Board of Directors

Washington DC

As a member of the faculty of the University of Georgia, Dr. Kramer was the founding director of the Natural Resources Spatial Analysis Laboratory. For 30 years, Dr. Kramer managed interdisciplinary teams to accomplish conservation and environmental programs in watershed management, sustainable forestry, and land conservation. Her diverse clients included federal, state, and local governments, as well as NGO and private companies. One significant program was the development of the first and only long-term land use change trends analysis for the state of Georgia (Georgia Land Use Trends – GLUT). Other research programs focused on the development and adoption of many geospatial tools and databases for natural resource management and environmental planning. Examples of these programs include biodiversity management, wetland and watershed protection, greenspace protection, electric transmission line sighting, and forest management.

Dr. Kramer received her PhD from the University of Georgia, a Master of Forest Science from Yale School of the Environment, and a bachelor’s degree in Forest Resources from Michigan State University. Now retired, she resides in Washington DC and enjoys traveling across North America with her spouse and two elderly dogs in their small motor home.

TN

Grew up in Ventura, California. Obtained a BSEE from the University of California, Santa Barbara. I joined the Hughes Santa Barbara Research Center (SBRC), which morphed into GM Hughes and then Raytheon over the years. Was involved in the foundational work related to the development of infrared sensing and moving it from the laboratory to widespread use in military, civil space, and commercial applications. Hold around 34 patents in this general area, with an additional four pending. Started as a member of the technical staff, progressed to senior scientist, then Raytheon fellow, and ultimately Raytheon principal fellow. Background covers cryogenic testing, narrow bandgap semiconductors, cryogenic integrated circuit design, vacuum packaging, semiconductor processing, and electro-optical system engineering. Experience developing advanced development plans for efforts that involve significant levels of uncertainty. Currently live with my wife Karen on our tree farm in Rural Tennessee, where I enjoy woodworking, fishing, and trying to not kill chestnut trees.

Decatur, GA

Throughout her career Becky has maintained focus on human rights, humanitarianism, domestic and world peace with practices in sustainability and stewardship of the planet.

Until her retirement Becky held the position of Chief Development Officer at The Carter Center. TCC a not-for-profit institution founded in 1982 by former President Jimmy Carter and Mrs. Rosalynn Carter to advance human rights and alleviate suffering among the world’s poorest people. As CDO, Becky led and managed a team responsible for cultivating and stewarding individual donors to raise annual financial support for the Center’s global health and peace programs.

Prior to joining The Carter Center, Becky served as Director of Federal Agency and Congressional Government Relations for The Nature Conservancy. While at TNC Becky built, led, and served as spokesperson for the Forests in the Farm Bill Coalition, and was responsible for relationships with multi-state/multi-discipline partnerships to influence resource management in the southeastern US.

Previously Becky worked in government relations roles in the public and private sectors.

Her international service includes election observation missions in countries emerging from conflict and those taking steps toward democratic elections.

Becky also volunteers with Habitat for Humanity International.

Becky holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from West Virginia University.

Becky grew up in West Virginia and moved to Georgia when she and her husband Chip were married.

Mount Berry, GA

Dr. Martin L. Cipollini is Dana Professor of Biology at Berry College, Georgia, where he teaches undergraduate courses such as General Ecology, Forest Ecology, Field Botany, and Tropical Ecology (Costa Rica/Cuba). He received B.S. and M.S. degrees in Biology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD. in Ecology from Rutgers University.

A faculty member at Berry College since 1995, his current research activities revolve around the college’s Longleaf Pine and American Chestnut projects. He annually leads large groups of students in service-learning projects on and off campus, and has helped direct the blight-resistance breeding program for the Georgia Chapter of TACF since its inception in 2006. He has helped establish numerous chestnut orchards across Georgia, including the backcross orchard at Berry College, which was the first such orchard to be established in the state. Since 2002, he has directed the Berry College Longleaf Pine Project and works with the Talladega/Mountain Longleaf Pine Conservation Partnership on projects geared toward regional restoration of montane longleaf pine habitats. He has authored over 50 peer-reviewed papers and ~150 professional presentations in addition to giving numerous public talks, field tours, and workshops. His hobbies include bicycling, fishing, guitar, and accordion.  His wife, Kathy Patrick, is a long-time volunteer, past president, and current vice president of the Georgia Chapter of TACF.

Dr. Deborah Delmer is Professor Emeritus of Plant Biology at UC Davis. She has held faculty positions at Michigan State University, The Hebrew University, and UC Davis. In 2004 she received from the American Chemical Society’s The Anselme Payen Award in recognition of excellence in the science and chemical technology of cellulose.

Professor Delmer also served as President of the American Society of Plant Biologists and in 2004 she was elected to membership in the US National Academy of Sciences. From 2002-2007, she served as Associate Director for Food Security for the Rockefeller Foundation where she was involved with grant making and policy relating to the role of biotechnology in developing world agriculture. Now retired, Delmer serves on a number of advisory boards and as a consultant to foundations, academia, industry, and governments on developing world agriculture issues surrounding biomass production.

Deborah was also Program Director for Basic Research to Enable Agricultural Development, BREAD (2009-2010), jointly funded by the US NSF and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Deborah has been involved with TACF since 2017.

Carolyn’s interest in the science of tree breeding and restoration naturally aligned her with the mission of TACF. Her interest in the American chestnut led to the formation of an Ohio chapter.

Carolyn Keiffer joined the Miami University faculty in 1996 and serves as Math and Science Coordinator of the Middletown campus. She has developed an extramurally funded research program in applied ecology and restoration ecology and is currently working with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Department of the Interior to restore the American chestnut to U.S. forests.

In addition to numerous service roles with university and national scientific societies, locally, Carolyn chaired the Middletown City Tree Commission from 1998-2012, and was instrumental in Middletown first receiving “Tree City USA” status in 2007. In her personal time, she enjoys gardening, bird watching, traveling, and spending time with her grandchildren.

Bruce Levine has been a member and volunteer of The American Chestnut Foundation (TACF) since 1995. Bruce has served several terms on TACF’s Board of Directors, as chair of the Chapters Committee and the Science & Technology Committee. He has also served twice as president of the Maryland Chapter. Bruce served as interim President and CEO of TACF from February to September 2025.

Bruce’s professional background involves his role as a diplomat in the US Foreign Service from 1990 to 2016. He served in Taiwan, Singapore, Cambodia, China, and France. It was a hike during one of his Washington assignments, when he discovered chestnut sprouts, that ignited his passion for American chestnut restoration and prompted him to begin volunteering with TACF. Bruce retired from the Foreign Service at the age of 52 to pursue a graduate degree in plant science at the University of Maryland. He obtained his Master’s in 2019, and has been working on his PhD since then, developing methods for gene editing in the chestnut blight fungus, research that can help us better understand the host-pathogen relationship behind chestnut blight.

Bruce lives with his wife and two teenage children in Takoma Park, MD.

Potomac, MD

A nationally recognized expert in science education, Dennis Liu is currently Vice President of Education for the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation and the Half-Earth Project. Previously, he directed the production of educational media at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, working with scientists, educators, graphic designers, animators, and filmmakers to produce an array of educational products that have had a lasting impact on science education. Dennis has managed teams devoted to assessing and assuring the educational impact of media, including building professional learning programs and peer communities.

In his role as Executive Director of HHMI’s Tangled Bank Studios he was executive producer and editorial advisor on over a dozen film projects for theatre, broadcast television, Large Screen, and digital science programs aimed at the general public. Dennis trained in neuroscience and genetics, earning a PhD in biology from the University of Oregon. Following postdoctoral studies at the University of Washington, he held a faculty position in the Department of Genetics.

Dunn Loring, VA

Ambassador Catherine A. Novelli served as U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment (2014-2017), where she promoted economic reform and open markets for U.S. products and services. Novelli spent seven years as Vice President, Worldwide Government Affairs at Apple Inc where she headed a multinational international team responsible for Apple’s government relations and public policy. She had a long career at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, rising to Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Europe and the Mediterranean, where she coordinated U.S. trade and investment policy for Europe, Russia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Northern Africa. She is currently an adjunct professor at Georgetown University where she teaches in the Landegger Program of International Business Diplomacy.

Novelli currently serves on the Board of the National Wildlife Federation; The American Chestnut Foundation; the Global Issues Advisory Board of the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine; and the Board of the Northern Virginia Community College. She is also on the Advisory Board of the Pristine Seas Initiative of the National Geographic Society.

Novelli has received numerous honors and awards, including the U.S. State Department Distinguished Service Award and the International Trade Woman of the Year Award. She is a graduate of Tufts University, holds a law degree from the University of Michigan, and a Master of Laws from the University of London.

South Bend, IN

Jeanne Romero-Severson is a Professor Emerita of Quantitative Genetics and Genomics in the Biological Sciences department at the University of Notre Dame. After obtaining her Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1984, she served two years as a postdoctoral associate in the Entomology Department. For the next 15 years, she directed breeding programs for stress resistance in row crops and pines in the private sector. She was appointed Assistant Professor in the Departments of Forestry and Agronomy at Purdue University in 1999. In 2003 she moved to the University of Notre Dame as a tenured Professor. Her research program is focused on the genetics and genomics of oaks, walnuts, and chestnuts and the development and deployment of stress-resistant forest trees through the integration of tree breeding, quantitative genetics and genomics.

Charlottesville, VA

John is an adjunct professor who has taught Advanced Spatial Analysis every Spring Semester since 2010. For most of those years John was a practicing GIS professional, managing geospatial projects for the Virginia Geographic Information Network.

Since retiring  in 2017 John keeps busy by teaching part-time, traveling and volunteering for non-profits interested in forest conservation, applying his knowledge and experience from his Forestry PhD studies and 20+ years of applied forestry research.

New Hope, PA

Jim is a retired Partner of the global professional services firm Ernst & Young (EY), having served as a CPA, Director of R&D, and as the Americas Director of Strategy and Corporate Development.

After 32 years with EY, Jim returned to college to study landscape architecture.  That experience fueled interest in working with others to restore some balance to nature. Chestnut was once a major component of our forests, and he’s fascinated with this project to bring it back.

Jim has served as President of TACF’s Pennsylvania/New Jersey chapter.  He has also served as a Township Supervisor in Pennsylvania, where he led programs on fiscal responsibility, community relations and environmental protection.

On TACF’s national board, Jim’s primary focus is on special and complex projects requiring multi-disciplinary expertise. Jim and his wife Gayle Goodman live just north of Philadelphia in Bucks County Pennsylvania.

Colchester, CT and Lempster, NH

Jack Swatt has been a member of The American Chestnut Foundation since 1993. After joining the CT Chapter board in 2017, he soon became President in 2018 and continues in that position. He received a B.S. in Biological Sciences from UConn in 1983, an M.S. in Chemistry from Central CT State Univ. in 1992, and graduated from the Albany Medical College Physician Assistant Program in 1996. He is currently retired but was previously employed by The Hospital of Central Connecticut as a Physician Assistant in Hospitalist Medicine. He is also an active volunteer for the CT DEEP (monitoring wintering eagles and Whip-poor-wills), Audubon CT, CT Audubon, NH Audubon, the Loon Preservation Committee, and the Society to Protect New Hampshire Forests (aka the Forest Society). He is also a life member of the Wolcott Fire Dept. Co. #2 and the New Haven Bird Club.

Barb enjoyed a 37-year career in the US Forest Service (USFS), retiring in January 2014. She spent the first two decades with the National Forest System on the Hoosier and Ottawa National Forests (NF), serving the Hoosier NF at the district level and the Supervisor’s office as the Planning and Information Management Staff Officer, and on the Ottawa NF as the Kenton District Ranger.

She transferred to the Northeastern Area, State & Private Forestry (NA) in 1998 – served Area-wide for the Area Director (resource analyst), the Forest Stewardship Program, and eventually as Group Leader, Office of Information Management, finishing as St. Paul Field Office Field Representative, with oversight of S&PF programs for seven Midwestern state forestry agencies and their partners, including tribes.  Barb served as a collateral-duty trained federal mediator for US Department of Agriculture agencies east of the Mississippi River.

In retirement, Barb serves on the Board of the National Museum of Forest Service History, as well as TACF.

James has practiced environmental, health and safety law in Washington DC for more than 30 years. He is a partner in the law firm of Keller and Heckman LLP, and focuses on domestic and international regulation of conventional and nanoscale chemicals, biotechnology, pesticides, consumer and industrial products, and industrial processes and wastes and related investigations and litigation. James has spent his career in environmental law private practice. His portfolio includes clients from the nanotechnology, chemicals, life sciences, semiconductor, filtration, energy, plastics, equipment manufacturing, transportation, retail and consumer product, property development, and trade association industry sectors.  He has served as a Vice Chair of the American Bar Association; Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources; Pesticides and Chemicals Committee for the last decade and as editor of the Year-in-Review. He is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bar and admitted to practice before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 9^th and D.C. Circuit.  James holds a BA in Political Science from Dickinson College and a law degree from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America.

James is the Chair of his law firm’s pro bono committee and has represented TACF for over eight years in connection with efforts to obtain EPA, FDA, and USDA approvals for the distribution of the Darling 58 American chestnut tree and other regulatory and related matters.  Originally from New Hampshire, James and his wife Andorra live in Washington, DC.