Meet the Team

Board Member Dr. Brianna R. Pagán is the Deputy Manager at NASA’s Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center. Dr. Pagan is also Adjunct Professor at Loyola Marymount University in the College of Science and Engineering and an avid ultra runner. Passionate about enabling science for the masses, she brings to the Footprints board her remote sensing, climate, and informatics expertise which she uses to lead large and diverse teams of software engineers and scientists to effectively distribute geospatial data. Dr. Pagán is also a strong advocate for open-source science efforts and teaches courses on the intersection of technology, climate and social justice issues.

She lives and runs along the coastal mountains of Gabrielino-Tongva and Chumash lands with her two dogs.

Board Member Julia German is a trail runner, an artist, and former partner at the law firm Linebarger Goggan Blair & Sampson. Julia recently left law to pursue her art under the name Burly Carving, where she creates pieces from wood, metal and bone. She received her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from the University of Colorado in Boulder and her Juris Doctorate from Duke University School of Law.

As an outdoor enthusiast with a passion for mentoring, Julia has worked with several non-profit organizations focusing on issues of equity and inclusion for those she has had the pleasure of serving. She pends the rest of her time running, climbing, skiing, and pursuing her art with her friends, her partner, her pup, a menagerie of chickens and bunnies, and the wind from her home in Nederland, Colorado.

Board Member Dr. Lydia Jennings (she/her) is a trail runner, outdoor enthusiast and environmental soil scientist, working at the intersection of environmental health, energy sovereignty and Indigenous Peoples rights. Lydia, a citizen of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and Huichol Peoples, has been shaped by the Tewa lands of Northern New Mexico that raised her, and her O’odham and Yaqui homelands. Through her running and science experiences, Dr. Jennings is a big believer that ecosystems are our first teachers, and works to help spread these insights to others through her scholarship, mentoring and science communication.

Lydia is currently a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability, and Research Fellow at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.

Executive Director Dakota Jones is a professional trail runner from Colorado and Utah. He first discovered trail running while volunteering at the Hardrock 100 in 2008, and has pursued mountain adventures around the world ever since then. He has been an outspoken advocate for climate action for much of that time, and has worked with Protect Our Winters since 2017 to further their legislative agenda for the climate.

He helped found Footprints Running in 2021 to support climate action at the community level by bringing people together around their shared interest in trail running. He thinks sports should prioritize ways to make peoples’ lives better by promoting physical and mental health and supporting strong community connections. Dakota believes that when we make our communities better, we make the world better.

Board Member Jon Jon Moore is a big brother and amateur runner born and raised in Detroit. A former speechwriter with experience in publishing and teaching, Jon Jon manages product and partnership communications at Rewiring America, the leading nonprofit focused on residential electrification in the US. He is also Managing Partner at the language-first marketing lab Third Revolution, where he helps early stage climate tech companies develop impactful narratives.

Jon Jon is an alum of Tufts University and holds a master's degree in African-American Studies from UC Berkeley. He reads and publishes poetry and critical theory and is Managing Editor at The Clear Clean, a weekly clean energy newsletter.

Board Member Peyton Thomas is a trail runner and environmental activist, hoping to speak up for the places and people who are often forgotten amidst the climate crisis. She has always had an appreciation for nature and aspires to blend her love for it through environmental and climate activism and running. She loves venturing out to new places and learning more about the interconnections within environments to create the spaces we see today.

Peyton is currently a postdoctoral associate at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Board Member Lilian “Lil” Abelha an amateur trail runner, a designer by background, a techie at heart, and a transformational leader as trade. Lil spent the first half of her career working as a design technologist, building large scale websites for news and media companies, and the later half building multidisciplinary teams and leading product efforts for EdTech and Big Data organizations, including having two startups of her own.

Now, she spends her time volunteering and working for a not-for-profit to create scalable solutions. Lil has always been a friend of the environment and considers herself a planet empath — she’s been plant-based for almost thirty years and she’s at her happiest when she’s spending time outdoors. Lil is based on Puget Sound and shares her life with a pitbull named Betty. She holds a bachelor’s in Design from Universidade Anhembi Morumbi in São Paulo and an MBA in Design Strategy from California College of the Arts in San Francisco.

Programs Director Nate Bender is a trail runner and Montana native living in Missoula, MT. He a holds a master’s in Resource Conservation and a second master’s in Business Analytics, focusing on how marketing strategy and data analytics can improve the effectiveness of climate action and other environmental work.

Nate races some ultras, gets a lot of inspiration from exploring wild places off the beaten path, and blogs…occasionally…about all this mountain “running” over at tenpeaksbeforelunch.com.