We are all volunteers.
Kathleen “Kat” Hoenke
Executive Director, Spatial Ecologist, GIS Coordinator
Kat is a spatial ecologist and GIS specialist with a Masters of Environmental Management in Ecosystem Science and Conservation from Duke University. Kat directs our GIS and Esri Story Map programs, and is active in all aspects of advancing our mission, including public outreach, planning, land protection, stewardship, grant writing, education, and social media. Kat worked for The Nature Conservancy prior to her current work as GIS coordinator for a non-profit organization focused on protecting and restoring aquatic ecosystems.
Ronnie O’Brien
Indigenous Peoples Program Coordinator
Bill Jacobs
Founder and Senior Ecology Advisor
Bill has more than 30 years of experience in ecology, conservation planning, and organizational management. Bill founded the Saint Kateri Conservation Center in 2000. Bill is the co-founder and program manager of the Long Island Invasive Species Management Area (LIISMA), working under contract with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Bill worked as a senior ecologist with a national environmental consulting firm, GEI Consultants, and as a conservation project director for one of the world’s largest non-profit conservation organizations, The Nature Conservancy. Bill served as an interim executive director of the Saint Kateri National Shrine and Historic Site in Fonda, New York. Bill holds a Master of Science degree in forest resources management from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Dowling College.
Bill’s work has been featured in the New York Times, National Catholic Register, Saint Anthony Messenger, National Catholic Reporter, Catholic News Agency, Catholic Ecology, and EarthBeat.
View Bill’s profile on LinkedIn.
John McNamara
Senior Theology Advisor
John served for 38 years as Director of Religious Education at Saint Louis de Monfort RC Church in Sound Beach, NY and Coordinator of Adult Faith Formation at Saint Anthony’s RC Church in Rocky Point, NY. John serves as Director of Youth Ministry at Saint Mark’s RC Church in Shoreham, NY.
Board of Directors
Shauna’h Fuegan
Chairperson
Shauna’h is a trained educator and currently works as a Senior Academic Technology Consultant at Bates College in central Maine. She has spent her personal and professional life working at the intersection of technology and education.
Shauna’h holds Master of Science degrees in Education as well as Instructional Technology. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Yale University where she majored in Political Science and studied the origins and impacts of political violence and genocide. In her work at Bates, Shauna’h guides faculty through the design of curriculum centered around inclusive pedagogies. Shauna’h is a citizen of the Mohawk Nation (Kanien’kehá:ka) and grew up with a strong devotion to Saint Kateri Tekakwitha. She is also a professed member of the Secular Franciscan Order.
Carol Rempp
Secretary/Treasurer
Carol is from Avon, South Dakota, and has been an educator for over 30 years. Carol served in various teaching and administrative positions, as well as a tenure as the Director of Multicultural and Native American Education at the Nebraska Department of Education. Carol is a registered member of the Oglala Lakota tribe of Pine Ridge, South Dakota. Carol holds a B.A. in Elementary Education and Special Education from the University of Nebraska-Kearney and an M.S. in School Administration from Chadron State College.
While working at the Nebraska Department of Education, Carol served as a member and officer on several nonprofit boards. These included the Lincoln Indian Center (3 years, Secretary), Family Service of Lincoln (8 years, Secretary/Treasurer, Vice President, President), Humanities Nebraska (7 years, Secretary, Vice Chair, Chairperson), Humanities Nebraska Foundation, and Lincoln Public Schools Superintendents Community Advisory Committee.
Angélica M. González Apple
Program Manager – North America for the Laudato Si Movement. Angélica attended California State University Monterey Bay, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Studies and a minor in Spanish. She earned the Outstanding Service Award for which she built an educational model that taught farm worker parents and children ways to avoid pesticide exposure in homes. went on to assist the City of Pomona, California, with educating its residents about the environment and conservation. ‘s prior experience includes serving as Conservation Programs Manager at the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter. There she organized and implemented conservation programs and campaigns such as water and air quality, renewable energy, wilderness management, wetlands, urban planning, and zero waste. From 2012 to 2014, was the environmental science workshop coordinator for the City of Watsonville. sits on the Board of the San Gabriel Regional Mountains Conservancy and was formally on Wetlands Watch Board in Watsonville, California. currently pursing a Master in Sustainable Leadership at Arizona State University.
Rachel Harkins Ullmann
Rachel had served as the Executive Director of the GIVEN Institute. The GIVEN Institute is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to activating the gifts of young adult women for the Catholic Church and the world. Previously, Rachel worked in the Archdiocese of Baltimore for more than 12 years supporting parishes and schools with their advancement efforts. Rachel has taught theology courses in Catholic schools and served as Campus Minister at Mount de Sales Academy under the leadership of the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia. She is a graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, where she majored in Theology and Catechetics and obtained her Masters in Education Administration from Johns Hopkins University. Rachel is a harpist and has traveled to Australia, Israel, and all over Europe. Rachel serves on the Board of Directors for the Mother Mary Lange Guild for Canonization. Her greatest source of joy is her husband Tony and her children, Evangeline, Cooper, and Theodore.
Melissa Petruzzello
Melissa is Associate Editor of Plant and Environmental Science for Encyclopedia Britannica, where she is also in charge of Britannica’s Christianity content. In addition to her main duties editing, writing, and commissioning articles about plants, agriculture, renewable energy, infrastructure, and Catholicism (among other topics), she creates high engagement content including quizzes, lists, podcasts, and crossword puzzles for Britannica.com and maintains a social media presence on Twitter. She has a MS in Plant Biology and Conservation from Northwestern University and a BS in Biological Science with a minor in Biblical Studies from Biola University. Prior to her employment at Britannica, she interned with the neotropical herbarium collection of the Field Museum in Chicago and also served as a science writer intern for the Field’s Chicago Wilderness Climate Change Task Force (part of their Environment, Culture and Conservation science division). In 2017 she was a panel speaker at the Adler Planetarium’s Adler After Dark program.
Melissa converted to Catholicism in 2012, having been raised in a strong Christian home. As an undergrad at a non-denominational Christian university, she participated in a four-year honors program that worked through many of the Great Books of Western thought, and felt drawn to the beauty and history of the Roman Catholic Church as represented in the works of the early Church Fathers and other Catholic thinkers. At that same time, she developed a robust theology of ecology as an outflow of her lifelong love of plants and nature, and both her science and her faith are the bedrocks of her worldview. She served as president of her university’s student environmental club; the capstone of her service there was the planting of a native garden on campus. Melissa is an avid native plant gardener and loves to explore the incredible natural areas of South Florida with her husband and young son.
Founding Board Members, 2012
The year we incorporated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation.
Kimberly Szczypinski
Rev. Michael Agliardo, SJ, Ph.D.
Kathy Doerr
Leanna Jackan
William Patenaude
Former Board Members - We Are Forever Grateful!
Evelyn Meisenbacher Dsouza
Rev. Michael Agliardo, SJ, Ph.D.
Kathy Doerr
Kimberly Szczypinski, Board Chair
William Patenaude
Leanna Jackan, Secretary
Rita Gullion
Kristen Hayes
Sonia Elizabeth Rose Kircher