Who We Are

 

Staff

Kathryn Fernholz, Executive Director

Jim Bowyer, Director of Responsible Materials Program
Steve Bratkovich, Project Manager for Recycling & Reuse

Matt Frank, Program Assistant

Don Heise, Project Manager

Jeff Bowyer, Associate

 

Board of Directors

Jeffrey Howe, Ph.D., Chairman of Dovetail Partners, CEO of Fullerton Companies

Brian Adams, Senior Vice President, Bremer Bank

James Bowyer, Ph.D., Bio-products and Environmental Consultant

Kim Carlson, Founder, EarthSmart LLC

Edwin Chanin, Attorney, Maslon Edelman Borman & Brand

Jill Koosmann, CEO, HRK Group, Inc.

 

Board of Advisors

William Banzhaf, Former President, Sustainable Forestry Board, Retired

Paul DeLong, Wisconsin State Forester, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Division of Forestry

R. Philip Guillery, Forestry Consultant

Reginaldo Hasslett-Marroquin, Director, Rural Enterprise Center

Don Heise, Architectural Wood Specialties
Robert Hrubes, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Scientific Certification Systems, Forest Conservation Program
Douglas MacCleery, Senior Policy Analyst, Forest Management Division, National Forest System, Washington, D.C.
Patrick O'Brien, Organizational Development Consultant

 

 

Dr. Jeff Howe, Chairman of Dovetail Partners, CEO of Fullerton Companies
Dr. Jeff Howe is the CEO of Fullerton Companies and Chairman of the Board of Dovetail Partners, Inc. Fullerton Companies is a privately owned building products company that has been operating in the Midwest since 1882. Fullerton has three divisions operating 17 facilities in 6 states. The Fullerton Building Systems division provides over 40 different restaurant chains the best value and the greatest control over their building projects possible by erecting a high quality panelized building with factory applied exterior finishes backed by the best warranty in the industry; McDonalds Corporation, Church’s Chicken, and Panda Express are major national accounts. The Remodeler’s Choice division focuses 100% of its resources – people, equipment, and products – on meeting the unique needs of professional Remodelers. This division has the first facility in the nation dedicated exclusively to licensed professional remodelers. The Builder’s Choice division focuses its resources - people, equipment and products – on meeting the unique needs of the small and medium sized builders in the communities it serves. Prior to Fullerton Companies, Jeff was President of Colonial Craft, a specialty wood products manufacturer recognized annually by Wood & Wood Products magazine as one of the 100 fastest growing companies in the U.S. Under Jeff's leadership Colonial Craft also received awards such as MN Handicapped employer of the year and WI Environmental Company of the year.


Dr. Howe is co-author of the extremely popular "Planning Guide for Small and Medium Size Wood Products Companies, and is an expert on creating Learning Organizations and on implementing organizational change. Dr. Jeffrey Howe has a B.S. degree in Biology from Bates College, a M.S. degree in Forest Products Marketing from the University of Maine, and a PhD in Marketing from the University of Minnesota.


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Kathryn Fernholz, Executive Director

Kathryn has worked on development and forest management issues in a range of roles. With a consulting firm, Kathryn was a member of the environmental services department where her work included natural resource inventories, comprehensive planning, environmental impact assessments and the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). While working for the Community Forestry Resource Center, Kathryn developed and managed a group certification project for family forests and worked to increase local capacity to provide forest management and marketing services that are compatible with certification standards. Kathryn has been a leader within the forestry community in the Upper Midwest through her service as Chair of the Minnesota Society of American Foresters and her appointment to the Minnesota Forest Resources Council. Kathryn is a member of the Advisory Board for the Blandin Foundation's Vital Forests/Vital Communities Initiative, the Minnesota DNR's Stewardship Committee, and the Forests for the Future Committee. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, the Forest Guild, and the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences Alumni Society. Kathryn has a B.S. in Forest Resources from the University of Minnesota, College of Natural Resources and also studied at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, MN and Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska.



Dr. Jim Bowyer, Director of Responsible Materials Program

Dr. Jim Bowyer is professor emeritus, University of Minnesota Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering. He is an Elected Fellow of the International Academy of Wood Science; President of Bowyer and Associates, Inc. – a wood science and bioenergy consulting firm; Member of the Governance Board and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Temperate Forest Foundation (Portland, Oregon); and a Member of the Blandin Foundation Vital Forests/Vital Communities Board of Advisors. Bowyer has served as President of the Forest Products Society (1993-94) and of the Society of Wood Science and Technology (1987-88), Vice President of the Consortium for Research on Renewable Industrial Materials (1992-2003), and Chairman of the Tropical Forest Foundation (2002-2008). He was Head of the University of Minnesota's Department of Wood & Paper Science from 1984 to 1994, and Founder and Director of the Forest Products Management Development Institute at the University of Minnesota (an organization dedicated to education and development of industry professionals) from 1994-2003. He served as Project Leader of the Minnesota Agricultural Experiment Station project “Environmental Life Cycle Assessment of Bio-based Materials and Products” from 1988 to 2003 and he also led a research team focused on global raw materials consumption and supply trends for more than 30 years. Dr. Bowyer earned a BS degree in forest management from Oklahoma State University (1964), a MS in forest products from Michigan State University (1966), and a PhD in wood science in technology from the University of Minnesota (1973). He has published widely on the topics of wood science and technology, environmental life cycle analysis, and relationships of wood and other raw materials use, forest policy, and environmental impacts. He is also coauthor of the leading introductory wood science textbook in North America Forest Products and Wood Science – an Introduction , now in its 5th edition, and of the widely used CD-ROM The Nature of Wood and Wood Products.



Steve Bratkovich, Project Manager for Recycling & Reuse

Steve Bratkovich, Ph.D., has 34 years of forestry and forest products experience. His areas of expertise include business, marketing and strategic planning; urban wood utilization; primary and secondary wood processing; and sustainable forest management. Steve has authored over 150 forestry-related publications, articles and reports, and is a frequent contributor to forestry and industry trade journals. He currently serves as an Associate Editor to the Journal of Forestry and is Managing Editor for Independent Sawmill and Woodlot Management magazine's “Green Column.” In 2002 Steve received the Excellence in Technology Transfer award from the Chief of the USDA Forest Service. Steve has also received outstanding service awards from the Ohio and Minnesota Society of American Foresters. Steve is a self-employed forestry consultant and an Adjunct Associate Professor with the University of Minnesota's Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering.

 

 

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Matt Frank, Program Assistant
 Matt has a background in environmental planning and design, working for companies in the private and non-profit sectors. Matt has a Bachelor of Environmental Design, with a focus on landscape architecture and urban planning, and a minor in architecture from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Prior to working at Dovetail, Matt interned at U-Plan Community Planning Studio in St. Paul, MN doing research on transit-oriented developments and their growth in relationship to future light rail lines in the Twin Cities. Matt then served as a design consultant for Metro Blooms, a Twin Cities based non-profit group, teaching homeowners about the benefits of rain gardens and designing plans for individual’s properties. Matt has also volunteered for a non-profit group named the Minnesota Design Team where he designed streetscape improvements for Gaylord, Minnesota’s downtown economic district. Matt’s interests include sustainable landscape practices, public transit planning, urban public space planning and design, and alternative energy. When not at Dovetail, Matt enjoys drumming, traveling, landscaping and bicycling.

 

Don Heise, Project Manager, Board of Advisors

Don Heise has over 25 years of experience with lumber and wood products, and over 14 years of experience working with FSC certification (Forest Stewardship Council). Don worked for 15 years as the National Sales Manager of Colonial Craft, a Minnesota company instrumental in the development of FSC and in 1994 was among the first ten companies in the US to become FSC chain-of-custody certified. Don has training in Architectural Drafting from the North Dakota State College of Science and was an active member of the Minnesota Wood Promotion Council where he served one year as vice president. His background allows him to integrate design into his woodworking projects, where he has spent time designing and building custom cabinets, and worked with everything from refurbished lumber to reclaimed tin siding. Today Don continues his passion for wood and innovation by splitting his time between Dovetail and being an independent wood products sales representative. His company, Architectural Wood Specialties, Inc., sources high-quality wood products, including FSC-certified and other sustainably-managed designations. Don joined Dovetail as a project manager in 2007 and as a member of the Board of Advisors in 2006. His enthusiasm for innovative design and knowledge of sustainable wood products make him an undeniable asset.
Jeff Bowyer, Associate

Jeffrey Bowyer obtained his BA in International Relations from the University of Minnesota, a degree program that included a year of study at Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan. After receiving his Master's in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina in 1995, Jeff served as a Local Development Planning Volunteer for the U.S. Peace Corps in the Philippines. He then traded his flip-flops for a suit and tie when he moved to Washington DC, where he worked for a number of consulting companies, including Development Alternatives and The Louis Berger Group. In 2000, he joined the US-Asia Environmental Partnership (US-AEP), a program funded by the US Agency for International Development. As their Regional Urban Program Advisor, he provided strategic direction and coordinated US-AEP's urban environmental initiatives. Three years later, he moved back to Asia as the Thailand Country Coordinator for US-AEP. In that capacity, he developed and managed projects in the areas of air quality, solid waste management, and watershed management. For the past three years, Mr. Bowyer has lived in Manila, where he lives with his wife and step-daughter. He has spent much of his time working with the Asian Development Bank conducting research and writing on various environmental issues, including energy efficiency and climate change. Most recently, he served as a lead consultant in writing a report titled Toward Resource-Efficient Economies for Asia and the Pacific, which reviews the economic and environmental consequences of resource inefficiency in Asia and a number of measures that can be taken to reverse current trends. To date he has spent over twelve years in the development field.