Our team
Staff, Board of Directors, and Advisory Panel
ROBERT KNIGHT, PH.D.
Executive Director
- Favorite Spring: Silver Springs
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, Wekiva Springs, and recently published a comprehensive report on the ecological health and restoration needs for all of Florida’s 1,000+ artesian springs. Dr. Knight is the author of Silenced Springs – Moving from Tragedy to Hope. 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 Ichetucknee Alliance, Our Santa Fe River, Wakulla Springs Alliance, Florida Defenders of the Environment, and Florida Springs Council.
Haley Moody
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
- Favorite Spring: BLUE HOLE SPRING
Haley’s passion for the springs began on 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 manages the administration of FSI. Her dedication to the springs continues to grow as she focuses on communicating the challenges that face the Floridan Aquifer.
William Hawthorne
Aquatic Ecologist
- Favorite Spring: Rainbow Springs
Bill is a recent graduate from Eckerd College where he graduated with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Psychology. He developed his love of springs through researching turtles within the Rainbow River. During his undergrad and early career, he worked on projects with snakes, turtles, tortoises, frogs, and salamanders. He spends most of his free time exploring the outdoors and springs as an avid photographer, hiker, and free diver. Bill is excited to study springs where he hopes to make a significant conservation impact by conducting and producing high quality science.
Carmilla Derringer
Outreach Coordinator
- Favorite Spring: Royal Spring
Carmilla is a recent graduate from Florida Gateway College where she achieved her B.S. in Water Resource Management. Soon after she graduated, she became a volunteer with the Ichetucknee SpringsWatch group, and joined our Field Science internship program during the summer. Being a native to Branford, she grew up going to Little River Springs which first started her love for the springs. Carmilla is excited to greet all visitors with springs information and to help create more springs advocates.
SHANNON LETCHER
SPRINGSWATCH COORDINATOR
- Favorite Spring: Rock Springs
Shannon is a Florida native who grew up visiting the springs in Central Florida and Ocala. She pursued an education in the sciences at the University of Central Florida, focusing on Biology and Anthropology, and minoring in the physical sciences. In the past few years, Shannon and her family have been volunteering their time to citizen science programs, including one’s that contribute to assessing the overall health of our water systems, such as the Dragonfly Mercury Project, freshwater turtle research, and SpringsWatch. She has been a consistent volunteer for the Wekiva SpringsWatch group since the beginning of 2022, and attended the Springs Field School in 2022. The passion for the health of our Florida springs runs deep within Shannon and she’s excited to work with fellow springs lovers and contribute on an even greater level.
Hailey Hall
Environmental Scientist
- Favorite Spring: Gilchrist Blue Springs
Hailey is from Suwannee County, where she grew up in a multigenerational farming family and spent countless days swimming in the famous springs of her home region. She studied environmental geosciences and sustainability at UF, which further honed her interests in hydrogeology, land use, and conservation. She previously researched environmental processes related to glacial retreat in western Greenland and water quality in the karst terrain of the Buffalo River in Arkansas. She is eager to aid the efforts to conserve Florida’s singular hydrogeological and ecological wonders.
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.
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 STEVENSON
BOARD MEMBER
ROBERT E. ULANOWICZ, PH.D.
BOARD MEMBER
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.
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.
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.
STEPHEN WALSH, PH.D.
BOARD MEMBER
Dr. Walsh is a Research Ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, in Gainesville, Florida. He has been in federal service with the Department of the Interior for over 25 years. His primary research interests are the ecology, systematics, ecophysiology, and conservation of freshwater fishes and other aquatic biodiversity. He has worked in freshwater and marine ecosystems in the central and southeastern U.S., the Caribbean, Neotropics, Africa, Southeast Asia, and Micronesia. He has a bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) in Biology from St. Louis University, a master’s degree in Zoology from Southern Illinois University, and a doctoral degree in Zoology from the University of Florida, where he currently holds courtesy faculty and curator appointments in three departments (Biology, Program in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, and Florida Museum of Natural History). In addition to his service on the FSI advisory Panel, he has served in numerous other professional capacities. For more information about Dr. Walsh, click here.
Casey Fitzgerald
BOARD MEMBER
Mr. Fitzgerald has been involved in natural resource protection, restoration and management for over 40 years. He served in the state capital as the Bureau Chief of State Lands Management in the former Florida Department of Natural Resources, and as the Assistant Director of the Florida Conservation Association.
In his 27 years at the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), Mr. Fitzgerald served primarily as the Assistant Director of the Department of Water Resources overseeing regional ecosystem restoration programs for the St. Johns River, Indian River Lagoon and Lake Apopka, among others. His final role was as Director of the district’s Springs Protection Initiative.
During his tenure at SJRWMD, Mr. Fitzgerald held various advisory posts, such as:
· Vice-chair, State of Florida Consumer Fertilizer Task Force
· Member, State of Florida Pollutant Trading Policy Advisory Committee
· Chair, Alachua County Environmental Protection Advisory Committee
· Board of Directors, Florida Stormwater Association
In his retirement since December 2020, Mr. Fitzgerald has been serving on the following NGO boards:
· Free the Ocklawaha River Coalition for Everyone – Leadership Team and Science Committee Chair
· Florida Springs Council – President
· Florida Springs Institute and Three Rivers Trust – Board of Directors
DAVE WILSON, PH.D.
TREASURER OF BOARD
Dr. Wilson earned his PhD in mathematics from Rutgers in 1969. In September 1972, he joined the Mathematics Department at the University of Florida, where he taught for 35 years before retiring in 2007. During his career, he taught both theoretical and applied mathematics to engineers, computer scientists, and mathematics students. In addition to dozens of publications, he organized a number of mathematics conferences and symposia including the first Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (or SIAM) conference on imaging science in Boston in 2002, where 239 researchers attended (http://www.siam.org/meetings/is02/). He also collaborated with Dr. Edward A. Geiser, MD in the UF Medical School for 15 years on an echocardiography research project focused on the development of computer based algorithms designed to make measurements of heart function. Dave is an avid canoeist, hiker, and biker. He has led, organized, and/or participated in hundreds of outings. He has also served several times as treasurer and twice as chair of the local Sierra Club.
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.
Mary Jane Angelo
BOARD MEMBER
Coming soon!
DAVE WILSON, PH.D.
TREASURER OF BOARD
Dr. Wilson earned his PhD in mathematics from Rutgers in 1969. In September 1972, he joined the Mathematics Department at the University of Florida, where he taught for 35 years before retiring in 2007. During his career, he taught both theoretical and applied mathematics to engineers, computer scientists, and mathematics students. In addition to dozens of publications, he organized a number of mathematics conferences and symposia including the first Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (or SIAM) conference on imaging science in Boston in 2002, where 239 researchers attended (http://www.siam.org/meetings/is02/). He also collaborated with Dr. Edward A. Geiser, MD in the UF Medical School for 15 years on an echocardiography research project focused on the development of computer based algorithms designed to make measurements of heart function. Dave is an avid canoeist, hiker, and biker. He has led, organized, and/or participated in hundreds of outings. He has also served several times as treasurer and twice as chair of the local Sierra Club.
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.
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.
Mike Roth
Our Santa Fe River
Mike capped off a 30-year career as a partner in a large local CPA firm in Hollywood Florida by opening an ice cream store in Gainesville with his wife, Cindy, which they ran for 12 years before selling it and retiring. In retirement, he developed a strong interest in the protection of water resources, particularly in the springs watershed, which led him to the presidency of Our Santa Fe River, Inc., the “voice of the Santa Fe River”. In that capacity, he has written numerous op-eds and articles regarding the plight of our rivers and springs and has spoken before several county commissions and water management districts as an advocate. He is pleased to be able to bring skills from both CPA and river advocate days to the benefit of the Florida Springs Institute.
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.
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