Executive Director
A life-long conservationist, Demis has over 25 years experience working on environmental campaigns and programs in the West. Demis grew up on a five generation family ranch in southern Idaho where she developed a lifelong love for nature, and a deep appreciation for the land and water that sustained the families in her rural farming community.
While earning a Bachelor of Arts in English and Creative Writing from Boise State University, she worked for the Wolf Recovery Foundation—the first organization in Idaho dedicated to the restoration of wolves in the Rockies. She then moved to the Pacific Northwest where she spent 15 years working on conservation campaigns, adventure and field science programs for youth, and overseeing a national environmental film festival. Demis was awarded the National Leadership Award for outstanding leadership in protecting public lands for her work as the Director of the Ancient Forest Roadshow—a year-long advocacy tour traveling across the nation with a 1,000-lb. crosscut section from an old-growth Douglas Fir tree.
She moved to New Mexico in 2010 to work on public lands and wildlife campaigns including the Mexican gray wolf recovery effort and the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument designation. She took the helm of Conservation Voters New Mexico as the Executive Director in 2013.