Todd Graham

Todd Graham has over twenty years’ experience improving the ecological and financial performance of working ranches, having influenced the management of roughly 11 million acres in the western United States. Through a combination of consulting, management, and ownership, he has helped over 25 ranches convert operations from more traditional practices toward conservation-oriented approaches that carried themselves financially. He brings a systems-based approach to the work, focusing on the joint improvement of the team, natural resources, and the financial performance of lands under management. He has extensive experience in public lands grazing issues and has helped design and quantify the improvements of multiple wildlife habitat improvement projects. Born and raised in Wyoming, Graham obtained a degree in rangeland science from the University of Wyoming. 

Katie Meiklejohn

Katie manages Ranch Advisory’s Monitoring Program, collecting the ecological data that underpins the company’s Advisory and Management services. Katie has over 15 years of experience in landscape-scale conservation and has worked extensively with ranchers to identify strategies that simultaneously enhance ecological health, financial success and human well-being. Prior to joining Ranch Advisory Partners, she headed up the Sonoran Institute’s Working Landscapes Program in the Northern Rockies, was a Program Director for American Wildlands and helped get the Center for Large Landscape Conservation established in Bozeman, MT. Katie is a Kinship Conservation Fellow and obtained a Master’s in Conservation Biology from Columbia University. She lives in the Blackfoot Valley of Montana in a tiny cabin with her boyfriend Kalon.

Ben C. Pierce

Ben Pierce graduated from Dartmouth College, received a Masters from the University of Washington, and completed the Executive Program at Stanford Business School. He worked for the First National Bank of Boston and Fiduciary Trust Company of New York before joining The Nature Conservancy (TNC) for a 25-year career in the Northern Rockies. Pierce was State Director for TNC in Wyoming for 11 years, a Chapter he founded and built into TNC's most successful program in fundraising and landscape-scale conservation. Under Pierce's leadership, the Wyoming Chapter completed a $100-million conservation campaign, protected over 100,000 acres of land, and completed over 100 ranch conservation transactions. Pierce was then Director of TNC's Conservation Buyer Program nationally for 5 years based out of Denver where he facilitated conservation real estate transactions across the country. He then Co-Directed the Montana Chapter for TNC. Pierce distinguished himself as a creative entrepreneur in TNC who conserved hundreds of thousands of acres in real estate transactions that generated both profit and conservation results. Pierce has helped purchase, manage, and enhance numerous ranches, including extensive family investments in Montana ranchlands. His Sweetwater Ranches Brokerage firm helps match conservation buyers with ranches currently.

Ann Franklin

Ann Franklin has extensive experience directly applying science to natural resources management. She has helped facilitate, design, and monitor landscape-scale wildlife habitat improvement projects and has written county-wide fire management plans where fire was integrated into natural resources management programs across private and public land boundaries at landscape scales. Growing up on a northwest Colorado cattle and sheep ranch and having lived internationally, Franklin developed an inherent curiosity regarding the human side of natural resources management. That interest propelled her to become an agricultural and natural resources extension agent for Colorado State University and a natural resource management specialist for Moffatt County, CO. For years, she has successfully taught and blended science, the human element, and stewardship in her work with multiple stakeholders. Franklin attained a bachelor's degree in Rangeland Ecology and master's degree in Agriculture from Colorado State University.

Court Smith

Court Smith has over twenty years of experience working as a professional Geographic Information Systems (GIS) specialist, ranch manager, and research ecologist. As a GIS specialist, he has developed and managed proprietary GIS databases for a number of firms in the west. This has included obtaining, creating, and analyzing geospatial data for natural resource management, conservation, and agricultural operations. Court also has five years’ experience as a ranch manager overseeing all ranch operations, including agricultural production, water management, project permitting and implementation, as well as natural resource restoration and enhancement. Court managed operations for ten ranches in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and California and gained a deep appreciation for the role of livestock grazing in improving and managing land health, wildlife habitat, and the challenges of creating financially-sustainable agricultural enterprises in western landscapes. As a professional ecologist, Court spent several years studying the impacts of human development on wildlife in areas within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem with an emphasis on geospatial modeling. Court’s experience provides him with a unique insight regarding ranch management in particular: from his on-the-ground experience as a ranch manager and scientist, he has a deep understanding of the insights GIS and other monitoring data can provide in helping plan for and improve rangeland health while maintaining and optimizing agricultural productivity and profitability. He has a BS in Science Education from Miami University (Ohio) and an MA in Conservation Biology from Prescott College in Arizona. Court has extensive experience with all ESRI ArcGIS software, Google Earth Pro, and other GIS programs as well as Excel, FileMaker Pro and other database applications.

Alyson Williams

Alyson specializes in rangeland monitoring, rangeland assessment, and grazing plan development. Alyson graduated with both a bachelor’s in Sustainable Livestock Production and a master’s in Animal and Rangeland Sciences with an emphasis in Grazing Beef Cattle Nutrition from Montana State University. In addition to her graduate research, for which Alyson received an award of Excellence in Applied Animal Science Research from the American Society of Animal Science, Alyson has been extensively involved in research pertaining to natural systems beginning with a water quality study following a dam removal from the White Salmon River in Washington, 2011. Since then, Alyson has been involved in studies pertaining to cattle grazing behavior, the effects livestock grazing has on wildlife forage selection, and cattle’s response to winter weather in both Oregon and Montana. Furthermore, Alyson co-authored a reintroduction plan for Sharp-tailed grouse in Western Montana for the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Parks. Aside from her academic background, Alyson grew up ranching in north-central Oregon and has managed the daily moves of 1,600 cattle through an extensive mob grazing system in eastern Montana, applied targeted sheep grazing to mitigate leafy spurge in southwest Montana, and worked for the Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Park conducting weed management and high-intensity-short-duration grazing. Alyson has also been involved in the day-to-day operations of many ranches in OR, ID, and MT, and is an avid horsewoman. 

Mark Petroni

Mark Petroni retired from the USDA, Forest Service after a 33-year career. Serving nineteen years as District Ranger of the Madison Ranger District in Ennis, MT. In this role he was responsible for all aspects of resource management including forestry, grazing, and wildlife management. Petroni is managing partner of Blue Heron Enterprises, a consulting and horticultural business based at his home in West Yellowstone, Montana. He holds a B.S. in Forestry from the University of Montana.

Elle Ping

Elle graduated with a degree in Environmental Science from Skidmore College. She has participated in prescribed burns on rangelands in Oklahoma and soil carbon sampling on farmland in Virginia. She also worked on projects relating to mycorrhizal fungi in the Adirondacks, PFOA detection on ski hills, and she created an app showing were Hemlock Woolly Adelgid might be found to help focus monitoring and stop the spread of the pest. She also studied wildlife ecology in Tanzani and identified land and resource use conflicts between health in the region. Elle then moved out west and worked with the Thunder Basin Grassland Prairie Ecosystem Association and the USDA to lead a field crew in data/sample collection pertaining to drought and fire response, invasive species management, prairie dog invasion and recovery, grazing pressures, and more.

Lindsay Kelley

Lindsay comes from the public accounting industry with over 10 years of experience. She has extensive experience in tax accounting, payroll, and bookkeeping. Lindsay grew up on a cattle ranch in Hot Springs, MT, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting with a minor in economics from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She now lives with her husband and two kids on their cattle ranch in Deer Lodge, MT. Lindsay is passionate about combining her accounting and agricultural knowledge to provide value to the agribusinesses that she works with. She’s excited to help agribusinesses gain confidence in their numbers.

Nina Jensen

Nina has a diverse background of experience working in agriculture, conservation, guiding, and the culinary world. Originally from Iowa, she worked on prescribed burns focused on tall grass prairie restoration. She went on to get a degree in geography, developing her passion for understanding spatial relationships of the physical world, people, flora, and fauna. She has ten years of experience working on farms and ranches across the west and the world ranging. She has worked in high intensity grazing systems with grass- finished cattle, as well as range riding on big rugged terrain with pairs. Nina worked on a watershed collaborative conservation project to graze cattle alongside the successful reintroduction of native Rio Grande cutthroat trout in Colorado. Nina's time working as a guide has brought a human relationship focused perspective to her work in land management.

Susanna Howe

Susanna graduated with a degree in Animal Science from University of Vermont.  After conducting wildlife research in Botswana as part of a study abroad program, she initially aimed to become a wildlife veterinarian. However, a week after graduation she found herself working on a cattle ranch in Montana and has never looked back.  She has spent the past 9 years exploring different fields of agriculture from vegetable farming, flower farming, making artisan goat cheese, and cattle ranching.  Susanna has honed her skills in regenerative agriculture, holistic land and animal management, and sustainable farming practices.  She is passionate about local food, land conservation, and will take any opportunity to escape into the mountains with her dog, Frankie.