Dr. Emily Huff
President
Dr. Emily Huff is an Assistant Professor at Michigan State University with a B.A. in Environmental Science, an M.S. in Silviculture from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in Forestry (concentration in social psychology) from the University of Maine. Prior to joining the faculty at MSU, she worked for the U.S. Forest Service, helping to run the National Woodland Owner Survey. Emily’s research focuses on private forest landowner behavior, using many different tools like surveys, interviews, and statistical models. Emily has served on the Michigan Forest Foundation board for 2 years (1 year as treasurer) and helped bring Women Owning Woodlands initiatives to Michigan, with the help of other MFA board members. Emily recently relocated with her family to a home in Champion, Michigan (outside Marquette) where she plans to teach remotely and begin working with the forestry community in the Upper Peninsula. She is now a woodland owner, with 171 acres, which she enjoys with her husband Andrew and two German Shorthaired Pointers.
Bill Cook
Vice President
Bill Cook is a retired Upper Peninsula Extension Forester & Wildlife Biologist for Michigan State University. Since 1997, Bill has worked with regional private forestowners, natural resource agencies & industries, and within public education communities. Recently, he has spent a considerable amount of time with oak wilt control projects and with wood-based thermal energy. He has been the editor of the Michigan Forests magazine since 2013 and has been involved with the MFA for 20 years. He has lived, traveled, and played across the United States and has international forestry experience in Germany, Great Britain, Malaysia, Sweden, and Austria. He has also traveled to other countries across Europe and Southeast Asia, as well as Cuba, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Aruba, Bahamas, and Mali. He enjoys visiting the more remote areas of the U.P. via backpack and small boat . . . and usually takes a camera wherever he goes.
Dr. Karen Potter-Witter
Immediate Past President
Dr. Karen Potter-Witter is a Professor of Forest Economics in the Michigan State University Department of Forestry. Her research and extension work is in timber and woody biomass supply, forestry investment analysis and taxation and private forestland policy analysis. She has published more than 80 articles and extension publications on these topics. She teaches forest economics at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Her experience includes over thirty years at Michigan State University, seven years as a consultant for government and industry and as a staff forester for Potlatch Corporation. Karen holds forest management, applied statistics and resource economics degrees from Michigan Technological University, the University of Minnesota, and Michigan State University. She is a fellow of the Society of American Foresters, Michigan SAF Past President, 1998 SAF National Convention Program Co-Chair, SAF Science and Technology Board past member, and is currently a Michigan Forest Association Board Member, member of Michigan Technological University President’s Council of Alumnae and a lifetime member of Trout Unlimited.
