Perry Hall, Chair 
A bit of an anomaly in the Utah chapter, Perry grew up in eastern Massachusetts, spending his summers fishing, shooting archery, and exploring what little public lands existed in the Greater Boston area. He quickly realized that his love of all things out of doors required a change. He migrated to his parents’ home state of Vermont for college, where he could pursue his passions of skiing and mountain biking. A bit of an adult onset hunter, Perry finally began pursuing the critters of New England after a roommate from Vermont got him into the deer and upland woods. Upon graduating from the University of Vermont with a B.S. in Recreation Management, he moved to Alta to pursue a powder skiing master’s degree. He easily made his decision to remain in Utah after one summer spent exploring the public land opportunities in the Salt Lake Area. After an extremely comedic first duck hunt, and an encounter with a bugling bull 30 minutes into his first elk hunt, his initial apprehension and excuses disappeared and you can now find him pursuing mule deer, elk, and waterfowl from August to January. After countless days spent on public lands hunting, mountain biking, backcountry skiing, and fly-fishing, he wanted to be more involved and jumped headfirst into BHA in the fall of 2016.
Caitlin Curry, Vice Chair
Born and raised in Buffalo, NY, Caitlin grew up with an innate interest in the outdoors but without vast tracts of public land nearby. The outdoor bug eventually took hold and drove her to Utah in search of countless public land adventures. Already an active member of the NY BHA chapter and then the UT BHA Chapter, she was inspired by the opportunity to support UT BHA in a leadership capacity to defend public lands, access, and opportunity for public land hunters on the incredible Utah landscape. She first served as Chapter Secretary for two years before becoming Vice Chair. Though she pursues a vast array of wild game, her heart lies with bowhunting and can often be putting on miles in the Wasatch Mountains as a weekend-warrior during the archery season or trail running the same mountains to stay ready during the off-season. In her career, Caitlin is a finance and accounting professional with a B.S. in Business Administration and MBA from the University at Buffalo where she was a Division I Track & Field and Cross Country student-athlete.
Jeff Seitz, Treasurer
Growing up in central Pennsylvania, Jeff was raised in a group of family and friends who enjoyed all kinds of outdoors activities, including hunting and fishing. From spring trout and turkey trips to annual deer camp in the fall, Jeff has been an avid outdoorsman from an early age. After moving to Utah in 2020 and having the opportunity to experience the type of public land access available to those living in the state, Jeff sought an opportunity to get involved with a conservation group to help ensure continued access to public land for like-minded individuals around the country. Jeff is a Certified Public Accountant and an auditor by trade, and holds B.S. degrees in Accounting and Financial Economics from Westminster College.
Carrie Riewe, Secretary
Carrie tends to measure her weekends in miles and elevation gain. Much of her free time is spent off-grid on Utah’s public lands—camping somewhere new, trail running the Wasatch, glassing basins at first light, and slowing down enough to take in all the beauty of the backcountry.
She approaches ethical hunting with intention and full use, shaped by a personal culinary background and reinforced through BHA’s Hunting for Sustainability program. For Carrie, stewardship extends beyond the pursuit, from landscape to plate.
With roots in Minnesota and a life grounded in Utah’s high country since 2020, Carrie serves as Secretary, providing steady, behind-the-scenes support for the chapter.
Peter Stringham, Policy Analyst
Peter grew up on the East Coast and didn’t step into the world of hunting until adulthood, after marrying into a hunting family. Learning to hunt later in life gave him a deep respect for the mentorship, tradition, and responsibility that come with it. What started as time in the mountains with family quickly became a passion for wild places, hard-earned opportunity, and the public lands that make it all possible.
Now based in Utah, Peter chases elk and mule deer across the West and understands firsthand how decisions made in committee rooms show up on the ground. As the sitting Policy Analyst and Board Member for the Utah Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, he keeps a close eye on legislation and wildlife policy that affect access, habitat, and the future of hunting. He approaches the role with a practical mindset, blending boots-on-the-ground experience with a professional background in financial analysis, always working to keep public lands public and wildlife management rooted in sound science.
Katie Stewart, Event Coordinator
Avid outdoorswoman and passionate angler, Katie is excited to join the Utah Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers. Born in Montana, raised in Texas, and settled in Utah, Katie has been a lover of the outdoors her entire life. Her passion for fly fishing and dedication to stewardism led her to join BHA. Conservation of Utah's water, land, and wildlife is a sacred oath Katie believes is every Utahan's responsibility. Utah's wild places are profoundly special, and need community support and protection.
Katie will bring her experience and passion to the Event Coordinator Role, and help drive BHA's mission through events, education, and activism. When she is not enjoying Utah's rivers and streams, you can find her mountain biking, hiking, or at the state capital lobbying to protect Utah's backcountry. She loves to throw Chubby Chernobyls and tie cicadas. Katie is also a proud mom, a string musician, bourbon drinker and she loves to talk about fishing. She looks forward to talking to you at BHA's next event!
Matthew Fuller, R3 Coordinator
Matthew Fuller was born and raised in Northern California where he developed a passion for hunting both big and small game. A lifelong fisherman, he also enjoys fishing in diverse waterways, and recently took up fly fishing. Matt served in the U.S. Army as a Cavalry Scout before earning his bachelor’s degree in Business Management and starting his career in Occupational Health and Safety. Matt and his wife moved to Utah in 2020 where he now frequently explores the vast public lands across the West, pursuing deer, elk, and remote wilderness experiences.
Filip Anderson, Conservation Coordinator
Growing up in Utah, Filip understands the immeasurable value of our public lands. A lifelong angler, Filip has traveled across the west to chase countless species from Chinook Salmon to the Common Carp. However, He holds a special affinity for small streams and native fish which he feels gives him an opportunity to explore the more remote and hard to access reaches of our public lands. Filip also enjoys pursuing chukars and grouse through the mountains by his home. He has recently begun hunting the big game Utah has to offer, an endeavor that he would call “a work in progress”.
As a BHA board member Filip feels lucky to have an opportunity to help conserve, restore and protect for future generations the lands and waters that have helped to shape him into who he is today.
Matt Weber, Conservation Coordinator
Matt grew up hunting and fishing in Northeast Wisconsin, where he caught the stewardship bug after a teacher introduced him to Aldo Leopold’s A Sand County Almanac. He has since worked on habitat restoration projects personally and professionally for the past 20 years.
Matt moved to Ogden in 2025 with his wife, daughter, and dog. Outside of work, he’s happiest fishing, hiking, camping, mountain biking, and hunting. Some of his favorite public-land experiences include canoeing and fishing in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, backpacking Glacier National Park, and archery elk hunting in the Manti-La Sal National Forest. As one of Utah BHA’s Conservation Coordinators, he’s excited to advance habitat, access, and boots-on-the-ground conservation projects across Utah.
Spencer Christiansen, Fundraising Coordinator
Raised in the West, Spencer developed an early love for open spaces and public lands. As a teenager carrying a hand-me-down Mossberg pump and a bargain-bin fly rod, he explored the high desert landscapes and rivers of Idaho and was captivated by what felt like endless opportunity. Those early days instilled a deep appreciation for the access and opportunity that define our public lands.
Today, Spencer and his wife, Nancy, are raising their three children in that same spirit—camping, skiing, biking, hunting, and fishing across Utah, Montana and throughout the West. Watching each of their kids discover these landscapes in their own way and on their own timeline has been one of life’s greatest rewards.
Professionally, Spencer has spent much of his career in college athletics and winter sports. Along the way, he felt a growing responsibility to give back to the places that have given his family so much. As Fundraising Coordinator, Spencer is excited to support the mission of protecting public lands, waters, and wildlife.
Adam Denison, Wildlife Policy Coordinator
Adam is a native of southeastern Louisiana. Growing up, he mainly fished, but he did dabble a bit in squirrel hunting. He really got into hunting when he moved to Utah 10 years ago. The concept of "public land" was foreign to Adam as Louisiana doesn't have much. While he loves Louisiana, he could never leave the mountains. He loves the feeling of freedom when he's out in the mountains fully immersed in all that public land has to offer. He has two bird dogs and enjoys chasing grouse and chukar. He is still working on filling his first elk tag. His favorite hunting is turkey. He loves the back and forth interactions with gobblers. Adam has a bachelor's degree in communications from Brigham Young University and an M.B.A. in finance from Wayne State University. He works in communications.
Ridge Durrant, Social Media Coordinator
Ridge is a Utah native, who grew up around the Wasatch front. His family runs a small farm with some cattle and a garden enough for his family to live off for the most part. Because of those, he learned the importance of the land and animals at a young age, which sent him down the path he’s on today. He hunts mostly upland game but does it all and just enjoys getting out. During the off season he uses the public lands for running his two dogs and taking photos, hiking around and finding different critters. Which is starting to dwindle due to housing developments invading the valley. He very quickly started getting involved trying to find ways to tell the story of the land and the people and animals that use and live on the land. He’s now the social media coordinator for the Utah chapter.
Charlynn Shields, Communication Coordinator
Charlynn Shields brings more than two decades of experience in marketing, communications, and advocacy to her role as Communications Coordinator. She currently serves as Senior Director of Marketing for the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation, where she focuses on storytelling, donor engagement, and community-driven campaigns that advance mental health awareness and care.
Her background includes board service with Prevent Child Abuse Utah, the MuzArt World Foundation, and the Cottonwood Heights Arts Council, as well as a previous leadership role at Sportsman’s Warehouse, where she built strong relationships across Utah’s outdoor recreation, hunting, and angling communities.
Charlynn is passionate about using clear, compelling communication to elevate underrepresented stories and inspire broader public engagement in issues that matter to the community. She enjoys fly fishing, hiking, camping, skiing, and traveling.
Ben Kraja, Policy Advisor (Non-Voting)
Ben grew up waterfowl and big game hunting with his family in Utah and developed a deep appreciation for public lands at a very young age. During college he taught himself how to fly fish and while he was there he also earned a BS in Environmental & Sustainability Studies and an MS in Natural Resource Recreation Planning and Management.
Ben has worked for the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and currently works for the US Forest Service in Salt Lake City. His favorite thing to do is bird hunt with his dog Arrow and he is looking forward to having his two young boys tag along for future adventures.
Trish Hedin, Policy Advisor (Non-Voting)
Trish has been an avid outdoorswoman her entire life. Growing up in a logging family requires not only being tough, but enjoying all the outdoors has to offer. Trish has trapped and hunted throughout her whole life and believes in access to public lands and the bounty that they provide. She is an educator who has taught all ages and is currently a professor for the Utah State University with the Department of Environment and Society, as well as working for her local school district. Trish is also enthusiastically involved with the UDWR as both a regional RAC Chair and a hunter education instructor.
Joshua Lenart, Special Advisor / Past Chair (non-voting)
Although his dad is a bird hunter and his brother a deer hunter, Joshua is an archery elk hunter. A lifelong outdoorsman, he moved to Montana to chase wapiti across the public lands that support them after a chance encounter with a traditional archer in the Gallatin National Forest in 2002. Joshua holds an MA in English from Montana State University and a PhD in Rhetoric and Writing Studies from the University of Utah where he currently teaches technical communication in the Communication, Leadership, Ethics, and Research (CLEAR) Program. His appointment is in the Departments of Civil & Environmental Engineering and Chemical Engineering. His research focuses on land management policy as it relates to landscape-scale infrastructure and its impacts on wildlife, habitat, and adaptation planning. Currently, he is working closely with several local and national organizations to research stakeholder discourse on the sale, transfer, and management of federal public lands. Joshua also serves on the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources Regional Advisory Council (Central Region).
Feel free to email Joshua at utah@backcountryhunters.org with any issues, ideas, questions you have relating to wildlife and public lands in and around the Intermountain West.
John Fairchild, Policy Advisor (non-voting)
John was introduced to hunting and fishing at an early age by his father, an avid outdoorsman. Growing up in Berkeley California, their adventures took them to the Coast Range for wild pigs and black-tailed deer, to the Central Valley for doves and pheasants, to the High Sierras for backpacking/fishing outings and to Nevada to hunt mule deer in the Ruby Mountains. The decision to pursue a career in wildlife management was an easy one. John attended Utah State University and obtained a degree in Wildlife Science. He followed that up with MS and PhD degrees from BYU in Range and Wildlife Resources. While in school, he worked seasonally for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and was eventually hired on to work in various capacities in their habitat management program. John retired from the DWR in 2016 after 38 years of employment with the agency; the last ten years as the regional supervisor for the Central Region. John joined BHA in 2017 because as an avid hunter, and someone who has benefitted greatly from having access to public lands, he saw it as an opportunity to continue advocating for policies that benefit wildlife and public land users.
Contact Utah Chapter Coordinator, Brittany Parker at parker@backcountryhunters.org