Meet the Namestniks

Lindsay Namestnik has been a pediatric nurse since 2001 and currently works at the Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Clinic at Beacon Children's Hospital in South Bend, Indiana.  She began birding in 2004 while on a trip to Florida and enjoys hiking and tolerates Scott's botanizing excursions.  Lindsay is a co-editor of The Leaves, the membership newsletter of South Bend-Elkhart Bird Alliance.  In 2009, Lindsay began distance running and biking as a hobby, and since that time she has run a marathon and several half marathons.  Lindsay enjoys traveling and ecotourism and has a long list of exotic places to visit in the future.  She hopes to spend retirement living in Costa Rica.

Scott Namestnik is the Botanist at the Indiana Natural Heritage Data Center at the Indiana Department of Natural Resources - Division of Fish, Wildlife, and Nature Preserves.  He also helped to start and serves ad the coordinator of the Indiana Plant Conservation Alliance.  From 2014 to 2019, he served as Senior Botanist and Ecological Unit Manager at Orbis Environmental Consulting, the company he co-founded.  Prior to this, Scott worked as an Senior Project Scientist and Ecological Resource Specialist at Cardno JFNew (previously JFNew) for over 15 years.  His previous work experience was as a seasonal field botanist on the Chilton Creek project in the Missouri Ozarks.  Scott enjoys botanizing, birding, and everything nature related; he has participated in volunteer frog and toad monitoring through FrogWatch USA as well as various other citizen science projects.  He is a co-editor of The Leaves, the membership newsletter of the South Bend-Elkhart Bird Alliance.  Scott was a founding member of the North Chapter of the Indiana Native Plant Society (INPS) and currently serves this group as treasurer.  He is also the INPS Journal Team Leader.  Scott is also involved with the Indiana Academy of Science, serving on the Biodiversity and Natural Areas Committee, and he has served as chair and vice-chair of the Plant Systematics and Biodiversity Section.  Scott also volunteers at the Greene-Nieuwland Herbarium at University of Notre Dame. You can find Scott leading field trips for groups including Shirley Heinze Land Trust, INPS, and Michigan Botanical Society.  He enjoys the snow and changing seasons too much to spend retirement living in Costa Rica.

Bootypants Namestnik (1997-2013) was an Australian Cattledog (Blue Heeler) mix that was wandering through Peck Ranch in Missouri in 1998 when she showed up at the trailer where numerous biologists had temporary residence. After stealing their hearts, Bootypants began receiving regular meals, and soon was given the name Bootypants in reference to the black spot on her butt... her "bootypants."  As the summer ended, the biologists were leaving for various places around the country, and Scott was the lucky one who was able to take Bootypants with him.  Bootypants always enjoyed hiking and birding and tolerated Scott's botanizing excursions.  To read more about Bootypants, click here and here.

Cooper T. Namestnik is an Australian Cattledog (Blue Heeler) that was adopted by Lindsay and Scott from Pet Refuge as an eight month old puppy.  Cooper enjoys walking the trails and giving his parents a hard time.