LAURA-ASHLEY OVERDYKE

Laura-Ashley Overdyke is the Executive Director of the Caddo Lake Institute, with locations in both East Texas and Shreveport, LA.

Laura-Ashley spent much of her childhood on Caddo Lake; fishing and boating with family and friends. Upon graduating from W&L, Laura-Ashley joined the National Geographic Society and was a key member during the launch of the Geographic’s first nightly TV news program, managing the research team, producing, and reporting on-air. She then traveled the country, on behalf of a White Houses public health campaign. Upon returning to the Shreveport area, Overdyke was named Senior Editorial Producer at local news station KTBS. In addition to revitalizing KTBS’ investigative and in-depth reporting, she also helped manage 16 reporters.

Directly before joining The Caddo Lake Institute, Laura-Ashley spent two years with the Community Foundation of North Louisiana, overseeing $12 million in donor advised and competitive grants.

The Caddo Lake Institute has a 25-year track record of strong science — working with local officials, government agencies and the community. With her vast experience and pure heart for Caddo Lake, Overdyke plans is to build upon the conservation efforts by exploring unique opportunities that benefit the integrity of the region.

ERICA BELEAU

Administrator

Erica is the administrator for CLI, assisting in the smooth functioning of the institute behind the scenes.  A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Erica is passionate about conservation, pollution and lessening negative human impact on our environment.  She has extensive executive administration experience, as well as a solid non-profit background. Erica, her husband and three children thoroughly enjoy the many outdoor activities the area has to offer and are proud to be a part of the conservation efforts at Caddo Lake.

DR. ROY DARVILLE

Consultant on Water Quality

Roy is Chair of the Biology and Chemistry Departments at East Texas Baptist University and has served as CLI’s main science advisor since the early 1990s. Roy has built an extensive database of water quality trends in Caddo Lake. He also plays indispensable roles in CLI’s healthy flows project, the development of flow recommendations and the monitoring of the resulting changes.

DR. THOMAS HAYES

Consultant on Wetland Restoration

Tom is Executive Director and Senior Scientist with Texas Conservation Science. He has a masters in biology from Yale University and a Ph.D. from the University of California as well as over 34 years of experience as an ecologist and conservation biologist. He is performing fieldwork to evaluate the impacts of new water release patterns from Lake O’ The Pines on the wetlands.

JIM NEAL

Consultant on Land Conservation

Since retiring from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2011, Jim has developed CLI’s plan for protecting important lands and waters in and around Caddo Lake. Because of his prior work with TPWD and the Nature Conservancy, as well as FWS, Jim’s role with CLI is focused on identifying significant lands for conservation activities and working with federal and state agencies and private landowners on a number of options for conservation.

GEORGE RICE

Consultant on Groundwater Contamination

George not only carries out CLI’s scientific assessments of groundwater contamination issues at the LHAAP, he is also able to translate the complexities of the contamination and restoration plans to help the public understand what the Army is proposing and to participate in decisions of the Army on its restoration efforts.

Tim Osting, PE, D.WRE, CFM

Consultant on Environmental Flows

Tim Osting is a professional engineer working from the field and from the office on water resources topics since 1996. Specializing in hydrology, hydraulics, water quality and environmental flows, Tim has successfully designed and implemented complex, multi-agency, multi-year, multi-disciplinary field data collection and modeling programs to answer water supply policy and permitting decisions. He is the principal engineer and COO of AquaStrategies. 
Tim collaborates with resource agencies, university researchers and stakeholder groups on complicated water resources projects involving watersheds, rivers, lakes and coasts. Tim strives to increase understanding of environmental systems by using grounded field data and well-interpreted modeling of water quality, water quantity, sediments, and multi-dimensional hydrodynamics.

RICHARD LOWERRE

Environmental Attorney 

Rick Lowerre serves as Caddo Lake Institute’s environmental Attorney and has years of experience with our environmental flows team and continues to support CLI’s work in this important area.  He has a Bachelors and Masters degree in Chemical Engineering from Rice University and also a Law degree from the University of Austin in TX. Rick has +40 years of Environmental Law and Policy experience and has served on the staff of the National Academy of Sciences, the Texas Attorney General, and the Texas Department of Agriculture. In addition to his law work, he handles water rights related to Caddo Lake Institute’s work with special emphasis on Texas, and provides insight into the broader conservation community.