Lee Hackeling

Lee Hackeling (she/her/hers) joined LandPaths in 1999 after moving from the Hudson River Valley in New York to Santa Rosa. She is a descendant of 19th century immigrant waves, including the Irish potato famine. She has a B.S. in Conservation Biology with a minor in Environmental Studies from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and an MLA in Environmental Planning from University of California Berkeley. 

Lee  spent her childhood on Long Island, New York where she developed a habitat of escaping outdoors to read, wonder, and ride her bike.  One college summer, she took a Greyhound bus west to work trail crew in the River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho for the Student Conservation Association. Her lifelong love for the outdoors was then made immutable. She enjoyed a protracted college ‘career’ interspersed with odd jobs from land surveyor to 7-11 clerk, and several long-distance bike trips.  

She began her career at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Army Corp of Engineers, and the Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles. After graduate school, Lee returned to New York to work for the New York City Department of Conservation and then the Appalachian Mountain Club in partnership with the National Park Service Rivers Trails and Conservation Assistance Program, where she focused on urban conservation in the Bronx and the Bronx River.  

Lee is passionate about nature and for others to share in the wonder of nature. She lives in Santa Rosa with her family and enjoys riding her bike around town, reading, and evening walks. She is a cancer survivor, proud wife of a musical husband, and proud mom of two college students.