Board of Directors

Lynn Broaddus
Lynn is the Director Environment and Community Programs at The Johnson Foundation. Previously she was the Executive Director for Milwaukee Riverkeeper. Her career includes a decade working for The Nature Conservancy, as well as professional experiences in endangered resources, energy conservation, and teaching. Originally from Virginia, Lynn now lives in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, with her husband Marc Gorelick and teenage sons, Evan and Girard.

Cassie Goodwin (Chair)
Cassie is a civil and environmental engineer at JJR in Madison. She wears many hats in her job: water resources designer, public access advocate, waterfront planner, and coastal engineer. Off the job she wears many hats as well: bicyclist, tennis player, outdoor enthusiast, artist, sailor, paddler and kayaker, skier, hiker, traveler, reader, knitter, crafter. She and her husband Nick live in Madison where they enjoy working on their house, gardening, cooking delicious food from the farmer's market, watching independent movies, and spending time with friends and family. Cassie is also actively involved in ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) as a local chapter board member, and is a "Big" through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Dane County. She holds a Master's Degree from UW-Madison in Civil and Environmental Engineering with an specialty in Environmental Science, is a LEED Accredited Professional and a state-licensed Professional Engineer.

Lynn Isherwood
Lynn, a native of Milwaukee, is a vegetable farmer in the glacial sands of Central Wisconsin. She lives at the edge of the Buena Vista Marsh which is home to numerous "streams" that are part of a drainage district, but most of them have a long history being fed by the glacial divide to the east and all flow into the mighty Wisconsin. Lynn met her husband on a canoe trip in the Boundary Waters; now they paddle on their Isherwood Lateral a quarter mile from the homestead.

Marcia Kraus (Treasurer)
Marcia is a native of Portage County, a Madison resident, and director of special projects for Artful Home, aka The Guild, a local on-line art merchandiser. She brings to the River Alliance a background in public broadcasting membership and passion for local action.

Bob Martini (Vice Chair)
Bob Martini is retired from his statewide rivers coordinator position at the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources, where he worked for over 30 years, including leading the massive clean-up of the Wisconsin River and guided many a controversial dam removal project. He's an avid trout angler and paddler, and is active in many other resource conservation organizations. He is a father of two adult children, a grandfather, and married to Kathy, a retired teacher.

Gail Schroeter
Gail Schroeter is the vice president of retail banking at Home Savings Bank in Madison. She has had a passion for rivers after she and her avid muskie fisherman husband, Jeff, lived on the banks of the Yahara River near Stoughton for 18 years while raising their family.

Mary Schlaefer
Mary is a lifelong resident of Wisconsin and an avid participant in the natural world. She is blessed to have work that feeds her soul, serving as executive director of the Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation, a non-profit company that designs and implements programs to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy. She is an avid hiker, biker and angler, as well as a novice paddler. Mary previously served as executive Assistant and deputy secretary of the Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources.

Bill Schultheis (Emeritus)
Bill, a lifelong paddler, has been helping protect Wisconsin's rivers for many years. He is a member of several organizations interested in unique land acquisition and protection initiatives. Bill, from Dousman, WI, is self-employed and semi-retired.

Bev Stelljes
Bev Stelljes lives near Fall Creek, Wisconsin, on the Eau Claire River. She's a native of Nebraska, a stone's throw from the Missouri River, but her river obsession began during college on Nebraska's other river, the Platte. Bev and her husband Kevin have paddled many miles together, going for remote wilderness areas from Canada to Chile, Alaska to New Zealand.

A teacher by training, Bev runs a horseback riding training school whose goal is not only teach horseback riding but to develop an appreciation of nature and the natural world. Bev has served on a number of committees in her community involving conservation and river corridor protection.

Joe Van Berkel (Chair)
Joe grew up along the Fox River back when the river was not especially pretty. He attended the UW-Madison and UW-Oshkosh and did graduate work at UW-Stevens Point in Natural Resource Management.

Joe has been the Sauk County Conservationist for 22 years. He presently serves as an officer for the Wisconsin Association of Land Conservation Employees, the Baraboo River Canoe Club and the Citizens for Waterfront Revitalization. He is married to Lyn Foster, his conservation partner and fellow parent to two adult children.

Tina Van Zile (Secretary)
Tina is a member of the Sokaogan Chippewa Community of Mole Lake, Wisconsin. She has worked for the tribe's environmental department for 15 years, the last 10 as director. She has also served as tribal vice chair and tribal secretary. She is recipient of the Michael Frost Award from the National Tribal Environmental Council. Tina looks forward to bringing tribal water issues and people to the River Alliance's statewide river agenda.

Brad Werntz
Brad Werntz is the principal rep at PEMBAserves, a sales agency catering to the outdoor industry, and founder of Boulders Climbing Gym here in Madison, WI. Brad brings to the board a lifetime of outdoor experiences as well as almost thirty years experience in the outdoor industry. Brad is passionate about the environment, bike commuting, and stand-up paddling. He is the proud husband of an educator, and a father to three children.