Meet the Board of Directors

WNYEA maintains a 9-15 member board with seats elected each year for service in a two-year term.
​Board Officers include the positions of Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer.

Board candidates for the 2022 slate of elections are identified. 

JAY BURNEY
Advocacy Chair

Jay Burney is a long-time conservationist, educator, naturalist, and community activist. He is also a writer, media maker, and publisher. He attended college at the University of New Hampshire, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and UCLA. He attended and later taught at the University of Iowa Writers Workshop. He has produced, written, and helped market a number of projects including for Warner Brothers, PBS, National Public Radio, CTV, the BBC, and CBS. He is the Executive Director and Special Projects Director for the Pollinator Conservation Association. He was one of the founders of the Friends of Times Beach Nature Preserve. He served as chair of the Niagara River Corridor Globally Significant Bird Area coalition that worked to obtain that designation. He is one of the founders of the Our Outer Harbor Coalition, is the U.S. Chair of the Birds on the Niagara International Festival, and is the founder and chair of the Pollinator Conservation Association. 

Most importantly he is a husband to Jonna, and the father of two children, Jajean Rose Burney, and Jamie Hamann-Burney.

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NICHOLAS HENSHUE 
​Vice Chair

​Dr. Nick Henshue has a B.S. in Environmental Education, Master’s in Biology, and Ph.D. in Ecology. He currently looks for ways to utilize earthworm ecology together with Restoration and Soil Ecology to improve habitats in Western New York. His current courses taught include Ecology, Restoration Ecology, Soil Ecology, and Phylogenetics and Taxonomy. Additionally, he is the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of Environment and Sustainability at the University at Buffalo. Nick’s research interests include restoration, earthworms, ecology, science outreach, and helping teachers teach amazing science. 









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​JESSICA GILBERT
​Secretary

Jessica is a PhD Candidate in the Geography Department at the University at Buffalo and a research Associate at Partnership for the Public Good, as well as secretary for the WNYEA. Through these roles, Jessica employs scholarship and activism to address food injustice within WNY communities, with a particular emphasis on racial justice and a just transition, which promotes the health and well-being of both people and planet. Growing up in the Finger Lakes, Jessica has been engaged in addressing environmental issues since middle school, during which she attended the Environmental Classroom Opportunity program at Cumming’s Nature Center in place of “normal” middle school. She received her BA from SUNY Geneseo in 2013 before moving to Buffalo for graduate school. In addition to being a student herself, she teaches environmental courses at both the University at Buffalo and SUNY Geneseo, through which she guides students in learning how to support local environmental efforts. When she is not working, she is usually hiking or biking in the numerous beautiful parks throughout the WNY region or gardening in her backyard. ​

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EMERE NIEVES
Board Candidate

Eme Nieves is a Buffalo, NY native, a wife and mother to 3 young children, and a blossoming business woman. In 2019, she founded Gardeness Inc., a regenerative, organic garden care company that provides subscription services to the landscapes of residents and businesses throughout WNY. Gardeness is striving to increase biodiversity in every landscape by restoring soil health and gardening with native plants. Our mission is to move past sustainability, and become the region’s premier regenerative, organic garden care company.
 
Her prior professional gardening experience includes training community gardeners at Grassroots Gardens of WNY and working at the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, managing their large public gardens. She completed the Master Gardener training in 2014 and is certified in Organic Gardening through Cornell. In 2020 she became an Accredited Organic Land Care Professional(s) (AOLCP) through CT NOFA and employees get certified too. Emere received her bachelor's degree in Physical Geography and Environmental Science from SUNY Buffalo State College and is a Buffalo Seminary alumni.
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ANDREA O'SUILLEABHAIN
Treasurer

​Andrea Ó Súilleabháin is Executive Director at Partnership for the Public Good, which she joined as Deputy Director in May 2017. She leads PPG’s work on criminal justice reform and community policing, immigrant rights and language access policies, and the annual Community Agenda. Previously, Andrea was a Research Fellow at the International Peace Institute in New York, focused on bringing community voices to United Nations policymaking and increasing women’s participation in peace talks. Her research has informed UN policy and US law, and has been cited by Foreign Policy, The Guardian, PBS, and other news sources.

Andrea has worked as a lawyer on refugee cases in the US and Ireland, on ending the death penalty in the state of Indiana, and on peacebuilding in countries from South Africa to Sri Lanka. She holds a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law and a BA in Political Science and Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame.




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KELLEY ST. JOHN
ex-officio

Kelley St. John is the Senior Resiliency Grants Manager for the City of Buffalo who works to secure unique funding streams that support the City’s sustainability and resilience initiatives. In this role, St. John is responsible for implementing the U.S. Treasury pandemic-response stimulus funding, and coordinating  participation in state-sponsored climate and energy programs. St. John brings experience from her contributions to applied research and policy making in communities across US. She holds a Master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning, and undergraduate degrees in Environmental Design (B.A.) and Environmental Studies (B.S.) from the University at Buffalo. 

Kelley is a life-long resident of Western New York, growing up among the rural landscapes of Cattaraugus and Chautauqua Counties on her family’s fourth-generation dairy operation. Kelley currently resides in North Buffalo with her husband, Nathan and together they enjoy exploring the National Parks system and listening to live music. Her interests include gardening, 
thrift and vintage shopping, and winter recreation. 

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HELEN TOLEDO
​Board Candidate

​Helen Toledo is the president and founder of the Buffalo Women of Environmental Learning and Leadership (BWELL), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization on a mission to encourage women to explore the natural environment, promote sustainability, and develop leadership skills through environmental stewardship and community engagement. She has a B.S. of Environmental Geosciences from the University at Buffalo and holds a M.S. of Great Lakes Environmental Science from SUNY Buffalo State. 

Helen is an environmental educator at heart and currently works with K-12 students and educators to effectively communicate environmental impacts through the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). She believes that bringing new voices, ideas, and perspectives from within our community is crucial to creating a sustainable and resilient future for all.


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MARGARET WOOSTER
Board Candidate​

Dr. Margaret Wooster was a founding member of the Friends of the Buffalo River, the headwater spring that led to Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper. She created a Watershed Learning Project with middle schools in the Buffalo-Niagara River Watershed on both sides of the border which was featured in a 1990 National Geographic film, The Power of Water. As a watershed planner for the Erie and Niagara Counties Regional Planning Board, Margaret worked with local governments on stream and groundwater protection, then serving for eight years as the Executive Director of Great Lakes United (GLU), a bi-national coalition of environmental, labor and indigenous groups dedicated to conserving the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River ecosystem.  Margaret is the author of three books: Meander: Making Room for (Great Lakes) Rivers (currently under review, SUNY Press), Living Waters: Reading the Rivers of the Lower Great Lakes (SUNY Press), and Somewhere to Go on Sunday (Prometheus Books). She has also published many articles, stories and local geographies inspired by Great Lakes flows. She has won several awards for her conservation work and writings.

She has a PhD in English literature, a Masters degree in environmental land use planning, and occasionally teaches a graduate course in ecology-based land use planning at SUNY Buffalo’s School of Architecture and Planning.
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LYNDA SCHNEEKLOTH

Lynda is Professor Emerita of the Department of Architecture, University at Buffalo/SUNY and 2019-2021 Chair of the WNYEA.  Throughout her career she has worked to connect environmental and social activism, design practice, teaching, and scholarship around both professional and citizen engagement in the practice of “placemaking.”  She engages people and institutions in the work of healing the world and the creating beloved places.  She holds an MS in Landscape Architecture from the University of Wisconsin, has taught at Schools of Architecture from 1976 to 2011, and is author or editor of six books and numerous articles.    
 
Schneekloth has been active in regional environmental work to include being one of the founders of the Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, and the WNY Environmental Alliance.  She also serves on the board member of the Sierra Club Niagara Group and participates in the Crossroads Collective. With these organizations and others, she has facilitated collaborative work in climate justice with special attention to youth and frontline involvement, public trust matters as in Outer Harbor protection, the restoration of our ecology through the Native Plants Collaborative, and the moral imperative of both the climate and biodiversity crises through the Interfaith Climate Justice Community.  Schneekloth seeks to deepen people’s connections to the earth both culturally and environmentally.  

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RICHARD STOCKTON​
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Rick is a retired biomedical scientist and a life-long naturalist with a particular interest in birds, mammals, herps, trees, and wildfllowers.  

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JOHN WHITNEY
Chair

John served as the District Conservationist for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service from late 1985 until he retired in January of 2019. In addition to more than 39 years of professional experience, John was a founder and long-time Director and Treasurer of the Western New York Land Conservancy. He remains an enthusiastic supporter of the open space, farmland and natural area protection work of the WNY Land Conservancy and many other local land conservation organizations and initiatives. He has considerable experience in geographic information system data development, project management and mapping. John also served on the Erie County Environmental Management Council as an at-large member for many years. John now holds a part-time position as an agricultural educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension of Erie County.

John is a 1982 graduate of Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences where he studied Natural Resources & Agronomy. Other interests include nature photography, woodworking, gardening, and music. As a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, John can be seen and heard in various venues in and around East Aurora where he resides with his wife, Laura.

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BRENDA YOUNG
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Brenda Young, PhD, LEED AP is Professor of Biology at Daemen College and Chair of the Global & Local Sustainability Department.  Trained as an ecologist with additional coursework in sustainable design, she teaches courses in ecology, animal behavior, conservation biology and environmental sciences.   With students, she works on campus sustainability initiatives including demonstration green roof and rain garden projects.

Brenda and her husband own Niagara Malt LLC, a certified organic farm business producing carbon-neutral malt for craft brewers and distillers.  Additionally, she is a beekeeper and uses agricultural practices that promote biodiversity. 
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Brenda serves on the boards for Buffalo Heritage Carousel, Western New York Sustainable Energy Association and WNY Earth Day Expo.  She also helps manage Allenberg Bog owned by Buffalo Audubon Society. 

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While members of the Board of Directors of the Western New York Environmental Alliance (WNYEA) may be members of or employed by WNYEA member, associate, or supporting organizations,  or other non-affiliated groups or agencies, Directors do not represent any organization or agency other than the WNYEA when conducting and participating in organizational business and activities.  Directors are also subject to a written Conflict of Interest Policy to protect the WNYEA’s interests in transactions involving directors, officers and affiliated and related parties. ​