Lisa is a bird researcher and educator. She worked as an aviculturist to restore endangered populations of cranes and Guam rails, and as a field researcher for Wisconsin’s Trumpeter Swan Recovery Program. Wing-tagging and monitoring Turkey Vultures was a favorite long-term project, and for 30+ years, she and her ambassador Turkey Vulture have helped people consider beauty and attunement. She participates in bird monitoring with emphasis on how bird populations can guide land management in Sauk County, Wisconsin.

As executive director of the Leopold Foundation, my work may involve anything from giving a talk to fundraising to reviewing financial statements – sometimes all in the same day. Having joined the organization as an intern 20 years ago, I can honestly say I’ve done just about everything around here. At one point, I was a pretty decent field botanist, could run a chainsaw, and even acted as a line boss on prescribed burns.

My academic background is landscape architecture and plant ecology, but I’ve also completed a lot of professional development coursework on fundraising, management, and finance. I’ve been recognized as an Executive Scholar in Not‐for‐Profit Management by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. I also participated in the White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation, and was elected to represent the Northeast Region at the U.S. Forest Service’s Centennial Congress. My contributions to books include a foreword with Nina Leopold Bradley in Aldo Leopold and the Ecological Conscience, and a chapter in The Farm as a Natural Habitat on assisting private landowners interested in implementing Leopold’s land ethic.

While my responsibilities have lately taken me away from the field, it has been very rewarding to see the Leopold Foundation’s programming and reach expand so much, and to know that we’re truly helping now to advance a conservation ethic across the country and beyond.

Mike is a Baraboo native and longtime conservationist, ecologist, and historian. Retired from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, he continues his conservation work with organizations and landowners in the Baraboo Hills, Lower Wisconsin Riverway, and former Badger Army Ammunition Plant (especially Maa Wákącąk)—studying the effects of land management on wildlife populations. Mike was a founding member of the Badger History Group in 1998.  As its first chair, he served on the Badger Reuse Committee, organized the photographic exhibition Inside the Fence, and co-produced the video documentary Powder to the People. He is now the group’s president, committed to its mission: To collect, preserve, and share the histories of the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant and the Sauk prairie. We help each other learn from the past, engage with the present, and guide our shared future.

Mike provided the content for the Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance’s interpretive app Explore the Badger Lands, which integrates human and natural history, including the geology of this fascinating landscape. He has led 100s of Wisconsin field trips on various topics for organizations such as The Nature Conservancy, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and Natural Resources Foundation. He loves co-leading at the former Badger Army Ammunition Plant with landowners and other stakeholders.

Evan Larson is a father, husband, teacher, and scientist who celebrates learning with heart and mind. Of European ancestry, Evan’s childhood took place in the woods of central Minnesota, helping his parents tend 80 acres of mixed hardwood forests. Drawn by mountains, oceans, and forests, his formal education includes an Environmental Science bachelor’s degree from Willamette University, and graduate degrees in geography from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (M.S.) and the University of Minnesota (Ph.D.). Less formally, Evan’s philosophy of life has been informed by significant doses of reflection, books, chainsaws, and firewood. As a Professor and Chair in the Department of Environmental Sciences & Society at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, the work currently at the center of Evan’s thoughts and energy is fueled by the enthusiasm of amazing Indigenous and non-Indigenous collaborators who are together working to re-story the interwoven relationships among people, fire, and pine in Great Lakes Forests, and translating this work to more good fire on the ground.

Dr. Stanley A. Temple is the Beers-Bascom Professor Emeritus in Conservation in the Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For 32 years, he held the academic position once occupied by Aldo Leopold, and during that time, he won every teaching award for which he was eligible. He and his students have helped save many of the world’s endangered species and the habitats on which they depend. He is currently a Senior Fellow with the Aldo Leopold Foundation. He has received conservation awards from the Society for Conservation Biology, The Wildlife Society, and Wisconsin Society for Ornithology. He is a Fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. He has been President of the Society for Conservation Biology and Chairman of the Board of The Nature Conservancy in Wisconsin. Stan was recently inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame.