Leadership

Michiko Martin, Regional Forester

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Michiko Martin brings more than 30 years of federal government career experience to the Southwestern Region. She leads more than 2,000 employees and oversees 20.6 million acres of national forests in grasslands in Arizona and New Mexico. Additional assignments include serving as the Forest Service's Acting Director of Engineering, Technology and Geospatial Services and the Director of Conservation Education and served as a commissioned naval officer at various locations for over a decade each. 

An indigenous Uchinānchu of the Ryukyu Islands, Michiko earned a bachelor’s degree in oceanography at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; she later earned a master’s degree in Ocean Engineering jointly awarded from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution located in Cape Cod, Massachusetts; she also earned a master’s degree in education leadership from Troy University, based in Troy, Alabama, while attending the branch on Kadena Air Base in the Pacific.

As of November 2, 2025, Michiko is also serving as the acting regional forester for the Intermountain Region. 
 

Cecilia Clavet, Deputy Regional Forester

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Cecilia Clavet currently serves as a Deputy Regional Forester. She brings over two decades of non-governmental experience working on policy, advocacy, collaboration, and partnership to her role.

Previously, Cecilia was the Senior Policy Advisor on Forest Restoration and Fire for The Nature Conservancy’s North America Policy and Government Relations department, based in the D.C. area and supported forest work across the United States. 

Kristin Bail, Deputy Regional Forester

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Kristin’s public land management service spans more than 40 years in Oregon, Washington State, Arizona, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Washington, D.C.  She has held a variety of field positions and leadership roles throughout the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, notably as the Forest Supervisor for the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Washington State and as the Assistant Director for the Bureau of Land Management’s Resources and Planning Directorate.  

Bail grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and graduated from Washington State University with a Bachelor of Science in geology. Bail began her career in Oregon in 1984 as a student trainee in hydrology with the BLM.  Her husband of 31 years, Barron, retired from the BLM after a 32-year career with the agency.