IFS Board of Trustees

James Baltz

James is currently a marketing student at Southern Illinois University and holds an Associate’s Degree of Arts from Lewis and Clark Community College, where he also played baseball. Outside of school, he is the owner of the Digital Marketing Agency, JB Media. James has expertise in digital advertising, social media management, website design, and has serviced these skills to businesses across the United States. His love for the outdoors runs deep. He’s climbed mountains in Colorado and kayaked around Andros. With his father, Michael Baltz, being the director of the Forfar Field Station from 88’-89’ and his mother, Monique Frazier, being from Andros, his passion for IFS and The Bahamas, literally runs through his veins.

James serves on the board to share his love and knowledge for marketing and to follow the footsteps of his father who once served as a member of the IFS team.

Justin Bezner

Justin Bezner is a Risk Management and Safety professional holding the Associate Risk Manager (ARM) designation and also the Board Certified Safety Professional certification.  He has worked in the Life Science space his entire career spanning more than two decades.  Additionally, Justin holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Tyler and an undergraduate degree in Chemistry from Sam Houston State University. Justin has held a number of esteemed positions including serving as an advisory board member for the Texas A&M School of Public Health and various other board positions for the Risk and Insurance Management Society’s Central Texas Chapter. Currently Justin serves as the Director, Risk Management for four affiliated corporations in Austin Texas; We Are Blood, (a blood bank serving an 11 county region), United Tissue Resources, Travis County Medical Society and Project Access.

Justin serves the IFS board to share his passion for risk management and to honor the legacy of his grandmother who served the Amarillo Botanical Gardens for 50 years. 

Dr. Jeff Fowler

Jeffrey Fowler, MD, is a professor of Gynecologic Oncology at The James Cancer Hospital and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. He is a member of a large group of physicians, scientists and nurses who provide state of the art surgical and medical care for women diagnosed with cancer of the reproductive organs. Their group is also a leader in clinical trials, research, and advanced resident and fellowship training in the field of gynecologic oncology. Dr. Fowler is the Medical Director of the Robotic Surgery Program and recently served as president of the Society of Gynecologic Oncology, on the Board of Governors for the American College of Surgeons and on the Division of Gynecologic Oncology for the American board of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Dr. Fowler was introduced to Andros Island after his oldest daughter participated in the marine science program through IFS while she was in high school. Since then he has made over 20 trips to Andros to pursue his passion of Bonefishing. During these visits, he has gained a great appreciation for the people of Andros Island and for the unique marine ecosystem.

Chitra Kusnadi

Chitra Kusnadi is a Director of Manufacturing at Nestle USA in Freehold, NJ where she manages a factory that produces soluble coffee (Nescafe Clasico & Nescafe Taster Choice). She is responsible for the overall factory management. This includes the health and safety of the employees, the efficiency of the manufacturing process, and the products’ quality requirements while staying within the annual operational budget. Prior to this role, she has about ten years of experience in process engineering, research and development, project management, and industrialization project. Chitra is a graduate of The Ohio State University, Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Science in Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering. She also holds a MBA from Franklin University and is a certified Project Manager.

Chitra serves on the board to share her passion and knowledge for operation, process flow, business development, and fundraising. She hopes to utilize these to grow IFS. Chitra believes in preserving biodiversity as our responsibility to the next generation.

Elizebeth Maag

Liz is Senior Legal Counsel at Aware, where she is responsible for supporting the Sales team and any contracting issues, along with whatever else comes up. Prior to this role, she spent time at the State Attorney General's Office in the Antitrust division, as General Counsel of a Healthcare start-up, as patent counsel at Honda and as an associate at McNees Wallace and Nurick. Liz is a graduate of Capital University Law School with a J.D. and The Ohio State University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.

Vivienne Main

Vivienne Main is a marine biologist and educator with experience in global environmental non-profit organizations, research and field management. She served as the Field Station Director at Forfar from 2017-2019, held an office position with IFS as a program coordinator and taught the IFS "Intro to Marine Ecosystems” online classes. Her previous roles have varied from SCUBA dive instructor to Project Manager. In her current role as a research associate at Florida Oceanographic Society she is involved in coastal ecosystem monitoring and restoration, specifically focusing on water quality, seagrass systems and citizen science outreach. She is a graduate of the University of Glasgow, Scotland with a Masters of Science in Marine and Freshwater Biology.

Vivienne shares her passion for science and education and utilizes her personal knowledge of Forfar Field Station and Andros island to serve the board.

Jamie Musacchio

Jamie Musacchio shares her human resource expertise with IFS. Jamie is highly experienced in international, multi-state and corporate human resource management within different industries spanning from industrial manufacturing to advertising. She received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a specialization in Human Resources from The Ohio State University and is certified in labor relations and organizational development frameworks. Currently, Jamie serves as Director of Human Resources for Syneos Health Communications and dedicates time outside of the office to enjoyment and conservation of nature. She and her husband are members of Wild Ones Columbus and aspire to help educate others and work to preserve biodiversity by focusing on native plants on their property. Along with their son, they enjoy learning about the environment, conservation and volunteering within the community for initiatives such as Delaware County Friends of the Trail and the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

Jamie’s passion for HR stems from seeing the work she does make an impact on the world through the amazing efforts of those she supports. She joined the Board to extend this impact beyond healthcare advertising into environmental appreciation, education, and conservation through the work of the multi- talented IFS staff and program participants.

Sam Shim

Sam Shim serves on the Worthington City Schools Board of Education. He was elected into office in 2013, and is the first Asian-American in Franklin County, and in Columbus, Ohio, to serve as an elected official.

Sam was born in South Korea. His family immigrated to New York City, where he attended the city’s public schools, graduating from the prestigious Stuyvesant High School. Sam attended college at The Ohio State University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in Computer and Information Science, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA). He continues to stay involved with his alma mater. Sam founded The Ohio State University Asian & Pacific Islander Alumni Society in 2016, and volunteers for various committees.

During his career, Sam has worked for a number of leading technology companies, such as the Internet pioneer CompuServe, and telecommunications innovator Lucent Technologies. He has traveled extensively in the United States and abroad to maintain international business relationships.

Robert Singletary

Robert Singletary has been on the IFS Board since 2009 and has served two terms as Board Treasurer and one term as Board Secretary. Robert, his wife Sharon, and sons Ben and Andy have made many trips to Forfar and love IFS. Robert is a CPA who graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill (Mathematical Sciences/Statistics) and has worked in public accounting and non-profit accounting in both Ohio and North Carolina. His hobbies include traveling, biking and kayaking. Robert is also a sports enthusiast, and he worked as a sports writer for the Raleigh, NC News and Observer for 24 years before moving to Ohio.

Robert joined the Board due to his love of the Andros Bahamas people and the IFS mission and because his daughter Jenny worked as a field intern.

Lakshmi Davar, Advisory Member

Deegee Wilhelm, Advisory Member