Ryan Bartlett is a Senior Program Officer for the WWF Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience (ARES) program supporting adaptation efforts throughout the WWF network, including the Eastern Himalayas, Mekong, and Coastal East Africa, through capacity building and technical assistance. Prior to joining WWF, he worked on international water policy and economics in the Ganges and Mekong basins for the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. He also received his master's degree from Duke in Environmental Management, focusing in climate change adaptation and environmental economics and policy. Since joining WWF in 2012, he has trained hundreds of WWF staff and partners around the globe in climate resilience and adaptation, and in collaboration with WWF-US staff develops tools for assessing and analyzing climate vulnerability. 

Michele Thieme is a Lead Freshwater Conservation Scientist at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with expertise in freshwater conservation planning and ecology. Her work informs the conservation of freshwater life in WWF’s priority river and lake basins. She was a key contributor to the development of the Freshwater Ecoregions of the World and edited a book on the freshwater ecoregions of Africa and Madagascar. She obtained an MS from the University of Arizona and a BS from the University of Virginia.

Stephanie Flack is Potomac River Project Director for The Nature Conservancy. She began working for The Nature Conservancy in 1995, and over the past 18 years she has worked for the organization in a variety of capacities, including as a conservation planner and Director of our Potomac Gorge conservation area (near where we are right now).  Stephanie has an undergraduate degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from Princeton University, and a masters degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.   When she’s not bringing her kids to baseball, soccer, basketball, and lacrosse games, she enjoys sleeping, traveling, reading, and getting out to enjoy the Potomac River.