WHO WE ARE

Eric serves as the Director of the Business Honors Program and an Instructor of Management at the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business.  He teaches classes to undergraduate and graduate students on Leadership, a field he strangely discovered through kayaking. As Senior Faculty for the National Outdoor Leadership School, Eric led kayaking expeditions globally that taught him the value of leadership education and experiential learning. 

He holds an BA in Environmental Studies from Lewis & Clark College, a Master’s in Teaching from Pacific University and A MS in Geography from the University of Oregon.

Michelle hails 45 years as a resident of the Willamette Valley basin. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a BA in Communications, and has spent the greater part of her career developing outdoor industry non-profit partnerships and national marketing campaigns, and coordinating field opportunities for people to connect to nature through outdoor recreation and stewardship experiences. Michelle is a co-founder of the Alpine Trail Crew Association, a trails stewardship organization in the Middle Fork Willamette, and serves as a volunteer advocate for public lands protection and recreational access. She is also a member of the Oregon State Parks regional trails planning committee, and guides paddling trips for the City of Eugene Recreation program. Michelle also serves as a community engagement program manager for Willamette Riverkeeper, and coordinates river cleanups and clean water education and advocacy efforts in Corvallis, Eugene-Springfield and upper Willamette communities. She also assists restoration efforts to identify and eradicate aquatic invasive species and serves as the director of the annual Willamette River Festival.

Clinton is Executive Director of the Long Tom Watershed Council, where he helps local communities in the Upper Willamette Basin work toward clean water and healthy habitats. An avid whitewater paddler and third generation family farm owner, Clinton’s personal connection to water runs deep. His professional work has focused on the intersection of human experiences with nature and their influence on stewardship values and behaviors. Clinton views community based conservation organizations foremost as cultural organizations that translate the values of their communities into action on the ground. He views humans and nature as mutually dependent, not separate entities. The river journal he has kept since 2004 records the details of his trips on 116 different rivers across the country. The first on that list is North River; which runs through Clinton’s family farm in Northeast Missouri. His home river, the North River is as special to him as any of the rivers he has spent time getting to know since. What Clinton loves most about rivers are the connections we make with them can be as meaningful as those we have with our human families.

Coming Soon…

Marcel Bieg has been a professional in the paddlesports industry since 1994. He began his career as a raft guide in Colorado and has since traveled across the globe as an instructor and guide. He has managed paddlesports production and guide companies as well as developed outdoor recreation and education programs in multiple states. He has planned several national and international paddlesports conferences and has worked to developed whitewater parks and paddling features in New Mexico and Oregon. Marcel has been a professional athlete and is a certified instructor trainer in the disciplines of River Kayaking, Sea Kayaking, Rafting, Stand-Up Paddleboarding, Adaptive and Advanced Communications in Paddlesports and Swift Water Rescue.