Jennifer Browning, Executive Director, is a fifteen year veteran in the field of environmental education and communication. For the past ten years she has been the President of Quercus Consulting and has worked with more than 25 organizations assisting them with their communication and education needs.

Jennifer holds a BS in Biology from the University of Illinois. She resides in Chicago with her husband, three children, two dogs and two cats and a large garden. She loves bird watching, camping and hiking and recently climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Email: jbrowning at biodiverse.org.

Email: jane at janeelderstrategies.com.

Renee Lertzman, SymbioCycles Fellow, came to Biodiversity Project in the fall of 2006, thanks to the generosity of SymbioCycles Fund. Renee is pursuing her PhD research on psychology, emotions and environmental communications at Cardiff University, UK, and will be focusing her attention on public engagements with threats to the Great Lakes.

Email: rlertzman at biodiverse.org.

Willow Russell, Program Director, started working with Biodiversity Project in 2004. She has worn many hats at the organization, but is currently working on collaborative communications projects in the Midwest and along the Mississippi River.

Willow has a BA in Environmental Studies from Hampshire College (2000) and received her MS in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development from the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies (2006). Her academic work focused on identifying social and infrastructural mechanisms that promote greener consumption patterns and she has a particular interest in the development and support of sustainable communities.

Email: wrussell at biodiverse.org.

Gale Shea, Development Assistant, joined Biodiversity Project in November, 2006. Gale will support the Project’s in-house database needs and assist with development work, researching potential corporate and foundation partners for our new and existing programs.

Gale’s love of Nature began during her childhood on a small Wisconsin dairy farm and her career in natural resources started back in the eighties when she was employed for over 12 years doing cartography and Geographic Information Systems work for both the USDA Soil Conservation Service and the WI Department of Natural Resources. Just prior to her employment with the Project, Gale was a part-time adult educator (and still is a 24/7 “working mom”).

Email: gshea at biodiverse.org.

Brenna Wannous, Great Lakes Town Hall Manager, joined Biodiversity Project in January 2007 as a student intern. Since the fall of 2007 she has been a part-time employee on our Great Lakes Web community.  A senior undergraduate student, Brenna is completing her double-major in Environmental Geography and International Studies, as well as a certificate in Environmental Studies, at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.  

Brenna's career aspirations include going into the Peace Corps, eventually working in the international biology conservation field, and becoming more or less a professional adventurist.

Email: bwanous at biodiverse.org.

Marian Farrior, Adjunct Staff Member, is the Earth Partnership Field Manager at University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Arboretum, where she coordinates ecological restorations of prairies and oak savannas, and conducts trainings for volunteers to lead ecological restorations. Ms. Farrior also consults in affiliation with Jane Elder Strategies, and independently. Her skills include program planning, program management, evaluation, research synthesis, and training. She researched and wrote Emerging Trends in Communications and Social Sciences for a National Science Foundation funded project for the Biodiversity Project. She worked at the Biodiversity Project for 6 years and was responsible for project design and implementation, grants management, meeting planning, workshop development, networking, and report production (including research, writing, production, and distribution). She was a founding member and interim coordinator of the Biodiversity Education Network (BEN), and was instrumental in helping to raise funds and create the BEN Web site. She also helped create a Web site on the emerging field of Conservation Psychology. She has provided organizational change trainings to Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute at Northland College in Ashland, WI; training topics included Managing Polarities, Learning Styles and Theory, Appreciative Inquiry, Logic Model, and Communications Strategies.