Speakers

The State Board of Land Commissioners appointed Dustin Miller to the position of Director of the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) in August 2018. As IDL Director, Dustin oversees the operations of the agency, which is constitutionally charged with generating revenue for public schools and other beneficiaries through the management of natural resources on 2.5 million acres of state endowment trust lands. The agency also enforces state environmental protection statutes, such as the Idaho Forest Practices Act and Lake Protection Act and partners with federal land managers to improve the condition of Idaho’s forests, rangelands, and watersheds. As the state wildland fire response agency, the Department is also responsible for protecting nearly 9 million acres of state, federal, and private lands from wildfire.

Dustin has been a member of the Governor’s Natural Resources Cabinet since 2012. Prior to joining IDL, he served as the Administrator of the Governor’s Office of Species Conservation, an agency charged with developing and implementing collaborative conservation and recovery strategies for federally protected fish and wildlife species, while maintaining working landscapes that support rural communities in Idaho. Dustin also worked as the Wildlife Program Manager for the agency.

Throughout his career, Dustin has built support for collaborative land use initiatives, sound stewardship of our natural resources, and has established strong working relationships with state and federal agencies, private landowners, and industry leaders. Dustin is a graduate of the University of Idaho and began his career as a seasonal wildland firefighter. As a way of giving back to his alma mater, Dustin serves as a member of the College of Natural Resources Advisory Board at the University of Idaho.

The people of Idaho elected Brad Little to be their Governor in November of 2018 and reelected him in November of 2022. He has served as Idaho’s 33rd Governor since January 7, 2019.

Governor Little is an Emmett native who was raised on his family’s sheep and cattle ranching operation. He graduated from the University of Idaho in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness, and has worked in the ranching industry for his entire professional life. In 1978, Brad had good fortune and married Teresa Soulen of Weiser.

Governor Little has a heart for public service. He first served in public office in 2001 when he was selected to fill a Senate vacancy. He was then elected to four consecutive terms to the Idaho Senate. During his service as a Senator, Brad was elected by his Republican peers during his first full term to serve in Party leadership as Majority Caucus Chair. He then served as Idaho’s 37th Lt. Governor starting on January 6, 2009.

Governor Little is committed to making decisions through one lens: the lens of ensuring Idaho’s children and grandchildren have the best opportunities to stay in Idaho and for the ones who have left to choose to return. His time as Governor has been marked by historic investments in education and infrastructure and unprecedented tax relief.

Governor Little has advocated his whole life for limited government, and Idaho achieved the title “least regulated state” during his first term. He works to ensure the lightest possible hand of government in the lives of Idaho’s citizens, and he seeks to build the public’s confidence in state government.

Brian Fennessy is the inaugural Director of the U.S. Wildland Fire Service (USWFS), a newly established agency within the Department of the Interior tasked with unifying and modernizing federal wildland fire management programs.

With nearly five decades of experience in fire service leadership, Fennessy began his career in the late 1970s on elite federal hotshot crews under the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management as a crew superintendent before joining the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department in 1990, where he became Fire Chief in 2015.

In 2018, Fennessy assumed leadership of the Orange County Fire Authority, one of California’s largest fire departments, where he championed aviation programs, technology integration, and mission-driven culture initiatives.

Since 2019, Fennessy served as Chair of the FIRESCOPE Board of Directors. In 2023, he was named the International Fire Chiefs Association (IAFC) 2023 Career Fire Chief of the Year and California Fire Chiefs Association (CalChiefs) Fire Chief of the year. Prior to accepting the DOI USWFS/Fire Chief position, he served as the President of the California Fire Chiefs Association.

As Director of USWFS, Fennessy oversees efforts to streamline decision-making, strengthen interagency coordination, and enhance wildfire response capabilities nationwide. His appointment reflects a commitment to operational excellence, firefighter safety, and community resilience during an era of increasingly severe wildfire seasons.

Grant Beebe is the US Wildland Fire Service Deputy Chief for Fire Operations at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. As the USWFS Deputy Chief, Grant manages the Service’s fire organization across the nation’s nine wildland fire Geographic Areas. Before being named the USWFS Deputy Chief, he served as the Bureau of Land Management’s Assistant Director of Fire and Aviation, a job he had held since February 2020. Grant was hired by BLM in 1990 as a Great Basin Smokejumper and has served as the BLM’s Fire program’s Deputy Assistant Director and as the Division Chief for Budget and Evaluation. Grant has an undergraduate degree in English and graduate degrees in education forest fire management. Grant spends his free time skiing, mountain biking and fishing, and escapes town as often as he can to a cabin in the Sawtooth Mountains northeast of Boise.