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Cast Your Vote for the Georgia Native Plant Society
2023 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

It has been another great year for GNPS with so many new chapters around the state and our membership now at an all-time high. We look forward to helping grow more people to love and conserve Georgia's native plants, both for their beauty and their benefit to wildlife and our ecosystems.

To help fuel our growth, we are excited to present our slate of candidates for the 2023 State Board of Directors. Once again, we are asking members statewide to vote electronically, as described below.

We are pleased to introduce first-time board candidates Les Cane, Lea Millet and Chadd Reynolds, who will each serve a three-year term beginning on January 1, 2023. Each of them have agreed to share their time and specific talents with GNPS, and we are so grateful to welcome their knowledge and expertise. Please read below to get acquainted with Les, Lea and Chadd. 

Additionally, the following people will serve a second three-year term: Michele Buchanan, Tom Collins, Lori Conway, Amy Heidt, Ellen Honeycutt, and Ron SmithPlease cast your vote for this slate by clicking on the button below.

Returning to continue their current terms on the board are Greg Lewis and Karan Rawlins. We also wish a fond farewell to Carling Kirk and Mary Lillian Walker, who will conclude their board terms this year. We thank them for their service to GNPS through their work on the state board. 


Cast your electronic vote for the slate presented below by clicking on the button below. Member login will be required. If you are not returned to the voting page after logging in, you can click the button again. One vote per membership, please.

 

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 Leslie (Les) Cane

Les Cane's connection to nature started early in life. The influence of family, friends and teachers impressed upon him the wonder of living things. A BS degree in biology enhanced this connection. Les eventually earned a PhD in anatomy and neuroscience. He spent his life teaching, researching and bringing knowledge to others. After moving to Atlanta in 1980, Les began to connect with various organizations that could use his help and, in his words, "engage my soul with nature and plants.” He has completed the State Botanical Garden of Georgia Certification in Native Plants program and is currently working with the Dunwoody Nature Center to expand their adult presence. Les also works with Golden Retriever Rescue Atlanta on their medical team. He has served on the board of the Good Mews Animal Foundation. He has worked with Georgia Audubon, becoming a master birder and a leader in their Wildlife Sanctuary Program. Les also worked with Trees Atlanta where he became a plant specialist. Les loves to garden and is always working on a project at home. His core belief is that sharing and helping to educate others about nature, in all of its aspects, enhances one’s well being and enthusiasm for life.


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Lea Millet

Lea Millett is a licensed professional geologist with over 20 years of experience in environmental compliance and environmental construction for heavy industry and is currently performing research on environmental issues affecting electric power generation, delivery, and utilization. Her current role includes supporting the Power-in-Pollinator Initiative, working with power companies and other stakeholders at the nexus of energy and pollinator conservation. Lea grew up in Ohio but moved south over 20 years ago to take advantage of the warm weather. While living in Birmingham, AL, she met an enthusiastic gardener who introduced her to native plants. She joined the Georgia Native Plant Society after purchasing a house in downtown Atlanta and currently serves on the advocacy and restoration committees of the Intown Chapter. Lea has almost completed the Native Plant Certificate from the UGA State Botanical Garden and is looking forward to applying that knowledge to her downtown lot in addition to other projects around the city.


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 Chadd Reynolds

Chadd Reynolds is a commercial litigation attorney at Chamberlain Hrdlicka White Williams & Aughtry, P.C. He grew up in Alpharetta and now lives in Atlanta with his wife and newborn son. Chadd developed a passion for the outdoors while spending his childhood summers at his grandparents who were avid gardeners. Through membership in Georgia Audubon, he was introduced to the importance of native plants and has since caught the native plant bug. While only a recent member of GNPS, Chadd has started replacing many of the plants in his front and backyard with natives, and is also in the process of transforming a portion of his parents’ five-acre property into a native prairie. He hopes to obtain a Native Plant Certificate from the State Botanical Garden.


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Michele Buchanan

Michele Buchanan currently serves as Board Secretary and Chair of the Membership/Chapter Relations Committee. Michele is retired and spends her leisure time with family, friends, and native plants. Her interest in native plants grew from her desire to attract more birds and wildlife to her home garden. Michele is a Master Birder with Georgia Audubon, and confesses to having ruined many family nature walks by pointing out all of the invasive plants along the way. This will be Michele's second term on the GNPS State Board. 


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Tom Collins

Tom Collins is a professor at Georgia Tech and has been a member of the board since 2018, first as Director of Communications under the prior board structure. He participated in the 2019 GNPS restructuring and chapter expansion and continues to serve on multiple committees, including Membership, Finance, Governance, Education and Audit. He edits the NativeScape newsletter and acts as the primary contact for the web site. Tom is affiliated with the Intown Chapter, and his mostly wooded lot in Smyrna/Vinings is a certified GNPS Native Plant Habitat with over 160 documented native species. This will be Tom's second term on the GNPS State Board.


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Lori Conway

Lori Conway serves as Board Vice Chair, and serves on the Governance Committee (Chair), the Conservation Committee and its subcommittees of Propagation (Chair) and Restoration. She has managed the Stone Mountain Propagation Project since 2019. Lori's environmental consulting career detoured in the mid-1990s when she completed Gwinnett Tech's golf course management program. At an Alpharetta golf club, she acted as landscaping coordinator but admired the native plants in the club’s natural areas more than the flowers she installed in the annual color beds. She later ran a garden design business but tired of the unsustainable nature of ornamental landscaping and returned to industrial hygiene for another 15 years. In 2016, excited about native plants becoming mainstream, she decided to re-enter the green industry. Her horticultural passions are now dedicated to healing scarred landscapes through invasive and non-native plant removal and using native plants in attractive designed landscapes that support insects, birds, and other wildlife.

She is also board president of Keep Chamblee Beautiful and was recently named a Volunteer of the Year by the Georgia Recreation and Parks Association. She is affiliated with the Intown Chapter, and her Chamblee garden is a work-in-progress of conversion to a native landscape. This will be Lori's second term on the GNPS State Board.


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Amy Heidt

Amy Heidt is a retired science educator who has been involved with native plants since her teaching days, when she received grants to incorporate the study of native plants into her curriculum. Amy is a founding member of the Coastal Plain Chapter (CPC) and has served as vice president,
president, secretary, and currently as propagation chair for CPC. She is a member of Coastal Wildscapes and the Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance (GPCA) where she volunteers with many conservation projects. Amy and her husband, Paul, were recently recognized by GPCA with an award for their volunteer work with the organization. Amy has completed the Certificate in Native Plants at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia and the Master Naturalist program through UGA Extension in Bibb County. Currently, she is working on completing the Plants & Pollinators Specialization Program offered at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia.

As chair of the Conservation Committee, Amy has worked to create an up-to- date conservation policy for GNPS that increases our cooperation with conservation partners. She staffed and serves on the Rescue (Chair) and Restoration subcommittees, which have extensively revised and expanded rescue and restoration training materials for the new chapters in the statewide organization. She also serves on the Propagation subcommittee. This will be Amy's second term on the GNPS State Board.


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Ellen Honeycutt

Ellen Honeycutt serves as Board Chair. She has served on the GNPS board multiple times since 2007, serving in various roles including President from 2010-2012, Symposium Chair for 8 years, as co-Director of the Rescue Program as well as other positions. She rejoined the Board for the 2019 GNPS restructuring and chapter expansion and serves on multiple committees and is Chair of the Education committee.

Ellen is a GNPS lifetime member and is affiliated with the North Metro Atlanta Chapter. She lives in Cherokee County with her husband on a wooded lot that serves as her inspiration for her blog: Using Georgia Native Plants. She retired recently from an IT career with AT&T and IBM and is enjoying introducing her grandson to the wonders of the local ecosystem and native plants. This will be Ellen's second term on the GNPS State Board.


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 Ron Smith

Ron Smith currently serves as Board Treasurer and is a retired financial executive and CPA. He served as CFO for an insurance carrier, as operations manager for a conglomerate’s self-insurance company, as a financial officer for a Fortune 500 insurance broker, and as a senior auditor for a ‘Big Eight’ CPA firm. He graduated with a BSBA, Accounting, from the University of Florida, and served as a sergeant in the Marine Corps. Prior to joining the GNPS State Board in 2020, Ron previously served GNPS as a board member, as treasurer, and as the Society’s outside CPA.

Ron’s home is in Decatur. He joined GNPS in 2002 with an ambition to reclaim his lot from English Ivy and other invasive plants. He attributes his successful restoration to his GNPS family from whom he learned much, and to the estimated thousands of plants he acquired from GNPS plant rescues. In 2017 his yard was GNPS gold certified. In 2022 it was included on the Intown Chapter’s Native Plant Habitat Garden Tour. This will be Ron's second term on the GNPS State Board.

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