Indiana Watershed Leadership Program

Bobbi Steiff is a Senior Environmental Manager in IDEM’s Office of Pollution Prevention and Technical Assistance in Indianapolis. She works with Indiana facilities and municipalities statewide on pollution prevention opportunities.  My most recent involvement with water quality issues was to develop mercury education materials for municipalities, specifically wastewater treatment plants, to use when implementing a mercury pollutant minimization program plan.     

Carla Orlandi has been the District Operations Manager for the Newton County Soil & Water Conservation District for nine years. Through the District I have been able to exercise a variety of skills relating to water quality and watersheds. Including, writing grants, public relations, teaching and coordinating public programs and workshops.  I am involved in several local watershed projects and have been certified as a River Watch instructor.  “
 

Christine Curtis is the NPDES Phase II, MS4 Education Coordinator for the Hendricks County Clean Water Department, also known as the Hendricks County Partnership for Water Quality. Some of her responsibilities include hosting Hoosier Riverwatch workshops, educating the public on water quality related issues through mass media, brochures, & the website, hosting the annual Spring Stream Clean-up, and coordinating the Storm Drain Marking program & the Adopt-a-River program for Hendricks County. She recently became involved with the Big Walnut Creek Watershed 319 grant.   http://www.hendrickscountycleanwater.org/

Christine Livingston is a watershed program director for a non profit environmental group in northwest Indiana called Save the Dunes. She began developing the program 3 years ago using IDEM 319 funds to develop and implement a watershed management plan for the 14-digit Dunes Creek watershed that borders the southern shore of Lake Michigan. The group is now in the early stages of implementation. She has also coordinated several workshops on various topics related to watershed management to help spark interest and better educate stakeholders within the watersheds where she is working. Her bachelor’s degree is in organizational communication.  http://www.savedunes.org 

Cindy Baker is the Resource Conservation Specialist for the Clinton County Soil & Water Conservation District (CCSWCD), I administer an Indiana Department of Environmental Management 319 Watershed Planning Grant, conduct Rule 5 Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan reviews and site inspections, assist partnership agencies, and provide technical assistance to Clinton County landowners.   Currently the CCSWCD is administering two IDEM 319 Grants.  Although my primary involvement is with the Watershed Management Plan being created for the South Fork Wildcat Creek-Blinn Ditch and Kilmore Creek-Boyle’s Ditch watersheds, I also provide assistance with an implementation grant being implemented in the Spring Creek-Lick Run watershed.      

Crist Blassaras spent twenty five years working in the pharmaceutical and gene discovery industry.  I spent the majority of my career working with the National Cancer Institute Study Groups getting investigational products in human clinical trials. I became very active in the White River restoration from the fish kill in 1999.  The Discovery Channel has filmed a one hour documentary about our group and it will air later this year. He became involved with the Madison County SWCD as a supervisor and became their watershed coordinator in May 2006.  The Little Duck/Lilly Creek Watershed Project is currently in the WMP phase.  The Swanfelt Ditch Project is in the cost-share implementation phase.  We also have a private chemical study in four Madison County streams.  Our newsletters and watershed information can be found at:    http://www.madisonswcd.org 

Crystal Joshua is the engineering Assistant with the  City of Lafayette. My job responsibilities are varied but primarily include functioning as  the MS4 coordinator for the City in addition to drainage, erosion control and landscape  review for all construction activities within the City. I currently work with the  Tippecanoe project team as a jointly permitted MS4  entity for NPDES Phase II  compliance.  I have a BS degree in Civil Engineering (Environmental Concentration)  from the University of Akron and have been with the City since 2002. Prior to working at  the City, I worked for the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission as a utility analyst.

Dan Palmer  I'm Dan Palmer from Noblesville.  Living on Morse Reservoir, near Hinkle Creek, and the White River,  gives me  ever-expanding opportunities.  During the summer, I volunteer for the U.S. Forestry Service in theChugach National Forest, Seward Ranger District, of Alaska.  In 2004, we received a national award for Recreational Fishery Resources Accomplishment on the Russian River.  Ah, the memories.....heavy rain, lots of perspiration, and bear encounters.  Yes, I'm lookin' forward to getting mud on my boots with you folks in the Academy.  Can't wait to meet everyone. 

 David Adam Downey  I have served the City of West Lafayette at the Wastewater Treatment Utility since 1996 and have been in charge of operations since 2003.  I am also currently serving on the Tippecanoe County Storm Water Steering Committee. I received my BS from Purdue University in Natural Resources and Environmental Science in May 2006 and hold class IV (municipal) and class D (industrial) wastewater certifications from IDEM.  I have been a life-long resident of Tippecanoe County and live in Lafayette with my two sons Kalen Rune and Adison Kai.    

Heather Gregory  works for Williams Creek Consulting since October.  We are currently working on a 319 Grant Watershed Management Plan for Duck Creek in Hamilton, Madison, and Tipton Counties, an Ecozone Feasibility Study for Lake Tippecanoe in Kosciusko County, and a LARE Diagnostic Study of seven lakes in Noble and Whitley Counties.  I have a BS in Environmental Studies from Elon University in North Carolina, and am originally from Connecticut.  http://www.williamscreek.net 

Helen Vasquez grew up in Texas, five miles from the great Rio Grande, the river that divides the United States and Mexico, and less than two hours drive from Padre Island and the Gulf of Mexico. Shelearned at a very young age to respect these two bodies of water. She now lives next to the Patoka River and is aware how vulnerable our stream is and how we must protect it to ensure that its waters continue to be healthy. She and her husband are  involved in the Hoosier Riverwatch program, monitoring the water quality of their stream and two other streams on a quarterly basis.  She hopes that through this training, she will learn new ways to motivate others to take an active role in protecting rivers and streams.   

Jessica Norcross is a graduate of Purdue University with a BS in Natural Resources & Environmental Science.  I’ve been the Natural Resource Conservationist with the Hendricks County Soil & Water Conservation District since June 2006.  My job responsibilities include Rule 5 plan review and site inspection, coordinating a Clean Water Indiana grant to promote the Indiana CREP, working with the County Plan Commission and County Commissioners, and public education efforts to promote the understanding of soil and water resources.  The Hendricks County SWCD is a part of the Hendricks County Partnership for Water Quality.  I attend meetings of the Upper White River Watershed Alliance, the Eagle Creek Watershed Alliance, and most recently, the Big Walnut Creek Watershed.  I live in Johnson County with my husband, our 2-year-old daughter, two dogs, two tree frogs, and two fish.  http://www.hendricks-swcd.org   

Joe Exl  is the Coastal Nonpoint Coordinator with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Lake Michigan Coastal Program.  His office is located in Indiana Dunes State Park and is tucked in behind a wooded dune just several hundred feet from the shore of Lake Michigan.  I work with a number of local communities, watershed groups, state and federal agencies, NGOs, universities, and many others to implement the Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program.  For those not familiar with Indiana’s coastal area it is a diverse mix of land uses including heavy industry, agriculture, rapidly expanding urban areas and significant natural areas such as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.  The people and their attitudes about the environment in this region are almost as diverse as the land itself.  Thus this area poses many challenges in watershed management.  But anything worth doing has never been easy.     http://www.in.gov/dnr/lakemich/

Kayleen Hart is the Steuben County Soil and Water Conservation District’s Resource Conservationist. I worked part-time for the District for two years before starting in my current position last August. I grew up in Fremont, Indiana and then moved to North Manchester, where I earned my Bachelor’s degree from Manchester College. My husband and I have three children and resided in Churubusco for ten years before moving back to Steuben County five years ago. We own a farm and enjoy being in the outdoors and living near Steuben County’s many lakes.  

Kris Sweitzer  is the Agricultural Conservationist for the Elkhart County Soil & Water Conservation District.  This is a new position that was funded by a Clean Water Indiana grant; which compliments the 319 grant, so I have only been on board for a few months now.  One of my main responsibilities is to reduce sediment and E. coli levels in the Elkhart River Watershed by working with the agricultural community to install conservation practices in the watershed.  The Elkhart River Watershed includes parts of four northern Indiana Counties – Elkhart, Kosciusko, LaGrange, and Noble.  It is a sub-watershed of the Lake Michigan – St. Joseph River Watershed.  It includes a large agricultural area, but is also undergoing rapid urban and suburban development.  The St. Joseph River Watershed Management Plan identifies the Elkhart River Watershed as a critical area in need of mitigation efforts for both urban and agricultural water quality impacts.  

Larry Gillen  lives near the headwaters area of the Patoka River) and is concerned with the health and spirit of the Patoka and all streams and rivers.  He is trained and licensed and currently employed as a civil and transportation engineer.  Involvement in Hoosier Riverwatch was begun a couple of years ago and follow-up has included involvement of our local community in a very nice way.  I wish to contribute good thoughts about the Spirit of the Water and further some understanding of the ways of the people and creatures who originally walked this land.  

Lindsay Birt   just moved from Texas where she finished her M.S. at Texas A&M University with an emphasis in soil erosion and hydrology.  She is currently beginning a doctoral research at Purdue University with a focus on the evaluation of environmental indicators on Indiana watersheds.  “I am enthusiastic about participating in the IWLA, and hope to gain a great deal of knowledge on watershed management”.  

Mark Krivchenia  has been an outdoor enthusiast all of his life—thanks in large part to participating in the Boy Scouts as a youth.  He is currently active in conservation work in the Lafayette area.  He is the President of the Wildcat Creek Foundation, a land trust and watershed group with a 30 year history of protecting the Wildcat Creek.  (I love to paddle the Wildcat.)    I am also an active member of the Wildcat Guardians; I have a three mile stretch of the Wildcat which I have adopted.  Finally, I have been on the NICHES Land Trust board for the past two years.  I am currently heading the land acquisition committee for this organization. http://www.wildcatcreekfoundation.org; http://www.nicheslandtrust.org; http://www.wildcatguardians.org  

Martha Miller  My name is Martha Miller and I am the District Coordinator for the Monroe County Soil & Water Conservation District.  I live on an 80 acre cattle farm with my husband and two teenage daughters.  Encouraging and exciting people, especially the up and coming generations, about what they can do to conserve our natural resources is not just part of my job it is a passion.    http://www.monroe.iaswcd.org  

Matt Williams  began his career with The Nature Conservancy in 1998 with the Texas Chapter working with Golden-cheeked Warblers and Attwater’s Prairie Chickens,  and now serves as TNC’s Ecoregional Director for northeast Indiana.  He majored in Biology and received his B.S. degree from Alma College, Alma, MI in 1997.  He Matt lives in Warsaw with his wife and their three girls.   www.nature.org.  

Michelle Markovich  works at TBIRD Design Services  Corp., an engineering and design firm in Lafayette, IN. I am the sole environmentalist (and one of only two women) at the firm, with bachelor’s degrees in Ecology, Evolutionary, and Population Biology and Environmental Science, and a Masters in Fisheries and Aquaculture. My responsibilities include permitting, wetland assessment and delineation, phase I assessments, and erosion control plans and inspections and any other environmental work that may come our way. I have been the erosion control specialist for the City of Lafayette for one year and complete all of the inspections within city limits to maintain compliance of their site specific Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans and the Tippecanoe County Drainage Ordinance.

Nancy Brown   is Program Manager for the Elkhart County Soil & Water Conservation District.  I am a member of the steering committee for The Elkhart River Alliance, a large stakeholder group that has written and received an EPA grant to develop and implement a watershed plan for the Elkhart River.  The SWCD has also received a Clean Water Indiana grant for a regional technician in this watershed, which is part of the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan) Watershed.  I am a Volunteer Hoosier Riverwatch Instructor, Project WET, WILD and Learning Tree facilitator, 4-H Volunteer Leader, and am serving on the Elkhart County Committee for the Indiana Master Naturalist Program.  I am looking forward to learning more about successful watershed groups. 

Phyllis McGurk  lives in Germany Bridge County Park in Fulton County Indiana.  When she retired in 2000 from employment as an attorney in Indianapolis, she moved back to Rochester Indiana where she graduated from high school in 1966.  She became interested in the watershed after moving to the country and is currently involved in the Tippecanoe River Watershed Alliance, and hopes to direction and new ideas for the development of this organization.

Rex Gambill  Rex is the Watershed Coordinator Partnership for Turtle Creek, Sullivan, IN

Rick Brown  is the MS4 Coordinator for LaPorte County. The MS4 area consists of the Lake Michigan and Kankakee River Watersheds, including the Trail-Creek Watershed within the Lake Michigan area. Five-MS4 entities work together in a cooperative intra-governmental agreement, and he is the plan review specialists. He comes from a construction/project management background (the receiving end of things) and can bring those types of concerns to the table.  

Sheila McKinley is a Section Head/Senior Resource Planner in the Water Resource Department for Christopher B. Burke Engineering, Ltd in Indianapolis.  My first exposure to watershed planning was in 1996 while employed as a Senior Planner at the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission in Columbus, Ohio.  While there, I prepared watershed management plans, greenways plans, and watercourse protection ordinances to improve water quality.  Since then I have been hooked and have continued to work on watershed management plans, multi-hazard mitigation plans, stormwater management plans, and greenways plans for a number of municipalities and watershed groups in Ohio and Indiana.  As a professional planner and certified floodplain manager, my interest has been primarily focused on the relationship of land development to water quality/quantity and the creative use of structural and non-structural BMPs to reduce or delay stormwater runoff.  www.cbbel-in.com 

Stacey Jarboe  Hello, my name is Stacey, and I am an Environmental Scientist with Fuller, Mossbarger, Scott and May Engineers Inc. in our Jeffersonville, IN office. I started here a little over two months ago and am pleased to be involved with several watershed management plans in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana.  I am a recent graduate from Western Kentucky University, with a degree in Geography, Emphasis in Environmental Planning and Management.     www.fmsm.com

Tim Rienks  is one of two Environmental Engineers with GM's Powertrain plant in Bedford, Indiana.  They are responsible for regulatory permitting and compliance, ISO 14001 Environmental Management System certification, and community education and outreach for our facility.  Prior to joining GM he worked for several consulting engineering companies on projects including environmental remediation, wetlands design and restoration, landfill management and design, and environmental regulatory compliance and reporting.  I am a Masters Level CHMM and a member of the Academy of Certified Hazardous Materials Managers.  I graduated in 1987 from the University of Michigan School of Natural Resource (and the Environment) with a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources Websites of Interest include:http://www.gm.com/company/gmability/environment/ http://www.green.org/ http://www.achmm.org/news/news1.php     

Tim Thonn  is working on a Watershed Management Plan for  the watershed surrounding lake Manitou in Rochester, Indiana, and is working with the lake association in Rochester to accomplish this. His background is varied. He has a B.S. degree from Ball State University in Biology and Natural Resources but has worked as a Medical Technologist for over 20 years. He is currently working with the school system in Rochester. He and his wife have lived on lake Manitou for 13 years, and have a son and a daughter ages 5 and 4. “I look forward to working with you and hope to learn a lot!”  

Bonny Elifritz  “Bonny Elifritz has a B.S. in Natural Resources from The Ohio State University. She focused her studies on wetlands and water quality, and during her senior year, worked as an intern with the Ohio EPA conducting wetland vegetation surveys in preparation for the development of the Ohio wetland water quality standards. For the past seven years, Bonny has worked with IDEM Office of Water Quality, first as a manager of the CWA Sections104(b)(3) and 205(j) grant programs, and most recently as the Watershed Specialist Team Leader. She has worked with communities, agencies, elected officials, universities, and consulting firms statewide on projects involving watershed planning, assessment, education, research, and technical assistance, as well as with many IDEM OWQ program support projects. Bonny enjoys volunteering to educate children and communities about environmental protection, and is interested in learning more about sustainable energy and organic farming. 

Elizabeth Trybula  Elizabeth recently transitioned to begin work as the Watershed Information Specialist with the Indiana Association of Soil & Water Conservation Districts.  Prior to this position, her experience in Watershed Management included contract work on the Clifty Creek Watershed Project (southeastern Indiana), where she served to develop and support a multi-county (11-digit) comprehensive watershed management plan, water quality monitoring network, local cost share program, and education/outreach programming.  Additional professional experience includes GIS support for the Yellowwood Lake Watershed, grant development for local organizations, as well as work with the Susquehanna River Basin Commission in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  Elizabeth lives in a soon to be renovated home in Columbus, Indiana, commuting to Indianapolis during the week and working part-time at Starbucks to suppress her outlandish coffee cravings.    Elizabeth Trybula Watershed Information Specialist  Indiana Association of Soil & Water Conservation Districts 225 S. East Street, Suite 740  Indianapolis, IN 46202 Office: 317.692.7514 Mobile: 317.682.7677 Web: http://www.iaswcd.org 

Linda Schmidt  Linda Schmidt is the IDEM watershed specialist for the northwest quarter of Indiana. She has experience with nonpoint source programs, monitoring, hydrology, quality assurance, and geochemistry. A native Hoosier, Linda is a graduate of Purdue University.  Linda Schmidt Watershed Specialist IDEM (65-44) 100 North Senate Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46204 phone: 317-233-1432 fax: 317-232-8406   

Steve West My name is Steve West and I'm a Watershed Specialist for the Coastal Zone of Indiana within the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, or IDEM.  For those of you who don't know me, I've been with IDEM since 1990.  The majority of my experience has been dealing with remediation and restoration issues in northern Lake County on the Grand Calumet River.  Luckily, the Grand Cal has a series of issues that most of the streams in Indiana do not have. Since becoming a Watershed Specialist, I've been focusing on ways that watershed groups can get funding to get their restoration projects going.   Steve West Watershed Specialist Coastal Zone Indiana Department of Environmental Management 100 N. Senate Ave. Indianapolis, IN 46204 317/233-8905 fax: 317/232-8406  

Jane Frankenberger  has been connected to watershed management since working on the very large New York City Watershed project as a Ph.D. student at Cornell University. She is responsible for the Purdue Extension program in soil and water engineering and water management, and also does water quality research and teaches a course in geographic information systems (GIS) applications. She has worked on many different water quality projects throughout Indiana, always with the goal of helping communities and public water supply systems develop more effective water protection strategies. She is currently researching tile drainage strategies to improve water quality and the effectiveness of conservation practices at improving water quality, and leads the Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy.   http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/~frankenb 

Shorna Broussard  is the Social Science Director for the Indiana Watershed Leadership Academy and a faculty member in the Dept. of Forestry and Natural Resources at Purdue.  Her research and teaching focuses on the human dimensions of natural resources (i.e. people and groups) and my work centers on ways to increase the capacity of groups to achieve outcomes for water quality.     http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~broussar  

Brent Ladd  has been involved with water and watersheds, along with agricultural and natural resources most of his life in some fashion or another. Professionally, he has worked on water quality and watershed projects at Purdue for about eight years. He helped bring together the creation of the watershed academy along with other Purdue and state leaders, and has coordinated the effort to date. He is transitioning to a new position with the Center for the Environment at Purdue, but hopes to remain involved in watersheds. 

Tracy DeHoop
Tracy is a former USGS employee and worked on mountain stream systems in Colorado and Montana. She will be assuming the coordination duties for the IWLA starting in February.