Board of Directors
John Mersereau
President
John is a native Oregonian and a 40-year North Coast resident. For thirty of those years he worked as a general contractor. He has been involved with county land use planning, he served on the Arch Cape Design Review Board for 20 years, and he has been a member of the Ecola Creek Watershed Council. He has always felt a deep connection to the environment of the North Coast, whether he’s working in his vegetable garden, wandering in the woods, surfing, fishing, or volunteering for NCLC. He joined the board in 2010, becoming NCLC’s first second-generation board member (after his father, Rol Mersereau). He became president of the board in 2017.
Kevin Brownlee
Vice President
Kevin retired from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, where he served as regional instream flow coordinator and as a habitat restoration specialist. He holds a master’s degree in fisheries from the University of Alaska. He served as president of the board of Juneau Youth Services, a nonprofit agency. When they’re not spending time at their cabin in Alaska, Kevin and his wife, Marla, are at home on the North Fork Nehalem River, where they enjoy an active outdoor lifestyle managing their small horse farm, hunting, fishing and hiking.
Ron Logan
Treasurer
Ron has been the treasurer for NCLC since he joined the board in 2005. He works as chief financial officer for Martin Hospitality in Cannon Beach. He served on the Cannon Beach Planning Commission for 12 years and has served on several city committees related to the city’s environmental efforts. His interests include traveling and fishing. He lives in Cannon Beach.
Tom Horning
Secretary
Tom Horning grew up in Seaside and joined the board of NCLC not long after returning to Seaside in 1994. He has been actively involved with the land trust ever since and is a past president of the board. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geology at Oregon State University and currently runs his own geological consulting service, Horning Geosciences. Tom also serves on the Seaside City Council. He and his wife, Kirsten, live in the house at the mouth of Neawanna Creek where Tom was raised.
Betsy Ayres
Betsy is a long-time Cannon Beach resident well known for her community activism. She was already a member of NCLC’s Fundraising and Outreach Committee when she joined the board in 2010. Betsy is a retired Head Start center manager and has served on the Cannon Beach City Council, the Cannon Beach Planning Commission, the board of Coast Rehabilitation Services, and the City of Cannon Beach Budget Committee and Emergency Preparedness Committee.
Layton Borkan
Layton Borkan divides her time between her home in Portland and a second home in Arch Cape, which she shares with her husband, Gene. During her long career as a clinical social worker at Portland State University, she had summers off, which allowed her to spend summers at the coast with their four children; as she puts it, “I’ve been looking up at the Rainforest Reserve for a very long time.” Layton has been involved in a number of community coalitions addressing social justice issues in Portland. All four children—adults now—still live in the Pacific Northwest.
Vianne Patterson
Vianne Patterson grew up in Oswego, Oregon and spent family vacations on the Oregon Coast. In 1964 she moved to Vancouver, B.C., with her young family, where she earned a master’s degree in communications and media studies (Simon Fraser University), became a communications company executive, and spent much of her free time scuba diving and sailing. She moved to Gearhart in 2004. She served as chair of NCLC’s Outreach Committee for two years before joining the board in February 2013. She enjoys breeding and raising Siberian huskies.
Randall Henderson
Randall spent his childhood vacations backpacking in the Cascades and Rockies and tidepooling at Cannon Beach. After he met and married Jeanne Braun of Seaside, Jeanne introduced him to NCLC’s founding executive director Neal Maine, and the rest is history. He chairs the Seaside Airport Advisory Committee and serves on the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Airport Board of Advisors. After retiring from a career as a software engineer, Randall can typically be found working on or flying his homemade RV-6 plane, hiking on a nearby trail, or exploring the lakes and rivers of the North Coast with his wife, Jeanne, in their homemade kayaks.
Tammi Lesh
Tammi grew up in Tillamook County and lives on a farm near Garibaldi with her husband and daughter. She has a background in wildlife habitat management and has worked for the U.S. Forest Service, Idaho Fish and Game, Arizona Game and Fish Department, Northern Arizona University, and most recently The Nature Conservancy as a land steward in central Oregon and in Clatsop County. She has served on the NCLC board since 2007.
Lisa Phipps
Originally from Michigan, Lisa moved to Tillamook County in 2000 to become the coastal resource planner for Tillamook County. She was the executive director of the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership, an NCLC partner, for nine years. Lisa is currently the north coast regional representative for the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development. She has a bachelor’s degree in fisheries from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in environmental law from Vermont Law School. Lisa has a long history of public service on the North Coast. She served as mayor of Rockaway Beach for five years and as the town’s municipal judge for eight years, and she is active in many regional, state, and local boards, committees, and nonprofit organizations focused on environmental and social issues. Lisa and her husband, Roby, enjoy traveling, camping, good food, and their grandkids, nieces, and nephews.