Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters

Jane Elder is executive director of the Wisconsin Academy. She brings to the Wisconsin Academy a strong background in public policy leadership, nonprofit management, and involvement in Wisconsin arts. Her career has focused on environmental policy and communications, while personal interests include theater, modern dance and painting. Jane was the founding director of the Sierra Club’s Great Lakes program, and led the organization’s Midwest Office for many years, spearheading advances in water quality, air quality, and public lands protection in the region. She was the first recipient of Sierra Club’s Michael McCloskey Award, which honors “a distinguished record of achievement in national or international conservation causes.”

Jane was also the founding director of the Biodiversity Project, a nationwide initiative to raise public awareness about the value of Earth’s diverse species, habitats, and ecosystems, and to promote responsive action to stem the tide of loss. This work included a project to explore the ethical and theological reasons for protecting biodiversity, and a groundbreaking communications handbook: Ethics for a Small Planet. In 2002 she received the Bay and Paul Foundations’ Biodiversity Leadership Award which recognizes and rewards efforts to protect biodiversity by researchers, scholars, and advocates.

During her years at Biodiversity Project, she was an active participant in the Wisconsin Academy’s landmark Leopold Legacy Conference and Waters of Wisconsin Conference. She also served as advisor to U.S. In the World, an initiative of the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation to build a broad, bipartisan constituency for pragmatic, principled, effective, and cooperative U.S. global engagement, and has served  as a lead writer-researcher for the Presidential Climate Action Plan (under the auspices of the University of Colorado-Denver School of Public Affairs) and led several projects related to advancing the goals of the federal Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and the U.S.-Canada Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. 

Jane holds a BA in Communications from Michigan State University, and a MS in Land Resources from the University of Wisconsin. She and her family have lived in Madison for more than thirty years.

Iowa Ducks Unlimited

Tammi Kircher currently serves Iowa Ducks Unlimited as the State Council Chair following a 4-year term as Iowa's first female state chair and state chair-elect. She also represents Ducks Unlimited as the Co-Chair of the Iowa Water and Land Legacy coalition (August 2006-present) currently working to fund the natural resources dedicated trust which was created by a vote of the people in 2010. Additionally, she serves as an At-Large Board Member for the Ducks Unlimited, Inc., is on the national Public Policy Committee, and the subcommittee for risk management.

Wisconsin Wildlife Feration

George Meyer has worked in the field of Conservation for over 40 years including thirty-two years with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), twenty of those in senior management. He taught conservation and environmental policy at Lawrence University for two years and has served as the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation Executive Director since 2003. As executive director, George has overall day-to-day responsibilities to implement the policies of the Board of Directors.

Wisconsin Land and WAter Conservation Association

After receiving his BS degre in Soil Science from UW-Madison, Jim worked as a County Conservationist in Vernon and Trempealeau Counties in the mid 80's. He then spent 26 years with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection on Soil and Water Conservation programming, groundwater research and protection related to pesticides, and nutrient management programs to protect water resources. Most recently, he served as the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Land and Water Conservation Association, representing County Land Conservation Commitees and Departments and helped develop the Food, Land and Water project to propose ways to secure Wisconsin's sustainable future. Upon retirement in 2018, Jim continues to advocate for sound land and water science and policy as a member of Wisconsin Green Fire.