Shawnee Group ExCom Elections 2025

I have been a Sierra Club member for over 25 years. I’ve attended numerous Advocacy Days in the past with the Shawnee Group, Faith in Place & the Carbondale Unitarian Fellowship meeting with our elected officials regarding environmental issues in general. I am retired and have lived in Jackson County since 1980. My backyard is full of birdsong and a habitat for critters. I enjoy the flora and fauna of southern Illinois. I love discovering the natural places that make southern Illinois special. I care deeply for our planet.
Locally, I have been active with immigrant rights, reproductive rights, and voters rights. I am a voter registrar. I have worked with various local environmental groups/businesses to bring together Eco Fairs at our Fellowship. As we go forward facing environmental problems, I want to be a part of the change that is most possible: locally and at the state level.

I am a biologist who specializes in restoration ecology and have supervised the restoration of over 10,000 acres, including projects that researched and benefitted a number of threatened and endangered species. The projects included pre and post project monitoring and the results were presented to the Shawnee Group, among others, in a talk by one of the partners in some of the projects. I participate in lobbying our state and federal representatives and am active on the Sierra Club Shawnee National Forest Committee, working to improve Forest Service projects and am also co-chair of the Shawnee Group Conservation Committee. The ExCom as a whole accomplishes a lot across a broad spectrum of environmental concern, in my opinion, and I hope to keep contributing, especially in natural area work.

I am retired from the SIU School of Medicine and a resident of Southern Illinois for 32 years. My family and I love the outdoors and enjoy the natural beauty and recreational activities that surround us.  We live on a 40-acre farm southwest of Carbondale where we are working to restore wildlife habitat and native plants. I’ve also been involved with habitat improvement, trail building and maintenance both in the local area and in several western states.
For the last 2 years, I have served as the secretary of the Executive Committee of the local Sierra Club where I have learned about and helped address many of the problems we face in protecting our environment. I would like to continue to offer my expertise gained in the past several years along with service at SIU and other organizations to support the goals of Sierra Club. Thank You.
 

I would like to serve another term on the Shawnee Group Executive Committee, so I can continue the environmental and community work I have felt lucky to be involved in. In addition to chairing our group, scheduling our speaker series, and serving on the Illinois Chapter’s Clean Power Team and Political Committee, I have been glad to be involved in other ways, such as obtaining support for some local community projects.  A recent example is funding from the Illinois Chapter for hiring youth to clear invasive species from a Carbondale Northeast side community garden and, in the process, provide more space there for neighborhood activities. Serving another term would also allow me to work with other Shawnee members and supporters to open more paths for them to contribute their talents, knowledge and interests to help us forward Sierra Club’s mission: to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet.