Our Team
Meet our founding board members at Friends of Silver Lake.
Mark Shoemaker, Founder
Mark Shoemaker was born and raised in the Central San Joaquin Valley of California. He attended Porterville College, University of Pacific and University of California, Berkeley. He holds a Bachelor of Medical Science and a doctorate of podiatric medicine, graduating in 1981 from the College of Podiatric Medicine, San Francisco. Mark retired from his medical practice in 2012. He is currently a Licensed Financial Consultant and has been in practice for 30 years. Early in the 1980’s he was introduced to Silver Lake and with the beautiful surrounding mountains. He knew at that time he wanted to be a permanent part of it. He has been a cabin owner since 1996 on Silver Lake and an officer for East Shore Silver Lake Improvement Association for 24 years. One of his goals is to protect Silver Lake and its natural beauty for generations to come. He is married with three grown daughters.
Contact: mshoemaker@fosilverlake.org
Ann Marie Mahoney, Founder
Ann Marie Mahoney is a retired attorney who enjoys year around activities in the Eastern Sierra, including hiking and snowshoeing. In retirement, she has provided pro bono assistance to several nonprofits. Ms. Mahoney has served on nonprofit boards advancing causes committed to affordable housing, combating human trafficking, and providing medical and educational assistance to vulnerable communities. Ann Marie has held various leadership positions in the financial services industry. Ms. Mahoney is a graduate of the University of Iowa and holds a J.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.
Contact: ammahoney@fosilverlake.org
Jim Mahoney, Founder
Jim Mahoney has been coming to Silver Lake for over 60 years and he and his wife have been part time residents for the past 12 years. Jim enjoys fishing, hiking, snowshoeing, photography and generally observing the beauty of all four seasons at Silver Lake, the June Lake Loop and the Eastern Sierra.
Jim is a retired CEO of a national financial services company and had a prior career in real estate development and construction. He holds a Bachelor of Science from the University of California at Irvine. Jim has also served on boards to maintain and improve the quality and enjoyment of the local environment.
Contact: jmahoney@fosilverlake.org
Paul Miccolis
Paul Miccolis is a lifelong restaurateur. He recieived on the job training from his father, also a lifelong restaurateur. Paul has been the President and CEO of the family restaurant business since 1988 with businesses in the San Fernando Valley, Santa Clarita, Simi Valley, and June Lake. He has spent time in the Eastern Sierra since 1974. When not tending to the mountain restaurant, he has enjoyed all the Sierra seasons from skiing in the winter to vibrant color photography in the fall while fishing, birding, and exploring in the spring/summer. He learned to fly fish as a teen with the Sierra Pacific Fly Fishers where he was on the board as the youth chairman. He became an avid fly fisherman and made trips to many places including multiple years in Montana and Alaska, but calls the Eastern Sierra his home waters. He is still an active fly fisherman. Paul Miccolis is a graduate of California State University, Northridge and has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Option: Accounting Theory and Practice.
Contact: pmiccolis@fosilverlake.org
Robert Nailon
Robert W. Nailon is a semi-retired environmental consultant with over 40 years of government and private sector experience in wetland habitat assessments, Section 404/10 permitting, habitat restoration, wetland mitigation, wetland/estuarine ecology, shoreline erosion control, oil spill response and natural resource damage assessments (NRDAs). He served as Project Manager for the Rush Creek stream restoration and dredging project in the June Lake Loop, June Lake, California. He coordinated the preparation and submission of the California Department of Fish and Game Streambed Alteration Agreement application and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) permitting; coordinated subcontractors; and served as a liaison between regulatory agencies and client in project regulatory matters. The project was completed in November 2004. In 1992 while affiliated with the Texas A&M University Marine Advisory Service, he was awarded the U.S. Department of Agriculture Distinguished Service Award, the highest award in the USDA, in Washington, D.C. for wetlands restoration work in Galveston and Trinity Bays, Texas. He and his family have thoroughly enjoyed their “cabin time” since the 1970’s.
Contact: robert_nailon@aol.com
Tim Taylor
Timothy Taylor is a retired wildlife biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. He spent the bulk of his professional career from 1980-2021 working in the eastern Sierra in Inyo-Mono counties, CA, where he was responsible for the management and conservation of numerous endemic wildlife species including greater sage-grouse, mule deer, black bear, mountain lion, pronghorn antelope, Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep and tule elk. He organized and conducted multiple ecological studies of these species that focused on the use of radio-telemetry and GPS tracking technology to determine movement patterns, migration pathways, habitat use, population vital rates, and cause specific mortality factors. The results of these studies were used by wildlife biologists, land managers, planning agencies and stakeholder groups to make informed decisions regarding the potential impacts of development projects on wildlife and to help formulate mitigation measures and conservation actions designed to protect and enhance vulnerable habitat. Outside of the eastern Sierra, he participated in population assessments for numerous T&E, sensitive and special-status species including desert tortoise, spotted owl, northern goshawk and kit fox. Mr. Taylor is co-owner of the Taylor cabin on Silver Lake, which has been in family ownership since 1972. He continues to enjoy a close bond with nature through fishing, hunting, hiking and spending long summer days at the Silver Lake cabin.
Contact: timothy_taylor57@yahoo.com
Other Team Members
Friends of Silver Lake is happy to work with Rush Creek Project Team Members Andy Zdon and Rachel Maxwell with Roux Associates, Inc. who are conducting independent environmental studies of the potential impact of the SCE Rush Creek Project on Rush Creek and Silver Lake with a focus on sedimentation accretion at the Rush Creek and Silver Lake Delta.
Roux is an environmental consulting firm that operates worldwide through separate legal entities including Roux Associates, Inc.; Roux Environmental Engineering and Geology, D.P.C.; and Remedial Engineering, P.C.
Andy Zdon
Mr. Zdon has more than 30 years of experience in a variety of geology and hydrogeology-related projects. He is a California Professional Geologist, Certified Hydrogeologist and Certified Engineering Geologist. Mr. Zdon is a recognized subject matter expert in numerical groundwater flow modeling and has been an instructor at California State University, Los Angeles in Groundwater Models and Management (1995).
Mr. Zdon was also appointed in 2013 by the Inyo County Superior Court as Watermaster for a surface water system in the Owens Valley. His specialties include basin analyses and relationships with spring systems, numerical groundwater modeling including, flow, groundwater/surface water interactions including spring flow, contaminant transport and dual-phase flow in both basin fill and fractured rock environments. Investigations in these areas can be in support of CEQA/NEPA analyses, water resource development evaluations, or providing third party review, supervision of UST identification, abandonment, and removal.
Rachel Maxwell
Rachel Maxwell is an experienced Professional Geologist with a demonstrated history of working in the environmental services industry. She is skilled in environmental forensics, data analysis, litigation support, site assessments, water resource assessments, remediation, and land mitigation assessments. Rachel has worked with environmental issues at a wide array of sites, including industrial facilities and remote groundwater-surface water basins. Rachel earned her Master's degree in Soil, Water, and Environmental Science from the University of Arizona and continued her education in Geology at the University of California, Berkeley and South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
East Shore Silver Lake Improvement Association
The East Shore Silver Lake Improvement Association (“ESSLIA”) is a CA nonprofit mutual benefit corporation; the purpose which is to better conditions on the Silver Lake Tract, to work in cooperation with the US Forest Service, and to help protect, restore, and maintain the natural environment of Silver Lake.