Board of Directors
Robert Heinzman, MES, Chair of the Board & Vice President
Robert Heinzman is a partner at Growth River, a change leadership consultancy. With a start in environmental chemistry, he researched groundwater pollution in the arid southwestern US. A trip in 1985 to the Amazon River Basin with fellow board members George Gann and Donna Shore led to the front lines of tropical forest conservation. This work resulted in the founding of IRC and other environmental organizations, global forums on tropical forest management, and a key role in creating the Maya Biosphere Reserve, the largest protected area in Central America. After years of bearing witness to the conflict endemic to the agricultural frontier in the forested tropics, and the crap that goes on in Washington, DC, Robert committed to a rigorous spiritual path to get to the bottom of things. In ways that really do make sense, this led to working with business leadership teams to lead transformational change. In addition, a Geochemistry degree from the University of Colorado, he completed his Masters at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. Robert stepped up to become IRC's Chair of the Board in 2023. He lives in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts with his wife, Katherine.
George Gann, Vice Chair & President
A founder of IRC, George is responsible for IRC's core Regional Conservation Models program and has also acted as Chair of the Board from 2004 to 2023. George has spent the last 40 years working on the conservation of rare plants, the restoration of ecosystems and a host of other conservation and sustainability issues. He has played a leadership role in several organizations including IRC, Society for Ecological Restoration, Florida Native Plant Society and Tropical Audubon Society, and has received a number of awards for his conservation work. Originally from South Florida, he attended the University of Colorado Boulder, where he received a B.A. with distinction in International Affairs and Environmental Conservation. He has traveled widely in Latin America, as well as Europe, Asia and Australia, and contributes to national and international outreach on behalf of IRC.
Donna Shore, Treasurer/Secretary
Donna Shore has a long and rich history in professional and volunteer environmental and social work. A graduate of American University in Communications, Law, Economics and Government, she is a founding member of The Institute for Regional Conservation and was a participant in IRC's signature Amazonas expedition to the Brazilian Amazon. That trip became the catalyst for her lifelong commitment to understanding the myriad interconnections that make up our planet human and natural. She has worked as an executive level project manager since the late 1980s, including as Assistant to the Chair of Earth Day 1990, which is today the largest secular holiday celebrated in the world. She has also worked in the entertainment, publishing, political, professional translating and art sectors and is dedicated to developing and advancing programs that further sustainability. She joined the IRC Board in 2005. Donna lives in northern California and is an active volunteer in her community.
Kingsley Dixon, Ph.D., Director
Born and raised in Western Australia, Kingsley Dixon developed a love for native plants at a young age and has been a leading Australian botanist for over 40 years. As the Foundation Director of Science at Perth's Kings Park and Botanic Garden for 32 years and more recently with a personal Chair at Curtin University, Kingsley has led a research team of over 40 members focusing on the restoration and conservation sciences. His research is focused on rare and threatened species conservation, ecological restoration, conservation of Australian plants, and orchid biology and conservation. He works extensively with First Nation Australians in conservation and restoration. Kingsley's work has been recognized with awards including the Linnean Medal in Botany, the Australian Minerals Energy Environment Foundations Awards of Environmental Excellence in 1992 and 1996, Golden Gecko Awards for Environmental Excellence in 1997 and 2000. He was made Western Australian Scientist of the Year for 2016 and is a member of the Australian Academy of Science and Technology and Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.
Kingsley is a John Curtin Distinguished Professor at Curtin University, a visiting professor at the University of Western Australia's School of Plant Biology, and a research associate at the Missouri Botanic Garden. He serves as Chair of the Society for Ecological Restoration, Immediate-Past President of Australian Network for Plant Conservation, Member of International Panel of Experts for the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, and Consulting Editor of in Vitro Cell and Developmental Biology. He also sits on several prestigious panels including the National Judging Panel for Eureka Awards, National Grant Advisory Panel for Australian Flora Foundation, Chairman of Research Committee for the Australian Orchid Foundation, and Delegate of the Australian Network for Plant Conservation to the Council of Heads of Australian Botanic Gardens. Kingsley joined the IRC Board in 2015.
Alan R. Franck, Ph.D., Director
Alan is a botanist and educator at the University of Florida herbarium, within the Florida Museum of Natural History located in Gainesville, Florida. Previously, he worked at Florida International University in Miami, studying the local flora and funga. He has also served as the director of the University of South Florida herbarium, which has a heavy concentration on the flora of Florida. He received his Ph.D. from the University of South Florida, where his dissertation studied the systematics of a rare cactus (Harrisia) in Florida and the Caribbean. His research continues to focus primarily on the plant and fungal diversity of Florida and parts of the Caribbean.
Bill Petry, MSEE, MBA, Director
Bill Petry has been a volunteer for IRC since 2018 and was elected to the Board in 2025. Bill started his career as an electrical engineer and worked primarily in the microwave electronics industry where he directed M/A-COM, Inc's worldwide sales and marketing network. He traveled extensively in Europe and the Pacific Rim for his work and explored countries in Africa and Central America for personal adventure. Since retiring in 2015 he has devoted much of his energy to conservation efforts. He has worked to create a sustainable beach and dune system, helped to control both terrestrial and aquatic invasive species, and taken a lead role in shoreline protection for assuring water quality. Bill has joined three other Boards of Directors, two of which are conservation non-profits in northern New Hampshire where Bill and his wife Tim spend the summer seasons. She and Bill earned their Florida Master Naturalist certificates while living in Delray Beach for the winters. Bill has an MSEE from Tufts University and an MBA from Harvard.
Patty Phares, MS, Director
Patty Phares is an active volunteer with local environmental, nature and service organizations in Miami-Dade County, Florida. She is a long-time volunteer for the Dade Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society, and a Board member of the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of South Florida. She volunteers for Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden's conservation team, and served on the Land Acquisition Selection Committee for Miami-Dade County's Environmentally Endangered Lands Program from 2014 to 2022. A native of East Tennessee and a graduate of Hanover College in Indiana and the University of Florida, Patty served in Samoa as a Peace Corps Volunteer and moved to South Florida in her job with the National Marine Fisheries Service, from which she is retired. Her native plant yard, a part of Fairchild's "Connect to Protect Network", simultaneously thrives and suffers from benign neglect. Patty joined the IRC Board in 2011.
Jorge Carlos Trejo Torres, Ph.D., Director
A native of the Mexican Yucatan, for more than 20 years Jorge Carlos Trejo has been a leader in developing IRC’s programs in the Yucatan and Puerto Rico. He is co-author of the IRC websites Plants of the Island of Puerto Rico and Plantas del Mayab (Mexican Yucatan Peninsula), and founder and administrator of two botanical Facebook groups, Plantas en la Península de Yucatán and Plantas en Puerto Rico, with combined memberships of more than 55,000 people. He is an expert in plant taxonomy, biogeography, and the regional history of botanical sciences. He focuses on rare, endemic, and poorly known species, and has described five new species of trees from Puerto Rico. He rediscovered the sisal (Agave sisalana) in the Yucatan, a culturally significant plant of the Yucatec Maya that botanists mistakenly thought to be native to a different part of Mexico. He brought to light the unpublished botanical works of Ana Roqué, a pilar in the women’s suffrage movement of Puerto Rico, whose educational and botanical interests scholars dismissed for decades, research now featured in primary school textbooks.
As part of his deep interest in disseminating botanical and cultural knowledge, he has given dozens of invited talks and interviews to varied audiences, from kindergarten children to scientists as far away as the Canary Islands. He has published notes on the history of Yucatan botany and has exhibited his personal native plant collection at gallery and museum art exhibitions in his hometown of Merida. He promotes the use of native plants and naturalistic gardens in private and public spaces and teaches botany to landscape architects and other non-scientist professionals. As a member of the Mexican branch of the International Society of Arboriculture he has organized regional fora on urban trees and given many invited talks and keynote lectures around southeastern Mexico. He is currently Chief of Urban Trees for the Municipality of Merida. He has been a Research Associate of IRC since 2015. Resume, Email.
Allison Turner, MBA, Director
Allison Turner, owner and CEO of BatCat Media Group formerly BCoSF Media, Business Consultants of South Florida (BCoSF) and Turnkey Music Studio. She is a resident of Delray Beach, Florida and brings over 25 years of experience in a variety of industries where she honed her skills in marketing, communications, management, and customer service. At BatCat Media Group, she brings her passion for creativity, finance and management to the company. Using her drive for perfection and time management skills that she learned as a Division I College Athlete, she brings consistency, focus and passion to her work with businesses. She oversees the company, which provides branding, website design, marketing services, video production and music production. Allison joined the IRC Board in 2018.