Source: California Invasive Plant Council
URL of this page: http://www.cal-ipc.org/about/staff.php
Staff and Directors
2010 Board of Directors - Officers
Jason Giessow, President
Jason earned an M.S. in Restoration Ecology from San Diego State University in 1996. He has worked actively on large-scale Arundo eradication and habitat restoration programs in southern California since the mid 1990s. His main priorities are: implementing accurate and inexpensive mapping programs, aiding regional groups in the development of top-down watershed-based eradication programs, and facilitating the development of streamlined permitting. Working with Cal-IPC on expanding the 'Don't Plant a Pest Program' and mapping programs has been particularly rewarding over the past three years. He serves as chair of the Cal-IPC Fundraising committee.
John Knapp, Vice-President
John Knapp is the Board Secretary for the California Invasive Plant Council, and the Director of Native Range Inc., a conservation consulting firm specializing in aerial early detection and rapid response. For the last seven years, he developed and managed the Catalina Island Conservancy's Invasive Plant Program, which targeted 30 species for eradication and 15 species for control. He holds a Masters degree with an emphasis in weed science from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and a Bachelors degree in physical geography from U.C. Santa Barbara. His favorite invasive plant is broom, because weed workers can learn a great deal about persistence and diligence from it.
Doug Gibson, Treasurer
Doug was born and raised in Boise, Idaho, where his backyard was literally a river with the foothills and mountains within walking distance. He remembers sitting on the barn roof down the street at age 8, talking with his best friend and making a pact that they would grow up and protect these areas that they used as their natural playground. Fast forward some 30 years and people are still a threat, but now it's not just in the form of development or logging, it's the plants that were brought in and sold that is dramatically erasing the natural landscape. Doug currently occupies space in Encinitas with his wife Lauren and his daughter and son, Heather and Max. He has been the Executive Director / Principal Scientist of the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy (SELC) for the past 10 years. He has also worked as a private consultant to several resource agencies and NGO's. He earned a B.S. in Ecology from SDSU with a specialty in wetland ecology. He worked for Dr. Joy Zedler at the Pacific Estuarine Research Lab (PERL) for 6 years and did research on the rare saltmarsh daisy, Lasthenia glabrata and the interactions with the invasive brass buttons, Cotula australis. His interests as a Cal-IPC Director include acquiring significant funding through legislative actions for invasive plant work and promoting interaction with other groups with similar interests.
Julie Horenstein, Secretary
Julie Horenstein is Invasive Species Coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG). Previously, she was Plant Ecologist for DFG's North Central Region for eight years. Her early career experiences include work as a biologist for an environmental consulting firm, and seasonal stints with DFG's Natural Diversity Database and U.C. Cooperative Extension. She assisted with various research projects in chaparral, coastal sage scrub and vernal pool habitats during and immediately after obtaining her M.S. in Biology from San Diego State University. She obtained her B.A. in Biology from Scripps College in Claremont, CA where she participated in plant community ecology studies in the Mojave Desert. She is currently the chairperson of the California Interagency Noxious and Invasive Plant Committee.
At-large Directors
Edith Allen
Edith B. Allen is a Professor and Cooperative Extension Specialist in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California, Riverside. She has a B.S. degree in Biology from Tufts University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Botany from Rutgers University and the University of Wyoming. Her main area of research interest is restoration ecology, and she has worked in a variety of ecosystem types from boreal forest to tropical forest, as well as shrublands, grasslands, and deserts, including sites disturbed by activities such as mining, construction, grazing, invasive species and frequent fire. Many of these disturbances have severely disturbed soils and have prompted research into mycorrhizal fungi and other aspects of soil ecology. However, the most challenging of restoration problems are those caused by invasive species, and these have become the focus of her research in the past 15 years. Nitrogen deposition originating from automobile emissions increases the productivity of invasive species, and has created another challenge for research and management.
Dr. Allen has published over 100 research articles, and served as an editor for Restoration Ecology and Invasive Plant Science and Management. She has also served on numerous grant review panels for the National Science Foundation, US Department of Agriculture, and other government and university research panels. She is past president of the Soil Ecology Society, and received the professional achievement award from the SES.
Peter Beesley
Peter has a bachelor's degree in Ecology from San Francisco State University. Early in his career, Peter was involved with supporting several U.C. Davis research projects looking at plant competition, causes of rarity in endemic species, and rangeland health in Sierran meadows. Currently, he is a Senior Environmental Specialist with Pacific Gas and Electric Company and is responsible for managing PG&E's Valley Elderberry Longhorn Beetle Conservation Program. He is in the process of developing a comprehensive noxious weed management program for the utility. Through this effort he became involved with CAL-IPC and is looking forward to getting more involved with supporting their mission, developing best practices for utilities, and increasing participation in Weed Management Areas and with early detection networks.
Jason Casanova
Jason is the Staff Cartographer for the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council, where he manages their GIS database, provides GPS services/field data collection in support of Council projects/initiatives, and handles the map production requests for Council staff and stakeholders. Currently, he is assembling a comprehensive invasive plant GIS database for Los Angeles County as well as working in partnership with other regional WMA participants to compile a standardized Arundo donax dataset for southern California. Related past projects include assisting in mapping Arundo along the Los Angeles River and tributaries. Additional ongoing projects include assisting in the development of the Tujunga Wash Watershed Management Plan, assembling a historic aerial photography database to facilitate the identification of historic wetlands along the San Gabriel River, and supporting the formation of a native seed bank database for the San Gabriel River.
Valerie Eviner
Valerie Eviner is an Assistant Professor of Restoration Ecology and Ecosystem Management in the Department of Plant Sciences, University of California, Davis. She has a B.A. from Rutgers University, and a PhD from University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on understanding the mechanisms regulating plant-soil interactions and applying this understanding to ecosystem management, restoration, invasion control, rangeland management, and global change issues.
In particular, her work explores the potential to manage for a balance of multiple goals, including: controlling multiple invasive species, enhancing ecosystem services (e.g. diversity, water flow, erosion control, nutrient supply), and accommodating human uses of land in California. This work is accomplished through active collaborations with multiple NGOs, government agencies and private land owners.
Henry Gonzales
Henry is the Agricultural Commissioner for Ventura County. California's network of county agricultural offices is important for detecting and controlling weeds. As a county commissioner, Henry helps facilitate communication between Cal-IPC and the commissioners. Previous to his appointment in Ventura, he was Chief Deputy Agricultural Commissioner in Monterey County, where he was a central organizer for the Monterey County Weed Management Area (MCWMA). He was involved in bring together two WMAs and during Henry's tenure, they developed the MCWMA from a fledging new organization to its current role as a highly involved umbrella weed group in the county. Henry helped lead the MCWMA in successful development of a number of weed eradication proposals that won financing. Along with a Bachelors degree in Ag Science, Henry holds a Masters degree in Public Administration.
Brent Johnson
Brent has now been seeking out invasive plants throughout California for nearly fifteen years. It was back then while working on invasive plant surveys in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park that he first realized that those emerald green hillsides of grasslands were covered with non-native plants. He hasn't been able to look at those hillsides the same way since. After reluctantly leaving the Sierra Nevada, Brent went to graduate school at Sonoma State University where he examined the effects of reintroduced tule elk on coastal prairie grasslands in Point Reyes National Seashore. He soon returned to the Sierra where he managed a number of invasive plant projects in Yosemite National Park. This included developing a parkwide invasive plant management plan. Currently Brent works in Pinnacles National Monument where part of his responsibilities are to oversee the invasive plant program. This new position includes taking on a formidable population of yellow star-thistle. His research and management interests include plant-animal interactions and incorporating traditional ecological knowledge into park restoration efforts by collaborating with Native American tribes.
As a Cal-IPC Board member Brent helps explore ways that Cal-IPC can expand its capacity as an information clearinghouse for invasive plants, and explore ways that Cal-IPC can assist in providing a regional perspective to some of our worst invaders in California.
Marc Lea
I am an Agricultural Biologist for the San Luis Obispo County Dept. of Agriculture. As coordinator of the pest management and biological control programs, I have been involved with controlling invasive weeds and educating people about this critical problem for over ten years. I have witnessed this issue evolve from a narrow agricultural focus to the widely held realization that invasive plants can cause severe impacts to native habitats and ecological function. Cal-IPC has been at the forefront of this increased recognition, and I welcome the opportunity to serve the organization as it continues leading the way in protecting California's diverse wildland habitats. In 2000, I helped organize the San Luis Obispo County WMA, and have served as the group's coordinator ever since. In that position, I have led the charge on our efforts to eradicate arundo from local riparian systems, control pioneer infestations of jubatagrass within the coastal zone, and eradicate an outlying infestation of yellow starthistle adjacent to one of California's last intact native grasslands. As a board member, I hope to improve communications between Cal-IPC and County Ag Departments across the state. Despite obvious shared interests and historical cooperation, collaboration between Cal-IPC and County Ag Departments is still underdeveloped. I hope to initiate an outreach program that would help individual counties better understand regional concerns, and then utilize that "big picture" in order to better prioritize projects on their local level.
Jean-Philippe "JP" Marie
Jean-Philippe “JP” Marie is the U.C. Davis Putah Creek Riparian Reserve Steward and is in charge of the day-to-day operations. With over 15 years of experience in restoration implementation and weed control, his work consists of establishing and maintaining a 400-acre grassland, performing weed control and removing non native invasive plants from the Putah Creek Reserve. He is also actively involved with the Putah Creek Council and is a member of the California Native Grasslands Association Board of Directors. JP brings an extensive knowledge of native grasslands restoration techniques, invasive plant control and vegetation management to the Cal-IPC board of directors.
Shea O'Keefe
I received both my B.S. in Biology (emphasis is Zoology) and my M.S. in Evolutionary Biology from San Diego State University. My graduate work assessed wildlife corridor functionality in San Diego using non-invasive sampling methods and population genetics.
I am a third generation native of San Diego County and have found that enhancing and restoring the small amount of remaining open space, and improving the situation for the many sensitive species listed in the county as one of my passions.
I was hired by the NRCS in October 2004 as the biologist for southern California. Currently I manage many projects under several NRCS programs, primarily the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program and the Wetland Reserve Program. I also oversee environmental compliance for all federally funded NRCS projects within the lower four counties of southern California. These programs have provided the financial opportunity to address sensitive habitat restoration and the eradication of many types of invasive plants on large scale, watershed-level landscapes that include both private and public lands.
Through the Emergency Watershed Program, I have also responded to two major wildfires in southern California (2003 Cedar fire and 2007 Witch Creek, Harris, Poomacha and Rice fires) in terms of erosion control, water quality and overall vegetation management.
Through the short time-frame of 5 years working with NRCS, there has been a continued success of invasive weed control and restoration of sensitive habitats which has facilitated successful partnerships with regulatory agencies, local governments, land conservancies and private landowners.
Peter Schuyler
As a 3rd generation Californian, Peter has been fortunate to live in a variety of California's urban, rural and wild (my favorite) places. He has watched as our state's natural resources and areas face an onslught of threats and challenges, thus he has focused his career on ways to protect natural areas through both threat prevention as well as restoration.
Peter received a B.A. in Geography from UC Santa Barbara with a focus on botany and a masters degree in Conservation Biology from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies concentrating on the impacts and effects of invasive species from both a policy and applied perspective.
In the 1980's Peter worked as The Nature Conservancy's preserve manager/director on Santa Cruz Island and was involved with all aspects of managing a 60,000 acre natural area, including developing and implementing invasive species control programs. In addition, Peter was involved with TNC's presecribed fire program throughout California.
In the 1990's as the Program Manager for the State of Hawaii's Natural Area Reserve Program, he had the opportuity to develop programs addressing both highly endangered species as well as invasive plant and animal issues fromthe halls of the State legislature to the slippery volcanic slopes.
As the millennium came and went, Peter spent 8 years as Director of Ecological Restoration building and implementing conservation programs on Catalina Island. Their programs were able to successfully address a number of controversial resource managmenet issues, including recovering the endangered island fox from the brink of extinction, removing a number of invasive animal species and developing a framework to better understand the island's natural resources through a research and monitoring program. Throughout his tenure, Peter worked to elevate the understanding for the neeed for a long term, systematic invasive plant control program. By the time he left, they had mapped and ranked the invasive weeds of the island and intitiaed a program to secure long term fuding and staff to address control of highly ranked species.
Most recently, Peter has been back in his hometownof Santa Barbara, doing occasional environmental consulting work, participating on the boards of and volunteering for local environmental organizations, and figuring out my next consevation career objectives.
Katharine Suding
Katharine Suding is an associate professor at UC Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management. She has a B.A. degree from Williams College, and M.S. and Ph.D degrees from University of Michigan. Her main area of research is restoration and plant community and ecosystem ecology. She has worked in a variety of ecosystem types including wetlands, alpine tundra, grasslands, shrublands and oak woodlands. Recently her research has focused on how to create conditions that lead to ecological resilience following invasive control (to avoid the cycle of invasion, then re-invasion, then…) and how anthropogenic nitrogen pollution and climate change may affect invasion. Soil resources and the microbes that live in soils appear to be very important in determining how an invasive species may affect a system - including the legacy it may leave even after it is controlled.
Dr. Suding has published over 50 research articles, serves as an editor for Ecology Letters, and participates in grant review panels at NSF and USDA. Her research is supported by NSF, USDA, the Mellon Foundation, and US DOE. At Cal, she teaches courses in restoration ecology and environmental problem solving and advises graduate and undergraduate in research relating to invasion ecology.
Staff
Doug Johnson, Executive Director
Doug became Cal-IPC's first staff person in 2002. He holds an M.A. in Geography from San Francisco State University with an emphasis on conservation biology, GIS, and perceptions of wilderness. He was awarded a Switzer Fellowship for Environmental Leadership. Doug also holds an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. He has worked in wildland weed control with California State Parks and The Nature Conservancy, and as a private consultant. Other work experience includes municipal energy conservation, engineering design, environmental education, and production of educational science exhibits for museums. Doug serves as chair of the California Invasive Species Advisory Committee; as vice-chair of the National Association of Exotic Pest Plant Councils; and on the steering committee for the California Horticultural Invasives Prevention (Cal-HIP) partnership.
Heather Brady, Outreach Program Manager
Heather joined Cal-IPC in 2008 and focuses on outreach efforts, including Wildland Weed Field Courses, the Speaker's Bureau, and the PlantRight Campaign. Previously she worked for The Big Sur Land Trust stewarding properties and relationships within Monterey County, and as a consulting botanist in Northern California. Heather has a passion for investigating ecological interactions, ethnobotany, and urban forestry. She is happiest when wildland weed projects occur under the canopy of trees or beneath dense coastal fog.
Elizabeth Brusati, Science Program Manager
Elizabeth joined Cal-IPC in 2004 after finishing a Ph.D. in Ecology, with an emphasis in Marine Ecology, at UC Davis, where she compared how native cordgrass and invasive hybrid cordgrass affect salt marsh invertebrates in northern California estuaries. She received a Canon National Parks Scholarship for her fieldwork at Point Reyes National Seashore. She also holds an M.S. from Texas A&M University and a B.S. from UC Davis, both in wildlife biology. Her research experience has moved down the food web from raptors to shorebirds to intertidal invertebrates and now plants.
Ginny King, Program Assistant
Ginny began her work at Cal-IPC as a temporary Program Assistant in 2008. This year she was called back to work half-time permanent in the same capacity. Ginny's background is in administration and holds a MSW in Administration from Catholic University in DC. Most recently she worked with Build It Green, where she worked to promote healthy, energy- and resource efficient building practices in California. Her passion is care of Earth and her desire is to work in the area of sustainability and ecology. Ginny has been a California resident for 18 years, coming from Detroit MI by way of Memphis TN.
Agustín Luna, Business Manager
Agustín is an administrative manager with over 19 years of experience. He has worked with professional non-profit arts organizations like the Hollywood Bowl, Cal Performances, South Coast Repertory, and now Savage Jazz Dance Company, as their Company Manager. Agustín has also worked with and taught college students in UC Berkeley’s Student Music Activities Department and high school students in Oakland School for the Arts charter school the essentials and fundamentals of arts administration including artist-presenter management, fiscal management, development, and front-of-house/box office management. Recently, Agustin was the General Manager, previously the Operations Director, of Movement Strategy Center, where he oversaw the finance, human resources, IT, operations, facility management, and the fiscal sponsorship program of the organization.
Agustín is also an avid salsa dancer and instructor, and is the occasional presenter of salsa events through his company Agustín Luna Presents. He has danced Bomba y Plena with Bay Area Boricuas, assisted them in their initial organizing as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, and briefly served as their Managing Director. Agustin is one of the last beneficiaries of California’s elementary school music program and has played his trumpet continuously since 1982. He hopes that music in the schools does not disappear and supports efforts to keep it alive.
Bertha McKinley, Program Assistant
Bertha began as a volunteer in Cal-IPC's office, helping with administrative tasks. She is now a part-time staffperson. She serves as our "master of fulfillment", processing orders and memberships and helping with many projects. Bertha moved to the Bay Area after many years in Southern California, where she was president of the San Diego Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. She now volunteers her time to the East Bay CNPS and enjoys gardening with native plants.
Dana Morawitz, Mapping Program Manager
Dana joined Cal-IPC in March 2010 to lead the ARRA-funded statewide invasive species mapping program. Prior to joining Cal-IPC, she worked at an environmental consulting company where she focused on Caltrans projects and realized that she prefers more fulfilling work like pulling weeds and mapping statewide species distribution. Previous experience includes spearheading GIS in support of countywide fire planning in Telluride, CO, and working as a remote sensing analyst on tsunami relief efforts for MercyCorps. She holds a Master's degree in Geography from the University of Washington where she focused on urban ecological issues. Her particular focus investigated the spatial and temporal patterns associated with the transition of forested to urban lands over 15 years. Dana brings exuberance to her work and has a strong desire to protect wildlands. Botany and ornithology are two recently adopted hobbies. She is keen on learning new species but plans to stick to common names for now. She must go latin for the family names though, so quiz her on those! Dana is keen to broaden her knowledge to other threats at the wildland urban interface in this role at Cal-IPC.
Cynthia Powell, Mapping and Modeling Specialist
Cynthia joined Cal-IPC in 2010 as our Mapping and Modeling Specialist. After graduating with her bachelor's from Carleton College in neuroscience, she is now an MS candidate in Geography at San Francisco State University. For her thesis work she is modeling Pardee Reservoir water supply using satellite images with an emphasis on resource management, GIS, modeling, and remote sensing. For Cal-IPC she is using her modeling and quantitative analysis background to examine change in invasive species habitat with different potential climate change scenarios. Other work experience includes water supply modeling based on satellite imagery of snowpack, urban accessibility mapping for East Bay Regional Parks, mapping for San Francisco's Neighborhood Parks Council, and co-owning a small business in Berkeley.
Falk Schuetzenmeister, Mapping and Modeling Specialist
Falk joined the Cal-IPC science and mapping team as a specialist in survey methodology, statistics, modeling, and online mapping. He earned his PhD in Sociology from the Dresden University of Technology, Germany and worked for two years as a postdoctoral fellow at UC Berkeley. In his PhD and postdoctoral work, he studied the social organization of expert communities in climate research and life sciences. He paid special attention to the role of numeric modeling in modern research and the resulting effects on data collection, sharing, and communities. He also studied the increasing importance of local/expert knowledge in biodiversity research and governance. Falk is excited to apply his knowledge in the fields of science studies and environmental sociology in a very practical context. Before his more theoretical academic journey, Falk was engaged in the protection of amphibians and reptiles. In 2007, Falk moved to the US and loves to travel around California especially if it serves the important purpose of protecting its amazing wild land and biodiversity.
Arpita Sinha, Training Program Specialist
Arpita Sinha joined Cal-IPC in 2010 as the Training Program Specialist. After graduating from UC Berkeley in December 2009 with a degree in Integrative Biology and Spanish, she went to Costa Rica to conduct research on the mutualism between Cordia alliodora (a native tree) and its associated ants. Her favorite topics in college were botany, ecology and plant systematics and she has always been fascinated by the interactions between plants and the environment. Her previous experience includes developing a research training program at a national women’s reproductive rights organization, teaching a computer class in Spanish to women in Santiago de Chile and performing wetland restoration next to the San Francisco Bay. Her other interests include organic gardening, cooking Indian food and craft making.
Jen Stern, Training Program Manager
Jen joined Cal-IPC in 2010 as the Training Program Manager. Her focus is on expanding the field course program, developing curriculum, and reaching new audiences. Previously she worked for the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County managing conservation projects, and developing a variety of educational events including technical trainings. She has a M.S. from CSUMB in Coastal Watershed Science and Policy and a B.A. from UC Santa Cruz in Environmental Studies and Community Studies. Jen has a zeal for expanding the weed warrior community and eradicating weeds in new and collaborative ways.
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