2025 Board Election

As a Clark Fork Coalition (CFC) member, you are invited to vote for board candidates each year. The CFC board of directors has nominated three outstanding candidates to fill open positions on the board: Gloria Goñi, Perk Perkins, and Bruce Thomas. In addition, current board members Jennifer Harrington, Cody Harris, John Miller, and Joellen Shannon are up for reelection. Please review the candidates’ biographies and submit your vote using the form below by March 3, 2025 at 11:59PM MST. You do not have to vote for each candidate.

The CFC board will tally votes and make a final decision at its annual business meeting on Wed., March 5, 2025 from 4:00–4:30 p.m. MST and is open to all Coalition members. Feel free to join us to share your thoughts, ideas, and questions!

*Membership status will be reviewed upon vote submission. If you have been an active member in the period from January 1, 2022 to present, you are eligible to vote in this board election.


Board members will be installed at the CFC’s Annual Business Meeting:

Wednesday, March 5, 2025
4:00 – 4:30 p.m. Business Meeting
Note: Coalition members may submit names of possible future board candidates to CFC at any time.


Board Candidates

    Gloria Goñi

    Board Candidate

    Missoula, MT

    Gloria Goñi grew up between northern Spain and the western United States, fishing and hunting from an early age. She holds a B.S. in Biology-Mathematics, with research focused on biosecurity and invasive species in coldwater fisheries. Her work in conservation spans research, non-profits, citizen science programs, and editorial storytelling.

    As a photographer, writer, and fly fishing guide, Gloria blends storytelling with advocacy for public lands and waterways. Though she has lived across Montana and even lived on the road full-time, she always finds her way back to Missoula and the Clark Fork watershed—her true home—where she explores and enjoys the region’s incredible landscapes alongside her two trusty pups.

    Perk Perkins

    Board Candidate

    Blackfoot Valley, MT

    Perk Perkins was CEO of Orvis from 1992 to 2020, leading its growth from $88 million to $340 million in sales. Starting as a catalog copywriter in 1977, he held various leadership roles, including VP of operations and president of Early Winters. A passionate outdoorsman, he championed Orvis’s conservation commitment, donating 5% of pretax profits. He has served on numerous corporate, conservation, and civic boards, including The Nature Conservancy (former vice chairman), Trout Unlimited, World Wildlife Fund, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Montana Nature Conservancy, and the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He currently serves on the board of  Weston Theatre in Vermont and advises The Nature Conservancy Caribbean Program and Trout Unlimited’s Coldwater Conservation Fund. A Williams College graduate, he also completed Harvard’s Executive Management Program.

    Bruce Thomas

    Board Candidate

    Gold Creek, MT

    Bruce is a fourth generation rancher and managing partner of the family’s purebred seedstock operation, “Thomas Herefords”. The ranch has been in the family for nearly 100 years. The fifth and sixth generations enjoy and participate in this way of life also. Bruce has served as an international Beef Ambassador for the USLGE (United States Livestock Genetic Export Committee) and the Montana Department of Agriculture. The ranch has the pleasure of hosting international Dignitaries and fellow international Hereford breeders periodically.

    Bruce has a passion for sustainable agriculture, a healthy watershed and can often be heard saying, “That’s a win-win”!  Over the past 18 years, the Environmental Studies Graduate Students “Ethics” class from the University of Montana have been doing field trips and projects on the ranch. Bruce has a working relationship with a multitude of agencies and non-profits. He has served on a number of local, regional, and national Board positions. He currently is Vice-Chair of the Upper Clark Fork Watershed Restoration Committee and is a member of the UCF Streamflow Group.

    “Every day is a blessing with this way of life, with the pinnacle being the time enjoyed with my wife and all of our family in this beautiful setting”!

Board Members up for Reelection

    Jennifer Harrington

    Board Member

    Missoula, Montana

    Jennifer is a daughter, niece, sister, cousin, and mother. She is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. Jennifer grew up on Missoula’s Northside, spending most of her life in and around the Missoula valley, attending school at Whittier, Hellgate, and the University of Montana. She is the Director of the Native American Natural Resource Program in the Franke College of Forestry and Conservation at the University of Montana. She is a member of the Missoula County Water Quality Advisory Council, All Nations Health Center Board of Directors, Missoula Youth Homes Culture Council, and the Frenchtown Community Advisory Group. Jen knows the Clark Fork River as a relative and would like to work toward protective policy that will give the river the same legal rights as the humans who depend upon her.

    Cody Harris

    Board Member

    Missoula, Montana

    Cody is the co-founder and lead instructor of the Whitewater Rescue Institute, which provides training in swiftwater rescue and outdoor technical rescue throughout the United States and internationally. Cody also manages Montana River Guides, a whitewater rafting company based out of Missoula, and has worked as a wilderness EMT and a professional ski patroller. Cody began his life on rivers kayaking in Durango, Colorado. For the past two decades, he has worked and played on as many different rivers as possible. He is a past member of the U.S. Canoe and Kayak Olympic Development Team and has paddled and rowed on three continents. When not on the water professionally, Cody is busy getting his three kids out on the river and in the mountains as much as possible.

    John Miller

    Board Member

    Missoula, Montana

    John is a family physician at Western Montana Clinic in Missoula. John grew up in Moab, Utah and Wallace, Idaho where he spent time splashing in streams and floating on rivers. Growing up in mining towns, he is aware of the health impact of environmental degradation. His mother was a social worker, legislator, and project manager on Superfund restoration projects in the Silver Valley in northern Idaho. In college, John studied sociology and completed a master’s in public health. He and his wife moved to Missoula to help start the Family Medicine Residency of Western Montana sponsored by the University of Montana. John is an avid rafter and has completed at least one multi-day rafting trip every year for the past twenty years on rivers throughout the West.

    Joellen Shannon

    Board Member

    Missoula, Montana

    Joellen Shannon is the Interim Head of School at Sussex School in Missoula. Hailing from Philadelphia, Joellen was raised in a big family that loved being outside. Joellen left the East Coast to earn her undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Notre Dame and went on to obtain a master’s in environmental studies from the University of Montana in 2004. Joellen has dedicated her entire career to social and environmental impact work. In addition to education, her career has spanned work in affordable housing and community agriculture. When not at Sussex School, Joellen enjoys mountain biking, skiing, running, and paddleboarding in the great wilds of Montana with her husband and two sons.


2025 CFC Board Ballot

2025 Board Ballot

Voter Information

Name
Name
First Name
Last Name

Board Candidates

Gloria Goñi
Perk Perkins
Bruce Thomas

Board Members For Reelection

Jennifer Harrington
Cody Harris
John Miller
Joellen Shannon