THEO WITSELL, CO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF ConseRvation officer (cco)

Theo Witsell works to explore our native grasslands and gathers and synthesizes data on their ecological and historical significance, providing scientific direction and ecological context for the program. He is regarded as one of the most experienced field botanists in the Southeast, and he has some of the sharpest eyes in the business. Theo has worked as senior botanist and ecologist for the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission since 2000 and in 2013 was invited to serve as a research associate with BRIT. He publishes regularly and has authored or co-authored more than 30 scientific publications and book chapters, including the description of new species. In addition to his scientific expertise, Theo is intimately familiar with practical on-the-ground management of natural areas and conservation strategies and brings unique expertise in this area. 

reed noss Ph.D., chief science adviser

Reed Noss is a writer, photographer, lecturer, and consultant in natural history, ecology, and conservation. He was formerly Provost’s Distinguished Research Professor of Biology at the University of Central Florida. He received a B.S. in education from the University of Dayton, an M.S. in ecology from the University of Tennessee, and a Ph.D. in wildlife ecology from the University of Florida. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Conservation Biology, Science Editor for Wild Earth magazine, President of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), and President of the North American Section of SCB. He is an Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His recent research topics include disturbance (especially fire) ecology; ecosystem conservation and restoration; road ecology; and vulnerability of species and ecosystems to climate change. He has more than 350 publications, including eight books. His most recent books are Forgotten Grasslands of the South: Natural History and Conservation (Island Press, 2013) and Fire Ecology of Florida and the Southeastern Coastal Plain (University Press of Florida, 2018).

Layla Dunlap, Director of Finance and Operations

Layla Dunlap is our Director of Finance and Operations. After living out west for over 20 years, Layla decided to come back to her hometown of Clarksville to help us achieve our restoration and conservation goals across the Southeast. While living in Montana, she honed her botany skills as well as her project and personnel management skills. Layla recently worked for the Montana Department of Agriculture where she managed multiple regulatory programs and supervised over 20 employees. Layla earned her Master’s of Science degree from the University of Idaho in 2015 and focused her research on different techniques for growing native plants for restoration. She has multiple years experience in growing native plants and conducting rare plant surveys in the western U.S. Layla’s favorite native plants include Pyrola asarifolia, Lupinus sericeus, Xerophyllum tenax, and Lewisia rediviva.

Cooper Breeden, Plant conservation Manager

Cooper serves as SGI's Plant Conservation Manager and dually serves as statewide coordinator for the Tennessee Plant Conservation Alliance. Cooper works directly on conservation of rare species and communities in a variety of ways. On the ground, this involves collaborating with the appropriate partners to develop conservation strategies for the species or communities in question (see this story for an example). Cooper also curates a Conservation Seed Bank that targets vulnerable populations of rare or declining grassland species.

JENNIFER CESKA, C0-SUPERVISOR GEORGIA GRASSLANDS COORDINATOR

Jennifer is the Conservation Coordinator for the State Botanical Garden of Georgia and State Coordinator for the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance. A grant provided by the Riverview Foundation allowed SGI and the State Botanical Garden of Georgia to create a position for a grasslands coordinator in Georgia and surrounding states. Jennifer, the co-supervisor of the Georgia coordinator, is well suited for the role. Jennifer’s expertise is in working to protect imperiled plant species through a number of different recovery actions and her passion and skill in networking and assembling expert teams for conservation projects is extraordinary.

Megan crapo, restoration, inventory, and monitoring technician

Megan is SGI’s Restoration, Inventory, and Monitoring Technician. She grew up in Phoenix, Arizona and began her love for botany, restoration, and field work while studying biology at Lake Forest College. During her undergraduate career and after, Megan has spent a couple of field seasons doing vegetation monitoring for the Inventory and Monitoring program with the National Park Service, seed collection for the Seeds of Success Program, prairie restoration in Illinois with Lake Forest Open Lands and the red spruce restoration with the Forest Service. She is excited for the opportunity to work for SGI combining both of her interests in restoration and monitoring to conserve and restore the grasslands of the Southeast!

MARCELLO DE vITIS Ph.D., Director of the Native Seed Program

Marcello is SGI's Director of the Native Seed Program and oversees projects involving native seed collection, processing and use in grassland restorations, including the Seeds of Success Southeast Program, which will ensure that native seed collections are performed across the Southeast for the Seeds of Success national program. His experience spans from research in seed ecology applied to species restoration and management, to seed conservation, production and policy. After training in plant ecology and conservation between Italy and the UK, in 2016 he took part to the EU funded Native Seed Science, Technology and Conservation project, one of the largest native seed initiatives in Europe, and in 2019, he moved to the U.S. to work at the Chicago Botanic Garden on seed ecology & restoration projects. After serving on the Board of the International Network for Seed-based Restoration for five years, he serves it now as the ambassador for the Southeast U.S. Marcello believes that collaboration, research, education, communication, and outreach are all equally crucial to achieve results in restoration and sustainable development.

Jeremy French, Director of Stewardship

Jeremy is jointly affiliated with SGI and our partner, Quail Forever, working with 10 partner organizations to implement the restoration of thousands of acres of grassland on private lands in central and western Tennessee and Kentucky funded by a multimillion dollar USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Regional Conservation Partnership Program grant. Jeremy’s love of grasslands began in childhood in the Everglades of south Florida and continued as a biology student at William Penn University, IA where he conducted research on herpetofauna response to bison grazing in tall grass prairie remnants and restoration of oak savanna habitat. Jeremy now brings his experience working with herpetofauna and as habitat management specialist working in critically endangered grasslands to 26 counties inTennessee assisting with RCPP projects.

DEVAN GEARHART, ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT & TECHNICAL CLERK

Devan is SGI’s administrative assistant and technical clerk; essentially, the organization’s glue. She is a graduate of APSU with a degree in biology and in science education and has several years of experience in administrative support. Before joining the SGI team, Devan had volunteered with SGI at the Dunbar Cave prairie restoration. Contact Devan if you have any questions about SGI. (devan.gearhart@segrasslands.org)

LYNNE WELDEN, Botany/ECOLOGY TECHNICIAN

Lynne Welden is a botany/ecology technician with the Chattanooga branch of SGI. Originally from Alabama, their love of native plants budded in the foothills of the Appalachians and bloomed when they began assisting with rare plant surveys for the Tennessee Natural Heritage Program. Since starting with SGI, they primarily work with the City of Chattanooga Parks Department doing detailed research for an ongoing project that will restore native grasslands to various public parks throughout the city.

jared gorrell, graduate research assistant

Jared is a Graduate Student for the Biology Department at Austin Peay State University. He grew up in the former prairies of central Illinois, became enthralled by grasslands in the remnant sand prairies of the Illinois River Valley, and decided to become a botanist as a result. In 2019 Jared completed his undergraduate degree in botany at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2019.

In addition to plants, Jared loves looking for birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects and spends most of his free time tracking down species new to him.

LAURA HUNT, volunteer coordinator

Laura began volunteering for SGI in 2018 while she was an undergraduate at Lipscomb University. After completing her degree in Environmental and Sustainability Science, she joined the team as our Volunteer Coordinator in 2021. Laura’s outgoing personality, knowledge of grasslands and resolute curiosity makes her the perfect person to match SGI’s volunteers with opportunities to contribute to our conservation work as well as grow our volunteer base. Whether it is connecting our nature-loving volunteers with projects in the field or finding research work for our less outdoorsy participants, Laura is the conduit that makes community science happen.

Zach Irick, Southern Appalachian Grasslands ECOLOGIST

Zach serves as the Southern Appalachian Grasslands Ecologist for SGI based out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Zach works with a variety of partners to accomplish on the ground research and restoration activities of rare plant species and plant communities across the Southern Appalachian region. 

Phoebe Judge, native seed program manager

Phoebe serves as SGI’s Native Seed Program Manager. She organizes and conducts fieldwork for the Seeds of Success Southeast Program, which involves collecting native grassland plant seed across the Southeast for the purposes of seedbanking and restoration. She also assists the Native Seed Program Director with planning and fieldwork for other native seed conservation projects. 

Phoebe is originally from Vermont, but she has been working and studying in the Southeast for the past five years. Her past research projects include studying wetland plant traits in subtropical marshes, identifying drivers of understory plant diversity in longleaf pine woodlands, and assessing the physiological responses of longleaf pine sandhill species to hydraulic redistribution.

Alaina Krakowiak, Central Appalachian Grasslands Ecologist

Alaina serves as the Central Appalachian Grasslands Coordinator based in Roanoke, Virginia. Alaina works with a variety of partners to study, restore, and advocate for the conservation of grasslands throughout her region. Alaina initially fell in love with grasslands while conducting a floristic inventory of a remnant site near Chattanooga, Tennessee. She studied the conservation genetics of an endangered species from this site (Clematis fremontii) as a graduate student in Colorado, where she spent her summers working as a field botanist with the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. Alaina is happy to be back home in the Southeast, and is excited to get to work on protecting the landscapes she loves.

holly latta, Seeds of success Collection Coordinator

Holly serves as SGI's Seeds of Success Collection Coordinator. She prepares herbarium specimens and conducts comprehensive germination tests, ensuring the viability and integrity of collected seeds from the Seeds of Success program. Holly most recently worked in the Great Plains and in Florida performing plant diversity surveys. She also spent several years working in microbiological laboratories. Holly obtained her Master of Science degree from Austin Peay State University in 2022. Holly's favorite plant genera are Liatris, Equisetum, and Achillea. Beyond her professional pursuits, she finds joy in birding, reading, and maintaining an extensive houseplant collection, reflecting her deep appreciation of nature and conservation.

chip morgan, gis analyst

Chip started as a volunteer leading the Witness Trees Project, which mapped the locations of over 21,000 trees from historical survey records dating from the 1780s - 1810s in central Tennessee. That only whet Chip’s appetite for mapping, and now he works with the team on numerous mapping related projects including using the advanced Ecozone methodology developed by noted mapping veteran Steve Simon.

jodi morgan, youth outreach coordinator

Jodi, a retired software engineer from Lockheed Martin, joined SGI in January 2022 as the Youth Outreach Coordinator. Jodi has a life-long affair with butterflies. She found her way to SGI from butterflies, to gardening, to native plants, to learning about Southeastern Grasslands. Recently, she assisted a boy scout obtain his Eagle Scout by planting a pollinator garden. She realized the gap existing with youth and Southeastern Grasslands. Jodi is hoping to inspire youth to study plant biology fields.

gabrielle patterson, tribal liaison

Gabrielle serves as a Tribal Liaison and is a tribal member of the Choctaw-Apache Tribe in Ebarb, Louisiana. She has a background in education and previously taught history at the community college level. Her MA in history specifically focused on Native America/early America, where she examined American history from a Native American perspective. Her research interests include first contact among Natives and non-Natives, Christian missionary relations with Natives, and reading accounts of Spanish and French explorers in the New World. Her MEd in community college leadership allowed her to focus a portion of her coursework on how to assist American Indian students succeed in higher education. Gabrielle is also working on her EdD in Adult Education Leadership from the University of Arkansas. Given her immense interest in education and ethnohistory, she is excited to use her background to strengthen SGI's relationships with Southeastern tribes and collaborate on biodiversity conservation throughout the Southeastern United States. In her spare time, Gabrielle enjoys hiking, camping, kayaking, and spending time with her two dogs—Sir Jasper and Lady Jewel.

Brynn pedrick, native seed program communications officer

Brynn is the Communications Officer for the Native Seed Program. She has a background in zoology, environmental science, and conservation, and is pursuing her MA in Science Writing from Johns Hopkins University. She believes in the power of narrative to communicate science to the public, and her writing has appeared in Hakai Magazine, Popular Science, She Explores, and LOST Magazine, among others.

Beyond science writing and nonprofit development, Brynn enjoys photography, horseback riding, hikes with her dog, and planning road trips and adventures overseas.

Gus Rasich, native seed program Seed Technician

Gus is working as a Seed Technician at SGI for the 2023 season. His interest in native seeds started when he began volunteering for SGI in August, 2022. Gus attended Virginia Commonwealth University, where he studied scientific illustration before entering a year of AmeriCorps service as an Environmental Educator. When he moved to Tennessee, he was introduced to SGI's work and is excited to have the opportunity to participate in grassland restoration efforts.

Vero Tessier, native seed program Seed Technician

Vero is a Seed Technician through the Seeds of Success-Southeast program at SGI. She grew up in the Blackland Prairie region of North Texas and gained a passion for grasslands while doing prairie restoration work during her undergraduate years at Austin College. She has since done vegetation monitoring in longleaf pine and tallgrass prairie ecosystems, as well as in the grasslands of the South Texas Sandsheet. She plans to eventually return to school to study plant ecology.

Corlee Thomas-hill, Tribal Liaison

Located in Cherokee, NC, Corlee is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). She received her BA in History from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and previously worked for the EBCI as a GIS Technician researching historical EBCI lands, working with Natural Resources, and mapping for Wildland Fire. She then coordinated the Remember the Removal (RTR) bike ride for the EBCI from 2019 to 2022, a memorial bike ride that travels the Northern Route of the Trail of Tears in partnership with the Cherokee Nation. Corlee is a 2015 RTR alumni rider, which inspired her interest in supporting conservation efforts in the natural areas along the trail, including Port Royal State Historic Park, Pea Ridge National Military Park, and Dunbar Cave State Park, among others. She’s been involved in Indigenous land movements and climate change activism since 2016. In her free time, Corlee enjoys mountain biking, road biking, adventuring with her dogs, and spending time outdoors being active.

Alan Weakley, ph.D., CHIEF botanist

Alan Weakley, is widely regarded as one the leading botanists and plant community ecologists in the eastern U.S. with extensive on-the-ground experience in all Southeastern states. He holds a B.S. degree in botany from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a Ph.D. in botany from Duke University. He currently serves as Director of the Herbarium at the North Carolina Botanical Garden and adjunct professor at UNC.  In his 40-year career, he has served as Senior Regional Ecologist for The Nature Conservancy and Chief Ecologist for NatureServe. He served as Trustee of the N.C. Natural Heritage Trust Fund from 2008-2013 and Chair of the N.C. Plant Conservation Program’s Scientific Advisory Committee. He is the author of Flora of the Southern & Mid-Atlantic States, a botanical manual covering about 7000 plant species, now the standard in use across much of the southeastern U.S., and has been a leader in the development of the U.S. National Vegetation Classification System.  

Alan's University of North Carolina Page

Alan's Linkedin Page

zach wood, georgia grasslands coordinator

Zach is a joint appointment with SGI and the State Botanical Garden of Georgia at the University of Georgia. Zach provides leadership and technical assistance to land managing organizations and individuals in Georgia, Alabama and South Carolina whose goal it is to restore and manage native grassland habitats. Zach’s expertise is in prescribed fire as a land management tool for endangered species in the coastal plains ecoregion. Zach is also a vocal advocate for management of these grasslands in Georgia.