Carol Blaney
Carol Blaney is a retired National Park Service ranger from Yosemite, with MS degrees in botany and resource interpretation. She has always loved being outdoors and sharing her love for nature, and she is aiming to visit every Wilderness in the US. Carol and her husband John Sun moved to Claremont in 2021. Since then, she has spent many hours in the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park, observing and photographing its hundreds of amazing species. She also serves on the Leadership team of the Friends of the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park.
Naomi Fraga
Naomi Fraga is Director of Conservation Programs at California Botanic Garden in Claremont, CA. She has been a staff member of the Garden for over 20 years. Her research interests include plant geography, conservation biology, rare plants, and taxonomy of monkeyflowers (Phrymaceae). She is an avid hiker of the San Gabriel Mountains and foothills and is a resident of Pomona. Naomi received her Ph.D. in Botany from Claremont Graduate University. She also serves as Secretary for the Southern California Botanists, Treasurer for the Amargosa Conservancy, and is chair of the Environment and Public Policy Committee of the American Society of Plant Taxonomists.
Hilary Lackey
Hilary Lackey and her family of 4 have enjoyed hiking and mountain biking in the wilderness around Claremont since arriving in 2007. She teaches earth sciences, including environmental geology, at Mount San Antonio College. As a geoscience professor and citizen of Earth, she is aware of issues surrounding land use and natural resources. She appreciates the opportunity to offer her time and knowledge to the CWC.
John Norvell
John Norvell is an avid hiker and watcher of birds and flowers in the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park. He especially loves to hike in the late afternoons in Johnson’s Pasture and the newly acquired Evey Canyon/Potato Mountain parcel of the Park. He paid close attention to acquisition and management of the Park since moving to Claremont in 2005 and weighed in on policy decisions with letters to the editor and communications to City Council members. John joined the Board of the Claremont Wildlands Conservancy in 2017 and served as Vice President from 2018 to 2025. He teaches anthropology at Mt. San Antonio College and brings a passion for outreach and education to the CWC.
Lissa Petersen
Lissa Petersen has hiked Johnsons Pasture since she moved to Claremont in 1974. She joined CWC in 2003, when she discovered that it was trying to save the pasture from development. As a Pitzer faculty member, she helped organize college students to support the 2006 campaign that passed a bond to do just that. Since then she has been an active board member, serving as president from 2011 to 2017 and currently serving as chair of the committee to expand the Wilderness Park.
Muriel Poston
Muriel Poston became a member of the board in 2019. When she moved to Claremont in 2012 she discovered the Wilderness Park and has enjoyed hiking the trails ever since. She lives in Claremont and is a faculty member in the environmental analysis program at Pitzer College. After living on the east coast in upstate New York and the DC area, she is thrilled to be in southern California where she can enjoy a full range of outdoor activities year round.
Vicki Salazar
Vicki Salazar lives and works in Claremont. As an advocate for the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park, Vicki serves on the Claremont Wildlands Conservancy Board and on the Leadership team for the Friends of the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park. She is the volunteer coordinator for the Friends group and active in their invasive species mapping project.
Vicki is a certified naturalist through the UC California Naturalist Program at Pasadena City College and a regular contributor to the iNaturalist and Calflora online apps. Vicki’s love for the outdoors came from growing up in Colorado where her passion for hiking, photography and the environment began.
James Van Cleve
James Van Cleve became a member of the board after working on Measure S, which added Johnson’s Pasture to the Wilderness Park in 2008. He lives in Claremont and rides the Metrolink to work at the University of Southern California, where he is a member of the philosophy faculty. He enjoys hiking, tennis, and other outdoor activities.