Board of Directors

Dan Hendrickson is a community organizer and public interest attorney in Tallahassee, Florida, who has served over four decades of advocacy and administrative work in the nonprofit world, in a variety of professional and volunteer positions for local, statewide, and national organizations. Dan learned his love for the outdoors from his family in Indiana and Kentucky, and growing up exploring the estuary and swamps of Tampa Bay. After college in Tennessee, he worked for more than twelve years as a journalist and organizer in the Appalachian coalfields, opposing strip mining and organizing alongside coal mining families for mine safety reforms in response to mine disasters in several states. He added his law degree from Stetson University College of Law following a sabbatical, and as a volunteer, he organized legal and administrative challenges over local and state implementation of Florida’s growth management and other environmental protections. Among his many volunteer accomplishments, he sparked the Florida Clean Elections Campaign and helped broaden other coalition work across many communities and constituencies. Since 2004, he has served as an appointed, voting member of the Leon County Canopy Roads Citizens Committee. For more than twenty years, he has worked as an Assistant Public Defender in the Second Judicial Circuit, specializing in mental health law, and has lobbied for mental health reform. He also is a volunteer lobbyist for environmental and consumer issues throughout his years in Tallahassee. Dan has received recognition and awards from organizations throughout Florida, as well as regional and national advocacy groups. For several years, he was Legal Chair for the Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club and was twice elected to the National Executive Committee of the Council of Club Leaders. He has served as President of the Florida Consumer Action Network Foundation and as Vice President of the Florida League of Conservation Voters, as well as Coordinator of the Council of Southern Mountains. Other board positions have included Common Cause/ Florida, Citizen Action, Democracy South, and the State Organizing Committee of Public Campaign. He is married to long-time environmental lobbyist and advocate Susie Caplowe.

Dr. Domning is Professor of Anatomy at Howard University, Washington, D.C. He is also a Research Associate in Paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and a Research Associate in Vertebrate Paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, California. Formerly, he was a research biologist at the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA), Manaus, Brazil, where he studied Amazonian manatees. A native of Biloxi, Mississippi, he received his B.S. degree (1968) from Tulane University, and M.A. (1970) and Ph.D. (1975) from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Domning has been a member of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) Sirenia Specialist Group since 1984, and founded and edited for 21 years its newsletter Sirenews. A former member of the Committee of Scientific Advisors of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, he has also been a scientific advisor to the Save the Manatee Club for over 20 years. He was a member and sometime Vice Chairman of the State of Florida’s Manatee Technical Advisory Council, 1981-2002, and is an advisor to Sirenian International, Inc., as well. His research deals with the paleontology, evolution, classification, and functional anatomy of sirenians and their extinct relatives the desmostylians, and is presently focused on the evolution of sirenians in the West Atlantic-Caribbean and Mediterranean-European regions. He has most recently conducted paleontological field projects in Jamaica (with support from the National Geographic Society), Austria, and France. His Jamaican project discovered the 50-million-year-old, four-legged Pezosiren portelli, the most primitive sirenian known from relatively complete skeletal remains. He has also carried out fieldwork in Australia, Brazil, Libya, Mexico, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico as well as various parts of the U.S. He has authored over 100 scientific articles and monographs, mostly on sirenians, and created the definitive Bibliography and Index of the Sirenia and Desmostylia.

Dr. Reep was raised in Jacksonville, Florida. He graduated in 1973 from Michigan State University with a B.S. in Physics then earned a PhD in Neuroscience/Zoology from MSU in 1978. His doctoral research involved the neurophysiology of learning in the insect nervous system. Dr. Reep developed a general interest in comparative neurobiology, with emphasis on the development and evolution of cerebral cortex. From 1979-1981 he did postdoctoral research on the neural connections of prefrontal cortex at the University of Michigan. From 1981-1984 he was an Assistant Research Scientist in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Florida, where he developed image analysis techniques for use on neuroanatomical data. In 1984, he became a faculty member in the Department of Physiological Sciences, University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, where he is a professor. Dr. Reep teaches Embryology, Histology, and Neuroscience to freshmen veterinary students, and courses in Nervous System Development and Brain Evolution to graduate students. He has trained several graduate students and serves as Graduate Coordinator for the Department of Physiological Sciences and the Marine Mammal Program. Dr. Reep’s research has centered on three major areas: manatee biology, comparative organization of mammalian cerebral cortex, and development of a rodent model of hemispatial neglect. Collaborators include colleagues at Mote Marine Laboratory, Cornell University, Northern Illinois University, Michigan State University, and the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Reep is co-author of a book on manatees: The Florida Manatee: Biology and Conservation (2006) by Roger L. Reep and Robert K. Bonde, University Press of Florida.

A native of Miami Beach, Dr. Siry teaches environmental studies and the history of science and technology to graduate and undergraduate students at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. He received his doctorate in environmental history from the University of California, at Santa Barbara where he studied with the late Garret Hardin and Roderick Nash. His book on estuaries and the conservation of rivers and coast areas was published by Texas A & M University Press; entitled, Marshes of the Ocean Shore. He was a volunteer technical advisory member of the California Coastal Planning process for Sonoma County, and a member of Save San Francisco Bay, a citizen watch-dog advocacy group. Upon coming to Florida to teach, he was keenly interested in preserving the coral reefs of the Key Largo area and became influenced by Friends of the Everglades, Michael Chenoweth, and Archie and Marjorie Carr to actively engage the community in protecting biologically significant wildlife and fisheries. He helped two colleagues to edit and produce “Feeling the Heat” in Florida as part of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s 1999-2001 effort to have scientists analyze trends in the state to better educate policy makers about climate change due to global warming. An avid kayaker, hiker, swimmer, snorkeling fan, and snow skier, Dr. Siry has advised over twenty five masters theses including graduate work on endocrine disruption in wildlife, environmental literature, genetic engineering, and a quantum theory of God. He teaches a class on Charles Darwin: Reluctant Revolutionary, and advocates for the teaching of evolution by means of natural selection in primary, secondary, and higher education. Very like his students, he is curious about the natural world, committed to the protection of rivers, water quality fisheries and biological diversity because without the natural world, we have no accurate measure of human behavior, limitations and responsibility. A founding member of the Association For Environmental Studies and Sciences, he writes and resides in Laguna Woods, California with his wife of over 35 years, Barbara Siry.

After receiving Degrees in Marine Science and Wildlife Biology and spending a 17-year career serving with several State of Florida conservation agencies, Matt rejoined the private sector with the formation of Aardvark’s Florida Kayak Company. Matt personally leads as many of Aardvark’s Eco-Heritage tours as possible, as well as Save the Manatee Club’s “Do Not Disturb” member tours. He has also been presented with a Manatee Hero award by SMC for his long-standing advocacy for the manatee. Matt has a degree in Wildlife Conservation from the University of Florida and was employed by the Florida Co-Operative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at UF. He worked on sport fishery research projects in North Central Florida and the Everglades and manatee studies in Southwest Florida. Matt has also served with the Florida Marine Research Institute (now part of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) as a manatee biologist, served on the Citrus County EcoTourism Committee, and sat on the Manatee Advisory Committee of Citrus County. He is a certified Eco-Heritage Guide and instructed a portion of the University of North Florida’s Eco-Heritage Guide Certification Program entitled “Environmental Ethics and Sustainability.” Matt now runs ecotours, including manatee observation programs.

Jake Marfise grew up in Tampa exploring and utilizing the natural resources that the state of Florida has to offer. A graduate of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, Jake holds a B.S. in Biology and Environmental Studies. Jake has worked as a teacher and environmental educator in a variety of coastal communities throughout Georgia and Florida. Currently, he is teaching high school science at Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa. As an avid fisherman, hunter, and nature lover, Jake has made it his life’s mission to help others experience the beauty of the natural world. He firmly believes that protection and preservation aren’t possible without education and appreciation.

Dr. Jeffrey Sharkey is widely known for his extensive knowledge of the legislative process and has built a network of trusted relationships throughout the highest levels of state government. In addition, Dr. Sharkey has been actively involved in statewide issue campaigns for over 20 years, providing him rare insight into politics and an ability to shape successful community development projects. Dr. Sharkey has held a variety of positions in state government prior to launching his public policy advocacy career. He has been Director of International Education for the State of Florida, Special Advisor to the Governor for International Affairs, and Director of the Florida Hemispheric Policy Studies Center. He began his professional career as a teacher and school administrator and has worked in England, Thailand, Latin America, and in other parts of the world as a consultant for various international agencies. In addition, Dr. Sharkey is an entrepreneur and owns a number of successful businesses. He is native of Minnesota and holds a B.S. degree in English, a M.Ed. in Educational Research from the University of MN, a M.S. in Sociology and Economics, and a Ph.D. from Florida State University in Educational Policy Foundations and International Development.