Rick has been a member of ANPR since 1981 and is currently a Life member. Rick is an NPS retiree who served 36+ years. His career started as a seasonal protection Ranger at Buffalo National River Arkansas and then a seasonal interpreter at Petrified Forest NP. He became permanent as an interpreter at Ford’s Theatre NHS, then went on to Protection Ranger jobs at Bandelier NM, Grand Canyon NP, Wrangell-St. Elias and Glacier Bay NP’s Alaska, Yellowstone National Park and Chief Ranger at Wind Cave National Park. He served as acting Superintendent for various times at Wind Cave and Fort Laramie NHS. He served as Operations Chief and Incident Commander for the central Incident Management Team on numerous incidents including the 2002 Winter Olympics, President Obamas Inauguration and the Gulf Oil Spill. Over the years he served on numerous details in Washington, DC and other Park areas. After retirement in 2012 he became the Director of the NPS certified Park Ranger LE Academy at Colorado NW Community College. Currently he serves in the same position at Skagit Valley Community College, Mount Vernon, Washington (State). In his off time he still climbs mountains around the world, Fly fish’s, scuba dives and enjoys world and domestic travel. Rick has attended four World Ranger Conferences.

Demmy Vigil is originally from New Mexico. After earning her Multi-Resource Forest Management degree from Northern Arizona University, she served in the Peace Corps, Costa Rica. Upon returning, she began working at Bandelier National Monument until she landed a permanent job with the U.S. Forest Service, Tonto National Forest as a lands and recreation assistant. After two years, she transferred to the Caribbean National Forest in Puerto Rico where she worked numerous positions for 10 years. She did special use authorizations, land acquisition, fire management, radio and telecommunications, and timber management, among other interesting work. In Puerto Rico, Demmy met her husband and had two children. In her last two years in Puerto Rico, she transferred to the National Park Service, San Juan National Historic Site as the chief of interpretation with a diverse staff. In 2000, she transferred to Grand Canyon National Park as deputy chief of interpretation and supervised a large staff. After four years, she was invited to transfer to a "shared position" between GRCA and the Albright Training Center as an instructor. There, she was active with the RFIT, or Recruitment Futures Implementation Team, a national NPS team that strategically recruited diverse candidates and assisted them through the early years of their career to retain them as excellent employees in the NPS. In 2009, Demmy was recruited to the Mather Training Center as a Fundamental V instructor. In 2011, the NPS Fundamentals program was redesigned, and Demmy competed for and transferred into a training manager position at Mather, covering a large portfolio of series and grades. As training manager, she was a member of the Learning and Development Division and covered employee development for Public Affairs, Legislative and Congressional Affairs, International Affairs, and the division of Visitor and Resource Protection (VRP). This portfolio included working with the training centers at FLETC, Carhart, and NIFC. Demmy retired in December of 2021. She says she "feels fortunate to have worked for and with an incredible workforce over 35 years." Two highlights were buying seven valuable properties in Puerto Rico to 'fill in the green' protecting Forest Service land for generations to come; and helping NPS employees throughout the service grow and develop to be the best they could be.

Rae Emerson is a retired National Park Service employee with more than 30 years of experience, and a life member with ANPR. As a young snippet, Rae always envisioned being a park ranger, even though, at the time, the park service did not allow women park rangers. Fortunately, that would change. 

Rae started her career as a GS-4 seasonal park ranger at Minute Man National Historical Park and continued her park service career with a variety of parks: Boston African American National Historic Site, her first permanent position, Salem Maritime and Saugus National Historic Sites, and National Mall and Memorial Parks - Ford's Theatre National Historic Site. Rae's positions included interpreter, supervisory park ranger, division leader, site manager, deputy superintendent, and acting superintendent until she retired from National Mall and Memorial Parks as their community liaison and partnership specialist. Rae specializes in organizational development, community outreach, training and education, grants management and partnerships. She uses her creativity and positive attitude and tireless energy to encourage others to be successful in continuing their learning and career development. 

Rae's undergraduate studies are in physical and biological sciences and education, her graduate studies in organizational development and negotiations.

Prior to joining the park service, Rae taught high school physical and biological science and mentored student teachers from the local university. She rekindled her park service career vision during her 10 years of summer research in Kenya's national parks and preserves. And, in her last research year she made the decision to have a career with the NPS. After returning from Kenya and before the school year started, she walked into the nearest park's visitor center (Minute Man National Historical Park) and asked if they had any openings for a park ranger. Three years later and after zillions of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Rae resigned from her teaching position to fulfill her lifelong vision to be a park ranger.

Rae is a passionate and dedicated believer in effective mentoring, training and educating staff and volunteers for success. She initiated, developed, and presented training workshops for introductory interpretive skills to seasonal park rangers and supervisory skills to new supervisors. She is also a firm believer in promoting the importance of sharing experiences, skills, and wisdom and the importance of being a life-long learner. Rae is inspired daily by her family, peers, and friends. In her free time, Rae likes to travel, dabble in painting and storytelling, and pursues accessible for all.

Margie Steigerwald is originally from St. Louis where she worked as an interpretive seasonal at the Gateway Arch and graduated from Saint Louis University with degrees in Spanish, Ibero-American studies and a teaching credential. She went on to a seasonal interpretive position at the Castillo de San Marcos NM, intending to return to teaching after a couple of seasons with the NPS. One job led to another, and she went on to a 38-year career with the NPS at 15 parks, including JOMU, GRSM, EVER, YELL, DENA, HAVO, JOTR, KATM, WRST, YOSE, SAMO, GLAC, and WRST (again). In addition to an extensive career in interpretation and education, she has worked as a public affairs specialist and as an outdoor recreation planner. She also earned an MPPA at CLU. She retired in 2020 from Wrangell-St. Elias NP/P and lives in Newbury Park, Calif.m with her spouse, Russell Galipeau, who is also retired from the NPS. They enjoy travel, birding, hiking, and having adventures with their two adult daughters.  

Rick is a retired Associate Professor of the Practice at Texas A & M University where he taught Parks and Recreation courses. He has degrees in Parks and Recreation from Memphis State University and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Duke University. For several years he served Tennessee State Parks as a ranger, as law enforcement, naturalist and resource management specialist managing the Tennessee Scenic Rivers Program. Years ago, he completed the NPS’ SLEP and has recently served as a VIP at MORA, LEWI and TIMU. A Life Member of ANPR, Rick hopes to continue serving the NPS as a VIP and/or seasonal ranger in the future. Having visited all 63 "national parks" and the seven continents, Rick enjoys traveling and sea kayaking. He looks forward to serving ANPR as its treasurer and working with the ANPR Board of Directors.

Mike is originally from southeastern Minnesota and graduated from Mankato State University, Minn., with a Bachelor of Science degree in Recreation and Park Administration. He began his NPS career in Yellowstone National Park where he worked for 11 years in a variety of positions. He has also worked at Mount Rushmore NM, Midwest Regional Office, Keweenaw NHP, Pictured Rocks NL, and Badlands NP, with significant temporary assignments in several other park areas. He has held positions in interpretation, telecommunications, resource and visitor protection, resources management, and park management at grade levels from GS-3 to 15. Mike retired from the NPS at the end of 2021 after more than 41 years of service. He first became a member of ANPR in 1987 and has been a Life Member since the mid 1990s. Mike and his wife, Barbara, currently split time between residences in Rapid City, S.D.,  and Hancock, Mich. They enjoy travel, hiking, photography, events with family and friends, attending Ranger Rendezvous’, and exploring the great public lands of our nation. Mike was our Government Affairs board member until being elected into the coming president's role for 2025. 

Mark is entering his 50th year in fire and resource management. Mark is a California native and grew up in Hollywood Calif. He started his career on the Angeles National Forest, then moved to Yosemite National Park working in fire and becoming a ranger, spending 10 years there. Over the next 50 years, Mark worked for the USAF, BLM, USFWS and various locations within the NPS, including park superintendent and Regional Emergency Services chief. Mark was a district ranger with the USFS as well. Mark is a past National ICT1 and area commander for several national teams. Mark has overseen many major incidents such as fires, hurricanes, oil spills and the Space Shuttle disaster across the nation. Mark has taught fire and ICS around the world on behalf of the U.S. government. 

 Since retiring in 2017 as the International Fire and Emergency coordinator for the Secretary of Interior, Office of Wildland Fire, Mark has been operating an independent fire and communications consulting company, along with still being involved in fire attached to Yosemite NP Fire and Aviation as a PIO1/ PIOC information officer supporting fires within other NPS units, as well as large complex fires and all hazard incidents nationwide as an AD employee. Mark is currently a board member on the Association of National Park Rangers. He lives in Mariposa, Calif., on the border of Yosemite National Park.

I am a life member of ANPR and have attended every RR except six, starting with RR#2. During the early years of ANPR, I served in several BOD positions, including regional representative and vice-president. For several years I coordinated and managed the RR conferences. I have also attended several World Ranger Congresses and represented ANPR at the IUCN World Parks Congress in Durban, South Africa in 2003. Since my retirement in 1997, I have had several international assignments, including Abu Dhabi and the Kingdom of Jordan, and have developed and presented numerous leadership training courses for NPS areas. I am also a founder of, and a past Council member of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks.

Melissa DeVaughn is a freelance writer, editor and designer focusing on the outdoors and adventure travel. She grew up in Virginia, graduated from Virginia Tech, and thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1993. She moved to Alaska in 1995 and has lived there ever since. She worked at the Roanoke (Va.) Times, Peninsula Clarion (Alaska), The Associated Press in Alaska, and the Anchorage Daily News before pursuing a fulltime freelance career in 2008. She is married to Andy Hall and has two college-age children in Colorado. She lives in Eagle River.