Our most important people are members, volunteers, and partners!
Staff
Chief Executive Officer
Richard Hunt
director@lewisandclark.org 406-204-7504
As a true son of Historic Trails, my journey has deep roots dating back to 1821, when my sixth great-grandparents embarked on a significant expedition from Virginia. Navigating rivers and the Boones Lick Road, they eventually settled near the Missouri River, close to Rocheport. A few years after Lewis and Clark’s expedition camped on Moniteau Creek, John and Judith Hunt became tobacco farmers in the heart of Missouri. Subsequent generations helped found and attended the University of Missouri, where Thomas Jefferson’s original gravestone still graces the historic quadrangle.
After a fulfilling business career marked by key roles in major corporate mergers and client transformations, I transitioned into retirement. My next chapter led me to become the volunteer video producer for the YouTube social media channel of the Oregon-California Trails Association. This channel effectively communicated the significance of preserving historic trails, reaching an audience exceeding 500,000 viewers in the past year.
I am delighted in my new role as the Executive Director of the Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance. As we navigate the evolving world around us, I am confident that the future is bright. Together, we will adapt and embrace innovative methods to fulfill our role as the Keeper of the Story and Stewards of the Trail. Let us proceed on . . . .
Office Manager
Georgia Kline
gkline@lewisandclark.org 406-454-1234
Georgia joined the Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance as the Membership and Administrative Assistant in 2022 she is now the Office Manager. In her many years as Administrative Assistant or Office Manager with her husband, she has been able to live in many different cities and states, including Billings, MT, Vacaville, CA, and Arlington, WA. Originally from Salt Lake City, UT, Georgia is thrilled to call Great Falls home and is happy to be here for good to enjoy all Montana has to offer, especially camping. When not in the office, Georgia enjoys cooking, reading, gardening, history, and of course, spending time with her grandchildren.
Executive Committee
Patricia Traffas – President
Pat Traffas is a member of Southern Prairie Region and lives in Overland Park, Kansas. Her intense interest in Lewis and Clark began in 1995 when she served as State Regent of Kansas Society DAR. Her project, to place granite markers along the Lewis and Clark Trail in Kansas, was supported by the National Park Service. Each marker contained a diary entry from William Clark from 1804. Markers were placed at Fort Leavenworth, July 4th, 1804 Creek and at the base of Lewis Mound in Atchison, and at White Cloud. From 1995 to the present, Pat has traveled the entire length of the Trail numerous times, attended national and local meetings. Pat has given hundreds of presentations to schools, civic groups, and national organizations.
Pat has vast experience with interactions of the National Park Service and other state and federal agencies. She has written and received numerous grants for projects along four national historic trails. Most recently, Pat was National President of the Oregon-California Trail Association and now serves on their Board of Directors. She co-chairs the Scholarly Research Committee and serves on the Board of Directors of the Santa Fe Trail Association. Pat serves the Kansas City Area Historic Trails Association as Vice President.
Richard Welch – Vice President
Richard’s love affair with the Expedition began in 1996, when I read Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage. He was taken by Ambrose’s riveting account of the Corps of Discovery’s adventures, as well as his eloquent description of how his family’s travels along the trail has drawn them together. Inspired by that book, two years later the Welch Family was in Great Falls, Montana on Independence Day for the opening of the beautiful Interpretive Center high on the bluff overlooking the Missouri River. And in the summer of 2001, they piled into a minivan for a cross-country road trip roughly following the Lewis and Clark trail from Virginia to the Oregon coast. They covered 3000 miles over five weeks, stopping at dozens of sites and visiting roughly a dozen national parks along the way. They asked a lot of our children–ages ten and twelve—on that trip. But like the Corps of Discovery, they saw wondrous sights along the trail and made memories that will last a lifetime. Now in their early thirties, his children remember that trip fondly and often.
And last summer, Richard joined other Lewis and Clark enthusiasts for the LCTA-sponsored canoe trip through the White Cliffs of the Missouri, a magical place if there ever was one. He has a strong interest in and passion for Lewis and Clark and considers it an honor and privilege to serve on the board of the directors of the Foundation.
Yvonne Kean – Treasurer
A native of the Kansas City area, Yvonne was raised in Independence, Missouri. She is a CPA and over her 40+ year career in finance and accounting she worked in the insurance industry and in the non-profit industry, retiring in 2017 from Water.org, an international non-profit focused on providing clean drinking water to people in developing countries. Since then, she provides fractional CFO services and occasionally serves as interim executive for organizations in transition.
While researching her family genealogy, Yvonne became interested in history and the stories of people who preceded us. During the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial celebrations, Yvonne became interested in the Lewis & Clark expedition with its stories of exploration and challenge. She joined the MO-KS Riverbend Chapter and the Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance and is currently a member of the board of directors with both organizations.
Keith Bystrom – Secretary
Keith Bystrom is a retired attorney living on Beaver Lake near Plattsmouth, NE. He is Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the Mouth of the Platte Chapter and is active in their weekly study of the Journals. Currently, he is Chair of the LCTA Northern Plains Region Board of Directors. He is also a member of the MO-KS River Bend and Sergeant Floyd Tri-State Chapters, and is a committee member for the LCTA Governance Committee. He was on the faculty of the University of Oklahoma College of Law (1979-2000) and served as Associate Legal Counsel at Iowa State University (2000-2016).
Keith has always enjoyed a love for history. In 2017 he enjoyed his retirement adventure traveling 55 days on the Lewis & Clark Trail from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean. Along the trail he met Dan Sturdevant in Kansas City, learned all about LCTA and rerouted his personal journey through Billings MT to attend the LCTA 2017 Annual Meeting and has been to all annual meetings since.
Bill Bronson – Immediate Past President
Bill is currently retired from full-time law practice after a 38-year career focused primarily on civil trial work. He now devotes his time to a few select clients, mainly small non- profit organizations, as well as supervision of a pro bono legal services program. He also teaches on occasion college level courses in law and political science. Bill has also been active in Montana state and local politics for many years, including a twelve-year stint as a Great Falls City Commissioner; he is now in his second year as an elected Great Falls Public Schools Trustee.
Bill’s interest in Lewis and Clark stems from family, who appreciated both Western history as well as Native American history and culture. He has been active in several Lewis and Clark organizations since the early 1990s, and frequently canoes the Missouri River through the famous “White Cliffs” area, sharing with others his knowledge of the geography as well as the Expedition’s journeys through this geological wonder.
Board at Large
Alisha Hamel
LTC (Ret) Alisha Hamel has a master’s degree in history, is a retired Army historian, current author and loves to teach history to anyone. She worked with the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial from 2003-2007 as the Oregon National Guard Lewis and Clark Special Projects Officer.
She arranged for Oregon National Guard assistance in the rebuilding of Fort Clatsop after it burned to the ground in October 2005. Her two young boys also helped to strip the logs that were used in the rebuilding. She has traveled almost the entire Lewis and Clark Trail and was able to finally canoe down the Missouri River through the White Cliffs last July.
Rennie Kubick
Rennie Kubik has been a member of the LCTA for several decades. Over the years, he helped found the Washington State Chapter, served as the chapter’s treasurer, vice-president [in charge of programs] and president. Rennie with Page Henley and the late James Alexander Thom,
founded the “Charbonneau Society,” made up of the men who follow the women who follow the Expedition! Rennie and his wife of 51 years [Barb] have lived in Vancouver, WA since 1998.
Over the years, Rennie has also served as a volunteer, and on numerous boards, often as an officer, including professional organizations, high school marching band parents’, and Camp Fire USA. He understands balanced budgets and meeting procedures, and he has a strong knowledge of the Alliance, the Trail, and the Corps of Discovery.
Shannon Kelly
Shannon holds a B.A. in History with minors in Native American Studies and Religious Studies from the University of Idaho and a M.A. in Public History from Colorado State University. She was the Historian and staff assistant for the University of Idaho Vandal Marching Band from 2017-2019 and wrote a manuscript of the ensemble’s history based on archival research and oral history interviews.
From 2019-2024 she worked at the North Dakota Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center Fort Mandan State Historic Site, and as a seasonal interpretive ranger at Pompeys Pillar.
Ali Chouhdry
Ali Chouhdry is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point and has recently completed his MBA at New York University. He served as an Army officer for 5 years, leading over 70 combat missions during overseas deployments and earning the Bronze Star for his service. After the Army, he spent 8 and a half years at Meta (Facebook), where he led large-scale global infrastructure, risk compliance, and business operations programs. His nonprofit leadership also includes serving as a founding board member of Bomb Techs Without Borders, an organization dedicated to supporting communities affected by landmines and other remnants of war.
Ali was recently honored by the Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance as Volunteer of the Year for advancing its social media presence and growing its audience to more than 5.000 followers.
Molly Stockdale
Molly Stockdale has worked in nonprofit management, primarily in museums, for 30 years. She is currently the Executive Director of Travelers’ Rest Connection, a significant historic site of the Lewis & Clark Expedition and the Selis Qlispe people. Molly has worked with Mister Rogers on a children’s museum exhibit, raised funds to support individuals with disabilities, been a stay-at-home mom and PTO president, and is a survivor of ovarian cancer.
Molly received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania and her Masters of Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University. She is Past President of the Destination Missoula Board of Directors and Vice Chair of the Montana 250 Commission. She serves as an Advocate Leader for the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance. Molly and her husband, Chris Ott, have two young adult sons.
Mark Meyer
Dr. Mark Meyer, 66, is a retired physician whose interests include camping, hiking, and hunting, as well as American history, ancient history, and the history of medicine. He was born in Oberlin, Kansas and attended the University of Kansas before completing training in neurological surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He and his family currently reside in Kalamazoo, Michigan where they have lived for over 30 years.
Bob Foster
Bob Foster formally started his Lewis & Clark adventure – as Executive Director of the Lewis & Clark Boat House and Museum/Discovery Expedition of St. Charles – in 2021. But he has been following the trail much of his life, bicycling along the great rivers from Sioux Falls, SD, to Cape Girardeau, MO and exploring much of the rest. His academic career as a historian began at the same time, culminating in a Master’s Certificate in Museums, Heritage and Public History from the University of Missouri in 2022.
Prior to the Museum, Bob held executive director positions for more than 10 years with organizations as diverse as the Missouri State Parks Foundation, World Affairs Council of St. Louis, American Optometric Student Association and as Founding Chair of the St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation.
Kristen Zane
Kristen Zane, now retired, is a Civil Engineer (P.E. Emeritus) who has worked for a variety of construction firms in Kansas City as an estimator and project manager. Kristen was the first minority (Indigenous) and second woman President of the Engineers Club of Kansas City.
Kristen is also very involved in promoting and educating others on her tribe’s, Wyandot’s, history and culture and has served as an officer of its governing body. Kristen currently is a member of the Tomahawk Chapter of the Kansas DAR organization. She is also a member of the Southern Prairie Region of the Lewis and Clark Trail Alliance.