Board and Officers

Our Board of Directors and Advisory Board provide strategic direction as we preserve the land and wildlife of west-central Indiana and provide opportunities for outdoor recreation and environmental education.

Thomas Baer

President

Marty Jones

Immediate PAst President

Marty has been a member of the Ouabache Land Conservancy since 2012. Marty has assisted the OLC on several projects, including a new website, brochure, and policy development. Marty is an avid photographer, particularly wildlife photography. Since 2005, he has photographed 344 different bird species within Indiana. Many of his nature and portrait photographs are used in OLC's publicity. Marty works as a Safety and Compliance Consultant for the Indiana Electric Cooperatives. Marty also enjoys restoring his 14-acre property located within the Otter Creek watershed. He lives with his wife Stephanie, daughter Addison, three dogs, and one indoor housecat.

Lisa Baer

BOARD SECRETARY and Treasurer

Alysa Morley

VP of Development

Nature has been the throughline of Alysa’s life since her very first memory. Alysa earned a B.S. and an M.A. from Indiana State University, which led to her current work as a project manager at Trust for Public Land where she helps protect public land nationwide. She also works as a writing consultant and serves as a board member for the Indiana Land Protection Alliance. Alysa began volunteering with Ouabache Land Conservancy in March 2022, where she wears several hats. She loves the Great Lakes, but Lake Ontario will always be her favorite. She is a reader, ponderer, list maker, and researcher; in her spare time, Alysa can be found in the middle of several books at a time, finding magic in the ordinary, and tending to every whim of her beloved pets.

Dr. Michelle Marincel Payne

DIRECTOR

Dr. Michelle Marincel Payne is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT). She has been active on the Otter Creek Project Steering Committee and instrumental in completing grant applications for future implementation of the Otter Creek Watershed Management Plan. At RHIT, she specializes in environmental engineering, including biomimetic membranes for desalination, drinking water, wastewater treatment, and environmental remediation. She also has experience in characterizing risk assessment of radioactive material transport. Dr. Marincel Payne also co-taught Rose-Hulman’s first Appropriate Technologies for Developing Communities course, in which students designed novel ways to pump and treat water to reach an off-the-grid village. She is currently leading a student research project investigating the ability of constructed treatment wetlands to remove stormwater pollutants.

Phil Cox

VP of programs

Phil Cox lives near Coxville in Parke County with his wife Annette and son, Carson. They also have three fledged from the nest, Cameron, Terah, and Kemp. Phil is a graduate of both Purdue University (Forest Engineering) and Indiana State University (MBA). He is currently employed by Purdue University as the Agriculture & Natural Resources Extension Educator for Vermillion County. As such, he has kept local citizens informed about agriculture, horticulture, and natural resources issues/education via any means, including Purdue Master Gardener and Indiana Master Naturalist programs since 2012. Before that, he was the Natural Resources Administrator for "many years" at the US Army's 7,000+ acre Newport Chemical Depot, also in Vermillion County. Traveling and keeping up with Carson's many Scouting and sporting activities are some of his most fun hobbies.

Hansford Mann

vp of Aquisition

Hansford Mann has been involved in West Central Indiana Land Trusts beginning with the formation of the Sycamore Trails RC&D Land Trust Committee in 2001.  The original committee was successful in accepting a Conservation Easement of 248 acres in Western Vigo County. Eventually Sycamore Trails RC&D transferred the original conservation easement (CE) to OLC when OLC received their 501(c)3 status.  Hansford recently served as Acquisition and Stewardship Committee Chairman.  His responsibilities include meeting with prospective CE property owners and negotiating management contracts as well as those who want to donate properties to OLC.  He is also largely responsible for annual inspections of existing conservation easements.  Hansford and his family live on 367 acres of property in Clay County which is all devoted to tree plantations, warm season grass plantings, and lakes.

Dr. John O. Whitaker, Jr.

Advisory Board

John O. Whitaker, Jr. obtained his BS and Ph.D. degrees at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, receiving his Ph.D. in 1962. He then came to Indiana State University, where he has spent his entire professional career. He was instrumental in starting the University’s Center for Bat Research, Outreach, and Conservation and was its director from its inception in 2005 until his retirement in 2012. He has spent 63 years studying the mammals of Indiana, with particular emphasis on their ectoparasites and food habits, with bat biology occupying much of his time for the past 25 years. He is the author of The Audubon Field Guide to Mammals, Mammals of the Eastern United States (with W. J. Hamilton, Jr.), Mammals of Indiana (with R. E. Mumford), Ectoparasites of Mammals of Indiana, Mammals of the Northeastern United States, Field Guide to Mammals of Indiana, several chapters in books, and over 420 scientific publications. He coauthored Bats of Indiana, the first in a series of state bat books for the general public produced by the ISU Bat Center.  Many of his papers have been on ectoparasites or food habits of mammals from throughout the World.  He is currently finishing up Mammals of New York with others.

Dr. James H. Speer

Advisory Board

Dr. James H. Speer is a Professor of Geography and Geology at Indiana State University. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degree from the University of Arizona in Geosciences and his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in Geography. He is a biogeographer who uses tree-rings to reconstruct environmental variables such as fire history and insect outbreaks. Through his years of studying environmental history, he has realized that humans are operating outside of the natural range of variability for most natural systems which have motivated him to give back to society by being a champion for sustainability at Indiana State University and in the Wabash Valley.  Dr. Speer is the lead PI and the Senior Scholar for the Institute for Community Sustainability which was established in February 2012.  He is the President for Our Green Valley Alliance for Sustainability, on the steering committee for the Terre Foods Cooperative Market, on the Tree Advisory Board for ISU, is a past president of the Geography Educator’s Network of Indiana, and is a past president of the Tree-Ring Society.  He lives in Terre Haute, Indiana with his wife who also teaches at ISU and has a Ph.D. in Anthropology and his two sons Leif and Lewis.

Jim Nardi

Advisory Board

Jim Nardi spent his childhood on a farm that has now become part of Atherton Island Natural Area. Its forests, streams, and pastures nurtured his lifelong love for nature. Although his family sold the farm in 1970, he was able to purchase the land after years of neglect and abuse. He set about restoring the land in 1993 after the property had passed through five different owners in 23 years. In 2017, he was delighted to find a forever home for this rugged parcel of Parke County with OLC. Jim continues to learn from nature each day as a research biologist at the University of Illinois and as the author of several natural history books. He and Joy share their Urbana home and garden with three dogs, three cats, and all the countless creatures who are their partners in gardening.

Ron Tyner

director

Ron is a Terre Haute resident of several years. He and his wife, Aleta, moved to the area from the northern suburbs of Chicago in 2010. Both grew up in Indiana and attended Indiana State University. Ron received a master’s degree in science from Purdue University. He was a science teacher for many years and later became a systems analyst for several companies, including Walgreens, from which he retired. Ron volunteers at a local food pantry and enjoys helping out with the Ouabache Land Conservancy stewardship programs, some involving the removal of invasive species, and others the checking into potential acquisition properties. He also enjoys fishing, bird watching, hiking through the woods or up a mountain, gardening, and spending time with his five grandchildren.

Susan Berta

director

Sue Berta is an Associate Professor of Geography at Indiana State University and has been an OLC member since 2013. She received a B.A. degree in Physical Geography from the University of Michigan-Flint and graduate degrees in Geography: M.S. from Oklahoma State University and Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma. As a kid, she always knew she wanted to teach and after a field trip to Saginaw Bay in her freshman college science course, she knew she’d have to pursue advanced studies about the natural environment. Her Masters' research involved using remote sensing technology and GIS, as well as field verification, to identify prospective locations of “natural areas” throughout Oklahoma for “wilderness” status consideration. Ph.D. work involved using aerial and satellite data to map periglacial landscapes in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains; Colorado. As a graduate student, she assisted in 3-week wilderness research adventures and later offered field camp at ISU for undergraduate and graduate students for ten summers. During the academic year, field trips were always an important part of each course, and research grants involving land-use changes throughout Indiana assisted graduate and undergraduate students with funded research opportunities. Her favorite part of her professional career has always been the research, field trips, and friendships accumulated over the years.

Dr. George Bakken

Advisory board

Dr. George Bakken is Professor of Biology Emeritus at Indiana State University.  He obtained a Ph.D. in physics at Rice University in Houston, Texas.  He then studied biology as a postdoctoral fellow at the Missouri Botanical Gardens and the University of Michigan under Dr. David M. Gates.  He has published 75 papers on various aspects of biology and physics, most involving the application of physics to ecological questions, such as thermoregulation and microclimate.  He fights honeysuckle on his 3-1/2 acres in Vigo County, enjoys ecotourism, nature photography, and flying his Cessna.  His wife and two adult children are avid outdoors-persons as well.

not currently pictured and no biography available for the following:

Bill Mitchell, Mary Beth Eberwein, Dan Griggs, Adam Grossman, Ted Harris, Robert Jean, Carissa Lovett, Jim McDonald, Gerald McGlone, Mike Moloney, Karen Moffett, Raoul Moore, Fred Nation, Marshall Parks, Patrick Ralston, Keith Ruble, Jane Santucci, Peter Scott, Gerald "Bud" Sharp, Dennis Tarasi, and Jeff Fisher.