About Us

Plains Justices provides legal resources to help communities in the Northern Plains make the transition to a new energy future. Make a donation today!

Staff

Jayne Brown (Billings, MT): Office Manager

Jayne joined Plains Justice in 2011, from an accounting and office management background. She handles general bookkeeping and office administration, supports content on our Coal Diver site, and coordinates review of Plains Justice accounts with an external CPA.

Carrie La Seur, Ph.D., J.D. (Billings, MT): Founder and President

A seventh-generation descendant of Montana homesteaders, Carrie is an energy and environmental lawyer who served as a gubernatorial appointee to the Iowa Environmental Protection Commission, a panel of nine citizens who oversee Iowa’s environmental protection efforts, and the Iowa Power Fund Board, charged with shaping the state’s energy plan and investing $100 million in public funds in clean energy. Carrie earned a doctorate in modern languages as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and a J.D. from Yale Law School. Licensed in Iowa, Montana, and Wyoming, she has practiced law in the northern plains states since 2003 and publishes on a variety of energy and environmental topics.

Stevie Moe (Billings, MT): Clean Energy Ambassadors Program Manager

A Montana native, Stevie is a graduate of the University of Montana, in Missoula. She has a Masters in Political Science, worked for U.S. Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and spent the past year working for a political consultancy on campaign initiatives for the 2010 election. She now manages our Clean Energy Ambassadors outreach to rural electric cooperatives and municipal electric utilities.

Board of Directors

Robert Merchant, M.D. (Billings, MT), Chair

Michael Fried, Ph.D. (Billings, MT), Secretary

Mike is an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Arithmetic Geometry & Applied Group Theory from the University of California at Irvine. He has 90 research monographs and 3 books in pure mathematics and related science. He and his wife, Karen, administer the Michael and Karen Fried Community Education Fund. A portion of those funds aim to help entrepreneurs use their educations to develop businesses that strike new directions for their communities.

Mark Trechock (Dickinson, ND), Treasurer

Recently retired as the 18 year Staff Director of Dakota Resource Council, North Dakota’s leading environmental advocacy organization, Mark has had a long career in advocacy on the Northern Plains and nonprofit management.

Frank Hurtte (Davenport, IA)

Frank is a founding partner of River Heights Consulting, a business coach, author, consultant and speaker. He works with distribution organizations throughout North America. He is actively involved in The River Music Experience in Davenport.

Winter King, J.D. (Berkeley, CA)

Winter is a partner at the law firm of Shute, Mihaly, & Weinberger in San Francisco. She joined the firm in 2004 after completing a clerkship with the Honorable Marsha S. Berzon of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Winter represents community groups, public agencies, and Indian Tribes in a wide range of environmental and land use issues. Her practice areas include CEQA, NEPA, state general plan and zoning law, and federal Indian law.

Mary McNally, Ph.D. (Billings, MT)

Mary is a Professor of Management in the College of Business at Montana State University Billings. She has been on the faculty for 25 years, teaching management, business and environmental sustainability, and international business. She has also served as Interim Dean of the College of Business. Mary is currently serving her first term in the Montana Legislature as Representative for House District 49 in Billings. Before joining the faculty at MSUB, she worked for three years on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. Mary’s recent activities have included service on the Billings Energy and Conservation Commission and participation in Leadership Montana.

Krishna Mastel, J.D. (Volin, SD)

Krishna was raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and currently resides in rural southeast South Dakota. She obtained her B.S. and M.A. degrees in Biology from the University of South Dakota and her J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law in 2006. During her time as a law student she served as the vice-president of the Environmental Law Society and published an article on the status of prairie dog conservation. She worked as an attorney for Iowa Legal Aid before deciding to devote her time to raising a family.

Pat Spears (Fort Pierre, SD):

Pat is a leader of the clean energy organization Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, a private energy consultant, and former tribal chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux tribe.

Judith Whetstine, J.D. (Cedar Rapids, IA), Past Chair

A graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law, Judi served for over 29 years as a civil and criminal trial attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Iowa and in the Northern District of California. Her experience includes supervising the entire office for the Northern District of Iowa. Judi is currently on the Board of Directors of the International Organization of News Ombudsmen and is a Community Advocate for the local Cedar Rapids newspaper and television station, handling complaints about news reports. In addition, Judi is a member of the City of Cedar Rapids Board of Ethics.

Advisory Board

Ray C. Anderson, in memoriam:

We are deeply saddened by the recent passing of Ray Anderson, Founder and Chairman of carpet manufacturer Interface, Inc. Ray led his company on a groundbreaking mission to eliminate any negative environmental impacts Interface may have, by the year 2020, through the redesign of processes and products, the pioneering of new technologies, and efforts to reduce or eliminate waste and harmful emissions while increasing the use of renewable materials and sources of energy. Ray eschewed a luxury car for a Prius, built an off-grid home, authored a book chronicling his journey, Mid-Course Correction, and became an unlikely screen hero in the 2004 Canadian documentary, “The Corporation” and Leonardo DiCaprio’s “The 11th Hour.” We were greatly honored to have Ray’s support during his life, and we hope that our work will honor his memory.

Devra Lee Davis, Ph.D., M.P.H.:

Author of the widely acclaimed book, When Smoke Ran Like Water: Tales of Environmental Deception and the Battle Against Pollution (Basic Books, 2002), which won a National Book Award (the first book on the environment to win this award since Silent Spring) epidemiologist Devra Davis is one of the world’s most visible and outspoken advocates for improving the environment to protect public health. Dr. Davis is Visiting Professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School as well as Honorary Professor, London’s School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and an Expert Advisor to the World Health Organization. President Clinton appointed Dr. Davis to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, (1994-99), an independent executive branch agency that investigates, prevents, and mitigates chemical accidents. As the former Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Health in the Department of Health and Human Services, she has counseled leading officials in the United States, United Nations, World Health Organization and World Bank. Dr. Davis holds a B.S. in physiological psychology and a M.A. in sociology from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed a Ph.D. in science studies at the University of Chicago, as a Danforth Foundation Graduate Fellow and a M.P.H. in epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University, as a Senior National Cancer Institute Post-Doctoral Fellow. She has also authored more than 170 publications. Find more information on Dr. Davis’s website.

Wes Jackson, Ph.D., M.A.:

Wes Jackson, President of The Land Institute, earned a BA in biology from Kansas Wesleyan, an MA in botany from University of Kansas, and a PhD in genetics from North Carolina State University. He established and served as chair of one of the country’s first environmental studies programs at California State University-Sacramento and then returned to his native Kansas to found The Land Institute in 1976. He is the author of several books including New Roots for Agriculture and Becoming Native to This Place and is widely recognized as a leader in the international movement for a more sustainable agriculture. He was a 1990 Pew Conservation Scholar, in 1992 became a MacArthur Fellow, and in 2000 received the Right Livelihood Award (called the “alternative Nobel prize”).

Carolyn Raffensperger, J.D., M.A.:

Carolyn is executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network. As an environmental lawyer she specializes in the fundamental changes in law and policy necessary for the protection and restoration of public health and the environment. Carolyn is co-editor of Precautionary Tools for Reshaping Environmental Policy published by M.I.T. Press (2006) and Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle, published by Island Press (1999). Carolyn coined the term “ecological medicine” to encompass the broad notions that both health and healing are entwined with the natural world. She wrote a bimonthly column for the Environmental Law Institute’s journal Environmental Forum from 1999 until 2008. Carolyn has been featured in Gourmet magazine, the Utne Reader, Yes! Magazine, the Sun, Whole Earth, and Scientific American. Along with leading workshops and giving frequent lectures on the Precautionary Principle, Carolyn is at the forefront of developing new models for government that depend on these larger ideas of precaution and ecological integrity. The new models include guardianship for future generations, a vision for the courts of the 21st century and the public trust doctrine.

2012 Interns

Research intern: Travis Newman (Rocky Mountain College)

A Few of Our Volunteers and Their Contributions:

Stephanie Clohesy (Cedar Falls, IA): Development assistance

Ian Dees (Milwaukee, WI): Web design

Andrew Wildenberg, Ph.D. (Billings, MT): Information technology consulting services