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About Friends of Ryerson Woods
Meet the Board

Chair

Nick Bothfeld 
Nick Bothfeld joined the FRW Board of Directors in the fall of 2010, first serving as Treasurer, and since June, 2011, as Chair. To this role Nick brings financial expertise from his years as a financial planner and investment advisor with Lincoln Financial Advisors. His interest in environmental conservation is evidenced by his long Board involvement with the Alliance for the Great Lakes, where he also served as Treasurer and on the Executive Committee. 
 
Nick received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College magna cum laude, and he earned an MBA from the University of Chicago. He and his wife, Elizabeth (Bobbie) Brown, live in Lake Forest, where every day they enjoy viewing the Middlefork Savanna as an extension of their backyard. Nick and Bobbie have two children in their twenties.

Treasurer

Henry Barkhausen 

Henry W. Barkhausen, Jr. is President of Settlement Advisors, a firm that specializes in structured settlement annuities used in the settlement of personal injury claims. He has been in the field for 19 years. Prior work experience includes various accounting and treasury positions including as Treasurer of a Fortune 500 company. Henry has a BA from Trinity College (Hartford, CT), an MBA from the University of Chicago and is Certified Public Accountant. Henry was treasurer for six years of a nonprofit professional organization in the healthcare area.

Henry is an active outdoorsman and enjoys sailing, skiing, fishing, camping, bird watching and canoeing. He is certified whitewater canoe instructor. Members of his family have been involved with Ryerson Woods for a number of years. Prior to joining the board Henry attended many FRW events and has enjoyed hiking and skiing on the preserve and in a prior era skating on the Des Plaines River along the Ryerson property. Henry lives with his wife, Lele, in Winnetka, Illinois.

Secretary

Iacuzzi

Judy Iacuzzi serves as the Secretary on FRW's Board.  has been an executive with Iacuzzi Associates, Inc. for 20 years, a communications consultancy with branding, marketing and graphic design expertise. For the bulk of her career, Judy’s clients have been not-for-profit organizations, many of them professional associations. Early in her career she worked as development director for Openlands where she first learned about Ryerson Woods.

Members

Gillian Darlow

Gillian Darlow has been on the Board of FRW since 2003. Before joining the board, Gillian was active in FRW’s Program Committee, helping to shape some of the early Sights & Sounds programs. Gillian is a principal with Civic Consulting Alliance (CCA), a nonprofit consulting firm that works in partnership with the private and public sectors to tackle some of Chicago’s toughest issues, including public education, environment, transit, and quality of life. Prior to joining CCA, Gillian was the managing director of Redmoon Theater, and worked with the environmental and conservation programs at The Field Museum. She has also worked in the arts and in international development with organizations based in California, Ohio, Kentucky, and Massachusetts.

Gillian earned an MBA from Stanford Graduate School Business, a Masters in Education from Stanford University, and a BA in Psychology from Harvard University. Gillian lives in Evanston with her husband and two sons, both of them budding naturalists who relish weekend hikes through Ryerson Woods.


Geraghty

Georgie Boge Geraghty joined the FRW Board in 2004, and served as Chair from 2009-2011.  Georgie currently works as a Lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School where she teaches international environmental law on a part-time basis.  Previously, Georgie held positions with several conservation organizations, including The Field Museum and The Nature Conservancy of Colorado. Before embarking on a career in conservation, Georgie worked in Corporate Business Development at the General Electric Company.

Georgie holds a Master's degree in Forestry and Its Relationship to Land-Use from Oxford University (U.K.) and a law degree from Yale. She has served on the Board of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts and the Steering Committee of the Chicago Region Biodiversity Council.  Georgie and her husband, Tom, have four children, all of whom enjoy the many programs available at Ryerson.  Family favorites include Halloween Hikes, Maple Syrup Hikes, and spontaneous treks through the woods.

William Humphrey

William R. Humphrey, III joined the FRW Board in 2002. Will brings over twenty five years of broad real estate experience to his work at Ryerson, including sustainable development, investment, transactions, strategic consulting, architecture and conservation with organizations such as Jones Lang LaSalle (LaSalle Partners) and The Conservation Fund, a national land conservation organization, where he served as the Illinois Director. Most recently, he founded Landbridge Advisors to work with corporate, institutional and private landowners to create sustainable strategies for their properties. Will holds a Master of Management degree from the J.L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Environmental Design/Architecture degree from the College of Architecture and Planning, University of Colorado. Will lives with his wife, Ellen, and three sons in Lake Forest, Illinois.

 

 

George Ranney

George A. Ranney is President and CEO of Chicago Metropolis 2020, a nonprofit civic organization created in 1999 by the Commercial Club of Chicago to promote long-term planning, better regional cooperation and smart investment in the Chicago region and its people.  George also serves as chair and chief executive of Prairie Holdings Corporation, the firm developing Prairie Crossing, a nationally recognized conservation community in north suburban Grayslake. He served in various capacities over many years for Inland Steel Industries, including vice president for raw materials and also general counsel.   He was deputy budget director for the State of Illinois under Governor Richard Ogilvie.

George also is senior counsel to the Chicago law firm of Mayer Brown LLP and has served as a trustee of many civic and non-profit organizations including the University of Chicago and Chicago Public Television (WTTW).  George is a former trustee of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.  He has known and enjoyed Ryerson Woods his entire life, as his grandparents were Edward and Nora Ryerson.  His service on advising boards including Friends started shortly after his grandparents’ gifts to the Forest Preserve in 1972.


Barbara Rosborough

Barbara H. Rosborough is a partner in Rosborough Partners, Inc., which she co-founded in 1991.  Rosborough Partners, Inc. designs, installs, and maintains both residential and commercial landscapes for people who appreciate fine gardens.   Throughout the years, Rosborough Partners, Inc. has won several statewide landscape awards for quality of work from the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association. 
 
Barbara served as past President of the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association and remains an active member of the board as well as multiple committees.  She is a board member of the Mid-American Horticultural Tradeshow and the Garden Club of Evanston.  Barbara also serves on various Chicago Botanic Garden committees.
 
A graduate of the University of Illinois with a Bachelor’s Degree in Ornamental Horticulture, Barbara has over 25 years of industry experience.  She is a registered landscape architect in Illinois.

FRW

Judith Stockdale became executive director of the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation in 1994. Her previous positions were executive director of the Great Lakes Protection Fund, senior staff associate at the Chicago Community Trust, and from 1978 – 1986 she was executive director of Openlands. Judith earned a Bachelor of Science degree in geography from Durham University (U.K.) and a Master of Forest Science degree from Yale University.

Judith is an independent director of the Nuveen Funds, a member of The Chicago Network, and a board member of Donors Forum. She and her husband, Jonathan Boyer, live in Chicago where Judith battles shade in an urban garden and cooks enthusiastically. Their two daughters are now grown but the family remembers many happy times together at Ryerson Woods: feeding the farm animals, birthday party nature walks, cross-country skiing, and woodland hikes in all seasons.

 


Lake County Forest Preserve District Liaisons

FRW

Aaron Lawlor joined the FRW Board in 2010 when he was appointed as a liaison from the Lake County Forest Preserve District Board.  He serves on the Lake County Board representing District 18.  On the Board, Aaron chairs the Health and Community Services Committee and serves as a member of the Finance and Rules Committees.  He also represents the County Board on the Community Development Commission and Solid Waste Agency of Lake County (SWALCO) Board.  As a member of the Lake County Forest Preserve Board, Aaron is the Vice Chair of the Planning and Restoration Committee and member of the Finance Committee.

Prior to joining the County Board, Aaron served as Board President and Trustee of the Cook Memorial Public Library District for six years where he led an effort to build a new branch library in Vernon Hills and expand the main library in Libertyville without a tax referendum.

Aaron previously served as Political Director and Deputy District Director to Congressman Mark Kirk (IL-10) and served as an aide to his successful 2010 U.S. Senate campaign.

Aaron works as a political consultant and resides in Vernon Hills.

Ann Maine

Ann Maine has served on the FRW Board since 2002 when she was appointed as a liaison from the Lake County Forest Preserve District Board, where she currently serves as President.   Ann's love of the outdoors stems from her grandmothers, one of whom was a gardener and the other a birder. Each took her in hand at the young age of three and for that she is forever grateful.

Ann has a BA in Biology from Williams College and a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Rochester. She is a senior lecturer at Lake Forest College, where she has been a member of the Biology Department since 1993. Ann and her husband Gordon chose their house in Lincolnshire 18 years ago because it was five minutes from Ryerson Woods. With four boys, Ann estimates that someone from her family is walking, running, cross country skiing or birding in Ryerson every week of the year!

 
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Friends of Ryerson Woods