Audubon Florida Recognizes Conservation Leaders for 2025

Audubon Florida presented its annual statewide awards to seven conservation leaders at its annual Assembly event on October 16-18, 2025. Since 1999, Audubon Florida has gathered its staff, members, partners, and other stakeholders for a celebration of the year’s accomplishments, a look ahead at coming priorities, and a recognition of the leaders making a difference for Florida’s natural resources.

Theodore Roosevelt Award: Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples)

This recognition is given annually to a decisionmaker demonstrating leadership, resolve, and courage on behalf of Florida’s environment. During her legislative tenure, Passidomo has been a champion for wetlands protection, smart growth management, conservation lands, and Florida’s award-winning state parks, among many other critical conservation priorities. She has also been an unparalleled advocate for Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, working to ensure that this unique ecosystem continues to thrive for generations to come.

“Throughout her legislative career, Senator Passidomo has shown that conservation and good governance go hand in hand,” said Audubon Florida's Senior Director of Policy Beth Alvi. “Her enduring legacy will be the special places she has protected and defended for future generations.”

Philanthropist of the Year Award: Winter Park Servant-Leader Linda Sitek

This recognition is given to an individual or organization in appreciation of their catalytic philanthropy, elevating Audubon's work in Florida. Winter Park philanthropist Linda Sitek has been a dedicated supporter of Audubon and the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland since rescuing a trio of young barred owls with her husband, after they fell from their nest. The owlets were rushed to Audubon’s Center for Birds of Prey where they were rehabilitated and ultimately returned successfully to their home nest.  Sitek’s parents instilled in her a humanitarian ethic and value for servant leadership at an early age.

“Linda’s service on the Center for Birds of Prey advisory board has been invaluable,” said Center for Birds of Prey Director Katie Gill-Warner. “She is a connector, broadening Audubon’s wingspan in Central Florida and introducing our work to new audiences.”  

Guy Bradley Award: Tampa-area State Park Biologist Daniel Larremore

This award recognizes an individual for stewardship of imperiled species in the face of threats to birds and their habitats, and is named for Florida’s first wildlife warden, Audubon’s Guy Bradley, who was killed in 1905 while enforcing new protections for imperiled wading birds. Florida State Park Biologist Daniel Larremore was recognized this year for a career dedicated to the protection of Florida’s shorebirds, seabirds and their habitats at state parks in the Tampa Bay region. For twenty years, Larremore’s work at Tampa Bay’s Honeymoon Island State Park, Caladesi Island State Park, Three Rooker Bar, and more have safeguarded the nesting and wintering habitat of some of the hemisphere’s rarest and declining coastal birds. He was an essential partner in the development of public-private partnership efforts to employ volunteer bird stewards to protect the birds from recreational disturbance, a model that has since been replicated around the country.

“These park beaches are some of the most critical in the state for rare species like Least Terns, Black Skimmers, American Oystercatchers, and more,” said Kara Durda, Audubon’s Tampa Bay Shorebird Program Manager. “His hard work and creativity on behalf of Florida’s natural resources have literally resulted in the successful nesting of tens of thousands of shorebirds and seabirds, and the protection of one of Florida’s most iconic landscapes.”  

Champion of the Everglades: The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida

This award is given for leadership on behalf of the Everglades and its iconic wildlife. This year, Audubon proudly recognized the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida for their partnership in the conservation of the Everglades’ Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow. The sparrow’s population has dwindled due to habitat loss and is now further endangered by sea level rise. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the Miccosukee Tribe, Audubon, and conservation partners joined forces to secure state resources and advocate for a federal appropriations request to launch a conservation breeding program, modeled after the successful, ongoing effort to recover the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow. Chairman Talbert Cypress accepted the award on behalf of the Tribe.

“The Tribe’s leadership and commitment have been essential to advancing conservation strategies that honor both ecological restoration and cultural resilience,” said Julie Wraithmell, Executive Director of Audubon Florida, “ensuring that this rare bird and the Everglades ecosystem it depends upon have a chance to recover and thrive for generations to come.”

Florida’s Special Places Award: State Representative Lindsay Cross (D-St. Petersburg)

This annual award is presented to an individual who has made a difference for the landscapes and habitats that make Florida special. This year, Audubon honored Representative Lindsay Cross for her vision, persistence, and unwavering commitment to safeguarding the wetlands, coasts, and wild places that make Florida so special. A scientist by training and an advocate at heart, Representative Cross has spent her career working to protect Florida’s lands and waters — from her years leading coastal and watershed programs in Tampa Bay to her strong environmental leadership in the Florida Legislature.

“Representative Cross consistently brings both conservation expertise and empathy to her work in the Legislature, building bridges between communities, science, and policy to speak for Florida’s environment,” said Audubon Florida's Senior Director of Policy Beth Alvi.

Audubon Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award: FWC Senior Officer Dennis Palmer

Audubon’s Law Enforcement Officer of the Year Award is given to an officer who sets an example of protecting Florida’s imperiled wildlife that is more than a job, but a moral obligation. This year’s honoree was Senior Officer Dennis Palmer of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, who regularly patrols Bay County’s Tyndall Critical Wildlife Area, a breeding area for five species of imperiled beach nesting birds. Because the birds and their nests are camouflaged, beachgoers often ignore signage and unwittingly get too close, causing the death of eggs and helpless chicks. Palmer has been instrumental to the success of Tyndall’s nesting birds and an invaluable partner to the biologists who work on site. For several years, he spent his holiday weekends, both Memorial and Independence days, patrolling the area to keep both the public and wildlife safe, all the while coordinating with biologists.

“Senior Officer Palmer cares deeply about this special place and its wildlife, and his engagement with the public is often the difference between life and death for these rare and declining species,” said Col Lauzau, Audubon's Panhandle Shorebird Program Manager. “He goes the extra mile every time for wildlife and is a credit to his agency and the people of Florida.”

Audubon Volunteer of the Year Award: Central Florida’s Robert Veal

This award recognizes one of Audubon’s more than 1,500 volunteers in Florida, who support essential community science programs, habitat protection and restoration projects, and the important work of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and Audubon’s Center for Birds of Prey. This year’s award recognized Robert Veal, who since 2006 has donated more than 15,000 volunteer hours to the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland. Veal first joined the flock as an EagleWatcher, watching a nest near his house. He then visited the Center and decided he wanted to be a part of the Center team. Robert started as a cleaner outdoors, but has held many volunteer positions at the Center, including as a clinic assistant, docent, volunteer electrician, volunteer trainer, eagle wrangler, and more. He can be reliably found at the Center several days a week and is always happy to help out with whatever job is needed: He cuts up food for patients, scrubs poop, wraps injured wings, replaces lightbulbs, and talks to guests.

“One of the most special things about Robert is the friendship he has with Francis, an elderly ambassador Bald Eagle,” said Center for Birds of Prey Director Katie Gill-Warner. “As an imprinted eagle in his 30s, Francis doesn’t like many people; however, he has been best friends with Veal for nearly 20 years."

With a theme of “Power of Birds, Power of Us: Science and Joy as Catalysts for Conservation,” Audubon Florida’s 2025 Assembly was attended by more than 250 conservationists and citizen advocates from around the state. Find more information about Audubon's critical conservation work at audubon.org/florida