasdor
Northeast Stewardship & Legal Director
Bob is American Whitewater’s Northeast Stewardship & Legal Director based in the Boston area. Bob joined American Whitewater in 2012 after devoting much of his career to public interest advocacy to helping vulnerable low-income individuals and families struggle to meet their basic needs for food, housing, and security. Through this advocacy, Bob came to view the law as an effective tool for those seeking justice, and attended Rutgers Law School to become a more effective advocate, working in legal aid as a housing advocate in New Jersey and directing a legal aid program in Massachusetts. Whitewater kayaking became a passion for Bob later on, and like all of us, he was drawn to the connection to the outdoors, the excitement of the river, and the welcoming paddling community. Through his work at American Whitewater, Bob has specialized on hydropower dam licensing through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, having worked to expand river access, recreation opportunities, and river restoration at nearly 50 dams in the Northeast. In 2024, Bob launched American Whitewater’s Deadbeat Dam Law Project to address the growing problem of hydropower dam abandonment and the unwillingness of regulating agencies to require deadbeat dam removal. On the national scene, Bob leads the effort to protect Clean Water Act requirements that hydropower dam owners meet state water quality standards. Bob also supports American Whitewater’s other legal advocacy needs across the organization.
Sadie Mathison
Membership and Operations Specialist
Sadie has a background in operations, administration, customer service, outreach, and communications with private, public, and nonprofit organizations to help her fill the role of Membership and Operations Specialist. Her education is in natural resource management (A.A.S. Fox Valley Technical College, Appleton, Wisconsin) and food systems with an emphasis in agroecology and water quality (B.S. University of Minnesota Twin Cities). Sadie has also volunteered with several nonprofit organizations assisting with membership, outreach, communications, education, and fundraising.
Thomas O’Keefe
Director of Policy and Science
Thomas O’Keefe serves as American Whitewater’s Director of Policy and Science, leading the organization’s national policy initiatives while directing stewardship projects in the Pacific Northwest and Upper Midwest. He first connected with American Whitewater as a volunteer in 1996 and served as a Regional Coordinator in the Pacific Northwest before joining staff in 2005. Tom’s passion for rivers began on childhood canoe trips in the Adirondacks and deepened through whitewater adventures with the University of Wisconsin Hoofers. He has traveled widely in search of great rivers, including completing a final descent of the Yangtze River through the Three Gorges in 2003 before closure of the Three Gorges Dam. Tom holds an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a PhD in aquatic ecology from the University of Wisconsin. He previously worked at the University of Washington, coordinating research on salmon nutrient dynamics and riparian forest development on large floodplain rivers, and has taught courses in aquatic and watershed ecology. Based in Seattle, Tom works closely with volunteers and partners to advance river protection, restoration, and sound water policy across the country — and still makes time to get on the water with family and friends when flows are up.
Bethany Overfield
Membership and Engagement Director
Bethany’s work at American Whitewater focuses on community and membership engagement. She oversees the intricacies of membership and giving and also works with our wonderful sponsors and partners. You’ll find her at all American Whitewater events with a clipboard in hand. Raised in Kentucky, she earned a B.S. double majoring in geology and geography from Western Kentucky University and later earned an M.S. degree in geology from the University of Kentucky. Bethany spent the first part of her professional career as a research geologist. She was heavily involved in the National Paddling Film Festival in various roles as Director, Volunteer Coordinator, Donor and Sponsor liaison, and Emcee from 2010-2017. Her exposure to working with every facet of the whitewater community compelled her to switch careers and hop on the AW train. Bethany is based in Brevard, North Carolina, or on whatever couch or paco pad she’s sleeping on at the time as she’s often on the go slinging memberships for American Whitewater. She enjoys being on or near any river, creek, or lake. She’s an avid mountain biker, paddler, reader, gardener, traveler, and observer.
bethany@americanwhitewater.org
Evan Stafford
Communications Director
When a college girlfriend suggested they take a spring break training to be raft guides, Evan had little clue that it would change the course of his life forever. Attracted to water and rivers from a very early age, Evan found himself at home on moving water with a paddle in his hands. His passion for whitewater led him across the Rocky Mountains, country, and eventually the world, exploring rivers with a childlike zeal. Born in Colorado, he found himself with a comprehensive knowledge of his home region’s whitewater rivers and in 2006 he co-wrote the guidebook Whitewater of the Southern Rockies, while at the same time earning a masters of science degree from Colorado State University in the Human Dimensions of Natural Resources. Not long after in 2008, Evan began to put his education to work for American Whitewater, implementing recreational in-stream flow studies across Colorado and working alongside then Colorado Stewardship Director Nathan Fey to install in-stream flow targets for river managers, protecting whitewater recreation across the State. In 2016, Evan took a part-time staff role, working on building American Whitewater’s outreach and communications program and in 2018, joined the staff full-time as the organization’s Communications Director. Evan lives in Fort Collins with his two daughters, and can probably be found most easily paddling, climbing, splitboarding, or mountain biking in the Cache la Poudre Canyon, or as the locals like to say, “up the Poudre.”
Dave Steindorf
California Hydropower Specialist
Dave Steindorf is the Hydropower Specialist Emeritus for American Whitewater. Over more than 25 years with the organization, Dave played a leading role in protecting and restoring flows on rivers across California and the West, working at the intersection of hydropower licensing, river ecology, and whitewater recreation. His work helped secure lasting flow protections and recreation opportunities on iconic rivers including the North Fork Feather, Pit, Yuba, McCloud, and Butte Creek. Dave is widely respected for his collaborative approach, bringing together agencies, utilities, tribes, conservation groups, and river users to find durable solutions for rivers and communities. Though now retired from full-time staff work, he remains actively engaged with American Whitewater as an advisor, advocate, and lifelong river steward. Based in Chico, California, Dave is a paddler, angler, and proud grandfather who still measures time in river trips and fish on the line.
Jeff Venturino
California Stewardship Associate
Jeff has supported American Whitewater in various capacities since 2017, beginning as a volunteer and finally joining the team as the California Stewardship Associate in Spring of 2024. Rivers and river recreation have been important to him for his entire life. He was raised recreating in Northern California rivers such as the Salmon, Trinity, Baduwa’t and Eel and later became enamored with the watersheds of the Central Sierra where he now resides. He has been a perennial Volunteer Coordinator for Feather River Fest for many years, a whitewater kayak instructor, a member of UC Davis Rowing and Outdoor Adventures, and a Ruddering Commitee member for Gold Country Paddlers. Prior to professional river advocacy he spent seven years doing regulatory and pesticides registration work for US EPA compliance and registration, managing human safety and efficacy testing for insect repellents, and broadly navigating the regulatory space surrounding them. Transitioning industry regulatory experience to whitewater and turning it into a career is a dream realized. He lives in Nevada City above the South Fork of the Yuba River and enjoys organic farming, backcountry skiing, cooking, and most of all paddling in his spare time.