The Wisconsin Society for Ornithology has a Board of Directors composed of five officers and up to 20 directors. Members of the Board are elected for a term of three years and may serve more than one term. The President and Vice President are limited to two one-year terms each. All Board members serve on a volunteer basis and are not compensated for their contributions to the Society.
Officers (2022-2024)
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President Sunil grew up in a very urban but also a very bird-rich part of India and has lived in the midwestern United States for almost all of his adult life. He has early memories of mynahs, kites and peacocks from India and later became familiar with the usual feeder birds of Wisconsin. But a serious interest in birding didn't catch on until he took a break from a hectic work life when his daughter was born. The challenge of observing, studying, photographing and maybe even understanding these colorful creatures proved to have the capacity to be of lasting interest. A widely published bird photographer, Sunil has spent time birding on five continents -- ranging from the mundane to the exotic -- but calls Middleton (Dane County) home with his wife Heidi and their two children. Sunil has served on the WSO Board of Directors since 2019 and as vice president since 2020. He also has written the Spring Seasonal Report for The Passenger Pigeon since 2015 and administers WSO’s websites. For a day job, he works full time at Epic, an EHR software development company, and has spent time playing various IT roles over the years. |
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Vice President Lynn grew up in rural Marathon County, Wisconsin. After graduating from UW-Madison, she and husband Dave moved to Alaska. Since then, they have lived in Wisconsin, Oregon, North Carolina, Texas, South Dakota and Alaska again before moving back to Wausau in 2021. Lynn was a microbiology professor, and then went to law school and became a patent attorney, from which she retired in 2020. Before retirement, her husband was a meteorologist and a church pastor. She has loved watching birds since childhood. In addition to birding wherever she has lived, she has birded most of the United States and Canada and on all the continents. She is a self-described nutty birder, and particularly enjoys doing big years, which are the topic of two of her books, Extreme Birder: One Woman’s Big Year (2011), and Big Years, Biggest States: Birding in Texas and Alaska (2020). She also is the author of Birds in Trouble (2016). Her books, published by Texas A&M University Press, are illustrated with her bird photographs and paintings. She has been active in many birding organizations over the years, including Wake County Audubon Society, the Carolina Bird Club, Fort Worth Audubon Society (past president) and the Texas Ornithological Society (past president), as well as other community organizations. She especially enjoys giving talks (virtually or in-person) on birds, on her birding experiences and extolling the joys of birding, and on optimizing yards for birds. Her other avocations include painting, nature-photography, church volunteer activities, playing the hammered dulcimer and handbells, and baking cookies. |
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Secretary Rebecca joined WSO as its administrative assistant in May of 2021. Since making the difficult decision to step down from that position in November, she has continued to volunteer for the organization. She serves on the Development, Conservation and Honey Creek Committees and maintains WSO’s Instagram and Facebook accounts. In addition, she and her husband, Charles Harmon, are WSO’s Regional Coordinators for Green and Lafayette Counties. Rebecca owes her love of birds to her grandmother and her mother. Her grandmother knew the songs of all the birds on her farm in south Alabama, and her mother kept the feeders full in their backyard in Trussville, Ala., where Rebecca grew up. When Rebecca and Charles moved to Green County from Chicago, they fell in love with their home because there were already feeders up and resident flocks of goldfinches in their yard. They joined WSO while completing a block for the second Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas. |
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Treasurer A dedicated volunteer, when she isn't in her office, Dani can be found coordinating WBBA2 atlasing efforts in Ozaukee County, editing The Timberdoodle News (the newsletter of the Noel J. Cutright Bird Club), or participating on the board of directors of Sheboygan County Audubon Society. You may also recognize her name from "Let's Go Birding," a past feature in the Badger Birder. Amazingly, Dani also finds time to bird the wonderful hotspots of her home county of Ozaukee. Outside of birding, you can often find her reading a good book with her cat, Charlie, curled up in her lap. |
Board of Directors
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Steve Holzman Steve Holzman holds a BS in Zoology from Southern Illinois University and a master’s degree in wildlife biology from the University of Georgia. After completing his degree at UGA, he began a thirty-year career in the natural resources field, spending the first three years with the US Forest Service and the next 27 with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, working primarily in Oregon and Georgia. Much of his work involved using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and data management to support the endangered species program and the National Wildlife Refuge System. The highlight of his career was spending 8 days on the USFWS’ Research Vessel Tiglax surveying seabirds in the Aleutian Islands, where seeing millions of auklets sailing through the air in tight formations around the islands was truly amazing. While living in Georgia, Steve became involved with the Georgia Ornithological Society (GOS), serving as Business Manager, Conservation Chair, and eventually President. He created Georgia’s first statewide birding listserv in 1998 and its first Facebook birding page ten years later. Steve loved leading field trips with his wife and birding partner, Rachel. Sharing a love of birds, and helping others get their first scope-views of new birds was one of the greatest joys of this time with GOS and continues to this day. For the last 10 years, Steve, and his wife Rachel have been spending a week each fall volunteering with the Cedar Grove Ornithological Research Station in Sheboygan County. They have so enjoyed their fall trips to Wisconsin that they decided to move to the state permanently after Steve retired in 2021. They have settled into a house on the Milwaukee River in Grafton and are thoroughly enjoying the new birds that drop into their yard and the adjacent river. Steve and Rachel look forward to exploring their new state and meeting other Wisconsin birders. |
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Wendy Schultz |
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Dar Tiede bookstore@wsobirds.org Dar Tiede is a lifelong resident of Wisconsin, born and raised in Appleton. He graduated from Miami (of Ohio) University with a BS in Applied Science and has a master's degree from the Institute of Paper Chemistry (formerly located in Appleton). He has worked in product development and research his entire working career and is looking forward to retirement in the near future. His wife (of 42 years!) Cathy and he have spent 23 years in Wisconsin Rapids where they raised their three children. They moved back to the Appleton area in 2000. Dar took an interest in birding at an early grade school age when his father took him trout fishing. He is the coordinator for two Christmas Bird Counts (Appleton and Wisconsin Rapids), and conducts several Breeding Bird Surveys with Cathy as his assistant. His best self-found Wisconsin birds over the years have been a Clark's Nutcracker and Curlew Sandpiper. |
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Thomas R. Schultz trschultz@centurytel.net Tom has worked as an artist/illustrator for over 35 years, and has had his work published in the National Geographic's Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Peterson's A Field Guide to Warblers of North America, and various other publications. Tom grew up in Fond du Lac, and received his BS in Wildlife Ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tom joined the WSO Board as Field Trips Coordinator, and has also served as Vice President and President. Tom is an active birder with a strong interest in field identification – which is an outgrowth of his bird illustration work. He has lived in the Green Lake area with his wife, Wendy, since 1983. |
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Dan Pickarts Dan grew up on a dairy farm in south central Wisconsin. As a child he and his brothers always spent their free time roaming the woods or the marsh behind the family farm where they hunted, fished, and trapped. After graduating high school, he joined the military and spent 22 years serving his country. Now he lives in Lodi with his wife, Donna, and their two sons, Gabriel and Kyle. He has always had a calling for being outdoors no matter what the weather is outside. With being outside so much he witnessed a lot of the beauty of wildlife and the outdoors and has passed this onto his sons. They, too, have come to appreciate all the things nature has to offer. He came across the Honey Creek Preserve years ago and fell in love with the property. To him, it has to be one of the most unique properties he has ever been on, from the beautiful trout stream flowing through the limestone valley to the large mature hardwood forest. There is so much diversity and with that comes a lot of unique wildlife with those areas. He loves boating with his family on Lake Wisconsin and attending his sons' sporting events. He now works for the VA hospital in Madison. When not doing any of those things you generally find him out at Honey Creek! |
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Tim Hahn A lifelong resident of southeastern Wisconsin, Tim’s passion for nature was handed down by his dad, Ed, former WSO Youth Education chair. You might call the Bald Eagle his spark bird, from all the days “fishing” with his dad, but it took years for the spark to light anything. In 2002 Tim needed a summer hobby, so he started back yard bird feeding, which led to a job at Wild Birds Unlimited. There he met Paula, Anne, Erik, and Tom, who are all inspiring birding mentors and dear friends to this day. Tim has been a member of WSO since 2005 when he saw a Northern Hawk Owl at Harrington Beach State Park while on a WSO field trip. Since then, Tim has done big sits, big days, and a big year. He’s chased birds, given up on chasing, and then took up chasing birds again. And with each day spent on the birding trail, Tim’s interest in birds has grown into a passion for conservation. Currently Tim serves as vice president of the Benjamin F. Goss Bird Club in Waukesha, which predates the WSO by 11 years! He covers five counties for the WI eBird Review Team, he leads bird walks for various events including the Horicon Marsh Bird Festival, and he coordinated Waukesha and Marinette Counties for the Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas II. When not birding, Tim can be found in his season seats at Brewers games, knocking down pins at local bowling alleys, brewing tasty beer, and pursing all sorts of other curiosities. |
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Quentin Yoerger records@wsobirds.org Quentin has been a birder for more than 20 years. He is a member of the Madison Audubon Society and Ned Hollister Bird Club out of Beloit, and enjoys leading field trips for both organizations. He has been the WSO Records Committee Chair since 2013. Growing up on a farm in southern Wisconsin amongst a family of hunters and fishermen, Quentin was exposed to nature on a daily basis. In addition to bird watching, another one of his passions is coaching. He has coached high school Track and Field each spring and Cross Country each fall for 30+ years. Professionally he works in the information technology field. Quentin lives in Evansville with his exceptionally patient wife, Ann. Quentin and Ann have two adult children, Geoff and Zoe. |
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Davor Grgic Davor is a native of Zagreb, Croatia but has lived in the US since high school and has made Wisconsin his home since undergrad college days at UW-Madison. He has had a keen interest in nature since childhood but his interest in birds really took off after taking an UW undergraduate ornithology course. It has not subsided since. After a 35-year career in IT management (and several other corporate staff functions), Davor retired from Kohler Co. in 2018. He now has more time to pursue a variety of interests which, among other things, include bird/nature conservation, photography, and application of IT to avian migration and other research. He and his wife Patti live in rural Elkhart Lake. They have 3 sons and are ecstatic to have recently become grandparents for the first time. Davor also represents the WSO on the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative's permanent steering committee. |
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Carl Schroeder Carl has a lifelong passion for birds that started on his ninth birthday with the gift of a Peterson Field Guide from his Grandma Been. Now in retirement, he is extending that passion beyond personal birding to support other birders and to promote bird conservation. His work experience in project management has lent itself to many volunteer efforts, including running political action committees and serving on the boards of churches and high schools. For ten years he was the Wisconsin Christmas Bird Count editor for Audubon. During that time, he also managed the merger of the WSO and Audubon CBC programs. He has been active in other citizen science activities as well, including a wind turbine bird and bat mortality study, USGS breeding bird surveys, Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlasing and owl, nightjar, frog and toad surveys for the DNR. |
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Chrissie Lindemann Chrissie has a lifelong love of nature and birds and a long-standing interest in conservation. She earned a Masters in Science degree in Environmental Education from Antioch College spending time in Vermont, New Hampshire and Ohio living at the Glen Helen Nature Center and enjoying an avian bird rescue and rehabilitation operation. In 1974 Chrissie was granted a Federal Bird Banding permit, which led her to WSO for a grant for color band to assess the movements of the American Goldfinch and as an Educational Method to turn on children to bird life. Chrissie and her stalwart lawyer husband, Gil Lindemann, thankfully shared similar interests and values. Together they raised three children while residing on a much explored ravine feeding into Lake Michigan and focus on adventuresome family travel to national parks in mutual support and their relationship with the natural world. Chrissie’s employment has included work with native plants, and leading groups at the Wehr Nature center as a Field Naturalist. She stepped back from work as her three children were born with family the focus, but returned to teach biology in the early 80’s just as computers entered our world. After running an early computer lab, she began her own computer consulting business for businesses and individual long term clients and this work continues to the present day. Chrissie’s long-standing work in conservation has included involvement with the preservation of the Donges Bay Gorge in Mequon, assistance with a conservation easement in Ozaukee County on the Milwaukee River, and together with the American Bird Conservancy, successful advocacy for bird friendly design that informed the final design of a large project in Sheboygan County. Currently Chrissie resides in Oostburg near Lake Michigan and a small swamp. In addition to a personal commitment to all things art and nature related, she has focused her energy on remodeling a small cottage by her own hand using salvage building materials where possible. She stewards her two English Setter dogs and an indoor cat named “Wren”. |
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Melissa Kesling (she/her) Melissa was introduced to birding 5 years ago. What started as a hike tagging along with a friend to find birds turned into one continuous hike looking for those birds for the last 5 years. She's been having fun exploring new areas in WI in search of new birds to add to her life list. Melissa is currently an Environmental Educator at Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Monona, WI. She first became involved with WSO after attending a hawk watch field trip at Harrington Beach in 2019. She remembers they didn’t see many hawks, but remembers how friendly and helpful everyone was. She says "It’s been a real pleasure meeting so many people at different WSO events, and now I am thankful for the opportunity and look forward to serving on the WSO board." |
