Staff & Board

Chuck Tooley
Chairman of the Board

Chuck Tooley retired undefeated as the longest-serving Mayor of Billings, Montana, and went on to lead The Urban Institute at MSU-Billings. His company, Tooley Communications, Inc., offers consulting services in strategic communications and public policy. He was a gubernatorial appointee to the Montana Arts Council and the Montana Human Rights Commission and has served on the boards of the Big Sky Economic Development Authority, Rocky Mountain College, U. S. Conference of Mayors, The Population Institute, and others. A U.S. Army veteran of the Cold War in Europe and the ground war in Vietnam, Tooley speaks widely on citizenship and leadership.

Bradley Snow
Vice-Chair of the Board

Bradley Snow, Livingston, Montana, is a former Wheeler Center board chair and the great-grandson of Senator Wheeler. He teaches history at Montana State University. His book, Living with Lead: An Environmental History of Idaho’s Coeur d’Alenes, 1885-2011, was published in 2017. Kathryn Morse of Middlebury College wrote: “Bradley Snow presents a case study of the trifecta of American modernity, which allows us to understand modernity at a deep and meaningful level.”

Cathy Conover
Secretary

Cathy has a background in manufacturing operations, with both the General Electric Company and Avon Products. In 1981, she moved from New York City to Montana with her husband and two sons. She enjoyed a 30 year career with Montana State University. She served as the director of Labor Relations and Personnel Services, and later University Relations. As the Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs, she served as the lobbyist and media spokesperson for MSU. University Marketing, Web Communications, Publications, News Bureau and Montana PBS were also in her division. Cathy has a Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in Russian Studies and a Masters in Higher Ed from MSU. She has taught courses in the MSU College of Engineering and the College of Business.

Philip Brittan
Treasurer

Philip has started multiple companies from scratch and is a tech product innovator, patented software inventor, advisor, writer, investor, CTO and CEO. He has run businesses within Bloomberg, Google, and Thomson Reuters, managing large globally distributed teams of thousands of employees with multi-billion-dollar budgets and revenue. He is a Certified Financial Risk Manager and has personally raised over $100m in investment funding from angels, VCs, and strategic investors. Born in Silicon Valley (Palo Alto), Philip grew up on a ranch in Montana and has a degree in Computer Science from Harvard University. He loves writing, making music, and having outdoor adventures with his wife, family, and friends.

Waded Cruzado
Board Member Ex Oficio

Waded Cruzado, Bozeman, MT, serves as the 12th president of Montana State University, a position she has held since January, 2010.  In addition, President Cruzado currently serves on the boards of the Higher Education Resource Services (HERS), TIAA-Cref Hispanic Advisory Council, International Student Exchange Program (ISEP), US Bank, as well as the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU).

Robin Wheeler Azqueta
Board Member

Robin, of West Palm Beach, FL and West Glacier MT, is the great-granddaughter of Senator Wheeler. She attended Montana State University as an undergraduate, later receiving her BA with Honors from Middlebury College in Political Science and Spanish, and an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management with a focus in Spanish and Marketing. Robin was the Brand Manager for DEWAR’S Scotch Whisky for the U.S. while working for Bacardi, and spent more than 15 years in sales and marketing in the liquor industry.  Robin was the General Manager of Advantage Wireless Communications for 10 years.  Robin is a mother to two sons and enjoys travel, public policy, open water swimming, all things Montana, and the American West.

Zachary Brown
Board Member

Zach Brown is a Bozeman High and University of Montana graduate. He lives in Bozeman with his wife, Alice Buckley, and their two dogs. He serves in elected office as a Gallatin County Commissioner, and Alice serves in the Montana House of Representatives. Prior to Zach’s election as a County Commissioner, he served three terms in the Montana House of Representatives and worked for various community NGO’s, including One Montana, the Human Resource Development Council, and the Montana Nonprofit Association.

Darrell Ehrlick
Board Member

Darrell Ehrlick is the founding editor of the Daily Montanan. Prior to that, he was a journalist and editor in five different states before joining States Newsroom. His stints include the editor of his hometown newspaper, The Billings Gazette, the state’s largest. He has also served as the executive director of a medical training non-profit that focused on rural healthcare. He taught journalism at the university level and authored several books. He’s served on several other boards including the St. John’s Foundation, Zoo Montana and the Billings Education Foundation. He is the past recipient of the VFW’s highest honor for any journalist for his coverage of Vietnam veterans. Ehrlick graduated from Concordia College with honors, and attended Emory University and Bennington College for master’s studies. He lives in Billings with his partner, Cassy, and their three children, two cats and entirely too many books. 

Bill Jones
Board Member

Bill Jones is a fourth generation rancher from Harlowton. His family’s Twodot Land & Livestock Co. was founded in 1908 and is now in its sixth generation of ownership. The former Executive Director of the Gallatin History Museum in Bozeman and Past Governor of the Montana District of Kiwanis, Bill believes that, “Volunteer service is the rent you pay for the space you occupy in your community.”

Chris King
Board Member

Chris King grew up on the family ranch southwest of Winnett.  He graduated with an engineering degree from MSU, where he met his wife, Gari.  Chris served nine years on the local school board, and fifteen years as a county commissioner.  He is also a founding member of the Winnett ACES.  Chris and Gari raised a daughter and son who now work on the ranch with them.  They have four grandsons.

Dave McAlpin
Board Member

Dave McAlpin has spent most of his working career as a public servant.  He is presently an Administrative Law Judge serving as the Chairman of the Montana Tax Appeal Board, presiding over tax appeal hearings, testifying before the Legislature, and supervising the agency.  Prior to that, he was hired by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to lead the smokeless states initiative to prohibit smoking in Montana bars, restaurants and public spaces. He was Chief Deputy Clerk of the Montana Supreme Court from 1995-1998, and before that worked as congressional staff in Washington, DC and Montana for Cong. Pat Williams and Sen. Max Baucus. McAlpin has a BA from the University of Montana and grew up on the family dairy farm near Polson.

Holly Michels
Board Member

Holly has been the head of the Montana State News Bureau for Lee Enterprises since 2020, supervising a team of reporters and coordinating with newsrooms around the state to cover state government, the legislature, and politics. A graduate of the
University of Montana School of Journalism, she has served as Managing Editor of the Helena Independent Record, City Editor of the Billings Gazette, and as business and general assignment reporter for the Montana Standard. Holly has also worked for the Ravalli Republic in Hamilton and the National Center for Appropriate Technology in Butte in editorial positions. A Montana native, Holly lives in Helena with her husband and young son.

Mark Parker
Board Member

Mark D. Parker was born in 1955 in the hospital room next to the room his mother was born in.  His dad was born in Fishtail, Montana.  Mark graduated from the University of Montana in 1977 with a degree in economics and received his law degree in 1980 from the University of San Diego.  He is the former President of the State Bar of Montana, admitted to practice law in Montana, California and Nevada.  He is a member of the American College of Trial Lawyers and winner of the 2021 Montana Jameson Award for Lifetime Achievement in the law. He has practiced law in Billings, Montana for 42 years.  He is married to Carlene Taubert, with two children–Monica and Stan.

Ian Snow
Board Member

Ian K. Snow is the chief executive officer and a co-founding partner of Snow Phipps Group, LLC, a private equity firm. Prior to the formation of Snow Phipps in April 2005, Mr. Snow was a managing director at Ripplewood Holdings L.L.C., a private equity firm, where he worked from its inception in 1995 until March 2005. He currently serves as a director of each of the following private companies in which Snow Phipps holds an equity interest: Blackhawk Industrial Distribution, Inc., Brook & Whittle Limited, Cascade Environmental LLC, DecoPac, Inc., ECRM, LLC, Electric Guard Dog, LLC, FeraDyne Outdoors, LLC, HCTec, Inc., Ideal Tridon Holdings, Inc., Kele, Inc. and Teasdale Foods, Inc. From 1996 until 2007, Mr. Snow served as a member of the board of directors of Asbury Automotive Group, Inc.  Mr. Snow earned a B.A., with honors, from Georgetown University.

Frederica Wheeler
Board Member

Frederica Wheeler Johnson grew up in Washington D. C. and graduated from Vassar in 1963 with a degree in International Relations and a minor in French. She did graduate work in Political Science at the University of Virginia. Frederica worked for the U. S. Department of Commerce for 23 years. She was in Washington from 1972-1973 and 1980-1995, and San Francisco from 1973-1980. During much of that time she served as an International Trade Analyst.

Kendall Wheeler
Board Member

Kendall Wheeler, Aiken, SC, Palm Beach, FL and West Glacier, MT, is the granddaughter of Sen. B. K. Wheeler, for whom she was named and with whom she enjoyed a special relationship as they shared the same birthday. She started her own small business and ran it successfully for twenty years.