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Who We Are

CanopyBloomington is a social impact organization created to maximize Bloomington's tree canopy and sustainably manage Bloomington's urban forest for trees' many environmental, health, economic, and social benefits, with a focus on tree equity and community engagement.

Why We Care

Trees improve our quality of life in numerous, diverse, and important ways! It is critical that we plant more trees where they're lacking, help those trees survive and grow into mature trees that provide real benefits as canopy and carbon sinks, diversify our tree species so that a single disease can't destroy our urban forest, and engage and educate homeowners and citizens on how to properly care for their trees. Without a long term vision and investment in our urban forest, we will see this vital resource and our quality of life in Bloomington disintegrate. We must start now, for the benefit of current and future generations.

Canopy's Mission

Our mission is to engage the Bloomington community in planting and caring for our urban forest together, in order to build a resilient and equitably green city for all. 

Canopy's Vision

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Core Values

We envision a well-connected and informed community where we all get to reap the economic, health, and ecological benefits of trees!  We do this by working together as neighbors to steward Bloomington’s urban forests and other green infrastructure. We imagine a resilient and equitable urban forest created by everyone for everyone.

 Community and Cooperation  Inspire, educate, empower, and employ the community toward our common goals, working with all stakeholders for the benefit of Bloomington and our urban forest.


 Equity and Inclusion  Ensure communities that need greening the most are prioritized and have equitable access to opportunities and resources; support youth and those in need with job opportunities.


 Environmental Sustainability  Promote the stewardship and management of a resilient and sustainably-structured urban forest to yield a highly functional urban ecosystem now and into the future.


 Public Health and Happiness  Facilitate improved physical and mental health of residents and increase community capacity by building a greener city through community engagement.


 Science and Creativity  Dedicated to transparent, data-driven decision-making integrated with creative and inspirational initiatives that celebrate and communicate our green goals.

Staff

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AVA HARTMAN

Forestry and Administrative Director

Ava Hartman graduated from the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs and the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University with a BA in Environmental Sustainability and Biology in 2023. She serves as the McKinney Climate Fellow Project and Outreach Coordinator for the Environmental Resilience Institute where she assists with partner outreach and student recruitment. She now serves as the Forestry and Administrative Director for CanopyBloomington, where she organizes tree plantings for the fall and spring and leads the Youth Tree Tender program in the summer.

Board of Directors

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PHILIPPA GUTHRIE

President

Philippa has experience in business, as an environmental attorney, and as General Counsel at the Indiana University Foundation. In 2016, she joined the City of Bloomington as Corporation Counsel. Philippa has served on the Bloomington Growth Policies Plan Steering Committee and the Environmental Commission, Volunteers in Medicine of Monroe and Owen Counties (now HealthNet), and Centerstone, Inc., and is currently a board member of Cardinal Stage Company. She was born and raised in Green Bay, WI where she was a girl scout and first developed her love for the outdoors, particularly trees.  She has an A.B. in History from Dartmouth College, a JD from the IU Maurer School of Law and an MPA in Environmental Policy from the O’Neill School at Indiana University-Bloomington.

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SARAH MINCEY

Co-founder, Vice President

Sarah Mincey is a social-ecological systems scientist who studies community-based natural resource management and environmental governance, with particular emphasis on urban forest management. In her current role as faculty at the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University (IU), she serves as the director for the Integrated Program in the Environment, administrative director for the IU Research and Teaching Preserve, and managing director of the Environmental Resilience Institute. She maintains much of her research activity through her affiliation as research associate with the Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis.

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ROBERT KENDALL

Community Forestry Committee Chair

Rob Kendall is a 2018 IU graduate currently working in the ecological restoration field. As an ecological restorationist at Eco Logic LLC, he removes invasive species within urban and rural settings as well as creates areas for native plants, including trees. Robert aims to positively increase his impact on the environment by contributing his experience within the environmental field and urban forestry to CanopyBloomington.

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JULIE ROBERTS

Education and Outreach Committee Chair

Julie Roberts believes Nature is the ultimate tech genius and that we are lost as a species unless we harness the Power of Trees. She sees a peoples’ movement of Suburban & Urban Victory Forests to cool our cities and homes, channel and harness our massive rainfalls, and surround ourselves with the beauty of Nature that everyone deserves. 

 

Julie served 16 years on the Utilities Service Board overseeing Bloomington’s stormwater, drinking water and sewer systems. She had a brief career in advertising followed by 20 years as an educator and 10 years running the Ivy Tech Waldron art galleries.

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Hannah Gregory

Board Member

Hannah Gregory graduated from the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University with a BS in Environmental Science in 2019. She’s the former Forestry Director of CanopyBloomington. Hannah previously served as a Tree and GIS Technician for IU’s Landscape Services where she facilitated the second and third comprehensive tree inventory of IU’s campus and the subsequent analysis and development of a tree health care plan. She is a research associate with the Environmental Resilience Institute, where she assisted in processing and analyzing statewide urban tree inventories, provided technical assistance to the McKinney Climate Fellow program, and curated the Indiana Green City Mapper platform. Hannah is an ISA certified arborist and sits on the City of Bloomington’s Commission on Sustainability. She currently works for urban forestry consulting and software development firm PlanIT Geo as a GIS and Natural Resource specialist.

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MARCELLA HUGHES

Secretary, Treasurer, Marketing and Communications Committee Chair

Marcella is a tree-hugging artist who makes books, folds paper, paints, and practices slow-stitching. She worked at IU for 15 years in the School of Art, Architecture + Design, but since the pandemic, she has been a stay at home mom & artist. A lifelong love of trees, forests, hiking, and camping has motivated her to work with CanopyBloomington so that others might learn how much richer and healthier trees make our lives here in Bloomington.

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JERAD OREN

Board Member

After leaving a career in Public Service, Jerad spent 2 years working in the western mountain states. He has experience in woodland fire, forest management and tree planting after fire and logging operations. Upon returning to Indiana he brought what he learned to start a tree business with an effort to do things differently. He enjoys working with others who are passionate about our relationship with trees within our community.  

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BURNELL FISCHER

Board Member

Clinical Professor Emeritus at IUB O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA).  Senior Research Fellow at The Vincent and Elinor Ostrom Workshop where he was the former Co-Director and Interim Director (2012-14).  He continues to lead the Bloomington Urban Forestry Research Group (BUFRG) (https://urbanforestry.indiana.edu/). He was the State Forester/Director of the Indiana Division of Forestry (1990-2005) and formerly a Professor of Forestry at both Purdue University and University of Massachusetts-Amherst.  He has received numerous awards and honors including the 2013 Frederick Law Olmsted Award by the Arbor Day Foundation.   Burney received BSF, MSF and PhD degrees from Purdue University (1969, 71, 74).  While at O’Neill Dr. Fischer developed courses in Urban Forest Management and Urban Ecology. Burney’s interest in Bloomington’s urban forest began in earnest in 2006-07 when is assembled a SPEA student team to conduct a re-inventory of the city’s pubic street trees for the City Forester.  Subsequent BUFRG projects updated portions of the inventory.  The city’s urban forestry program became a regular component of the Urban Forest Management course with class field trips, student team projects evaluating specific neighborhoods, etc.  A current on-going research project led by BUFRG researcher and PhD student Stephanie Freeman-Day is examining Bloomington’s urban forest patches over time as a social-ecological system. 

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MATT BALDWIN

Board Member

Matt has been practicing arboriculture for over 20 years as an ISA Certified Arborist. He is passionate about learning and educating others about trees. He is also dedicated to working with other professionals to change the way we care for trees. While Matt enjoys planting and training young trees, he especially loves working to preserve mature or heritage trees. Matt lives out in the middle of no where with his wife and six children where they get to enjoy all the beauty and benefits of being surrounded by the forest.

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JODI BAKER

Board Member

Jodi Baker is the digital content manager at The Media School at Indiana University. Prior to joining IU, she spent five years at the Monroe County YMCA as the marketing and communications director and held various roles on the marketing team at Author Solutions for eight years. She brings extensive experience creating marketing strategies to help inform the community about CanopyBloomington’s initiatives. She moved to the Bloomington area in 2004 and earned a B.A. in Journalism from Indiana University. During the weekends, you’ll probably find her hiking with her husband and dog in one of the forests surrounding Bloomington.

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DOUGLAS SANDERS

Board Member

Douglas Sanders has spent his career as a Paper Conservator, preserving our collective written and documentary heritage for future generations. He sees similar contemporary themes with the preservation and restoration of our natural world.

 

Doug is a certified Indiana Master Naturalist and actively takes part in citizen scientist and volunteer opportunities around Bloomington and Monroe County, to invest in the wealth of our natural world. He enjoys nothing more than spending free time working outside in his garden, hiking and camping in local parks with a field guide in hand, and bicycling throughout southern Indiana.

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DAVID ST. JOHN

Board Member

David has been an active member of the Bloomington community for over 30 years. He has served numerous organizations in a volunteer capacity including the Boys & Girls Club of Bloomington, the YMCA of Monroe County, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Hoosiers Outrun Cancer, and Habitat for Humanity.  He was appointed by the Governor to Chair the Region 8 Workforce Board to partner with for-profit, non-profit, and educational organizations to develop training pipelines preparing area Hoosiers for high-demand jobs.  In 2017 he received the Workforce Development Award from the Greater Bloomington Chamber of Commerce. David has worked at Cook Medical in Bloomington for over 30 years in Leadership roles in Product Development, HR, and IT. He has a BS in engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from UCLA. He has enjoyed replacing and maintaining over a dozen aged-out trees in his yard, including a Kentucky Coffeetree planted by Canopy at their first neighborhood planting.

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Regan Mangrum

Board Member

Regan Mangrum graduated from the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University with a BS in Environmental Science in 2023. Currently, Regan is in the MPA-MSES dual degree program at O'Neill with a concentration in Ecology and Conservation. She serves as the graduate assistant for the Integrated Program in the Environment (IPE) where she manages the social media accounts, assists the BSES and BAESS curriculum committees, and volunteers at the Research and Teaching Preserve (RTP). 

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Angela Van Rooy

Board Member

Angela works as the Neighborhood Services Program Manager for the City of Bloomington department of Housing and Neighborhood Development (HAND). In that capacity, she helps neighborhood residents improve their neighborhoods through community building and through physical improvement projects. Last year, her own Bloomington neighborhood was the recipient of nearly 20 Canopy trees, and she discovered firsthand how tree planting can bring neighbors together in meaningful ways. After many years of moving around–from coast to coast and overseas–Angela and her family settled in Bloomington about a dozen years ago. She is proud to call Bloomington home, and is excited to work with CanopyBloomington to have a lasting impact on the community she loves.

Former Board Members

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Sheryl Woodhouse

Co-founder

Sheryl Woodhouse, is a business growth consultant with 25 years’ experience starting and growing creative, mission-driven businesses. Before co-founding Canopy Bloomington, she founded Twisted Limb Paperworks, a recycled paper and invitation company at the start of the green products movement and served as COO of Rock Paper Scissors PR firm. While she considered Bloomington home for many years, she now lives in downtown Cincinnati, where she loves urban hiking, salsa dancing, and hopes to plant some trees!

Leadership Launch Supporters

Launch Supporters

Anonymous Donor-Advised Component Fund of the Community Foundation of Bloomington & Monroe County

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David & Kathryn Mincey

Sarah Mincey

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James Capshew

Burney and Barb Fischer

Philippa Guthrie

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Jeff & Legene White

Sheryl Woodhouse

Sky Adams

Andrews Family

Mary Claire Bassett

Marcia Veldman & Bryan Berkly

Emily Chester

Amy Countryman & Jeff Mansfield

Sybil Eakin

Nancy Fribley

Eric Fritz

Coley Gillespie

Alejandro Gomez-Pamplona

Joel Grant & Erin Duff

D. Granger

Jeff Greene

Michael & Stephanie Gregory

Erin Hatch & Daniel Ishmael

Gail Hatch

Erin Hollinden

Marcella Hughes & James Russell

Sue Hughes

Heather Jones

Rob Kendall

Lara Kriegel

Lawrence Kulish

Autumn Lewis

Allegra Mautner

Jeff Mease

Wayne & Cindy Mincey

Laura Mojonnier

Darlene Noesen​

Oiko

Gwen Pickett

Andrew Predmore

Matt & Jennifer Prusa

Kori Renn

Patricia Russo

Drew Schrader

Kelli Shannon

Tina & Tony Somes

Robert D. Specht

Veda Stanfield

Mia Williams

Sharon Woodhouse

Ken & Pat Woodhouse

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Sponsors & Grantors

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Duke Energy Foundation

The Duke Energy Foundation is proud to power the vitality of their communities through philanthropy focused on vibrant economies; climate resiliency; and justice, equity and inclusion.

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Limestone Post Magazine

Limestone Post Magazine is the flagship publication of Limestone Media, Inc., an independent, nonprofit organization created to better inform all residents in Bloomington and the surrounding communities about their vital interests and concerns. Limestone Post publishes inclusive stories covering a range of topics, and since they became a nonprofit in 2019, their focus has shifted even more to solutions-based journalism to show how people and organizations are responding to issues in their communities.

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Ivy Tech Community College

Ivy Tech Community College is the largest singly-accredited community college in the country, with classes available in 75+ communities across the Indiana, including in Bloomington! Ivy Tech has 70+ academic programs and tuition-free certification programs, and prides themselves on meeting students where they are and giving them the resources and flexibility they need to succeed.

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rockpaperscissors

rock paper scissors, inc. is a music tech PR firm composed of a diverse team of communicators, creatives, and business minds based in Bloomington, IN.

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Oiko

Oiko is a full service, residential, ecological restoration company serving landowners in southern and central Indiana specializing in native plant restorations, invasive plant management, and green infrastructure projects.

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Smithville Charitable Foundation

The Smithville Charitable Foundation has been serving central and southern Indiana since 2007, and is excited to continue making a difference in their communities through annual grant-making.

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Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County

The Community Foundation of Bloomington and Monroe County brings together individuals, families, and businesses who care deeply about Monroe County and supports important causes, resources, and community initiatives for the betterment of the county's future. They offer grant funding, collaboration opportunities, and advice for innovative ideas and people that will have a lasting impact in Monroe County.

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Bluestone Tree

Low-impact and efficient tree care service in Bloomington, Indiana with seven ISA Certified Arborists on staff.

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Trees PLE.

Trees PLE, Inc. is a tree care company that takes a comprehensive approach to project management, Plant Health Care, consulting and tree preservation.

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Eco Logic LLC

Eco Logic LLC is an ecological restoration and green infrastructure firm founded in Bloomington Indiana in 1999. We work with clients focused on restoring natural areas and improving the sustainability of our urban environment. We bring over 20 years of experience to every project from assessment and planning through to implementation and long-term management.

Become a CanopyBloomington sponsor!

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