Leadership and Contact

We want to hear from you! Email us at senecacreekwp@gmail.com

SCWP Leadership:

Kevin Misener, President

Kevin joined our board in 2021. He has been active in benthic macroinvertebrate collection and monitoring since 2015. He is the volunteer team leader with Audubon Naturalist Society for one of the Great Seneca Creek monitoring site. He is also a certified weed warrior. Kevin is interested in ramping up community involvement in chemical and biological monitoring, data sharing and adding new monitoring sites.

Rena Sellner, Treasurer

Rena joined SCWP in May 2021 as our new treasurer. She lives in Germantown near the Seneca Greenway trail which she enjoys for hiking and biking. Growing up in rural Maryland fostered her environmental ethic and lifelong love of the outdoors. As a professional accountant, she is excited to help us with our finances, and doing her part to keep our streams clean and healthy..

Laura Friend, Director

Laura Friend works toward whole ecological well-being and biodiversity within communities. She is a Certified Landscaper working with "Wellness Landscape Design" encouraging the adoption of native plants. She is a member of the Damascus Garden Club and recently interned with Chesapeake Foodscapes. Her interests include ecology, landscaping and green building design.

Francoise “Frankie” Andre

Frankie began her involvement with the watershed by clearing trash from the “Horse Hole/Big Bend” area on Berryville Road, Darnestown, with the help of their neighbors.This area has a high volume of visitors as well as of trash. She is also active in combating invasive plants, advocacy, and water quality monitoring.

Heather Morris

Heather is a lifelong Maryland resident, and motivated to not only learn more about my local watershed but contribute to its caretaking. She is passionate about improving the environment for present and future generations of humans and wildlife.

Vladimir Alvarado

Vlad joined our board on 2023. He is a Montgomery College student majoring in Civil Engineering and Bioengineering. Vlad is the president of Montgomery County Go Green, and an active weed warrior and water quality monitor.

Thomas Pugh

Tom deeply cherishes the natural beauty of Seneca Creek, which also provides drinking water to Poolesville and is a significant tributary to the Potomac and Chesapeake Bay ecosystems. He champions sustainability, conservation, and community engagement to ensure a vibrant future for the watershed, especially around Poolesville. Tom is also a Poolesville neighborhood leader, and a water quality monitor.

Kent Shaw, Advisor

Kent Shaw is a founding member and was SCWP's first treasurer. He has been in leadership roles with the Rockville Chapter Isaak Walton League, and conducts water quality related activities for the public. For many years he has been monitoring wood duck boxes in the watershed. He is a volunteer pilot with Pilots n Paws.

Merikay Smith, Advisor

Merikay Smith was SCWP president from July 2021 to July 2023, and SCWP Board member since 2015. She also served our partner organization, Muddy Branch Alliance, where she was a Board member for 5 years. Her favorite SCWP has been doing the native tree give-away. She founded Earth Stewardship East, a faith-based nonprofit (www.eartheast.org). She also serves on the board of LDS Earth Stewardship (with local groups in the US, Europe, Canada, the Philippines, and Africa). She has been a Master Gardener for 15+ years, transforming the extensive turf grass on her property into native habitat and teaching others about sustainable gardening.

Deby Sarabia, Advisor

Deby was SCWP President from 2019-2021. She joined SCWP in 2017 soon after moving to Maryland. She is interested in healthy habitats and connectivity within the watershed, advocating for watershed health and increasing community involvement. She was introduced to SCWP while organizing a stream cleanup in Germantown. She launched an annual stream cleanup on a Whetstone Run tributary and is an active Weed Warrior. She has worked for many years on Clean Water Act and endangered species issues in Maryland and New Mexico. She has a master’s degree in environmental science and a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.

Ann Smith, Advisor and Founder

Ann Smith is a founder and was the first president of SCWP. Under her leadership, the group was incorporated as a 501c3 nonprofit in 2013. Ann has partnered extensively with Muddy Branch Alliance and Isaak Walton League Rockville Chapter, and is active in environmental justice issues. She worked for many years in the biotechnology field including water quality testing, applied microbiology, proteins and lipoproteins.

Bonnie Bell, Founder

Bonnie Bell is a founding member. She is a volunteer ranger at Seneca Creek State Park, where she leads weekly hikes and other nature related activities. She is a Trail Crew Leader for natural surface trails in Montgomery County, where she leads volunteers in trail work projects 4-6 times a year. She also conducts bluebird monitoring for Montgomery County Parks. She has contributed over 600 hundred photos from the Seneca Creek watershed to the Maryland Biodiversity Project database. Bonnie received the 2019 State Advancing Trails Award for Maryland given at the American Trails Symposium in Syracuse, NY.

Margaret Schoap, Founder

Margaret Schoap is a founder and was SCWP secretary for many years. Her expertise includes stormwater and rights-of-way land use. She is active in stewardship of Lake Whetstone in Montgomery Village and protection of the land and source waters of Great Seneca Creek in Dayspring Creek and the Dayspring retreat center in Germantown.

Tom Vegella, Founder

Tom Vegella is a founder and was vice president for SCWP. He is on the Conservation Committee and chairs the Save Our Streams program at Rockville Chapter Isaak Walton League, which includes regular monitoring of a site on Great Seneca Creek, and a community outreach program to teach the SOS stream health method. He partners with Seneca Valley Trout Unlimited and Maryland Department of Natural Resources to conduct routine fish sampling on Little Seneca Creek. He is active with the Maryland Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation.

Jane Wilder, Founder

Jane Wilder is a founding member and director. She serves on, and formerly chaired, the Montgomery Village Foundation Committee on Environment. She partners with Friends of Whetstone Lake. And advocates for coexistence with wildlife. Her expertise is the federal Clean Water Act, in particular USACE wetlands permits.

Paul Hlavinka, Honorary Member

Julie Gilson, Honorary Member

Cindy Stevens, Founder

Jack Cochran, Founder

Tamara Heiselmeyer, Founder

Kay Fulcomer, Founder

Richard Wilder, Founder