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Biographies
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Dee Ann Armstrong
Dee Ann Armstrong has been the Education Coordinator for Blackland Prairie Raptor Center, with more than eight years of experience in raptor rehabilitation and education. She has presented over 300 raptor outreach education programs for thousands of people in North Texas. She holds state and federal permits which allow her to possess and maintain raptors for educational purposes.
| Sandy Beach
Sandy Beach is the Biology Lab Manager at Austin College in Sherman. He has a Master’s Degree in Zoology from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. For several years he served as Regional Director and Secretary of the Texas Ornithological Society. Every summer Sandy leads birdwatching field trips for youth clubs in Grayson County.
| Omar Bocanegra
Omar Bocanegra is currently the Endangered Species Coordinator for the Arlington Field Office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Bocanegra earned both his Bachelor and Master's degrees at the University of Texas at Arlington. His Master's research was focused on the reproductive ecology of the desert firetail damselfly.
| Sandy Campbell
Sandy Campbell, a member of the American Bluebird Society, says she became interested in bluebirds when a few showed up at her home after she moved to the Texoma area. She set up ten nest boxes for bluebirds on a trial and error basis, but she had difficulty finding information appropriate to North Texas, so she began researching and then educating others with her findings.
Now she has set up a bluebird trail at the Heard Museum in McKinney that is monitored regularly, with reports going to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. She has also set up and helps monitor a bluebird trail in Sherman at Woodlawn Country Club, and helped numerous individuals and groups with bluebird projects as well as boxes for other birds.
| Rick Cantu
Rick Cantu was born in south Texas and grew up in Rockport, TX, where he was exposed to birds and other wildlife at an early age. A 20-acre woodlot in front of his house (where Rick spent a majority of his time) is one of the key reasons he pursued a career in conserving and protecting our wild places. Rick is currently the assistant manager at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge and has spent the last 13 years working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at National Wildlife Refuges in Missouri, South Dakota and Kansas. Rick received a B.S. in Range and Wildlife Management from Texas A&M - Kingsville, and his work now centers on managing and protecting uplands and wetlands, along with the wonderful creatures found in these areas.
| Kay Casey
A career in advising high school publications and teaching photography and journalism uniquely qualifies Kay Casey to spark your interest, answer your questions and guide your explorations into nature photography. The Austin College graduate earned an M.A. in journalism at Texas A&M-Commerce, and studied with master photographers and artists on her way to becoming an award winning teacher and communicator. Skill with film and digital imaging as the photographer’s tools combined with the artist’s training in composition, lighting and communicative techniques are included in her workshops.
| Bill Cashin
Bill Cashin is the treasurer of the Grayson County Master Gardeners. He completed the Texas A&M Master Gardening course in 2004 and has been certified as a Master Gardener Plant Propagation Specialist. Bill's favorite plants to propagate are roses and last winter Bill propagated over 150 roses in his garage.
| Jack Chiles
Jack is a local birder that has been birding Hagerman on an almost weekly basis, under the tutelage of Karl Haller, for over 15 years. He has also birded over an extensive area of the U.S., Mexico and Canada. He has a wide interest in nature and is a serious amateur nature photographer. Jack has studied bird songs for years and is quick to point out how much this adds to the pleasure of birding. He is eager to share what he knows and really enjoys seeing people getting excited about bird sightings.
| Dale Clark
Dale Clark founded the Dallas County Lepidopterist Society.in 1995. He owns a butterfly farm in Glenn Heights, south of Dallas, called Butterflies Unlimited, a supplier of butterfly and moth pupae. Mr. Clark provides 50 species of live Texas native butterflies to zoos and other exhibits throughout the country. He is also the editor of the News of the Lepidopterists’ Society, the international newsletter devoted to the study of butterflies and moths.
| Donna Cole
Donna Cole is a native to the North Central Texas area and is a certified Texas Master Naturalist. Her background is in computers & the travel industry but loves to spend her free time teaching children (and adults) about nature. She credits her parents for instilling in her a great interest in natural history, archaeology and geology.
| Nancy Collins
Nancy Collins, co-owner of the Wild Bird Center in Denton, along with her partner, Owen Yost, writes “Bird Poop” - a monthly compendium of bird knowledge. She is an avid watcher and feeder of Texas’ wild birds (and a few squirrels), a member of the International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council, National Wildlife Federation, the National Wildlife Rehabilitators’ Association, Audubon Society and Native Plant Society of Texas, and a Texas Master Naturalist.
| Barbara Corbin
Barbara Corbin is a native Texan and has lived in Lucas since 1977. A graduate of UT Arlington (Arlington State) with a B.S. in Biology, she has worked as a research technician in neurophysiology at Southwestern Medical School, and has taught high school Life, Earth and Physical Science, in Arlington and Allen.
Corbin is now head of circulation for Collin College Library, Frisco Campus.
A hobby beekeeper since 1980, Corbin at present has six hives. Beekeeping runs in her family, she states; her grandfather and great grandparents were beekeepers. She is a long time member of the Texas Beekeepers Association, as well as past president, vice president and treasurer of Collin County Hobby Beekeepers Association. Corbin enjoys gardening and birding, as well as working on her bird life list. She is a regular volunteer in the Visitor Center at the Refuge on weekends.
| Ronette Cornelison
Ronette Cornelison has a B.S. in Geology from East Texas State Univ. and an M.S. in Earth Science from Texas A&M Commerce. She is the president of a geologic consulting firm that works in a 4-state region, and has worked in the oil field for 15 years. Ronette has taught Physical Geology, Historical Geology, Meteorology, Earth Science and Geography at East Texas State, Texas A&M Commerce, Grayson County College, SOSU, and El Centro Community College.
| George Diggs
George Diggs has been a faculty member in the Biology Department of Austin College since 1981. He is a botanist whose research interests include the flora of Texas, floristics of tropical Latin America, and the taxonomy of the Ericaceae (blueberry family). He has done field work in Africa, Australia, Mexico, Central and South America,Canada, and the U.S. In 1999, Diggs co-authored Shinners & Mahler’s Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas, the first fully illustrated flora for any part of Texas. Diggs and co-authors also earlier this year published the first volume of the Illustrated Flora of East Texas.
| Marc Edwards
Marc Edwards has served as the president of the Dallas Chapter of The National Wild Turkey Federation for the last eleven years and is also a member of the Texoma Chapter. Edwards is a resident of Grayson County, living on a farm outside Gordonville. He owns Edwards Exotic Expeditions and has been a professional hunting guide and outfitter for 25 years. Edwards has harvested the Grand Slam of Wild Turkeys (Rio Grande, Merriams, Eastern and Osceola). He has called in over 200 birds to be harvested.
| H. B. Garnett
Dr. Hugh Garnett is a retired professor of economics at Austin College. He states however, “But I have always been a "naturalist" and "birder" at heart. I have lived on Lake Texoma since 1981 and have been fortunate to have bald eagles in the winter, and wild turkeys all year around in the yard. I also got the first confirmed sighting (Texas Bird Records Committee) of red throated loons in Texas back in the early 80's.”
He is also an avid photographer, and have more recently switched to digital photography. He is a life member of the Native Prairie Association of Texas, a member of the Native Plant Society of Texas, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Thomsen Foundation (a 600 acre nature preserve in Montague county founded by one of the founders of Texas Instruments in the early 1980's). Dr. Garnett earned a BA at Yale, MSc(Econ) at the London School of Economics, and his PhD at the University of California, Berkeley.
| Steve Goldsmith
Dr. Steve Goldsmith is Professor of Biology and Dean of Sciences at Austin College. He has been at Austin College since 1993. His courses have included topics such as Evolution, Behavior, and Ecology. He has taught January Terms on the Natural History of Hawaii and the Natural History of the Desert Southwest.
Research Interests:
Ecology and evolution of insect mating systems and reproductive behavior, especially longhorned beetles.
Ecology of Hawaiian montane wet forest, especially relationships between longhorned beetles, Koa, and 'akiapola'au, an endangered honeycreeper.
| Karl Haller
Karl Haller graduated from Bethany College in 1939 with a degree in Biology. This same year, he discovered the Sutton’s Warbler in West Virginia (now considered to be a hybrid of the Northern Parula and the Yellow-throated Warbler). In 1941 he received an MS degree from West Virginia University and journeyed to the James Bay region of Canada with a Carnegie Museum expedition to collect natural history specimens. After many years in the Air Force, he joined the Biology Department at Austin College. He served as a lab coordinator, and taught field ornithology and bird taxidermy. Karl has been leading birding trips at Hagerman NWR since 1965, compiling Christmas Bird Counts for many years, and mentoring quite a few budding ornithologists along the way. In 1995, Karl received the National Wildlife Refuge Association’s Volunteer of the Year award for his 30 years of volunteer service.
| Bruce Hysmith
Hysmith is a 34-year-veteran fisheries biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He began his career in the Coastal Fisheries Division at the Perry R. Bass Marine Research Station near Palacios in 1974. He transferred to north Texas as fisheries biologist in charge of the Lake Texoma Fisheries Station and responsible for managing fishes in all the public waters of eight north Texas counties in 1977. In addition to Lake Texoma, the district includes, among others, Lakes Lavon, Ray Roberts, Hubert H. Moss, Amon G. Carter, and Bridgeport. Bruce holds a MS degree in Fish and Wildlife management from Oklahoma State University and a BS degree in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Central Oklahoma. Upon graduation from OSU, he was hired as a research zoologist for the Dow Chemical Company doing shrimp aquaculture research and development in Freeport, Texas.
| Mark Klym
Mark Klym is coordinator of the Texas Wildscapes and Texas Hummingbird Roundup programs at Texas Parks and Wildlife. He received baccalaureate degrees in Biological Science and in Fisheries & Wildlife Management from Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste Marie (pronounced Sue Sainte Marie), MI. Mark followed the hummingbirds to Texas in 1999 to work with Texas Parks and Wildlife. He is co-author of the recently published book “Hummingbirds of Texas” by Texas A&M Press.
| Susan Knowles
Originally from Indiana, Susan Knowles began teaching in the Dallas area. She was the first Environmental Science teacher in Denison, then took the course to Colbert Schools after retiring from Texas. Now she is a retired teacher from both Texas and Oklahoma but continues to teach part-time in Oklahoma. Knowles has incorporated all the the natural resources and professionals available in the area to open the awareness of her students; she has brought many students to the living laboratory of Hagerman NWR over the years. Knowles is active in the Friends of Hagerman.
| Gene Lenore
A native of Farmersville, TX, Gene Lenore earned a journalism degree from East Texas State U., now Texas A&M - Commerce. After military service in the Army, he worked as a reporter and editor on Texas newspapers, then in the field of TV news as a writer/ photographer at WFAA-TV in Dallas.
In broadcasting, Gene has worked as an TV assistant news director, on-air reporter, anchor and public affairs show host in Tucson, AZ, a news writer for Voice of America and National Public Radio in Washington, D. C., and an assignments editor, on-air reporter, and public affairs host at a TV station in Tyler.
Gene has worked for a KIKM Radio, the Denison Herald, KTEN –TV and KXII – TV where he served as news director and anchor in the 1980s. He established a publishing company in Sherman in the late 1980s that produced local, regional and national publication, and his own video production company, Red River Productions, in the late 90s. Red River Productions has produced several award winning videos including a prestigious Telly Award for a DVD produced for Sherman High School.
Gene also works as a freelance television scriptwriter with Fiveson Entertainment which as produced a number of television documentaries for the Smithsonian Channel, and writes for Texoma Living Magazine. He is currently working on a documentary film on the building of Denison Dam and the creation of Lake Texoma.
| Dick Malnory
Dick Malnory is a member of the Texas Woodcarvers Guild and the Texoma Woodcarvers Guild. He has been carving for 13 years. A bird enthusiast from childhood, Dick specializes in birds and has won many blue ribbons including Best of Show. Dick and other members of the Texoma Woodcarvers Guild will have many carvings on display and will tell about their carving methods.
| Keith McKnight
Keith McKnight is the Regional Biologist for the Texas Field Office of Ducks Unlimited. Before that, he was their Director of Conservation Programs. Keith has a Ph.D. in Zoology and Wildlife Science from Auburn University, and a B.S. and M.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences from Texas A&M. He has taught courses in ornithology and ecology at Auburn. His varied research efforts include work on the North Slope of Alaska as a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service volunteer.
| Wayne Meyer
Wayne Meyer began birding seriously at the age of thirteen when his father, brother and the Sibleys (yes, that Sibley) started observing the birds of Connecticut. Since then Meyer has birded extensively on both coasts and in Texas and Oklahoma, finally realizing his life's desire to be paid for looking at birds when he became a Professor of Biology at Austin College. Trained as an avian physiologist, Meyer has studied the ability of birds to tell time and is currently investigating song learning in the painted bunting.
| Tom Miller
Tom Miller graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Meteorology. Since February of 1988, Tom has been doing morning and noon weather for KXII-TV.
Living in Sherman, Tom enjoys coaching soccer and baseball, working on automobiles, and forecasting weather events across the nation. Tom and his wife have two daughters. He is also involved in his church and community.
| Cliff Moore
Cliff Moore, is President of Animal Services, Inc., Animal Services of Texas, and Animal Damage Control Services, which are wholly owned subsidiaries of Animal Services, Inc. Moore has been a Professional Naturalist dedicated to providing humane solutions to the human/animal conflict, for over fifteen years. He holds a wildlife relocation authorization from Texas Parks and Wildlife, and an Animal Control Officer certification from Texas Department of Health. Mr. Moore is a member of The Wildlife Society, The Wildlife Federation, International Wildlife Rehabilitation Council, Metroplex Animal Shelter Coalition, and the Texas Wildlife Association.
Animal Services, Inc. has a very active Pro-Bono education program dedicated to providing the best science based knowledge and experience available: To non-profit wildlife organizations, cities, homeowners associations, and corporations.
| B. J. Parkey
B.J. Parkey is currently serving as the Assistant Lake Manager to the Texoma Lake project and shares in the responsibility for the daily and long term execution of mission goals and objectives as they relate to multiple Corps of Engineer business lines.
Mr. Parkey been with the Corps since 1999 and has been stationed at four different lake projects within the Tulsa district. His most recent background of experience includes serving on multiple project delivery teams within the District that develops policies and guidance for USACE water resource projects, deployment to Iraq, specifically Kirkuk and Mosul, in support of the Overseas Contingency Operations and assisting the citizens of Louisiana in recovery from hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
| Barbara Powell
Barbara Ann Powell is an artist and teacher who has loved art since childhood. She graduated from Austin College in Sherman with a BA degree in Art and Secondary Education; she also did post-graduate work in Colorado and California and earned an MA in Elementary Education from Austin College.
Barbara joined community educators to form The School of Open Learning, a parent cooperative school in Sherman. Later she was trained at the Selwyn School in Denton as a Montessori teacher. She was the teacher, director, and owner of Edison Montessori Elementary in Sherman. In the Austin College Super Summer School Barbara held Montessori math classes for elementary students. Her experiences also include teaching at schools in Colorado and California. In Sherman she taught first grade at Fairview Elementary and art and music at Washington Elementary.
As a retired educator she pursues her love of teaching as a substitute teacher in SISD and has established Art from the Heart, Art Center and Gallery, in downtown Sherman. Here she has art classes for artists of all ages. In addition, she and husband Wilbur, work to create a colorful landscape on their farm in Grayson County.
| Roy Renfro
Dr. Roy Renfro is the Founder and Executive Director of the T. V. Munson Viticulture and Enology Center at Grayson County College. He is also the Founding President of the Texoma Chapter of the American Wine Society, Founder and President of the Texas Grape Growers Association, Two-Term Chairman of the Winegrape Growers of America, and Founder of Denison, Texas - Cognac, France Sisters Cities Program.
His honors in viticulture and enology include: T. V. Munson Award, 1985 - Texas Grape Growers Association; Commandeur d/Honneur, Grand-Maitre De L'Ordre Du Bontemps, 1988, Bordeaux, France; Commandeur d'Honneur, The Jurade, 1994, Saint Emilion, France; and The John E. Crosby, Jr. Industry Achievement Award, 2001.
Dr. Renfro recently completed the book Grape Man of Texas: The Life of T. V. Munson published by Eakin Press, Austin, Texas.
| Thomas Riecke
Thomas Riecke is an avid birder and very knowledgeable of the birds in North Central Texas. He has assisted Dr. Marcy Brown-Marsden of the University of Dallas with her Black-capped Vireo habitat project at Cedar Ridge Preserve. Thomas is majoring in Biology and Environmental Studies at Austin College, and is planning to do his senior thesis on Pileated Woodpecker behavior and begin a study of migrant shorebirds at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge. He hopes to achieve a Ph.D. in Ecology and find a job where he is paid to look at birds.
| Peter Schulze
Dr. Peter Schulze is an ecologist with particular interests in aquatic ecosystems, ecological restoration, and ecological economics. He holds a B.A. from Lawrence University, an M.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a Ph.D. in biology from Dartmouth College. His current research is on the effects of suspended sediments on the Lake Texoma ecosystem. Dr. Schulze also leads the Sneed Prairie Restoration project, is Director of the Austin College Center for Environmental Studies, and is on the editorial board of the journal Freshwater Biology. He teaches Introductory Biology, Ecology, Fundamentals of Environmental Studies, Environmental Policy, Prairie Restoration, and Research Design.
| John Slaughter
John Slaughter, ACE - Associate Certified Entomologist. John has have raised, collected, and bred tarantulas for over 35 years now. He currently has over 2000 tarantulas in his collection. These include species from all over the world. John is a member of The American Tarantula Society, The Dallas Fort Worth Arachnid Group, and The American Entomological Society. He currently works for Orkin Pest Control.
| Wyatt and Theresa Spurgin
Wyatt and Theresa own Hummingbird Artistic Images in Sherman. As photography specialists, they create architectural virtual tours, advertising/marketing images, provide event coverage, modeling portfolios, and family portraits. Wyatt Spurgin is a career firefighter, enjoys building and flying radio controlled aerobatic airplanes, golf, shooting baskets, or shooting a camera. Theresa, on the other hand, s the strategist, working in the areas of marketing, planning, photo session layouts, and
running the day to day business.
| Jessie Gunn Stephens
Jessie Stephens is well known to gardeners in the North Texas area!
Jessie is a Master Gardener, as well as a popular garden writer. She has a weekly garden column in the Herald Democrat, and has published several books, including The Book Lover’s Tour of Texas, Touring Texas Gardens, When to Do What in Your Texoma Yard and Garden, and in 2009, Roadside Flowers of the Red River Valley.
Jessie’s own garden in Sherman is a frequent subject in her column.. She regularly appears at area garden events, speaking on Earth Kind Roses, growing herbs and vegetables, and using native plants in the landscape. and Earth Kind gardening.
| Connie Taylor
Dr. Connie Taylor, SOSU Professor Emeritus of Biology who now lives on her own prairie east of Durant, Oklahoma, retired after teaching at Southeastern Oklahoma State University for 28 years. She taught seventeen different courses, from wildlife conservation, systematic botany and forest systematic, to microbiology, genetics, and pre-med classes. She holds three degrees in Botany from the University of Oklahoma. Among her special research interests are the goldenrods of Oklahoma and Texas and SW U.S.; distribution of all the native and naturalized plants of Oklahoma, and study of the seeps and bogs in southeastern Oklahoma.
Dr. Taylor and her husband reported over 150 species of plants new to the Oklahoma Flora, and have collected several plants new to science, including 3 in Costa Rica and 2 goldenrods in Oklahoma. She is the author of several publications on Oklahoma flora.
| Ken Waltz
Kenneth W. (‘Doc’) Waltz is an honorably retired Indiana Law Enforcement Officer – Specialist as a Bomb & EOD Technician, SWAT member, Hazardous Material Team Leader, and Major Felony Investigator. He is an Indiana Master Hunter Education Instructor, a Texas Hunter Education Instructor, a Certified Texas Master Naturalist – Blackland Prairie Chapter, Honorably discharged US Navy NCO Hospital Corpsman & Vietnam Veteran, and honorably discharged US Army Combat Engineer NCO & Operation Desert Storm Veteran. He is currently a consultant on Anti & Counter Terrorism protocols available to VIPs, business and industry. Waltz has taught Wilderness Survival / "Surviving the Unexpected" – for over 26 years.
| Trudy West
Trudy West operates a seasonal a home dairy where she milks Jersey cows, and Nubian and Saanen goats. The milk, cream, and herbs from the garden are used in her natural soaps and gourmet cheeses. In her vegetable garden, Trudy grows many heirloom varieties , with an emphasis on those grown for taste and adaption to Texas climate and soils. 2009 was her first foray into raising pastured broilers for the table, and she will be continuing that this year as well as expanding with heritage turkeys.
Trudy has a bachelor of science degree in Sociology, and is working on a Masters of Education in Agriculture. She is a master gardener and member of the Grayson County Master Gardeners Association. Beekeeping is another activity that keeps her busy, and she is a member of the Collin County Hobby Beekeepers Association.
| Matt White
Matt White teaches U.S. and Texas history at Paris Junior College and is an avid birder and amateur botanist. He is the author of Birds of Northeast Texas and his recently-released book entitled Prairie Time—an environmental history of Texas Tallgrass Prairie—both published by Texas A&M University Press. He has written for Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine and served as contributing editor of Texas Birds Magazine. He holds a Bachelors and Masters Degree from Texas A&M University – Commerce.
| Doug Wood
Dr. Doug Wood has been the ornithologist at Southeastern Oklahoma State University since 2001 and has birded extensively throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Mexico, Belize, and Honduras. Dr. Wood earned his M.S. in Zoology at Eastern Illinois University while studying the impacts of brown-headed cowbirds on host species. He earned his Ph.D. at Mississippi State University where he studied the foraging ecology of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker. Dr. Wood currently studies prothonotary warbler reproductive and habitat ecology and migrant songbird stopover habitat use. In the past, Dr. Wood has studied brown-headed cowbird brood parasitism, migrant songbird stopover habitat use, nocturnal bird monitoring protocols, bluebird reproductive ecology, and wintering grassland songbird populations.
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COYOTE IN FIELD
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Geese
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Landscape Winners, Donna Niemann, L, Brenda Loveless, R (Not shown Dennis Skogsbergh)
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Elk rack from Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge
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Icy Glow
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Snow Geese in Flight
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