Brooke Widmar
Education Outreach Coordinator
417-380-9625

Brooke Widmar grew up in Ozark, Missouri, and has always been passionate about the great outdoors thanks to scout family float trips and campouts. Attending a JRBP watershed festival in the 5th grade sparked an interest in water quality, which was further kindled by starting a Missouri Stream Team in high school and attending the Green Leadership Academy for Diverse Ecosystems. Her conservation career has included working for Stream Teams United, The Nature Conservancy of Missouri, and most recently the Missouri Prairie Foundation. Brooke is a graduate of Missouri State University (Go Bears!) where she earned a B.S. in Wildlife Conservation and Management with a certificate in Environmental Education.

Loring Bullard
Grant technician

From 1989 to 2012, Loring served as Executive Director for the Watershed Committee of the Ozarks, a non-for-profit water quality protection group. Prior to that, he was an Environmental Health Supervisor at the Springfield-Greene County Health Department. He has a Masters Degree in Natural and Applied Science and taught environmental science and aquatic biology courses at Drury University from 2010 to 2015. He has published three water-related books: one for the Watershed Press entitled “Consider the Source; A History of the Springfield Public Water Supply;” one for the University of Press titled “Healing Waters: Missouri’s Historical Mineral Springs and Spas,” and one for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources called “Springs of Greene County.” He has a lifelong love of water and enjoys canoeing and fishing on Ozark streams. Loring is married to Beth, has two daughters and lives in Springfield.

Rebecca Nassif
Administrative assistant
417-413-0415

Rebecca joined the James River Basin Partnership in February 2024 as the Administrative Assistant. She began her career in fundraising at World Wildlife Fund in Washington, D.C. After a stint in the Mississippi Teacher Corps and teaching in schools in Mississippi and Memphis, she returned to the non-profit world and spent over 12 years in international development at ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. She then spent nine years raising funds for Playhouse on the Square, a professional resident theatre company in Memphis.

Originally from Carrollton, Mississippi, she called Memphis home for 26 years before relocating to Springfield. She holds a B.A. in political science from Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia; a B.S. in biological sciences from the University of Southern Mississippi; and an M.A. in secondary education from the University of Mississippi. She and her husband Naji have two daughters and four cats and love the natural beauty surrounding their new city.