Our Council

The Heartwood Council are volunteers who direct, advise, inspire, inform and do the work of Heartwood. We are representatives of our individual bioregions and communities. We are representatives of small, grassroots groups. We are community leaders and network organizers. We are activists. We bring literally hundreds of years of experience and passion to our work. We are people helping people protect the places that they love.

Heartwood invites our members to volunteer on one of our Council Committees, such as the Newsletter Committee or the Minigrants Committee. We welcome nominations to the Council, for those who wish to get closer to “the Kitchen” and help build Heartwood’s strength and vision. We encourage all our members to be active in one of our Campaign Committees, contact David Nickell our Campaigns Chair at info@heartwood.org or visit https://heartwood.org/campaigns/ for more!

Core Council

Christy Collins, Kentucky
Rock Emmert, Indiana
Corina Lang, Illinois
Kris Lasher, Treasurer, Indiana
David Nickell, Chair, Kentucky
Matt Peters, Pennsylvania
Don Scheiber, Indiana
Roberta Schoneman, Indiana
John Wallace, Illinois

Extended Council

Jillian Borchard, Maryland
Michael Hendrix, Eastern Kentucky
Mark Donham, Illinois
David Haberman, Indiana

Sam Stearns, Illinois
Helen M. Vasquez, Personnel Committee Chair, Indiana

Founder

Andy Mahler, Indiana

Contract Employees

Matt Peters, Membership
Tammy Ford, Bookkeeper, Indiana
Devin M. Ceartas, web tech

Standing Committees

• Events
• Newsletter/Publications
• Minigrants
• Fundraising
• Membership
• Campaigns

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Kris Lasher and Rock Emmert, are from Southern Indiana and worked diligently to stop a biomass incinerator in Jasper, IN with the group Healthy Dubois County. They are organizers for the Ferdinand Folk Festival which brings many environmental groups to the public eye. Both are also part of Project Acorn, which strives to acknowledge and utilize the gifts of local citizens, and to celebrate and build community through music, art, environment, and wellness education.

Although Corina Lang initially became involved in environmental activism to help protect the Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois as a member of R.A.C.E, her connection with Heartwood has led her to be concerned with issues in other folks’ back yards, not just her own, such as Mountain Top Removal. Currently she is embroiled in the efforts to protect her own neck of the woods from fracking and strip mining. Life interests include dancing and guerilla theater.
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David Nickell is a sixth generation denizen of far western Kentucky. He farms, teaches philosophy and sociology, and tries to do as little damage as possible. He is dedicated to protecting the LBL region of Kentucky and has been active with forest watch activities.
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Matt Peters lives in Pittsburgh, PA and has been a member of Heartwood since 1993. He is a co-founding member of the Allegheny Defense Project. and worked with the Buckeye Forest Council for several years. Matt is an urban homesteader, growing garlic and other woodchuck-proof crops for a newly opened locally owned grocery store in one of America’s great Food Deserts. He is also serving as Chair of the Hazelwood Urban Ag Team, working on local food security and economic sovereignty as well as habitat conservation and restoration in the neighborhood.

Don Scheiber lives in Lafayette, IN and has primarily been a peace, labor, and community
activist. Retired from 28 years as labor liaison for United Way, he started Food Finders Food
Bank in 1980, and became an “ environmentalist- come – lately” and served as a board
member of the Hoosier Environmental Council for several years, Vice President of Tree
Lafayette, and recently a member of NICHES—a multi-county nature conservancy type group.
Don was a “back-to-the-land” hippie drop-out in the 70’s and is interested in intentional
communities and attempts at living sustainably and organically.

Roberta Schonemann is a longtime civil libertarian activist/armchair environmentalist, writing
letters-to- editors, signing petitions, attending local rallies. As editor of the Lafayette
Independent (2010 – 2017), she supplied material for the 2-monthly pages devoted to
environmental issues raising the alarm about global warming. Recently she enjoined an
unsuccessful attempt to prevent further expansion of a waste treatment plant along Indian
Creek which borders her property, 10 acres outside West Lafayette, 80% of which is left
undeveloped. In addition to assisting with editing Heartbeat, she is poised to activate!

John B. Wallace is a recently retired public land and municipal water source manager. John also worked as an environmental educator from Southern Illinois University’s Touch of Nature Environmental Center. As a forest activist on the Shawnee National Forest and public land in and around the southern Illinois region for 30 years, he has taken on public awareness campaigns, lobbied legislators, tackled pro se litigation and participated in non-violent direct action in defense of the natural world. John is a founding member of southern Illinois’ Shawnee Forest Defense!, a group of grassroots organizers trying to protect the Shawnee National Forest and the 27 year old Shawnee Chapter of the Illinois Audubon Society. He is currently the Shawnee Audubon Chapter president and serves on the Land Protection and Stewardship Committee of IAS, the oldest, non-governmental conservation organization in Illinois. John has a BS in Plant and Soil Science from SIU and has been known to portray the writer, mountaineer and conservationist, John Muir, in living history performances.

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