NCLI Staff

All Staff are National Conservation Leadership Institute / AFWA's Management Assistance Team.

Elena Takaki –Director of Professional Development and Conservation Education
Elena Takaki serves as the Director of Project WILD and the Management Assistance Team. Elena has over twenty-five years of experience offering professional development to educators and people working in the natural resources field. Before coming to AFWA, Elena worked for non-profits and government agencies such as the North American Association for Environmental Education, National Geographic Society, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and Johns Hopkins University. Elena enjoys working with other professionals who are dedicated to managing natural resources for the public and making the outdoors accessible to everyone. Elena also serves on several boards, including the North American Association for Environmental Education, Youth Learning and Citizen Environmental Scientists, and the Natural History Society of Maryland.

Julie Dieguez - Program Manager for Professional Development
For over two decades, Julie has enjoyed exciting incarnations as an environmental and outdoor educator, coalition coordinator, consultant, speaker and writer. Since her start as a state park naturalist and coordinator of a county-wide environmental education program, she has spent her career working with educators, students, outdoor enthusiasts and conservation & education organizations on initiatives to promote environmental literacy, encourage stewardship, implement sustainable conservation projects, and engage people of all ages with the outdoors. For many years, Julie served as an environmental educator and project specialist for outdoor education centers, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Maryland Association for Environmental & Outdoor Education.  Julie led the Maryland No Child Left Inside Coalition working directly with the Governor’s Partnership for Children in Nature and simultaneously founded The Wild Child, LLC designing imaginative nature play and learning areas, outdoor classrooms and outdoor therapeutic areas. She has enjoyed writing for the Izaak Walton League, Chesapeake Conservancy, Chesapeake Bay Program and the National Park Service and enthusiastically delivers interactive presentations on a variety of topics for audiences of all sizes. Always curious, Julie is now trying her hand at shooting and flyfishing, but spends most of her free time off-roading, camping and kayaking with her rescue dogs and never passing up the chance engage in epic misadventures.

Gina Krusinski, M.S. - Program Manager for Communications and Learning Development
Gina has over 20 years of experience working in the natural resources sector and through the NCLI and AFWA has worked with over 100 different state, federal, NGO, tribal and industry partners in conservation. She is passionate about contributing to the sustainable future of conservation through the development of its people. She is also honored to have helped staff and manage the National Conservation Leadership Institute since its inception. Gina trained at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government on the Art and Practice of Leadership Development, earned a Master’s degree in Strategic Leadership from Mountain State University, a BFA in Communications Arts and Design from Virginia Commonwealth University and is certified in Case-In-Point teaching methodology from the Kansas Leadership Center. When not tethered to her desk she desires to get lost in the sanctuary of nature, hiking or biking on a trail beneath a canopy of trees, or uncovering some yet undiscovered corner of the world.

Amanda Myers – Program Manager for Training and Information Services
Amanda joined the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies’ Management Assistance Team and the National Conservation Leadership Institute in August 2008, bringing a deep-rooted passion for conservation that began in childhood. Inspired by her grandfather, a Law Enforcement Ranger with the National Park Service, Amanda has always felt a strong connection to wildlife and nature and the mission to protect it. Her work perfectly blends human connection with a purpose-driven mission—supporting conservation efforts she cares deeply about. When she’s not advocating for leadership in conservation, Amanda enjoys diving into fiction novels and spending time with her fiancé, Chase, and their spirited Boxer mix, Zelda.