PRESIDENT

iNaturalist, Instagram

I’ve been running around in the woods since I was a kid, but it wasn’t until early 2017 that I discovered the wonders of mushroom hunting. I loved it so much that I did independent research on fungi phylogenetics as an undergrad and then a master’s student. I am grateful to have so many opportunities to share my experience with others. The woods is and always will be my happy place.

VICE PRESIDENT

I was first introduced to mushroom hunting as a teenager by my now wife, Samantha. We have spent countless spring days looking for morels since. This developed into an interest in finding more wild edibles and from there, a passion to learn all I could about the fungi world. Today, I serve as a moderator and admin on several mushroom-related pages through social media. In my spare time you will find me on a foray with my family or friends, identifying mushrooms on Facebook, or in front of my microscope. I am excited to share my knowledge and experience with the members of the Prairie States Mushroom Club.

SECRETARY (2024)

I was raised on a dairy farm in north-central Minnesota. While growing up, we hunted morels, and I knew about giant puffballs, but that was about all. I moved to Iowa in 1974 to work as an electronics engineering technician. After I joined PSMC in about 2006, my eyes were opened to the incredible variety of fungi in Iowa. Now I see them everywhere!

SECRETARY (2025)

I spent most of my childhood in the woods of my family’s North Iowa acreage.  An early childhood educator by trade, I only recently fell in love with mushrooms and now frequently visit the woods on adventures with my niece and nephew.  I love that my knew found knowledge has me seeing my favorite places in new ways and feel fortunate to pass it on to the next generation of fungi enthusiasts.

TREASURER

iowamushroom@gmail.com

My adult daughter took me on my first foray, hunting chanterelles in Oregon’s Coast Range in the fall of 2018. While I enjoyed it immensely, it was still a few more years before my fungal fascination took a firm hold. When it did though, it won me over completely. Nowadays I can think of nothing better than wandering the woods to see what discoveries might be waiting. It’s collecting for study I like best; the finding and documenting, then at home working the identification keys to learn exactly what I’ve found. When I was younger I was always drawn to science, but ended up going down a different career path. Mycology offers the opportunity to follow that road not taken, and with PSMC I get to do it in good company.

BOARD MEMBER AT-LARGE

During the COVID-19 quarantine period, I found myself taking longer and more frequent walks in the parks near my house, and I began to notice mushrooms of all shapes, sizes, and strangeness fruiting from the soil, mulch, and trunks of living and dead trees. I have not stopped seeing them, or seeking them out, since.

While I absolutely love hunting for mushrooms for hours on end, my second favorite mushroom-related activity is writing about them, be it poems and prose pieces inspired by mycology, Featured Fungus blogposts about the newest fungus that fascinates me, or articles for the PSMC newletter Symbiosis.