L-A-D Foundation - Land Stewardship in the Missouri Ozark Highlands Since 1962
L-A-D Foundation - Land Stewardship in the Missouri Ozark Highlands Since 1962
L-A-D Foundation Board of Directors
Alphabetical Order
Susan Flader (President) is professor emerita of American western and environmental history at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She is a leading scholar of Aldo Leopold and has served many years as director and board chair of the Aldo Leopold Foundation. She was a founder and president of the American Society for Environmental History and of the Missouri Parks Association, for which she led in securing and renewing the state's Parks and Soils Tax and co-authored and edited Missouri State Parks and Historic Sites. She joined the L-A-D board in 1995, served two decades as vice-president and stewardship chair, and edited Towards Sustainability for Missouri Forests and Pioneer Forest.
Janet Fraley – Retired supervisory civil engineer, environmental professional, and realty specialist, U.S. Forest Service. Janet grew up on her family’s farm in Texas County. She began her professional career teaching science and mathematics in Bunceton and Houston, Missouri before getting degrees in engineering. She joined the Forest Service with the Mark Twain National Forest, first serving as Southern Zone Engineer for eleven years, then serving as Project Coordinator for the Eastern Region Technical Service. She finished her long career with the Forest Service in 2018 after fourteen years of service as the Lands and Special Uses Program Manager for Mark Twain National Forest.
Peter W. Goode III, P.E. - Lecturer in Law and Environmental Engineer with the law school’s Interdisciplinary Environmental Clinic. A registered professional engineer in the State of Missouri, he provides technical expertise on environmental cases and supervises undergraduate student consultants for the clinic. He has been with the Clinic since 2006. Prior to his clinic work, Goode worked for 13 years for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, where his last position was managing the state’s water pollution permitting section. He has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri – Columbia
Jim Guldin - Retired, Supervisory Research Ecologist and Project Leader, Southern Research Station, US Forest Service, Hot Springs, AR. Jim worked for the research arm of the Forest Service in Arkansas from 1992 until his retirement in 2020. Prior to that, Jim was a professor in the Department of Forest Resources at the University of Arkansas at Monticello for ten years. Jim specializes in the ecology and management of pine, pine-oak, and oak-pine forests, such as Pioneer Forest, and holds a PhD in silviculture and quantitative ecology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI.
Ted Heisel (Treasurer) - Former Executive Director of the Ozark Regional Land Trust. Ted received his law degree from Harvard University. In 1999, he took a job with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, and then served as Executive Director of the Coalition from 2003 to 2006. Ted joined Ozark Regional Land Trust in January 2008, and taught Natural Resources Law at the Washington University School of Law. He now operates a family farm outside St. Louis.
Nikki Krawitz, CPA - Former Vice President for Finance and Administration of the University of Missouri System. She received an MS in Accountancy from the University of Missouri-Columbia, an MA in Special Education from Columbia University, and an AB from Washington University in St. Louis. Prior to her employment with the University of Missouri System, she was a tenured faculty member in the Department of Business, Mathematics, and Computer Science at Stephens College, where she became the Vice President for Finance and Business. Since retiring from the University System, she continues to share her experience in strategic financing, budgeting, and administration as a higher education consultant.
Steve Mahfood (Secretary) - President, Mahfood Associates, LLC. Steve served as Director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources from 1998 to 2005. In 2005 Steve established a company to advise government agencies and non-profits in areas of natural resources, parks, and environmental management, and renewable energy. Steve graduated from Yale University's Environmental and Management Leadership Program.
Josh Reeves (Vice-President) - Vice President of Development and Advocacy and Director of Facilities, Ozarks Healthcare, West Plains. Josh graduated in 2005 from the University of Missouri - Columbia. He returned to the Ozarks to live, was founder of the J.E. Reeves Company, with experience in construction and operations on park and recreation lands. He has served on a variety of other boards including the Mountain View Community Betterment Foundation, the Missouri Parks Association, and the Ozark Riverways Foundation.
Adam Saunders – Co-Founder and Development Director of Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture, 501c3. Adam graduated from University of Missouri-Columbia with dual Forestry and Statistics majors in 2008 and earned a Master of Forestry in 2010 also from UM-Columbia. Adam helps lead CCUA's strategic planning and fundraising efforts, and is the Campaign Director for Columbia's Agriculture Park, a public-private partnership with Columbia Parks & Recreation to develop 10 acres of park space into a working urban farm with outdoor classrooms, pollinator habitat and a large permanent farmers market pavilion. Adam also operates a small apple tree nursery in downtown Columbia, MO and installs/manages small orchards in the Missouri River hills.
Mike Smith – Mike has a B.S. in Industrial Arts Education from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He taught for the School District of Washington for 25 years and ran a small business doing carpentry and cabinetmaking for eight years. Mike chaired the Washington Urban Forestry Council for 12 years. This group planted hundreds of native trees around the city of Washington and produced a Riverfront Management Plan. He started a volunteer group that continues its implementation. He was chosen to be the first land steward for Shaw Nature Reserve and has been overseeing the restoration of sixteen acres along Brush Creek for the past 3 years. He is an avid reader and has spent much of his life studying the natural history of Missouri.
David Stokely - David grew up spending many hours on Ozark streams. He received a B.S. in Agriculture and Masters in Vo-Tech Education from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He has taught high school and college classes, operated a commercial equestrian facility and farm, and served as a consultant in wildlife habitat evaluation, a county assessor, and a district director for a U.S. Senator. Recently he initiated the Ozark Riverways Foundation as the official friends group to support the Ozark National Scenic Riverways.
Rick Thom - Rick retired from the Missouri Department of Conservation in 2006 after 28 years where he served as Natural Areas Coordinator, Natural History Division Chief, and Wildlife Diversity Chief. He was executive director of the Missouri Conservation Heritage Foundation from 2007 to 2013. Rick holds a B.S. in biology from Northern Illinois University, M.S. in Forestry from the University of Illinois-Urbana, and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Board Member Emeritus
John Karel - Retired, Director of Tower Grove Park, St. Louis, MO. John is a 1974 graduate of the University of Missouri, with a Master of Science degree in wildlife. He served with Missouri State Parks from 1976-1985, and as State Parks Director from 1979-1985. From 1987 to 2015, John served as Director of Tower Grove Park. He is co-author of the recently published Missouri State Parks and Historic Sites: Exploring Our Legacy, as he was for the first edition in 1992. Leo Drey invited John to join the L-A-D Foundation board in 1982, and he served as its second president from 1999-2017, during which he skillfully guided L-A-D's transition following the Dreys' gift of Pioneer Forest in 2004.
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