Tim Walsh (President and Webmaster)

From the age of ten, Tim has been actively involved in herpetology and has maintained an obsession ever since.  At age twelve, he was mentored by Dr. Jim Layne of the Archbold Biological Station.  He went on to receive a degree in Zoo Animal Technology and has worked in the zoo and aquarium field for twelve years.  He had held the position of Collection Manager with the Chelonian Research Institute in Oviedo, Florida, working with Dr. Peter Pritchard.  Tim has been involved in a variety of field projects with such species as Carolina diamondback terrapins and spotted turtles.  He implemented and continues to work on a study of Florida box turtles that has been in effect for over a decade.  Tim is an avid outdoorsman, accomplished photographer and book collector. Tim is currently the Manager of Nature Works for the Orlando Science Center where he is able to share his passion for turles and the natural world to children and adults alike.

Laura Wewerka (Vice President)

Laura is a land manager for Lee County's conservation land acquisition program, Conservation 20/20.  She has a bachelors degree in elementary education and is currently pursuing a masters degree at Gulf Coast State University.  Laura previously worked at the Calusa Nature Center for 11 years caring for their native wildlife collection, conducting environmental education programs and managing 105 acres.  She has volunteered for the Gopher Tortoise Council for several years as the Public Information and Education Committee Chair.

Chris Lechowicz (Membership Secretary)

Chris is the herpetologist at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. Originally from Chicago, he grew up with a great appreciation of reptiles and amphibians and was mentored by many herpetologists involved in the Chicago Herpetological Society. He has been monitoring populations of Gulf Coast map turtles since 1991 and has an educational website on these turtles, Graptemys.com. Currently, he has been studying hurricane effects on Graptemys along the Gulf Coast. Chris received two B.S. degrees in Zoology and Computer Science at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He is currently working towards a M.S. in environmental biology at Florida Gulf Coast University.

Carla Van Ness (Treasurer)

In 1997, Carla attended the International Sea Turtle Symposium which rekindled her interest in turtles.  She worked as a volunteer on the Leatherback Sea Turtle Project in Tortuguero, Costa Rica.  She worked for several years on Butler and Heinrich's study of diamondback terrapins in northeastern Florida and has been involved in other turtle research projects.  While attending the University of Florida in 1999, she was awarded an undergraduate research grant for the study of a peninsula newt population in Alachua county.  She currently stays busy assisting her husband with management of the family farm and helping the kids with their FFA projects.

Rick O’Connor (Secretary)

Rick has been a marine science educator for over 20 years, working at Dauphin Island Sea Lab for seven of those.  He currently directs a 3-year marine science program at Washington High School in Pensacola.  His interest in turtles began when he and his wife (Molly) attended a workshop in Apalachicola conducted by George Heinrich.  He and Molly fell absolutely in love with turtles and both are now assessing the status of diamondback terrapins in the panhandle for the Florida Diamondback Terrapin Working Group.  Though Rick and Molly are enjoying the research they absolutely LOVE turtle watching!  Rick received his B.S. from Troy University and is an alum of Dauphin Island Sea Lab.  He received his M.S. from the University of Southern Mississippi.

George L. Heinrich (Immediate Past President)

George owns and operates Heinrich Ecological Services, a St. Petersburg-based company conducting wildlife surveys and research, natural history programming and nature-based tours.  A graduate of Memphis State University, his interests include southeastern upland and brackish coastal ecosystems, impacts of roads and automobiles on wildlife communities, and the role of education in conserving herpetofauna.  He has worked for a number of years on the conservation of gopher tortoises and has studied the ecology and conservation needs of diamondback terrapins as part of a University of North Florida research team since 1995.  George served twice as co-chair of the Gopher Tortoise Council and is the founding president of the Florida Turtle Conservation Trust.  He currently serves as the Florida regional director of the Diamondback Terrapin Working Group and is active with Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation (PARC).

Dr. Joseph A. Butler (Director-at-Large)

Joe did his undergraduate studies at Miami University (Ohio) and earned his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University.  He has been a member of the Biology Department at the University of North Florida (Jacksonville) for the last 15 years.  Joe began his career studying snake physiology and ecology.  In the early 1980s, he took a leave-of-absence to teach and do snake research in Nigeria, West Africa.  When he moved to Florida, Joe served as co-chair of the Gopher Tortoise Council for a two-year term.  In the mid-1990s, he began to study diamondback terrapins in northeastern Florida.  Aside from a 16 month sabbatical where he studied sea turtles on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts, Joe has worked with terrapins ever since.