Staff & Board
Staff
Tuula Rebhahn
Executive Director
Tuula brings a combination of ecological restoration and leadership experience to the SFI team, with roots in rural Curry County. Tuula holds two Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of Oregon, in Environmental Studies and Magazine Journalism. Her inquisitiveness and creativity drove her career in communications and digital media, but her thirst for place-based work found her pivoting to habitat restoration and native plants in 2018. She joined the staff of The Understory Initiative, based in Medford, assisting with restoration project development and partnership coordination.
She also led community science projects and developed educational programming for the public, connecting people to plants and places through stewardship. She also served as a project leader and editor for SFI’s 2023 Land Management Plan Revision, a deep dive into the land’s history, challenges,
unique assets and possible futures.
Tuula has “lived, worked and played” in the Klamath-Siskiyou region since 2012 and enjoys backpacking, cycle touring, and trail running with her dogs from her home base in Central Point.
Together, Tuula, and the SFI team are committed to work for the land and its peoples, in this uniquely bio-diverse Klamath-Siskiyou region.
Hannah Borgerson
Education Manager
Hannah is a southern Oregon local! She developed her love for nature whilst frolicking among the nearby ponderosa pines, white oaks, madrones and other grand native trees and plants. Later, she moved north to attend the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma Washington, where she studied Sociology, Anthropology and Education Studies. While in Washington, Hannah’s love for the outdoors grew. By her second year in college, she was a leader of her university’s outdoor club and eventually helped coordinate the outdoor portion of the school’s orientation program.
After college, Hannah moved all around the U.S., working at various summer camps and outdoor education sites. The more time she spent teaching outdoors, the more her passion grew for learning about the importance of creating healthy and sustainable ecosystems around us.
Brandi Patterson
Office Manager
Brandi Patterson is a locally grown Oregonian, she loves to get out and experience the outdoors and ride her quad. She is often found in the far reaches of the backcountry taking beautiful photographs. She is a mother and an organizer of all things SFI. We are so thrilled to have Brandi on our dream team!
Aliyah Zweig
Marketing and Outreach Coordinator
Aliyah is our in-house wanderer! Born and raised in Ojai, California, she moved to Oregon in 2022. She works as a farmer and gardener in her spare time and is an avid rock climber, hiker, backpacker, and rafter. Aliyah got her bachelor’s degree in Human Ecology in Bar Harbor, Maine at College of the Atlantic where she focused on outdoor leadership, ceramic arts and agriculture. She was an outdoor leader and facilitator all four years of college and led sea kayak expeditions, backpacking trips and rock climbing excursions. She has worked in several different rock climbing gyms as a youth program coordinator, climbing instructor and coach.
Aliyah found a home at SFI after working as our education assistant for outdoor school Spring of 2025. Her passion for the outdoors is bolstered by her love of connection and encouraging others to connect to the land and their environment. She prefers to have her hands in the mud or on the rocks and you can always find her in the creek!
Cody Brackett
Facility Coordinator
Cody moved to the Illinois Valley in 2013 to find community and start a family. Cody, his wife and two kids enjoy making improvements on their property in Cave Junction. He brings experience in environmental work, drafting, garden design, and extensive knowledge in sustainable agricultural practices.
Lillie Hazelton
Caretaker
Our beloved Caretaker of over a decade, Lillie retired and moved from Virginia in 2009 to fill the position of Security Caretaker at Siskiyou Field Institute. She has a diverse background in hospitality and customer service, psychology and criminal law, and motivational training and education. She is devoted to providing an exciting welcoming experience to lovers of our natural world here at SFI.
Board Members
Join the SFI Board!
This is an exciting opportunity for an individual who is passionate about SFI’s mission – serving on the SFI board provides an opportunity to meaningfully support environmental education and increased connection to our incredible Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion for people of all ages and abilities. Members of the community with leadership experience in business, scientific research and education, government, philanthropy, or the nonprofit sector are strongly encouraged to apply. However, such experience is not required – the Board is committed to diversity in its membership and seeks expressions of interest from those who share our commitment to bio-diversity in the Klamath-Siskiyou region.
SFI board members:
- Work collaboratively to determine how the organization will carry out its mission through long and short-range strategic planning
- Offer fiscal oversight of an annual budget and major expenses
- Attend regularly scheduled board meetings and annual retreats
- Participate in fundraising for the organization and personally support the organization both with their time, and financially at a personally meaningful level
- Serve as an ambassador for the Siskiyou Field Institute mission in the communities it serves through stakeholder and donor relationship building
If you have relevant experience, passion, or expertise, and a desire to serve SFI’s mission and community, we would love to hear from you via the short interest form below. We will review submissions to the interest form and reach out with a formal invitation to apply for board membership in the coming weeks. Thank you for being a part of SFI!
From left to right: Jerry Allen, Christopher Adlam, Tuula Rebhahn, Cheryl Nelson & Sabrina Klein. The SFI Board of Directors & Executive Director, Tuula Rebhahn.
Jerry Allen
Board Chair
Jerry Allen moved to Oregon from California in 2014 and bought a small farm in Selma along Deer Creek. He and his partner farm fruits, vegetables, flowers, herbs and chickens using regenerative agriculture methods, as well as making fermented foods. Jerry has a bachelors degree in Anthropology, a Masters in Public Health and an investment and financial planning certificate, all from UC Berkeley and a masters in Counseling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies. He is a California licensed LMFT trauma therapist since 1991. He retired from a 24 year career supervising social workers for Human Services in Sonoma County, where he was also for 9 years a publicly elected pension trustee and board chair for 3 years. Jerry now volunteers for environmental organizations and conducts children’s educational programs in schools and libraries via songs, puppet folktales and playing guitar, banjo and accordion. He believes educating children about the environment should be fun and entertaining. He also volunteers as Vice-President of the Cave Junction Farmers Market and as a support volunteer with the Illinois Valley Fire District, where he holds an Oregon Emergency Medical Responder license.
Cheryl Nelson
Vice Chair
Cheryl has lived and worked in the Illinois Valley on-and-off for the past 40 years. She is an alumni of Southern Oregon University (1996) with a Bachelor of Arts in English/Biology Minor. Cheryl’s varied professional experience includes Park Ranger with the National Park Service, Oregon Caves NMP, Resource/Recreation Technician with the USFS Rogue-Siskiyou National Forest, Forestry Technician with the Medford District Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and currently as the Community Engagement Coordinator for IV-FROG, a wildfire resiliency collaborative sponsored by the IV Soil & Water Conservation District. Cheryl is passionate about outdoor education, having written and secured grants for a variety of non-profit cultural and educational programs in the Rogue Basin.
Cheryl recently joined Oregon Department of Forestry’s State Forest Advisory Committee (SFAC) and is excited to join with the SFI Board of Directors to make an impact on conservation and environmental education.
Dr. Sabrina Klein
Board Secretary
Dr. Sabrina Klein was born and raised in Selma, Oregon, and her family has resided in the Illinois Valley for over 100 years. Growing up on Upper Deer Creek Road in Selma shaped her passion for preserving the beauty of the Illinois Valley, including the Siskiyou Field Institute, and her desire to give back to the rural communities that championed her success throughout her life. Dr. Klein graduated from Illinois Valley High School in 2008 and went on to attend Rogue Community College and transferred to Southern Oregon University where she graduated with a degree in Communication Studies in 2013. Dr. Klein holds a Ph.D. and Master of Arts in Higher Education and Organizational Change from UCLA.
Dr. Klein has worked in education settings, including federally funded college access programs, for 13 years. As a rural first-generation student, she witnessed first-hand the need for increased support and advocacy for underrepresented students in rural areas. She has dedicated her career to increasing opportunities for rural people. She is a proud alumna of the Project Youth+ program (formerly College Dreams) and served as an AmeriCorps State and National Service Program. Dr. Klein is currently an educational researcher and is committed to making a meaningful impact. Her work aims to produce insightful implications that empower fellow practitioners, fostering more equitable opportunities and outcomes for rural spaces.
Christopher Adlam
Dr. Christopher Adlam originally hails from France and moved to Oregon in 2011, with a home base in Cave Junction, Oregon. Dr. Adlam holds a PhD in Ecology from UC Davis and has a background in conservation science, prescribed fire and ethnobotany. Dr. Adlam works as an Assistant Professor of Practice/Regional Fire Specialist with the Oregon State University Extension Program.
Dr. Adlam has worked with Siskiyou Field Institute (SFI) in numerous programs such as the IGNITE Prescribed Fire Skills Weekend and the Cultural Fire Exchange. He also facilitates stewardship days at SFI that focus on hands-on fire ecology education and ecological restoration. He is enthusiastic about connecting people to the land through experiential learning.
Dr. Adlam joined Siskiyou Field Institute’s Board of Directors in 2025 and hopes to support conservation on and beyond SFI land through community participation, education, and applied research.