BREDD + RC &D Field Day 2007

JEAN CURTISS, President        
Jean Curtiss was born and raised in Missoula County. Jean was elected to the Missoula County Board of Commissioners  in 2000 and reelected in 2006. Prior to her position of County Commissioner Jean was involved both locally and nationally in early childhood education and advocacy. She owned and managed a daycare for nine years and she also held leadership positions in many organizations including 4-H, Cub-Scouts, Campfire Boys & Girls, the Missoula Child Care Association, the Montana Child Care Association, Child Care Resources, several local PTAs, the Montana PTA and the National PTA. Jean is married to Brad Curtiss and they have three grown children.  In her spare time, she likes to read, quilt and garden.

GREG CHILCOTT, Vice President
Greg was born and raised in Ravalli County and currently serves as Ravalli County Commissioner. He has over 12 years experience working in the public sector. He received his Bachelor of Science in Education and spent 12 plus years as a private bush pilot in Alaska. He loves to hunt, white water raft, camp and golf. He has been married to his wife Vickie for 5 years, and they have 7 children and 7 wonderful grandchildren.

JAMES O DeBREE, Treasurer
Jim was born in Helena, Montana on September, 11, 1933. He graduated from Willow Creek Public Schools in 1951, received a BS and MS degree from MSU. Jim served as a pilot in the USAF from 1956-1963 throughout the U.S. and Far East.
He worked for the Montana State Extension Service from 1963 to 1983.
In 1983 he moved to Wyoming and became a district director for the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service and later promoted to the Director of Extension and Associate Dean in the College of Agriculture. Jim retired in 1995 and returned to Superior with his wife Shirley. They have two children, Robert and Gaylene     

ROBERT STRUCKMAN, Secretary                                                                                                                    Robert Struckman is now working for the Service Employees International Union. Until recently he was the associate publisher at NewWest.net, an online news service and next-generation media company based in Missoula, Mont. He worked at the Missoulian Newspaper until early 2007. His Missoulian coverage won awards and prompted one federal law. For the past two years, he also taught journalism at the University of Montana. Before coming to the Missoulian, he was a freelance writer in Montana and Colorado for newspapers including the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Denver Post and other national and regional dailies and weeklies and magazines such as the Smithsonian’s American Indian Magazine and others. He has also been a reporter at the Billings Gazette and, during graduate school, wrote as a stringer for the Oakland Tribune. He earned a master’s degree in journalism from the University of California in Berkeley in 1998. His bachelor’s degree is from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. He has a wonderful partner in Heather Corson; and the couple has two children.

ED CHILDERS
Ed is an Army brat. He attended 1st-4th, 7th, 11th and 12th grades in Missoula, graduated in the final class of Missoula County High School in 1965, got a degree in English from the University of Montana, worked as a janitor for the University, as a clerk for a Montana State Liquor Store, then 20 years in the Missoula City Treasurer's Office, 12 of them as the elected City Treasurer, and now over 7 years as a Missoula City Alderman. He’s been married to the same woman since 1969, they have 2 kids and 1 granddaughter. The kids live out-of-state. He’s staying here.

KEVIN CHAMBERLAIN
Kevin has served as the Montana State University Extension Agent for Mineral County since 1989. In addition to traditional extension program responsibilities, he established the Mineral County Office of Economic Development which manages the Mineral County revolving loan fund. Kevin took the lead in establishing the Mineral County Economic Development Corporation, a 501C3 Non-profit Local Development Corporation. Kevin has completed the National Development Council – Economic Development Finance Professional Course in addition to other extension trainings and national conferences. He serves as the Mineral County Chairman for the BitterRoot RC&D and as the Vice President of the BitterRoot RC&D Board of Directors.

TOM GORMAN                                                                                                                                                           Tom Gorman is a Business Consultant for the Missoula Job Service Workforce Center.  In this role he provides Human Resource, Employment Law, and Wage and Hour assistance to businesses throughout Missoula and Mineral counties.  Tom also manages the Missoula Area Business Expansion and Retention Program (BEAR) which is a collaboration of 16 agencies from the throughout the economic development, education, workforce development and business communities providing support to businesses throughout the area.  He is the Chapter Chair for the local SCORE chapter which provides free counseling to area small businesses. He is the co-chair of the Montana Council on Industry and Economy committee of the Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Chamber’s Community Affairs committee.Tom has been married to his girlfriend Pam for 36 years and they have two grown children; Brian Gorman of Cheyenne, Wy. and Jennifer Johnson of Seattle, Wa.

BJ McCOMB                                                                                                                                                                BJ McComb is serving his 2nd six-year term on Mineral County's Board of Commissioners. BJ retired in 1997 from Montana Rail Link after 41 years working in the signal department for Northern Pacific, Burlington Northern and Montana Rail Link. He and his wife Lola were raised in Big Timber, Montana and have lived on 50 acres outside of Alberton, Montana since 1966. BJ and Lola raised 2 boys and 2 girls and have an 8 year old granddaughter. BJ's long-time hobby is Omoksee, the sport of patterned horse racing adapted from a Blackfeet traditional war ceremony.

ROSS RADEMACHER                                                                                                                                          Ross Rademacher founded Maverick Group, a marketing consulting firm, with his partner Cynthia Rademacher in 1996. A marketing maverick, Ross has generated and employed hundreds of profit-earning campaigns, strategies, and marketing plans for companies and products in the retail, development, service, financial, manufacturing and non-profit fields.

Ross' strengths lie in his understanding of land development issues, complex business issues, environmental marketing, public speaking and communications training. After 15 years in business, Ross received his Masters Degree of Science in Environmental Studies in 2008 from the University of Montana.  Ross has the skills and background to tackle the tough problems that business, the community, and the environment in the Rocky Mountain West.