Board of Directors
George L. Heinrich 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 wetland ecosystems, conservation challenges facing Florida’s non-marine turtles, 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 has served twice as co-chair of the Gopher Tortoise Council and is the founder of the Florida Turtle Conservation Trust.
Rick has been a marine science educator for over 20 years, working at Dauphin Island Sea Lab for seven of those years. 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.
Born and raised in Florida, Jan has always had a strong interest in nature. She volunteered for 14 years at Boyd Hill Nature Preserve and was active with the birds of prey program, a biological inventory, and the prescribed burn program. Jan was a Summer Nature Day Camp counselor there for three summers and now assists George Heinrich with teaching Herpetology Camp and Wildlife Ecology Camp at three preserves. She assisted with organizing two Florida turtle symposia and participated in diamondback terrapin research in northeast Florida and Tampa Bay. Jan and Dave Anschuetz owned two nature-related stores in Seminole and Tarpon Springs for eight years. She works part-time as a bookkeeper and enjoys birdwatching, Florida native gardening and hiking.
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.
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/aquaria/museum field for nineteen years. Tim has been involved in a variety of field projects with such species as Suwanne cooters, Carolina diamondback terrapins and spotted turtles. Tim is an avid outdoorsman, accomplished photographer and book collector. His current position is the Manager of NatureWorks for the Orlando Science Center where he is able to share his passion for turles and the natural world to children and adults alike. Tim also began a Master's Degree program in Museum Studies through the University of Leicester, England in October of 2011.
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.
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.
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George L. Heinrich (President)
Rick O’Connor (Vice President)
Jan Anschuetz (Secretary)
Carla Van Ness (Treasurer)
Tim Walsh (Immediate Past President 
Chris Lechowicz (Director-at-Large)
Dr. Joseph A. Butler (Director-at-Large)©2011 FTCT |
