Dear NRLI fellows/participants, alumni, partners and supporters,

There is so much happening right now at personal, interpersonal, organizational, national, and international levels it is sometimes challenging to see the forest for the trees. However, this is not an article about the externalities we are facing but rather how NRLI is trying to understand our forest in the present and future. As I’ve mentioned, NRLI is in transition. This is really nothing new. To remain a responsive and relevant institute we must change, adapt and grow. The articles in this newsletter by our Senior Vice President and Class 24 Fellows provide concrete examples of these adaptations at work in our everyday experiences, or in the trees. Now let’s explore the forest.

In December 2024, NRLI held a powerful and invigorating strategic planning session to explore how to name and achieve our changes, adaptations and growth. Thirty alumni, partners, and administrators spent two days together developing a vision, understanding challenges, and identifying concrete steps to help us achieve the vision. These steps include: continuing and strengthening engagement with, and honoring our alumni; communicating the significance of our program; securing our future in the face of change; expanding our project team; and keeping site of the things that make NRLI strong, respected, and valued in the state of Florida and beyond.

The project team is already taking actions to make the vision happen and as we move through our strategic plan, we will be reaching out to you to help us maintain and grow in excellence. We are happy to share the strategic planning document with anyone who wishes to see it. Please email Jocelyn at jpeskin@ufl.edu to receive a copy.

As always, we are honored and excited to continue to work with all of you. As Interim Director, I am always so happy to hear how you are doing and any ideas you might have for your growth or the growth of NRLI. 

By J. Scott Angle

Senior Vice President, UF/IFAS

jangle@ufl.edu

What stays with me most from my visit to Session 5 of Class 24 was not the competent execution of the carefully constructed agenda. It was a moment of planning to adapt to the unplanned.

One doesn’t plan for temperatures in the 30s in Florida. But there we were, cold and stiff after two and a half hours in Ocala National Forest. It took a toll on my attention span despite the compelling presentation from the FWC bear biologist.

So my attention drifted. Then it locked. Not on the biologist, not on the beauty of the nature we were surrounded with. But on Joy, Jon, Jocelyn and Wendy-Lin.

They had silently drifted from the perimeter of the group and formed a huddle.

I couldn’t hear them, but they communicated a lot with their body language: Evenly spaced, all facing in, hands behind their back. You could tell who was talking because the cold revealed the speaker’s breath in a plume of vapor. There was only one vapor cloud at a time.

This went on for several minutes. They wore open, attentive expressions on their faces. There was no alpha here. It looked like a perfect tableau of collaborative decision making.

Any administration necessarily has a CEO or director with others reporting to him or her. But this was a meeting of equals, all interested in what the others had to say.

After a few minutes, the NRLI team melted back into the group. Only when the biologist had finished making his points did Joy announce that we were cutting short the outdoor program. It was time to get in heated cars and go back to camp for lunch.

I was gratified by the decision and greatly impressed with the way it was made.

J. Scott Angle is the University of Florida’s Senior Vice President for Agriculture and Natural Resources and leader of the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS).

Rosezetta Bobo Equity & Inclusion Scholarship

“This scholarship provides a beacon of hope …

Your gift will individually help minority participation and holistically diversify more engagement of minorities into understanding natural resources and conservation.”

 – Rosezetta Bobo, NRLI Class 21

Thanks to your generous donations via our Alumni Association, NRLI is in its 3rd year of offering the Rosezetta Bobo scholarship to Fellows participating in our 8-month program. Please consider making a gift today to expand engagement of African American professionals, currently underrepresented in our network. Every dollar counts and provides matching funds where needed. 

To contribute, you can send a check (made out to FL NRLI Alumni Association) to FL NRLI Alumni Association, c/o Craig Diamond, Treasurer, 405 Inglewood Dr, Tallahassee, FL 32301 or use the link below:

Building Our Conservation Toolbox:

Applying Different Approaches to Elevate Diverse Perspectives on Natural Resources Management

By Heather Obara & Tom Reinert, NRLI Class 24 Fellows



The fifth session of the 2024-25 NRLI program started off with a natural event like nothing seen before in Florida. A record-setting snowfall blanketed the Panhandle and bone-chilling temperatures were experienced across much of the Sunshine State. It is this wild winter event that would kickstart an emerging theme for our NRLI cohort as we travelled to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Ocala Conservation Center in the Ocala National Forest to learn about Florida Black Bear conservation. When dealing with ever-changing or complex scenarios, flexibility can be a useful tool. Icy road conditions on the morning of our first day prevented travel for several members of our cohort, but it also presented an opportunity for us to learn and observe how planning ahead and allowing space for change can lead to a successful outcome.

The NRLI Project Team addressed the situation up front and demonstrated in real time how even the best laid plans can change quickly, and a good facilitator always has a back-up plan. In our case, delaying the start time for a few hours to allow for safer travel conditions and re-arranging parts of the session showed us how a facilitator should be prepared, yet nimble when an unexpected situation arises. The opportunity to learn through change presented itself on several occasions while in the National Forest, providing unique perspectives on the management issue: viewing bear habitat from the top of a fire tower, visiting a bear ‘sentinel’ tree, finding bear tracks in the sandy soil, understanding the importance of prescribed fire for bears and their ecosystem, and finally, meeting the subject matter of our session up close.

Being flexible and adaptable are integral tools for opening yourself up to different perspectives. As with all our panels so far, our fifth panel hosted a group with a variety of perspectives (this time on bear management in Florida, and, unfortunately, the unusual weather prevented a couple of interesting panelists from joining us). We used a new technique to interact with and learn from our guests. We’ve now interviewed and interacted with our diverse participants in four ways, providing four slightly different formats that elevate their unique experiences and expertise. We’ve learned to be adaptable and open to new approaches to get the most out of diverse groups of interested parties.

If you’ve ever spotted a Florida Black Bear in the wild (from a safe distance, of course!), it’s a magical moment, and one that you won’t ever forget. But many of us also recognize that interactions with wildlife do not always have positive outcomes, especially when vehicles are involved. When the chance arose to see a real black bear following our panel discussion, we were all excited. Sadly, the interaction was not exactly what we’d hoped, but it presented an opportunity to learn a great deal about wildlife management in Florida. The NRLI Project Team quickly pivoted to allow us to have this experience, while also modeling how building flexibility into your program can keep you on track even when things shift.

These moments cumulatively landed us right where we needed to be in this mid-course session, which was designed to introduce process agendas as we prepare to host our own practicum projects in the coming months. Flexibility and the ability to acknowledge different and similar viewpoints will serve as key tools in our conservation toolbox as we move forward in our NRLI journey.

Thomas (Tom) Reinert

Regional Director, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission

Tom Reinert has been the Regional Director for the FWC’s South Region since 2016. The 10-county region extends from St. Lucie County south through Monroe and includes Okeechobee, Glades, Hendry, and Collier. With Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades, Florida’s Coral Reef, and everything in between, there is always something happening in the region. As Regional Director, Tom works with interested parties, elected officials, and leaders from other governmental agencies and provides leadership across FWC’s programs in the Region. Before that, Tom ran the FWC lab in Tequesta for 10 years and supervised Manatee staff on the east and southwest coasts.

Tom has degrees from Wake Forest University (B.S., 1991), Louisiana State University (M.S., 1993), and the University of Georgia (Ph.D., 2004). He lives in Jonathan Dickinson State Park, where his wife Libby is the Assistant Park Manager. They enjoy hiking and biking in the park and going on walks with their three dogs.

Tessa Skiles

Owner & Underwater Cinematographer, Karst Productions



Tessa Skiles is a filmmaker, underwater cinematographer, conservation storyteller, and change-maker dedicated to protecting freshwater springs, aquifers, and drinking water worldwide. She leads Karst Productions, originally founded by her late father, world-renowned cave diver and documentarian, Wes Skiles. Carrying that legacy forward, she blends exploration and storytelling to make complex natural resource issues accessible to diverse audiences.

Tessa has worked alongside partners such as National Geographic, BBC, PBS Nature, Discovery, and The Smithsonian Institution, contributing to projects that illuminate the fragile ecosystems of Florida’s waterways. Whether behind the camera, crafting immersive experiences, or sparking conversations, she is driven by a lifelong passion to inspire curiosity, connection, and action—bringing the unseen to light so future generations can better understand and protect the natural world.

Ashley Smyth

Biogeochemist & Assistant Professor, UF/IFAS TREC

Ashley Smyth is a biogeochemist and assistant professor in the Soil, Water and Ecosystem Sciences Department with University of Florida at the Tropical Research and Education Center in Homestead, FL. Her research explores how human activities effect nutrient cycles in coastal ecosystems. She is often talking about how oysters and clams are a “win-win-win”—benefiting the environment, supporting local economies, and, of course, tasting delicious. When not celebrating shellfish, you can find her covered in mud after slogging through marshes and mangroves.

Before joining the University of Florida, Ashley was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Kansas and David H. Smith Conservation Research Fellow at the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences. She has a PhD in Marine Science from UNC Chapel Hill. Outside of work, Ashley enjoys running through Coral Gables, watching Formula 1 with her nephews and cheering for the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles.

Samantha Barquin Chief of Staff, Miami Waterkeeper

Kathleen Coates Division Director, Northwest Florida Management District

Jason Daniel Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida

Mike Davis Captain, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission

Sara Ferson Professional Engineer, Suwannee River Water Management District

John Hall President, Deeper Roots Leadership Solutions

Ryan Kennelly Sr. Environmental Specialist, Alachua County Environmental Protection Dept

Mike McMunigal Strategic Planning Basin Coordinator, St Johns River Water Mgmt District

Brendan Myers Regulatory Biologist, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Heather Nagy Strategic Initiatives Manager, North Florida Land Trust

Heather Obara Associate Director, Alachua Conservation Trust

Jyoti Parmar Organizing Representative, Sierra Club of Florida

Geoffrey Patterson Director of Agricultural Policy, Florida Farm Bureau Federation

Jessica Quiggle Assistant Deputy General Counsel, St Johns River Water Mgmt District 

Tom Reinert Regional Director, Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission

Holley Short Shorebird Program Manager, Audubon Florida

Tessa Skiles Owner & Underwater Cinematographer, Karst Productions

Ashley Smyth Asst Professor & State Extension Specialist, UF/IFAS TREC

Danielle Terrell Asst Director of Central Operations, Division of Recreation & Parks, FDEP

Amanda Thompson CCI Training & Education Coordinator, The Nature Conservancy

Jacob Thompson Biologist, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Delsina Trigoura Environmental Specialist, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida

Marnie Ward Extension Agent II, UF/IFAS Extension Citrus County

Debra Woithe Environmental Lands Division Manager, Manatee County

Natural Resources Leadership Institute

352.294.7643

jpeskin@nrli.ufl.edu

nrli.ifas.ufl.edu