The Mt. Lebanon Nature Conservancy Board is currently composed of volunteer members who organize and attend all our events. All are unpaid volunteers and serve for three year terms.
If you would like to become a part of the Board, please contact us at lebonature@gmail.com.
sarada Sangameswaran - president
Sarada moved to Mt Lebanon with her family in 2016, and immediately fell in love with this community, with its walkable schools and tree lined streets. She holds a Masters in Ecology, and has worked in environmental consulting as well as environmental education. Most recently, she was Education Director at Pittsburgh Botanic Garden, where she developed and taught hands-on programs for all ages and helped design interactive exhibits and spaces. She is passionate about increasing access to nature for everyone, especially for young people.
RON BLOCK - Vice president of projects
Ron and his wife Maritza moved to Mt Lebanon in 1998 and raised 2 daughters. He earned a Master’s Degree in Landscape Design from Chatham University in 2006, and joined the Conservancy Board that year. He has also served on the Mt Lebanon Historic Preservation Board and is currently serving his second term on the Parks Advisory Board. As the Conservancy’s project coordinator, he has assisted nearly 40 Boy and Girl Scouts in achieving their Eagle Rankings and Silver Awards with projects in the parks including trails, stairs, and bridges, making the parks more useful for all. He might be the first person to walk all of the parks’ trails while pushing a wheelbarrow.
Sarah Levinthal - vp programs
Sarah is a stay at home mom with three active kids. She is a PA Master Naturalist and keeps up this credential by volunteering in the community and participating in continuing education. A Mt Lebanon native, Sarah attended Allegheny College and majored in Psychology and then earned her MSW at the University of Michigan. Within the Mt Lebanon Nature Conservancy, she co-coordinates School in the Park. She and her family can often be seen outside, especially in our local parks and on our trails.
trina brown - treasurer
Trina has been an avid gardener since her first pack of morning glory seeds at age 10. When she and her wife and daughter moved into their Mt. Lebanon home in 2016 their first priority was to transform their back yard from a sparse lawn and dead shrubs into a garden oasis. Soon after, Trina became passionate about native plants. In just over a year she converted over 1,800 square feet of turf grass to native gardens and added over 500 native plants and documents this process on Instagram and Facebook via The Allegheny Understory. Her goal is to spread awareness of the need to support native wildlife by creating native habitat in our yards, our parks, and our public spaces. She incorporates this goal in her professional life as a Certified Financial Planner(R) practitioner by specializing in Sustainable and Responsible Investing. She holds masters degrees from Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh, and Ohio University,
angie phares - secretary
Angie has lived in Mt. Lebanon since 2010 and has been involved with the MTL Nature Conservancy since her arrival. You’ll usually find her knee deep in bittersweet or walking her dogs in the parks. As a kid, Angie always gravitated toward the natural spaces, especially wooded areas and still find her ‘reset’ on the trails. In real life, Angie works part time at the VA as part of a research team investigating the impact of lifestyle changes on chronic disease. Her background is as a physician assistant, health coach and yoga instructor. She has one wonderful husband, two fantastic adult children and two high energy dogs.
Alexis Smith
Lex has been a Mt Lebanon resident for most of her life. She grew up here, spent two years in the Peace Corps working as an educator and learning about many agricultural practices and methods. She returned home with a passion for the outdoors- and moved back to Mt. Lebanon where she resides with her husband and three young children. Her passions include hiking all of the trails with her kids (Bird park is a favorite!!), gardening, and community volunteering.
Moira Aulbach
Moira moved to Mt. Lebanon in 2007 from the North Hills and has been volunteering with various environmental and human services organizations for many years. Moira earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Dayton and a Masters in Public Management from Carnegie Mellon University. She spends a lot of her time running, walking, biking, gardening and hiking in the woods with friends, family and her dog, Jodi. In 2019, she received her Master Gardener certification from Phipps and was able to channel her love of plants and the outdoors in a positive way. She is married to Ron and has one son.
cheryl mayhew
After bouncing around the South and Midwest, Cheryl landed in Mt Lebanon in 2001 when her job transfer took her from sales into Software Development. Growing up in a family where everyone had vegetable gardens and flowers in the yard, and a godfather who was a horticulturalist and greenhouse owner, plants have always been part of her life. Having spent years with her (now teenage) son and husband and their dogs in Mt Lebanon parks, this seemed like a great way to give back to the areas that she has loved so much. She looks forward to doing the work that will keep these beautiful spaces updated and accessible to all.
Stephanie Bonifield
Stephanie is a science and technology writer with a passion for the outdoors. A lifelong Pittsburgh resident, she moved to Mt. Lebanon in 2022 and soon after started volunteering with the MNLC. Stephanie earned a degree in Communication Arts from Grove City College in 2021. She previously volunteered as a Student Space Ambassador for The Mars Generation and now spends her time writing, hiking, and sharing her love for nature and Mt. Lebanon's parks.
Laura flannery
Laura was born and raised in Ireland. She has always been a lover of nature, wildlife and the outdoors. She spent much of her youth camping, boating, fishing and hiking, as well as gardening on a family plot on the West Cork coastline. She still enjoys many of the same pursuits today, including vegetable gardening and expanding her cottage garden with a mix of roses, annuals, native perennials & edible plants. She earned a BSc Computer Science in UCC. She and her husband Chris welcomed their first child while living in Germany, their second in New Jersey and their third in Pittsburgh. She can regularly be found walking the trails of our suburban woodlands with her family, friends & dog Bailey.
elizabeth franco
Elizabeth was born in Colombia, South America and moved to the US at the age of 7. She grew up in the crowded streets of NYC where nature isn’t the adjacent neighbor people run into every day. In 2018, in search of a quieter place she and her husband decided to move to Pittsburgh with their daughter and puppy Fox. Since then, she’s embarked on a journey in which nature became not only her neighbor, but her most desired place to visit, admire and respect. Elizabeth works as a consultant in sustainability and spends her free time gardening in the backyard of the house in which she and her family live. She nurtures this space as a cohabitant to all other species that ultimately live on it and own it; cute rabbits, curious squirrels, a hungry groundhog her family named Gloton (for glutton), beautiful birds, a timid cat, and her favorite, nimble chipmunks are among the many, and other smaller species she cannot see or hear, but know they are out there doing their part in this tiny ecosystem.
elaine kramer
Elaine Kramer is a certified community planner who believes parks and green space are essential elements of any community's infrastructure. She earned a journalism degree from Northwestern University in 1979 and a Master of Landscape Architecture from Chatham University. Since completing this middle-age career change degree in 2014, she has worked in landscape design, park planning and design, and community planning at Pashek+MTR, a North Side consulting and professional services firm. Elaine has lived in Mt. Lebanon since 2004.She has volunteered with CASA (court appointed special advocates), as a writing coach at Jefferson Middle School, and as a member of the municipal Parks Advisory Board.
samantha pavlick
Samantha was born and raised in western Pennsylvania and has lived in Mount Lebanon since 2004. She enjoys spending time in Mount Lebanon's green spaces and loves exploring the abundant natural beauty of western Pennsylvania . She has a background in nursing and encourages her patients to spend as much time outdoors as possible. Samantha has helped teach about streams with School in the Park. Her interests include native plants and herb gardening.
Sandy moorhead
Sandy moved to Woodhaven Drive in 2007 with her husband Bill (a lifelong Mt. Lebanon resident) and three wonderful step-children. After college at W&J, Sandy became an entrepreneur and owned and managed a successful health and racquet club. Sandy comes from a family of farmers (spending her summers growing up on the farm) which instilled in her a deep respect and appreciation for our green spaces and an understanding of the stewardship and hard work required to preserve and enhance them. Sandy credits her mother and mentor for her profound love of gardening and the outdoors. Sandy can often be spotted walking the neighborhood with Bill and their dog, Evie, admiring her neighbors’ beautiful gardens or digging in her own flower beds at home.
elizabeth mick
Elizabeth grew up in Ligonier and never took for granted the amenities lovingly cared for by a conservancy similar to the MLNC. She spent most of her childhood outside with her brothers – biking, cross country skiing, and playing tennis. Now, Elizabeth and her husband Ryan are experiencing childhood again through the eyes of their two young daughters, this time in a more suburban setting. Elizabeth joins us from the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, where she uses her professional writing background to craft donor newsletters and fundraising appeals. She is an amateur gardener, a frequent park picnicker, and an advocate for community building.
kim yetter
Kim has called Mt. Lebanon home since 2013. She and her husband were drawn to the beautiful parks, outdoor spaces, and walkability. Kim has many cherished memories of exploring our local woodlands with her two young boys. These days, she can often be found walking her dog in Twin Hills or Bird Park. A true outdoor enthusiast, Kim loves hiking, biking, and immersing herself in nature, making it a family tradition to visit a different National Park each year. With a professional background in education, she has worked as both a teacher and a school administrator. Currently, Kim serves as the Education Coordinator for The Mentoring Partnership of SWPA.
Tom Schevtchuk
Tom Schevtchuk has served on the MLNC board in a variety of capacities since 2004. Originally from Indiana by way of New Jersey; he has lived in Mt. Lebanon for 20+ years. His academic training is in history, environmental studies and public finance. Tom’s day job is as a municipal consultant focusing on water and wastewater finance for a large environmental engineering firm. Tom is married to Kimberly who has also been active in the community in environmental issues. Their son is a mechanical engineer in aerospace in California. All are suckers for stray cats and dogs; the dogs being great motivators to enjoy Mt. Lebanon’s excellent passive use parks.
meera bodnar - Junior board member
Meera is a junior at Mt. Lebanon High School with plans to study art and english in college. She plans on becoming an english teacher and loves to educate and work with others along with creating works of writing and art centered around nature. This summer, Meera spent two months working as a counselor in training at Camp Kon O Kwee where her love for working with kids and being in nature grew. She plans to return next year as a full time counselor to further the bonds she's made and deepen her love for the outdoors that she's had since she first went to camp as a kid. Meera looks forward to seeing a new perspective of Mt. Lebanon's parks and forests and bettering her community through the love for nature.
Clara Druckenbrod - junior board member
Clara is a junior in Mt. Lebanon with a passion for biology and exploring nature. Most of her interest began as a child in the woods of her grandparents’ farm and spread through many hikes, camping trips, and science courses throughout her life. Environmental science is something that Clara wishes to pursue in her future and she hopes she can learn the most she can. Having previously volunteered with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Clara is very excited for her term as a junior board member and to see what the year brings for the Mt. Lebanon conservancy!