Women and Their Woods 2023

Presenter Biographies

Mary Stone, Landscape Designer, Columnist & Podcaster

Mary Stone is the owner of Stone Associates Landscape Design & Consulting. As a Landscape Designer, Mary is grateful for the joy of helping others beautify their surroundings which often leads to sharing encouragement and life experiences. These relationships inspired her weekly column published in THE PRESS, 'Garden Dilemmas? Ask Mary', which began in 2012; followed by her Garden Dilemmas Podcast launched in 2019. Mary dreams of growing the evolving community of readers into an interactive forum to share encouragement and support in Garden and Personal Recoveries - seeking nature’s inspirations, stimulating growth, weeding undesirables, embracing the unexpected.

Sara Webb, Professor EMERITA, DREW UNIVERSITY

Sara Webb, PhD., a forest ecologist, is Professor emerita of Biology and Environmental Studies at Drew University, founding director of Drew’s Environmental Studies program, and director of the Drew Forest and its ecological restoration project. Her areas of expertise also include forest disturbance by wind and fire, invasive plants, forest fragmentation, paleoecology of postglacial tree migrations, and old growth forests. 

LESLIE SAUER, Andropogon Associates

Leslie Sauer, a founder emeritus of Andropogon Associates, is a pioneer in the field of managing native landscapes. She has directed the reestablishment of natural systems in a wide range of sensitive to degraded environments. She developed a number of innovative strategies for restoring native forest habitats. She is a strong advocate for Proforestation and the use of native plants.  She was a board member of the Society for Ecological Restoration and taught part-time at the University of Pennsylvania’s in landscape architecture for 20 years. Her book, The Once and Future Forest (Island Press) is a guidebook for restoring and managing forests. She lives on her family’s farm in central New Jersey. 

Sharon Wander, RVC Trustee

Sharon was so inspired by a life-changing wilderness trip to Montana that she abandoned a career as an editor and copywriter and returned to college to pursue a degree in Wildlife Ecology. She met her future husband and business partner, Wade, at Cook College, and both went on to earn graduate degrees from Rutgers University. For her doctoral dissertation, Sharon studied the effects of forest fragmentation on breeding Ovenbirds. Capitalizing both on their degrees and on many years of field experience with the plants and animals of New Jersey, Sharon and Wade then established their own environmental consulting practice, Wander Ecological Consultants (WEC), in 1985. As a partner in WEC, Sharon has conducted endangered species surveys, produced environmental impact statements, performed wetland delineation and permitting, developed mitigation and restoration plans, and provided a variety of other services to a diverse array of clients. Sharon wrote the Natural Resource Inventory for Fredon Township. In the 1990s Sharon and Wade became particularly interested in butterflies and have since been very active members of the North American Butterfly Association (NABA) –serving terms as President, leading field trips, and presenting programs for the New Jersey chapter and running the Springdale 4th of July count since 1992. Sharon is also a member of the Natural Heritage Committee of the Highlands Coalition, which is actively working to promote ecologically sound forest conservation in New Jersey.

Christine Hepburn, RVC Trustee

Chris Hepburn, Ph.D., was originally a research psychologist then a land use activist. The purchase of a home in Hardwick with acres of woods and fields led Chris to what she believes is her true calling: wildlife habitat restoration and advocacy. With help from knowledgeable friends and nonprofit organizations, she has been working for twelve years to improve the habitat where she lives and she likes to share what she’s learned as well as the joy of seeing bees, birds and other animals benefiting from her work. Chris has a Forest Stewardship Plan and has also placed most of her property into a Conservation Easement held by RVC.

Susi Tilley, RVC Executive Director

Susi’s passion for the natural world developed during her time growing up in Switzerland where she spent holidays hiking or skiing in the mountains. After an education in Business Administration and working for several years in the private sector, she moved to the United States in 1991, and worked as Vice President of an entertainment lighting and staging company for over 14 years. Prior to assuming the role as Executive Director of Ridge and Valley Conservancy Susi served as Development and Outreach Director from 2016-2017.
Susi believes that building a strong conservation organization involves practicing community conservation by building partnerships with other people doing important community work. By connecting people to people, and people to land, her hope is to continue to expand preserved land in the Ridge and Valley Region of New Jersey.

Carla Lee Lewis

Carla Lee Lewis worked as a business and stewardship consultant for Ridge and Valley Conservancy from 2012 through 2018, guiding the land trust’s efforts to become nationally accredited. She served as RVC’s first Stewardship Coordinator from 2018 to 2020, then as Land Protection Coordinator through 2022. Now retired, Carla remains active with RVC as a volunteer, while she and her husband are busy stewarding their own 185-acre forest.