Steering Committee Members
The LMS Steering Committee helps to guide the organization’s decision making processes. The structure of the steering committee is designed to provide representation across the various types of organizations within our membership. For more detailed information please refer to our Bylaws.
JACOB FINCHER
Executive Director, Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust, Inc.
600 E. Greenfield Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53204
(414) 382-1766
fincher@swwtwater.org
Jake currently serves as the LMS co-chair. He is the Executive Director of Sweet Water and has been with the organization since 2015. Jake oversees each of the organization’s programs. He holds a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in Integrated Science/Business, with an emphasis on water resources. He is extremely grateful to have the opportunity to combine his career and a passion for the outdoors
Jon Gumtow
Senior Wetland Scientist, Stantec
675 Wolf Road, Random Lake, WI 53075-0304
(920) 994-9703
jgumtow@nrc-inc.net
Jon Gumtow, LMS’s Treasurer, is a Senior Wetland Scientist with Stantec, an environmental consulting firm. Jon manages seven natural resource staff for Stantec’s Fox Valley office. He was raised in Sheboygan County and graduated from UW-Stevens Point’s natural resource program. Jon was appointed to the State Examining Board of Professional Soil Scientists in 2002 and is involved with numerous volunteer initiatives. He is a State-licensed Soil Scientist and a certified Professional Wetland Scientist. Over the last 25 years, he has completed natural resource assessments and permitting on a variety of projects throughout the Midwest and has designed more than 25 wetland and stream restoration sites throughout Wisconsin. Jon has been actively involved with the Sheboygan River Basin Partnership (SRBP) since 2000, and has lead many SRBP initiatives including the AOC and Willow Creek projects. Jon has served on the SRBP Board of Directors since 2007 and was appointed the SRBP Secretary. He has been actively involved with several Wisconsin-based watershed initiatives and has lead many volunteer activities to educate the public and stakeholders about watershed improvements.
Christopher litzau
President, Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps
Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps
531 S. Water Street Suite #200, Milwaukee, WI 53204
(262) 880-4811
investinyouth@wi.rr.com
Chris Litzau serves as the President of the Great Lakes Community Conservation Corps (Great Lakes CCC), a regional job training and education program for disadvantaged individuals in southeastern Wisconsin. He hales from the workforce development sector where he is a tireless advocate for preparing young adults from under-resourced communities with national, portable credentials and skills necessary to achieve careers in emerging technologies. He has a strong interest in transitioning job training participants into the water sector.
As the former Executive Director for 12 years at the Milwaukee Community Service Corps–an urban youth corps program that engages young adults aged 18 to 23 in community service and public infrastructure development projects—he assembled a team that included the U.S. EPA, Wisconsin DNR and CH2M HILL to pioneer the “Milwaukee Model” as an initiative to place brownfield job training participants in marine environments to assist in the clean-up of contaminated sediments from the Great Lakes and its tributaries. The Milwaukee Model is an intersection of environmental restoration, workforce development and urban regeneration.
In conjunction with the City of Milwaukee, he was instrumental in the installation of several phytoremediation projects by crews of Corps members for contaminated groundwater, soil and sediment remediation. He initiated the production of nearly 15,000 rain barrels by the Milwaukee Community Service Corps, the installation of dozens of rain gardens, green roofs and other green infrastructure mechanisms, and created the curriculum for a clean energy and solar training program for disadvantaged young adults that resulted in the recent award of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Green Jobs Innovation Fund to the City of Milwaukee through a partnership with Jobs For the Future. He is also the publisher of BlueGreen Magazine—an effort to promote the ecological image of greater Milwaukee.
Deidre peroff, ph.d.
Social Science Outreach Specialist, Wisconsin Sea Grant
UW-Milwaukee School of Freshwater Sciences, Great Lakes Research Facility
600 E Greenfield Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53204
(414) 227-3291
dmperoff@aqua.wisc.edu
Deidre Peroff serves as a Social Science Outreach Specialist with University of Wisconsin-Sea Grant and as adjunct faculty at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s School of Freshwater Sciences in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In January 2016 she moved to Milwaukee from Raleigh, NC where she received her Ph.D. in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism Management at North Carolina State University. Before that, she received her M.S. in Geography at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA and taught at Huxley College of the Environment for two years. Additionally, she has worked as a social scientist at North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, Harvard University’s Program on Conservation Innovation, and has taught outdoor environmental education for many years. Her career focus has centered around conservation of natural resources and equitable development. Specifically, her dissertation work assessed the capacity for agritourism to improve livelihoods and influence stewardship among rural farmers in North Carolina and Guatemala.
After growing up in Kansas City and receiving her B.S. in Geography at UW-Madison, she is excited to return to the Midwest and work on impactful research as part of Sea Grant. In this position, she hopes to use social science methods and theory to improve access to water resources among underserved communities, to facilitate environmental and place-based education, and to support the well-being and resiliency of Great Lakes coastal communities.
linda reid
Owner, Water365, LLC
3749 S 15th Street, Milwaukee, WI 53221
(414) 412-3997
linda@water365.us
Linda currently serves as the LMS co-chair. She has effectively merged her lifelong love of Lake Michigan with her professional life as the owner of Water365, LLC, an environmental consulting firm specializing in climate resilience and freshwater sustainability planning. She formed the firm in 2019 to lend her expertise and experience to organizations interested in implementing climate resilience and water quality improvement projects in the Great Lakes region. The firm’s mission is building capability and capacity for a more resilient freshwater future.
An educator with an entrepreneurial spirit, Linda Reid previously served as an associate professor of law and the Director of the Institute for Water Business at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and as the Executive Director of Southeastern Wisconsin Watersheds Trust (Sweet Water), an environmental non-profit with a mission of protecting and restoring the Greater Milwaukee watersheds. She has over 15 years of experience working with industry, government, and academic organizations in the freshwater space, and has written successful grant proposals funding over $3 million worth of water quality improvement projects in the region.
Linda earned her Juris Doctor degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law in 1995. She is a National Green Infrastructure Certification Program (NGICP)-approved trainer, a qualified Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Water Stewardship Standard Specialist Professional, an Envision Sustainability Professional (ENV SP) and a Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CEPTD) Professional. She currently serves as the co-chair of the Lake Michigan Stakeholders steering committee and is an active member of the American Society of Adaptation Professionals.
Linda has an adult son, Cale, who lives in New York, and a Whippet named Tadhg who lives with her in Milwaukee. She enjoys kayaking, beach-combing, riding her motorcycle, and traveling to Ireland.
Andrew Struck
Director, Planning & Parks Department, Ozaukee County
121 West Main Street, Port Washington, WI 53074
(262) 238-8275
astruck@co.ozaukee.wi.us
Andrew Struck is the Director of the Planning and Parks Department for Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, with more than 20 years of experience in the planning, parks, habitat restoration and environmental fields. Throughout his career, he has worked on large scale natural resource planning, protection, restoration and management issues. He specializes in natural resource planning and management, regional planning, environmental policy and planning, natural resource and environmental education, and park design and implementation. Andrew has an M.S. in Applied Ecology/Regional Planning from Indiana University – Bloomington and a B.S. in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.