Who we are- board




	Board of Directors Jeff Sundberg, Ph.D., President Charles O'Connell, Vice President/Treasurer Kelly Cartwright, Secretary Carol Calabresa Keith Gray Kenneth Klick Kent Lawson Dennis Nyren Sarah Simpson Nancy Wallace Jeff Werfel Al Westerman David Whitmore Wally Winter Klaus Wisiol Jeff Sundberg, Ph.D., President Jeff is the James S. Kemper Foundation Professor of Liberal Arts and Business and is the Chair of the Department of Economics and Business at Lake Forest College. His specialties include finance, environmental economics and natural resource economics. He earned a master's and a doctorate degree in economics from Stanford University. Jeff has taught Environmental Studies courses on economics, energy, and wildlife. He began and continues to direct a habitat restoration project at the College, and for seven years served as a Board member for the Chicago Audubon Society. Charles O'Connell, Vice President and Treasurer At Harris myCFO, Charlie is Director and Senior Portfolio Manager of the Investment Advisory Service Group, managing over one billion dollars in assets. He has administered investments for the University of Chicago, and has developed educational material for savings and loan managers through the Institute of Financial Education. A former teacher, Charlie earned a B.A. in economics from MacMurray College. Charlie is a former treasurer of Ragdale Foundation, former president of Cook Memorial Library, and former member of the adjunct faculty at DePaul University. He currently chairs the United Way of Lake County’s Investment Committee, and serves on the Investment Committee of YMCA of Chicago and the Investment Committee of MacMurray 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. She is presently working on her Ph.D. in traditional naturopathy. 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. Keith Gray 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 serves on several boards including Roundout School and the Midwest Young Artists. 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 Kent is Director of Global Business Development for the Health Practice at IDEO, a product design, development and strategy consulting firm. For the past 15 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. 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 a director and Lake Forest College where he is a trustee. Dennis has also served on the Lake County Forest Preserve Advisory Board. 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. Nancy Wallace 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. She has volunteered for the Liberty Prairie Conservancy for the past three years. Jeff Werfel Jeff recently joined the staff of Proactive Worldwide in Rolling Meadows. He possesses over 20 years of marketing, sales and consulting experience in both business-to-consumer and business-to-business environments. Jeff is also a Grayslake Village Trustee. He earned an MBA in Marketing from Loyola University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University. Al Westerman Al is a life long resident of Lake County having grown up on a family farm in Benton Township which has been in the family for 99 years. He has a bachelor's degree in geology and a master's degree in forestry from the University of Illinois. Al was first employed with the Lake County Forest Preserve in 1971 and was with the District for 25 years. He served as a director of the Lake County Soil & Water District for two terms. Al was elected for two terms on the Lake County Board (1996-2002) serving the Gurnee and western Waukegan areas. From 2000-2002, he served as president of the Lake County Forest Preserve District. Since 2003, he has served on the Lake County Zoning Board of Appeals. 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. Wallace Winter Wally recenty retired as a supervisory lawyer at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago where he represented indigent children and people with disabilities for 37 years. His present and past board memberships include the Chicago Council of Lawyers, Public Interest Lawyers Initiative, Ragdale Foundation (chairman), Designs for Change, and Strategic Learning Initiatives. He received his bachelor of arts degree in History from Yale, and his L.L.B from the University of Virginia Law School. As a Peace Corps volunteer he worked with an agricultural cooperative program in northeastern Brazil. His roots in Lake County go back to his paternal great-great-great grandmother who was born in the late 18th century and lived in Waucanda. Klaus Wisiol Klaus is principal of KW Enterprises, consulting in business strategies and finance, and managing investments and trusts. He worked for 30 years at Commonwealth Edison as a corporate officer and member of the Senior Executive Management Team. He is a board member, and past chairman, of the Sinai Health System in Chicago, and has served on a number of other voluntary boards including Cerqua Rivera Art Experience, North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, and Wild Ones–Natural Landscapers. He holds an MBA in finance from the University of Wisconsin.