EcoAddendum

Kathryn Kolb

Executive Director

Master Naturalist Kathryn Kolb shares over 40 years of field experience in forests and wild lands of the Southeast. Kathryn currently designs and leads educational walks in natural areas in metro Atlanta, Georgia and the Southeast. She takes botanical inventories and designs forest restoration plans for public parks and greenspaces and private properties, and designs and leads EcoAddendum’s Stewardship classes and volunteer programs for municipalities and neighborhood groups.

Kathryn has contributed to greater Atlanta’s environmental community for over 30 years, and has collaborated on projects with many regional environmental groups including Atlanta’s Tree Conservation Commission, The Wilderness Society, Georgia Forestwatch, Georgia Conservancy, Cascade Springs Nature Conservancy, Brookhaven Tree Conservancy, Georgia Native Plant Society, Botanical Society of Georgia, State Botanical Garden of Georgia, South River Watershed Alliance, West Atlanta Watershed Alliance, Elachee Nature Center, Dunwoody Nature Center, Blue Heron Nature Center, City of Atlanta Neighborhood Associations, Friends of Parks groups, Park Pride, City of Atlanta, City of Brookhaven, and many other groups throughout the metro Atlanta region.

Previously, Kathryn was founder and director Atlanta’s Keeping It Wild program, under the umbrella of the Wilderness Society, leading a diverse, community based, nature education and outings program from 2005-2009. She also served as consultant to DeKalb County Commissioners on a new tree ordinance 1999/2000, and continues to assist municipalities and community groups on writing tree ordinances, and on raising awareness about the value of regional forests and natural areas, and on ways to better incorporate trees and greenspaces into urban and suburban environments. Kathryn frequently gives talks and presentations to neighborhood groups, Garden Clubs, Rotary Clubs, and other regional community groups.

Kathryn is also known for her distinctive, award-winning work as a fine art photographer of natural forms and landscapes, and her photographs are found in prominent regional collections and public venues throughout the US.  To view her fine art photographs visit KathrynKolb.com. 

Debra Pearson 

Board Member, Environmental Educator

Debra Pearson is a retired educator having served 30 years as a high school language arts teacher in Atlanta’s public schools, primarily Frederick Douglass High School. Her destiny crossed with Eco-A when a neighbor clear cut the trees in his back yard. He used the forest in Debra’s back yard as a felling ground for the trees he destroyed, killing trees on her property in the process. Debra took ownership of her backyard forest and created a walking path that has become “the biggest blessing” in her life. Her forest has been designated as a wildlife habitat by both the National Wildlife Federation and the Atlanta Audubon Society, and due to the exceptional species she has discovered there, her forest is also a part of the national Old Growth Forest Network. Her forest is home to a diverse number of bird, tree, and native plant species. Debra has opened her forest trail to her neighbors and many now use the trail for daily walking. Debra welcomes the opportunities to share its blessings while imparting the values of tree conservation.

 

Lisa Frank

Director of Communication, Board Member, Emeritus 

Lisa has worked at several of Atlanta’s finest cultural attractions.  She launched the first PR departments at the High Museum of Art and the Atlanta Botanical Garden with award-winning media relations campaigns to introduce new multi-million dollar buildings.  As a PR writer, media relations expert and president of FRANK RELATIONS, she provides imaginative, results-oriented public relations writing and consulting to nonprofits and small businesses.

As Director of the Turner Environment Division at Turner Broadcasting, Lisa created an award-winning Clean Air Commuter initiative that continues to be a role model today for riding transit, and forming carpools and vanpools to reduce traffic and smog.

An avid gardener, Lisa is a graduate of the Audubon Society’s master birder program and her home garden was featured on their 2010 tour of certified backyard wildlife sanctuaries.

As a consultant with MillionMile Greenway, she mentors nonprofits in community building including Blue Heron Nature Preserve in Atlanta, TRED in Rome, and Campbellton Park in Chattahoochee Hills. She’s also on the Tree Canopy Committee of the Buckhead Neighborhood Association.

Advisory Council

Jessica Muhammad

Forest Therapy Guide, Former Co-Director and Board Member, Emeritus

We’re deeply grateful for all Jessica Muhammed has done to nurture the Eco-A experience and grow our community to where we are today.  She’s been a wonderful friend to so many Eco-A walkers, inspiring them with her soothing presence – especially with her creative introductions to our naturalist walks from 2013-2016. Today Jessica focuses on her family, especially her nine grandchildren, and from time to time still leads shirin-yoku, forest “bathing” walks as part of Eco-A programs.

Jessica Muhammad is a long-term community builder and advocate for children, equality and justice in the greater Atlanta area. She has family roots in both rural and urban environments, and while raising her six children, she was also involved in Atlanta community education and recreation. Jessica attended classes at Spelman College, holds a degree in Transpersonal Psychology, is a certified Forest Therapy Guide and is also a Master Naturalist.  She is a member of Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam — and she loves to travel!

Anna Hauser 

Advisory Council Member and Forest Restoration Specialist 

Anna’s academic and work experience provide her with a range of perspectives and skills that are fundamental to the management of landscapes. Prior to attending university, she studied at Longwood Gardens’ Professional Gardener Training Program and worked in horticulture and organic agriculture in Ireland and Italy. She later received an Honors Interdisciplinary Degree from the College of Agriculture at the University of Georgia, where she enrolled in graduate courses in forestry, horticulture, environmental design, land use law, and historic preservation. Concurrent to that Anna qualified as an ISA Certified Arborist. Most recently, she earned a Masters of City and Regional Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology, as well as a Masters in Social and Public Communication from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Anna works for both private and public sector clients, as an arborist, a landscape management consultant, and as a trainer for landscape crews. Recent institutional work includes crew training and woodland management for the University of the South, landscape management for the Olmsted Linear Park Alliance, viewshed management and forest restoration for the Reynolda Museum of American Art, crew training at the University of Georgia, and forest restoration and viewshed management for the Grant Park Conservancy.

Corliss Claire

Advisory Council Member

Corliss Claire served as vice-chair to Keep Atlanta Beautiful, Inc. and co-chairs the Adams Park Foundation which developed Trees Alive, a Georgia Urban Forest Council awarded program to bring awareness to the need for education and collective focus on the impact of invasive plants on Atlanta trees. Corliss lives in Adams Park and is a Master Gardener.

 

Jeannie Bartow Hartman

Advisory Council Member

Animal Lover,
Nature Enthusiast &
Long Time fan of Eco-A

 

 

 

James Tyler

Advisory Council Member

James Tyler is Co-Chair of the Friends of Cascade Springs Nature Preserve, is a naturalist-in-the-making, an avid bicyclist, and an expert on the African American and Civil War history of Atlanta’s southwestern neighborhoods. He is active in Southwest Atlanta Parks that he says, “quietly provide life-giving and life-sustaining tree canopy that moderates our City’s climate. These forests exude psychological and health benefits to the surrounding neighborhood residents yet are often taken for granted.” He is also an officer for The Friends of Lionel Hampton-Beecher Hills Nature Preserve, which is his favorite park in Atlanta!

 

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