2006 Presentor's Bios

Chris Lockhart, Field Biologist, Florida Natural Areas Inventory

Chris joined FNAI as their Lygodium Specialist in November 2004, becoming more in tune with what is and isn't working to control the state's two invasive climbing ferns. After graduating from Purdue University years ago, and more recently completing her Master' degree at Florida Atlantic University with an emphasis in botany, Chris seems to have an affinity for invasive as well as native plants. Information from her research study on carrotwood led to this tree being added to the Florida Noxious Weed List. She remains the Carrotwood Task Force Chair for the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council. Chris has field experience in many Florida plant communities, but focusing mostly in southern Florida. She also enjoys involvement with environmental education opportunities. After several years of consulting with Habitat Specialists, Inc., Chris now works for Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI) as their "Lygodium Specialist," becoming more in tune with what is and isn't working to control the state's two invasive climbing ferns, and contributing to FNAI's statewide Invasive Plants Geodatabase. [Top]

email: chris@habitatspecialists.com

Eric Tillman, Wildlife Biologist, National Wildlife Research Center, APHIS, US Department of Agriculture

Wildlife Biologist with the USDA National Wildlife Research Center (NWRC), Florida Field Station in Gainesville, FL. The NWRC is the research arm of the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services' Wildlife Services Program. At the Gainesville field station, our primary emphasis is to develop and evaluate tools and techniques to resolve problems caused by the interaction of wild birds and society. Recent studies have focused on problems involving vultures, blackbirds, pigeons, monk parakeets, and crows. I have a Masters degree in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation from the University of Florida. [Top]

email: eric.a.tillman@aphis.usda.gov

Jim Cuda, Associate Professor, Entomology and Nemotology Department, University of Florida

Dr. Jim Cuda has been working at the University of Florida for the past 8 years as an assistant professor and has been in Florida since 1990. While working with Hillsborough County, the USDA and Texas A&M University, he has published over 70 papers. Most recently his focus is on the key elements of classical biological control of aquatic and terrestrial weeds that have invaded Florida and threathen the southeastern US. He's been on foriegn exploriation trips, tested host specificity, and the reslease and evaluation of promising natural enemies of exotic weeds and is also interested in research in insect-plant interactions, insect parasitoid biology and ecology, and modeling populations of weed biological control agents. He also serves as consultant to the University's Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants and am contributing to the development a statewide extension program on biological control of arthropod pests and weeds in Florida. [Top]

email: jcuda@ufl.edu

Aaron Adams, Fisheries Habitat Ecology Program, Mote Marine Laboratory

Present Positions
- Senior Scientist and Program Manager, Fisheries Habitat Ecology
Program, Center for Fisheries Enhancement, Mote Marine Laboratory,
Charlotte Harbor Field Station
- Director of Operations and Research, Bonefish & Tarpon Unlimited

Education
Ph.D. 2001. Environmental Biology. University of Massachusetts Boston.
M.A. 1993. Marine Science. College of William and Mary, Virginia
Institute of Marine Science.
B.A. 1987. St. Mary's College of Maryland

Ongoing Research
- Influence of anthropogenic habitat alterations on estuarine fishes
- Quantifying habitat use by juvenile snook
- Identification of juvenile habitats for bonefish in the Caribbean
- Species composition of the bonefish fishery in the Caribbean
- Influence of red tide on adult snook during spawning season
- Effect of Diadema antillarum (spiny black urchin) abundance on coral reefs
- Nursery habitats of Caribbean coral reef fishes [Top]

email: aadams@mote.org
website: http://www.gulfbase.org/person/view.php?uid=aadams

Jim Burch, Supervisory Botanist, Big Cypress National Preserve

James N. Burch has resided in southern Florida for over 20 years, and has held several positions that deal with stewardship of natural systems. He is originally from northern New York, where he spent much time studying in the Adirondack Mountains, and received a Baccalaureate degree from SUNY, Plattsburg, New York. Subsequently he received graduate degrees form Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, FL, and from Florida International University, Miami, FL, and is a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, the Florida Academy of Sciences, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has held positions with National Audubon Society at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Collier County Natural Resources Department, Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, the US Geologic Survey Biological Resources Division, Florida Gulf Coast University, and conducted research in several locations in southern Florida and Latin America. He is currently employed as a Resources Management Supervisory Botanist with the National Park Service at Big Cypress National Preserve. [Top]

email: jim_burch@nps.gov

Kenny Krysko, University of Florida

Dr. Kenneth Krysko an Ecologist/Systematist/Herpetologist in the Division of Herpetology at the Florida Museum of Natural History(FLMNH), and part of the Graduate Faculty and Courtesy Faculty in the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, University of Florida(UF), Gainesville. His research involves molecular genetics, systematics, biogeography, ecology, evolution, reproduction, behavior, conservation biology, and biological invasions. He conducts extensive field research and serves as one of the few experts on exotic herpetofaunal species in the southeastern United States. The FLMNH has the most diverse collection of exotic amphibians and reptiles from Florida. [Top]

email: kenneyk@flmnh.ufl.edu
website: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/herpetology/kk/kkresearch.htm

Todd Campbell, University of Tampa

Dr. Campbell has over 20 years of professional experience as a biologist, with broad experience ranging from academic researcher to environmental regulator to biological consultant. Between 1984 and 1986, Dr. Campbell conducted his MS Thesis research on the effects of aquatic invertebrate predators on two species of anuran tadpoles. Between 1986 and 1993, he was employed as an environmental regulator and biological consultant working in nearly every county in Florida and in the Mojave Desert, often working on very large projects with complex environmental issues affecting a wide range of taxa. Dr. Campbell has been studying the establishment, spread, impacts, and management of introduced species for over 13 years and is recognized as an expert in this field. He began this line of inquiry in 1993 with his dissertation research (University of Tennessee), an experimental analysis of the effects of Cuban brown anoles (Anolis sagrei) on native green anoles (Anolis carolinensis) using dredge-spoil islands as experimental units. During his 3-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with Dr. Daniel Simberloff at the Institute for Biological Invasions, Dr. Campbell constructed a web site for the Institute, won funding for exotic plant surveys, and continued his work on introduced Anolis lizards in Florida, including a study of whole assemblages of introduced Anolis lizards in south Florida and a study of morphological plasticity of A. sagrei in different habitats. In 2002, he won funding to study the distribution, spread, and impacts of introduced Nile monitor lizards (Varanus niloticus) in Cape Coral, Florida. This high-profile, collaborative project has received considerable attention in the popular media. As an Assistant Professor of Biology at the University of Tampa, he has continued working on all of the abovementioned projects, and recently started a study of the spread, reproduction, effects, and potential for management of the introduced Cuban treefrog (Osteopilus septentrionalis). [Top]

email: tcampbell@ut.edu
website: http://utweb.ut.edu/Faculty/Tcampbell/

Peter C. Stelzer & Amanda Peck, Picayune State Forest

Peter C. Stelzer has been a permanent Florida resident for over 20 years. He obtained his Bachelor's degree in General Biology from Florida Gulf Coast University in 2004. Peter has worked in the Picayune Strand State Forest for over three years; starting as a volunteer, working with RCW research, and progressing into a full time biologist. He is recently employed part-time with the division of forestry as an OPS Biological Scientist II, and full time as an independently contracted biologist for Collier Soil and Water Conservation District. His past two years have been devoted entirely to the Picayune Strand State Forest Invasive Exotic Plant Mapping Project.

Amanda Peck is originally from the southwestern corner of upstate New York. She got her B.S. in Environmental and Forest Biology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, NY in 2001. After a few odd jobs, she went on to get her M.S. in Wildlife Biology (with a thesis entitled: Long-term monitoring and predictive modeling of mammals on the Savannah River Site, South Carolina) from Clemson University in Clemson, SC in 2004. She has been living in the Naples area and working with FL Division of Forestry since May 2005 as the biologist for the Picayune Strand State Forest. As the DOF biologist, she is involved with projects ranging from working with multiple state and federal agencies to coordinate hydrological restoration, to developing and implementing long range habitat improvement and exotic control plans, and monitoring threatened and endangered flora and fauna. [Top]

Michael Knight

Mike Knight currently lives in Naples, FL but comes originally from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. He completed his bachelors degree in wildlife management at Virginia Tech, followed by a masters degree in biology from James Madison University. Currently, Mike is in the very final stages of his doctoral work through the University of Memphis. His research focuses on invasive species ecology and animal behavior. Mike has over 15 years experience as a biologist in southwest Florida and currently works as a professor of environmental studies at Florida Gulf Coast University and as a biologist for the National Audubon Society at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. [Top]