Staff

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Neil Brandt

Executive Director

Prior to joining WaterWatch in 2019, Neil worked as canvass director on behalf of Amnesty International in Seattle, Washington. There, he organized and managed a team of on-the-ground field canvassers to raise money for Amnesty’s international refugee rights advocacy. Before living and working in Seattle, Neil was a carbon policy researcher at The Nature Conservancy in Boulder, Colorado, where he also earned his master’s degree in environmental policy from The University of Colorado at Boulder. Neil is an avid skier, hiker, mountain biker and an aspiring rock climber. He grew up in the Adirondacks of New York and received his bachelor’s degree with honors from the University of Vermont.

 
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Lisa Brown

Staff Attorney

Lisa joined WaterWatch as a Staff Attorney in 2004. She has worked with Northwest conservation groups on watershed and aquatic habitat protection projects for many years, as well as for an aquatic research group at the Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corvallis. Lisa earned her B.S. in Environmental Science from Oregon State University with honors, and graduated from Lewis and Clark Law School, cum laude, with a certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law. She is a member of the Oregon Bar.

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Jack Dempsey

Contract Lobbyist

Jack helps WaterWatch with our extensive efforts in Oregon’s capitol, Salem. He has worked with the Oregon Legislature since 1998, including experience as leadership staff, campaign director, and lobbyist. He served as a policy advisor for then-Senate Democratic Leader Kate Brown and as legislative director for Senate President Peter Courtney. Jack has lobbied the legislature since 2006, working in-house for O.H.S.U. and the Oregon Nurses Association, and as an independent lobbyist. He lives in Portland with his wife and two daughters.

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John DeVoe

Senior Fundraiser and Advisor

John joined WaterWatch in 2003, after practicing law in Portland for 13 years. After a nineteen year plus run as the Executive Director, John now serves as WaterWatch’s Senior Fundraiser and Advisor, focused primarily on fundraising and transferring institutional knowledge to the next generation of WaterWatch advocates. He earned his law degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana in 1990, and holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Columbia College in New York. John has served on the steering committee of the Oregon Conservation Network, the board of EarthShare of Oregon, Governor Kulongoski’s Headwaters to Ocean Task Force and the Policy Advisory Group for Oregon’s Integrated Water Resources Strategy.

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Nancy Drinnon

Comptroller

Nancy has been with WaterWatch since 1994. She previously worked for Oregon Public Broadcasting as an accountant and comptroller, and earned her bachelor’s degree from Seattle Pacific University.

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Monet Hampson

Administrative Assistant

Monet has worked as a graphic designer since graduation from Montana State University in 2004, where she received her B.F.A. She has worked in Portland since 2005. Experience includes contract design jobs, advertising agency work and as an in-house designer for an agency serving outdoor and active lifestyle brands. Monet worked for The Portland Mercury most recently, as a designer for the publication. Monet has freelanced for WaterWatch for two years, helping illustrate their message of river advocacy. She now works in-house as the Administrative Assistant. Monet grew up in Bozeman, Montana. Her beloved, hometown rivers are the Gallatin, Jefferson, Madison & Yellowstone.

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Stephanie Hayes

Staff Attorney

Steph joins the WaterWatch team after recently earning her LL.M. summa cum laude in Environmental Law from Lewis & Clark Law School, where she also externed at the Earthrise Law Center. A native of New Jersey, Steph graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in Art History before moving west and earning her J.D. from Lewis & Clark. After over a decade working on employment law and union contract negotiations, Steph pivoted her career to align with her growing environmental interests. She enjoys reading historical fiction, baking cookies, and adventuring through life with her husband and two daughters.

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Tommy Hough

Communications Manager

A recent San Diego County Planning Commissioner and the founding president of San Diego County Democrats for Environmental Action, Tommy cut his teeth as a conservationist while working as a radio host in Seattle and launching the environmental affairs show Treehuggers International. He later managed communications and media for Oregon Wild in Portland and was an on-air host at 101.9 KINK-FM. More recently, Tommy was active in the San Diego County Democratic Party and twice ran for San Diego City Council, and served as a consultant with San Diego Audubon on the ReWild Mission Bay wetland restoration campaign. A native of Pittsburgh and a graduate of Ohio University, Tommy is an avid hiker and outdoorsman, and a strong advocate for wilderness, biodiversity and old-growth forest habitats. He counts his hometown Allegheny River as a favorite, along with the Nooksack, Stillaguamish, Illinois, Metolius and Smith river watersheds.

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jim@waterwatch.org
541.708.0048

 

Jim McCarthy

Southern Oregon Program Director

Jim works for WaterWatch from the Rogue Valley, with a particular focus on dam removals and the streams of the Rogue, Klamath, and Umpqua basins. Prior to joining WaterWatch full time in 2012, he spent a decade providing environmental communication, lobbying, and grassroots organizing services as an independent consultant to clients including Earthjustice, Oregon Wild, and Hoopa Valley Tribe. Jim has specialized in Endangered Species Act, water policy, hydropower relicensing, and agricultural subsidy issues. He has published numerous op-eds, articles, and reports, has testified before Congress, and served as an expert witness before the Oregon and California public utility commissions. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Princeton University.

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Brian Posewitz

Staff Attorney

Brian has been an attorney in Oregon since 1991, and joined WaterWatch’s staff in 2015. From 1991 through 2005, he worked primarily in general business litigation with the Portland firm of Tonkon Torp LLP. He had his own law practice from 2006 through 2014. In addition to his civil litigation work, Brian handled a variety of water-related cases for WaterWatch and private clients while in private practice. He also is a former WaterWatch board member. Brian has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Willamette University and a law degree from the University of Oregon. He grew up in Helena, Montana.

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Kimberley Priestley

Senior Policy Analyst

Kimberley Priestley is the Senior Policy Analyst with WaterWatch of Oregon, where she has worked since 1993. Kimberley leads WaterWatch’s advocacy in the state legislature for legal and policy reforms to protect and restore Oregon rivers statewide, as well as our longstanding campaign to safeguard the waters of the Deschutes Basin. She earned her J.D. from the University of Washington, where she also earned an L.L.M. in International Environmental Law. She earned her B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley.

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Victoria White

Staff Attorney

Victoria (Tory) is WaterWatch’s newest staff attorney, admitted to the Oregon State Bar in 2022. Tory earned her B.S. in Environmental Science from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and her J.D., cum laude, from Lewis & Clark Law school, with a certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources Law. Before joining WaterWatch, Tory interned and clerked at Columbia Riverkeeper, Center for Biological Diversity and Earthrise Law Center. When she is not practicing law, Tory enjoys hiking, climbing, and painting.