Linda Rohleder - Coordinator of the Lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM)
In 2013, Linda received her PhD in Ecology from Rutgers University, where she studied the effects of deer on forest understories. While attending graduate school she worked as a park ranger in Monmouth County, NJ and taught beginning biology labs at Rutgers. Before returning to school, she worked for many years at AT&T as a project manager and software developer. Linda built the Trail Conference’s InvasivesStrike Force volunteer program. By 2016, the program had trained about 400 invasives-mapping volunteers who collectively had surveyed more than 1,200 miles of trail for invasive plants. She has organized invasives-removal workdays in parks across southern New York and northern New Jersey. Linda also has spent more than 10 years creating a native plant wildlife habitat in her backyard.
Michael Young - Terrestrial Invasive Species Project Manager
In 2015, Michael received his B.S. in landscape architecture with a concentration in ecological design from Rutgers University. While at Rutgers, Mike interned with the Central Park Conservancy as a project manager and spent two seasons with Maplewood Township in New Jersey as a horticultural specialist. Before returning to Rutgers, he worked as a material planner in corporate aviation for Dassault Falcon Jet. Earlier in life, he was the trail maintainer for Greenbrook Nature Sanctuary along the Palisades where a desire to protect our native environment was fostered. More recently, he was a crew member of the 2016 Invasive Strike Force Crew. Michael has a passion for the environment and looks forward to seeing you out volunteering with the crew.
Samantha Epstein - Aquatic Invasive Species Program Coordinator
Samantha Epstein began working for the Lower Hudson PRISM in September 2014 as the Assistant Invasive Species Program Coordinator. Soon after, she applied for funding through the Lower Hudson PRISM to start the Aquatic Invasive Species Program, which is currently hosted at Clearwater. Samantha has been working for the Lower Hudson PRISM as the Aquatic Invasive Species Program Manager at Clearwater since April 2015. She graduated from Ithaca College with a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Science in May 2013 and had invasive species related jobs at the City of Ithaca Water Treatment Plant and The Nature Conservancy. In her free time, you can find Samantha kayaking the Hudson River's tributaries and playing with other peoples' dogs.
Lindsay Yoder - Assistant Aquatic Invasive Species Program Coordinator
Lindsay is originally from a small town in Southeast Texas, and moved to the northeast to pursue acting before making a drastic career change. She's currently majoring in Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences with a focus in aquatic ecosystem management and fisheries biology through Oregon State University's distance learning program. She initially came across the Lower Hudson PRISM in 2016 as a volunteer invasive plant surveyor for the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference's terrestrial Invasives Strike Force which helped her gain experience in the field. A year later, she approached Dr. Linda Rohleder for an internship and was offered a job as the Program Assistant for the PRISM. In her time with the PRISM, Lindsay found a greater interest in aquatic invasive species and began working with Samantha Epstein at Clearwater to learn more about the AIS program. She began working as the Assistant Invasive Species Program Manager alongside Samantha Epstein in January and will be participating in the AmeriCorps program this summer as the Lead Watercraft Inspection Steward. Lindsay also enjoys watercolor painting, watching nature documentaries, backyard birding, and obsessively reading scientific journals.
