Verde Valley News – Coconino National Forest welcomes the arrival of Lesley Yen, who will be serving as the acting forest supervisor for the next four months and who previously served as the Coconino NF deputy forest supervisor from January 2019 to October 2020.
Lesley departed the Coconino National Forest in 2020 to become the forest supervisor for the Inyo National Forest, headquartered in Bishop, California. Originally from Massachusetts, Lesley started her Forest Service career on the Inyo in 2010.
Since then, she has served as district ranger on the Shasta Lake Ranger District and National Recreation Area on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest and has also worked on the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit and the Klamath National Forest.
Before coming to work for the Forest Service, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Dominica, a tiny island in the Caribbean. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College and dual master’s degrees from Yale University in environmental management and international relations.