Board of Directors

Merrie Lynn Parker, Ed.D., Secretary/Treasurer is retired Manatee School District administrator. She is a Life Member of Manatee Fish and Game, joining in the 1970’s. She spent many pleasurable hours hunting and fishing with her late husband Chick Parker. She is a certified Master Naturalist, enjoys painting water colors of wildlife and its natural habitat and kayaking the local tributaries and water bodies.

Karen Fraley Willey, a Nationally Certified Interpretive Guide, is a semi-retired environmental educator and climate change communicator. She is an avid member of the Florida Native Plant Society and spends as much free time as she can botanizing on wild lands. Karen sold her company, Around the Bend Nature Tours, in 2019 which reached 100,000 students over 20 years on field trips in Manatee and Sarasota County. Karen now lives in Asheville, North Carolina but maintains her rooted connection to Southwest Florida by facilitating zoom meetings for Manatee Fish & Game as well as the Sarasota Audubon Society.

Damon Moore, a professional Restoration Ecologist and Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner who has played an instrumental role in many local habitat improvement projects and initiatives. Damon is currently Director of Oyster River Ecology, Inc. He grew up in Manatee County loving the outdoors and wade fishing local waters. He has split his career between county government (Manatee County) and private consulting, always working on natural areas restoration and management projects. He spends his free time volunteering on habitat restoration projects, adding to his list of observations on iNaturalist, and fishing.

Nick Baden is a retired attorney whose
family has resided in Manatee County
since the 1870's. He is a fisherman,
hunter, conservationist and craftsman
whose latest project is hand building
a wooden Wee Lassie Kayak with strip
construction. He was an early and fierce advocate for the land that became Robinson Preserve.

Michael Mackie

Jim Eliason has lived on the west coast of Florida since 1978 and has been a Manatee County resident since 1998. He owns a fishing tackle shop and is the vice chair of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program's citizen committee. He also serves on the Florida Sea Grant advisory panel. Jim and his wife Cindy enjoy fishing and live in Palmetto.

Maggie Gaughan is a native Floridian originally from Palm Beach County and has been residing in Tampa Bay since 2017. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a BA in Geospatial Analysis and Geography in 2019. Currently, she is a Water Conservation Program Assistant for the UF/IFAS Manatee County Extension office. Her hobbies include traveling, hiking, chasing butterflies and hanging out with her dog, June Bug.