Just call her Mother Nature.

Deb is just as comfortable with a snake around her neck as she is with the responsibility of leading all operations and strategic initiatives to advance the Museum’s mission. She does some of her best thinking on her commute to work, which she often covers by bicycle.

She appreciates nothing more than championing the Museum’s effort to connect people to the wonder of nature and science that is so abundant in our urban area. Accessible, friendly and down to earth, she particularly enjoys interacting with guests, helping shape unique exhibitions and studying the Collections of the Chicago Academy of Sciences.

Under her leadership, the Museum established attendance records in 2010 and 2011 and is the sixth-most attended institution in the latest Museums In the Park rankings.

Deb brings more than 15 years of experience in diverse non-profit engagement, project management and all facets of design and planning. Previously, she held positions at CF Murphy, Perkins & Will and Chicago’s renowned van Straaten Gallery. A respected civic leader, Deb has been actively involved in fundraising at a leadership level.

Deb, the daughter of a Chicago police officer, is a life-long Chicago resident. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at The Chicago Academy of Fine Arts.

Favorite Nature Quote: "Necessity is the mistress and guardian of nature," (Leonardo da Vinci).

Best childhood memory of nature: Gardening with her father.

In college, Marc studied biology. Although he did not become a scientist, he used his scientific training and analytical approach to help start-up companies define their strategy, brands and communication platforms. His diverse background includes serving as vice president of corporate marketing and communications for RCN; the chief operating officer of Home Preview Channel; and managing director for Branca Inc. 

Marc’s scientific and business backgrounds meld in his role at the Museum. Marc is responsible for strengthening the Museum's brand as the urban gateway to nature and science and oversees all external relations including development, marketing, communications and special events. 

Since Marc began in 2010, attendance has increased each year, the Museum has connected with a wide range of audiences and forged critical new partnerships. 

A resident of Lincoln Park for more than two decades, Marc is also the chairman of the board of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and a board member for the Chicago Chapter of UNICEF. He received his MBA degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor's degree in biology from Wake Forest University. 

Favorite Way to Connect with Nature: Bicycling, spending time by the ocean. 

Like a Rock: To this day, Marc still maintains his prized childhood rock collection, which he started as a second grader when he visited, with his family, 6 national parks in the west during a month long car tour of the U.S.

As a kid, Alvaro never tired of returning to the same Museum. Each visit was a chance to discover something new, something intriguing. 

As an adult, Alvaro was fascinated by the challenge of creating experiences and emotions that would resonate with Museum guests. 

He is responsible for curating the Museum’s first three self-produced exhibitions: Lawn Nation: The Art and Science of the American Lawn; Nature’s Architects; and Bikes! The Green Revolution. He also leads the team charged with enriching the Museum guest experience, which includes developing and managing all exhibitions and public programs. 

He received his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. 

Favorite Nature Quote: “How do we love all the children, of all species, for all time?” (William McDonough). 

Favorite Way to Connect with Nature: “Through the eyes of the pets, dogs and cats that I’ve had over various periods of my life. Animals have a direct conduit to nature and can serve as our guides (literally sometimes) in experiencing the world. Spending time with critters is the best.” 

Why Curators are Like Chefs: “Watching someone walk through your exhibit is like watching someone taste food that you’ve cooked. You look at the expression on their face to see if they like it. Kids are the toughest critics.”

Teaching students something new that gets them excited about the world is what motivated Rafael to pursue a career in education. 

For the last 20 years, he has done just that on behalf of the Museum’s award-winning education department. Whether it is taking skulls and pelts of native animals into schools to showcase the wide diversity of animals the students share the city with, or presenting a paper at an education conference, Rafael’s passion for nature and science education shines through. 

Rafael is responsible for all aspects of the education department. In addition, he is a frequent presenter at prestigious science education and cultural conferences across the country. 

Rafael graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. 

Favorite Nature Quote: “The earth has music for those who will listen,” (William Shakespeare). 

Best Childhood Memory of Nature: “They are all associated with visiting family in Eastern Kentucky, and they come with the freedom to explore on my own. Being able to climb and run, catch bugs and wade in streams without my parents hovering over me to make sure I didn’t hurt myself. I think I’ve always equated nature with freedom because of this.”

Before Steve was employed by a Museum, he ran his own. 

He began by collecting natural artifacts and specimens from his backyard and neighborhood. Eventually, his bedroom … aka the budding museum, expanded his collection to include plants and live animals. Kids from the neighborhood started coming over to see his museum. 

Today, Steve studies the nature in our own backyards. He is the primary investigator of Project Squirrel, one of the Museum’s signature award-winning citizen science initiatives. 

When he’s not out in the field, you can find Steve at the Museum doing taxidermy for the Academy’s collection or interacting with members. In fact, trying to “Stump Steve” is a staple of the Museum experience. 

He graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor’s of Science in Zoology, Conservation and Wildlife Biology. He is working toward his PhD in Ecology and Evolution at the University of Illinois at Chicago. 

Favorite Way to Connect with Nature: “Birding and herping (which I usually do simultaneously). Many people tease me about this because to bird, you must look up, and to herp you must look down.” 

Favorite Childhood Memories of Nature: “Picking up special rocks as a 2-year-old near our ski house, seeing my first roadrunner mount as a 5-year-old and making dioramas of my fossil finds at age 10 (I could go on and on).” 

All In the Family … In One House: “I maintain over 40 species of vertebrates and invertebrates, which include 19 individual reptiles.”

It was love at first butterfly. 

To this day, Doug can recall in rich detail the butterfly collecting adventures he embarked on with his dad and sister in Vermont. He remembers eagerly anticipating the weekend outings and the adventure of discovering new species. 

The first part of Doug’s professional career was in the biotechnology industry, but weekends were still for butterflies and the natural world. He founded the Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network in 1995, a volunteer organization that monitors the health of butterfly populations in nature preserves. Under his leadership, it has grown from seven to 150 sites and is a model for similar projects in other states. 

The opening of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in 1999 provided Doug the opportunity to develop a research program around breeding locally imperiled butterflies for conservation purposes. He never looked back. 

Since then, Doug has been responsible for all living materials on the grounds at the Museum; he manages the internationally-renowned Judy Istock Butterfly Haven; oversees the management of the Academy’s Collection; and leads the Museum’s insect conservation biology research. 

Doug has a BA in Biology from Colby College in Waterville, Maine and a PhD from the Department of Biochemistry and Cell Biology from Northwestern University. 

Favorite Nature Quote: “The highest enjoyment of timelessness – in a landscape selected at random – is when I stand among rate butterflies and their food plants. This is ecstasy, and behind the ecstasy is something else, which is hard to explain. It is like a momentary vacuum into which rushes all that I love. A sense of oneness with sun and stone,” (From Speak, Memory, Vladimir Nabokov’s memoir).

Sharon jokes that it was destiny for her to follow in the spread sheets and calculations of her father (finance) and mother (math teacher). In fact, one of her earliest childhood memories is doing math problems on a felt board her mom made for her.

After more than a decade at Lane Industries, Inc. in Northbrook as a vice president of finance and a director of financial planning, she elected to move into the nonprofit field to give back and be part of an organization whose mission she was passionate about. Sharon, who joined the Nature Museum in 2012, is responsible for the Museum’s financial reporting and compliance, accounting functions and financial planning.

Sharon studied accounting at Indiana University and graduated with highest distinction. Sharon, a Certified Public Accountant, earned a Masters of Business Administration from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College. She serves on the board of the Lake Forest Graduate School of Management Business Advisory Council.

My Cat is Named … Twiglet (after a favorite British snack food).

At One with the Fish: Sharon is a master scuba diver.