Meet the team
Chad Hanson Ph.D.
Director and Principal Ecologist
Chad Hanson co-founded the John Muir Project in 1996. He first became involved in national forest protection after hiking the 2,700-mile length of the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada with his older brother in 1989. During this hike he witnessed firsthand the devastation caused by rampant commercial logging on our National Forests in California, Oregon and Washington.
Chad finished his Bachelor of Science degree from UCLA after completing the Pacific Crest Trail and then attended law school at the University of Oregon, during which time he also began his career as an environmental advocate working for Native Forest Council and volunteering for the Sierra Club. Chad earned his law degree in 1995, and started the John Muir Project shortly thereafter.
In 2003 Chad returned to school, and earned his Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California at Davis in 2007, with a research focus on forest and fire ecology and the rare wildlife species that depend upon post-fire habitat in forests of the Sierra Nevada and elsewhere in the western U.S.. He has published an impressive list of scientific research papers on forest and fire ecology, wildlife use of burned forest and fire history and trend.
This past year, he and Dominick DellaSala, Ph.D., co-edited and authored several chapters in a new book entitled Mixed Severity Fires: Nature's Phoenix, published by academic publisher Elsevier in June 2024.
Rachel M. Fazio
Associate Director and Staff Attorney
Rachel Fazio was inspired to fight for creatures who cannot speak for themselves after seeing the Greenpeace harp seal special on PBS when she was barely 9 years old. She decided early on that she would pursue this fight as a lawyer.
Rachel graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a Bachelor of Science in Conservation and Resource Studies. She then worked for a small company helping other companies comply with regulations regarding hazardous materials and public safety before attending McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. During law school she interned with the United Nations Environment Program in Nairobi, Kenya and worked with several state agencies including the Department of Oil Spill Prevention and Response.
After law school Rachel worked briefly in the corporate world before finding a place with the John Muir Project in 1998. Since being with the John Muir Project, Rachel has filed numerous lawsuits against the United States Forest Service for violating federal environmental laws when planning their timber sales, and she has protected hundreds of thousands of acres of vital forest habitat from destruction. Over time her duties have expanded to encompass more than just litigation, but also developing strategy, day to day accounting, mobilizing staff and volunteers and creating this website.
Rachel is looking forward to finding more creative ways to introduce people to national forest issues and the amazing habitat in need of protection.
Jennifer (Jenn) Mamola
Policy and Advocacy Director
Jenn joined the John Muir Project's Washington D.C. office in Fall 2019 as their Forest Protection Advocate and now serves as Policy and Advocacy Director, working to defend America's forests at the federal level.
Before joining JMP, she spent five years on Capitol Hill advocating for the health, safety, and security of Peace Corps Volunteers.
A Southern California native, Jenn headed north for college at St. Mary's in the Bay Area, where she put down roots for nearly a decade before her Peace Corps assignment. When an life-altering auto accident cut her service short, she turned to the outdoors to heal, and never really left. That chapter sparked a passion for wild places that has since taken her through all 48 contiguous states and more than half of America's National Parks. She's happiest somewhere without cell service.
Jenn also serves on the boards of Wilderness Watch and Fund for Wild Nature.