About Us >

John "Torrey" Berger, Jr., President
Torrey is past president of St. Louis Audubon Society's board of directors. He is an attorney of counsel with the law firm of Lewis, Rice & Fingersh, L.C. in St. Louis. Torrey is a member of The Nature Conservancy, American Birding Association, Webster Groves Nature Study Society, and the Audubon Society of Missouri. He has been an avid birder for 30+ years.

Lisa Berger, Vice President
Lisa Berger has 30 years experience in environmental resource planning and consulting, and is owner/CEO of Consulting Analytical Services, Inc., an environmental testing laboratory and consulting firm established in Springfield, Missouri. She serves as Audubon Missouri’s (AM) Missouri Important Bird Area Program (IBA) Steering Committee Chair, and co-chairs AM’s Chapter Relations committee. She is TogetherGreen Innovation Grant coordinator for the Green Leadership Academy for Diverse Ecosystems (GLADE), a joint project of Greater Ozarks Audubon Society (GOAS) and Missouri State University, has served as GOAS president, is currently the GOAS newsletter/web/publications editor, and is a member of the GOAS Board.

Susan Flader, Secretary/Treasurer
Susan Flader is professor of American Western and environmental history at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has written widely on the career and thought of conservationist Aldo Leopold and on various other natural resource-related topics, including books and articles on the parks, forests, and waters of Missouri. She has served as president of the American Society for Environmental History and on the boards of the National Audubon Society, the Forest History Society, and the American Forestry Association. She is past president of the Missouri Parks Association, vice president of the LAD Foundation, and secretary of the Aldo Leopold Foundation.

Charley Burwick
Charley was born and raised in Joplin, Missouri. He served in the Air Force for four years, spending three years in Germany. He worked for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for thirty-one years. Most of his career was in the Air Traffic Control System with a few years in Aviation Safety. In addition, he had a tour as an instructor at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, as well as assignments in the FAA Central Regional Office, and the FAA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. He had a commercial single-engine license, with multi-engine-engine and instrument ratings. Retired from the FAA in 1993.

Charley spends a tremendous amount of his time birding, his number one hobby.

Jim Fossard
Jim has practiced law in Springfield, Missouri with the firm of Pratt, Fossard, Jensen & Masters, L.L.C. and primarily practices in the area of real estate and construction law.  He grew up in Missouri and Kentucky. He loved to go fishing when he was a kid and he loved animals and wildlife. He spent a lot of time outdoors and was active in Boy Scouts. Starting in high school and college, he was engaged in many outdoors sports, including hiking, biking and canoeing. During law school, he went to Alaska during the summer break and worked on commercial fishing boats in the Gulf of Alaska. He could not believe just how beautiful and unspoiled parts of the world were, and he grew to appreciate the precious wilderness and wildlife treasures in this country and the precarious status of many of them.  Starting in law school and after, he engaged in kayaking, mountain climbing, wind surfing, and hang gliding. He is on the Board of Trustees of the Missouri Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and Vice President of the Ozarks Green Building Coalition. He now enjoys birding and flying an ultralight aircraft which he keeps at an airport south of Ozark, Missouri

Liz Forrestal
Liz Forrestal is Executive Director of Missouri Votes Conservation, a bipartisan non-profit that advocates for pro-environmental legislation and candidates in Missouri. She has an extensive background in environmental communications and advocacy. Prior to her job with MVC, she worked as a staff interpretive planner for the Saint Louis Zoo and as a consultant for a number of other wildlife conservation organizations. She has also created communications and marketing strategies for non-profit environmental organizations and for city governments.

In addition to serving on the board of Audubon Missouri, Liz is a founding member of Sustainable St. Louis, a non-profit that is working to create a sustainability plan for the St. Louis metropolitan area. She regularly contributes environmental commentaries to KWMU Radio, the National Public Radio affiliate station in St. Louis. She also serves on various committees of the U.S. Green Building Council (St. Louis Chapter) and on the Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability Task Force for Focus St. Louis. Liz holds a bachelors degree in zoology from Smith College and a master’s degree in science communications from Boston University. She and her family live in St. Louis.

Brad Jacobs
Brad earned a Bachelor of Science degree in conservation of natural resources from Cornell University in 1969, and spent three years with the U.S. Peace Corps in Columbia and Ecuador, South America. In the 1980’s he taught on the Navajo Reservation in Arizona and studied the birdlife of the region. He began his career with the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) in 1987 while attending graduate school at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU) where he earned a master’s degree in biological sciences, with an emphasis on avian ecology. He is co-chairperson of Partners-in-Flight’s (PIF) Midwest Working Group steering committee and the PIF National Implementation Committee. He has conducted a plethora of research and is the author of many published books from that research. He was a founding and charter member of board of Audubon Missouri, and has been president and board member of the Columbia Audubon Society for eight years.

Ron Kucera
After several years teaching and consulting, Ron became policy director and deputy director for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and served in this capacity for five Missouri governors. With the thawing of the Cold War, he was appointed to the federal Environmental Management Advisory Board which assisted setting the direction for the long overdue cleanup of the nation's nuclear weapons production facilities. Ron retired in 2005 and remains active with environmental and conservation organizations serving on several boards including the Great Rivers Environmental Law Center, the Missouri Parks Association and Audubon Missouri. He and his wife, Summer, enjoy travel and photographing the American West.

Susan Lammert
A life long St. Louis native, Susan is a landscape architect who has a special interest in native plants. Her favorite activities include eco-travel, hiking, biking, and tennis, as well as gardening, botany field trips and birding. She has been a member of St. Louis Audubon and Webster Groves Nature Study Society.

Susan is the past president and currently an emeritus member of the Board of Commissioners of Tower Grove Park. She served on the Missouri Clean Water Commission, as Chairman of the Missouri Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, President of the Garden Club of St. Louis, on the executive committees of the Open Space Council and Missouri Coalition for the Environment.

Jean Leonatti
Jean is an avid birder.  She has served on the Board, lead field trips and taught "Beginning Birder" classes for Columbia Audubon Society.  When not birding or golfing, Jean is the CEO of the Central Missouri Area Agency on Aging.

Charlie Nilon
Charlie is a professor in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences at the University of Missouri where he’s worked since 1989. Before coming to MU, he was the urban wildlife program coordinator for the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks. My research and teaching interests are in human dimensions of wildlife conservation and in urban wildlife ecology and conservation. He’s been a member of Columbia Audubon and this is Charlie’s second time serving as a board member of Audubon Missouri.

Ken Webb
Ken owned and operated a Certified Public Accounting practice in Pittsburg, Kansas for nearly 20 years. He also spent five years in the tax department of a Big 5 accounting firm in Kansas City. He is currently Vice President and Trust Officer with Gold Trust Company in Pittsburg. He holds memberships with the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Rotary International, Masonic Lodge, Mirza Shriners, and the American Legion, as well as several conservation organizations.

He became active with Audubon and the efforts to create the Center in Joplin early on. He now serves on the advisory board of the Wildcat Glades Conservation and Audubon Center in Joplin. His hobbies include water sports (boating, skiing, fishing, diving, etc.) hiking, outdoor cooking and travel.