Steering Committee
Cheri Bouchér is a wildlife ecologist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department in Phoenix, where she is the agency’s species lead for the monarch butterfly. As a member of the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ Monarch Working Group, she contributed to the development of the Western Monarch Butterfly Conservation Plan, and is coordinating efforts to establish and improve monarch butterfly habitat on many of the state’s Wildlife Areas.
Kris Gade is an ecologist/Roadside Resources Specialist with the Arizona Department of Transportation. She is also co-chair of the Transportation Sector team for development of the Monarch Butterfly Nationwide Candidate Conservation Agreement on Energy and Transportation Lands.
Jessi Miller is a fish and wildlife biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, based in Flagstaff. She is the agency’s Arizona lead for the monarch butterfly.
Kim Pegram is the program director for pollinator conservation and research at the Desert Botanical Garden. She directs the Garden's monarch and pollinator conservation initiative, Great Milkweed Grow Out, and studies plant-insect interactions with a focus on monarchs and milkweeds.
Dr. Kathryn Thomas is a research Ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey Southwest Biological Science Center in Tucson. She has mapped and characterized vegetation throughout the southwest for National Parks and the Gap Analysis program and most recently is studying invasive insects, invasive Salsola, and pollinator-plant ecology.