About Friends of the Arboretum
Friends of the Arboretum (FOA) is a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization that supports the work of the UW - Madison Arboretum. For 30 years, Friends of the Arboretum has provided volunteer and financial support and has assisted the Arboretum's efforts in community outreach and education, training of young scientists, ecological research and coordination of volunteers.
Proceeds from the membership program and fundraising events support FOA activities and Arboretum teaching, outreach and research activities. A special focus for the organization for the past several years has been to support Arboretum efforts to provide ecological restoration education and related experiences to children, families, teachers and citizens through naturalist-guided tours, classes, restoration projects, service learning programs, and volunteer involvement.
Our Mission
Our Vision
Our Board of Directors 2008-2009
Our Mission
The Friends hope to enhance the Arboretum's capability to accomplish its research, education, and outreach by:
- Providing volunteer and financial support to the Arboretum
- Assisting with the Arboretum's varied educational and outreach activities
- Helping the Arboretum sustain its sense of history and tradition
- Offering benefits to its members, and
- Inspiring people to become involved with the Arboretum.
Our Vision
The Friends help foster positive relationships between people and the land through support of the UW-Madison Arboretum.
Our Board of Directors 2008-2009
Rob Wixson, President
Rob, beginning his first term as president, is currently serving his second term on the board. He is a long time Friend of the Arboretum and an even longer user of the Arboretum. He grew up in Nakoma with the Arboretum as his back yard and playground. John Curtis, the father of a close friend, initially inspired his interest in the land. Over the years Rob has continued to be an active user of the Arboretum and has enjoyed hiking, biking, skiing, and more recently, snow shoeing the many trails. He has practiced law in the City of Madison since 1972 and has served on the board of directors of the Dane County Bar Association and Civil Trial Counsel of Wisconsin. Rob is a member of the Leopold Restoration Awards Judges Team.
Tami Van Galder Patel, Vice President
Tami, starting her first year as vice president, is in her second year on the Board this year. She discovered the Arboretum as a runner while she was in law school. Tami grew up in Southern Wisconsin where her large extended family has lived for generations. She left Wisconsin to attend Bradley University where she played basketball and graduated with a B.A. in Economics. After Tami graduated from Bradley, she moved to Madison and worked as an economic consultant until she began graduate school. After receiving her J.D. from UW-Madison and an M.P.A. from the La Follette Institute of Public Affairs, Tami moved to Chicago and began practicing law at Sidley & Austin LLP. Tami's practice focused on the tax-aspects of mergers and acquisitions, partnership formations, and financings. In addition, she aided nonprofit entities in obtaining and maintaining tax-exempt status. After four years in Chicago, Tami returned to Madison and practiced law at Reinhart Boerner & Van Deuren SC until the birth of her first daughter. Tami is now enjoying staying at home with her two young girls and is looking forward to sharing all the Arboretum has to offer with her family.
Fran Keally, Secretary
Fran, starting her third year as board secretary, first enjoyed the Arboretum as a runner while a graduate student in the Water Resources Management program at the University of Wisconsin in the early 1980s. In the late 1980s she cross country skied there with her husband, which, by the mid 1990s, turned into hikes with her two daughters and participation in the weekend family programs. In 2000 she biked through the Arboretum as she trained for a 500 mile ride across Wisconsin to celebrate turning 50. Finally, during the summers of 2003 and 2004, her oldest daughter volunteered as a naturalist's assistant for the Earth Focus Day Camp. She has recently served on the Nominating Committee and helped with the silent auction. Fran is currently a wastewater specialist with the Department of Natural Resources. She loves to travel, read, and bike./p>
Mareda Weiss, Treasurer
Mareda, a long-time member of FOA, retired in 2002 after a 38-year career at UW-Madison as an Associate Dean of the Graduate School, where her responsibilities included administrative oversight of the Arboretum, and as the UW-Madison Director of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs. She is beginning her third year as board treasurer. Mareda is active in several national research policy groups and served as treasurer of the National Council of Research Administrators and chair of the Midwest Region. She received the national award for Outstanding Achievement in Research Administration in 2001 from this organization and the UW-Madison's award for Excellence in Leadership in 1997. Her previous board experience includes Friends of WHA-TV, vice president of the University Club, president of the University Women's Service Club, vice president of the University Insurance Association. Mareda also served as the UW-Madison's chair for the State Employees Combined Campaign in 1986. She is an enthusiastic supporter of The Nature Conservancy, Madison Audubon Society's Goose Pond Sanctuary, and Operation Migration and enjoys traveling, hiking, birding, golfing and biking. In addition to her board duties as treasurer, Mareda has been active in the Native Plant Sale and other events.
Jim Armstrong
Jim, serving his second term on the board, is Founder and Creative Director of Good for Business, a socially responsible marketing communications firm headquartered in Madison, WI. Believing a business isn't a brand to be built, but a cause to be believed in, the firm's work ranges from clients in the UK to the U.N. to the UW. Jim previously served as Partner/Creative Director with the Sterling Rice Group, a leading integrated brand development firm as well as President of Armstrong Creative for 12 years. Jim has a M.A. in Poetry and continues to write and publish poetry. He has developed a workshop called CorPoet which helps corporations find its authentic language, voice and purpose through poetry and other creative exercises. Jim serves on the Milestones Project Council and the Wisconsin Academy of Science Arts and Letters Board. He is married to Kathy, a fine artist. They have three children, Emily, Megan and Michael. Jim had been instrumental in helping the board develop marketing materials and become more familiar with Web-based information.
Tom Blewett
Tom has been a member of FOA since returning to the Madison area in the mid-90s, and is beginning his second term on the board and his fourth year as the chair of the Leopold Restoration Awards Judges Team. He currently serves as an associate state program director for University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension and is a professor in the Department of Community Resource Development. Tom previously worked as a county extension educator and state specialist in Extension. Prior to coming to Extension, he was an environmental specialist and bureau chief with Iowa DNR, an environmental biology professor at Clarke College in Iowa, and an environmental consultant. Tom earned a B.S. degree in botany at Iowa State University, and two master's degrees and a Ph.D. from UW-Madison. The Arboretum prairie restoration experience from the 1930's and 1940's through 1976 served as his Ph.D. research topic
Scott Coon
Scott Coon, beginning his third year on the board, has been a member of FOA for many years. He is a consulting engineer with 25 years of experience in power generation, renewable energy, construction, waste management, and environmental quality issues. Scott specializes in turning waste materials (landfill gas, treatment plant digester gas, garbage, etc.) into renewable energy and other beneficial uses. Scott's consulting work has led him to the four corners of the globe with projects from Montreal to Buenos Aires, Seoul to Ankara and many points in between. A native of Madison, he grew up near Lake Wingra and his love for the Arboretum began as a young boy. An avid runner at 51 years of age, three times around the lake per week is a mandatory part of his life. Scott served on the Edgewood Park and Pleasure Drive Committee to help develop improved storm water management and erosion control and as a member of the Dudgeon Monroe Neighborhood Association, he has worked to reduce storm drain dumping, yard waste runoff and improve the oak savanna. He currently serves as the chair of the Membership Development Committee
Boris Frank
Boris is beginning his first year on the Friends board. For the past 26 years, he has worked as a consultant to over 750 not-for-profit organizations and government agencies in the areas of fundraising, volunteer management, board and leadership development, marketing and strategic planning. His clients have included Olbrich Botanical Gardens, the Benedictine Life Foundation Prairie Restoration Project, the Henry Vilas Zoological Society, the Audubon Society, the Green Bay Botanical Gardens, and Boerner Botanical Gardens. From 1964 to 1982 he was on the University of Wisconsin-Madison faculty, serving as a Producer/Director and Director of Administration for WHA-TV. Prior to that, he was in network TV in New York working on programs on NBC, CBS and ABC, established and managed the TV stations in Curacao and Haiti, and headed up the International Broadcast Division of Screen Gems. He currently serves on three Boards: Asset Builders of America (Secretary); Capital K-9s (Founder); and Bear's Place Animal Shelter and Hospice (Secretary). Boris is past President of the Friends of WHA-TV, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Dane County and the Combat Blindness Foundation. Other past Board service has included the Perinatal Foundation (Vice President), United Cerebral Palsy (Secretary), the Madison Metro YMCA, the Wisconsin Library Association Foundation (Treasurer) and the Rotary Club of Madison. A Visiting Lecturer in nonprofit management and development for the University of Wisconsin, over 35,000 have attended his courses nationwide.
Emily Gilbert
Emily is starting her sixth year on the board. She has served on the Executive Committee, the Membership Development Committee, the Raffle Committee, and has chaired the Nominating Committee. After receiving her bachelor's degree in Spanish from Colby College in Waterville, Maine, she spent two years working in Undergraduate Admissions at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, followed by one year in the Admission Office at Laurel School, an independent day school for girls in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Recently she spent three years as the Director of Admission and Financial Aid for Madison Country Day School, an independent private school in the Madison area serving students in pre-kindergarten through 9th grade. She served on the board of directors of the Nancy Denney Project, a small non-profit group supporting single parents attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is currently on the board of the Terrace Homes Corporation. She was delighted to return to her hometown of Madison in 2000. In her free time, Emily enjoys hiking and camping, biking, boating, swimming, and vegetable and herb gardening, and spending time enjoying nature and the outdoors with her dog, Ally.
Bill Hantke
Bill, new to the board this year, was first introduced to the UW-Madison Arboretum in 1968 during a visit with a Botany class to study spring flowers and native plants. Since Bill grew up on a farm in Southern Wisconsin he has always appreciated the treasures that nature and the outdoors have provided for us to enjoy. After receiving his M.S. degree in Food Chemistry and Business from UW-Madison, he moved to Australia, before eventually settling in California for 32 years. He established his own packaging machinery business and after 20 years sold it, then retired to follow his house remodeling interest. However, the "Call of the Midwest" soon lured Bill and his wife Leslie to move back to Madison with a purchase of their home in the Arboretum. Currently, Bill serves as a fraternity alumni advisor, a member of the UW Chancellors Commission on Fraternities and Sororities, the National Alpha Gamma Rho Educational Foundation Board and the Arboretum Neighborhood Association Board. The Arboretum provides him many opportunities to enjoy running, bicycling and nature walks and he is looking forward to giving back to the Arboretum for the opportunity of living in such a unique and wonderful environment.
Darcy Kind
Darcy, starting her first term on the board, is a conservation biologist with the Bureau of Endangered Resources, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, assisting private landowners with prairie and savanna management, restoration and land protection. Previous to working with rare plants and animals, she worked with the DNR's wildlife management program in both upland game and deer management. Darcy has also worked as a naturalist at the Aldo Leopold Nature Center and in experiential education at YMCA Camp Manito-wish. She has a degree from Lawrence University, Appleton, WI. Previously she served on the board of the Mendota Rowing Club. When not roaming southern Wisconsin's hills and valleys, she enjoys gardening, biking and watching her dog Lily frolic through life.
Peter Livingston
Peter, beginning his second term on the board, has been involved in analyzing data from the recent FOA membership survey. He is a market researcher and product planner in the marketing communications firm he shares with his wife, Susan Stark. Most of his work is with credit unions (both in this country and abroad). Peter is a supporter of the Sierra Club, Clean Wisconsin and The Nature Conservancy. Since moving to Spring Green in 2000, he has worked hard to restore an 11-acre prairie at his home. Peter has an undergraduate degree from Harvard and a master's from the University of Chicago, both in sociology. Prior to forming their firm, Peter and his wife worked for the Credit Union National Association, Inc. Peter ran their research and economics division and led several key product development efforts. Peter has served on several boards, including 20 years on the board of the University of Wisconsin Credit Union. Before coming to Madison, he worked in rural Guatemala with producer cooperatives and credit unions. Peter enjoys snowshoeing on his land, bicycling in warmer weather, nature photography, birding, world travel, opera and other classical music, and his family-not necessarily in that order.
Pat Roggensack
Beginning her first year on the Friends board, Pat was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2003. Prior to becoming a Supreme Court Justice, she was a judge with the Wisconsin Court of Appeals, District IV. Pat received her law degree from the UW Law School and was a principal in the Madison law firm of DeWitt Ross & Stevens prior to her election to the Court of Appeals. She has served as the Legislative Liaison for the Judicial Conference, on the Committee for Public Trust and Confidence in the Courts, on the Publication Committee for the Court of Appeals and as the court's delegate to the Personnel Review Board. She has also served as a co-chairperson for the State Court/Tribal Court Planning Committee, the 2005 Judicial Conference and the 2005 Bench/Bar Conference. Pat is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a member of the American Judges Association, American Bar Association, Judicature, State Bar of Wisconsin, Dane County Bar Association, Milwaukee Association for Women Lawyers, Madison Legal Association of Women and the Bar Association for the Western District of Wisconsin, of which she is a past president. She is a frequent guest lecturer at the UW Law School, MATC and many civic organizations throughout the state. Pat is also active in the Madison community having served on various non-profit boards, including Olbrich Botanical Society, YWCA of Madison, Highlands Neighborhood Association, A Fund for Women and the Wisconsin Center for Academically Talented Youth.