Board Members

Lori Stegmann, Board Chair

Position 1 (Elected)

Lori Stegmann was elected to position 1 in November 2024. She is the Youth and Family Services Division Director in the Department of County Human Services for Multnomah County. Previous to that she served as the District 4 (East County) Multnomah County Commissioner for eight years. During her tenure on the Board of County Commissioners she served on the interim board of the Urban Flood and Safety Water Quality District that began in 2020 and concluded in 2024.

She has also been a successful small business owner in Gresham for over 30 years and serves on the board of the Asian American & Pacific Islander Leadership Elected and AppointeD (AAPI LEAD), the first national membership organization for AAPI elected and appointed officials.

Lori is a proud graduate of Mt Hood Community College and Portland State University.

Phil Ralston, Board Vice-Chair

Position 6 (Appointed)

Phil Ralston was appointed by Governor Kotek to position 6 on the board in November 2024. Phil has lived in Portland since 1980. He’s worked in environmental protection since 1976 at local, state, regional, national and international levels, in public and private sectors.

He served as the Port of Portland Environmental Director, and retired in 2019. While there, for a decade, he was also the Port’s representative to the legacy drainage districts (Sandy Drainage Improvement Company, Multnomah County Drainage District, Peninsula Drainage District #1) that became the Urban Flood Safety & Water Quality District. He was an early and active advocate for modernizing the flood management system along the south shore of the Columbia River in the Portland Metro area.

Phil has served on governing boards for a school, a non-profit law firm, and airport industry trade association environmental committee. He earned a BS in Biology from the University of Oregon. Family and friends, volunteering in the summer to the forest service, and singing in a community choir fill his life.

Ariana Johnson

Position 2 (Elected)

Ariana Johnson was elected to position 2 in November 2024. She is a Senior Consultant at Environmental Resources Management, where she has worked since 2019. She is currently part of ERM’s Social Impact team, focusing on stakeholder engagement and environmental justice for energy projects across the U.S. In her work, she conducts public outreach efforts and works to quantify and mitigate impacts on historically marginalized and disadvantaged communities. She is passionate about communicating complex technical topics effectively to a wide range of audiences. Previously, her work in consulting has included stormwater and groundwater sampling for current and former industrial sites along the Columbia Slough and Willamette River.

Prior to her work with ERM, Ariana worked at the Scottish Government developing their Climate Change Adaptation Programme. This work sparked her passionate support of climate adaptation and resiliency measures. She has a BS in Environmental Engineering from Cal Poly SLO and a MSc in Ecosystem Services from the University of Edinburgh. She has spent most of her life living within our wonderful floodplain and grew up in a bilingual household. She looks forward to being able to use her skills in Spanish to connect to more community members. She hopes to preserve our ecosystem and flood prevention systems for generations to come.

Kayla Calkins

Position 3 (Elected)

Kayla Calkins was elected to position 3 on the UFSWQD board in November 2024. Born and raised in Gresham, Kayla has spent 15 years at nonprofits, startups, and Fortune 50 companies. Kayla’s focus on community resilience grew from her background in insurance, where she saw the effects of increasing disasters on communities, the environment, and our economies. She received her master’s in public administration (2024) from Harvard Kennedy School, concentrating on climate policy and social impact strategy.

Kayla currently works at the Climate Resilience Fund as a wildfire resilience program officer and serves as a senior advisor to Insurance for Good. A Climatebase Fellow and Portland Neighborhood Emergency Team member, Kayla believes that strengthening our community bonds unlocks our ability to work on hard problems together as we prepare and adapt to increasing extreme weather. In her spare time, Kayla enjoys dyeing textiles, playing cribbage with her husband in their camper van, and the occasional roller skate night at Oaks Park.

Nic Lane

Position 4 (Elected)

Nic Lane was elected to position 4 in November 2024. He has twenty-five years combined experience in energy, water management, and environmental stewardship. Since 2001, Nic has worked almost exclusively at a large regional hydropower utility, and for the past five years has managed a team of analysts supporting critical infrastructure projects.

Nic has specific experience in Columbia Basin hydropower; national energy, water management, and natural resources policy and legislation; fish and wildlife mitigation; energy efficiency; and communications and marketing.

He also served as an environmental education volunteer in Peace Corps, Morocco from 1998-2000.

Erich Mueller

Position 5 (Elected)

Erich Mueller was elected to position 5 in November 2024. Prior to that he served as the representative of the City of Fairview on the Interim Board of Directors from 2021 through 2024.

Erich is an active City of Fairview volunteer, serving on the Budget Committee and previously on the Urban Renewal Planning Committee. He is currently a member of the Finance Committee for the regional emergency communication 911 answering and dispatch service.

Erich has lived in the managed floodplain since 2011 as one of the 300 residents of the Fairview Terrace Homeowners Association (HOA), where he has served as the HOA Treasurer since 2012.

Erich worked as a Federal Reserve Examiner for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and as an Operations of Officer for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.  For 12 years Erich was the CFO of a multi-state health care software and services holding company based in the Portland Lloyd District.  He currently, and since 2009, works as the Finance Director of the City of Troutdale.  He has a BS in Economic Theory from Utah State University.

Heather King

Position 7 (Appointed)

Heather King was appointed by Governor Kotek to position 7 on the Board in November 2024. Prior to that, she served as the environmental justice representative on the Interim Board of Directors for two years.

Heather is currently the Executive Director at the Columbia Slough Watershed Council, which she joined in March, 2022.  She has more than 20 years of experience in the nonprofit sector.  Prior to her current role she was the Deputy Director at Willamette Riverkeeper, where she was responsible for fundraising, staff development, and supervision, and worked with 350PDX, to rebuild the organization’s fundraising program. In addition, Heather founded two nonprofits: Pride Zone, a center for LGBTQA+ young people in Northampton, MA, and Brandywine Roller Dery in Downingtown, PA.  A lifelong social justice educator and leader, Heather has a strong commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI).

Heather holds a Masters’s in Social Justice Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and an MBA in Nonprofit Management and Social Policy from the Heller School at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA.  An east coast native with a lifelong interest in the outdoors and exploring the world, Heather quickly developed a love of the Pacific Northwest.  She is passionate about connecting volunteers, partners, and donors to the outdoors and the importance, vitality, and joy of Oregon’s resources, especially her waterways.

Winta Yohannes

Position 8 (Appointed)

Winta Yohannes was appointed by Governor Kotek to position 8 in November 2024. She is the executive director of the Albina Vision Trust, a nonprofit organization stewarding the thoughtful reinvention and transformation of the 94-acre historic lower Albina neighborhood. Responsible for overseeing all facets of the organization, Ms. Yohannes drives the mission, fundraising, operations and strategy. During her tenure, AVT has grown its real estate and development capacity with its first project breaking ground in 2023 and the right of first refusal secured on a key 10.5-acre site. AVT has earned recognition for its leadership in counteracting anti-Black racism in the urban form, including awards for design excellence in its groundbreaking masterplan.

Previously, Ms. Yohannes was a senior policy advisor at the City of Portland. In this role, she supported the development of Portland’s first immigrant legal defense program and co-established the Social Equity Program in the Cannabis Licensing Office to support entrepreneurs of color.

Ms. Yohannes holds a BA from Reed College and was named one of Portland Business Journal’s Class of 2021 Forty Under 40 and Class of 2025’s Executives of the Year.

Dan Eisenbeis

Position 9 (Appointed)

Dan Eisenbeis was appointed to position number 9 of the UFSWQD board representing the Port of Portland by Governor Kotek in 2024. At the Port, Dan serves as regional relations manager. He has worked for two decades in government relations and policy development, covering areas such as land use, transportation, infrastructure, environmental remediation, climate, energy, taxation, and public finance. Dan has also held positions with Multnomah County, the City of Portland, the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, and the League of Oregon Cities.