Lois Woodward // Chair
Since early childhood, Lois has delighted in the natural world. From watching bird migrations at her family’s east Texas farm (where her grandmother noted their annual arrivals in her well-worn Peterson’s guide), to discovering the wonders of distinctive seasons while living in Connecticut, and then exploring Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau during college at Sewanee, she gained a deep appreciation of all flora and fauna, as well as an understanding of the importance of protecting the habitat needed to support all life. Her interest in birding was renewed by attending the Audubon Mountain Workshops, and since retiring from the practice of law, she enjoys the opportunity to spend even more time birding.
Matt Hunter // Vice-Chair
Matt is a retired environmental and supply chain management professional. He has worked mainly in the mining and manufacturing industries, including Drummond Company, Inc., Citation Corporation, and Black Diamond Coal Mining Company, Inc. He holds an undergraduate degree in Environmental Sciences from Western Kentucky University, an M.S. in Environmental and Water Resources Engineering from Vanderbilt University, and an M.P.P.M. from Birmingham-Southern College. He has been an active birder for 40 years in Tennessee and Alabama.
Annette Kinderman // Secretary
Annette was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. She brings her longstanding love of this beautiful state and its natural diversity to her service on the Board of Alabama Audubon. Annette holds a B.A. from Amherst College and a J.D. from Washington and Lee University School of Law. She is a litigation attorney in the Birmingham office of Phelps Dunbar LLP, where she represents a wide variety of healthcare and corporate clients in complex civil litigation and personal injury cases. In her spare time, Annette enjoys hiking, reading, cooking, and watching the live version of “Bird TV” that plays in her backyard.
Cliff Martin // Treasurer
Cliff has enjoyed the outdoors for as long as he can remember and has come to appreciate the role of birds in nature more and more over time. Since retiring, he has dabbled with bird photography while learning more about birds in general. He and his wife reside in Birmingham and have been working to create pollinator and bird-friendly habitats on their property.
Winston Lancaster // Conservation & Science Committee Chair
Born and raised in Montgomery, Winston earned a B.S. in Zoology from Auburn University, an M.S. in Vertebrate Paleontology from Louisiana State University, and a Ph.D. in Anatomy from the University of North Carolina. Although most of his research focused on bats and whales, he bought his first Field Guide to the Birds as a teenager and continues watching and learning about birds to this day. Winston retired from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2024. He continues research on the structure and the function of the middle and inner ears in whales. A lifelong outdoorsman, Winston enjoys birding, gardening, cycling, canoeing, and hiking. In retirement, he is traveling, volunteering at Redemptive Cycles, and participating in field research with Alabama Audubon at every opportunity.
Joe Watts // Development & Membership Committee Chair
Joe helped create the Alabama Birding Trails program (www.alabamabirdingtrails.com) as a statewide initiative to highlight the best birding sites across the state. He’s also actively involved with developing hiking, biking, and kayaking trails across Alabama. He has been active in web development and social media management for over 25 years, and a writer for many more. As a volunteer, he has served on the Alabama Audubon board since 2015, and as President for three of those years. He served as a board member of the National Audubon Society for 6 years, from 2019-2025, and was a founding board member of Birdability, a nationwide organization devoted to making birding and the outdoors accessible to everybody. Joe lives with his wife, Ann, and four indoor cats in the historic Highland Park neighborhood of Birmingham.
Maggie Amsler // Education & Programs Committee Chair
Maggie, a marine biologist at UAB, discovered the joy of birding during long ocean voyages. Her work frequently takes her by ship to a research base in Antarctica, where she can be up close and personal with numerous species of nesting seabirds, including penguins. Birding in Antarctica is remarkably easy, thanks to the absence of trees and leaves that obscure views, and with a regional bird list of only a few dozen species. When in Alabama, and not struggling to identify warblers and sparrows, she enjoys cycling, being in and on the water, and gardening. Maggie has also served Alabama Audubon as Vice-President of Programs, Vice-President of Science, and in 2024 as President.
Marj Young // Field Trip Committee Chair
Marj is a happily retired long-time Audubon member. She enjoys finding new birding spots around the state and making new friends along the way. Marj is happiest outdoors and has found that birding is the best excuse to spend time learning not only about birds, but also about butterflies and other native species to Alabama. She has a BS is Sociology from the University of Southern Mississippi and is currently working on her Master Naturalist certification. Marj hopes to continue promoting birding to people who may not have previously considered it as a fun way to spend time in nature.
Derek Conrad Brown // At-Large
Derek grew up loving the Alabama woods around Toadvine, Alabama. He is the 8th generation of his family to live in what is now Alabama. He is the president of Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc., a management consulting firm. Formerly, he was the 95th president of Anniston Rotary Club, chair of PARCA Roundtable, VP of Birmingham Rotary Club, and he volunteers with American Legion Alabama Boys State. He enjoys canoeing, hiking, and using the iNaturalist app to document and learn about native Alabama wild things. He is a graduate of Samford University.
Jonah Cohen // At-large
Born in Connecticut, and an alumnus of Johns Hopkins University, Jonah has worked in informal science education for 30 years. A national leader in the field of science center outreach, he came to Alabama in 2015 to join the staff of the McWane Science Center, where he remains part of their education team. Jonah and his wife became active members of Alabama Audubon in 2015. A member of the board since 2022, Jonah hopes to interest new birders by connecting a love of birds to an interest in science, to a variety of hobbies and pastimes, and to the things people encounter daily in their lives.
Barry Fleming // At-Large
Born in Laguna Beach, California and raised in the Nashville area, Barry earned art degrees from Western Kentucky University and the University of Tennessee. He is currently professor emeritus at Auburn University after teaching painting, drawing, and ceramics for thirty-five years. Barry is life member of the Alabama Ornithological Society where he has served on the Bird Records Committee and as President. He is a co-founder, past president, and current board member of the Wood Duck Nature Preserve in Opelika, Alabama, a leading site on the Piedmont Birding Trail with over 210 species recorded.
Greg Harber // At-Large
Greg was born and raised in south Florida, where charismatic long-legged waders and Spot-breasted Orioles first piqued his interest in birdwatching. He is a graduate of Auburn University, with a B.S. degree in Secondary Science Education and an M.S. degree in Cell Biology. Greg joined Birmingham Audubon in 1986 and through the years has served the chapter in a variety of capacities, including as bird counts compiler, newsletter editor, director of the Birmingham Audubon Mountain Workshop, vice president for field trips, vice president for conservation, and chapter president. He is employed as a laboratory manager at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry.
Dr. Susan Ledlow // At-Large
Susan grew up in Alabama and Florida, but she got interested in birding while living in Arizona. After attending a bird walk (on a whim) at the Desert Botanical Garden, she was hooked and has been an enthusiastic birder ever since. Susan is a social psychologist and spent most of her career as an academic professional at Arizona State University. Her last position there was at the newly created School of Sustainability, where she divided her time between the development of the School’s curriculum and leadership of a research team studying energy conservation attitudes and behaviors. Susan finished her career at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida, serving for seven years as Vice President of Academic Affairs and Planning. While living in Florida, she was a member of the Board of Orange Audubon Society and chaired their Education Committee. Susan moved back to Alabama two years ago and was recently elected to serve on the Board of Alabama Audubon.
Jacqueline Gray Miller // At-Large
Jacqueline’s story began at the southern edge of the Appalachian Mountains in Alabama’s Talladega National Forest. It was 2014, the year she became the first person of color hired in Alabama by The Nature Conservancy, one of the largest conservation organizations in the world. As the marketing manager in one of the most biodiverse states in the country, she often visited the major physiographic regions, from the Gulf Coastal Plain to the Cumberland Plateau. She also wrote conservation stories about the Talladega National Forest, primarily about conservation approaches, including prescribed burning, that support the habitat of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker. But she found so much more. “At the golden hour of a summer day, with dew on the ground and sun peeking through the longleaf pines, I saw a large bird with stylish patterns. Its red-striped head, polka-dot breast and the golden undersurface of its wings and tail were akin to couture attire. Though I’m someone who communicates for a living, I could not speak or move. Time stood still—and it was at that moment I found my spark bird, the Northern Flicker. That’s the day I fell into an avian obsession, which led me to Alabama Audubon.”
Linda Neighbors // At-Large
Born and raised in Homewood, AL, Linda has always had an interest in animals getting her B.S. in zoology at Auburn. She then went on to obtain a master’s in physical therapy from UAB. She is semi-retired though continues to work some helping teach UAB P.T. students in their skills labs. Her love of birds began when volunteering at the Alabama Wildlife Center where she was able to work with raptors and songbirds. After going on several field trips with AL Audubon she joined the field trip committee, helping to co-lead trips and serving as chairperson for several years.
Lori Oswald // At-Large
Lori was first introduced to birding by attending the Audubon Mountain Workshop in the mid 1980’s. She enjoys birding every day whether in her back yard, traveling around Alabama, across the United States or internationally. A pair of binoculars is always nearby. She is a past President and current and past Treasurer of the Alabama Audubon Board. Lori is a retired CPA and worked mainly in the financial services industry, including Price Waterhouse Coopers, Regions Bank (formerly AmSouth Bank) and Protective Life Corporation. She is a graduate of Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.
Jim Shepherd // At-Large
Growing up in Birmingham, many of Jim’s most memorable childhood activities were associated with Audubon: finding the Red-cockaded Woodpecker at Lake Purdy during seasonal bird counts; attending Audubon-sponsored nature films and lectures; and floating the Tombigbee River with local birding legends Elberta Reid and Walter Coxe. Over the following years, most of his favorite pastimes have taken place in the great outdoors, from canoe-camping in the Canadian wilderness to casting a fly in the shallows of the Bahamas. Wherever he traveled, however, a pair of binoculars have always been close at hand, a life-list creeping ever larger. Professionally, he is the president of Shepherd Realty Company, a boutique investment and development firm. Jim and his wife Katherine live in Birmingham and have two grown children.
Elise Smith // At-Large
Elise’s passion for birds is rooted in her desire to better understand native wildlife habitat. She grew up learning bird names from her father- a career Air Force meteorologist that loved all things SKY. Stars, clouds, weather, and BIRDS! It wasn’t until he retired and moved the family to their multi-generational property, called Contentment in Greensboro, AL, that she learned that it was a family ancestor that sparked her father’s avian obsession. In 2018 Elise began volunteering with Ruffner Mountain’s Native Habitat Garden Club where she met other birders that were interested in gardening for greater biodiversity and she then became a member of Alabama Audubon.
She credits the first Black Belt Birding Festival in 2021, and the prairie tour led by Scot Duncan, for intensifying her interest in pursuing long term restoration projects in Greensboro. It became clear that instead of just using bird feeders to attract birds, she wanted to plant and garden in ways that would feed birds and hopefully inspire visitors to do the same with whatever size property they have to work with. The prairie project has been one of the Black Belt Birding Festival events since 2022, and the family home Contentment is now an AirBnb with hopes to attract more guests interested in ecology and she has also opened her property to bird and arthropod research as well as prescribed burn education with UWA.
Michelle Wooten // At-Large
Michelle (Dr. Wooten) welcomes the world of astronomy to hundreds of non-science majors every semester at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics. Dr. Wooten cares deeply that future generations can witness the night sky and experience the peace and wonder it inspires. Her scholarship is focused on supporting the UAB and broader Southeastern community in strategizing uses of dark sky-friendly lighting. Dr. Wooten suggests that following the 5 Principles for Responsible Outdoor Lighting protects not only our ability to stargaze but human and environmental health – including that of birds! Believing that networked community action can serve as a catalyst for change, she leads the Southeastern United States regional chapter of DarkSky International, Starry Skies South, and serves Alabama Audubon as a member of the Education and Program committee and a participant in Project Safe Flight.