Donna Goodman, President
Donna lives in a restored 1860s farmhouse with her husband on a small farm near Athens. She grew up loving the outdoors, and says her earliest memories are of exploring a park near her home. She has a master’s degree from Antioch University in natural resource management and administration.
In 1982, as a planner for Athens city/county, she developed the first curbside recycling program in Ohio, and was involved in the startup of the county’s first recycling center. Now retired, Donna spent her career with the Ohio EPA, inspecting businesses and industries of all sizes for regulatory compliance (the good, the bad, the ugly) with a focus on waste minimization.
Donna joined the Board in 2004, and served as president for eight years. She developed the Conservancy’s annual preserve and CE monitoring program, spearheaded the strategic plan, and helped set up a committee-based work plan.
Christine Fahl, Officer
Chris, who is former 4th ward representative on Athens City Council, serves as president of the Athens Conservancy Board. She says as a kid, “I wanted to be Jane Goodall. So I got a degree in wildlife.” Her interests shifted to the intersection of policy and conservation biology, and she earned her PhD in conservation biology.
When she and her husband moved to Athens, word got around about her background in wildlife and land conservation, and she was asked to be on the Board of the then-new land trust.
Like many Board members, Chris likes to hike and play outdoors, and loves taking people to see our beautiful, natural world.
Barbara Flowers, Officer
After getting a degree in Natural Resources from Ohio State, Barb spent almost 33 years at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Division of Mineral Resources Management. She inspected active coal mines for environmental compliance, and worked for three decades with the Abandoned Mine Land program, addressing safety and environmental issues. Her interests in the outdoors were sparked by an early stint as a naturalist on Lake Erie’s Kelleys Island and from working as a pest control management scout in Licking County.
Barb joined the Board in 2014. After a career of healing the scars of past mining, she thought it was time to focus on preservation. Today, she lives in rural Athens County on a small cattle farm. She enjoys hiking, mushroom-hunting, and looking for spring wildflowers, along with traveling throughout the U.S. and abroad.
Brian Blair
Brian has a bachelor of science degree from The Ohio State University School of Natural Resources with a major in wildlife management. He has 32 years of professional experience in the environmental field primarily with Ohio EPA, overseeing the assessment and cleanup of toxic waste sites.
Brian has served on the boards of a number of land trust and environmental organizations in Ohio, and has expertise in conservation easements. He also started Forest Conservancy, Limited, which buys and holds key parcels of land until funds can be secured for permanent preservation by a non-profit or governmental entity.
He lives with his partner Susan Spinelli on a historic woodland farm in Hocking County, which is permanently protected with a conservation easement. He enjoys cycling and hiking in Conservancy preserves.
Phil Cantino
Phil’s fascination with nature started early; his first 8 years were spent in a relatively isolated house in the non-public part of the Morris Arboretum. With no other children nearby, he spent time exploring the fields, thickets, and wooded creek banks around his home, and he’s grateful his parents let him explore that natural wonderland on his own.
At 10, he discovered birding, which has remained a lifelong passion. In college, his interests broadened to include botany, leading to a 30-year career as a professor in the Ohio University Department of Environmental and Plant Biology.
An interest in wildland preservation was sparked by experiencing the destruction of a natural area where Phil had spent countless happy hours birding. Thirty-five years later, when John Knouse proposed starting a land trust, he joined him and others to found Athens Conservancy. Helping protect thousands of acres of forest has been one of the most rewarding experiences of his life.
David Funk
David is an active tree farmer who joined the Board in 2020. His career as a real estate faculty member at the University of Alabama and Cornell University – where he taught real estate law and finance – is an asset to the Conservancy.
When he is not out enjoying the woods, David also serves as executive director of the American Real Estate Society. He earned his Ph.D from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but got his woodlands and conservation education from endless days in the woods with Athens foresters such as Ora Anderson, Dave Shatz, Dean Berry, Cameron Bushong and others.
Sam Gutekanst
Sam joined the Board in early 2023, but he’s been exploring the outdoors for as long as he can remember. Growing up in Athens, he says he was always going on hikes with his dad and brother, foraging for pawpaws, ramps, morels, and chanterelles.
In high school, he noticed a bunch of acorns falling from a northern red oak on the College Green … so he gathered some, and grew about 150 seedlings to give away the following spring. That launched his extreme interest in botany and growing native plants. Today, he’s studying plant biology in Ohio University’s Honors Tutorial College. He brings to the Board a keen botanical point of view, and knows the vast majority of native plants in Ohio, especially trees. In his spare time, Sam enjoys kayaking or canoeing down the Hocking River, putting in near Dirty Dawg Carwash, and taking out at Baker Preserve.
Dawn Handley
Dawn, her partner and three children live in Millfield; they enjoy time together exploring creek beds, having rock-skipping contests, and checking under rocks for salamanders, crawdads, and other surprises that might be lurking. Their usual stomping grounds include the Baker Preserve in Athens and Moonville in Zaleski State Forest.
Dawn has served on the Board for two years. An Athens native, her love for the land and interest in protecting it came at an early age, as she grew up riding her horse and exploring the woods in Waterloo township. That’s where she came to value public land and the importance of clean water and healthy wildlife. She also serves on the board of Keep Wayne Wild, an environmental activism group seeking to protect the Wayne National Forest from fracking and other destructive development.
Kate Kelley
Kate spends as much time in the woods as she can, removing invasives and planting natives on the tree farm she owns with her partner. She maintains a few rental homes on the property, pursues grants for forestry work, and strives to find ways to make the land pay for itself. Kate can also be found hiking with her dog or exploring pre-contact indigenous structures with a dear friend.
In what feels like a previous incarnation, Kate earned degrees in animal behavior and anthropology, then a PhD in evolutionary biology. Learning how the natural world works is a lifelong pursuit, but restoring damaged habitats and protecting land from subdivision has become an obsession. Kate joined the Conservancy in October 2023 and brings a passion for learning and using various methods to protect land in Athens County.
When not in the woods, Kate finds new recipes to nourish family and friends, travels to visit her son, and pokes around the vegetable garden with her four ducks.
Greg Kessler
Greg Kessler spends most of his free time in nature — hiking, mountain biking, or simply being immersed in the natural world. He has lived in Athens County for 25 years, in a forested parcel adjacent to the Ridges, where he has introduced permaculture plants, trees, and mushrooms.
Greg is a professor and department chair in the Patton College of Education at Ohio University. Since the pandemic began, he has been able to join many work meetings from local natural areas, which he says has been amazing!
As a professor of instructional technology, his experience with mapping software and other technologies will be a welcome addition to Conservancy work. So will his experience and willingness to do trail maintenance!
While fond of many Conservancy properties, Greg says Baker Preserve is probably his favorite.
Jessica Kopelwitz
Jessica Kopelwitz joined the board in early 2024. She’s the associate director of TechGrowth Ohio, former owner of Fluff Bakery, and current owner of The Retreat at Willow Creek.
Jessica and her husband Jason moved back to Athens in 2010 to start their adventures in entrepreneurship, moving to a small farm to assist with a family sustainable farm. When Jason joined the then-small crew at Jackie O’s as assistant brewer, Jessica used her down time to write a business plan for Fluff Bakery … and the rest is history.
Jessica has a bachelor’s degree in business from Ohio University, and an MBA from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve. She is a Certified Business Advisor, with certification through Kent State University. Jessica is also a mom and an ultrarunner, and the founding local group leader of Trail Sisters, Athens. She’s always looking for new adventures
Andrea Miller
Andrea Miller’s great grandmother was a farmer, gardener, homesteader, and ginseng steward, and Andrea grew up on her diversified farm in southeastern Ohio. This sparked her interest in botany, leading to her studies at Bowling Green State University, where she earned a conservation biology degree with a specialization in botany.
Today, Andrea is the sustainable forestry program manager at Rural Action. She first got involved with the Conservancy in 2021, when Rural Action’s Sustainable Forestry team worked on a site assessment and management plan for the Blair Preserve. Andrea joined the board in 2022, where she’ll use special skills such as plant identification, landowner outreach and communication, land stewardship, and land management.
In her spare time, Andrea enjoys hiking and mushroom hunting, looking for rare plants, and kayaking. Along with spending lots of time outdoors, she loves being at home with her beloved cat, Kiwi, too.
Chris O’Bara
Chris O’Bara literally stumbled upon his awareness of Athens Conservancy when he and his wife were hiking Trace Trail and noticed our signage. After visiting other local preserves, the retired aquatic biologist and grant administrator joined the Conservancy board in spring 2022.
Chris has been interested in environmental issues and wildlife his entire life, since growing up on a family farm in Massachusetts, surrounded by a river, two wetlands, forests, and fields. There, he gained an awareness of the importance of community impact on land use and land conservation. He spent his career in natural resources and conservation, working in academia, private industry, and government.
His background as a natural resources professional – and his familiarity with many power tools from farm and construction work – will be welcome contributions to the Conservancy. And on his bucket list of activities? Along with gardening and many outdoor activities, he aims to climb each state’s highest peaks within the Appalachian Mountain range, from Georgia to Maine.
Mark Shubert
After earning a degree in zoology at Ohio University, Mark worked as a research chemist in Columbus before taking off to travel the world. Along the way he met his wife in North Carolina, who joined him on the adventure. Mark eventually bought 72 acres on a ridge with a two-mile view in Ames Township, a place he loves and where the couple has been ever since.
Always a fan of the outdoors, Mark started out identifying trees and collecting items in nature as a boy. In the 1970s, he raised pigs and goats, chickens and ducks; an avid cyclist, he and his wife rode their bikes across the country in 1985. Today, he enjoys hiking and is working on circuit-hiking the Buckeye Trail, with about 1,000 miles completed so far. Mark has served on the Board since 2014.
Victoria Ellwood, Development Director
Victoria grew up spending weekends on her grandfather’s century-old Ohio farm and summers on the beaches and bluffs of Northern Michigan. This gave her a love of nature, which she instilled in her kids, taking them traipsing through the woods in parks and nature preserves throughout Ohio. Today, Victoria loves exploring the lands around Athens, and tries to get outdoors on long walks every day with her collie. Her interests also include environmental issues, the arts, exploring small-town Ohio, and finding connections and collaborations.
She brings to the Conservancy a background in communications, donor relations, and storytelling in academic settings and through her creative services agency, and has worked with donor-supported initiatives in Ohio, New York and Great Britain. She’s delighted to be part of Athens Conservancy to help advance its initiatives, strengthen relationships with donors and friends, and explore community partnerships.
Bill Rucker, Land Steward
It would be difficult to imagine anyone with more experience caring for the lands and forests around us than Bill Rucker. He wound up in Athens to complete a degree in environmental and plant biology from Ohio University, where he specialized in forest ecology. Over 20-plus years, his experience stretches from a botanical garden in San Francisco, to fisheries management in Alaska, to seasonal positions in natural resources at Cleveland Metroparks, to midwestern stewardship jobs with land agencies. He started as a volunteer in 2014, and continues stewardship activities at our preserves, where he also has trained student interns and led volunteer groups.
Bill has worked all over the country, but says, “Still, I think the forested ecosystems of southeast Ohio in these Appalachian foothills are my first love of places to work. I just love being under tall forest canopies dotted with light gaps where much regeneration occurs. Unfortunately, those gaps are also where many non-native plant invasions occur. Consequently, the need to thoughtfully steward those areas remains a high priority.”
He doesn’t have a favorite preserve since they all have their own sort of magic. But Bill has “a special draw for the ridges of Baker, the new Canaan Preserve with its rocky outcroppings, and the old growth majesty within Hawk Woods.”
Martin Dawson, Volunteer Coordinator
Martin, who is owner of the local business PC Plus, is the Conservancy’s new volunteer coordinator and says he loves to spend his free time outdoors and in the woods. Growing up, he played in the forested land near his Ohio home and enjoyed summers at a cottage on Lake Michigan. As a young adult, his interests turned to camping, backpacking, mountain-biking, rock-climbing, and other explorations. More recently, his interests have shifted to include more sedate hiking, meditating, and simply ‘being there’ in nature.
Martin has lived in the Athens area for more than 20 years, and strives to do what he can to help preserve this beautiful area. Interested in volunteering? Contact him at volunteer@athensconservancy.org
Advisory Board:
Jane Balbo
Sara Banks
Mark Barsamian
Ann Bonner
John Branner
Joe Brehm
Aimee Delach
David Gedeon
Stefan Gleissberg
Delaney Gibbs
Tiffany Harvey
John Lohse
Jeff Lyons
Jon McMichael
Rick Perkins
Bob Scott Placier
Sabra Robinson
Mary Reed
Bill Rucker
Dave Schatz
We remember John Knouse
John, who sadly passed away in January 2021, was a founding member of Athens Conservancy, a true visionary, and a driving force for land protection.
A native of western Missouri, John moved to Pennsylvania as a teen, back to Louisville where he raised a family, and then called Athens his home for 23 years. He discovered an affinity for the outdoors and the environment at age 12, and was attracted by Athens’ green potential.
John developed much of the Athens trail system connecting with Strouds Run State Park. He was one of the leads in acquisition of new preserve properties, and served as the organization’s resident cartographer. He also served on the board of the Friends of Strouds Run State Park.
John was known as a baker and an outspoken political activist, writing newspaper columns and a cartoon strip, “North of Here.”
Because trails were a major focus in John’s vision, Athens Conservancy and Buckeye Trail Association are partnering to build a new hiking trail in his honor. It will connect the separate trail systems of Strouds Run State Park and Baker Preserve. The John Knouse Trail will cross the recently established Canaan Preserve, making it possible to hike from Sells Park to SR-690 near Canaanville, nine miles by trail, without crossing a road.