Lyle Laverty - Chief Executive Officer
Lyle Laverty has more than four decades of natural resource management experience in state and federal executive leadership assignments.  Lyle recently served as the Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, confirmed by the Senate in 2007. In this capacity, he had responsibility for programs associated with the development, conservation and utilization of fish, wildlife, recreation, historical, and national park system resources of the Nation.

Before joining the Bush Administration, Mr. Laverty served as the Director of Colorado State Parks from 2001 to 2007.  Prior to becoming Director of Colorado State Parks, Mr. Laverty served as Associate Deputy Chief of the US Forest Service.  In that capacity, he was responsible for the leadership and implementation of the National Fire Plan on more than 191,000,000 acres of National Forest System lands across the United States.

In previous leadership assignments, Mr. Laverty served as Regional Forester of the Rocky Mountain Region of the US Forest Service, responsible for natural resource stewardship of more than 22 million acres of America’s Forests and Grasslands in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

From 1992 to 1997 he served as a senior executive in the Forest Service’s Washington, D.C. Headquarters Office as Director of Recreation, Heritage and Wilderness Resources. Lyle also served in a similar capacity from 1987 to 1992 as the Regional Director of Recreation Heritage, and Wilderness Resources in the Pacific Northwest Region

Mr. Laverty’s first assignment with the Forest Service was in timber management on the Six Rivers National Forest in Orleans California.  In 1972, he became timber management assistant on the Bear Springs Ranger District of the Mt. Hood National Forest in Oregon, followed with an assignment as District Ranger on the Skykomish Ranger District of the Mt. Baker- Snoqualmie National Forest in western Washington.

During a previous headquarters assignment, Mr. Laverty spent nearly six years in the Chief’s office in Washington, D.C., working with the Policy Analysis, Recreation, and Strategic Planning staff units.  He was Forest Supervisor of the Mendocino National Forest in Northern California from 1983 to 1987.

A native of California, Mr. Laverty received a Bachelor of Science in Forest Management from Humboldt State University in Northern California, and a Masters Degree in Public Administration from George Mason University in Northern Virginia.  He is a graduate of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Leadership Program.  He is a Registered Professional Forester in California and maintains a Certified Forester registration with the Society of American Foresters.

Janet Naughton - Executive Director
Janet Naughton is an seasoned attorney and policy advisor with a broad range of experience in public relations, natural resources, and environmental regulation.  

Ms. Naughton has over 20 years of Federal Government experience in regulatory law, public policy, intergovernmental affairs, and strategic planning.   She most recently served as Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks at the U.S. Department of the Interior.   In that capacity, she was responsible for the development of two major initiatives:

• the establishment of the World War II Valor in the Pacific national monument
• “Get Outdoors, It’s Yours!” children in nature program.

She balanced these roles with managing the overall program coordination, budgeting, and fiscal management for the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Prior to her time at the Department of the Interior, she served as an attorney in various regulatory roles, primarily providing government conflict of interest advice and counsel.  During this time, she served in the Office of the White House Counsel, where she assisted with the Presidential appointment process and implementation of rules prohibiting conflicts of interest for White House and Senior Cabinet level staff.  She began her career in public service as the public affairs officer for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative before being promoted to law clerk for the General Counsel.

She is a graduate of the University of Mississippi, (BBA 1984), Mississippi College School of Law (JD 1988), and the George Washington National Law Center (LLM 1989).  She is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia, Mississippi and Pennsylvania.

Aubrey C. King
For more than twenty years, Aubrey King has been a successful and respected Washington, DC, lobbyist and trade association executive. He specializes in issues and programs affecting the travel, tourism and recreation industries, particularly involving transportation and the Federal public lands.

From 1988 to 1997, he was executive director of the Travel & Tourism Government Affairs Council, a coalition of more than forty national industry trade associations and corporate executives. In this position, he organized a national anti-tax campaign for the industry, established the industry’s first national grassroots network, and achieved such lobbying successes as creation of the 1995 White House Conference on Travel and Tourism and obtaining historic benefits for the industry in the 1991 ISTEA Highway Bill.

He is a member of the Transportation Research Board’s Task Force on Transportation Needs for National Parks and Public Lands and a Director of the Public Lands Foundation, and he has served on the Executive Committee of the Congressional Travel and Tourism Caucus Advisory Board and on the National Park Service Advisory Committee on Use, Recreation and Tourism.

King received his M.A. from the Johns Hopkins University and his B.A. from Marshall University. He has earned recognition as a Certified Association Executive (CAE) from the American Society of Association Executives. He is an adjunct lecturer in Travel and Tourism Public Policy at the George Washington University.

Bill Hardman
As president and chief executive officer of Southeast Tourism Society, Mr. Hardman directs the organization’s promotion of travel to the 12 Southeastern states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. STS promotes the Southeast through cooperative marketing efforts, provides continuing education programs for its members and represents the legislative interests of the tourism industry.

Mr. Hardman began his tourism career in 1969 as assistant manager of public relations at Six Flags Over Georgia. He has worked as director of promotion for Atlanta’s Cumberland Mall; director of promotions and public relations for the Omni International Complex (now the CNN center in Atlanta); director of membership for the Georgia Hospitality & Travel Association; and, director of advertising and membership for the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau. Prior to being appointed president and CEO of Southeast Tourism Society, Mr. Hardman served as president and CEO of Atlanta’s DeKalb Convention & Visitors Bureau from 1987 to 1997.

Mr. Hardman is on the industry advisory board of directors for the Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality at Georgia State University. He was a member of the International Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus board of directors where he served as the first chairman of the IACVB Foundation. He currently serves on the board of directors for the Travel Industry Association (TIA). He also served as chairman of the nationally acclaimed TIA tourism industry event, the Marketing Outlook Forum in 2003. During the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, he was chair of the Georgia Olympic Marketing Task Force. He was also appointed by Sen. Sam Nunn as a delegate to the White House Conference on Travel and Tourism.

In November 2007, Mr. Hardman was appointed by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne to serve a two-year term of the National Park System Advisory Board. The National Park System Advisory Board advises the secretary of the Interior and the director of the National Park Service on matters relating to the National Park Service, the National Park System and programs administered by the National Park Service.

Kameran L. Onley
Kameran L. Onley serves as Associate Vice President with PBS&J (Post, Buckley, Schuh &Jernigan, Inc.), an employee-owned firm that provides environmental sciences, infrastructure planning, engineering, construction management, architecture, and program management services to public and private clients. PBS&J is ranked by Engineering News-Record as 29th among the nation’s top consulting firms and has 3,800 employees in more than 80 offices located throughout the United States and abroad.  In her role, Ms. Onley is responsible for leading PBS&J’s efforts in obtaining and performing work for the Department of the Interior and the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration in the management and restoration of our country’s natural resources.

Most recently Ms. Onley held the position of Acting Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the Department of the Interior (DOI).  She joined DOI in January 2006 and in her role as Assistant Deputy Secretary had also assumed the responsibilities of the Assistant Secretary for Water and Science in August 2007 before being named Acting Assistant Secretary in April 2008.  Additionally, she served as the principal advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary on environmental policy issues, including Everglades restoration and ocean and coastal matters.  She serves as the Chair of the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Forces and the Principal DOI member of the Interagency Committee on Ocean Science and Resource Management Integration.

Prior joining DOI, Ms. Onley served as the Associate Director for Environmental Policy at the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) 2003.  In this capacity, she advised the CEQ Chairman, the White House and members of the Executive Office of the President on environmental policy issues, particularly those involving ocean, coastal, and fisheries policies.  Most notably she was responsible for leading the interagency ocean policy group in the development of the President’s “U.S. Ocean Action Plan.”  She also served as a co-chair of the Subcommittee on Integrated Management of Ocean Resources.

Formerly, Ms. Onley served as the Associated Director for the Regulatory Studies Program at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia.  There she worked with a team to improve the state of knowledge and debate about regulations and their impact on society.  Her primary responsibilities included tracking pending federal regulations on: environment, labor, and health, direct the development and implementation of an on-line regulatory monitoring system, outreach to public policy groups, and project and budget management.

Ms. Onley also held a position as Manager for Environmental Policy Issues, Philanthropy, for the Public Affairs division of Koch Industries and the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, where her chief responsibility was to identify and partner with the non-profit organizations in order to further the company’s and foundation’s vision for philanthropic activity.  Earlier, Ms. Onley worked as an Economic Research Assistant at the Texas Institute for Applied Environmental Research at Tarleton State University.  In this capacity she utilized a variety of analytic methods, including regional input-output analysis and economic impact analysis, to examine local and regional economic activity; collected and analyzed demographic and economic data; and worked with public and private stakeholders to develop cost efficient policy alternatives.

Ms. Onley was born and raised in Seattle, Washington.  She received her B.A. from Seattle University in Economics with a minor in Biology and a M.S. in Agricultural Economics from Clemson University.  She currently resides in Arlington, VA.

 

Bob Warren

"Promoting Economic Development through Recreation & Tourism" has appeared on Bob's business card for the last seventeen years, showing his commitment to the economy of Northern California.  During this period, he has managed one of the first destination marketing organizations in California, the Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association.  This organization is charged with promoting tourism and recreational travel in the eight county region known as the Shasta Cascade.   Bob is also charged with the management of the tourism program for the largest city in the region, Redding.
 
He currently serves as the Chairman of the National Alliance of Gateway Communities; is on the State of California's, Rural Tourism Advisory Council and the California Marketing Committee.  He is also a past president of the California Travel Industry Association.  His commitment to the wise use of public lands has led to his re-appointment to the Bureau of Land Management’s Northern California Resource Advisory Council, and was recently appointed to the Recreation Resource Advisory Committee for California by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and serves as its Chairman.  Bob is the current Chairman of U.S. Travel Association’s National Council of Destination Organizations, and in that capacity now serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of U.S. Travel. Bob and his wife Karen live on a remote mountaintop retreat overlooking Shasta Lake in far Northern California.

 

 

Betty Huskins

Betty is President of Ridgetop Associates, a firm she and her husband David established in 1985, that specializes in governmental affairs, public relations and association management.

For the past eight years Betty has served as Senior Vice President for External Relations for Advantage West Economic Development Group. Betty led capital development activities and maintained key relationships with diverse publics, ranging from federal, state, and local elected officials to business leaders, educational institutions and other non-profits working in the economic development arena. Betty also led several other initiatives there including the establishment of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area by Congress in 2003, the establishment of Mountain South USA – a multi-state international tourism organization, the establishment of the Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council and the Certified Entrepreneurial Community Program.

During her more than 25 years of experience, she has received a number of honors and appointments related to economic development, tourism, and cultural and environmental initiatives. Betty served as Executive Director of the Mitchell County Economic Development Commission, President of the Avery County Chamber of Commerce, and board member of the NC Arboretum. Currently, Betty served on the Advisory Board of The Technology Commercialization Center at AB Tech, the NC Bio-Business Network Advisory Board, and as a board member of the Friends of the Blue Ridge Parkway.

She has been appointed by state officials to serve on several boards and commission including: the NC Smart Growth Commission, the Transportation Enhancement Fund Program, NC’s first International Tourism Task Force and as a delegate to the first White House Conference on Travel and Tourism.

On the national level, Betty is Chair of the Southeast Tourism Policy Council, an organization that advocates for the tourism industry on the regional and national level. She served on the Congressional Assessment Task Force on National Forest Planning in the early nineties and currently serves at the pleasure of the US Secretary of the Interior as one of nineteen members on the Sport Fishing and Boating Council Partnership Board. She also currently serves on the Fee Advisory Committee for the US Forest Service. Betty has been asked to testify before the US House of Representatives and the US Senate on two occasions during her tenure at AdvantageWest.

Betty attended WCU and completed her certification in economic development at the Institute of Government t at UNC-CH. She also received certification in Heritage Tourism Development from George Washington University and is certified in Energizing Entrepreneurship in Rural America.