MAGIC Alliance
2208 Parker Ave
Wheaton, MD 20902
Frank Lipson serves as MAGIC's Legal Advisor and President. He retired from the Federal government in October 2007 after serving as a staff attorney with the Federal Trade Commission for 36 years. He has been on the MAGIC board since 2000. He has represented MAGIC at DNR briefings on annual forest plans, lobbied members of the State legislature regarding forest legislation, and testified before the Maryland State House and Senate committees on proposed legislation. Every chance he gets, Frank takes his family to the public lands in Western Maryland to enjoy their natural beauty and he wants to ensure that his grandchildren are able to do the same.
MAGIC's Vice President and Treasurer, Dr. Cheryl Kassed, has been a member of the Board of Directors since 2004, when she met MAGIC's founder Bob DeGroot at a Sierra Club meeting. Her deep commitment to the earth and love of the natural world began in childhood as she experienced the wonders of various ecosystems with her outdoorsman grandfather. Dr. Kassed taught earth and environmental science to middle school students in Florida for many years, and she clearly remembers discussing the impending problems of global warming and climate change with her students in the 1980s. After returning to graduate school to earn a Ph.D. in neuropharmacology, Dr. Kassed began her second career as a biomedical scientist, studying the molecular basis of mental health disorders. When she is not involved in nature study, environmental activism, hiking, or other outdoor sports, Dr. Kassed works as a health services researcher and science writer for the Healthcare business of Thomson Reuters.
(301) 946-5233
Dr. Jane Osburn
is MAGIC's Secretary and Director of Habitat Studies. When she moved to MD in 2000, a woman from the local garden club took her on a walk through Northwest Branch forest and pointed out the native plants, sparking her interest in Maryland's native plants. She has long been interested in environmental preservation and became the Recording Secretary for the Maryland Native Plant Society. During that same period, she held monthly invasive weed pulling events, removing a variety of invasive plants from the forested areas near her home. She met Bob DeGroot, MAGIC's dedicated founder and deceased President, when an activist from a local watershed group asked her to provide venue for him to make a presentation on Maryland's forest issues. Jane holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, and works at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in program development research.
Phone:(301)754-1564
Stan Hopkins has been a MAGIC Board member for several years and serves as the organization's GIS specialist. Stan has surveyed the logging roads of Maryland's Green Ridge State Forest and prepared maps showing their adverse impact on wildlife habitat. He has made presentations in support of old-growth forests to the Maryland Legislature. Stan has just begun a multi-year effort to identify and preserve wildlife areas and corridors to connect them. Stan also has prepared databases, maps, and statistical studies for The Nature Conservancy and the Landscape Ecology department of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. He is a graduate of the USDA Grad school certificate program in Natural History Field Studies and has a M.S. in Computer Management from the U of MD. He retired in 2004 from a forty-year career as data analyst, database administrator and information systems manager.
Although Dr. McWilliams only joined the MAGIC board recently, he has been concerned about climate change and other stresses to the earth’s carrying capacity for decades. He is therefore “putting his shoulder to the wheel” to help to address these problems through participation with MAGIC. Unlike most other MAGIC board members, he does not have any background in the biological sciences, having worked as an applied mathematician for most of his professional life. He holds a BA degree from the University of Iowa, an MS degree from the University of Chicago, and a PhD from the University of Maryland. He directed computation center at the University of Chicago and Cornell, and research and development programs at the National Science Foundation before starting his own small company to develop PC-based flight simulators for research and training.
A MAGIC Board member for several years, Perrie 'Lee Prouty serves as our advisor on Maryland wildlife biology and rehabilitation. After attending the University of Vermont, Lee came to the Washington, D.C. area where she spent 28 years on Capitol Hill as a Staff Assistant to three Members of Congress. Environmental issues have always been a passion of hers, and in addition to her current work in waterfowl rescue and wildlife transport, she is a member of a Delaware team of wildlife oil spill responders. Lee serves on the Animal Services Committee of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, and is environmental liaison Board member of her Civic Association. Lee's involvement in whitewater slalom racing gave her an opportunity to observe human-caused damage to our region's watersheds. She was outraged to observe sloppy mining practices, unbridled development, pollution and trash in rivers and creeks. Lee was drawn to MAGIC after reading several of Bob DeGroot’s articles in various newspapers and local environmental publications. As a Maryland licensed wildlife rehabilitator, Lee has had a firsthand view of habitat loss and its effects on wildlife, steeling her commitment to developing and protecting wildlife corridors to preserve plant and animal diversity.
MAGIC’s newest board member, Christine Spinella Davis, Esq. brings to MAGIC her legal knowledge and expertise as a litigator. After graduating from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law in 1999, Christine clerked for The Honorable Ann O’Regan Keary of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She now practices commercial litigation at the law firm Howrey LLP in Washington, DC. She learned about MAGIC when she attended an environmental law program at which fellow board member Frank Lipson spoke. She is passionate about society’s obligation to protect wildlife, and in particular, endangered species, and believes in MAGIC’s vision of the creation of habitat and wildlife corridors to ensure plant and animal conservation. Christine is also a leader in the American Bar Association’s Tort, Trial & Insurance Practice Section, in which capacity she is active with that Section’s Animal Law Committee.
Dr. Geoff Patton is
the most recent past President of MAGIC and had been a Board member for over
three years. Geoff has deep environmental credentials. After earning a
Bachelor's degree in marine biology during the height of the environmental
movement of the mid-1970's, he taught one of the first high school ecology
courses in Florida. After 3 years and yearning to pursue his interest in marine
biology, he ran a fishing pier for a year before joining the non-profit Mote
Marine Laboratory. Geoff worked on many studies of the Florida coastal
environment over a period of 7 years; he then chose to develop a marine mammal
research program after helping a co-worker start a sea turtle program. Geoff ran
the marine mammal program for another 7 years, performing aerial surveys for
manatees, dolphins and sea turtles, rescuing and studying stranded dolphins,
whales, and manatees, and advancing technology to apply toward the study of
these animals. He returned to college to pursue a graduate degree in Medical
Sciences, earning a Master's degree, and then his doctorate from the College of
Medicine at the University of South Florida. While employed in a range of
subsequent science jobs, he has stayed active in several professional and
activist organizations working to protect natural resources.
Bob grew up in Idaho, then attended the US Naval Academy. He graduated with an Engineering degree in 1963. He spent the next five years as a Marine officer, followed by over 20 years working for IBM in Gaithersburg MD.
Upon early retirement, Bob's interest in the environment led him to organize the organization- Maryland Alliance for Greenway Improvement and Conservation (MAGIC) in 1998. He recruited over 30 alliance organizations who believed in MAGIC's goals. Bob was totally committed to saving the Maryland forests and protecting wildlife and its habitats. He worked tirelessly for 9 years giving presentations, attending meetings, writing letters and editing proposals for grants. He spent much of his time attending local and Maryland state government gatherings giving his ideas to legislators. Bob recruited over 2000 recipients to the E-mail MAGIC mailing list, advising of environmental news. He was an inspiration to all of us who knew him and is sorely missed.
2208 Parker Ave
Wheaton, MD 20902
Email: magicalliance@live.com