The Board
Each member of the Board offers a unique perspective to the team and our combined network is very large and diverse. The Board is committed to consistently generating quality, timely and pertinent editorial content for Wildfire magazine. We are currently recruiting 2 additional members to work with our team from the international arena. If you are interested in becoming a member, please drop us an email.
Chair
Punky Moore, Deputy Chair
Punky Moore is the fire information officer for the south zone of the Kaibab National Forest in Williams, Ariz. Moore began her information career as a visitor use assistant in the mountaineering program at Denali National Park in 1995. She moved to the Forest Service in 2000, and continued working in information services in Steamboat Springs, Colo., on the Med Bow/Routt National Forests. She acquired her Type-2 information officer qualifications in Colorado and began working with the Northern Rockies Interagency Fire Use Management Team in 2001. Moore moved to the Mendocino National Forest in northern California in 2004. While on the Mendocino, she coordinated fire information efforts during incidents and developed communication plans for the fire management program.
Moore has been a member of the S580 cadre - Advanced Wildland Fire Use Applications - for five years. She is also the Executive Secretary for the NWCG Fire Behavior Subcommittee; a position she has held for six years.
Punky Moore resides in Flagstaff, Ariz and in her spare time enjoys the outdoors, gardening, traveling and spending time with her two sons.
Wayne Cook
Wayne is a Fire Technology Transfer Specialist for the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. He received his B.S. degree in Recreation Resources Management with a Forestry Emphasis from the University of Montana. He is qualified as a Type II Incident Commander, Type I Fire Use Manager, Type II Operations Section Chief, and Fire Behavior Analyst.
As a Fire Technology Transfer Specialist, Wayne serves as an intermediary between Fire Research and Fire and Aviation Management representing the national interest on projects that affect the efficiency and effectiveness of fire management programs. He is also responsible for improving and facilitating the technology transfer process for all fire-related research, thus remaining very active in many national interagency technology transfer related projects.
Wayne joined the U.S. Forest Service in 1975 on an Interregional Fire Crew on the Nez Perce National Forest, becoming a smokejumper in 1977. Afterwards, he served as Program Leader for Interagency Fire Use and Fuels Management Training at the Northern Training Center. He also detailed to Spotted Bear Ranger Station on the Flathead National Forest as an Assistant District Ranger overseeing Fire Management, Range, and Ecology Programs.
Wayne served as an Incident Commander for 7 years on one of the National Interagency Fire Use Management Teams. He recently stepped down as Chair for the National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG), Fire Environment Working Team’s Fire Behavior Committee and for the S-493 FARSITE – Fire Area Simulator course after over a decade of commitment. He has served and continues to serve on numerous steering committees and faculties for national and international related wildland fire management and research projects, programs and curriculums.
Mark Kaib
Mark began his career in fire as an Arizona hotshot crewmember for the USFS in 1982, his first summer after graduating from high school. Over the next 13 years he worked on other hotshot crews, engine crews, helitack, for the USFS, NPS, and the BLM in Alaska. Mark had the good fortune to be a hotshot superintendent and also to work in Alaska with Native American Crews. As a seasonal firefighter he was either going to college or traveling extensively throughout Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. In northern Mexico and the Southwest United States, Mark's graduate research was performed on land-use history and fire ecology of mixed-conifer, pine-oak woodland, and semi-desert grassland ecosystems.
Mark is currently the Deputy Regional Fire Management Coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southwest Region in Albuquerque, New Mexico and applies his fire research and management experience to support the refuge prescribed fire and habitat management programs. Regional fire and fuel monitoring, planning and implementation, research and development, outreach and education, and emergency fire stabilization and rehabilitation are some of his current projects and responsibilities.
He hopes to encourage his colleagues and friends to submit their stories of interest and lessons learned, to help make Wildfire the go to magazine for the wildland community.
Education and Experience
B.S., Environmental Resource Sciences, Arizona State University, 1992
M.S., Watershed Management, The University of Arizona, 1998
M.S., Arid Lands Resource Sciences, The University of Arizona, 2008
Bequi Livingston
Bequi started her Forest Service career in 1979 as a member of the Young Adult Conservation Corps (YACC) on a wildland fire hand crew at the Smokey Bear Ranger District in Ruidoso, NM. Bequi continued her fire and aviation management career working seasonally on fire crews including, helitack, engine, hotshot, fire lookout, dispatcher, fire prevention technician and law enforcement while working as a health club manager and personal fitness trainer in the off-season. In 1989, Bequi received her permanent status in R5 on the Cleveland NF as an Assistant Fire Engine Operator and later resigned once her daughter was born.
Bequi then went on to help her husband operate their own private helicopter business while Bequi also started her own private fitness consulting business called BodySense. Bequi worked for a time as the Dispatch Supervisor for the NPS Glen Canyon NRA emergency communications center until 1995 when after the birth of her son, she came back to work in Albuquerque for the Sandia Ranger District as the Fire Information officer. Since that time, Bequi has been the Assistant Fire Management Officer for the Sandia RD, and then became the Prescribed Fire Operations Specialist for the Southwest Fire Use Training Academy until 2005 when she came to the Southwestern Regional office as the Regional Fire Operations Health and Safety Specialist where she still works. Bequi has also been instrumental in the international wildland fire community with the development of “FireFit” – an interagency wildland firefighter fitness program.
Bequi resides in Albuquerque with her husband Ron, who is an International Aviation Consultant, daughter Amity (age 18) and son Parker (age 13) and of course their 4 cats and dog. Bequi loves to exercise, spend time in the ‘woods’ to relax and especially spend time with family between softball games, soccer games and spending quality time at home.
Aaron Schoolcraft
Aaron Schoolcraft currently resides in Albuquerque, NM and is the Aviation Management Specialist for the USFS R-3 Regional Office. Aaron grew up in Lake Chelan, WA; and after high school graduation, he started his Forest Service career on the Chelan Initial Attack crew. After three years, Aaron got a job on the Lake Chelan Rappel Crew which later moved to Wenatchee Washington. He spent nine years with that program, working his way up from helicopter crewmember to the base manager. He accepted a job in Region 3 as an Aviation Management Specialist working with all aspects of aviation. He is attending Embry-Riddle Professional Aeronautics University and working toward a Professional Aeronautics degree and a minor in Aviation Safety. Currently he is also working on obtaining his Private Pilots license.
Sandy Williams
Wildland Fire Prevention Program Manager at the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. Type II incident red card for Food Unit Leader, Facilities, Ordering and Base Camp. 2009 – International Association of Wildland Fire Board Member. 2006 – Chair of the Pacific Northwest Coordinating Groups Prevention Working Team This intergovernmental group of Oregon and Washington, local, state, and federal agencies work cooperatively to reduce wildfire risk and restore fire-adapted ecosystems.
BA in Political Science from St. Martin’s University, Washington.
