Board of Directors
Charles O'Connell, President
At Harris myCFO, Charlie is a Director and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Investment Advisory Group which provides investment management services for high net worth individuals. Prior to joining Harris myCFO, Charlie was Assistant Vice-President of the University of Chicago's Office for Investments, which was responsible for the investment management of the University's endowment. A former teacher, Charlie earned a B.A. in Economics from MacMurray College. Charlie has served as treasurer of the Ragdale Foundation, president of Cook Memorial Library, president of the CFA Institute of Chicago and as a member of the adjunct faculty of DePaul University and the Stuart School of Business at Illinois Institute of Technology. He currently serves on the Investment Committee of the YMCA of Metro Chicago and is a board member and Vice-Chairman of MacMurray College.
Keith Gray, Vice President
A business entrepreneur, Keith is owner and president of Integrated Lake Management (ILM) in Waukegan. ILM is an environmental management and restoration company offering a broad range of services encompassing both aquatic and terrestrial environments. Previously, he was the co-founder and vice president of an environmental testing service concentrating on industrial wastewater monitoring. Keith is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys hunting and horseback riding with his daughters. He is President of the Upper Des Plaines River Ecosytem Partnership and serves on several boards including Mettawa Open Lands, Roundout School and the Midwest Young Artists.
Nancy Wallace, Treasurer
Nancy is a certified public accountant who has specialized in nonprofit accounting for over 20 years. She has served on the board of the Lake County YWCA, is a member of the Illinois CPA Society’s Nonprofit Committee, and is active in her church. She holds a master’s degree in liberal arts from St. John's College in New Mexico and a master’s degree in accountancy from DePaul University. She has taught nonprofit management at North Park College and Spertus College.
Kelly Cartwright, Secretary
Kelly is an instructor at the College of Lake County in the Biological and Health Sciences Division. She is co-chair of the CLC Environmental Action Committee, coordinator of CLC Earth Week activities, and advisor of the CLC Environmental Club. Kelly has a bachelor's degree in wildlife science from Purdue University and a master's degree in biology from Kansas State University. Kelly is an avid birder, wildlife watcher, and hiker, and enjoys volunteering with several local organizations.
Carol Calabresa
Carol is a senior member of the Lake County Board, serving continuously since 1986. From 1998 to 2000 she was also president of the Lake County Forest Preserve District, during which time, the District passed two bond referenda. Carol still serves on the Forest Preserves Executive Advisory Committee and is the chair of the Forest Preserves Development, Restoration and Planning Committee. From 1984 to 1986, Carol was a Libertyville Township trustee and helped found the Libertyville Township Open Space District. Carol has bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Lawrence W. Falbe
Larry is a partner with the national law firm of Quarles and Brady LLP, where he focuses his practice on environmental transactional support, compliance and litigation matters. Larry counsels clients in evaluating the environmental risk of transactions, remediation issues, endangered species protection and wetland preservation issues. While in law school he completed internships with the U.S. Department of Justice, Environmental Enforcement Division and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5. Larry also serves as an adjunct professor at Northwestern University School of Law, where he currently teaches Environmental Considerations in Commercial and Real Estate Transactions. He currently serves on the Lake County Regional Planning Commission, as a trustee with the Village of Mettawa, and on the board of the Mettawa Open Lands Association.
Kenneth F. Klick
Ken has been a natural areas biologist in the Chicago region for over 30 years, working as an ecologist for the National Park Service and Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and currently for the Lake County Forest Preserves. He has planned and implemented large-scale woodland, prairie, and wetland restoration projects throughout the region. In the private sector, Ken worked as a land planner, conducting environmental assessments, regulatory permit reviews, and plant and animal inventories for commercial and residential developments. Ken has a bachelor’s degree in botany from Eastern Illinois University and teaches a range of courses in controlled burning, field ecology and birding.
Kent Lawson
A resident of Grayslake, Kent is Head of Global Innovation for Abbott Laboratories. Prior to joining Abbott, Kent spent seven years leading the Health + Wellness Practice at IDEO, the world's largest and most respected design and innovation consulting firm. For the past 20 years Kent has dedicated his career to bringing sustainability practices to American business. He also has experience teaching industrial design and sustainability practice, both at graduate and undergraduate levels, at Archeworks and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Gary Mitchiner
Gary is the founder of RAIN Business Development, a professional sales coaching practice that helps clients achieve significant increases in annual revenue. Clients include Mesirow Financial, Deloitte, WRD Environmental, Shields Meneley Partners, and pro bono work for Conserve Lake County. Gary has held a number of senior marketing and sales roles over his 30 year career at Chicago advertising agencies and on the client side at Hewitt Associates and CVS Caremark. His strength is in sales story creation, brand management, and sales performance coaching of executives and staff with revenue producing responsibility. Gary worked with Jeff Werfel and Steve Barg to lead the brand evolution of LPC which debuts in April 2012. The Mitchiners have been residents of Prairie Crossing since 1996 and members of Conserve Lake County since its inception.
Dennis Nyren
Dennis is a principal of MJ Partners Real Estate Services in Chicago, a provider of commercial real estate brokerage and financial services. He holds a B.S. in economics from Lake Forest College and an M.B.A. in finance and accounting from the University of Chicago. In the real estate business since 1977, Dennis was previously a vice president of The Walter E. Heller International Corporation. He was a principal of Capital Realty Services, Inc. and later LaSalle Realty & Mortgage Co. of Chicago. He has financed and/or sold shopping centers, hotels, offices, apartments, industrial and other commercial properties in excess of $2 billion throughout the nation. Dennis is committed to local conservation efforts as demonstrated by his countless hours of volunteer work restoring properties with the Lake Forest Open Lands Association of which he is Governor, and Lake Forest College where he is a trustee. Dennis is also President of the Lake Forest Open Lands affiliated Lake Forest Land Foundation and has served on the Lake County Forest Preserve Advisory Board.
Lydia Scott
Lydia is the Director of Environmental Services for the Village of Lincolnshire where she has worked with the community to restore and manage public open space and an Illinois Nature Preserve. She is working regionally to promote green infrastructure which includes the use of native trees and plants to protect local biological diversity and quality of life for people and wildlife. She loves learning and is currently working to complete her master's degree through the University of Illinois in environmental science. She serves on the following boards and commissions: the Executive Committee for Chicago Wilderness (Co-chair of the Sustainability Team), Solid Waste Agency of Lake County and the Upper Des Plaines River Ecosystem Partnership.
Sarah Simpson
Sarah lives in Libertyville, with her husband and two teenage daughters. She runs a small gardening business and works part-time at Cook Memorial Public Library. Her husband Tom is an ecologist with McHenry County Conservation District. Sarah was born in England and has an undergraduate degree in politics, philosophy and economics from Oxford University. She worked in the finance industry in London, before moving to the USA in 1985 to work as an options trader at the Chicago Board of Trade. She has a life-long interest in gardening and has a green roof on her home - the first residential green roof in Lake County.
Jeff Sundberg
Jeff is the James S. Kemper Foundation Professor of Liberal Arts and Business at Lake Forest College, where his specialties include environmental economics and natural resource economics. He earned a master's and a doctorate degree in economics from Stanford University. Jeff is a former Chair of the Environmental Studies Program and of the Department of Economics and Business at the college, and has taught courses on economics, energy, and wildlife. He began and continues to direct a habitat restoration project at the college. In addition to being a past president of the Conservancy, he is currently on the board of the International Crane Foundation and has also served as a board member for the Chicago Audubon Society.
Jeff Werfel
Jeff is currently the Legislative Aide for Sandy Cole, Illinois State Representative for the 62nd District. He possesses business management and marketing/communication expertise along with public service and volunteer non-profit experience gained over a 20 year working career. Jeff is also a trustee for the Village of Grayslake. He earned an MBA in marketing from Loyola University and earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University.
David Whitmore
David is a real estate investor. He served on the Waukegan Port District Board from 1974 through 1991 (chairman for eight years). He was chairman of the Waukegan Action Committee for Economic Progress and served on the Board of the Lake County Economic Development Commission. David was also on the Board of MainStreet Libertyville where he served as chairman of the Design Committee. He has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Wisconsin State University—Stout.