INPS, Vice-President
Susanne Masi served as a botanist at the Chicago Botanic Garden from 1991-2013, where she co-founded and managed Plants of Concern (a citizen science-based rare plant monitoring program, now focused in NE Illinois and NW Indiana). Since retirement, in addition to volunteering for Plants of Concern, Susanne worked with the Garden’s Seeds of Success program to collect seed of Regional Forester Sensitive Species at sites in the Shawnee National Forest. She has been on the Illinois Native Plant Society Board as a member at large since 2016. Susanne served on the Illinois Endangered Species Protection Board for 12 years and in 2018 is a member of the Board’s Endangered Species Technical Advisory Committee for the review of the Illinois endangered species list.
Susanne co-authored The Sunflower Family in the Upper Midwest with Thomas M. Antonio and led the team that wrote the “Status of Endangered and Threatened Species” for the 1999 Chicago Wilderness Biodiversity Recovery Plan. Susanne received Masters degrees from Northwestern University and Northeastern Illinois Universities and a B.S. from Loyola University. She lives in Algonquin, IL, with her husband Domenico D’Alessandro, an urban regenerative designer, and delights in five grandchildren.
