Rob Fiegener
Director
A botanist and ecologist by training, Rob has been with the Native Seed Network since 2002. Rob is dedicated to finding economically viable solutions to native plant materials needs. Rob holds a B.S. in Natural Resources from Humboldt State University and a M.S. in Ecology from the University of California, Davis.
541-753-3099
Melanie Marshall Gisler
Program Manager/Botanist
M.S. Botany, University of British Columbia
B.A. Biology, University of New Mexico
Melanie worked with the West Eugene Wetlands Program (Eugene,OR) as seed program coordinator and natural resource specialist, with the PNW Research Station (Corvallis,OR) in plant ecology research, as a field and research biologist at Zilker Botanical Garden (Austin,TX), and at the USDA Plant Materials Center, Natural Heritage Program and Long Term Ecological Research Station (Albuquerque, NM). Her specialties include seed procurement, plant breeding systems, restoration, plant conservation biology, and botanical databases.
Select publications:
Marshall, M. and F. Ganders. 2001. Sex-biased seed predation and the maintenance of females in a gynodioecious plant. American Journal of Botany 88(8) 1437-1443.
Evans, A. S. and M. Marshall. 1996. Developmental instability in Brassica campestris(Cruciferae): fluctuating asymmetry of foliar and floral traits. J. Evol. Biol. 9: 717–736.
541-753-3099
Kimiora Ward
Botanist
Amy Young
Botanist
A native New Yorker, Amy is a recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest. Her interests include reproductive biology of rare plants, plant-insect interactions, restoration ecology and popular science writing. Her love of field botany was fostered by experiences in the Australian rainforest (School for International Training, College Semester Abroad Australia) and the Chihuahuan desert (Sevilleta LTER, New Mexico). After receiving her B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies from Swarthmore College (2001), Amy worked as a technician measuring vegetation and fuel structure in ponderosa pine forests following the 2000 Cerro Grande fire (Los Alamos National Laboratory). Her MS thesis (University of Georgia, 2005) included a comparison of the reproductive biology of the federally endangered Baptisia arachnifera and its more common congener, Baptisia lanceolata. Most recently, Amy honed her GIS skills creating maps of vegetation change within a large wetland complex in Georgia over a 60 year time span (Natural Resources Spatial Analysis Laboratory, UGA). Her tasks at IAE/NSN include propagating rare plants (Willamette daisy, Kincaid’s lupine) and aiding in various aspects of Willamette Valley restoration projects.
Matt Blakeley Smith
Plant Ecologist
Matt received a B.A. in Biology from The University of San Diego and a M.S. in Botany from Oregon State University. Matt is the Corvallis chapter president of the Native Plant Society of Oregon and founder of Native Plant Appreciation Week. As a plant ecologist at IAE since 2002, Matt specializes in the ecology and control of non-native species, endangered species propagation, and habitat restoration.
2007 Interns
Lisa Weiss
Lisa received her B.S. in botany from the University of Vermont in 2006. After graduating, she spent a season working on an organic farm in upstate New York. Before moving to Corvallis to work with the Native Seed Network, she took a four month long road trip, contra-dancing her way around the country. She's happy to be working with plants again and learning a new flora.
Josh Lambert
Josh is a graduate student at Oregon State University currently working on a Professional Master’s of Science through the Botany & Plant Pathology Dept with an emphasis on applied systematics. His past work, following a B.S. in environmental science at Western Washington University, includes five years of botanical survey and plant community classification based field work ranging from Arizona, California through to S.E. Alaska. He has worked as a botanist on numerous natural resource and ecology based projects with the Nature Conservancy, US Park Service, USGS, USFS Research Station and multiple private companies. Josh’s interests include angiosperm taxonomy, restoration ecology, rare and endangered plants and invasive plant ecology.
Ted Hart
Ted completed a B.A. (Teaching) and a B.S. at the Evergreen State College and a M.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University. He has taught biology courses at OSU, Lane Community College, Linn-Benton Community College, and marine science classes at SEACAMP in the Florida Keys, aboard schooners from Woods Hole to the Caribbean and in Puget Sound, Washington. His field work includes salmon spawning surveys in the Puget Sound, groundfish trawl surveys in Alaska, Grouper dive surveys in the Bahamas, and submersible and ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) surveys off the coast of Oregon. His interests have now moved to wetland ecology as he is currently pursuing a Ph.D. at Portland State University in Environmental Sciences.
Affiliates
Barbara Wilson
Geneticist
Ph.D. Botany, Oregon State University (1999)
M.A. Biology, University of Nebraska at Omaha (1982)
Teaching certificate Biology & General Science, University of Oregon (1974)
B.A. Biology, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, Michigan (1972)
Research interests:
taxonomy and conservation genetics, especially grasses and sedges.
Keli Kuykendall
Founder and Past Director
Keli, a passionate botanist and ecologist, created the Native Seed Network in 2001.
Tom Kaye
Executive Director, Institute for Applied Ecology
Tom Kaye graduated with a B.S. from The Evergreen State College (1984) and received a master's degree (1989) and Ph.D. (2001) from Oregon State University. After working for Olympic National Park (1984-1987), he joined the Oregon Department of Agriculture's Plant Conservation Biology Program where he conducted research and contributed to policy on management of threatened and endangered plant species. He has served on the IUCN Species Survival Commission, Re-introduction Specialist Group and is a member of the Native Plant Society of Oregon.
Tom specializes in endangered species propagation and restoration, the population dynamics of rare plants, population viability analysis, and monitoring. In addition, his interests include plant-pollinator interactions and plant systematics. He has a long-standing interest in coastal vegetation, including general patterns of plant distributions on the Pacific Coast and restoration of endangered species of beaches and dunes.
541-753-3099