Meet Our Staff

Kevin brings a broad range of experience, based on a sixteen-year career in leading science and children’s museums. These have included the California Science Center, the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, and, most recently, Stepping Stones Museum for Children in Norwalk, CT, where he served as Chief Operating Officer. In each, Kevin developed innovative ways to deliver complex technical subjects in engaging ways, delighting visitors and taking the discovery experience beyond the walls of the museum. Kevin’s initial entry to the museum world came from his work in IMAX film production and exhibition. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California’s School of Cinema/Television and is keenly aware of the importance of technology and collaborative efforts in making the Teatown experience among the very best.

Thomas Almendinger serves as the Director of Stewardship at Teatown Lake Reservation, where he continues his distinguished career in conservation leadership. With more than two decades of experience in natural resource management and ecological restoration, he previously served as Director of Natural Resources and Agroecology at the Doris Duke Foundation, where he led transformative initiatives across 2,750 acres of land, implementing comprehensive stewardship programs that balanced conservation with sustainable land use practices.

Under his leadership at Duke Farms, he achieved remarkable results in habitat restoration, including the conversion of 750 acres of hayfields into cattle grazing grasslands to support endangered bird species, and the revival of over 1,000 acres of floodplain land, forests, and grasslands through strategic public–private partnerships. His innovative 20-year white-tailed deer management program significantly improved native plant coverage from 23% to 72% by reducing deer density from 250 to 25 per square mile.

A certified ecologist and published researcher, he holds a Master of Science in Ecology and Evolution from Rutgers University and has contributed significantly to the field through numerous publications and presentations. His work on forest restoration, wildlife management, and carbon sequestration has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Environmental Quality Award from the US EPA and the Environmental Stewardship Award from the NJ Department of Environmental Protection.

Thom currently serves on several prestigious advisory boards, including the Rutgers University Eco-Preserve and the Scientific Advisory Board of Hutcheson Memorial Forest. His expertise in ecosystem strategies, invasive species management, and sustainable agroecology continues to influence conservation practices across the region.

Emily Edmonds-Langham joins the Teatown team as Director of Education after a thirteen-year stint at the American Museum of Natural History, where she most recently served as the Manager of Elementary Education. She also worked at the New York Botanical Garden as an instructor in the Edible Academy for many years, after getting into garden education via an internship with the Native Plant Trust in Framingham, MA. She is passionate about hands-on science learning, conservation education, and getting dirty.

In her current role, she steers the Education Department’s work in serving family, adult, and youth audiences. Whether in the classroom herself or supporting the growth of her colleagues, Emily strives for scientific rigor and playfulness in equal measure in all of the work of her division.

Emily is a graduate of the Environmental Conservation Education masters program at NYU Steinhardt and Smith College, where she studied English Language and Literature as well as Environmental Science and Policy.

Susie has served in institutional advancement roles across the spectrum of nonprofit organizations in New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island for more than two decades, including independent schools, graduate schools, research centers, foundations, philanthropic resource centers, and the Episcopal Church’s pension services group. She has raised funds, designed and managed communications and stewardship programs, educated clients on complicated financial matters, conducted qualitative and quantitative research, and trained staff to speak with the media. She holds a M.S. in nonprofit management from The New School–Milano School of International Affairs, Management, and Urban Policy, and a B.A. in sociology from Wells College. Susie is committed to bringing best practices in fundraising, communications, stewardship, and management, and she’s passionate about creating sustainable and resilient communities.

Amy Karpati is an ecologist and educator. She’s previously worked as a conservation biologist and environmental advocate in the New Jersey Pinelands and as an ecological consultant on various projects. She is currently a faculty member at Columbia University where she teaches in the Masters in Sustainability Management program through the School of Professional Studies. Her teaching is positioned at multiple intersections: ecology and sociology; the natural and built environments; biodiversity and human sustainability. Amy also serves as the chair of her community’s Environmental Advisory Council, advising on matters related to natural resource protection, landscaping with native plants, and green design in the built environment.

Amy previously worked at Teatown as the Science & Programs Director and has joined the team again as the Senior Science Advisor, directing ecological research and monitoring on the preserve and guiding the organization’s approach to biodiversity conservation. Amy holds a Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolution and a bachelors in Natural Resource Management from Rutgers University, as well as a masters in Adolescent Education from Pace University.

Alma hails from the west Texas town of El Paso, and recently put down roots in Ossining after a decade in the Bronx. She earned her degree in biology from Cornell University, and for years, worked in conservation field work throughout the western U.S. Alma later returned home and began a teaching career as a high school special educator in science.

Until recently, she taught middle school science at The Chapin School in NYC, where she founded the school’s first sustainability team. Always looking to stay a bit feral even in the big city, Alma regularly pursued field work during summer breaks. She twice served as a mentor in The Nature Conservancy’s Leaders in Environmental Action for the Future (LEAF) Program. Most recently, she contributed to projects in México and in NYC in herpetology, the study of amphibians and reptiles. She was a founding member and a current Volunteer Outings leader with the NYC chapter of Latino Outdoors.

As Teatown’s Community Outreach Coordinator, Alma seeks to use her experiences to help demystify the outdoors to newcomers, to identify and help break down barriers to nature, and to plant the seed of stewardship in all participants. Above all, she strives to use her culture and language to demonstrate that we all belong in nature, to nature, and thus share responsibility for it.