BOARD OF DIRECTORS
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Mark Dilley, President
Mark Dilley earned a B.S. in Natural Resources (Fisheries Management) in 1991 and a M.S. in Environmental Science (specializing in wetlands) in 2003, both from The Ohio State University. He and his wife Chris are co-owners of the environmental consulting firm MAD Scientist Associates, which specializes in ecological and wetland consulting. Mark has over 20 years experience as a field biologist, ecologist, and wetland scientist. His academic research has focused on biological monitoring of streams and rivers and atrazine (agricultural herbicide) fate and transport processes in constructed wetlands. As consultants, Mark and his staff are responsible for wetland delineation, permitting, assessment, and wetland restoration design and monitoring, as well as ecological surveys and ecological risk assessment. Mark is a Certified Senior Ecologist with the Ecological Society of America and is a Professional Wetland Scientist certified by the Society of Wetland Scientists. He has also been teaching the Wetland Ecology and Restoration course at The Ohio State University since 2012.
Mick Micacchion, Vice President
Mick is a certified Professional Wetland Scientist (Society of Wetland Scientists). He works as a Wetland Ecologist (2011-present) at the Midwest Biodiversity Institute, Hilliard, OH where he instructs courses on wetland assessment methods, wetland delineation, wetland botany, headwater stream assessment methods, and the ecology and identification of Ohio amphibians. Mick also works for The Nature Conservancy (April 2018-present) in Dublin, OH as a Restoration Ecologist in TNC’s Ohio In-lieu Fee Compensatory Mitigation Program. He is a retired Wetland Ecologist (1995-2011) and 401 Coordinator (1992-95) at Ohio EPA, Division of Surface Water, Groveport and Columbus, OH. His areas of expertise are wetland amphibians and vernal pool ecology, wetland flora, wetland invertebrates, hydric soils, wetland hydrology, watershed studies of wetlands, wetland delineation, wetland mitigation banking, wetland monitoring protocols, development of wetland bioassessment tools, headwater streams, advanced statistical analysis, report writing, grant writing, wetland rule drafting and adoption, and incorporating wetland assessment and rules into a comprehensive wetland protection program. Mick has a B.S. and M.S. in Wildlife Management from Ohio State University.
Ray Stewart, Secretary
Ray is a retired public school science teacher living in Amherst, Ohio. He is the past president and now functions as the chief outreach officer and Director of Communications. The OWA office is currently at his home. Ray has a BA in Botany from Kent State University and MA from Ohio University in Latin American Studies. He completed a Master of Arts in Teaching through the Global Field Program at Miami University in 2014. All of the field work has, coincidentally, been in Latin America.
Delores Cole, Treasurer
Delores is a past president of the Kirtland Bird Club, past Vice Chair on the Black Swamp Bird Observatory board, is currently on the Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Association board, sits on the Black Swamp Bird Observatory Conservation Committee, and has volunteered at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Habitat for Humanity, Red Cross, and Kelleys Island Audubon Club in different capacities including volunteer website design and maintenance, and membership management. She has worked in the hospitality, managed care and banking industries since the mid-seventies as a trainer, project manager, and director of IT Services. Now retired, she spends time volunteering and traveling.
DIRECTORS
Amelia Harris, Director
Amelia hails from the hills of Tennessee, where she grew up enveloped by dense forests, playing in raging rivers, exploring boundless natural biodiversity, and loving Dolly Parton. Amelia loved learning about the world around her, so she set off to college at Tennessee Technological University to pursue a degree in environmental biology. She then joined the US Peace Corps to hone her skills, serve humanity, and travel the world, serving in East Timor. After an exciting, educational, and often heart-breaking stint in South East Asia.
After returning from the Peace Corps, Amelia got her start in environmental consulting working as a certified arborist. She loved working with trees and decided to take an opportunity working with The American Chestnut Foundation as a research assistant at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga while earning her graduate degree in Environmental Science. Amelia’s research site had some unique wet meadows and forests that piqued her interest and allowed her to learn more about wetlands. After completing her thesis and earning her degree, Amelia began the exciting process of job-hunting.
She was offered a job as an Environmental Scientist in Columbus, Ohio! Here she was able to apply her knowledge to learn the science of wetland delineations and the labyrinthine, often frustrating, legal system regarding water in the US. Amelia is now working as a wetland ecologist with a small environmental consulting firm that has a strict policy of ethical work and dedication to science. She leads wetland delineations, manages projects, is the GIS and mapping guru, and enjoys botanizing. Amelia is looking forward to continued education and activism in environmental sustainability, especially water and wetlands.
Dr. Brett R. Joseph, Director
Brett is managing Director, Center for Ecological Culture, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. He founded a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering individuals, organizations and communities with sustainability education, action research and ecological design services, to support adaptive social change inspired by the patterns and processes of the Earth’s natural systems.
He also teaches at Lorain County Community College, Elyria Ohio where he is the Sustainable Agriculture Program Coordinator and Adjunct Faculty. He is teaching courses in permaculture, including its guiding principles, its basis in knowledge of natural systems and the development of design skills, and its applications through various service learning projects involving design of food forests, natural building projects, regenerative systems for energy, water and waste management, and related social systems.
Bob Kyle, Director
Bob lives in Gahanna, Ohio and is a retired graphic designer and production artist. He has a wife, three daughters and eight grandchildren. Bob has the time to devote to them and to causes that will benefit their quality of life and the quality of life for their great, great, grandchildren. He loves the outdoors and wants to do whatever he can to improve the environment and quality of life for future generations. As a member of Ohio Environmental Council, Sierra Club, Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Association and Friends of Big Walnut Creek Bob has spent many years involved with forest and water issues and will continue working on them into the future.
Dr. William Mitsch, Director
Dr. Mitsch hales from Columbus Ohio and is an ecosystem ecologist who was co-laureate of the Stockholm Water Prize in August 2004. A few of his most significant contributions are development of the field of ecological engineering as an author of the first book on this subject and the founder (in 1992) and editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Ecological Engineering. Mitsch is founding Director of the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park a unique 50-acre wetland research laboratory and now Ramsar Wetland of International Importance. He is Professor Emeritus at OSU and is currently Eminent Scholar and Director at the Everglades Wetland Research Park, Florida Gulf Coast University in Naples, Florida.
Mike Peppe, Director
Mike is a Commercial and Industrial Realtor and Developer with Hadler Realty Companies Mike served 4 years active duty as a Captain in the U.S. Army Military Police before returning to Columbus. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University.
Mike has volunteered his talents to several organizations, the Columbus Cancer Clinic where he received their Outstanding Volunteer Award, the Ohio National Road Association, where he received an outstanding achievement award. Mike is a member of the Advisory Board for the Everglades Wetlands Research Center. Mike advocated on behalf of the Olentangy Wetlands Research Park at The Ohio State University and helped to prevent the local gas utility from running a high pressure gas line underneath this internationally recognized wetlands research facility.
Ric Queen, Director
Ric is a 32-year State of Ohio employee who built and has been the Senior Environmental Section Manager for the Water Quality Certification, Isolated Wetland Permitting, Mitigation Compliance and Wetland Ecology programs at Ohio EPA for the last 22 years. During Ric’s tenure, he has been involved in all aspects of the programs, including writing the laws and rules pertaining to wetlands and streams. Personally, Ric purchased and protected 312 acres in the Hocking Hills over a 20 year period that includes Coldwater and Exceptional Warmwater streams, Category 3 wetlands, and numerous high quality mature ecosystems and T & E species. Ric currently resides in Galloway, Ohio where he has restored a 3-acre vernal pool complex on his property.
Mark Dilley, President
Mark Dilley earned a B.S. in Natural Resources (Fisheries Management) in 1991 and a M.S. in Environmental Science (specializing in wetlands) in 2003, both from The Ohio State University. He and his wife Chris are co-owners of the environmental consulting firm MAD Scientist Associates, which specializes in ecological and wetland consulting. Mark has over 20 years experience as a field biologist, ecologist, and wetland scientist. His academic research has focused on biological monitoring of streams and rivers and atrazine (agricultural herbicide) fate and transport processes in constructed wetlands. As consultants, Mark and his staff are responsible for wetland delineation, permitting, assessment, and wetland restoration design and monitoring, as well as ecological surveys and ecological risk assessment. Mark is a Certified Senior Ecologist with the Ecological Society of America and is a Professional Wetland Scientist certified by the Society of Wetland Scientists. He has also been teaching the Wetland Ecology and Restoration course at The Ohio State University since 2012.
Mick Micacchion, Vice President
Mick is a certified Professional Wetland Scientist (Society of Wetland Scientists). He works as a Wetland Ecologist (2011-present) at the Midwest Biodiversity Institute, Hilliard, OH where he instructs courses on wetland assessment methods, wetland delineation, wetland botany, headwater stream assessment methods, and the ecology and identification of Ohio amphibians. Mick also works for The Nature Conservancy (April 2018-present) in Dublin, OH as a Restoration Ecologist in TNC’s Ohio In-lieu Fee Compensatory Mitigation Program. He is a retired Wetland Ecologist (1995-2011) and 401 Coordinator (1992-95) at Ohio EPA, Division of Surface Water, Groveport and Columbus, OH. His areas of expertise are wetland amphibians and vernal pool ecology, wetland flora, wetland invertebrates, hydric soils, wetland hydrology, watershed studies of wetlands, wetland delineation, wetland mitigation banking, wetland monitoring protocols, development of wetland bioassessment tools, headwater streams, advanced statistical analysis, report writing, grant writing, wetland rule drafting and adoption, and incorporating wetland assessment and rules into a comprehensive wetland protection program. Mick has a B.S. and M.S. in Wildlife Management from Ohio State University.
Ray Stewart, Secretary
Ray is a retired public school science teacher living in Amherst, Ohio. He is the past president and now functions as the chief outreach officer and Director of Communications. The OWA office is currently at his home. Ray has a BA in Botany from Kent State University and MA from Ohio University in Latin American Studies. He completed a Master of Arts in Teaching through the Global Field Program at Miami University in 2014. All of the field work has, coincidentally, been in Latin America.
Delores Cole, Treasurer
Delores is a past president of the Kirtland Bird Club, past Vice Chair on the Black Swamp Bird Observatory board, is currently on the Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Association board, sits on the Black Swamp Bird Observatory Conservation Committee, and has volunteered at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Habitat for Humanity, Red Cross, and Kelleys Island Audubon Club in different capacities including volunteer website design and maintenance, and membership management. She has worked in the hospitality, managed care and banking industries since the mid-seventies as a trainer, project manager, and director of IT Services. Now retired, she spends time volunteering and traveling.
DIRECTORS
Amelia Harris, Director
Amelia hails from the hills of Tennessee, where she grew up enveloped by dense forests, playing in raging rivers, exploring boundless natural biodiversity, and loving Dolly Parton. Amelia loved learning about the world around her, so she set off to college at Tennessee Technological University to pursue a degree in environmental biology. She then joined the US Peace Corps to hone her skills, serve humanity, and travel the world, serving in East Timor. After an exciting, educational, and often heart-breaking stint in South East Asia.
After returning from the Peace Corps, Amelia got her start in environmental consulting working as a certified arborist. She loved working with trees and decided to take an opportunity working with The American Chestnut Foundation as a research assistant at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga while earning her graduate degree in Environmental Science. Amelia’s research site had some unique wet meadows and forests that piqued her interest and allowed her to learn more about wetlands. After completing her thesis and earning her degree, Amelia began the exciting process of job-hunting.
She was offered a job as an Environmental Scientist in Columbus, Ohio! Here she was able to apply her knowledge to learn the science of wetland delineations and the labyrinthine, often frustrating, legal system regarding water in the US. Amelia is now working as a wetland ecologist with a small environmental consulting firm that has a strict policy of ethical work and dedication to science. She leads wetland delineations, manages projects, is the GIS and mapping guru, and enjoys botanizing. Amelia is looking forward to continued education and activism in environmental sustainability, especially water and wetlands.
Dr. Brett R. Joseph, Director
Brett is managing Director, Center for Ecological Culture, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. He founded a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering individuals, organizations and communities with sustainability education, action research and ecological design services, to support adaptive social change inspired by the patterns and processes of the Earth’s natural systems.
He also teaches at Lorain County Community College, Elyria Ohio where he is the Sustainable Agriculture Program Coordinator and Adjunct Faculty. He is teaching courses in permaculture, including its guiding principles, its basis in knowledge of natural systems and the development of design skills, and its applications through various service learning projects involving design of food forests, natural building projects, regenerative systems for energy, water and waste management, and related social systems.
Bob Kyle, Director
Bob lives in Gahanna, Ohio and is a retired graphic designer and production artist. He has a wife, three daughters and eight grandchildren. Bob has the time to devote to them and to causes that will benefit their quality of life and the quality of life for their great, great, grandchildren. He loves the outdoors and wants to do whatever he can to improve the environment and quality of life for future generations. As a member of Ohio Environmental Council, Sierra Club, Ohio Natural Areas and Preserves Association and Friends of Big Walnut Creek Bob has spent many years involved with forest and water issues and will continue working on them into the future.
Dr. William Mitsch, Director
Dr. Mitsch hales from Columbus Ohio and is an ecosystem ecologist who was co-laureate of the Stockholm Water Prize in August 2004. A few of his most significant contributions are development of the field of ecological engineering as an author of the first book on this subject and the founder (in 1992) and editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Ecological Engineering. Mitsch is founding Director of the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park a unique 50-acre wetland research laboratory and now Ramsar Wetland of International Importance. He is Professor Emeritus at OSU and is currently Eminent Scholar and Director at the Everglades Wetland Research Park, Florida Gulf Coast University in Naples, Florida.
Mike Peppe, Director
Mike is a Commercial and Industrial Realtor and Developer with Hadler Realty Companies Mike served 4 years active duty as a Captain in the U.S. Army Military Police before returning to Columbus. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University.
Mike has volunteered his talents to several organizations, the Columbus Cancer Clinic where he received their Outstanding Volunteer Award, the Ohio National Road Association, where he received an outstanding achievement award. Mike is a member of the Advisory Board for the Everglades Wetlands Research Center. Mike advocated on behalf of the Olentangy Wetlands Research Park at The Ohio State University and helped to prevent the local gas utility from running a high pressure gas line underneath this internationally recognized wetlands research facility.
Ric Queen, Director
Ric is a 32-year State of Ohio employee who built and has been the Senior Environmental Section Manager for the Water Quality Certification, Isolated Wetland Permitting, Mitigation Compliance and Wetland Ecology programs at Ohio EPA for the last 22 years. During Ric’s tenure, he has been involved in all aspects of the programs, including writing the laws and rules pertaining to wetlands and streams. Personally, Ric purchased and protected 312 acres in the Hocking Hills over a 20 year period that includes Coldwater and Exceptional Warmwater streams, Category 3 wetlands, and numerous high quality mature ecosystems and T & E species. Ric currently resides in Galloway, Ohio where he has restored a 3-acre vernal pool complex on his property.