Our Team

Meet Our Board

President

  • Bio

Vice President

  • Having grown up in the endless rolling corn and bean fields of the southwestern Iowa Loess Hills, Susan’s unexplained fascination with wild places (she’s convinced it was Tarzan movies) led her across Iowa to the banks of the Mississippi River and eventually to the more subtle landscapes of the Sugar River Valley of southern Wisconsin and Green County.  With an undergraduate degree in Botany from UW-Madison and nearly twenty years of experience as an ecologist with Applied Ecological Services, she has enjoyed endless hours in the field on this continent and abroad studying ecosystems and working with landowners to solve ecosystem health problems. Susan is inspired and fascinated by people who have a strong connection with nature and the land.  Since her involvement as a founding board member of LSRWA, she has met a steady stream of people who articulate in the most compelling way their love for the places they care about.  As she puts it, “I work for them.”

Secretary

  • Jill grew up in the Washington D.C. suburbs. Public Service was always a part of her family’s vernacular. She attended college at The University of Colorado - Boulder and The University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh. She has a B.S. degree in Secondary Education and a minor in Political Science. She has been active in LSRWA on their Education and Outreach Team, is the Seasons of the Sugar River art show coordinator, is active with stream sampling, and participates in numerous LSRWA educational outreaches. She enjoys spending time with her family, photographing nature, learning about great art, and knitting.

Treasurer

  • Nathan has been involved with the LSRWA as a volunteer since its initial citizen science watershed sampling efforts in 2011. Besides appealing to his enthusiasm for hands-on exploration of streams and landscapes of all kinds, he was especially moved by the concept of the geographic watershed as an organizing basis for community and stewardship. Nathan is eager to now serve on the LSRWA Board of Directors and help perpetuate such principles and efforts in the Lower Sugar River Watershed. Nathan is proudly a son of the Midwest having grown up in Indiana, Iowa, and Ohio, and settled in Wisconsin in 2004. Professionally, Nathan is a botanist, a natural areas manager, and a native seed grower. Particularly he pursues a goal to discover and bring the total native floristic diversity of the local community and larger region forward in ecological restoration projects.

  • Bio

Board Member

  • Aryn grew up in rural Wisconsin being taught to appreciate nature. Since then she has dedicated her life to protecting the environment. From teaching environmental education to working hands on with farmers in sustainable ag and renewable energy production she strives to leave the world a greener place. Outside of work Aryn spends her free time coaching a national baton twirling team, tackling home renovation projects, or snuggling with her cats. Aryn has a BS in Environmental Science and an MS in Environmental Conservation.

Board Member

Board Member

  • Bob has been around creeks his entire life. He grew up on a farm in Dodge County, Wisconsin. He received his B.S. degree in Biology from UW-Eau Claire and his Waste Water degree from Moraine Park Technical College in Fond du Lac, WI. Bob has worked for Grande Cheese Company for the past thirty-three years and currently, he manages the wastewater treatment plant for their Juda facility. Bob is no stranger to LSRWA. As a citizen scientist, he enjoyed performing assessments of our watershed's creeks and is committed to finding ways to reduce phosphorus levels throughout the Lower Sugar River Watershed. Prior to employment at Grande he worked as a pre-school teacher, an organic gardening instructor, and a manager of an agricultural program at a living history ranch in Colorado Springs, CO. Bob still enjoys organic gardening, rock collecting, photographing the beauty of our watershed and spending time with his family.