Board of Directors
Montana Freshwater Partners’ Board of Directors is a diverse team of highly-skilled and experienced professionals in the fields of economics, small business, hydrology and fluvial geomorphology, fish and wildlife biology, wetland science, accounting and law and policy.
Sarah Zuzulock
Sarah Zuzulock is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Montana, with an educational background in biology and environmental engineering. She has over 24 years of consulting experience providing education and technical assistance to conservation groups, indigenous communities, county governments, and federal agencies related to hard rock mine permitting, environmental management and mitigation of mine-related impacts. Her areas of expertise include work related to environmental characterization, wastewater treatment and management, water quality monitoring and reporting, mine operation and closure activities, adaptive management planning, and facilitation with traditionally adversarial stakeholder groups working to find win-win solutions to minimize or mitigate environmental impacts.
Amir Darabi
Amir earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at Montana State University. He moved to Bozeman, MT after he obtained his MS degree in Mechanical Engineering from North Dakota State University. After studying a range of materials, from coating of pipelines to bio-inspired structures, he plans to use his extensive background in material characterization to improve the performance of engineering structures. As a nature enthusiast, Amir loves outdoor activities such as camping, hiking, and river floating in Montana. Amir adds a new perspective to an already insightful roster of board members that aim to preserve water resources in the state of Montana.
Liz Fairbank
As a Road Ecologist at the Center for Large Landscape Conservation, Liz focuses on improving habitat connectivity and reducing the negative impacts of linear infrastructure on wildlife and ecosystems. She has contributed to numerous road ecology research projects in the western United States, including on animal-vehicle collisions on the Flathead and Blackfeet Reservations in Montana, ungulate migration routes in Wyoming, and effects of roads on desert tortoises in the Southwest. Liz is interested in exploring the intersection of road ecology and riparian ecology in habitat connectivity planning, biodiversity conservation, and climate resilience.
Caroline neighbor
Caroline is a licensed water resource engineer and certified floodplain manager with over a decade of experience working in the field of aquatic resource restoration. Caroline has a dual background in engineering and environmental science, specializing in open channel hydraulics including stream and wetland restoration, stream bank stabilization, flood studies, hydraulic structure design, fish passage and screening, and stormwater management. She has been involved in every aspect of ecological restoration including field and office studies, modeling and design tasks, reporting, permitting, construction, and monitoring. Caroline is passionately involved with her local community and also serves on the Board of the Wilsall Water District.
Reid Buckley
Reid has led the development and financing of renewable energy projects across the United States for more than 35 years. As a co-founder of Orion Renewable Energy Group LLC, he and his colleagues have developed more than 10,000 megawatts of wind, solar, and battery storage projects operating throughout the U.S. In addition to his work at Orion, Reid serves on the Park County Planning and Zoning Commission and on the Advisory Board for the Yale Center for Business and the Environment. Reid and his wife live along the Yellowstone River east of Livingston, Montana and love watching the river as it changes from season to season and from year to year. They also experienced first-hand the might of the Yellowstone during the major flood of 2022.
Marisa Sowles
Marisa is a restoration specialist at Geum Environmental Consulting, Inc. in Hamilton, Montana. For the past 15 years, her work has focused on floodplain, wetland, and river restoration, partnering with interdisciplinary design teams that include engineers, geomorphologists, and water quality specialists. Her projects span community parks, private lands, public lands, and Superfund sites, with treatments focused on restoring ecological processes and functions within the broader landscape and land-use context. Marisa works on all phases of project development, including site assessment, design, permitting, construction oversight, and post-construction monitoring. She enjoys spending time outdoors and exploring the diverse landscapes that inform her restoration work, and she values sharing knowledge to support collaborative, effective restoration.