Name: Chapter Meeting and Program
Start: 2026-02-19T17:45:00-06:00
Location: Springfield Conservation Nature Center

Our programs are free and open to the public. We meet on the third Thursday of each month, from September to November and January to May, at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center. The meetings run from 5:30 pm to 7:45 pm. Refreshments and socializing start at 5:30 pm. The program begins at 6:15 pm, followed by the membership meeting at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center, located at 4601 South Nature Center Way, Springfield, MO 65807.
Dana Morris is the Chief Ecologist with the LAD Foundation in Salem, MO. She received her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences and a PhD in Biological Sciences at the University of Missouri. Prior to joining the Foundation, she was a tenured Professor of Biology at Central Methodist University. During her tenure, she worked to restore native habitat at their university-owned wildlife sanctuary and directed the Stephens Museum of Natural History. She has studied birds as an intern, graduate student, and post-doc with the Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project, in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Puerto Rico, and Kenya.
As Chief Ecologist, she is responsible for the ecological stewardship program on all L-A-D Foundation lands. This includes developing strategic and annual stewardship plans, implementing and maintaining a natural features inventory on Pioneer Forest, implementing conservation projects to meet specific goals, monitoring the results, and partnering with a wide variety of federal, state, and local entities to achieve common goals. She continues to make birds a focus of this work since they are such important indicators of ecological health and biodiversity.