Sally Bolger, Executive Director
Tya Ward, Development Director
Kim Hilsmann, Development Associate
Teri Van Huss, Financial Manager

Biographies

Sally is a native Californian, who grew up touring most of California’s State and National Parks in the back of the family station wagon.

After receiving her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration/Accounting at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, she earned her law degree at the Hastings School of Law at the University of California, San Francisco.

With her business and legal skills, Sally has dedicated her career to environmentally-conscious, mission-driven organizations. She spent the first 20 years of her professional life as Executive Vice President of Inductran Corporation, an environmentally focused engineering firm which developed and manufactured electric power transfer technologies as alternatives to internal combustion for personal, commercial, and industrial electric vehicles and transportation systems. She guided the technologies’ adaptation for applications by the Walt Disney Company, General Motors, and Siemens, among others.

Since 2000 Sally has been providing management services to emerging enterprises, non-profit organizations, and individuals, with a focus on philanthropy and environmental issues.

Recent consulting projects have included transition planning and interim executive leadership of the Point Reyes National Seashore Association staff and Board. She managed the $6.2 million Giacomini Wetland Restoration Project, a successful cooperative effort of the National Park Service and the Point Reyes National Seashore Association, which returned more than 550 acres of leveed pasture to natural habitat, fresh water and tidal marsh and restored more than 12% of the wetlands of the central California coast.

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Tya Ward has been fortunate to call several national parks “home,” including Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Canyonlands National Park, and Point Reyes National Seashore—where she currently lives with her husband David Schifsky, the Seashore’s Chief Ranger.

Tya has over thirteen years of diverse non-profit experience and a broad knowledge of development strategies and fundraising platforms. At Point Reyes National Seashore Association, she consulted on the development and launch of a business sponsorship program. As a consultant for Girls International Forum, she developed and managed a multi-year strategic plan and operations timeline to bring together delegations of girls from around the world to participate in a first-ever International Girls Summit. As a graduate student, she participated in all stages of planning and implementation of the YWCA-Seattle’s Moving Women & Children Forward $40M Capital Campaign to build Opportunity Place. Tya has served as the Sequoia Parks Foundation’s Development Director since 2006.

Tya received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota, and holds a Master of Social Work degree (with a concentration in Administrative Practice) from the University of Washington, Seattle.

Tya enjoys sharing a home office with her 90-pound German Shepherd; backpacking; kayaking; baking, decorating, and eating cakes; and spending time with friends and family in Minnesota, her home State.

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A native Californian, Kim developed a life-long love and respect for our natural landscapes and parks, experienced through camping, hiking, canoeing, horseback riding, photographing, and volunteering.

For the last six years Kim has worked with several non-profits in coordinating grant proposal for state water bond grants including the Prop 50, Integrated Regional Water Management Grant Program and the Consolidated Grant, which brought $1.7 million to Point Reyes National Seashore Association and Tomales Bay Watershed Council for the Giacomini wetlands restoration project. She worked as Development Associate for Point Reyes National Seashore Association.

She holds a B.A. in Geography from Humboldt State University, and has a certificate from Sonoma State University in Green Building, a LEED certification program. She is a licensed pilot and enjoys flying adventures with her husband, Hank. Kim lives in Sonoma County with her husband; they have two children and two grandchildren.

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Teri Van Huss is a child of the Southwest and the outdoors – born in Texas, raised in Arizona, grew to adulthood in northwestern New Mexico, and landed in Visalia, California in 1994, her husband’s home. Teri’s work life has included bookkeeping/accounting, office administration, word processing and report production in the fields of agriculture, archaeology and biology, general environmental consulting.

In the last 10 years she discovered a calling for financial administration of small non-profit organizations. She splits her contract bookkeeping services between organizations that work with the environment and those who work with people with disabilities.

Teri’s other passion is the concept of a non-toxic home, and she teaches families how to clean without chemicals using materials easily found in their homes.

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