Board of Directors

Aya Tsuruta
President

Joined in 2021
Seattle, WA

Aya comes to the board with a deep love of trails. She’s hiked long stretches of beautiful land in the Northwest, Northeast, and Southwest and maintained trails in Southern Utah as part of a conservation corps. Raised in the northwest, she’s eager to give back to our beautiful home that gives us so much, and is particularly passionate about advancing accessibility and inclusivity in the outdoors. Aya holds a BA in Economics from Boston College and is currently the associate director of marketing and communications at a non-profit in Seattle.

Charley Carpenter
Vice President

Joined in 2014
Missoula, MT

Charley Carpenter is a lawyer practicing out of Missoula, MT and is also licensed in Montana, Idaho, Maryland and Washington D.C.  He works mostly with government contractors, but has also worked on natural resource issues, including water rights, in his 20+ years of practice.  In his free time, Charley can be found hiking, mountain biking, skiing and snowshoeing.

Julie Robertson
Secretary

Joined in 2023
Portland, OR

Julie Robertson is an educator and trail enthusiast currently living in Portland, Oregon. She holds a B.A. in Science Education from Montana State University and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Utah. While thru-hiking the Continental Divide Trail in 2021, Julie fell in love with the trail community she experienced. Both with other hikers and with locals in the gateway communities. By volunteering for the PNTA, Julie hopes to promote access and inclusion in the trail and gateway communities and build awareness of the PNT.

Stephen Simburg
Treasurer

Joined in 2020
Seattle, WA

Stephen Simburg is a product manager and marketer from Seattle, WA. He holds an MBA from the University of Washington. A lifelong outdoor enthusiast, on the weekends Stephen can be found hiking, camping and kayaking. He is interested in promoting access to trails and preserving the cultural heritage of the Pacific Northwest.

Melanie Simmerman

Joined in 2018
Belgrade, MT

For over thirty years, Melanie worked as a non-profit administrator and fundraising professional for a variety of performing arts and environmental organizations mostly in New York City. More recently, Melanie certified as a personal trainer/fitness instructor. Melanie is an avid outdoor adventure enthusiast and is an accomplished long-distance hiker (Triple Crowner) and outdoor leader. She completed the Pacific Northwest Trail over four summers (2012-15). Since 2012, she has authored the Pacific Northwest Trail Town Guide.

Melanie seeks to give back to the trail, and trail community, through service on the PNTA board. She aims to help create a strong organization that can lead the development of the Pacific Northwest Trail and preserve and protect it for the enjoyment of future generations of hikers and outdoor enthusiasts.

Margaret Hartzell

Joined in 2017
Okanogan, WA

Margaret Hartzell joined the PNTA Board because such trails conserve wild places and get people into nature.  She worked for Federal land management agencies for 32 years as a Park Ranger and with the Forest Service managing teams of wildlife biologists, fish biologists, soil scientists, social scientists, botanists, foresters, and recreation specialists on projects large and small. Now retired, she continues her interest in natural resources and the outdoors by volunteering with local trail groups, a land trust, and the PNTA.

Bob Turner

Joined in 2022
Coeur d’Alene, ID

Bob Turner is a retired educator from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. He has been involved in long-distance hiking since 1994 when he and his family thru-hiked Oregon on the PCT. Bob Completed the Triple Crown in 2018. He has been president and a board member of the American Long Distance Hiking Association-West, ALDHA-West. From 2015-2019 he organized the Inland Northwest Ruck long-distance hiking workshop. As a PNTA board member he hopes to help raise awareness of the PNT both with hikers and the gateway communities.

Chris Burke

Joined in 2024
Seattle, WA

Chris is a retired meteorologist with thirty years of experience forecasting the weather of Western Washington. He also has previous board and accounting experience. Chris is an avid hiker, having hiked (so far) some 32,000 miles including five National Scenic Trails in their entirety. His interests include climate change affecting the long trails, the route of the PNT, and accounting for nonprofits.

Hoda Gray

Joined in 2024
Seattle, WA

Hoda comes to the Board with a deep love for nature and the environment. She is a policy and stakeholder relations professional with a rich background in park management in Canada and the UK. As the former Executive Director of National Parks England, she led strategic initiatives to protect and promote England’s National Parks. Hoda also has extensive experience collaborating and negotiating with Indigenous communities in Canada, highlighting her commitment to inclusive and equitable environmental stewardship practices. She holds a Master of Public Administration and BA Honors from Queen’s University, and a diploma in Women’s Leadership from the University of Oxford. Outside of work, she enjoys cooking, trying new things, and spending time in the outdoors, hiking with her husband, dog, and toddler.

Rubab Bhangu

Joined in 2024
Seattle, WA

Growing up in India Rubab often went hiking with her family and developed a deep appreciation for nature. As a mother now, she is inculcating that same love of nature, hiking, and camping within her children and believes that preservation of our trails is extremely important for future generations. 

Rubab holds an MBA from Kellogg School of Management and has experience with both non- and for-profit organizations. She started out in energy and environmental consulting and has been hyper-focused on the customer experience from both the strategic and technology lens for the last 10 years. You can often find her volunteering for causes she believes in – youth development, sustainability, community – cooking, gardening, and enjoying the great outdoors with her family.