Board

president

Rebeca Pacheco

Rebeca grew up swimming, camping and boating on the lower Current River in Van Buren and Doniphan. Her family roots go back to the 1800’s in Carter County and her grand parents purchased river front property on Current River near Van Buren in 1970, which remains in the family today. Rebeca is an avid paddler and enjoys canoeing year around in the Ozark National Scenic Riverways as well as hiking and camping.

Rebeca is an executive director for a non-profit organization in Poplar Bluff that serves children, youth and families in the region. She has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and a master’s degree in Business Administration.

VICE-president

MARK VAN PATTEN

Mark Van Patten is a retired fisheries biologist, freelance author, and public speaker making his home in an Ozark hollow along the Current River in Shannon County, Missouri. His wife, Regina, three dogs, 4 cows and 45 chickens fill his days when he isn’t teaching fly fishing and fly tying.

Mark is a life member of the International Federation of Fly Fishers, and recipient of numerous awards for his conservation efforts with Missouri’s rivers and streams.

Secretary

Ruth Maxwell

Through my involvement with the Ozark Riverways Foundation, I hope to be able to preserve the history and the legacy of the families that came before us and settled in this part of the Ozarks, now known as the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. I hope to share my passion and love for the rivers with visitors seeing them for the first time as well as with people who have ancestral ties to the Ozarks and are interested in their proud heritage.

Treasurer

David StokeLy

David Stokely grew up in Poplar Bluff spending many of the best hours of his youth in and on the clean, gravel bottom streams in southern Missouri. Much of this time was spent with his grandfather, “Doc” who was widely known as a ferocious conservationist who was instrumental in defeating bureaucratic plans for massive dams in the 1950’s and 1960’s that would have forever ruined our free flowing streams on the Current, Jacks Fork and 11-Point Rivers.  He took these early lessons to heart in realizing that a battle is never won against those that seek to despoil irreplaceable precious resources for minor short term gain. David enjoys floating, fishing, hunting, hiking and all aspects of outdoor recreation in our beloved and precious Ozarks region.  He looks forward to contributing to facilitating the mission of the Ozarks Riverways Foundation for the betterment of our greater community.

our Team

Judy Stewart

Regina VanPatten

Dave Tobey

Marty Koch

Todd Wilkinson