wHO WE ARE
Our Mission
The Alliance for Tompotika Conservation (ALTo) is committed to helping all of nature, including people, thrive.
Our work is centered in Sulawesi, Indonesia–one of Earth’s most unique biological treasure-houses. At the invitation of local communities, AlTo forges partnerships to protect and restore imperiled species, tropical rainforests, and other natural ecosystems while supporting the dignity and self-sufficiency of local communities in a changing world.
Our Story
Indonesia is the world’s biodiversity capital, with more plant and animal species in its terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments than almost any other country in the world. Indonesia also has among the most endangered species of any country in the world, most of them endangered by human activities.
The Alliance for Tompotika Conservation / Aliansi Konservasi Tompotika, called “Al-To” for short, is an international partnership dedicated to helping heal the relationship between people and the rest of nature, starting in one very special place: the Tompotika peninsula on Indonesia’s island of Sulawesi.
The AlTo alliance was formed when local villagers in Taima, Tompotika, asked visiting conservation biologist Marcy Summers to help them prevent the disappearance of the endangered maleo bird in their area. Assembling a team of local, national, and international participants working side by side, the group launched AlTo’s first maleo conservation effort in 2006.
AlTo is a partnership of a registered Yayasan non-governmental organization in Indonesia and a registered non-profit 501(c)(3) organization in the United States, with Boards in both countries.
Our Earth is in crisis. AlTo works directly with local communities to search for solutions, because we believe that meaningful change begins with real people, who wake up to birdsong, get dirt under their fingernails, and dream of their children’s futures. And, just as the whole world contributes to our current planetary crisis, so the whole world must join together to heal it.
Governors
Tom Weeks, PhD
US Board President
Home Base: Seattle, Washington, USA
Joined AlTo: 2025
Profession: Retired
Tom Weeks is a community volunteer after working as a policy analyst, elected official, educator and consultant. He and his wife, Deb Oyer, served as Peace Corps volunteers in the Republic of Palau, Micronesia, where Tom was an agriculture specialist and developed a love for the islands of the Pacific. After the Peace Corps, Tom earned his MA and PhD in Public Policy from the Kennedy School at Harvard. Tom has supported AlTo since it was founded. He has served on many boards, and is excited to serve on AlTo’s.
David Van Holde, P.E., CEM
US Board Treasurer
Home Base: Vashon Island, Washington, USA
Joined AlTo: 2025
Profession: Retired Energy Systems Engineer
David has worked in various positions to advance alternatives in the energy industry for more than 30 years, including as Director of US Dept of Energy’s Northwest Onsite Energy Technical Assistance Partnership and as a Senior Energy Systems Engineer for Washington State Univ. He’s developed practical applications for distributed energy supply and demand systems and designed and evaluated energy efficiency improvements to commercial and industrial energy systems. David serves on three non-profit Boards, considering this community service as among the most important work he’s done. David received a BEME from Pratt Institute in NY, and a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State Univ. He is a registered engineer in OR and WA and also a Certified Energy Manager.
Ichsan Tobing
Advisor
Home Base: Olympia, Washington, USA
Joined AlTo: 2019
Profession: Business Consultant, Executive Coach
Despite living in the US, Ichsan’s heart remains in Indonesia. Ichsan provides his managerial perspectives to AlTo about business dynamics in Indonesia. He works with small and large corporations mostly in Jakarta, online. His favorite part of work is experiencing AHA moments together with clients in both business and personal life.
John Tasirin, PhD
Indonesian Board Head
Home Base: Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia
Joined AlTo: 2006
Profession: University Professor
Dr. John Tasirin has taught Forest Resources Conservation and Ecology at Sam Ratulangi University since 1988. His thirty years of conservation work includes research, extension programs, consulting for government, land management, policy development, and strategic planning. He oversees numerous conservation programs run by a variety of Indonesian and international organizations. John studied northern hardwood forests for his master’s degree at the University of New Brunswick, Canada, and Tasmanian forest ecosystems for his PhD at the University of Tasmania, Australia.
Wendy Noble
US Board Member
Home Base: Vashon Island, Washington, USA
Joined AlTo: 2026
Profession: Family Nurse Practitioner (retired)
Wendy’s experience as a Family Nurse Practitioner has included working in the Alaska Native and Navajo health systems and teaching nurses in Cambodia. She helped establish Vashon’s Public Health Care District, serving for six years as an elected Commissioner, and volunteers with various nonprofits addressing racial justice, immigrant rights, the needs of people with dementia, disaster response, and community health. Wendy believes that human health and the health of the planet are profoundly interconnected, and she views her work with AlTo’s Board as a reflection of the Quaker Testimony of Stewardship: Treating the earth and its resources as gifts to be cherished and used responsibly, not exploited.
Cathleen McConnell
US Board Member
Home Base: Tacoma, Washington, USA
Joined AlTo: 2026
Profession: Conservation Educator
As the Conservation Engagement Programs Coordinator at Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Cathleen has been creating wildlife ecology curriculum, programs and events since 2005. Her work includes providing resources to help students understand their local and global ecosystems, and creating immersive programs for youth and families that foster empathy for animals. To make these experiences more accessible she founded scholarship programs that have allowed thousands of children to visit the zoo and to get outside and explore nature. Cathleen participated in AlTo’s marine debris campaign in Sulawesi in 2010, and believes that AlTo’s efforts to cultivate partnerships with local residents and community leaders is the most effective way to inspire people to take action to protect their natural environment.
Josh Lawler, PhD
US Board Member
Home Base: Vashon Island, Washington, USA
Joined AlTo: 2026
Profession: University Professor
Josh Lawler is a professor of landscape ecology and conservation biology at the University of Washington in Seattle. His research involves investigating the effects of climate change on species distributions and populations, exploring the influence of landscape pattern on animal populations and communities, climate-change adaptation for natural and human systems, and multiple aspects of the connections between time spent in nature and mental and physical health. He has published over 140 papers and book chapters and has served as a lead author on the 3rd U.S. National Climate Assessment and was a contributing author to the IPCC 5th Assessment Report. He received his AB from Bowdoin College and his MS and PhD in ecology from Utah State University.
Yvonne Kuperberg
US Board Member
Home Base: Vashon Island, Washington, USA
Joined AlTo: 2006
Profession: Citizen Scientist
Yvonne has decades of experience in education, business, and founding and running conservation projects and non-profits. She says, “To me, preserving/restoring the flora and fauna of the Earth with the advice and help of the local people is our primary goal. Educating people to remind them that each of our lives needs the world around us. For us to survive, all must survive. This is what I see AlTo doing and why I am a Board member.”
Djoko Iskandar, PhD
Indonesian Board Overseer
Home Base: Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
Joined AlTo: 2006
Profession: University Professor (emeritus)
Dr. Djoko Iskandar is an active, elected member of the Indonesian Academy of Sciences. His doctoral study in France was on small mammal evolution, but on returning to Indonesia, he pioneered the study of amphibians and reptiles, and became Indonesia’s first and pre-eminent herpetologist. Djoko has been involved in numerous research and conservation efforts, and especially enjoys working on ecology, conservation, systematics and evolution of Southeast Asian Vertebrates.
Mac Hunter, PhD
Advisor
Home Base: Amherst, Maine, USA
Joined AlTo: 2019
Profession: University Professor (emeritus)
Malcolm “Mac” Hunter is an emeritus professor in the Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology at the University of Maine where his work has covered a wide range of organisms and ecosystems, especially forest birds and amphibians, and included six books, mainly on conservation biology and managing forests for biodiversity. Mac has worked in over thirty countries and been active with many conservation organizations, most notably serving as President of the Society for Conservation Biology. He earned his B.S. in Wildlife Science at UMaine then went to Oxford University where he received his Ph.D. in Zoology.
Christopher DeForest
Advisor
Home Base: Spokane, Washington, USA
Joined AlTo: 2026
Profession: Land Conservationist
Since 1997 Chris has identified, protected, and cared for the lands and waters essential to life in the Inland Northwest, currently as Inland Northwest Land Conservancy’s Senior Conservationist. As its first executive director, Chris nurtured the fledgling land trust and has had a hand in most of the 134 properties that INLC has helped protect, totaling over 30,000 acres of migration corridors, hidden sanctuaries, and lands for people to enjoy. As senior conservationist he works directly with landowners, and with partner agencies and Tribes to protect vital lands.
Chris grew up in Seattle enjoying time outdoors and at his great-grandfather’s cabin in north Idaho, where his love of birds began. He received degrees in economics, forestry, and public and private management from Yale University. His wife and two sons call Spokane home.
Steve Daschle
US Board Member
Home Base: Redmond, Washington, USA
Joined AlTo: 2026
Profession: Retired Non-Profit Leader
Steve Daschle grew up in South Dakota and understands the connection of rural people to their lands. He graduated with a BA in East Asian Studies from St. John’s University in Minnesota. Upon graduating, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sierra Leone, where he lived in a very biodiverse part of the country and witnessed the terrible degradation of the environment from open pit diamond mining. After the Peace Corps, he became a community organizer for Montana Peoples’ Action and worked on several community and environmental efforts. Steve moved to Boston to continue his organizing and then graduated from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard with a master’s in public administration. In 1988, he moved Seattle to take on the role of executive director of Seattle’s Southwest Youth and Family Services, in which he served for 35 years until retiring in 2023.
Nigel Collar, PhD
Advisor
Home Base: Cambridge, UK
Joined AlTo: 2019
Profession: Conservation Ornithologist
Nigel Collar is the Leventis Fellow in Conservation Biology at BirdLife International, where he assesses the status and needs of species threatened with extinction and promotes their conservation. In the past two decades he has co-supervised 25 PhD students at five universities, focusing on threatened birds and seeking to build scientific and conservation capacity in developing countries (Botswana, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Philippines, Zambia). Nigel is a senior author of the HBW/BirdLife illustrated checklist of the birds of the world, Research Associate of the Natural History Museum, UK, Co-chair of the IUCN Bustard Specialist Group, and honorary professor at Manchester Metropolitan and East Anglia universities.
Chuck Cannon, PhD
Advisor
Home Base: Chicago and Texas, USA
Joined AlTo: 2019
Profession: Tree Scientist
Chuck Cannon discovered his deep fascination for trees after spending a year in the Bornean rainforests as an undergraduate research assistant. While he had intended to study primate behavior, the trees were clearly the big show in town. Since 1987, he has been studying and thinking about the ecology and evolution of trees and forests of tropical Asia, both in their ‘natural’ state and under different forms of management. He is the founding Director of the Center for Tree Science at the Morton Arboretum, leading efforts to discover and communicate the scientific knowledge necessary to assist trees to adapt to future environmental challenges.
