Merry Lea Staff
All current staff can be reached at 260-799-5869.
Offices
at the Learning Center Building:
Executive Director - Luke
Gascho
Assistant Executive Director and Director of Graduate Studies - Dave Ostergren
K-12 Education Coordinator & Sustainability and Environmental
Education Department (SEED) teaching faculty - Paul
Steury
SEED teaching faculty- Laura
Meitzner Yoder
Environmental Science Educator - Carol
Good-Elliott
Director of Land
Management & teaching faculty - Bill
Minter
Property Manager - Kerry
Goodrich
Offices at Rieth Village:
Ecological Field Station Director - Dale
Hess
Director of Sustainability Semester in Residence - Lisa
Zinn
Coordinator of
Public Programs - Jennifer
Schrock
Lindsey Field Researcher- Ryan
L. Sensenig
Emeritus Faculty - Larry
Yoder, Dave Miller
Dr.
Luke Gascho
Executive Director, Professor in the Sustainability
and Environmental Education Department (SEED)
B.S.
Biology /Education, Eastern Mennonite College, 1974
M.A., Christian School Administration, Grace Seminary,
1983
Ed.D., Nova Southeastern University, 1998.
Luke joined us in 1997 as senior administrator. His previous experience was in science education and school administration, including teaching in Grenada and Puerto Rico. Luke's interests include leadership, sustainable building design and creation care from a faith-based perspective. Luke oversaw the design and construction of Rieth Village, a facility at Merry Lea that earned a platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council. He also chairs the Creation Care Council of the Mennonite Creation Care Network and is the author of Creation Care: Keepers of the Earth.
Email: lukeag@goshen.edu
Click
here to visit his web page.
Carol Good-Elliott
Environmental
Science Educator
B.A.
Biology, Environmental Studies Minor, Goshen College, 1989.
M.S. candidate, Environmental Education, Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center
of Goshen College.
Carol has nearly 20 years experience educating people of all ages about the natural world. She is especially fond of working with young children. When not scheduling, teaching or writing curriculum for the K-12 education program she can be found hunting fairy shrimp in a temporary pond or spotting birds to add to her birding team's list.
Email: carolge@goshen.edu
Kerry Goodrich
Property Supervisor
Kerry,
a native of Noble County, has cared for Merry Lea's physical plant since
1980. He has completed coursework in heating systems, industrial management
and horticulture at IVY Technical College. His real passion, however,
is working outdoors. Kerry is an avid hunter and observer of wildlife.
Email: kerryag@goshen.edu
Jane Litwiller
Environmental Educator and Property Assistant
B.A. Goshen College, 2005; Environmental Studies major, women's studies minor.
Jane grew up near Ludington, MI where she developed her love for the outdoors and aquatic ecosystems in particular. After graduating from Goshen College, she worked at Merry Lea as an intern from the Fall of 2006-Spring of 2008 and began full-time employment at Merry Lea on May 24, 2010. Her responsibilities include working with K-12 school groups who visit Merry Lea on field trips, miscellaneous K-12 programming responsibilities, mowing and trail maintenance, and miscellaneous building and property maintenance.
Email: janell@goshen.edu.
Dr.
Dale Hess
Ecological Field Station Director and Associate
Professor of Agroecology
B.A.,
Millersville State College 1976
M.S., Purdue University, 1984
Ph.D., Purdue University, 1989.
Dale joined Merry Lea's staff in 2004 in order to direct the Summer Agroecology Intensive program. His experience in sustainable crop production research includes more than a decade spent in West Africa. Dale also teaches botany at Goshen College.
Email: dhess@goshen.edu.
Click here to visit his web page.
Dr.
David Miller
Program
Director Emeritus, Associate Professor of Biology
B.A.,
Eastern Mennonite College, 1964
M.S., University of Delaware, 1972
Ph.D.
Michigan State University 1977
Dave is an entomologist who
joined Merry Lea in 1988 and has
served in many roles since then. Most recently, he taught a natural history
class in the graduate program in environmental education and chaired Goshen
College's biology department. Dave retired in 2011, but continues to
oversee Merry Lea's insect collections and occasional research projects.
Email: davejm@goshen.edu
Click here to visit his web page.
William Minter
Director
of Land Management, Assistant Professor in the Sustainability
and Environmental Education Department (SEED)
B.S.,
Colorado State University, 1980
M.S.F. Purdue University, 1989
Bill is a certified
professional forester who has served on the staff since 1991. He has
restored over 100 acres of wetland and prairie at Merry Lea. When not practicing
land management, he teaches courses on related subjects to both Goshen College
undergraduates and Merry Lea's graduates in environmental education. Bill takes
a special interest in oak savanna ecosystems.
Email: billfm@goshen.edu
Click here to visit his web page.
Dr. David Ostergren
Director of the Graduate Program
in Environmental Education
Associate Professor in the Sustainability
and Environmental Education Department (SEED)
Ph.D.
Forest Resources Science; Recreation, Parks and Tourism Resources, West Virginia
University, 1997. M.A. Political Science; Policy Analysis, West Virginia University,
1997. M.Ed. Outdoor Education, Emphasis in Special Education. University of
Minnesota, 1992. B.S. Biology; Chemistry Minor, University of Minnesota, 1982.
Dave joined Merry Lea in 2008 and serves as administrator and teacher in the graduate program. His experience includes outdoor education/recreation since 1980 in Minnesota, West Virginia and Arizona. Dr. Ostergren’s research includes U.S. Wilderness policy and Russian national park and nature reserve management.
For questions and interest in the graduate program he can be contacted by email at daveo@goshen.edu.
Jennifer
Halteman Schrock
Coordinator of Public Programs, Assistant Professor
in the Sustainability and Environmental Education Department (SEED)
B.A.,
English Education, Goshen College, 1983
M.Div., Chicago Theological Seminary,
1990
Jennifer
joined the staff in July 2002. Her responsibilities have ranged from
grant writing to editing the Merry
Leaflet to
planning public programs such as the Autumn Hope Conference. She has helped
develop Merry Lea's Sustainability Semester and will co-teach a course
on Faith, Ethics and Ecojustice in this program.
Email: jenniferhs@goshen.edu.
Click here to visit her web page.
Dr.
Ryan Sensenig
Lindsey Research Fellow, Associate Professor of
Biology and Director of the Environmental Science Program at Goshen College
Ph.D.
University of California, Davis, Ecology, 2007
B.S. Eastern Mennonite University, Biology, International Agriculture,
1992
Ryan
teaches ecology, biology and environmental science courses at Goshen College
and conducts field research at Merry Lea. Ryan’s doctoral research
focused on the effects of grassland burning
on grazing animals in Kenya, and he continues to research the relationship
between grazing animals and healthy prairies. Before moving to undergraduate
teaching, Ryan taught high school science and won several state and national
teaching awards.
Email: rlsensenig@goshen.edu
Click
here to visit his web page.
Paul
D. Steury
Assistant Professor in the
Sustainability and Environmental Education Department (SEED),
Education Coordinator for K-12 Programs
BA in
Sociology, Goshen College 1987
MS in Outdoor Resources Management
with an emphasis in Environmental Education, 1997.
Paul, who loves world-wide adventure, returned home to northern Indiana in 1999 to join the Merry Lea staff. He teaches pedagogy and environmental issues classes in Merry Lea's graduate program and oversees the K-12 program.
Email: paulds@goshen.edu
Click
here to visit his web page.
Dr.
Larry Yoder
Executive Director Emeritus and Associate Professor
of Biology
B.A.
Manchester College, 1964
M.A. Indiana University,1966
M.A.T., Indiana
University, 1970
Ph.D., Indiana University, 1972.
A botanist and educator, Larry became Merry Lea's executive director in 1981, serving until 1997 and continuing in other roles until 2007. Currently, Larry devotes his time to his family farm near Huntertown, Ind. Each February and March, Merry Lea school groups visit the Yoder sugar bush and learn how to make maple syrup. Larry also continues as a guest lecturer on soils and geology.
Email: larryry@goshen.edu........ Click here to visit his web page.
Dr. Laura Meitzner Yoder
Associate Professor in the
Sustainability and Environmental Education Department (SEED)
B.A., Natural Science/Biology,
Messiah College, 1992
M.P.S., International Agriculture and Rural Development,
Cornell University, 1998
Ph.D., Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University,
2005
Laura joined Merry Lea's staff
in 2011 following an extended period in southeast Asia. At her most recent
position with the International
Sustainable Development Studies Institute in Chiang Mai, Thailand, she
taught field-based environmental education courses to undergrads and
supervised research internships. At Merry Lea, Laura teaches in the master's
program in environmental education. She will also conduct research and
teach in the Sustainability Semester in Residence.
Email: LSMYoder@goshen.edu..... Click
here to visit her web page.
Lisa
Zinn
Director of Sustainability Semester and Assistant Professor in the Sustainability
and Environmental Education Department (SEED))
B.A.
Biology, Houghton College, New York, 1992
M. Env. Studies. Miami of Ohio, 2002
Doctoral Candidate, Ball State University
Lisa joined Merry Lea's staff in 2003 as an environmental educator in the K - 12 program. Currently she teaches natural history in the graduate program in environmental education and heads up the development of the Sustainability Semester. She also oversees the MAPS bird banding program and supervises summer undergraduate researchers.
Email: lisarz@goshen.edu ...... Click here to visit her web page.