– MEDIA RELEASE –

For Immediate Release

January 31, 2024

Contact: Wendy Schneider, Friends of the Inyo, (310) 849-3662, [email protected]

Local Conservation Nonprofit Friends of the Inyo Announces Two New Additions to Its Board of Directors

Friends of the Inyo, which works to protect and care for the land and water of the Eastern Sierra, and boasts offices in Bishop and Lone Pine in Inyo County, as well as a staff presence in Mono County, would like to announce two new additions to its Board of Directors:

• Nancee Murray, who has a lifetime of experience in environmental law, water rights and water quality; and
• Robin Bolser, who is the owner of the popular Great Basin Bakery and committed to environmental causes.

Murray is enjoying retirement after 28 years of service with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of the General Counsel, where her career focused mostly on water rights and water quality. She has a Business Economics degree from UC Santa Barbara and a Juris Doctor degree from UC Davis. She spent several years in private practice focusing on environmental law and was also an Assistant Attorney General for the Federated States of Micronesia in the early 1990s, as that group of islands became a new nation. She and her sons have spent many summer vacations hiking, fishing and recreating in the Mammoth, Bishop and Mono Basin areas. A native Californian, Murray now lives in Sacramento and enjoys hiking, backpacking, bird watching, and planting native plants.

Bolser, who has lived in Florida, Illinois, Ohio and North Carolina, found a forever home in the Eastern Sierra. Educated as a philosopher and marine biologist, she moved to Santa Barbara in 1997 and discovered Mammoth Lakes in 1998. After visiting the area repeatedly to recreate, she decided to leave her career (and Santa Barbara) behind to start a family and a small business in Bishop: the Great Basin Bakery. Having lived here for over two decades and having married a “Bishop-born guy,” Bolser is committed to the wellbeing of communities and landscapes of the Eastern Sierra. She brings a passion for the outdoors, for environmental issues (particularly climate change) and a pragmatic approach to community partnerships that usually involves baked goods.

“We are thrilled to have Robin, a very well respected and long-term member of the Bishop business community, join our board,” said Friends of the Inyo’s Executive Director, Wendy Schneider. “Her deep and broad local connections combined with her passion for healthy ecosystems make her a tremendous asset to Friends of the Inyo.”

About Murray, Schneider said, “Nancee is an ideal addition to our board, coming at a critical time, as she has 30 years of experience working on water rights and water justice issues in California.  This experience will be invaluable to Friends of the Inyo as we begin our involvement with the Payahuunadu Water Justice Group and its campaign for the more equitable distribution of water throughout the Eastern Sierra.”

For more information about Friends of the Inyo, please visit friendsoftheinyo.org.

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