Meet willamette Riverkeeper’s Staff:
Michelle Emmons | she/her | Interim executive director and Riverkeeper
Michelle hails 48 years as a resident of the Willamette Valley basin. She graduated from the University of Oregon majoring in Public Relations, and has spent the greater part of her career working in community development and the outdoor industry coordinating non-profit programs and field opportunities for people to connect to nature through outdoor recreation and stewardship experiences.
Michelle joined Willamette Riverkeeper in the 2000s as a partner in developing the first Great Willamette Cleanup, officially joining WR in 2011 developing and leading community engagement and adovcacy efforts in the upper Willamette basin, including the River Guardians Program, the Great Willamette Cleanup, and the Willamette River Festival. Michelle assists in WR’s communications and events coordination, local advocacy and legislative issues. She directs the annual Willamette River Festival in Eugene. Michelle became deputy director in 2024, working together with Bob Sallinger as the executive director, to manage human resources, resource development, the Willamette Water Trail partnership, and river advocacy efforts across the Willamette Valley region. Michelle is now serving as the interim executive director since Bob’s unexpected passing in October.
Michelle’s experience in outdoor recreation advocacy and non-profit management spans several organizations. She is a co-founder and executive director of the Oakridge Trails Alliance, and serves as a volunteer advocate for public lands protection and recreational access in the Willamette headwaters. She is also a board member of Cascadia Wave, serves on the Oregon State Parks Recreational Trails Program Grant Committee and sits on the Oregon Trails Coalition Advisory Committee. Somehow, she finds time to occasionally guide paddling trips for the City of Eugene Recreation program. In 2019, Michelle received the National Recreation and Parks Association Volunteer Service Award for volunteer program partnership with the City of Eugene, and the US Forest Service recognized her with the 2020 Trails Stewardship Award for her collaboration and leadership in coordinating volunteer efforts with several organizations across the Willamette watershed. Michelle has run for state representative twice, unsuccessfully, but deeply appreciates the connection fostered by fellow legislators and community volunteers that continues to feed her passion for catalyzing change at a policy level by building coalitons around common goals.
Michelle often describes her work as “connecting people, sustainability, and the great outdoors”. She is an avid mountain biker, paddler and mushroom forager, an aspiring equestrian and fly fisher, and has lived and worked in a variety of rural and urban areas within the Willamette Valley, from the headwaters to the Superfund site. Her favorite quote is “We all live upriver.”
Vanessa Youngblood | SHE/HER | restoration Manager
Oregon has been home for Vanessa for the past 20 years and the Willamette River has always held a huge place in her heart. Vanessa lives and breathes the Willamette; whether its paddling, rockhounding, exploring its tributaries, or identifying all the plants that exist in the riparian corridors.
She has followed her passions and received a Bachelor’s in Natural Resources with a focus on Plant Ecology and a minor in Botany at Oregon State University. Vanessa has worn a multitude of hats professionally including hands-on forest fieldwork and recreation management at the McDonald & Dunn Forest, outdoor education, leading volunteer groups with invasive species pulls and native planting, wastewater treatment for the City of Harrisburg, human resources and management in multiple businesses, as well as a wealth of customer service experience.
She has an immense passion and appreciation for our native plants and understands how integral they are within our ecosystems. She recognizes that native plants are the bones of riparian restoration and watershed management and are crucial for things like food and shelter for our beavers or habitat for our salmon. Her goal is to help restore our watersheds and educate people that the Willamette River is more than just water running through, it is the vegetation, the wildlife, the urbanization, and complex communities that provide us all sustenance and life.
Lindsey Hutchison | SHE/HER | Staff Attorney
Lindsey has worked in water conservation since graduating from Smith College in 2015. After college she worked in anadromous fish habitat restoration, volunteer coordination, and environmental education before going to law school. While attending the University of Oregon School of Law, Lindsey worked with the Environmental Law Foundation, Western Environmental Law Center, and Advocates for the West. She graduated from law school in 2021 and obtained certificates in Environmental & Natural Resources Law and Ocean & Coastal Law. Before joining Willamette Riverkeeper, Lindsey worked in water policy in Utah.
Lindsey grew up in Santa Cruz, California, where she spent her time on the beach, in the woods, and along the San Lorenzo River. She spent many of her vacations in Glide, Oregon, where she first fell in love with Oregon rivers. Lindsey is passionate about conserving and restoring waterways and is excited to continue this important work with Willamette Riverkeeper.
