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Jalene is a soil scientist with the US Forest Service serving the Santiam River Zone on the Willamette National Forest. Her roots in soils began at the University of Washington where she received a masters of science studying wildfire impacted soils and their erosional processes. She began her career with the Southwest Region Terrestrial Ecological Unit Inventory crew and has served as a forest soil scientist on the Tonto National Forest. Jalene became involved with OSSS when she returned to the PNW and is dedicated to uplifting the Oregon soils community.

Vice President: Victoria Moreno

Victoria is a soil scientist with experience in federal land management in forest soils of the Oregon Central Coast Range. She is finishing her M.S. in Geology and Soil Science at OSU.

Past President: Wendy Peterman

Treasurer: Megan McGinnis (osss.treasurer@gmail.com)

Megan is an Oregon State University alumnus working federal land management, currently with the BLM out of Springfield, OR.

Secretary: Sahalie Ellickson

Sahalie is a native Oregonian who recently earned her M.S. in Soil Science at OSU in 2025 and is beginning her career as a wastewater management specialist with Jefferson County.

Westside Director: Craig Busskohl

Craig retired from a career as a soil scientist and forester with the US Forest Service and Soil Conservation Service/Natural Resource Conservation Service. He was President of the OSSS in 2000.

Communications Director: Corinne Butler

Corinne is a second-year Soil Science M.S. student at OSU. She studies soil fertility and nutrient management in agricultural systems.

Sharpshooter Editor: Wendy Peterman (osss.editor@gmail.com)

Co-Student Liaisons: Aubine Zaro & Weston Block

Aubine is a second-year Crop and Soil Science student at OSU with a focus in soils. She’s from the Puget Sound area, and enjoys ballroom dancing and rock climbing in her free time. Aubine is excited to share the wonders of soil with student peers, whether they think they’re interested or not (yet!), and aims to get more people knowledgeable about the land they live on.

Weston is a fourth-year Crop and Soil Science student at OSU with a focus in agronomy. Having grown up in suburbia outside of Portland, he is ever-eager to get soil between his fingers, crops in the soil, and food from field to plate. He is also the sitting president of the Crop and Soil Science student club at OSU where students interested in both crops and soils meet to explore the topics outside the classroom and build a community centered around friendship and learning.

Want to learn more about the roles and responsibilities of each OSSS board member? Check out our onBOARDing document.