Friends of the Swainson’s Hawk Board and Officers
Judith Lamare, Ph.D. President
Dr. Lamare is a retired consulting political scientist (Ph.D., UCLA, 1973). She has received numerous awards from local environmental groups for volunteer leadership. She has been chair of the Environmental Council of Sacramento, Sierra Club, Sacramento Group, Sierra Club Mother Lode Chapter, and Friends of ECOS. She is the founder and has been president of Friends of the Swainson’s Hawk since its inception.
Alta Tura, Vice-President
Alta Tura is a certificated teacher who has chosen environmental volunteerism as her method of educating the community. She received the Environmental Council of Sacramento’s Environmentalist of the Year Award for fifteen years of dedicated work on riparian habitat and open space issues. Tura has served as Sacramento Audubon Society’s Conservation Chair, President of the Urban Creeks Council, and is a founding member of Habitat 2020. She is an active member of the Steering Committee for the South Sacramento County Habitat Conservation Plan.
Kevin McRae, C.P.A., Treasurer
Kevin McRae is a self-employed Certified Public Accountant and real estate broker. He is also President of the Garden Highway Homeowners Association. He is knowledgeable about wildlife through many years as an Associate Master Falconer and California Hawking Club Officer, and through his degree in plant science from the University of California, Davis. He serves as Treasurer for Friends of the Swainson’s Hawk and for Friends of ECOS, and is a volunteer for the California Foundation for Birds of Prey.
Frank Gray, Secretary
Frank Gray retired from the California Department of Fish and Game in 2007. He worked for that agency for 27 years, many of those years as a fisheries biologist. His more recent assignments included EIR and general plan review and protection of special status species. He graduated from Humboldt State University in 1977, where he majored in Fisheries Biology. He has been leading birding trips and other nature outings for the Audubon Society and Sierra Club.
Keith Seegmiller
Mr. Seegmiller is retired from the California Treasurer’s Office, where he was responsible for pollution control financing. He is a long time resident of North Natomas and a volunteer for the Environmental Council of Sacramento. He is a member of The Sacramento Community of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (SacIONS) and a volunteer for the Pachamama Alliance.
Loche Johnson, D.D.S.
Dr. Johnson was born in Walnut Creek, California. Dr. Johnson attended the University of California, Davis, where he majored in Biological Sciences. He obtained his dental doctorate training at UCLA and his oral and maxillofacial surgery training at UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Johnson is an active individual who participates in endurance training. He enjoys the outdoors, camping, hunting, and fishing and has a life long love of wildlife and commitment to conservation. He shares a love of birds with his young daughter.
Kristie Ehrhardt
Kristie Ehrhard earned her B.S. in Biology - California State University, Bakersfield, 1997, and has worked over a decade in the private sector as a field biologist. She has a strong background in botany, field experience, wetland delineations and mapping, plant and animal identification, special-status species surveys, mitigation monitoring and biological resource assessments. She’s very interested in environmental education at the elementary school level and is involved in school activities with daughter Zoe. Also she is concerned with animal protection, and a favorite charity is the County Animal Shelter.