INHF Welcomes Two New Board Members
Posted on April 11, 2025 in Blog
Molly Cutler of Des Moines and Ed Raber of Dubuque are two of the five recent additions to INHF’s dedicated board of directors. Lending their time and talents on a volunteer basis for the protection of Iowa’s land, water and wildlife, INHF’s board is an incredible show of dedication and expertise.
INHF board members come from every region of the state, connecting our work with communities, landowners and organizations that help to make more conservation happen. See a full list of board members here and learn more about Molly and Ed below!
Molly Cutler
A native of northern Virginia, Molly Cutler now lives in Des Moines with her husband, Scott, one-year-old son, Wilbur, and eight-year-old rescue dog, Arthur. When she clocks out for the day as a commercial real estate developer, she and the entire family enjoy evening bike rides to meet up with friends in the metro, summertime jaunts around Clear Lake (with a pitstop for ice cream along the way, of course!) or even fat-tire biking after the latest snowstorm.
“I’m happiest riding my bike anywhere along Iowa’s many mountain biking and paved trails,” says Molly.
Playtime in the outdoors has been part of Molly’s life since childhood. “As a kid, I can remember playing outside with my neighbor friends for hours until we heard our parents in the far distance calling us home for dinner. We laughed until our sides split playing SPUD, catching fireflies, and building fairy houses with found objects like rocks and twigs in the ‘fairy forest’ nearby.”
As an adult, one of her favorite outdoor memories is hiking the O-Circuit in Patagonia with her husband on their honeymoon. That love for nature brought her to INHF’s board of directors, where she’s looking forward to helping to make Iowa more resilient to increasing environmental stressors.
“To me, INHF’s mission directly addresses and succinctly outlines what we as Iowans can and should be doing to help combat climate change in our state,” she explains.
Molly says she’s thankful for INHF’s work so that Iowa’s land, water and wildlife can be enjoyed by future generations, including the project she points to as her favorite: the Central Iowa 4-H camp.
“I grew up going to similar camps back in Virginia, and so to see this land protected brings me great joy!”
Ed Raber
Ed Raber is the Planning and Development Director for Dubuque County. He started with the County in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. He had relocated back to Dubuque in 2018 to work on projects for Greater Dubuque Development Corp. His wife Ericka is the Librarian at Wartburg Theological Seminary in Dubuque.
Raber attended the University of Iowa for undergraduate studies and then a master’s in urban & regional planning in 1991. While at the UI he found his community by playing trumpet in the Hawkeye Marching Band, where he met his future clarinet-playing wife, Ericka. He also took up the bagpipes and played with the UI Scottish Highlanders. Ed and Ericka still play their instruments.
After college, Raber took a community development and planning position in Dubuque with the East Central Intergovernmental Association (ECIA) regional planning organization. This exposure to a wide variety of community, outdoor resource, housing and transportation issues was a formative experience in his career. After 5 years, Ed and Ericka relocated back to the Iowa City area as Ericka pursued graduate studies in Russian Linguistics and Library & Information Science, while Ed became the director of the Washington Economic Development Group (WEDG) in Washington County, just south of Johnson County.
During his 21 years with WEDG, Raber played a local and regional role in value added agriculture, local food systems, assembling resources and developing an entrepreneurial ecosystem, especially in the aftermath of the floods of 2008. He also played key roles on many non-profit boards locally, regionally and statewide. Some of these include the East Central Iowa Council of Governments, Hawkeye Area Community Action Program, Iowa Community Vitality Center, Statewide Small Business Development Center advisory council, YMCA, United Way, Washington County Riverboat Foundation and Geode RC&D. Raber has also been a Rotarian for 28 years.
While in Washington, Iowa, Ed and Ericka had two kids, Meredith, a UI grad who is now a nurse in the Twin Cities, and Henry, a sophomore chemistry major at Iowa State University. Both kids continue to enjoy the outdoors through hiking, camping, bikepacking, rock climbing and travel. Empty nesting has been an easy transition for the Rabers.
Ed and Ericka enjoy the outdoor and exploring opportunities across Iowa, but particularly in southeast Iowa at county and state parks like Lake Darling, Wildcat Den and Lacey-Keosauqua. In the driftless region of northeast Iowa, favorites include Mines of Spain, the county’s Swiss Valley Nature Preserve, day trips to nearby Backbone and Yellow River, and just experiencing the landscape from a drive along the Great River Road.
Ed is looking forward to working with INHF board and staff to continue to strengthen opportunities to preserve critical habitats and landscapes around Iowa for the enjoyment of future generations.