Utah Board of Oil, Gas and Mining

Selma Sierra
Selma has extensive experience in energy, environmental, and public lands management. Selma currently works as a consultant on natural resources policy. Prior to her current position, Selma was Business Development Consultant for Natural Resources Policy at Utah State University’s Bingham Research Center where she focused on energy and environmental public policy issues. Prior to joining USU, Selma was the State Director for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in Utah. As State Director, Selma was entrusted to manage nearly 23 million acres of public lands. Selma also served as Chief of Staff in the national office of the BLM where she advised, coordinated and implemented the Director’s public policy directives. She also served as the Assistant Director for Communications for the BLM’s national office where she led and managed the offices of intergovernmental affairs, media relations, and regulatory affairs. Selma has also served as Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior for External Affairs and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Resources Management at the Department of the Interior. Selma was Communications Director and Legislative Assistant/Director for a former U.S. House of Representative where she focused on public lands, energy and environmental legislative issues. Selma has worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce where she focused on minority business issues and coordinated a U.S. Trade Mission to Italy and Spain for a core group of women and minority business owners. Selma served as Deputy Chief of Staff for legislative affairs and communications to the Governor of New Mexico. Selma is a native of New Mexico and a graduate of New Mexico State University.

Gordon L. Moon
is a farmer and cattle rancher from Duchesne, Utah. The family ranch operates on private, BLM, SITLA and forest service range lands in Wasatch, Duchesne, and Uintah counties. He graduated from Brigham Young University with a Masters degree in Accounting with an emphasis in Tax, and then worked as a CPA for a national accounting firm for five years in Los Angeles before returning to the family ranching operation. With the recent spike in oil and gas activity in the Uintah Basin, he has become very involved in mineral leasing and surface issues. He manages the activities of the family estate mineral interests in consultation with four other managers and has served as the Vice President of the Utah Mineral Owners Association. He also serves as the President of the Duchesne County School Board and has been a board of director for Duchesne County Farm Bureau, Rhoades Canal Company, Utah North East Region Grazing Improvement Board and Hanna Water and Sewer District. Mr. Moon represents private land owner and mineral/royalty interests on the Board.

Gregg Galecki

Biography coming soon!

Richard K. Borden
has over 35 years of experience in the mineral exploration, consulting and mining industries. He is currently an independent consultant providing strategic environmental, geologic, mining and closure expertise to industry and non-government organization clients worldwide. He was formally the General Manager Environment for Rio Tinto’s Copper and Diamonds Product Group. Mr. Borden received a B.S. in Geological Sciences from the Pennsylvania State University and an M.S. in Geology from the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. He has expertise in geochemistry, hydrogeology, waste management, remedial investigations, rehabilitation, biodiversity, due diligence and environmental mine planning, permitting and closure. He has published on a number of these topics in peer reviewed scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Mr. Borden was appointed to the Board in March, 2015 as a member knowledgeable in mining matters.

Alan Walker
Alan Walker has been the Operations Manager at the Energy & Geoscience Institute (EGI) University of Utah since March 2021. At EGI his responsibilities are daily EGI operations and overseeing the fusion of three research groups in geothermal science, hydrocarbon geoscience, and carbon sequestration management. Alan previously worked at EGI from 2007 to 2015, as Director of Technology Outreach for USTAR (Utah Science Technology and Research) with responsibilities to develop and commercialize energy innovations and was a guest lecturer in formation evaluation and hydrocarbon project economics at the University of Utah (UU). Alan also led the UU Petroleum Geology and Engineering Field Study for the graduate Petroleum Engineering program.

Prior to his current assignment at EGI, Alan was the Supervising Engineer at the California Department of Conservation, Division of Oil and Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) from November 2015 to February 2021. At the California DOGGR he had oversight of Underground Gas Storage, Well Stimulation, Well Construction, Geologic Information Systems, and Environmental Compliance (CEQA) programs. Alan had also been the technical lead for the Division in controlling the SS25 blowout and overseeing the Aliso Canyon Storage Facility safety review.

Alan’s career in oil and gas spans forty years including exploration and production engineering of sour gas and gas condensate for Amoco in the Wyoming-Utah Overthrust; regulatory affairs at state and federal levels; and gas supply management operations in storage, transportation, and distribution throughout the Rocky Mountain region for Questar, prior to EGI and DOGGR.

Prior to working in the energy industry, Alan served ten years in the US Army Airborne Artillery and retired from the Army Reserve as a Special Forces colonel with over thirty years of service. He served three combat tours in Afghanistan, the Philippines, and Iraq.

Alan has a B.S. in Applied Science and Engineering (weapons systems) from West Point, an MBA in production management from Rensselaer, and an M.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Utah. He and his wife Victoria have two children Angela (deceased) and Alec and two grandsons.