Staff and National Faculty

MAT Staff

Need assistance? Contact MAT via email at matinfo@fishwildlife.org.

National Faculty

MAT’s National Faculty members are integral to our leadership development training. They hail from a range of geographical and organizational backgrounds, and are responsible for facilitating and assisting with the development of MAT’s online asynchronous courses, webinars, and face-to-face workshops.

Dale Caveny

Dale Caveny grew up near Kings Mountain, North Carolina. His childhood days were filled with ramblings in the fields and woods near his home. There he developed a love of the natural world and experienced it through hunting, fishing, and camping.

This love and appreciation of the outdoors led him to a career as a wildlife enforcement officer with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC). He spent 26 years as a field officer and supervisor in western North Carolina before becoming the chief of the division in 2010. He served four years in that role and was assigned to NCWRC headquarters in Raleigh. He retired in 2014.

Dale is an alumnus, coach, and instructor with the National Conservation Leadership Institute (NCLI) and has been involved with the National Association of Conservation Law Enforcement Chief’s (NACLEC) leadership academy since its inception in 2014. He is certified as a Case in Point facilitator through the Kansas Leadership Center and is a part of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ National Faculty. He is a trustee with the Blue Ridge Conservancy and is committed to conserving land for public assess. Dale enjoys writing, hiking, fishing, kayaking and squirrel hunting with his two Feist dogs.  He has a special interest in Appalachian culture, storytelling and leadership development.

Dale lives near the Blue Ridge Parkway in the shadow of Bullhead Mountain. He has a blended family of four children and five grandchildren with two more on the way. 

Michelle Doerr

Michelle Doerr is a wildlife biologist with a Master’s in Wildlife Management from the University of Missouri. She worked for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in several capacities dealing with human-wildlife interactions. After working for the archery industry for more than ten years, she started Anavah Consulting LLC, a private consulting business to improve human-human, human-wildlife, and human-landscape connections. Understanding these connections requires us to understand ourselves first to build better relationships. She is a graduate of the National Conservation Leadership Institute, an elite program for conservation leaders. She obtained several certificates including Executive Leadership from Cornell University, Advanced Adlerian Psychology from Phoenix Process Consultants and in wellness coaching from Adler Graduate School. Adlerian principles and ecological principles combined are the heart of her purpose; to help self and others value all life on Earth.  

Jimmy Fox

Jimmy Fox is an alumnus of NCLI Cohort 6, and served as a peer coach for the outstanding NCLI Cohorts 7, 10 and 11. He's a mid-level manager in the federal government with more than thirty years in conservation. Because he's in the thick of conservation management (conflict, supervision, long-term thinking, public engagement, etc.) everyday, he's a true believer in what the Management Assistance Team delivers!

Yasmeen Hossain, Ph.D.

Yasmeen has been combining her experience in the mental health field with her background in environmental science and education for over 20 years. She is passionate about tending not only to our ecosystems and natural resources but also the people who steward them. She believes that the wellbeing of our earth is interconnected with the wellbeing of its people.

Her professional experiences range from working for international nonprofits such as the World Wildlife Fund, Friends of the Earth, and the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC) to working in the renewable energy industry both as a consultant and researcher. She has also served as a trauma practitioner working with at-risk youth, children, and adults and has vast experience as an educator and teacher-trainer throughout the US. Currently, Yasmeen is an Associate Director at Oregon State University Extension and Engagement. One of her expertise areas is elevating and embedding trauma-informed practice in natural resource management, the fields of conservation and agriculture, and environmental education. 

Yasmeen earned an interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Sustainable Development from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Tabbi Kinion

Tabbi Kinion is a professional leadership coach and instructor for the Certified Public Manager program, specializing in helping overwhelmed leaders transform their approach and build thriving, high-performing teams. With more than two decades of experience leading teams in state wildlife agencies and a Master's degree in Biology, Tabbi deeply understands the unique demands of leadership in the conservation world. She launched her leadership coaching business in 2024 to empower managers and ambitious professionals with practical, proven strategies to confidently lead effective teams without sacrificing their personal lives or well-being. Tabbi is thrilled to partner with the Management Assistance Team, sharing actionable, field-tested leadership approaches designed specifically for the conservation community.

Jyo Maan

Jyotsna (Jyo) Maan is an experienced Agile coach/facilitator and innovation artist who co-creates adaptive cultures of self-organizing and self-governance in teams, organizations and communities through her facilitation, social innovation, and leadership development. As a Human Systems Dynamics strategist & Human Centered Design facilitator, she helps groups navigate complexity in designing minimum viable structures that enable maximum creative freedom to empower people, product & process innovation using Agile methodology. She received her Diploma in Global Innovation Leadership from University for Peace, an MBA from the University of Iowa and an MS in computer science from the University of North Dakota.

Steve McMullin, Ph.D.

Dr. McMullin began his career with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks as a Fisheries Biologist. During his 10-year career in Montana, Steve also served as a District Fisheries Biologist, Fisheries Coordinator, Regional Fisheries Manager, and Chief of the Fisheries Management Bureau.

Steve left Montana to pursue a Ph.D. at Virginia Tech, leading the Management Effectiveness Project, a MAT-funded effort to identify the characteristics of nine highly effective state fish and wildlife agencies in the early 1990s, for his doctoral research. He joined the Virginia Tech faculty as a human dimensions specialist after completing his Ph.D. and maintained a close connection to his state-agency roots as a faculty member. His research at Virginia Tech included application, evaluation, and refinement of a new approach to stakeholder engagement that he originally developed as a fisheries manager in Montana. He retired from the university in 2016.

Dr. McMullin has been actively involved in leadership development for natural resource professionals for nearly 30 years. He teaches multiple workshops every year addressing leadership and communication for natural resources professionals. His workshops combine studies of leadership with practical experience gained as a program leader in a state agency, as a department head in a university, and as President of the American Fisheries Society (2017-18).

Steve currently lives in Fort Myers, FL and spends as much of his summers as possible in the woods of western Maine.

Dave Miko

Maybe the most important thing to know about me is that I invest in people. In my personal life or on the job, being able to connect with people on a personal level and letting folks know you have an interest in them has always served me well. As for my background, I obtained a B.S. from Penn State University in Wildlife and Fisheries Management. After taking a year away from college working for the Alabama Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Auburn University I returned to college life to pursue my M.S. in Fisheries Management from Texas Tech University. After a short stint with the Illinois Natural History Survey I began my career with the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission where I spent 22 years serving the anglers of Pennsylvania and the aquatic resources of the Commonwealth. In November of 2014, I started a new career with the USFWS as the Division Chief of the Division of Fish and Aquatic Conservation where I hope to make a positive impact in the field of conservation on a national scale. I developed my passion for the natural world fishing with my dad and continue to try and instill the importance of clean air and clean water to my two children (Logan and MacKenzie) between texts and tweets and the all too infrequent trips afield. Boyfriends and college seem to reduce the time available for such “frivolous pursuits”. I have so much teaching left with those two. I am a 2009 alumnus of NCLI (Cohort 4) and most recently served as a Peer Coach for Cohorts 7, 8, and 9. I cannot understate the value that the NCLI experience has had on me personally; however, the impact that NCLI is having on conservation across the country is truly inspiring.

Judy Stokes-Weber

I recently retired from the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department where I served as the Chief of the Public Affairs Division for 23 years. I have worked in natural resources agency communication and management for more than 30 years and as a management consultant for several years in private practice. As a nationally accredited member (APR) of the Public Relations Society of America I have demonstrated, through written and oral exams, expertise in and commitment to the ethical practice of communication and relationship-building in the public interest. Through the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) I have had the opportunity to work on national efforts such as Federal Aid and Furbearer Outreach Multi-state Conservation Grant projects. Most recently I served as the vice-chair of the AFWA Engagement & Education committee. I earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of New Hampshire and an M.S. in Communication Management from Syracuse University.

Jenifer Wisniewski

Jenifer Wisniewski is the Chief Marketing Officer for the National Deer Association and the Grants Chair for the Association for Conservation Information and past president of the Association for Conservation Information and has worked actively over the last few years to bring marketing to the forefront of what agencies do to make a difference in recruiting, retaining, and reactivating hunters, shooters, and anglers as well as keeping our agencies and the work we do relevant to the public at large. She held roles prior to this as chief of communications and marketing for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and Georgia Wildlife Resources Division and has served as chair of the AFWA Outreach and Marketing Working Group, Board Member for the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, and co-chair of the SEAFWA R3 Committee. Her success in Georgia and now Tennessee has garnered much attention nationwide and efforts have been featured by national organizations like the Association of Conservation Information, The Council to Advance Hunting and Shooting Sports, Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation, Archery Trade Association, National Shooting Sports Foundation, Wildlife Management Institute, and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. 

Dave Zebro

Dave is a 1992 graduate from UW-Stevens Point with a BS in Resource Management and Conservation Law Enforcement. He was hired as a conservation warden for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources in January/93 until Nov/03 when he was promoted to the Spooner Warden Team Supervisor.  In January/08, he was promoted to the Regional Warden position responsible for the law enforcement program in the DNR Northern Region which is comprised of 18 counties. After working for almost 28 years Dave retired in Dec/2020.  

Dave has been a member of the MAT National Faculty for the past 8 years teaching in-person workshops, facilitating online courses and numerous webinars mainly focused on Adaptive Leadership.  

Dave is married to his wife Gretchen and has two children.  A son, Logan (21 yoa) who is a Senior at South Dakota State University studying fishery research and a daughter Chloe (16 yoa) who is  sophomore at Shell Lake High School.  On his off time, he enjoys hunting, fishing, coaching his daughters travel softball team.