Staff and Regional Coordinators

In this section you can find some of the people working for Snowchange Co-op and who coordinate our regional work (They can be reached at contact at snowchange.org):

Johanna Roto 

Johanna Roto is the Snowchange geographer since 2000 and a Honorary Member since 2023. She produces most of our maps for all of our community and science work. She is a human geographer who provides also statistical analysis and data visualisation. Her work experience includes activities in Nordic and Arctic peripheries, especially in Greenland and Faroe Islands. She is based in Stockholm, Sweden.

Kaisu Mustonen

Kaisu Mustonen is the Head of the Biodiversity work under Snowchange. She is a human geographer who has been working in Alaska, Northern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Sámi territories as well as Russian North since 2000. She specializes in gendered biodiversity knowledge. Currently she is working on the Living Maps of the Skolt Sámi people and the Landscape Rewilding Programme. She lives in Selkie, Finland.

Tero Mustonen

Tero Mustonen is the President of Snowchange at the moment. He is a winter seiner and adjunct professor (Human Geography). He has been working in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Sámi territories as well as Russian North since 1999. He served recently as a Lead Author for the AR6 of the IPCC. He lives in village of Selkie, North Karelia, Finland.

Ari Parviainen

Ari Parviainen is a bird specialist in Snowchange. Currently he is working on the Näätämö Co-management Project and the the Landscape Rewilding Programme. He is based in Joensuu, Finland.

Lauri Hämäläinen

Lauri Hämäläinen is a fisherman in Snowchange Co-op. He also has a degree of Bachelor of Environmental Sciences from the University of Applied Sciences Karelia, Joensuu, Finland.

Eero Murtomäki

Honorable Elder Eero Murtomäki is a nature photographer, author, film maker and hunter who lives in Petsmo close to Vaasa, Finland. He has been working in Snowchange since 2003. Currently a film tentatively titled “On the Wings of the Raven” about Eeros life and experiences is slated to be released in 2019.

Rita Lukkarinen

Rita Lukkarinen is the layout designer of Snowchange. She has been designing all Snowchange publications since 2005. She is married to Eero Murtomäki and lives in Petsmo close to Vaasa, Finland.

Janne Raassina

Janne Raassina is a private entrepreneur and occasional staff member of Snowchange who is in charge of the aquatic restoration work and design in Snowchange. He is currently working on Kuivasjärvi and Jukajoki catchment area restoration projects as well as the Näätämö catchment area Skolt Sámi co-management work. He is based in Kontiolahti, Finland.

Jorma Mattsson

Jorma Mattson is a Licenciate of Sciences (Natural Geography) who has been working with Snowchange since 2006. Jorma has produced thousands of land use and occupancy maps and cultural mapping items from Sámi, Finnish and Siberian home areas. He lives in Turku, Finland.

Noora Huusari

M. Soc. Sciences (Env. Policy) Noora Huusari joined Snowchange as a staff member in 2020. Currently she is the Human Resources Lead in Snowchange. She is also responsible for the Koitajoki and Onkamo cultural heritage work and coordinates also the winter seining fish distribution and sales. Additionally she works in the Landscape Rewilding Programme.

Karoliina Lehtimäki

Karoliina Lehtimäki joined Snowchange in April 2021 as a permanent staff member. Her major tasks are to be a member of the seining crew, summer and winter, and as well she is involved in the Landscape Rewilding Programme. She is originally from Tampere, Finland.

Antoine Scherer

Antoine Scherer, originally from the north of France, is Snowchange resident ecologist and  a fisherman. He first started to work with Snowchange in 2017. Currently he is working on his doctoral research with the Landscape Rewilding Programme, coordinates many of the ICCA Consortium and European conservation issues in Snowchange.

Christopher Madine

Christopher Madine is a biologist based in Newcastle, the UK. He has been working in Snowchange activities since 2007, including the solar panel and biodiversity work in Northeastern Siberia. Currently he is the Project Manager for the Interreg Europe project “CHERISH” in Snowchange.

Pauliina Feodoroff

Pauliina Feodoroff is a Skolt Sámi leader, playwright, film maker and an artist. She worked as the President of the Sámi Council 2007-2009 and is currently the Coordinator for Eastern Sámi territories of Snowchange work. She leads the Näätämö catchment area co-management work. She is based in Helsinki and in the Skolt home area.

Vladimir Feodoroff, Juha Feodoroff, Risto Semenoff, Raimo Moshnikoff, Petteri Feodoroff, Jouko Moshnikoff

Vladimir Feodoroff, Juha Feodoroff, Risto Semenoff, Raimo Moshnikoff, Petteri Feodoroff, Jouko Moshnikoff are Skolt Sámi reindeer herders, river guardians and fishermen, who are working on the Näätämö catchment area co-management work. They are working as community-based monitoring staff and restoration specialists during the spring and summer time.

Aslak Holmberg

Aslak Holmberg is a well-known North Sámi fisherman and a teacher from Utsjoki, Finland. He belongs to the Steering Committee. He is also the President of Sámi Council.

Lloyd Haarala

Lloyd Haarala is an Anishinaabe Elder and knowledge holder who works with Corrections Canada. His father was a Finn and mother Anishinaabe. He resides in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

Victoria Hykes-Steere

Victoria Hykes-Steere is an Inupiaq from Unalakleet on Alaska’s west coast. She works as the Assistant Professor of Alaska Native Studies at the Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage, Alaska, USA. She is the coordinator for Alaska for Snowchange.

Brie Van Dam

Brie Van Dam is a Ph D from Fairbanks and an Ecologist, who provides statistical analysis for Snowchange science projects and participates in the rewilding programme.

Ninth glun adz, Curtis Rattray

Curtis Rattray is a member of the Crow clan and Nalokoteen (end of the ridge nation) of the Tahltan Nation and his Tahltan name is ‘Ninth glun adz’. Curtis has extensive experience working in the aboriginal rights and title sector. Curtis has served as the elected Chairman of the Tahltan Central Council as the elected spokesperson for the Tahltan nation and is responsible for the representing the Tahltan nation on the reconciliation of inherent Tahltan rights and title issues.  Curtis coordinates Snowchange work in the Western North America, especially British Columbia and Yukon.

Sutej Hugu

Sutej Hugu is an indigenous leader from Taiwan, based in Pongso no Tao. He has been championing campaign to remove a nuclear waste repository that was “temporarily” established in Lanyu Island thirty years ago. He strives to work for federating the 748 tribal communities, whose indigenous territories almost entirely overlapped with state protected areas and national forests. Now, he is a Regional Coordinator of ICCA Consortium and has worked on the regionalization process that goes beyond the geo-political division to embrace the social-linguistic and bio-cultural context and connection for a global network of territory of life.

Victor Steffensen

Victor Steffensen is an Indigenous Australian based in the Cairns region, Queensland, Australia. Through Mulong and Traditional Knowledge Revitalisation Project earlier, Victor has been able to support and foster the use of Australian Indigenous knowledge in science, education, land management and many other fields. Accomplished musician, artist, film maker, educator and speaker, Victor was raised on land and is skilled with the traditional skills and languages of his people.

Darren Ngaru King

Dr King is a Maori environmental scientist at the South Island, Aotearoa-New Zealand.
His work promotes cross-disciplinary and counter-colonial approaches to research that encourage plural knowledge development (and new narratives) about climate change, tsunami hazards and risk in Aotearoa-New Zealand. Dr King has worked with Snowchange since 2005.

Apanui Skipper

Apanui Skipper is a Maori knowledge holder, carver, artist and accomplished orator of the Maori culture. He is a specialist on Maori knowledge of climate change and has been working with Snowchange since 2005.

Parani and Russell Gibbs

Parani and Russell Gibbs belong to the Ngā Hapu o Poutama Maori community on the west coast of the North Island, Aoteoroa. Their community has worked with Snowchange since 2008. Currently in the tribal area rural and environmental restoration is a high priority in order to retain cultural integrity. One of the current goals is to formalize the Poutama Heritage Park across the tribal area.

Hannibal Rhoades

Hannibal is a UK-based anthropologist who has worked with Snowchange since 2014 on forest protection, anti-mining and Indigenous knowledge documentation projects in Finland, Canada, Alaska, Greenland and beyond. In his home country, Hannibal works on the Penpont Project – the UK’s largest intergenerational nature restoration initiative, based in the Usk River valley.

Joni Kareinen

Joni is a traditional pine log carver, carpenter and wood construction specialist. He also works in the seining and fisheries occasionally and is the designated caretaker of the Tohmajärvi HQ site. Joni has been trained as a rare example of his generation as a master carver of traditional Karelian pine log buildings. He is involved in constructing a traditional smoke sauna for Snowchange and maintaining the forward bases out in the wilderness in Lieksa, Ilomantsi and Kontiolahti.

Eetu Niiranen

Eetu is a recent graduate from the Karelia University of Applied Sciences. He is a Finn, and just off the army. He works in a range of ecological monitoring and water analysis tasks. Additionally he works with rewilding and restoration efforts and help out in the fishery.

Minna Kutvonen

Minna from the community of Värtsilä joins Snowchange as an experienced professional in many rural trades. She s also an engineer by training. Minna is involved as a woman fisher, she harvests with winter nets and provides us with northern pike, pikeperch and other catch. Additionally she s involved in fish processing and sales as main tasks.

Miia Tuononen

Miia is a biologist based in Lieksa, Finland. She is central to the Landscape Rewilding Programme and focuses on ecosystem inventories, restoration and planning. She is an accomplished practitioner of rewilding and restoration processes in the boreal including traditional burns.

Cindy Schwenk

Cindy is a biologist and a Ph D student work works with the questions of wild forest reindeer. She is based in Helsinki, Finland. She is combining traditional knowledge and science in her work on this boreal ungulate.

Tiina Oinonen

Tiina is a biologist (degree in 2025) and focuses on the environmental monitoring and assessments on our rewilding sites. She is also assessing the greenhouse gas analysis on the Landscape Rewilding Programme.

Veera Nykänen

Veera is a biologist and specializes on the questions of mercury and methylmercury on peatlands. Additionally she works when needed with the fishery and fishing production.

Tytti Putkonen

Tytti is an accomplished visual artist and teacher. In Snowchange she works coordinating and leading the fish processing unit in Tohmajärvi and fish sales.