Family - Valerie A. Thresher

Born on: December 4, 1972, Santa Barbara, California;

Parents: Philip B. Thresher (deceased) and Carolyn D. Thresher

Married to:  Martin Leon Balukas of Tolland, Connecticut

Valerie grew up overseas, living in Kenya, Italy, and Barbados before coming to the States to go to a boarding high school.  Her father worked as a resource economist for the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and her mother was a bush pilot in East Africa who, among other things, flew for the Flying Doctors.

Valerie received a Bachelors degree from U.C. Davis in economics where she also played on the polo team.  After spending a year in the Ecuador rain forest working for an affiliate of the U.S. Nature Conservancy, she moved to Bozeman and completed a Master’s degree in Agricultural Economics.  She moved to Missoula to start law school and graduated from there in 1999 when she moved to Helena to clerk for Judge Sherlock.  After the one-year clerkship she went to work for Jackson, Murdo, Grant & McFarland and spent four and a half years in the general practice of law with an emphasis on business planning and litigation.  Last September she moved to Seattle to attend the University of Washington’s School of Law and obtained a Masters of Law in Taxation.  She graduated with the LLM in June and moved back to Helena in July and formed a partnership with Tom Morrison to practice law with an emphasis in taxation.

Valerie is an avid equestrian, who spends most of her free time with her horses.