Grasslands Restoration Team
Leadership
Jeremy French, Chief of Ecological Restoration
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Jeremy French serves as the Director of Ecological Restoration and Stewardship for the Southeastern Grasslands Institute. Jeremy is based out of Clarksville, TN and serves as the SGI lead for the NPS IRA and BIL projects. In addition to these projects, Jeremy and his team spearhead grassland conservation projects across SGI's 24-state focal region, encompassing grassland research, restoration, and reconstruction. Prior to his role as the Director of Ecological Restoration and Stewardship, Jeremy served as the Interior Low Plateaus Ecoregion coordinator and successfully led a multi-state and multimillion dollar project geared towards restoring grasslands on private lands, which impacted thousands of acres. Jeremy's love for grasslands stems from his time researching the effects of Bison grazing on herpetofauna communities in tall grass prairie remnants and natural community response to oak savanna restoration.
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Chris Fleming, M.S., Director of Project Management
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Chris Fleming serves as the Director of Project Management at the Southeastern Grasslands Institute (SGI), where he leads teams dedicated to advancing grassland restoration across 40 National Parks throughout the eastern United States. He holds a Master’s degree in Botany from the University of Tennessee, with a focus on the flora and ecology of the Southeast. With more than two decades of experience in the environmental consulting field, he has specialized in water resource inventories and permitting, ecological restoration, and rare species surveys. Most recently, he co-led the development of the first statewide GeoAI model for wetland identification in Tennessee, marking a significant advancement in conservation technology. His deep appreciation for grassland ecosystems is rooted in years of exploring wet meadows, remnant grasslands of the Cumberland Plateau, and the high-elevation balds of the Southern Appalachians.
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Regional Coordinators & Ecologists
Alaina Krakowiak, M.S., Central Appalachian Grasslands Coordinator and Ecologist
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Alaina serves as the Central Appalachian Grasslands Coordinator based in Roanoke, Virginia. Alaina works with a variety of partners to study, restore, and advocate for the conservation of grasslands throughout her region. Alaina initially fell in love with grasslands while conducting a floristic inventory of a remnant site near Chattanooga, Tennessee. She studied the conservation genetics of an endangered species from this site (Clematis fremontii) as a graduate student in Colorado, where she spent her summers working as a field botanist with the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. Alaina is happy to be back home in the Southeast, and is excited to get to work on protecting the landscapes she loves.
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Zach Irick, Southern Appalachian Grasslands Coordinator and Ecologist
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Zach serves as the Southern Appalachian Grasslands Ecologist based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Zach works with a variety of partners to accomplish on the ground research and restoration activities of rare plant species and plant communities across the Southern Appalachian region.
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Email: zach.irick@segrasslands.org
Jordan Coscia, Ph.D., Mid-Atlantic Grasslands Coordinator
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Jordan serves as the Mid-Atlantic Grasslands Coordinator and is based in Roanoke, Virginia. He works to conserve and restore grasslands on public lands across the Mid-Atlantic alongside a variety of partner organizations. Jordan completed his dissertation on the floristics, conservation, and restoration of Virginia’s native grasslands at Virginia Tech as a research fellow with the Smithsonian’s Virginia Working Landscapes program. He is excited to continue his work protecting the native grasslands of the Southeast alongside the SGI team.
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Vero Tessier, Middle Tennessee Coordinator
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Vero works as the Middle Tennessee Coordinator for SGI. Vero was formerly a research ecologist at SGI. She grew up in the Blackland Prairie region of North Texas and gained a passion for grasslands while doing prairie restoration work during her undergraduate years at Austin College. She has since done vegetation monitoring in longleaf pine and tallgrass prairie ecosystems, as well as in the grasslands of the South Texas Sandsheet. She plans to eventually return to school to study plant ecology.
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Restoration Technicians
Ariel Schwartzman Miles, Botany Technician
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Ariel is a botanist born and raised in New York, whose love of naturalism was sparked by apartment gardening. She received her bachelor's degree in biology at Vassar College in 2025, with a thesis on epiphytic old-growth bryophytes of Nova Scotia. During her undergraduate studies, she also worked on herbarium digitization and assisted in research on pollinator-plant networks, prairie biodiversity, and bryophyte ecology - her favorite field of study. Apart from botanizing, she can be found backpacking, baking bread, and playing old-time music. She is excited to familiarize herself with the diversity of southeastern flora and is grateful to be working in such an organization that prioritizes education and outreach.
Erin Gamst, Restoration Technician
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Erin is a Field Technician through SGI located in Roanoke, Virginia. Erin grew up in Minnesota where she participated in a variety of avian research projects in urban settings and forested peatland systems in Northern Minnesota. Erin gained a passion for prairie restoration work during her time at Three Rivers Park District in the twin cities area, and, since 2023, Erin has worked on a variety of habitat management projects for prairie and big woods ecosystems. She is very excited to continue working on grassland restoration and learn more about the unique ecosystems in the Southeast region.
Kaelyn Bedessem, Boots-to-Botany Technician
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Kaelyn Bedessem is our boots to botany intern. She served 5 years in the Army as a Geospatial Imagery Analyst while also completing her undergraduate degree in Environmental Science with a focus on fish and wildlife. Kaelyn grew up in Southeast Wisconsin fishing, hunting, and camping with her family. When she’s not at work you will find her playing volleyball or exploring Tennessee and all it has to offer. Kaelyn is excited to expand her knowledge on restoration and grasslands of the Southeast.
Brody Englert, Lead Restoration Technician
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Brody serves as a Lead Field Technician for SGI. His love of the outdoors started from a young age, and has continued to grow throughout his life. Brody attended Georgia Southern University, acquiring his Bachelor’s degree in Outdoor Recreation Management in 2022. During that same year, he also spent a year in Montana with the AmeriCorps, developing a deeper love and appreciation of the land and that which inhabits it. After this, he returned to the Southeast, working in South Carolina as a Trail Crew Leader with the Palmetto Conservation Foundation. Now in Tennessee, he works with SGI to help restore our native grasslands.
Hailey Harper, VA Lead Restoration Technician
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Hailey originally graduated from APSU in 2021 with a B.S. in Biology. It was during her undergraduate where she found a love and passion for ecology and conservation work. Hailey initially worked with aquatic ecosystems and assisted part-time with a professor at APSU. During her last year at APSU, Hailey took a class with Dwayne and learned about SGI and the need for grassland conservation. After graduating, she did a variety of jobs including invasive species management and monitoring. Hailey is excited to be given this opportunity to learn more about grassland conservation and to be given the chance to be a part of the SGI family.
Matthew Trotter, Restoration Technician
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Born and raised in Clarksville, TN, Matthew is happy to contribute to protecting this area's natural history. In the past few years, Matthew has discovered an understanding of native plants and how important they are to the land. After spending a year studying and monitoring the native plant communities of the Southeast, he is now excited to restore native grasslands in our National Parks.
Chris Sczesny, Lead Restoration Technician
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Coming soon!
Jacob Keller, Restoration Technician
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Jacob serves SGI as a Field Technician based out of Clarksville, Tennessee. Jacob grew up in Marshall County, Tennessee, located within the Nashville Basin, where the farmland, the Duck River, the oak-hickory forests, and the cedar glades inspired in him a love for Tennessee’s land, natural history, native plants, and wildlife. He gained his first experience in habitat restoration while with the Natural Resource team of Murfreesboro Parks & Recreation. He graduated from MTSU with a degree in Plant and Soil Science, and during this time began to assist with prescribed burns, having learned its immense benefit to native habitats. Jacob is deeply grateful for this opportunity to be working towards conserving the incredible grasslands of the Southeast.
Ryan Stuart, M.S., Restoration Technician
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Ryan Stuart serves as a field technician on the National Parks Service Team. He served nine years in the Army before changing careers, obtaining his undergraduate degree in Biology, and his MS in Biology at Austin Peay State University. While at APSU, he investigated the influence of restored grasslands on mesocarnivores such as coyotes and bobcats. Along with restoration efforts, Ryan plays drums for his local church, and also enjoys many outdoor activities such as hiking, hunting, and kayaking.
Seasonal restoration technicians
Kian Murphy, Seasonal Restoration Technician
Jordan Bogorad, Seasonal Restoration Technician
Holly Spinden, Seasonal Restoration Technician
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Holly is one of the two seasonal technicians working on the Sinking Creek Farm restoration project in Roanoke, Virginia. Holly is originally from Fort Collins, Colorado, but gained her love of botany when she lived in Missouri for two years and was fascinated by the southeastern flora found there. She earned her bachelor’s degree in biology/botany at Colorado State University. She has since worked as the collections manager for the CSU herbarium and spent two seasons working for the Colorado Natural Heritage Program, monitoring wetlands in Wyoming and Colorado. Holly is new to Virginia but excited to be back in the southeast and to explore all it has to offer!
Samantha Underhill, Seasonal Restoration Technician
Jaron Sedlock, Seasonal Restoration Technician
Wren Klump, Seasonal Restoration Technician
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Wren is one of two Seasonal Field Technicians based in Roanoke, Virginia. Working alongside Alaina and other SGI staff on various projects. Wren earned an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science from Buena Vista University and she has since found a passion in Invasive species management and native restoration which was started by working alongside the San Juan River in Utah. Even with growing up in the south west, Wren has fallen in love with the mountains of the East. Her summer was spent working with the Mountain Lake Biological Station as an assistant to the Station Manager, which included improving historical trail systems and removing invasive plant species.