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The CLERC Board of Directors
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Will Evans - President

Will grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and relocated to California in 2009.  He possesses a BS in urban policy studies, as well as a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from Georgia State University, where his studies focused on economic development planning and geographic information science (GIS).  Will spent nearly a decade employed in various resource management positions with the County of Lake including Deputy Director of Water Resources, Associate Resource Planner in the Community Development Department,  and Compliance Coordinator for Special Districts Administration.
Over the course of his career, Will has worked on projects in a variety of areas including drinking water, wastewater, flood control, post-fire debris flow mitigation, stormwater management, geothermal resource management, geographic information systems, trail development, surface mining reclamation, current and long-range municipal planning, grant writing, and downtown redevelopment.
Recently, Will worked with the Middle Creek Restoration Coalition (MCRC) and Assemblywoman Cecelia Aguiar-Curry to secure $15 Million to complete property purchases for the Middle Creek Flood Damage Reduction and Ecosystem Restoration Project.
Will helped establish CLERC as a way to increase the amount of scientific research being conducted on Clear Lake and using that research as a vehicle to promote economic development in the local community.
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Assembly aide Jonathan Howard, left; MCRC member Erica Lundquist, in back, left; Assemblyperson Cecelia Aguiar-Curry and CLERC President Will Evans review details of the Middle Creek Marsh Restoration project. - (contributed photo)
Carolyn Ruttan 

Carolyn is a scientist now retired from Lake County government. Working for the county she specialized in invasive species, watershed issues, and land and water use permitting. She managed the Aquatic Plant Management Program for Clear Lake, the Lake County Quagga and Zebra Mussel Prevention Program and participated in the Clear Lake Harmful Algal Bloom Task Force. These positions involved grant writing, grant management, permit monitoring, water, soil and sediment sampling, and in some cases, analysis.
Carolyn was educated in England and the US, obtaining BS degrees in Biology and Manufacturing Engineering, and MS degrees in Technology of Crop Protection and Viticulture. Carolyn is a certified lab analyst and holds a Pesticide Control Adviser License.
​Since moving to Lake County in 2000, she and her husband have developed a love for one of the most diverse counties in the western US, and in particular Clear Lake, a seriously forgotten national treasure.  This led Carolyn to co-found CLERC to answer the many questions asked about Clear Lake’s ecology.
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Carolyn examines a water sample under a microscope.
David Adam - Vice-President
David Adam is a fourth-generation Californian who has worked on Clear Lake for over 40 years.

He holds a BA degree in anthropology from Harvard, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Geosciences from the University of Arizona, and was the first person to develop a fossil pollen record from California postglacial deposits.

He was a Research Geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey for 25 years, where he developed a climatic history for Clear Lake spanning the last full glacial cycle (130,000 years). Since moving to Lake County in 1998, he has worked for the Lake County Air Quality Management District, the UC Davis Clear Lake Environmental Research Center, and Mendocino College, where he taught physical geology for 15 years.
He is a Life Member of the Freshwater Biological Association, The American Association for the Advancement of Science, and The Ecological Society of America. A list of his many scientific publications is online at www.quercus.org.
Jacquelyn Parsons
Jacquelyn Parsons is a marketing, eCommerce and business operations specialist from the Bay Area peninsula that relocated to Lake County in 2019.  With a strong background in undergraduate STEM education, physics, data science and planetary sciences, Jacquelyn is a passionate and dedicated member of the scientific community. She is currently in the process of gaining her Lab Analyst Certification and she volunteers as the webmaster for the California Society of Environmental Analysts (CSEA).
Tom Nixon
Tom was born in Jacksonville, Fla. and graduated from the University of Florida with a degree in history. He later worked with the states of Connecticut (Wilderness School) Florida (Project STEP) involving alternative outdoor experiential education courses modeled on Outward Bound programs. He taught winter mountaineering courses in Maine with Hurricane Island Outward Bound and backpacking, climbing and whitewater courses in North Carolina with NC Outward Bound.

Surfing brought him to California where he spent several years in the Santa Barbara area working for the Deveureux Foundation as a recreation counselor at their campus in Isla Vista. In 1981 he became a California State Park Ranger in Huntington Beach, Ca. later transferring back to the Ventura/ Santa Barbara area and eventually to Lake County at Clear Lake and Anderson Marsh State Parks where he retired in 2007.

​He began volunteering for Lake County Public Services and Konocti Regional Trails as a project coordinator for Mt. Konocti County Park after retirement. He served as Secretary and President of the Clear Lake Riviera Community Association HOA for several years. He has 20 years experience working with California non-profits and looks forward to helping CLERC grow and prosper. Tom and his Wife, Val, live in Kelseyville Riviera with their Golden Retriever, Buddy. He enjoys bass fishing from his kayak and playing in a local ‘geezer band,’ Indie Groove.