Board – Tucson Mountains Association

Meet the TMA Board

Our background

Ed Hendel serves as President of the Tucson Mountains Association, elected by the Board in January 2024. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the University of Arizona (2013) and a Master’s in Systems Biology from Harvard University (2016). He is a co-founder of Sky Island AI and a former volunteer ranger at Saguaro National Park.

Ed became actively involved in desert conservation in 2019 when he learned about the proposed Interstate-11 corridor through the Tucson Mountains, leading him to join TMA as a member in 2019 and join the Board of Directors in 2022.

His environmental advocacy extends beyond TMA to include efforts preserving desert land at 36th Street & La Cholla and serving on the City of Tucson’s Citizens’ Water Advisory Committee since 2020, where he has championed water conservation initiatives. An avid hiker and nature photographer, Ed is committed to protecting the Sonoran Desert for future generations.

Vivian has lived in the Tucson Mountains for over 40 years. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Indiana University and a Master’s degree in Public Administration from the University of Arizona. Her specialization in her Master’s degree was in solar energy policy. In the 1990s, she was the Chair of the statewide group Concerned Arizonans for Renewable Energy (CARE) that was successful in having many pieces of solar legislation passed by the Arizona legislature. She was the President of the Arizona Solar Energy Association, a nonprofit organization that educates the public on solar energy. She was also a member of the Tucson-Pima County Metropolitan Energy Commission that advised the Tucson City Council and the Pima County Board of Supervisors on energy matters.

In addition, Vivian was the Arizona Manager for the Southwest Public Recycling Association, assisting rural communities around the state to start recycling programs, hosting workshops for Arizona recycling coordinators, and writing the state’s manual on recycling. She is a former President of the League of Women Voters of Greater Tucson. She also hosted her own radio and television shows for many years, most recently interviewing candidates for office on KXCI-FM.

Debbie’s love of the Sonoran Desert goes back to her early college exposure in the 1970’s. Thirty years later, it was fortuitous to be able to buy a home in the Tucson Mountains, and equally lucky to learn about and become a member of the Tucson Mountains Association in 2003. She has been a Board Member since 2004, was President in 2007, and Treasurer since 2008 working on many zoning and open space issues. My passion is the environment and it’s been a heartfelt honor to give back to this unique part of the Sonoran Desert.

Debbie’s background has been in resource management issues, having graduated with a B.S. in Natural Resource Management and an MBA in International Business. Before moving back to Arizona, she worked for the Alaska Department of Fish & Game; Game focusing on fisheries management issues, and Saltwater Inc, a marine resources company based in Anchorage, Alaska that deals with sustainability of our oceans.

I have been captivated by the Tucson Mountains since I was a boy. My family would come from New Mexico to visit my grandparents who built three adobe houses here in the late 1940’s on land they bought near Sweetwater and Camino De Oeste. Now I live on that land. My son Will and his family live just across Sweetwater Wash from me in one of the original adobes. My Grandson Atlas is the 5th generation of our family to live here so I have a stake in this land that reaches far beyond the physical boundaries of the Tucson Mountains. I’m excited to be on the TMA Board and hope I can make a meaningful contribution to the ongoing work of TMA.

John is an award-winning singer-songwriter who has recorded six solo albums along with several award winning music videos. His video of Long Way From Home won the Best International Music Video of 2021 at the Procida Film Festival in Italy. He has had numerous songs in films and on television including a featured piece in the 2024 film Horizon: An American Saga. He’s the co-founder of Kevin Costner & Modern West (KCMW) and was the Music Supervisor for the film Dances With Wolves.

Steve and Susan Dolan moved from the University of Arizona area to the Tucson Mountains in 1989. They joined the Tucson Mountains Association and Steve helped the Board with issues including the Trails End Road rezoning, proposed Painted Hills development, and Sweetwater Preserve. Steve looks forward to serving on the Board with his private engineering, Pima County, and Arizona government experience to help with land-use and water-related challenges to promote the quality of living in the Tucson Mountains.

Born and raised in the Sonoran Desert, Ben is an avid explorer of his desert home. Ben is a biogeographer, botanist, and desert ecologist whose research looks at the origin and future of the Sonoran Desert. He served as the Director of the Desert Laboratory on Tumamoc Hill from 2016-2022. He is co-founder and Director of the Next Generation Sonoran Desert Researchers (N-Gen), a multinational organization committed to expanding the fabric of collaboration across the greater Sonoran Desert. His scientific and conservation efforts strive to combine multiple disciplines and perspectives to better understand and care for the desert that drives his passion.

He lives with his wife Dr. Erin Riordan and their son Eli in the Tucson Mountains.

https://benjamintwilder.com/

Dalziel (Dal) Wilson moved to Tucson in 2018, to take a faculty position at the University of Arizona. He rented an apartment near Pima Community college and spent several seasons running in the Tucson Mountain Park, earning an affection for the area. In 2020 he purchased a stone house on Anklam road, near the entrance of Painted Hills Park. The last recorded history of its owner, Mary Henderson, was her advocating against a 1986 hillside ordinance to the city council, on behalf of the Tucson Mountains Association. He reached out to then-president Peter Chesson, to learn more about Ms. Henderson. Peter had no information, but invited Dal to attend a TMA board meeting, and later the board. Dal has been serving on the board on-and-off since then, offering advice on technical matters. He built this website.

Meet the TMA Board

Ed Hendel

Vivian Harte

Debbie Hicks

John Coinman

Steve Dolan

Ben Wilder

Dal Wilson