Playa Science Council

Pepper Trail (He/Him), Ashland, OR

Pepper is an ornithologist, conservationist, writer, and photographer. He began watching birds as a boy in upstate New York and traces his incurable love of travel to a family trip to Mexico when he was twelve. He earned his Ph.D. in ornithology from Cornell University, and has studied birds around the world, from the rainforests of Suriname to the islands of Polynesia. He lives in Ashland, where he served for over 20 years as the ornithologist at the National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory until his retirement in 2021. He is involved in many regional environmental issues, especially the establishment and protection of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument. Pepper received one of the first awarded residences at Playa, and has been a member of the Playa Board since 2012. He is a regular contributor to Jefferson Public Radio, the Jefferson Journal, and the Writers on the Range syndicated series. His poetry has appeared in Catamaran, Rattle, the Atlanta Review, and many other journals. He is the author of three poetry collections: Flight Time; Cascade-Siskiyou; and An Empty Bowl.

Karen Shimamoto (She/Her), Alturas, CA and Reno, NV

Karen is a fiber enthusiast and follower of natural resources and agriculture in the eastern Sierra Nevada, eastside Cascades, and the High Desert of California, Nevada, and Oregon.  She is a member of the Reno Fiber Guild. The connection of art and science that Playa facilitates for rural, urban and Tribal perspectives will be an exciting new venture for her. The science of landscape, water, wildlife and fire within “the eastside ecosystems” is special and unique. Playa is part of the community within the Fremont-Winema National Forest, where Karen enjoyed her past role as Forest Supervisor. Karen also brings an agriculture perspective to the desert landscape from her family’s organic beef and hay ranch in Modoc County.

Walt Anderson (He/Him), Prescott, AZ

Walt is an accomplished author, wildlife artist, photographer, lecturer, and expedition guide who taught environmental studies courses for 27 years for Prescott College in Arizona. He is a pioneer of ecotourism with experience around the globe. Since retiring from Prescott College, he continues to teach and reach out through his photographs, paintings, and writing on a daily basis. As a well-rounded naturalist, he feels that interpretation is his calling. He is on the boards of multiple conservation NGO’s that work from local to international levels. Currently residing in Prescott, Arizona, Walt has fond memories of living for years in Eugene and working several times as a wildlife biologist at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon. His residency one summer at Playa reinforced his love for the ecosystems of the Great Basin and his passion to integrate art and science, in tune with the mission of Playa.

Jim O’Connor (He/Him), Portland, OR

Jim O’Connor is a Pacific Northwest native long interested in the processes and events that shape the remarkable and diverse landscapes of the region. Following this interest with a Geological Science major at University of Washington and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at University of Arizona, he has spent most of the last 30+ years with the U.S. Geological Survey in Portland, Oregon, focused on understanding and describing the geology of the U.S. Pacific Northwest.
Jim has participated in multiple residencies and special programs at PLAYA over the last decade, immensely benefitting from interaction and collaboration among the diverse scientists and artists that create the special environment within the special setting of PLAYA.

Ron Larson (He/Him), Klamath Falls, OR

Having grown up along the Oregon coast, Ron wanted to be a marine biologist. After completing a PhD in marine sciences in Canada, he did a post-doc in Florida, where he used submersibles to study deep-sea animals. Later, he took a job with the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) in Georgia, then Mississippi, and finally moving to Klamath Falls, Oregon, where he retired in 2014. His work with the USFWS focused on water development and endangered species, work that was both challenging and interesting. His research interests include the ecology of waterbirds, especially shorebirds using Great Basin saline lakes, as well as rails and bitterns in marshes. Ron recently completed a decade-long project and writing a book about the natural history of Lake Abert, a salt lake located in southcentral Oregon that attracts thousands of waterbirds every summer. He is currently working with a group of scientists studying the effects of climate change on Great Basin lakes. His hobbies include birding, photography, and travel. Ron is a board member of the Oregon Lakes Association and the Klamath Basin Audubon Society. He and his wife Kathy live in Klamath Falls, Oregon. Ron states: ” Playa’s unique focus on the “intersection of art and science,” and its prime location at the northwestern edge of the Great Basin, makes Playa well suited to immerse creative artists and scientists in that landscape, which remains one of the least known and under-appreciated areas of North America.”

Jerri Bartholomew (She/Her), Corvallis, OR

Jerri is a fisheries microbiologist and glass artist. with an interest in exploring the intersection of these disciplines. As a microbiology professor at Oregon State University, she and her team researched diseases that affect wild Pacific salmon populations, focusing on how human alteration of ecosystems and climate change affect disease interactions. A long-term project in the Klamath River integrates research and monitoring to predict disease effects on salmon both before and following removal of four dams on that river. Since retiring, she continues to direct the Aquatic Animal Health Laboratory, but increasingly spends time coordinating an Art-Sci Interdisciplinary Fellowship for students at Oregon State. This fellowship challenges students to explore how creative artistic practices can not only illustrate, but inform science.

Katelyn McDonough (She/Her), Eugene, OR

Katelyn is an environmental archaeologist who studies long-term relationships between people, foodways, health, and changing environments. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Native American and Indigenous Studies at the University of Oregon, and Curator of Great Basin Archaeology with the Museum of Natural and Cultural History. She received her B.S. in Anthropology from the University of Oregon and her Ph.D. from Texas A&M University and previously held a postdoctoral fellowship with the Artemisia Archaeological Research Fund at the University of Nevada, Reno. Katelyn’s current projects in the high desert of Oregon and Nevada focus on human–plant interactions, Indigenous stewardship practices, and shifting landscapes since the late Pleistocene. Katelyn is especially passionate about teaching. She loves helping students develop the tools to think creatively, critically, and collaboratively to draw connections between the past and present. Outside the classroom, she enjoys trying new foods, getting outdoors, exploring the microscopic world, and working collaboratively to make archaeology and academia more inclusive and accessible.

Dr. Randall L. Milstein

Dr. Randall L. Milstein is Professor of Teaching in the Oregon State University Physics Department, and the OSU Honors College. He has been teaching at OSU since 1990. Dr. Milstein is a frequent outreach speaker and enjoys engaging with the public on topics of science, astronomy, and the roll of science fiction in popular culture. He is the recipient of the OSU College of Science Distinguished Service Award for his outreach engagements. Since 2016, he has been Astronomer-in-Residence to the Oregon NASA Space Grant Consortium (OSGC) and is a NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory Solar System Ambassador. Dr. Milstein is a frequent contributor to panel discussions, video broadcasts, and podcasts for the OSU-based Annares Project for Alternative Futures. Dr. Milstein’s research interests include astrogeology, impact-cratering dynamics, and archaeo-astronomy. Before his career in science, Dr. Milstein was educated and trained as a photographer, and his works are represented in government, corporate, and private collections; and appear in numerous publications, books, posters, and advertisements.