Anza-Borrego Institute Instructors

Hank Barber is a Certified Interpretive Guide and Volunteer Naturalist for Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. He also serves as a Volunteer Archaeologist and is Vice Chairman of the Colorado District Archaeology Society. For the past two years, Hank has been leading ethnobotanical tours at the state park visitor center as well as group tours to Mine Wash, an ancient Indian site.

Reena Deutsch, Ph. D., has been leading hikes, car camps, backpacks, 4 wheel-drive trips, and tours in the desert for over ten years as a volunteer. Previously or currently an outing leader for the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association, Anza-Borrego Foundation, 4WD clubs, Sierra Club, and YMCA, Dr. Deutsch enjoys wandering, exploring, and learning about the desert, especially since retiring as a biostatistics professor at the UCSD School of Medicine.

James (Jim) Fuller is Professor Emeritus at the College of Dentistry , University of Iowa , and enjoys birding as a hobby. He has traveled extensively in the U.S. (especially in Iowa ) in search of birds. He is a member of Iowa Ornithologists' Union and American Birding Association. He has also been Vice-President (4 years), a member of the Records Committee (6 years) and Manager (14 years) of Iowa Rare Bird Alert. He has led birding field trips in Iowa , Minnesota , Wisconsin , and California for many years, and has been visiting Borrego and the Salton Sea since 1985.

Larry Hendrickson is a self-taught botanist who has been studying the plants of the local mountains and desert for over twenty years. He was a participant in a five-year study of three state-listed rare and endangered plants in Cuyamaca Valley and also participated in the botanical resource inventory of ABDSP and Mt. San Jacinto State Park. He is a field associate for the department of botany of the San Diego Natural History Museum and has worked on various resource management projects for the Colorado Desert District.

Joe and Donna Hopkins moved to Borrego Springs over ten years ago. Since then, they have earned certificates in desert ecology from UC Riverside and have studied at the Zzyzx Desert Studies Center. Both became Park Volunteers six years ago. Joe's programs have featured many desert animals and, since retiring from the school district, he now works as an Environmental Scientist for California State Parks. Donna still teaches in Borrego, but has found time to participate in Earthwatch projects, studying lizards and tortoises, and volunteers for the Bighorn Sheep Count and the Christmas Bird Count.

Fred Jee has been a California State Park ranger from 1974 until his recent retirement earlier this year. He has spent over 33 years in ABDSP patrolling and interpreting landscapes and geology of the park to thousands of visitors. His background is physical geology/geomorphology with a minor in geology from CSU at Hayward

George Jefferson, Colorado Desert District paleontologist and director of the paleontology program at the District’s Stout Research Center, manages paleontologic resources for southeastern California’s state parks. Formerly Associate Curator for the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits, he has degrees in geology and paleontology from University of California, Riverside, and has spent much of his career studying fossil vertebrates of the southwestern United States.

Paul Johnson has lived and worked in Borrego Springs and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park since 1973. During that time he has worked as a Park Naturalist, professional tour guide, photographer and photography instructor. He currently works for the Colorado Desert District as an Environmental Services Intern, conducting field research and photographic monitoring. He lives with his partner Sonja, and together they provide staff services for their cat Billie.

Mark Jorgensen, a desert lover since childhood, is the Superintendent of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. He has visited the Gobi Desert of Mongolia numerous times, and was instrumental in the designation of Ikh Nartiin Chuluu Nature Preserve as Anza-Borrego’s Sister Park. His efforts at home and abroad support Mongolian rangers as they work to manage wildlife and preserve the unique and magnificent ecosystem of the Gobi Desert.

Lowell and Diana Lindsay are the co-authors of the Anza-Borrego Desert Region: A Guide to the State Park and Adjacent Areas published by Wilderness Press and now in its 5th edition. Lowell is also the co-author of the Geology of Anza-Borrego and the co-editor of Fossil Treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert. He is a former Navy Survival School instructor. Diana is the author of Anza-Borrego A to Z: People, Places, and Things and is a trustee of ABFI. She is also a Canyoneer with the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Dennis Mammana has delivered the wonder and mystery of the cosmos to millions around the world for more than three decades. He is the author of six books on popular astronomy, and writes the nationally syndicated weekly column “Stargazer” that appears every Wednesday in the San Diego Union-Tribune. With infectious enthusiasm and breathtaking photography, Dennis has enlightened and inspired audiences on six continents, and is a frequently invited guest on both radio and television.

Kim Marsden has been an Environmental Scientist for the Colorado Desert District of California State Parks since October 2002. She earned a Bachelor of Science from San Diego State University in 1992 and has been working as a biologist ever since. Although Kim’s specialty is botany, she also enjoys working with small mammals, reptiles and insects.

John McDonald received critical acclaim for Cotton Eyed Joe, his first internationally-recognized documentary, while still a cinema student at USC. He produced, directed and co-wrote The Youngest Victim, a documentary that aired as an ABC Prime Time Special and won numerous awards, including four Emmys. His short version of Ghost Mountain received several awards and was featured in MountainFilm at Telluride. He is currently completing Children of the Pear Garden, a documentary about the dying art of Chinese Opera.

Ruth Nolan, a former wildland firefighter, is Assistant Professor of English at College of the Desert, where she teaches poetry, creative writing, desert and Native American literature. She is also founder and advisor of the COD literary and visual arts magazine, Solstice. Her poetry and academic articles have appeared in numerous publications. She also teaches seminars in Native American literature, as well as poetry writing workshops, for the University of California-Riverside extension, California State University extension and Living Desert University. She is currently editing a collection of desert literature and co-authoring a guide book to California desert birds. She holds her master’s degree in poetry/creative writing from Northern Arizona University.

Paul Remeika is a retired State Park Ranger at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and field expert on Anza-Borrego's geology and paleontology. He is author of the best-seller "Geology of Anza-Borrego: Edge of Creation", has edited several publications, and recently authored three chapters in the paleontology book, Fossil Treasures of the Anza-Borrego Desert . Paul is credited with many important fossil discoveries and has contributed extensively to the understanding of the western Salton Trough region. He is actively working on revising the stratigraphy of the area, and publishing an age control of the Borrego Badlands. He is currently an instructor for the College of Borrego Foundation-Palomar College, teaching geology and paleontology of the Anza-Borrego area.

Roger Riolo is a Certified Interpretive Trainer and former Interpretive Program Manager at Newberry National Volcanic Monument. He is now an independent interpretive trainer and consultant. He teaches Interpretation at Central Oregon Community College and is serving as Director of Region 10 for the National Association for Interpretation.

Joan S. Schneider, Ph.D. has extensive experience in the archaeology of the Colorado and Mojave deserts. Her particular research interests focus on geoarchaeology as well as settlement patterns and subsistence practices of early peoples of arid lands. Dr. Schneider is especially interested in every day tasks of women as they are expressed in the prehistoric archaeological record as well as the archaeology and anthropology of stone quarries and the people who worked them. Also considered an expert on the archaeology of the desert tortoise, she has published in international, national, regional, and local professional journals. Since 1987, she has taught classes at the Desert Study Center at Zzyzx and, since 2001 has been an Associate State Archaeologist in the Colorado Desert District of California State Parks.

Sue Wade is an Associate State Archeologist for the Colorado Desert District. She has worked in cultural resource management for over twenty-five years, completing studies in anthropology, history and prehistoric and historic archeology.

Michael Wangler holds a MS degree in Geography from the University of California, Riverside, and presently serves as the coordinator of the Earth Sciences Program at Cuyamaca College. He’s been studying, writing and teaching about the diverse and beautiful landscapes of the arid southwest for over 15 years, and has been teaching field courses for ABFI since 2005.

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