Our team
Staff, Board of Directors, and Advisory Panel
Haley Moody
DIRECTOR
- Favorite Spring: Ichetucknee Springs
Haley’s passion for the springs began during her first visit to the Ichetucknee River. Her love of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) was born during her time at the University of Florida, where she graduated with honors in Landscape Architecture. After a GIS Internship at the Florida Springs Institute, she transitioned into managing FSI’s outreach efforts and now focuses on the direction of FSI. Her dedication to the springs continues to grow as she communicates the challenges that face the Floridan Aquifer.
Sky Notestein
Environmental Scientist
- Favorite Spring: Manatee Springs
Sky’s interest in Florida springs started with a childhood visit to Rainbow Springs. While attending the University of Florida, he was able to include the study of springs and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, and then a Master of Science from the Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences Department. After working for various state agencies and consultants for over 25 years, Sky gained experience conducting environmental assessments utilizing a wide range of methods. His enthusiasm for springs continues through biological assessments, water quality investigations, and supporting springs restoration projects.
Thomas Comer
environmental scientist
- Favorite Spring: wekiwa springs
Thomas is a born and raised Floridian who first gained an appreciation of the springs through summers spent at a youth camp in Wekiwa Springs State Park. While enrolled at the University of Florida for a B.S. in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, the springs inspired him to add a minor in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. After enjoying working at FSI as an intern and expanding his skillset through roles in consulting and museum work, he is excited to give back to the environments that inspired him through ecosystem-level studies, water quality investigations, and cultivating new interns at FSI.
ADA NESBIT
Outreach ASSISTANT
- Favorite Spring: Running Springs
Ada is a current student at the University of Florida, majoring in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation and minoring in Entomology. Her appreciation for the springs started at a young age, growing up camping at the springs and canoeing along the Suwannee River. Ada first became involved with FSI through volunteering at the annual Springs Run and is excited to be more involved in the protection of our springs!
Emanuela Torres-Marquis
springswatch coordinator
- Favorite Spring: rainbow springs
Emanuela joined FSI in June 2024 as the SpringsWatch Coordinator/Science Technician. Emanuela attended the University of Central Florida where she graduated with a B.S. in Environmental Science. During undergrad she worked with a local waterway cleanup nonprofit which sparked her passion for Florida watersheds and community engagement. Emanuela has worked for various nonprofits, state, and federal agencies. She is passionate about creating a more inclusive outdoors and is excited to connect people to our springs through her role with FSI.
HOWARD T. ODUM FLORIDA SPRINGS INSTITUTE
board of directors
ROBERT L. KNIGHT, PH.D.
PRESIDENT OF BOARD
Dr. Knight is an environmental scientist/systems ecologist. He has over 38 years of experience as an aquatic and wetland ecologist in Florida. His doctoral work included an ecological assessment of Silver Springs and Silver River under the direction of Howard T. Odum. He completed assessments of the quantitative basis for establishing a minimum flow regime for protection of water and human-use resource values (WRVs) in Volusia County Blue Spring, a 50-year retrospective study of the ecological health of Silver Springs, the basis for establishing pollutant load reduction goals and WRVs for the Wekiva River and Rock Springs Run, and a comparison of the ecology of twelve of Florida’s artesian springs.
Under Dr. Knight’s leadership, the Florida Springs Institute has developed restoration action plans for Glen Springs, Ichetucknee Springs, Kings Bay Springs, Lower and Middle Suwannee River Springs, Rainbow Springs, Santa Fe River Springs, Silver Springs, Wakulla Springs, Volusia Blue Springs, Wekiva River, and Wekiva Springs. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors for the Florida Springs Institute, Dr. Knight is also a Board and/or Advisory Panel member for the Silver Springs Alliance, Ichetucknee Alliance, Our Santa Fe River, Wakulla Springs Alliance, Florida Defenders of the Environment, and Florida Springs Council.
CAPT. TEDD GREENWALD
Vice President of Board
Captain Tedd Greenwald is a 500 Ton USCG Master who has spent the better part of 40 years working worldwide on private yachts and his own dive charter boat. He is from Miami where he worked aboard commercial fishing boats and completed his Physics degree at University of Miami. He was a researcher at the Papanicalou Cancer Research Institute in Miami prior to teaching Marine Science at Dade Marine Institute on Virginia Key. He is a volunteer at the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Florida Springs Institute and lives in High Springs with his wife of 38 years.
ROBERT PALMER, PH.D.
Treasurer of Board
Dr. Palmer holds a Ph.D. in marine biology and worked on the staff of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the U. S. House of Representatives for 26 years, including 12 years as the Committee’s Staff Director. He serves on a number of for-profit and non-profit boards and is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Bob formerly chaired the Alachua County Environmental Protection Advisory Committee.
STEPHEN WALSH, PH.D.
BOARD MEMBER
Stephen J. Walsh is retired from the U.S. Geological Survey, where he was a research scientist for over 30 years. His interests are in the area of conservation biology, biodiversity, and ecology of aquatic organisms, primarily fishes. He has worked in freshwater and marine ecosystems in the southeastern and central U.S., Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, Neotropics, southeast Asia, western Pacific, and Africa. He has a B.A. degree (magnum cum laude) in Biology from St. Louis University, a M.Sc. degree in Zoology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and a Ph.D. in Zoology (now Biology) from the University of Florida, where he currently has courtesy faculty appointments in the School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences, and the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH). In addition to his current board service on the Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute and the Ichetucknee Alliance, he has served in numerous other professional capacities including with the American Fisheries Society, the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, and the Southeastern Fishes Council. In his retirement, Steve enjoys traveling, tennis, swimming, kayaking, reading, photography, gardening, and curating the megadiverse Neotropical brush-footed butterflies of the genus Adelpha at the FLMNH McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity. For more information about Dr. Walsh, click here.
Karen Lanese
BOARD MEMBER
Karen’s initial interest in the environment stemmed from an 8th grade class on ecology. From that point forward, her desire to know more and understand our natural world was born. Karen has spent much of her adult life in the Tampa Bay area. Since January 2020, along with her husband Rick, she has split her time between Tampa Bay and Fort White where they own a home on the Santa Fe River near Rum Island Park. Karen fell in love with the Florida springs snorkeling and tubing down the Rainbow River over 35 years ago. Karen has volunteered with many school and neighborhood programs. For the past ten years, her primary volunteer commitment has been with the Community Foundation Tampa Bay. Karen currently serves as Chair of the South Shore Council and is on the Board of Trustees. Her work with these organizations has contributed to her knowledge of nonprofits and philanthropy. Karen is a Florida CPA and has worked in the field for 40 years. Her primary area of concentration is individual, estate & trust taxation. She also works with smaller nonprofits preparing their federal tax filings. Karen loves to kayak, paddleboard, hike, camp, bird and other critter watch, and garden. Generally, when the weather permits, she prefers to be active outdoors. Through participation with the Florida Springs Institute, she hopes in some small way to help protect the unique wonders that are our Florida springs.
William McQuilkin
BOARD MEMBER
William McQuilkin retired from the U.S. Navy as a Rear Admiral. He grew up on the Gulf Coast of Florida and currently lives on his farm in central Florida. He is committed to conserving Florida’s wildlife and wild places, its beaches, and its healthy rivers and springs. He is grateful for all the springs advocates and to the leadership and staff of the Florida Springs Institute.
Christine A. Klein
Board Member
Christine A. Klein is the Cone, Wagner, Nugent, Hazouri & Roth Professor of Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where she has taught since 2003. Klein began her career as a water rights litigator in the Colorado Office of the Attorney General. Her legal experience includes positions as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court, District of Colorado; as a law clerk for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Office of Staff Attorneys (San Francisco summer position); and as a clerk at Goodwin Proctor (formerly Shea & Gardner) in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining the UF Law faculty, Klein served on the faculty of Michigan State University College of Law and directed its environmental law certificate program. She received a B.A. from Middlebury College (Vermont), a J.D. from the University of Colorado Law School, and an LL.M. from Columbia University Law School.
Klein teaches and writes in the areas of water law, natural resources law, and property. Her work includes more than thirty academic articles, and it has been cited in judicial and administrative opinions at both the federal and state levels. She is also the author of several books: Property Law: Cases, Problems, and Skills (Aspen Publishers 2d ed. 2020); Natural Resources Law: A Place-Based Book of Problems and Cases (4th ed. 2018, Aspen Publishers, lead author with Cheever, Birdsong, Biber, and Klass); and Mississippi River Tragedies: A Century of Unnatural Disaster (NYU Press 2014, with Zellmer).
Klein has served on two committees of the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, that studied sustainable water and environmental management in the California Bay-Delta, and she is a member scholar of the Center for Progressive Reform, based in Washington, D.C.
JIM STEVENSON
BOARD MEMBER
MARY ODUM, PH.D.
SECRETARY OF BOARD
Dr. Odum has worked in healthcare as a nurse for 35 years, including 20 years as a nursing professor. Before relocating to Gainesville Florida, she taught Nursing and Honors at University of Alaska Anchorage, and was involved with their Complex Systems Group. She administers a 2-year old blog called ProsperousWayDown.com, and she is a featured author at Resilience.org. She is also a Trustee and Secretary for the Emergy Society (International Society for the Advancement of Emergy Research). She learned most of what she knows about systems thinking from her ecologist father and uncle, the Odum brothers.
Jim Pruitt
BOARD MEMBER
Jim Pruitt is a native Floridian with North-Central Florida roots. Jim lives in High Springs with his wife on 140 acres of wooded property on the Santa Fe River, complete with a spring.
Jim is a lifelong nature lover who spent countless youthful hours wandering the woods surrounding his family’s farm in Ocala, Florida. Jim received a B.A. in Psychology from Columbia Union College in 1971, with four years of additional studies at the University of Florida in Latin-American history, Business, Accounting, and Geology.
For most of Jim’s adult life he has been an entrepreneur, most recently as owner of a construction firm in Atlanta, GA. Upon selling the firm in 2000, Jim moved to Santiago, Chile to study Spanish and travel the region. In 2008, Jim purchased 600 acres in the Lake Region of southern Chile. This property has two miles of frontage on the Rio Petrohue, a major salmon and trout fishing river destination.
Jim has dedicated both his property in High Springs and his property in Chile to conservation. He spends his time making improvements to both in order to promote these conservation efforts.
Jacqui Sulek
BOARD MEMBER
Jacqui Sulek recently retired from 20 Years with Audubon where she achieved community among the forty-five chapters in Florida. Her thirst for adventure, fascination with the natural world and interest in people combine to make her a consequential bridge builder between groups of different perspectives, looking for solutions to issues that impact Florida’s natural resources.
Jacqui was born in NYC, but before her first birthday moved with her family to Venezuela where she would spend the next 16 years. She attended boarding school in New England and graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont. While her BA was in Fine Arts and Education, she later completed the Landscape Design curriculum at Broward Community College and has taken post graduate classes in Springs Ecology, Botany, and Ornithology. A self-taught naturalist, she has an insatiable curiosity about relationships within the natural world and has boundless enthusiasm to share her knowledge with others.
Jacqui and her husband moved to the town of Fort White 20 years ago, drawn by the beauty of the Ichetuckee River and springs. Inspired by springs heroes Wes Skiles and Jim Stephenson she became an advocate for Florida springs. On more than one occasion she addressed local and state legislatures, in one instance bringing samples of both clean and algae covered aquatic vegetation to Tallahassee to demonstrate the effect of nutrients on the springs ecosystems.
She is a founding member of the Ichetucknee Alliance and with encouragement from FSI founder Robert Knight set up the Ichetucknee Springs Watch program. She has served in a variety of advisory capacities with the Suwannee River Water Management District, Sea Grant, and Audubon and continues to speak out on behalf of Florida’s Springs and water.
Jacqui’s lifelong passion for birds and nature has taken her on many trips to Central and South America keeping her fluent in Spanish. She now leads such trips several times each year. The common thread throughout her life has been her passion for natural history, her devotion to preserving the natural environment and connecting people with the outdoors.
SENATOR DENNIS L. JONES
BOARD MEMBER
Senator Jones is a retired chiropractic physician, who has served in the Florida House of Representatives (1978-2000) and the Florida Senate (2002-2008). From 2002-2004, he also served as the Senate Majority Leader. During his legislative career, Senator Jones focused his efforts on improvements to health care, education, the criminal justice system, and the environment. His crowning legislative achievement came in 2000, with the passage of legislation to establish Florida’s first permanent funding source for a comprehensive beach nourishment program.
In recognition of his dedication to Florida, Senator Jones has received numerous awards, including the Florida Shore and Beach Preservation Association Legislative Award, Legislative Conservation Award, Legislator of the Year Award, Theodore Roosevelt Society, Inc. “Teddy Award”, and the Florida Audubon Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Award to name a few.
Senator Jones lives in Dunnellon, FL, with his wife Susan, on the Rainbow River. He has witnessed the degradation of our rivers and springs first-hand and has focused his efforts on springs and river restoration by regularly providing public comment on issues he has experienced on the Rainbow River and working with local conservation groups. Dennis and Susan have five grandchildren.
HOWARD T. ODUM FLORIDA SPRINGS INSTITUTE
ADVISORY PANEL
Advisory Panel Responsibilities
- Promote the Florida Springs Institute and the need for springs restoration and protection in Florida.
- Annually evaluate progress and help to update the Three-Year Plan.
- Provide outreach related to springs restoration and protection to the public and governmental decision-makers.
- Promote teamwork across all interested groups for springs restoration and protection.
- Provide credibility for the mission and actions of the Florida Springs Institute.
Jennifer L. McGee, Ph.D., M.Sc.
Florida FWC
Dr. McGee is the FWC Marine Debris Coordinator managing statewide research, removal, and prevention projects and programs to reduce marine debris and aquatic litter and its impacts on wildlife and habitat. She also Chairs the Gulf of Mexico Alliance’s Marine Debris Cross Team and serves as the Research and Data Lead on the Florida Marine Debris Planning Team. Dr. McGee has over two decades of experience conducting aquatic animal and ecosystem research with a focus on anthropogenic impacts, aquatic animal health, conservation management, and environmental policy and holds a doctorate in Veterinary Medical Sciences/Aquatic Animal Health from the University of Florida-College of Veterinary Medicine. She has worked in freshwater and marine ecosystems throughout Brazil, Australia, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, Polynesia, and the United States with over fourteen years’ experience working in/on Florida waters, having first moved to Florida to serve as the Volusia County Manatee Protection Program Associate and Stranding Coordinator. Dr. McGee also has extensive experience in manatee health assessment research, having worked with partner agencies and organizations throughout the Southeast US and Caribbean. In addition to her time spent in the Florida springs conducting manatee field research, Dr. McGee also spends a large portion of her free time hiking to, paddling, swimming, diving, and photographing Florida’s spring and river systems throughout the state and especially loves swimming among the cypress trees.
LARS ANDERSEN
ADVENTURE OUTPOST
Lars, a life-long Floridian, is the owner of Adventure Outpost in High Springs. He is a full-time nature guide and the author of several works including, Payne’s Prairie: A History and Guide, Paddlers Guide to the Suwannee River Wilderness Trail and The North Florida Adventure, an audio CD. You can read about his adventures on his blog, River Guides Journal.
ROBERT E. ULANOWICZ, PH.D.
Professor Emeritus, UMD
Dr. Ulanowicz is a native of Baltimore and a graduate of the Baltimore Polytechnic Institute. He received a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering Science from the The Johns Hopkins University, and is currently Professor Emeritus with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Dr. Ulanowicz pursued research on the analysis of ecological networks at the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, MD for 38 years, before moving to Gainesville, FL, where he is now a Courtesy Professor with the UF Department of Biology.
In 1987, Dr. Ulanowicz was a featured speaker at the Royal Swedish Academy Symposium honoring H.T. Odum with the Crafoord Prize. In 2007, Robert was awarded the Ilya A. Prigogine Medal from the University of Siena for outstanding research in ecosystems dynamics. Dr. Ulanowicz has written three books, Growth and Development: Ecosystems Phenomenology (1986), Ecology, the Ascendent Perspective (1997) and A Third Window: Natural Life beyond Newton and Darwin (2009) and authored over 190 refereed publications. He has maintained an almost lifelong attachment to the springs of Florida, visiting them from Maryland at least yearly since 1962.
TODD KINCAID, PH.D.
GEOHYDROS, LLC
Dr. Kincaid is a hydrogeologist with more than 20 years of experience in aquifer characterization and hydrogeologic modeling. He has earned a Ph.D. in hydrogeology from the University of Wyoming and a MS and BS in hydrogeology and geology from the University of Florida. He is the managing member of GeoHydros LLC, a consulting company focused on advanced computer simulation and visualization of complex geologic and hydrologic environments. His work has addressed karst-conduit flow in the Floridan aquifer, extremely heterogeneous aquifers in glacial sediments in New York and Pennsylvania; fractured rock aquifers in interbedded shales and limestones of eastern Pennsylvania; and structurally complex volcanic and sedimentary rocks underlying Yucca Mountain and the Nevada Test Site, Nevada.
Dr. Kincaid also serves as the vice-president for Global Underwater Explorers, a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring and protecting underwater environments, and on the Board of Directors for the Wakulla Springs Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving and promoting strategies for protecting Florida springs.
Robert Mattson
retired SJRWMD, SRWMD
Rob Mattson recently retired after a 34-year career working for two of Florida’s Water Management Districts: as a Biologist with the Suwannee River Water Management District (1988-2005) and a Sr. Environmental Scientist with the St. Johns River Water Management District (2005-2022).
Rob has a B.A. in Biology and M.S. in Zoology from the University of South Florida. Rob was certified as an Environmental Professional by the Academy of Board Certified Environmental Professionals and as a Certified Senior Ecologist by the Ecological Society of America. Most of his career at SJRWMD and some of his time at SRWMD was spent working on springs, including supervising submerged vegetation mapping/monitoring and macroinvertebrate surveys on the Ichetucknee River, overseeing some of the initial projects to control erosion and human use at several Suwannee basin springs, developing a Pollutant Load Reduction Goal for nitrogen and phosphorus for the Wekiva River and springs, beginning and overseeing annual submerged aquatic vegetation surveys on 7 spring-run stream systems in the St. Johns River basin, and publishing a number of technical reports and papers as well as scientific presentations on Florida springs.
Rob has made many presentations on springs to universities and colleges, as well as citizens groups. Rob is sought after as a speaker because of his ability to convey springs science in an engaging and understandable style.
Joann Mossa
University of Florida
Joann Mossa is a Professor at the University of Florida, Department of Geography. She is fluvial geomorphologist and hydrologist that holds affiliate appointments in Hydrologic Sciences, Geological Sciences, and the School of Natural Resources and the Environment. Her recent research focuses on modified or disturbed rivers and river restoration, especially in lowland river floodplains. Her broader interests include sediments, fluvial and coastal hazards, hydrology and soils. She holds a B.A. degree in Mathematics and Geography from Rutgers University, a M.Sc. and a Ph.D. degree in Geography from Louisiana State University.
She has published extensively regarding the geomorphology, hydrology, and human impacts of large river floodplains draining into the Gulf of Mexico and is also currently working in central Australia. She is currently serving as Associate Editor of the journal Geomorphology and formerly served as Associate Editor of Physical Geography for a decade. She is currently president of the Florida Society of Geographers (her fourth term), past president of the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers and has held varied leadership and advisory positions with professional organizations. In addition to this current advisory service, she is on the Apalachicola Riverkeeper Council of Advisers. Joann lives in northwest Gainesville with her husband and adult twins. In her spare time, Joann enjoys traveling, river rafting, canoeing, landscaping, and reading.
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