Our Board of Directors
The Foundation was chartered initially by Tony Kotz, Robert Beltran and Ted Limpert. Tony (since deceased) and Bob were very involved with the Eastern Lake Ontario Dune Coalition, where they saw the need for an organization that could help fund some of the smaller projects the Coalition conceived to promote dune protection. Our current board consists of individuals with a wide range of professional skills. All are committed to preserving the dunes.
Connie Ehindero - President
Connie has a life long interest in dune preservation in the area and is a landowner on the North Sandy Pond peninsula. She worked in the field of Advertising Agencies as a Print Production Manager for 35 years and was member of the Board of Directors of the Genesee Land Trust in Rochester, NY for 15 years. She is also a landscape painter and birdwatcher. She received a B.F.A from St Lawrence University and London College of Printing. She was a member of the North Pond Resiliency Committee formed in 2017. In 2020 she started the North Sandy Pond Peninsula Landowners Association. Currently she represents the Foundation at the Eastern Lake Ontario Dune Coalition.
Patricia Schulenburg
Patricia received her B.A. in English and Psychology in 2005 from University at Buffalo. After many years in the social services field working with people with autism spectrum disorder, multiple sclerosis and other chronic illnesses, she went back to school in 2011 and graduated with a M.S. in Evolution, Ecology, and Behavior from the University at Buffalo. She now helps people and our environment! Her fieldwork studies include genetics, Great Lakes ecology, conservation biology, ecosystem based management, and stream restoration. Since graduating she has worked as a technician for the USDA, education and outreach coordinator for WNY PRISM, and taught ecology courses at community colleges. Her work at state parks involved supervising interns and staff in invasive species management, restoration, education and outreach, grant management, and conservation of the endangered Great Lakes piping plover and eastern Hellbender salamander. She worked as a project manager of the Sandy Island Beach State Park GLRI grant which provides ecosystem based management and restoration of dune and wetland ecosystems at the state park. She spent over 20 years at my family cottage in Stony Creek Marina, and frequented the beaches at El Dorado Beach Preserve, recreating on the lakefront while growing up. I am thrilled to combine my passion for ecosystem restoration at the very beaches where I spent my childhood.
Matthew Biondolillo
Matt Biondolillo was recently elected to the Eastern Lake Ontario Dunes Foundation’s Board of Directors in July 2019. Matt is a native of Northern and Central New York- where he grew up fishing and recreating on Eastern Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River, as well as many other inland waters. Here, Matt developed a deep passion for the natural environment, particularly our precious living waterways.
Matt is an environmental and ecological consultant with more than 22 years professional experience in aquatic science and environmental engineering. He has earned certifications as a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) and Project Management Professional (PMP). Matt has specialized expertise with restoring degraded aquatic, wetland and terrestrial ecosystems. He has developed restoration plans at the local- and watershed-scale for wetland, stream, pond, lake, riparian/coastal, and upland environments. In addition, Matt enjoys thought leadership- turning ideas into reality. He co-invented an oleophilic bio barrier (OBB), an innovative technology for capturing and degrading petroleum hydrocarbons at the sediment surface on waterways.
Matt brings to the Dune Foundation his vast operational and technical expertise in ecological restoration and sediment management.
Ted Limpert
Ted Limpert lives in Syracuse and has been coming to Sandy Pond since 1970. He enjoyed summers on the pond growing up and now owns the place next to his parents camp. They are situated on the North Pond, on the spit near Hognose Point.
Ted worked with Tony Kotz and Bob Beltran to form the Dune Foundation. He is married with four children and his wife Susie is the Librarian at Porter Elementary Most Holy Rosary. His children are all graduates of Syracuse City schools. Ted is a Syracuse City Court Judge and is an avid pilot, runner, skier and scuba diver. He coaches youth lacrosse during the summer.
Robert Beltran - Founding Member
Bob is a biologist and geographer and is a co-founder of the ELODF. He originates from Sandy Creek, NY and attended SUNY Oswego and graduate school at Southern Oregon State University. He retired in 2006 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) where he worked in the Great Lakes National Program office.