Leadership

Executive Team

Joel Ferry

Executive Director
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Joel Ferry was appointed as DNR executive director in June 2022 by Gov. Spencer J. Cox. (He was formally confirmed by the Utah Senate Sept. 21.) He leads an agency of about 2,500 employees from eight divisions and two offices, including Forestry, Fire and State Lands; Oil, Gas and Mining; State Parks; Outdoor Recreation; Utah Geological Survey; Water Resources; Water Rights; Wildlife Resources, the Office of Energy Development and the Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office.

Ferry has a passion for water policy, land conservation and agriculture he incorporates into the work of managing and protecting Utah’s natural resources. He is a 5th generation farmer who operates a ranch, farm, feedlot and hunting properties in Corinne. Ferry formerly worked for Zion’s Bank. He has a track record of public service, including serving as a legislator, chairman of the Box Elder County Republican Party, Box Elder Farm Bureau Board member, chairman of the Willard Peak Chapter of Delta Waterfowl, board member of the Friends of the Bear River Bird Refuge, and member of the Northern Regional Advisory Council for the Division of Wildlife Resources.

Ferry holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Finance from Utah State University. He and his wife Becca are raising their five children on their farm. They enjoy hunting, camping and traveling together.

Nathan Schwebach

Deputy Director
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Nathan Schwebach joined DNR in 2015 as the communications director and was most recently appointed deputy director in 2021. His primary responsibilities include overseeing the department’s communication and community outreach efforts, legislative affairs and law enforcement. Additionally, he oversees management of the divisions of state parks; recreation; oil, gas and mining; water rights; the Office of Energy Development; and the Utah Geological Survey.

Prior to joining DNR, Schwebach was the public relations director for ThomasArts, a full-service advertising and communication firm in Farmington, Utah. As an expert in strategic communication, he has worked with a variety of public, private, government and nonprofit organizations throughout the United States, including General Motors, Subway Restaurants, Cancer Research Institute, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Comcast, Natural History Museum of Utah, Utah Department of Transportation, AARP and Aetna. Schwebach has a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communication with an emphasis in Public Relations from the University of Utah.

Todd Adams

Deputy Director
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Todd Adams was appointed deputy director of the Department of Natural Resources in August 2021. He previously served as the director of the Utah Division of Water Resources since December 2019. Todd has worked for Water Resources since 1990, serving as director, deputy director, assistant director over the planning branch, manager of the hydrology & computer application section and the state’s cloud seeding coordinator. He started his career with the division as a staff engineer where he was tasked with water demand and supply modeling for the Wasatch Front, the State of Utah, as well as individual river models. He has also served as the division’s legislative liaison from 2009-2019.

He holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s of engineering from Utah State University. He is a registered professional engineer.

Redge Johnson

Deputy Director
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Redge Johnson was appointed as a DNR Deputy Director in August 2022. He also serves as the Director of the Governor’s Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office. Johnson brings extensive experience in public lands, natural resources, planning, policy, and leadership to the DNR team.

Previously, Johnson was the director of strategic initiatives at the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food. Prior to that, he served as the county liaison and natural resources planner for the Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office. Johnson also worked at the Utah DNR and The Nature Conservancy as a land and water acquisitions specialist.

A native of Utah, Johnson was born in Lost Creek, Utah and has lived all over the world, from metropolitan areas in Yokohama, Japan, Aix-en-Provence, France and Washington, D.C., to rural settings including Jean Lake, Nevada and Johns Valley, Utah. Johnson has a bachelor’s degree in pre-law from Utah State University and a passion for Utah’s public lands and natural resources.

Kim Wells

Communications Director
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Kim Wells was appointed as the communications director for the Department of Natural Resources in August 2021. Wells replaces Nathan Schwebach who was named deputy director for DNR. Wells started her career at DNR in 2019 and worked for the Division of Water Resources as the public information officer. Prior to joining Water Resources, she worked for the City of West Jordan as the communications manager and public information officer for 12 years. She holds a bachelor’s of fine arts in communications from Brigham Young University.

Kaelyn Anfinsen

Executive Assistant
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Kaelyn Anfinsen has served as the executive assistant for DNR since 2009. She works with the executive director and his deputy directors, managing office personnel and handling agendas, correspondence, scheduling and all other administrative functions. Anfinsen also coordinates meetings for DNR’s leadership team, NRCC and the Utah Water Task Force.

Before joining DNR’s administrative office, Anfinsen served as the administrative assistant for three years for the Utah Division of Water Rights. Prior to her employment in state government, Anfinsen was the administrative assistant to the regional manager at United Parcel Service for many years. She has also worked for Coca-Cola and Bonneville International Corporation.

Administrative Team

Todd Royce

Law Enforcement Director
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Todd Royce currently serves as the DNR law enforcement director and joined the department in 2018. Royce works closely with DNR division leadership and section chiefs to oversee the public safety efforts of DNR law enforcement, including wildlife conservation officers and state park rangers.

Achieving the rank of Lieutenant, Royce has served in many capacities during his 23 year career with the Utah Department of Public Safety, including public information officer for four years. Much of his field experience was obtained in Utah County as a Trooper and Sergeant. Royce previously served as president of the Utah Troopers Association and as a member of the board of directors for the UHP Honoring Heroes Foundation.

Royce holds a criminal justice degree from Salt Lake Community College. He is married to his wife, Wendy, of 23 years and has three boys. He loves the outdoors and enjoys fly-fishing.

Wade Kloos

Enterprise Services Director
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Wade Kloos serves as the director of enterprise systems for DNR. His main responsibilities are to cultivate and manage the systems that serve the entire department, such as GIS, AV Services and the UAS/Drone Program. Wade also plays an important role in the department’s data security, liaison to DTS as well as specializing in performance measurements and operational improvement.

Wade began his career as a City Planner and that evolved into GIS management roles within both the public and private sectors. Wade was hired in 2013 as DNR’s first GIS Director. Wade has authored numerous articles on GIS return on investment (ROI) strategies for IT and GIS publications as well as created opportunities and awards for DNR’s GIS staff to be recognized for their contributions to DNR’s mission. In 2017, Wade was instrumental in developing DNR’s AV Services which has greatly improved the impact of DNR’s many internal and external events and presentations. Wade created a presentation literacy workshop series as a resource for all DNR staff.

Wade has a Master’s degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Colorado-Denver and a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from California State University-Fullerton. Wade and his wife Emily have two grown boys, and they all enjoy exploring Utah’s amazing environments. Wade has been designing, building and flying RC model airplanes and drones for over 30 years.

Roger Lewis

Finance Director
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Roger Lewis became the Finance Director for DNR in April of 2017. His primary responsibilities include managing DNR’s finances and coordinating budgeting and accounting activities with DNR. Lewis also oversees the internal audit function of the department.

Lewis has worked for the State since 1988, starting as a tax auditor for the Utah State Tax Commission. In 1999, Lewis joined DNR’s internal audit staff and later became the audit manager. After working in internal audit for six years, Lewis became the Administrative Services Director for the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire, & State Lands, one of DNR’s seven divisions, where he oversaw the accounting and budgeting of that division for eleven years. Lewis has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Utah and a Masters of Business Administration from Utah State University.

Mike Tribe

Human Resources Director
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Michael Tribe joined the Utah Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in 2017 as the Human Resources Director. Mr. Tribe has a Master’s Degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Utah. His primary responsibilities include managing and directing DNR Human Resources team and government outreach efforts and overseeing the department’s recruitment, classification, compensation, performance management and liability issues for DNR and its seven divisions.

Prior to joining DNR, Mr. Tribe served the state of Utah in a variety of Human Resources positions and agencies since 1993, most recently as the Human Resources Manager for the Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind.

Mr. Tribe and his wife Marci have four children and live in Bountiful, Utah. He is an avid fan of the Utah Jazz and the University of Utah and enjoys enjoying traveling throughout Utah’s to take in the scenic beauty. In his spare time he enjoys singing in two local community choirs, Utah Voices and Witness Music.

Bryan Brown

Information Technology Director
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Bryan Brown joined DNR in 2023 as the information technology director. His primary responsibilities include overseeing DNR’s technical environment with application development and maintenance, desktop support, servers, network and help desk. Bryans’s career spans nearly 30 years of information technology in a variety of business sectors. Prior to joining the DNR team, Bryan was hired at the state in 2015 and, most recently, was a lead application manager for Health and Human Services. His career in private industry included work in advertising, video game development, public key encryption service provider, and as a systems architect for the highly successful 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Following the Olympics, Bryan focused his career on management, becoming an information technology director for a major Salt Lake law firm, and then as the Manager of IT Operations for a nationwide insurance company. He has a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Utah and loves to root for his alma mater.

Tyler Thompson

Watershed Director
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Tyler Thompson has worked for DNR since 1997 starting his career as a seasonal employee collecting vegetation trend data for DNR’s Division of Wildlife Resources Range trend program. Since this time, Tyler has worked as a research biologist in the development of new grass and forb seed releases and as one of the first restoration biologists hired to implement projects in southern Utah funded through Utah’s Watershed Restoration Initiative (UWRI). For the last decade, Tyler has been a part of WRI’s statewide administration staff. In that position, Tyler helped find matching funding for WRI projects and administered the incoming and outgoing funding contracts to help get project dollars on the ground each year. In January of 2017, Tyler was selected as DNR’s watershed program director. Tyler coordinates and manages WRI through five regional teams that submit and review over 150 restoration projects each year. WRI completes nearly 100,000 acres of restoration work each year in Utah.

Tyler grew up in Orem, Utah where he graduated from Mountain View High School, attended Utah Valley University and Brigham Young University. Tyler received both a bachelors and masters degree from BYU where he did his graduate research on the use of both native and non-native seed mixes for fire rehabilitation in the Tintic valley, Utah following the 1999 Railroad fire.

Tyler and his wife Brooke have been married for 15 years and currently live in West Jordan. Tyler enjoys fishing, outdoor photography and riding off-road motorcycles through Utah’s beautiful desert and mountain landscapes.

Tyson Plastow

Internal Audit Director
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Tyson Plastow joined DNR in 2024 as the Internal Audit Director. Tyson is responsible for DNR’s internal audit program and its role of strengthening DNR’s ability to manage, protect and sustain public resources with independent, risk-based and objective assurance, advice, insight and foresight. Part of those responsibilities include ensuring DNR’s internal audit complies with State Code and Global Internal Auditing Standards.

Prior to joining DNR, Tyson worked in the Office of the Utah State Auditor. While there he worked in Special Projects, conducting performance, compliance, and fraud-related audits. Tyson holds a Bachelor’s from Brigham Young University and a Master’s of Business Administration from Weber State University. He also has multiple professional audit certifications through the Institute of Internal Auditors.

Tyson and his wife Carrie have three children. He loves the outdoors and enjoys whitewater rafting and kayaking. He is also an avid woodworker and plans to build his own kayak.

Division Directors

Jamie Barnes

Forestry, Fire and State Lands Director
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Jamie Barnes serves as the Utah State Forester and Director of the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands. The division administers numerous forestry programs, is responsible for wildfire management on state and private lands, and oversees Utah’s state sovereign lands. Prior to her appointment as State Forester and the division’s director in August 2021, Jamie managed the division’s sovereign lands program.

Jamie has a diverse background working with state, local, and federal government and a variety of stakeholders to forge collaborative solutions to policy challenges. She began her career in the legal system, working in the private law sector. There, she gained experience and knowledge in criminal and civil law. She started with the Division in 2011 as a paralegal, focusing on complex legal issues. Jamie holds a master’s of natural resource degree from the University of Idaho with an undergraduate degree in criminal justice from Weber State University.

Mick Thomas

Oil, Gas and Mining Director
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Richard “Mick” Thomas was appointed by Department of Natural Resources Executive Director Joel Ferry as the director of the Division of Oil, Gas and Mining in December 2023. He leads the division’s efforts in the responsible development of the state’s oil and gas resources, regulation of coal and mineral mining, and the public safety protection efforts of abandoned mine reclamation.

Thomas is a native of southwest Missouri and completed both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in geochemistry at Indiana University- Purdue University Indianapolis. Before his Utah appointment, Thomas served as the division administrator for the Idaho Department of Lands and was the lead for the Mining, Navigable Waterways, and Oil and Gas. During this time, he developed and implemented the state’s regulatory framework for minerals, navigable waters, and oil and gas, including regularly evaluating Idaho’s statutes, rules and policies. He supervised the minerals program at the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, which included planning, directing and administering Hawaii’s geothermal energy program. Thomas worked as an operations geologist in the oil and gas industry for multiple companies, including as a geology team lead over the mid-continent with Devon Energy in Oklahoma City.

Candice Hasenyager

Water Resources Director
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Candice Hasenyager was appointed as the director of the Utah Division of Water Resources in August 2021. Hasenyager replaces Todd Adams who was named deputy director for the Department of Natural Resources. Hasenyager started her career with Water Resources in 2007 after graduating from the University of Utah with both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in civil engineering. She served as the division’s deputy director since January 2020. Before being promoted to deputy director, she was the assistant director since 2018.

Throughout her career, Hasenyager has worked on various projects that support the division’s mission to “plan, conserve, develop and protect Utah’s water resources.” As deputy director, she has overseen the Planning and Development branch, Water Conservation and Education section, and served as the division’s legislative liaison. During her career, she has been involved in surface water modeling, hydrology studies and municipal water demand projections.

Scott Strong

State Parks Director
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Scott Strong was appointed as the director of Utah State Parks in February 2024. He previously served as the deputy director of business management for six years and the division’s financial manager and accounting officer for eight years.

Strong has always felt a strong connection to and appreciation for nature. Asking him to choose just one outdoor activity as a favorite would be extremely hard due to the wide variety of them available at state parks. He has hiked Frary Peak at Antelope Island State Park, ridden ATVs at Wasatch Mountain State Park, floated the river from Green River State Park and wakeboarded at Sand Hollow State Park.

He holds a degree in business administration and marketing from Weber State University.

Teresa Wilhelmsen

State Engineer and Water Rights Director
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Teresa Wilhelmsen was appointed in 2020 as the State Engineer. She is responsible for the general administrative supervision of the waters of the state and the measurement, appropriation, apportionment, and distribution of those waters.

Wilhelmsen joined the Division of Water Rights in 1997 and most recently served as an assistant state engineer and the division’s hearing officer. Prior to that, she served as a regional engineer at the Utah Lake and Jordan River Regional Office, and as the division’s adjudication program manager. Before joining the division, Wilhelmsen worked for the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration and Utah Division of Forestry. She is a professional engineer and graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.

J. Shirley

Wildlife Resources Director
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Justin (“J”) Shirley was appointed as the Director of the Division of Wildlife Resources in August 2021. He started working for the DWR in 2002 as a conservation officer. He graduated from the North American Conservation Law Enforcement Chief Association’s leadership academy in 2016. He was promoted to the Chief of Law Enforcement for DWR in 2019 before becoming director of the Division in 2021. He graduated from Brigham Young University with both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in wildlife and range resources. He has spent his career enforcing wildlife laws and cultivating support for wildlife conservation. When he isn’t working, J. loves to be in the great outdoors hunting, fishing and hiking with his wife and kids.

R. William (Bill) Keach

State Geologist/UGS Director
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Bill Keach joined the Utah Geological Survey (UGS) as director and state geologist in 2019. He is responsible for ensuring UGS follows the Survey’s duties and responsibilities as defined in state code, including financial and personnel management, and guiding strategic development.

Prior to joining UGS, Keach worked as a senior oil and gas engineer at the California Department of Conservation, Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources. He is a geoscientist, educator and technology expert with 30+ years of experience in industry, academia and regulatory state government. He maintains an aggressive perspective and interest in the role modern technology plays in advancing industry efficiency and is an FAA certified remote drone pilot.

Keach is a visiting associate professor of geology at Brigham Young University and visiting instructor at the University of Utah’s Department of Chemical Engineering. He has a bachelor’s of science degree in Geology from BYU and a master’s degree in Geophysics from Cornell University.

Bill enjoys spending time with his family and grandchildren. Like most geologists he takes advantage of every opportunity to share the wonder of Utah’s great outdoors with anyone and everyone. He is an avid fan of college basketball, ATV riding and traveling. He hopes to get to Antarctica to complete his travels to all seven continents.

Jason Curry

Division of Outdoor Recreation Director
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Jason Curry was appointed as the director of the Division of Outdoor Recreation in December of 2022. Prior to his appointment, he served as deputy director of the Division of Forestry Fire and State Lands, overseeing six state area offices, the division’s law enforcement program, public affairs, and its safety program. Before being promoted to deputy director, he was the division’s public information officer and chief investigator. He also served many years on the Davis County Search and Rescue Team.

Curry started his career with the DNR in 1999 as a public affairs coordinator, where he served for eight years orchestrating public information and branding for the department. He graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s degree in economics.

Emy Lesofski

Energy Advisor and Office of Energy Development Director
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