Banner photo taken by Esteban Coria at a North Chapter hike organized at West Beach led by Scott Namestnik and Nathanael Pilla on June 26, 2022.

Welcome to INPS North Chapter!

Check out our upcoming events & activities.

Candace Peterson-Smith and Heidi Gray at Elkhart Envirofest.

Meet Our Chapter Leaders

Chris White, President

Chris White graduated from Purdue University in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science in the Fisheries and Aquatic Science program. He started at JFNew (now Stantec) two weeks later and has been with the company through the acquisitions other than a brief hiatus to hike the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine in 2009.  Chris moved from Laporte, Indiana, to Muskegon, Michigan, to manage habitat restoration work and expand offices from West Olive to Brighton from 2014 to 2018. In 2018, Chris moved to Ruskin, Florida, to expand habitat restoration work from Riverview to Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Chris returned to his hometown of Valparaiso in 2023 to be closer to family. Chris now manages the Walkerton office which is down the street from our Stantec Native Plant Nursery. The White Family includes wife Serena, daughter Samara (11), and son Rhone (9).

 

Heidi Gray, Vice President

Heidi’s love of nature began during summer vacations at family cottages in Wisconsin and continued while watching Jane Goodall’s research on TV documentaries. A high school Ecology class opened her eyes to the state of the environment, and when her three children started school, she volunteered at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in Florida. After returning to Indiana, Heidi has worked as a naturalist and preserve manager for Fernwood Botanical Garden, an interpreter for St. Joseph County Parks, and a director for Potawatomi Conservatories. Heidi is now enjoying a busy retirement. Heidi serves as the INPS Grow Indiana Natives Program Chair.

 

 

Scott Namestnik, Treasurer

Scott is the Botanist at the Indiana Natural Heritage Data Center, which is part of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources–Division of Fish, Wildlife & Nature Preserves. Much of his work involves conducting botanical inventories, assessing sites for protection consideration, and documenting and monitoring occurrences of endangered and threatened species. He has a degree in Botany with a focus in Environmental Science and almost 30 years of experience with the flora of the Great Lakes region and the Midwestern United States. Scott’s written work on the flora has appeared in several peer-reviewed journals including The Michigan Botanist, The Great Lakes Botanist, Phytoneuron, Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science, and Rhodora, and he is co-author of Wildflowers of the Midwest (Timber Press) and Wildflowers of the Indiana Dunes National Park (Indiana University Press). He currently serves as a board member for NatureCITE and South Bend-Elkhart Bird Alliance and is on the advisory council for Shirley Heinze Land Trust and the planning committee for the Indiana Dunes Birding Festival. He serves as INPS’s Journal team leader and is active with the Indiana Academy of Science.

 

Amy Crenshaw, Secretary

Amy is a bilingual (German-English) legal assistant with the law firm of Quarles & Brady LLP in Chicago. Her informal education in native plants started less than ten years ago after reading a Douglas Tallamy book, and she has been busy re-wilding her yard ever since. She has also given talks about the benefits of native plants to her co-workers.

 

 

 

 

 

Megan Wolf, Publicity

Megan’s love for the natural world started young on camping trips with her father and spending time with her Opa (Grandpa), both amatuer naturalists at heart. Together they taught her the importance of nature and role the plants and animals play in their ecosystem. Megan took this innate love of nature and built it into a career and lifestyle. She’s worked for a number of different agencies dealing with nature, but currently works for Soil Solutions, Inc on their wetlands team. She has graduated from Valparaiso University with a Bachelor of Science degree where she studied biology and environmental science. Megan continues to work on her family farm with her father to create sustainable farming methods and provide healthy, organic food for their family, friends, and neighbors.

 

Becca Davis, Education and Outreach 

Becca works at Stantec Native Plant Nursery as a seed technician. She graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor of Science in biology in 2018 and from Miami University with a Master of Arts in biology in 2022. She lives in Michigan City, Indiana with her husband, two children, three cats, five snakes, two axolotls, two freshwater and one marine aquariums, and crested gecko.

 

 

 

Ismael De Lara, Stewardship

Hello! My name is Ismael De Lara. I’m based in Porter County and work as a utility forester. I graduated from Purdue in Natural Resources and Environmental Science in 2025. I got into native species through doing invasive species removals while at Purdue through NICHES land trust. My hobbies include doing hiking, cooking, and traveling to the beach as often as I can.

 

Marci DeGroot

Marci grew up in the state park system living on the properties of Tippecanoe River SP, Shakamak SP, and Potato Creek SP, but her interest in native plants was piqued while working at McCormick’s Creek SP and attending Indiana University Bloomington. Soon after returning to northern Indiana, she began working for JFNew (now Stantec Native Plant Nursery) in seed collection and cleaning, transplant crew member, field technician for Environmental Services, inventory specialist, and currently works in nursery sales. She served on the boards of the Friends of McCormick’s Creek SP and the Friends of Potato Creek SP for many years. At the moment, her favorite trail is #9 at Indiana Dunes SP, favorite seed is Aquilegia canadensis, favorite carex are gracillima and swanii, favorite bird song is the Wood Thrush, and favorite weather is 80 degrees with a 15-20 mph wind.

 

Keith Board Student Scholarships

Each year INPS North Chapter will award two student scholarships to qualified recipients. The scholarship is a one-year membership in INPS and registration to attend the INPS Annual Conference (held in Indianapolis area 2023) plus a stipend for travel and lodging. The applicant is required to:

  • Be currently enrolled in an accredited high school, college or university in one of the North Chapter counties (Elkhart, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Lake, La Porte, Marshall, Porter, Starke, St. Joseph Counties).
  • Submit a maximum 400-word proposal/essay describing their past, current and future career goals/involvement in any study related to the research or protection of our native flora to be received by INPS North Chapter president at north@indiananativeplants.org by September 15, 2023.
  • Provide a letter of recommendation from a current instructor.

Award recipients will be notified by a representative from North Chapter on October 1, 2023. Announcements of scholarship recipients will be posted on our Facebook page and in our chapter and state newsletters.

Remembering Keith Board

July 20, 1960–January 12, 2019

The Indiana and Chicago region botanical communities suffered a great loss with the passing of INPS member Keith Board.

Keith was a woodshop, drafting, and architecture teacher at Bremen High School for 31 years. He touched countless lives with his interests in woodworking, carpentry, photography, fishing, writing poetry and jokes, and of course, botany and visiting natural areas.

As a self-taught field botanist, Keith’s work was invaluable to our understanding of the flora of northern Indiana. He contributed immensely to Plants of the Chicago Region (Swink and Wilhelm 1994), and the monumental Flora of the Chicago Region (Wilhelm and Rericha 2017).

The huge void that has been left with his passing will never be filled, but with young students looking up to mentors such as Keith and knowing that the love of our natural world is enough, we will know that his work will not be forgotten.