Our Board of Directors and Officers ensures that we are delivering on the organization’s mission and values. To get in touch with a board member please call the ELCR office at 859-455-8383.
Rebecca Brown Thompson, Secretary
Mission, Outreach, & Public Engagement Committee
Virginia, Arkansas
Rebecca’s dedication to the cause of preserving and expanding equestrian space comes from her own belief that people of all ages who learn to ride reap the multiple benefits of being with and caring for horses.
Rebecca enjoyed a 28-year career in the Foreign Service with the Department of State which included overseas assignments. Rebecca also brings with her nearly three decades of experience in public relations that includes writing, press event planning, grant work, and networking with other interested individuals and organizations.
In the years following her Foreign Service career, Rebecca has participated in trail riding and competed in dressage events in such diverse locations as Argentina, El Salvador, the Philippines, Mexico, Venezuela, Northern Virginia, and Northwest Arkansas. She is a co-founder and Board Member of Fairfax4Horses (https://fairfax4horses.org) an equestrian nonprofit organization in Fairfax County, Virginia. In 2002, following the closure of one of the largest area riding stables, Rebecca and a coalition of equestrians and individuals interested in maintaining open space in the county, began organizing to create opportunities for horseback riding by establishing public riding facilities on county parkland. As a result, Fairfax4Horses was incorporated in 2004. Recognizing that many individuals in the area are not able to enjoy the benefits of horseback riding due to the closure of many local stables as a result of expanded development, Fairfax4Horses remains dedicated to the establishment of public riding facilities on Fairfax County parkland.
Rebecca is also an active member of Hunters Valley Riding Club in Northern Virginia and the Northwest Arkansas Dressage Club in Northwest Arkansas.
John Blackburn
Washington, D.C.
As principal of Blackburn Architects, P.C., John Blackburn has over 40 years of experience in the practice of architecture. He is responsible for the overall firm management. His award-winning designs include a full range of project types and services, from programming, existing facility evaluation, and master planning to new construction, adaptive reuse, and historic preservation.
In the field of renovation and restoration, John has a special sensitivity for historic structures and an interest in the adaptive reuse of existing structures for new uses. His conversions have garnered awards from the AIA and Southern Living magazine. Licensed in over 40 states, John has experience working with differing building types, building codes, and historic preservation requirements.
John’s experience in equestrian architecture positions him as a leader in the niche. His equestrian work, which encompasses over 250 projects, ranges from polo barns to thoroughbred and training facilities to therapeutic riding centers: all of which employ key principles of passive design to create highly functional, sustainable facilities that nurture, inspire, and protect both owner and horse.
John Blackburn served on the ELCR Board of Directors from 2018 to 2024, including as Vice President and Co-Chair of the Mission, Outreach & Public Engagement Committee. He continued his involvement with ELCR as a member of the Fundraising Campaign Committee and as a presenter for ELCR webinars on equine best management practices and returned to the Board of Directors in 2026.
Dale Brown
Treasurer
Chair: Finance & Administration Committee
California
Dale Brown is currently a Vice President at ServiceNow, a San Diego/San Jose-based leading provider of cloud-based services to automate enterprise IT operations. Dan previously was the Vice President of Finance at Data Domain, which was acquired by EMC Corporation in July 2009, from January 2006 to December 2011. Prior to that he worked with major companies in the Silicon Valley and other parts of the country.
Dale is a CPA and has worked with non-profits in his past life, one of which was Path, International, where he served on the Board and Finance Committee. Dale brings over 25 years of finance and accounting experience to the ELCR board. His goal is to assist and equip non-profits for the ever changing world of regulatory issues, audits and reporting to donors and government regulatory departments. He greatly appreciates the efforts of ELCR to educate others on the dangers of the loss of open land.
Oscar Gonzales
Governance & Nominating Committee
California
Oscar brings almost two decades of senior leadership experience in the public and private sectors. He oversees a consulting practice that focuses on Food, Agriculture, Renewable Energy, and Information Technology.
In 2021, Oscar Gonzales was appointed by President Biden to serve as Assistant Secretary for Administration at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), where he oversaw management and operations for the nation’s fourth largest federal department. Previously, Oscar served in the Obama Administration in several senior positions within USDA, including Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration, Deputy Chief of Staff, and Senior Advisor on Immigration to Secretary Tom Vilsack. He also served as the California State Executive Director for USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), where he oversaw FSA programs across California. Oscar also held senior roles in state government under Governor Gray Davis, Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, and Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero.
Oscar’s private sector experience includes working for Goldman Sachs as their Vice President for Government Relations for the Western States and Vice President for Government Relations at Aura Financial. Prior to serving in government, Oscar worked with various nonprofit organizations, including the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Building Up Los Angeles, the Corporation for National Service, California Community College Foundation, National Hispanic Environmental Council, East Los Angeles Residents Association, and the UFW Foundation. In 2019, Governor Newsom appointed Oscar to the California Horse Racing Board, and he was reappointed in 2023. He lives in Davis, CA, with his wife Christine and their dogs Honey and Jetty.
Ken Haddad
President
Governance & Nominating Committee
Finance & Administration Committee
Florida
An avid fox hunter and trail rider, Ken recently retired as Executive Director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. In that role he was responsible for the management of over 5 million acres of Florida public and private lands and served on the state council that guided the purchase of $300 million worth of public lands annually. He also served as member of the state lands Acquisition and Restoration Council; Chairman of the Science Coordinating Group of the Everglades Restoration Task Force; and president of the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies. He is a current board member of the Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy and the Wildlife Foundation of Florida.
Ken contributes greatly to ELCR’s ability to be the horseman’s resource on recreational use issues at the state level. He has firsthand understanding of the myriad of issues surrounding equestrian access on public and private lands including public game lands.
Phoebe Weseley
Florida
Phoebe Weseley was born and raised in New York City, where she graduated from The Brearley School. She pursued higher education at Rice University and Columbia University, graduating from Rice University with a degree in the history of art. After graduating, Phoebe embarked on a career in the publishing industry and worked for several museums as an editor and writer.
For someone who grew up in the big city, she has always preferred the country life. Embracing her love of country living, Phoebe and her husband have owned farms in Bedford, NY, Wellington, FL, Bedminster, NJ, and Esmont, VA. Phoebe and her husband call themselves the “farm doctors”; seeing themselves as caretakers and rejuvenators, they are dedicated to bringing their beloved farm in Esmont back to life.
Phoebe is an active competitor in the hunter/jumper discipline and enjoys competing in the hunter/jumper show circuit. She also enjoys grassroots activism and community organizing and most recently has been involved in fighting some development issues impacting horse lands in Wellington, FL, where she was first introduced to ELCR.
Phoebe understands firsthand the crucial need to advocate for horses within local communities and to secure access to land for equine-related activities. She is excited to give back and looks forward to working with ELCR to support efforts aimed at protecting endangered horse lands in communities across the country.
Warren Wilson
Mission, Outreach, & Public Engagement Committee
California
Warren Wilson is a resident of Escondido, CA and President and CEO of California Horsetrader, a thriving niche horse publication and an award-winning media company serving the equestrian industry since 1990. Raised on a historic San Diego County homestead and with a publishing career largely devoted to the horse industry, Wilson has a broad perspective of the equine land conservancy landscape.
Wilson studied literature and writing at the University of California San Diego. Before California Horsetrader, Wilson’s publishing career began in newspapers. He was editor of his hometown weekly, the San Marcos Courier, at age 20. He moved on to a San Diego area morning daily, the Morning Press, first as Sports Editor before being named Managing Editor at age 26. In 1990, he purchased California Horsetrader magazine.
In 1997, he founded Horsetrader.com working with architects, engineers and developers to create an enterprise-level platform for advertisers to provide concurrent online exposure in sync with printed insertion orders. This led to the development of online delivery of content as well as web-based business systems for publishers that remain a daily part of companies nationwide. Today many American Horse Publications (AHP) member magazines, websites and corporate members use technology his team developed.
Wilson is well known and respected in the equine publishing world as both an innovator and an amazing collaborator. First appointed to the AHP Board of Directors in 1995, Wilson served as AHP President from 2000-2001. In his role as AHP President, he led numerous AHP workshops and panels on wide-ranging topics including editorial management, technology and business development.
In 2014, Wilson was honored with the AHP Champion Award and recognized for his 25 years in equine publishing that have provided technical innovations bridging the transition from print to Internet and for his collaboration in the industry. Today’s collaborations extend outside the print realm, as Wilson and the Horsetrader team also now work with non-publishing AHP members including trade shows and associations to engage their audiences with online and mobile marketplaces and video contests.
His childhood home, the Borden Homestead in San Marcos, CA, remains an active equestrian and agricultural enterprise. The 14-acre ranch is the home to his mother, Carolyn Read, a well known equine land use advocate and preservationist.