CECIL FROST, Morning Plenary Session Keynote

Landscape fire ecologist, former coordinator of the North Carolina Plant Conservation Program. Dr. Frost received his Ph.D. in Plant Ecology from University of North Carolina, and his Master's in biology from East Carolina University. His research interests include making fine-scale maps of pre-European fire regimes and historical vegetation using GIS and field methods and historical and landscape fire ecology­understanding what the original landscapes were like before European settlement, especially the role of fire in creating habitats for native plants and animals.  He retired from NC Plant Conservation 2004 to work full time in fire ecology. Dr. Frost considers it his mission to restore natural fire regimes on public lands and preserves.  To train others in methods of reconstructing presettlement fire regimes. To promote public appreciation of the role of fire, and of the thousands of species that depend upon it for their survival.

AIMLEE LADERMAN, Restoration Session Speaker and Moderator

Dr. Laderman is a Lecturer and Research Affiliate at the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, and Director of the Swamp Research Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Aimlee is also Universal Biological Indexer and Organizer and creator of the Atlantic White Cedar Website (http://gosnold.mbl.edu/awc/). Aimlee Laderman has a career-long dedication to increasing academic and public knowledge and awareness of Atlantic White Cedar (AWC) Swamps.

RICHARD POLLACK, Afternoon Plenary Session Keynote

Richard Pollack is Research Associate at the Laboratory of Public Health Entomology, Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Harvard School of Public Health. His work seeks to define the ecological, behavioral and physiological bases that sustain and amplify vector-borne pathogens in nature.

CURT RICHARDSON, Morning Plenary Keynote

Curtis J. Richardson is Professor of Resource Ecology and founding Director of the Duke University Wetland Center in the Nicholas School of the Environment. Dr. Richardson earned his degrees from the State University of New York and the University of Tennessee. His research interests are in the area of applied ecology and are centered on wetlands ecology and restoration. The objectives of his research are to utilize ecological principles to develop new approaches to environmental problem solving. The goal of his research is to provide predictive models and approaches to aid in the management of ecosystems.