BOARD OF DIRECTORS & COMMITTEES
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Guy L. Denny, President. Guy is an interpretive naturalist, writer and photographer who was assistant chief of DNAP from 1976 to 1994, and Chief from 1994-1999. He was Executive Director of the Ohio Biological Survey from 2006-07, and also has served as Vice President of the Ohio Environmental Council, Secretary/Treasurer of the Outdoor Writers of Ohio, on the advisory board of The Trust for Public Lands (Ohio), and as trustee for several other Ohio conservation organizations. Guy wrote the Bogs & Fens section of Ohio’s Natural Heritage, published by the Ohio Academy of Science Press in 1979. He recently drafted the Articles of Dedication for Daughmer Savanna and wrote its management plan as a volunteer at DNAP. Guy lobbied to prevent DNAP being eliminated from state law in 2010. He is one of the three incorporators of ONAPA .
Jennifer L. Windus, Vice President. Jennifer is recently retired from ODNR after more than 31 years, with experience in the Divisions of Parks & Recreation, Natural Areas & Preserves, and Wildlife. She worked in the Division of Natural Areas & Preserves during 1983-2002 when she began and administered the Research & Monitoring Program. She supervised several employees and established monitoring projects for many rare plants and plant communities on state nature preserves. She also wrote management plans for most of the state nature preserves, which were approved by the Natural Areas Council. She coordinated habitat management activities on nature preserves with preserve managers. For the past 12 years, she worked for the Division of Wildlife where she coordinated land management activities, land acquisition and access agreements, rare plant surveys, and the development of management plans. She is pleased to be an ONAPA Board member to assist ONAPA and DNAP restore a high-quality habitat management and monitoring program to the DNAP preserves. Jennifer also serves on the Boards for the Ohio Invasive Plants Council (Vice-President) and Crane Hollow Inc. (Vice-President).
Randy Haar, Treasurer. Randy retired from Owens Community College where he taught Alternative Energy, Environmental Science, Safety, and Engineering curriculum. Previously he worked as a mechanical engineer in the private sector for 29 years. He completed the Ohio Certified Volunteer Naturalist (OVCN) program in 2011 and has volunteered in many capacities with Metroparks Toledo and Wood County Parks, including rare plant monitoring and teaching the plant portion of recent OCVN classes. Randy and his wife Chris have led a series of spring wildflower walks in Oak Openings since 2013 and through a program with the Green Ribbon Initiative have adopted an oak barrens in the Oak Opening Metropark and work to remove invasive and other unwanted plants there. Randy has been awarded Volunteer of the year by the Green Ribbon Initiative and was named a Daily Points of Light honoree.
Richard E. Moseley, Jr., Secretary. Dick was the first Chief of the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves and served as head of the program for 20 years. Under his leadership the Division acquired and dedicated 103 nature preserves and the Ohio Natural Areas Program was recognized as one of the outstanding state programs in the country. In 1990, Dick became Deputy Director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, supervising the Divisions of Parks and Recreation, Wildlife, Natural Areas and Preserves, Forestry, and Watercraft. He retired from the Department in 1993 and moved to Colorado where he volunteered for the U.S. Forest Service on the San Juan National Forest for 15 years. In 2010, Dick lobbied for the continuation of DNAP when the Administration tried to eliminate the division from state law and is now volunteering for DNAP and the Licking County Park District. He is a member of the Ohio Conservation Hall of Fame, one of the three incorporators of ONAPA.
DIRECTORS
Barbara Andreas. Barb is a Professor Emeritus for the Dept. of Biological Sciences at Kent State University. She has served as Vice-President of the Native Plant Society of Ohio, member of the Ohio Natural Areas Council, ecologist and botanist for rare plant and plant community field investigations for DNAP, senior scientist for EnviroScience Inc., and botanist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She has written many papers and books, including The flora of the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area and A catalog and atlas of the mosses of Ohio. She now lives in Hocking County and was recently appointed as an adjunct professor at Ohio University.
Eddie Dengg. Eddie is an attorney and conservationist with a lifelong passion for nature. Through his work as a leader for the conservation community for over 18 years, he is the founding president of the Ohio Invasive Plants Council (2004-2007) and has served on the Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Association Board of Directors since 2016. During his work with the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, first as Field Director and then as Vice President, he worked to help establish a 400,000-acre interconnected network of open space across northern Ohio. He also served as Treasurer for ONAPA.
David Heithaus began as the Knox County Park District’s director in December of 2023. Born and raised in Knox County, Dave brings intimate knowledge of the Park District’s natural resources as well as a background in education and natural resource management.
After graduating from Kenyon College, he worked as a Wilderness Specialist with the Bureau of Land Management, based in Yuma, Arizona. Later, Dave pursued graduate course and field work with Duke University in Conservation Biology and Policy and Marine Ecology and with Simon Fraser University in Conservation-oriented Behavioral Ecology. During this course of study, an ecosystem research project took him to Shark Bay, Western Australia where he continued as a Marine Biological Technical Consultant. Dave returned to the United States and began work with Kenyon College as the Director of Facilities for the Brown Family Environmental Center in 2006. In 2015, he acted as Kenyon’s Director of Green Initiatives where he oversaw the environmental center, Kenyon Farm, and campus sustainability efforts. He completed his Masters of Natural Resource Management through Oregon State University in 2024. His thesis explored community-based resource planning with a focus on ecosystem services.
After graduating from Kenyon College, he worked as a Wilderness Specialist with the Bureau of Land Management, based in Yuma, Arizona. Later, Dave pursued graduate course and field work with Duke University in Conservation Biology and Policy and Marine Ecology and with Simon Fraser University in Conservation-oriented Behavioral Ecology. During this course of study, an ecosystem research project took him to Shark Bay, Western Australia where he continued as a Marine Biological Technical Consultant. Dave returned to the United States and began work with Kenyon College as the Director of Facilities for the Brown Family Environmental Center in 2006. In 2015, he acted as Kenyon’s Director of Green Initiatives where he oversaw the environmental center, Kenyon Farm, and campus sustainability efforts. He completed his Masters of Natural Resource Management through Oregon State University in 2024. His thesis explored community-based resource planning with a focus on ecosystem services.
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Jim Mason. Jim is owner of Horticultural Management Inc., a commercial landscape company. He is a professional in restoration of natural landscapes and an expert on invasive plant removal. Jim was President of the B-W Greenway Community Land Trust and is the site manager for Hebble Creek Wetland Reserve, a Greene County Park District’s natural area. He is a life member of the Cincinnati Wild Flower Preservation Society and has volunteered with the Beaver Creek Wetlands Association doing invasive plant management.
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Jack Shaner. Jack is a veteran policy and government affairs professional with deep experience building winning legislative and communications efforts for high-profile clients and elected officials. As the long-time Deputy Director for the Ohio Environmental Council, Jack was a stalwart advocate for the natural world at the Ohio Statehouse. He has experience in all facets of government affairs and NGO management, including strategizing and executing policy, communications and fundraising plans, and advising non-profit, government, and business leaders.
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Tim Snyder, Tim joined the Ohio DNR in 1980 as a park ranger at Geneva State Park and in 1982 became the west-central Ohio District Manager for DNAP, based at Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve. His weekly column Nature Notes appeared in several local newspapers. He also served on the Division’s burn team, including two years as burn boss overseeing controlled burns—an activity that led to his participation in the Ohio Interagency Fire Crew and ten fire fighting assignments in the American West. He retired in 2005, but continues to work with Ohio’s natural resources and maintains his Forest Service red card. He is active with the Outdoor Writers of Ohio, now serving as President. His first book, Rainbows of Rock, Tables of Stone: The Natural Arches and Pillars of Ohio, the result of 25 years of research in every corner of the state, and was published in 2009. Tim is a native of Findlay and holds a B.S. in Biology Education from Evangel College and a M.S. in Recreation Resources and Interpretive Services from Colorado State University.
John Watts. John is retired from the Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks where he worked for 33 years. John was the Resource Manager where he coordinated and administered the Resource Management Program for over 27,500 acres of natural area park lands in central Ohio. During his time as Resource Manager, Metro Parks restored approximately 4,500 acres of native habitats that included wetlands, prairies and forests as well as overseeing the species reintroduction program, invasive species control efforts, wildlife management and education program for the Park District, including the restoration of nearly 1,800 acres of native tall grass prairie in the former Darby Plains Prairies. He earned his B.A. in Environmental Life Science from Otterbein College in 1986 and his M.S. from The Ohio State University in Parks and Recreation Administration in 1989. John also worked for the Division of Natural Areas and Preserves from 1986-1991 conducting rare species monitoring, habitat restoration and natural area management.
ADVISORS TO THE BOARD
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Ian Adams
Pamela Bennett Dr. James Bissell Frances Buchholzer Dr. W. Hardy Eshbaugh Robin Green, J.D. Ray Heithaus Dewey Hollister |
Kimberly Kaufman
Paul Knoop Robert McCance James F. McGregor Steve Pollick Joseph J. Sommer Hope Taft David Todt |
ONAPA COMMITTEES
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Executive Committee
Guy Denny, Chair Cheryl Harner Randy Haar, Treasurer Jim McGregor Dick Moseley, Secretary Tim Snyder Jennifer Windus, Vice President Communications Committee Vacant, Chair Guy Denny Jennifer Windus Mary Ann Webster |
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Government Relations Committee
Jim McGregor, Chair Cheryl Harner Membership Committee Randy Haar & Dick Mosley, Chairs Resource Protection Committee Tim Snyder, Chair Jennifer Windus, Co-chair |
Scientific Advisory Committee
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Ray Heithaus, PhD, Chair
Area of Interest Biology Professor Emeritus, Kenyon College; Co-director Brown Family Environmental Center at Kenyon Barbara Andreas, PhD Professor Emeritus, Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State University; Adjunct Professor Ohio University; former Natural Areas CounciL James Bissell, PhD Member Botonist and Coordinator of the Natural Areas Program for The Cleveland Museum of Natural History Soren Brauner, PhD Professor of Biology, Ashland College David Brandenburg, PhD Botanist for Dawes Arboretum; formal Botanist for the Brooklyn Botanical Garden Philip Cantino, PhD Botanist, Professor Emeritus, Ohio University Thomas A. Evans, PhD Environmental protection |
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Siobhan Fennessy, PhD
Professor of Biology and wetland specialist, Kenyon College Donald Geiger, PhD Professor Emeritus, University of Dayton Biology David J. Horn, PhD Professor Emeritus, The Ohio State University Helen Michaels, PhD Professor of Botany and Ecology, Bowling Green University Gregory A. Smith, PhD On the faculty of the Department of Biological Sciences at the Kent State University at Stark, and he also is Executive Director of the Ohio Biological Survey David Todt, PhD Professor of Biology and Natural Sciences, Shawnee State University Ohio Natural Areas Council 1994 - 2004 Tim Walters, PhD Wetland restoration, general biodiversity |