Board of Directors

               Officers

Anna Lijphart

Interim President

Anna grew up in The Netherlands, where much of the country is below sea level and the highest elevation is just over 1,000 feet. Perhaps that sparked her fascination with the outdoors in general and mountains in particular. Anna was a TRTA-led thru-hike participant in 2016 and by the next summer, became a thru-hike guide for the TRTA. She has traveled extensively- to Nepal, Tanzania, New Zealand, Iceland, the North Pole! among others- for varied outdoor adventure experiences, but the Tahoe Rim Trail remains her favorite playground.

Professionally, Anna holds a BS in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from UC Berkeley, and after working in the tech sector for a decade, transitioned to immigration law. In that field, Anna served as legal representative to hundreds of asylum seekers and immigrant victims of domestic violence. She founded and served as founding CEO of a non-profit organization that specialized in immigration services for LGBTQ+ immigrants.  Now retired from immigration, Anna has co-founded Alcohol Exposed, a non-profit organization that provides education, guidance and resources to achieve health, wellness and quality of life by reducing or eliminating alcohol, making her the most unpopular person at social gatherings. Anna hopes to bring her experience in non-profit management and fundraising to the TRTA.

Anna maintains strong ties to her family in both Holland and Sweden. She’s a polyglot, musician, California Naturalist, Wilderness First Responder, and Mental Health First Aider. In addition to the TRTA board, Anna sits on the board of the US Alcohol Policy Alliance and is on the Advisory Board for Oakland Goes Outdoors, which provides outdoor experiences for students in the Oakland, CA public school district.

Dori King

Secretary

Dori grew up in rural Massachusetts, where exploring the woods sparked a lifelong love of the outdoors. She has backpacked the entire Tahoe Rim Trail three times: first as a TRTA program participant, then as a guide with the TRTA, and once solo. She has also completed the High Sierra Trail, Nepal’s Annapurna Circuit, and cycling trips across multiple continents.

Professionally, Dori is a Technical Program Manager at Google with more than 15 years of experience in strategic planning and project management. In addition, she is a passionate fundraiser, supporting events like AIDS/LifeCycle and the TRTA’s Raise the Rim. She is excited to bring her skills and love for the trail to the board. When not working or on the trail, Dori enjoys reading, cooking, and spending time with her mini-Dachshund, BrakePad.

Larry Stites

Treasurer

A native of rural Illinois, Larry has been living in the Bay Area since 1976. Now retired, after serving as an officer in the US Army for some 35 years, he was a public accountant, a financial executive with a major transportation company, associated with a private equity firm, and, for the last 15 years of his career, a financial consultant to entrepreneurial, privately held, and start-up companies in a wide range of industries. He received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth Graduate School of Business, a BA from Knox College, Galesburg, IL, and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Since retiring, Larry has been an active volunteer with the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley, for several years as its Interim Executive Director and still as a member of its Board of Directors and Treasurer, with the Trail Center as a trail construction and maintenance volunteer and Treasurer, and as a member of the Board of Directors and Treasurer of the Ross McKee Foundation. He especially enjoys hiking, biking, gardening, and travel.

Jim Crompton

Trail Operations Chair

Jim Crompton has been actively involved with the Tahoe Rim Trail Association as a trail builder since 2012. Jim moved to Carson City from the Midwest in 1988. At that time Jim purchased his first mountain bike. He was a bicycle referee for both road and off-road for more than 30 years and a race organizer. After more than 35 years with the U.S. Geological Survey as a hydrologist, he retired in 2012. Jim has also been involved with trail building and maintenance with the Carson Valley Trails Association, and Friends of Nevada Wilderness. He has summited all 17 county high points in Nevada and joined the 165-mile club in 2023. In 2015, Jim joined the TRTA Board of Directors through 2019 and served as Vice President for a portion of that time. He has taken on the role of the Barker Pass to Tahoe City Segment Coordinator in addition to supporting trail projects around the entire TRT as a Volunteer Crew Leader. Jim is 325 volunteer hours away from having his name on the TRTA 5000-hour plaque. Jim is thrilled to rejoin the board and serve as the Chair of Trail Operations.

Mary Bennington

Board Member

Mary was born and raised in San Diego County, spending much of her early years camping, skiing and cycling. While attending UC Davis, she fell in love with the Tahoe area. She and her husband moved to Tahoe in 1981, the year construction began on the TRT! Before joining the TRTA as the Executive Director in 2010, she had already hiked many of the miles of the TRT. She then completed the thru hike twice as a guide in 2011 and 2012. After retiring as ED in 2016, Mary has continued to volunteer in various capacities from supporting the thru hike as a trail angel, helping with events, and office support. She is passionate about the success of the TRTA and preserving this gem of a trail!

Professionally, she has many years of experience serving on boards, managing non-profit and governmental programs, strategic planning, fundraising and community engagement. She served on the League of Women Voters, Carson Valley Trails Association, and elected twice as a trustee on the Douglas County School Board. She also worked closely with the county to develop the first Comprehensive Trails Plan and advocated to preserve public access to the surrounding public lands through the county’s Master Planning Process. Prior to joining the Tahoe Rim Trail Association as Executive Director, Mary was the Carson River Project Manager with the Nature Conservancy, Associate Director of the Sierra Nevada Alliance, and worked at the Washoe Tribe as the Tribal TANF Program Compliance Officer.

Since retiring, Mary enjoys playing with her grandkids, hiking, cycling, skiing, relaxing at the family cabin and tending and eating from her huge garden.

Justin Knowles

Board Member

Justin Knowles is a Senior Vice President in Oracle’s Customer Success Service organization where he leads product management and strategy.  He has 25+ years of experience in technology including roles at Hewlett Packard and Deloitte Consulting. Justin has an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and BA and MA in Economics from Duke University. He lives in Hillsborough, CA and spends as much time as possible with his family in South Lake Tahoe, CA.

Justin enjoys exploring Tahoe trails with his wife and two boys. He joined the 165 Mile Club in 2021. Justin also serves as a volunteer and board member with the San Mateo County Parks Foundation and the Pacific Skyline Council of Scouting USA.  In his spare time, he enjoys backpacking, trail-running, and leading youth outdoors trips.

John McCall

John has been part of the Tahoe Rim Trail story since its early days, contributing decades of leadership, stewardship, and care for the trail alongside his late wife, Diane. As a Board Member Emeritus, we honor his long-standing service as a Crew Leader, Treasurer, and dedicated champion of the TRTA, and the enduring mark he’s left on both the trail and our community.

John and his late wife, Diane, both 165-milers, moved to Zephyr Cove, NV in 1999 where John still resides today. He has been a TRTA Crew Leader and board member since 2003 and has been the Board Treasurer until 2021. John was born in Michigan, grew up around Washington DC, and received a BA in Physics from MIT in 1959. He worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory until 1987, mainly developing information systems. Along the way, he received an MS in Physics from UC Berkeley and an MBA from St. Mary’s. After an early “retirement”, he and Diane formed their own consulting company. They also become part-time Tahoe residents in the mid-1980s and worked on the trail in the early days (1985 on). John’s interests, other than hiking and computers, include classical music, opera, and duplicate bridge. In addition to the TRTA, John has been active in other Tahoe activities. He was elected to the Lakeridge GID Board in 2000 and was Chairman until the was termed out at the end of 2014. He served on the Pathway 2007 Forum and was Treasurer of Nevada Opera where he served as a board member. He has recently joined the Board of the Reno Philharmonic Association.