Our Team
The Vesper Meadow Education Program is a program of the The Understory Initiative (TUI). See our other staff members and board of directors on the TUI website.
Our community is enriched by the partnerships that support our science, art, and education programs - as well as the volunteers that mentor, conduct research, and put sweat equity toward our vision of stewardship and nature connection.
Staff
Jeanine Moy, M.S.
Director
As a naturalist, educator, creative, activist, and backcountry adventurer, Jeanine draws on a diverse background for the foundation of the Vesper Meadow Education Program.
Jeanine has devoted the last two decades to the study of natural ecosystems and serving as an educator. Her range of experiences include managing an agroforestry research and demonstration site in upstate New York, conducting plant field studies in the greater Yellowstone region, guiding rock climbing in Colorado, and teaching outdoor science to youth in Oregon. She graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Applied Ecology, and from Southern Oregon University with a M.S. in Environmental Education.
After a decade of living in southern Oregon she has found a home among other naturalists, and enjoyment of the intricate landscape and biodiversity. She is grateful for experiences such as working at the Klamath Bird Observatory, the Willow Wind Community Education Center, the Northwest Nature Shop, and founding the Ashland Trail Trekkers summer camp. Most recently she worked as the Outreach Director for the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, and in 2018 was awarded a Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument Artist-in-residency.
STasie Maxwell
Indigenous Partnership Programs Manager
Stasie weaves her experiences together in support of the Vesper Meadow Education Program. Though born in Alaska, she has spent most of her life on the territories of The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, Cow Creek Umpqua, The Klamath Tribes, Takelma, and Shasta (known as the Rogue Valley). She credits her reverence for the land and its inhabitants to her upbringing in the intertribal Native community. Over the last several years, her involvement as a board member for the Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument spurred her work with environmental advocacy, conservation, restoration, and education.
Stasie has a B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Native Studies from Southern Oregon University. Her post-graduate experience is diverse and has ranged from program development and community building to peer recovery facilitation and guest lecturing. Prior to her undergraduate studies, Stasie has a decade of experience in administrative support and inventory and logistics.
Support
John Villella
Vesper Meadow Advisory Committee, Field Biology Consultant
John supports botanical, butterfly, lichen, and rare species survey at Vesper Meadow. He has had a lifelong fascination with nature and has spent the last two decades studying and documenting the biodiversity of the Pacific Northwest as an environmental educator and an ecological consultant specializing in rare species.
John has served on the board of directors for several non-profits including the Northwest Scientific Association and the Northwest Lichenologists. He is a founding member of the Biodiversity Research Collective, a non-profit research institute dedicated to biodiversity studies. John has published dozens of peer-reviewed papers and was recently awarded the Letharia Award by the California Lichen Society for his years of service as Editor of the CALS Bulletin. He also regularly leads natural history related hikes and workshops in southwest Oregon and the broader Pacific Northwest.
Sarah Burns
Vesper Meadow Advisory Committee, Artist engagement program support
Sarah Burns is an artist living and working in Southern Oregon. She uses observation-based traditional European oil painting techniques to document and highlight a sense of time and place, through plein air and studio work. Sarah grew up in Southern Oregon and notes changes in the landscape throughout the seasons and the years in her work. Her observation-based practice has led to scientific inquiry and armchair study of clouds, geology, ecology. She finds that scientific exploration often equals artistic inspiration and nurtures her wonder and awe of the natural world.
Sarah works with a variety of groups to connect people with the arts and the outdoors, including Schneider Museum of Art, Vesper Meadow and the Friends of the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument. She teaches painting and drawing through her Talent, OR studio – Project Space (www.artprojectspace.com) and leads plein air painting classes and meet-ups in Southern Oregon. www.sarahfburns.com
Kevin Talbert
Vesper Meadow Advisory Committee, Non-profit administrative support
Kevin Talbert is an active volunteer in many community and conservation organizations. He is currently Board member and past president of the Southern Oregon Land Conservancy as well as a board member of the Crater Lake Natural History Association and the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts. Kevin enjoys hiking, rafting, camping, birding and reading.
Stacy Tauber
Vesper Meadow Advisory Committee, Biological monitoring field support
Stacy is a recent transplant to the Rogue Valley, lured here by the natural beauty, unique ecosystems, and endless opportunities for exploration. Stacy has worked as an immigration and criminal defense lawyer for twenty-five years. She has lived and worked in Washington, D.C., Miami, Arizona, Wisconsin, NYC, and Minnesota. She now works remotely, and spends her spare time in the great out of doors, learning all she can about the birds, plants, and animals that also call this area home.
Stacy has an M.S. in Conservation Biology and Sustainable Development from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which is where she caught the bird bug, while doing a ten-month internship with the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies. Stacy is passionate about volunteering in any way she can to help restore and preserve our natural areas and to bring people together with each other and the land.
Dylan Rodvik
Land Steward
Dylan implementing controlled burning in the Woodland Restoration site at Vesper Meadow.
Dylan supports on-site care of the land. His passion for working outdoors developed while growing up in the North Cascades of Western Washington. During his first summer in college he discovered his desire to be a land steward as an SCA intern at the Giant Sequoia National Monument - where he then continued to work for six more years. Dylan supports the Vesper Meadow mission because he feels that it is of utmost importance for people to have opportunities to give back to the land. Look out for volunteer opportunities on our Events Page and join Dylan for a volunteer workday at Vesper Meadow soon!
Stephanie Danyi
Botany Steward
Stephanie Danyi has a M.S. in Environmental Education. She began her career as an environmental educator in 1998 as an interpretive naturalist. A year later, she was asked to be part of a visioning team that led to the creation of the Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center, which is still a thriving program serving students in Northern Indiana and the Chicago land area. Stephanie has written and published curriculum on habitat restoration, botany, ornithology, soil sciences, and agriculture for state and federal agencies, as well as for non-profit programs across the country. She has developed and implemented environmental education programs for kindergarten through college age students, as well as adult education. Stephanie has a unique ability to inspire and create "ah-ha" moments for her students. In addition to being an environmental educator, Stephanie has also worked as a research and biological technician for various agencies and non-profits, conducting vegetative and ornithological surveys. She believes by working in the field, she gains a deeper understanding of the science, which she can then bring back to her students. She contributes to several citizen science projects, and was hired by the Oregon Caves for an initial consult on a Citizen Science curriculum for their site.
WAYNE ROLLE
Botany steward
Wayne is a retired local Forest Service botanist, currently an avid home gardener, cross-country skier, and Vesper Meadow enthusiast. He knows the local flora and local wild places, having lived in SW Oregon over 50 years. His focus during 28 years as a Federal civil servant was on protecting rare plant species and native plant communities, controlling invasive plants, wise use of public rangelands, and growing native grass and forb seed for wildland restoration projects.
Before his Forest Service years Wayne worked at our local agricultural research station and spent a number of years as an orchard IPM (insect pest management) consultant and a botany contractor. At Vesper Meadow Wayne has helped create and expand our vascular plant checklist, set up long term meadow vegetation monitoring transects, and helped with riparian vegetation monitoring. Wayne loves wetlands, enjoys keying out grasses and sedges, and enjoys interacting with all the natural resource-oriented folks at Vesper Meadow.
2023 Student Intern
Rianna koppel
Meadow Monitoring and Restoration Intern
Rianna is an Environmental Science and Policy major at Southern Oregon University. She took her first class at SOU in 2006 and is happy to be graduating over a decade later. The breathtaking purple-blue meadows of flowering Camassia quamash inspired Rianna to work on her capstone project at Vesper Meadow. Her project involves mapping the population densities of Camas and surveying native plants. Some of her favorite moments at Vesper Meadow include collecting dried seeds in the summer, building raised garden beds in the first winter snow, and discovering puffballs and morels.
2022 Student Intern
Cecilia Greene
Butterfly Monitoring and Habitat Restoration Intern
Cecilia is an environmental science major at Southern Oregon University. She was born in Gold Beach OR. and has been a lifelong Rogue Valley resident. She is interested in the restoration of native ecosystems, reintroduction of native plant species, and the conservation of native butterfly populations within the Cascade Siskiyou Ecoregion. During her time at Vesper Meadow, she will be surveying Mardon Skipper Butterfly habitat to further the understanding of the relationship between hydrological processes and butterfly health within the meadow. Cecilia looks forward to learning more about this rare and threatened species and supporting its habitat restoration efforts.
2021 Student Intern
Vanessa Keck
Butterfly Monitoring Intern
Growing up in Southern Oregon, Vanessa has always been interested in butterflies and nature. After conducting various butterfly counts and surveys since 2019, that interest has turned into a passion.
Vanessa will be conducting butterfly surveys at Vesper Meadow, assisting volunteer restoration efforts, and helping improve our social media game.
“I am excited to be a part of all the wonderful work Vesper Meadow has accomplished and look forward to sharing a successful 2021 season with you all!”
2020-1 Student Intern
Kevin Fletcher
Restoration Planning Intern
Kevin Fletcher grew up in Southern Oregon interacting and exploring the landscape and surrounding areas. It is through learning the importance of the environment through experiences and education that led him to study Environmental Science and Policy at SOU. He is particularly passionate about energy conservation, ecosystem restoration, and environmental education. He loves exploring Southern Oregon through cycling and hiking. He will be assisting Vesper Meadow by creating GIS maps and story maps to help aid and spread awareness about the restoration efforts in the meadow.
2020 Graduate student interns
Nora Seymour
Sunya Ince-Johannsen
Sunya grew up in a small rural community in Douglas County, Oregon. She got her undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies: Ecology and Conservation at Southern Oregon University in 2011. She has worked for the US Forest Service in Tiller, OR doing botanical field surveys and invasive species management. She studied herbalism at the Hawthorn Institute, and worked as an herbalist in Ashland.
Her interests currently lie in ecological restoration work, environmental education, medicinal plant conservation, and herbalism. At Vesper Meadow, she is assisting in stream restoration work, elderberry population monitoring, building curriculum, and outreach. In her free time she loves kitesurfing, backcountry skiing, botanizing, and hiking with her dogs.
Nora is a graduate student in the Environmental Education program at Southern Oregon University. She grew up in Massachusetts and studied Sustainable Food and Farming at the University of Massachusetts, where she found her love for teaching outdoors in the campus garden. She has been in the Pacific Northwest for five years, working as an educator at Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center and a garden focused preschool.
She is passionate about helping to inspire people to connect with their ecosystem, and looks forward to continuing this through native food plants and land stewardship at Vesper Meadow. During her internship, Nora will be helping with restoration projects, native plant stewardship and mapping, curriculum, and outreach.
2019 Graduate student interns
Jennifer Horton
Riparian Restoration Intern
Jennifer Horton has been a southern Oregon resident for just over 2 years; she moved from Las Vegas, NV and grew up in northern Wyoming. She is enrolled in Southern Oregon University's Master's in Interdisciplinary Studies program, with a focus in Environmental Science and Policy. Her undergraduate degree is in Environmental and Resource Science from Nevada State College in Henderson, NV. With a background in the environmental issues of the Desert Southwest, she has recently enjoyed learning the ecology of southern Oregon. She has especially developed an interest in riparian restoration and the various techniques used depending on the considerations of each project. In tandem with her Masters’ thesis, Jennifer be studying the efficacy of previous willow plantings and the impact of soil moisture, planting depth, and planting methods on stem survival. Her goal is to collect data that will guide planting plans in the future for maximum success.
Julia "JJ" Janson
Community Science Intern
“JJ” is a graduate student in the MS STEM Education program at Southern Oregon University (SOU). She earned bachelors’ degrees in Environmental Studies and Writing from Keene State College in New Hampshire. Her work as a seasonal naturalist in the last four years has taken her from the White Mountains of New Hampshire to the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, Long Island New York, the Great Lakes in Minnesota, the Rocky Mountains, the Great Salt Lake of Utah, and across the ocean to the Land of the Midnight Sun. Currently, she works with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation as a research assistant for the Special Collections and University Archives Department at the SOU Hannon Library to promote environmental scholarship and restore the local ecology. In addition, she serve as an educator at North Mountain Park and Science Works Hands-On Museum in Ashland, Oregon. Through her work at Vesper Meadow, she will research restoration methods that can be successfully applied to other local riparian areas, as well as increasing capacity for community science programs.
2018-9 Graduate student interns
Crystal Nichols
Aquatic Research Intern
Crystal had an innate fascination with wildlife at a very tender age and this interest has never waned, which is what led her to pursue a Master of Science in Environmental Education at Southern Oregon University. She got her undergraduate degree in aquatic biology and fisheries from Ball State University in Indiana. A love of lifelong learning and a passion for education brought Crystal to this unique region and study at SOU. Today, she enjoys hiking, taking photographs, and playing in the water.
She has been applying her previous research experience to conduct baseline aquatic surveys on Vesper Meadow since fall 2018. Specifically, she has sampled the stream for benthic macroinverebrates (tiny creatures that have no backbone), and has conducted stream morphology surveys. This spring, Crystal plans to continue conducting macroinvertebrate research, and use data loggers to collect more water quality data.
Elva Manquera
Riparian Habitat Research Intern
Elva is a Master's student in Environmental Education at Southern Oregon University and is an Oregon native who grew up in Douglas County. She earned a bachelor’s in Zoology from Oregon State University with a focus in herpetology and disease. Her interest in amphibians has led her to conduct research in Costa Rica and throughout the Cascades. With her career, she would like to bridge her love for nature and research with environmental education to underrepresented youth in Oregon. She has a love for nature, Oregon and wine.
Currently, she is assessing the creek-side habitat at Vesper Meadow as beaver habitat. She is excited to be creating a body of research as well as curriculum that will help educate the public about the importance beavers play in ecosystem restoration. Her research is important for setting up long-term riparian habitat monitoring for the benefit of all wildlife, and water quality at Vesper Meadow.
Debra Agnew
Butterfly Community Research Program intern
Debra completed a Bachelor of Arts in Social and Behavioral Sciences at California State University, Monterey Bay, in an area famous for deep coastal waters full of kelp forests and playful otters. Formative experiences for Debra have occurred while hiking in the Cuyamaca Mountains, volunteering as a gallery interpreter at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and now currently in pursuit of her Masters of Science in Environmental Education program. Debra is excited to deepen her skills with field research and development of interpretive materials at Vesper Meadow this spring and summer.