The Kentucky Native Plant Society was founded in 1986 for everyone interested in the native plants and wildflowers of Kentucky Plants are essential to both the well-being of our Commonwealth’s natural ecosystems and our enjoyment of its unique environment. With members in Kentucky and neighboring states, the Kentucky Native Plant Society is a leader in promoting education about, appreciation for, and conservation of our native flora.
Executive Board
Officers 2024-2026
- President – Jeff Nelson
- Vice-President – Kendall McDonald
- Treasurer – Sally Chambers
- Secretary – Kelly Watson
Directors
- Heidi Braunreiter
- Wes Cunningham
- Jen Koslow
- David Taylor
Immediate Past President
- Tara Littlefield
Committee Chairs
- Programs – Kendall McDonald
- Field Trips – Alan Abbott
- Grants – David Taylor
- Membership – Marvin Ruffner
- Plant Conservation – Tara Littlefield
- Outreach – Kelsey Burge
- Webmaster – Jeff Nelson
- Newsletter – Susan Harkins
- Botany Hall of Fame – Ron Jones
The Lady Slipper
- Managing Editor – Susan Harkins
President
President
Jeff Nelson has a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Jeff worked as the IT Director of the Paducah Independent School District for 15 years, retiring in 2008. A native of California, Jeff, his wife Liz, and their son Aaron, moved to McCracken Co., Kentucky, in 1987. After building their house on their 10 acres, the family has spent the last 30+ years restoring the property from farmland to a native woodland. As a lifelong amateur naturalist, Jeff loves exploring Kentucky and learning about the rich diversity of the Commonwealth’s many ecosystems. He has been a member of the KNPS since the early 1990s and on the Board since 2017.
Vice-President
Vice-President
Kendall McDonald is an artist, botanist and lichenologist that grew up in Owen County, Kentucky. She developed a love for art and nature at a young age, and carried that with her into her education and career. After getting her bachelors degree in biology at Morehead State University, she started at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves as a heritage botanist and lichenologist. For the last 5 years, she has been an active member of the Kentucky Native Plant Society as a member of planning committees and a co-editor for the Lady Slipper newsletter. Her passion for biodiversity permeates her art, as her collection mostly consists of paintings of Kentucky native species and landscapes.
Secretary
Secretary
Kelly Watson is an Associate Professor at Eastern Kentucky University specializing in landscape ecology, and the Associate Director of Education and Outreach for EKU’s Division of Natural Areas, which protects and manages three ecological field stations: Lilley Cornett Woods, Maywoods, and Taylor Fork Ecological Area. She received her Ph.D. in Geography from Florida State University and an M.S. in Environmental Science from Lund University in Lund, Sweden. Her research focuses on mapping and monitoring upland embedded wetlands and improving the vegetative index of biotic integrity for Kentucky wetlands.
Treasurer
Sally Chambers is an Assistant Professor and curator of the Ronald L Jones and Berea herbaria at Eastern Kentucky University. She is a native of Kentucky, growing up in Owensboro where she often tried to convince her parents and older brothers to ‘walk-a-woods’. She obtained her B.S. in Natural Resource and Conservation Management from the University of Kentucky in 2009, followed by her Ph.D. in Plant Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Purdue University in 2014. Sally then moved to Florida where she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Florida with Dr. Emily Sessa until 2017, followed by a position as a Research Botanist at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens until 2022. Sally is very active in the broader botanical community, acting as the Research Coordinator for the Division of Natural Areas at EKU, the Membership Secretary for the American Fern Journal, and as an Associate Editor for Applications in Plant Sciences. Her research broadly focuses on the evolutionary ecology of ferns and the conservation of rare plants.
Board Members
Director
Heidi Braunreiter is the Prescribed Fire Program Coordinator and former heritage botanist for the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. Her work involves planning and implementing prescribed burns to manage remnant high quality natural communities and maintain rare species populations on State Nature Preserves. Heidi serves as the Treasurer for the Kentucky Prescribed Fire Council, and is also on the Kentucky Invasive Plant Council. She received her M.S. in Biology at Eastern Kentucky University and her B.S. in Biological Aspects of Conservation and a certificate in Environmental Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Heidi previously served as Vice President for KNPS from 2018-2023 and enjoyed planning Wildflower Weekends and the Fall Meetings for the society. In her free time, Heidi enjoys native plant gardening, practicing yoga, painting with watercolor, and hiking.
Director
Jen Koslow is an Associate Professor in Biology at Eastern Kentucky University who specializes in plant ecology. She grew up in Indiana, but has lived in several places in the eastern US before settling in Kentucky. The first native plant she recalls learning to identify was sassafras. She earned her PhD at Indiana University and her Masters in Biology at Miami University. Over the course of her career, she has studied plant diseases in natural systems, the conservation ecology of running buffalo clover, and the ecology of invasive species in Lilley Cornett Woods. She has a passion for restoring the American chestnut.
Director
David Taylor graduated from Berea College with a Biology/Agriculture degree with course work that emphasized plant sciences. He has an MS in Biology from Northeast Louisiana University with a floristic emphasis looking at the vascular flora of Washington and St. Tammany Parishes. He has 60 hours in botany from Miami University. He currently works for the USDA Forest Service with nearly 30 years as Forest Botanist for the Daniel Boone National Forest. He works with rare plant invasive species management, writes and reviews environmental documentation, and assists with various projects on the Forest. He is an advisor to the Kentucky Invasive Pest Council.
Wes Cunningham
Director
Wes is a biologist and Professional Wetland Scientist dedicated to ecological restoration in lentic, lotic, and increasingly in upland habitats. He has worked extensively with multistate teams and has participated in the full life cycle of restoration practice from proposals, resource impact investigations, and permitting to mitigation design, monitoring, and client-agency coordination through project closeout. He has practical field experience ranging from Texas to New York with expertise centering on flora, wetlands, and wildlife of the southeastern and midwest U.S. When not planning the work or working the plan, he enjoys more superfluous pursuits such as playing music and riding motorcycles.
Immediate Past President
Immediate Past President
Tara Littlefield is the senior botanist and manager of the Plant Conservation Section at the Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves. She grew up on the southern edge of the cedar creek glade complex in Hardin County, Kentucky and has had a fascination with the natural world since a small child. Tara has a B.S. in Biochemistry from University of Louisville and a M.S. in Forest/Plant Ecology from the University of Kentucky. Much of her work involves rare species surveys (state/federally listed/globally rare), general floristic inventories (vascular and nonvascular), natural areas inventory, protection of natural areas, rare plant propagation, restoration and recovery, and rare plant/community management. She is particularly interested in plant distributions, endemism, paleoecology/botany, seed collecting, mushrooms, lichens, caterpillars, spiders, exploring natural areas, environmental education for kids, medicinal/edible plants, and the chemistry of plants.
The Lady Slipper
Managing Editor – Susan Harkins
Susan Harkins is a technical journalist with 35 years in the IT industry, but her passion is native plants. A long-time member of the Capital Area Extension Master Gardener Association, she enjoys using her publishing skills to share her love of Kentucky’s native flora and fauna.