The Nominating Committee of the Houston Audubon Board of Directors recommends the following slate for election to the Board of Directors. Elections will be conducted at the membership meeting on May 10, 2018. Also, according to the By-Laws, nominations will be accepted from the floor.
Tracy Hester, Director. Tracy Hester teaches environmental law and statutory interpretation classes at the University of Houston Law Center, where he also directs environmental speaker activities and programs for its Environment, Energy and Natural Resource Center. Tracy previously worked as the partner in charge of the Houston environmental practice group at Bracewell LLP for over sixteen years. He recently completed serving five years on the governing Council for the American Bar Association’s Section on Environment, Energy & Resources, and he currently chairs its new Law Professors Committee. Tracy is also chairman of the Texas Environmental Research Consortium, which is a non-partisan coalition of government agencies, NGOs, medical institutions and corporations dedicated to supporting innovative basic atmospheric science affecting air pollution and identifying innovative strategies to improve air quality. Tracy currently serves as the vice-chair of the Greater Houston Partnership’s Environmental Policy Advisory Committee, and has previously chaired the Houston Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section. He was named Environmental Lawyer of the Year for Houston in 2011, elected to the American Law Institute in 2004, and named to the American College of Environmental Lawyers in 2016. In the American Association of Law Schools, he was elected in 2017 as Treasurer for its Environmental Law Section, and serves on the board of its Natural Resources Law Section.
Tracy has lectured extensively on environmental and energy law topics throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, India and Africa. He led a recent initiative within the American Law Institute to propose a Restatement for Environmental Law, and is working on a similar project within the American College of Environmental Lawyers. He served as the interim Director of the Submittal on Environmental Matters Unit for NAFTA’s Commission for Environmental Cooperation in Montreal during summer 2014, and joined the Environmental Law Institute as its Visiting Scholar in Residence in 2016. He has worked extensively on interface of emerging technologies and environmental law, including the governance of climate engineering techniques, nanoscale materials fabrication and distribution, genetic modification and synthetic biological scientific techniques, and advanced renewable energy technologies. He has also authored numerous law review articles, and he contributed to and co-edited Climate Engineering and the Law with Michael Gerrard in 2018, and The Nanotechnology Deskbook with Lynn Bergeson in 2008.
Tracy graduated from Columbia University School of Law with a J.D. in 1986, and received his B.A. degree with high honors (Phi Beta Kappa) in the Plan II liberal arts honors program at the University of Texas in Austin in 1983.
Brad Moore, Director. Brad is a native Houstonian and has a lifelong love for the American outdoors. Between his financial controllership positions with Mellon Bank, Accenture, and Hewlett-Packard, he embarked on summer long cross-country camping trips to Alaska and Maine. For the past ten years Brad has been a co-owner of Morgan Moore Construction, which serves the residential custom home and renovation needs of west Houston’s Memorial/Energy Corridor communities. His academic studies include degrees with the University of Texas (BA Economics) and the University of Reading, United Kingdom (MA International Business History). Birding is a natural extension of his appreciation of nature and wildlife. He values time outdoors with his wife and 2 daughters and looks forward to his family’s annual Birdathon team, the Edith Moore Eagles. Brad is enthusiastic about supporting the Houston Audubon Society’s many ongoing and future efforts to fulfill its mission and vision.
Loy Sneary, Director. Loy is currently President and CEO of both Sneary and Associates and Gulf Coast Green Energy, a provider of fuel and emission free generators to the O&G industry and others in the U.S and Caribbean.
Loy also raises cattle in Matagorda County and his kids are 4th generation Matagorda County ranchers. Loy first became involved with Houston Audubon on a water quality research project in his Rice fields. He later coordinated the formation of an organization where Texas landowners and conservationists are developing sound stewardship practices for enhanced bird and wildlife habitat and more profit. He has also redesigned his cattle grazing practices to build soil health and increase plant diversity which creates better bird and other wildlife habitat while sequestering more carbon and reducing rain runoff and flooding of streams and estuaries.
Loy is an Eagle Scout and graduated from Texas A&M University and former County Judge. He served his county as an officer in the United States Navy for six years. He lives in Bay City, Texas, and he and his wife, Helen, have two children and four grandsons.
Greg Whittaker, Director and Galveston Group Representative. Greg Whittaker grew up on the family farm in upstate New York, inheriting a stewardship for nature and a lifelong appreciation for biodiversity and the wonders of water. Texas A&M University brought him to Galveston in 1985, which immediately became home. His professional animal care career began in 1988 at Sea Arama-Marineworld and progressed through his current role as Animal Husbandry Manager at Moody Gardens with stops along the way in Japan, China and the Philippines. Since 2002, he has overseen animal care operations for a diverse collection of more than 600 species ranging from invertebrates through mammals in the tropical Rainforest and marine Aquarium biomes. He worked with Galveston Island Nature Tourism Council to establish a series of beginning birding classes hosted by Moody Gardens in 2003 and has led countless classes and trips since then. He served as a liaison and Moody Gardens host for the Galveston County Audubon Group’s meetings after Hurricane Ike damaged the Rosenberg Library facilities in 2008. He assumed the position of chair for GCAG in 2012. He has participated as a trip leader in FeatherFest since 2014 and serves on the GINTC board since 2016.
Renewing their Terms
Stanley (Skip) Almoney, Director. Skip was born and raised in York, Pennsylvania and educated at Lowell Technological Institute and Lehigh University. In 1970 upon receiving his PhD in Nuclear Physics he came to Houston to work as a geophysicist for Texaco in Bellaire. During the next 31 years he worked in a variety of petroleum exploration positions for Texaco including over ten years in international exploration. He took early retirement after the merger between Chevron and Texaco and has spent his retirement time with various volunteer endeavors. He began bird watching in the summer of 1993 before being transferred to Indonesia for a year. When he returned to Houston he joined the Ornithology Group of the Outdoor Nature Club and has served that organization as Vice-Chairman and Chairman. He is a certified Texas Master Naturalist and as a member of the Houston Audubon Society has served on the Board of Directors and worked as a volunteer on workdays at High Island and Bolivar Flats, as a mentor at the Boy Scout Woods rookery, and as a goods salesman at High Island. He has lead birding trips throughout Texas for both Houston Audubon and The Ornithology Group. He has birded on all continents. In 20104, he cofounded Friends of Mandell Park and over ten years raised over $1 million to rebuild Mandell Park into a beautiful city park that includes Meredith Gardens.
Nigel Curlet, Director. Nigel has lived in Houston for over 35 years. A Chemical Engineer, he worked for Shell Oil in a number of roles in the downstream businesses and retired in 2006. After joining the board of the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center in 2006, he became interested in birding and more specifically bird photography and spent hours photographing a pair of nesting Cooper's Hawks at the Arboretum. Over the past six years, Nigel and his wife Cherry have enjoyed their many visits to the Houston Audubon sanctuaries on the Gulf Coast. Nigel continues to serve on the Executive Committee of the Houston Arboretum. He looks forward to contributing to the Houston Audubon Society.
