Board of Directors

Harry E. Rodenhizer III, Chairman of the Board

HARRY E. RODENHIZER III is formerly a business owner and construction executive, now farming (in retirement) while incorporating low and no carbon methods and organic growing practices. He is interested in practical applications of renewable energy sources in small scale projects as well as good stewardship practices in land management. He has a BS in Economics with continuing education in managerial accounting and extensive experience in business development. He has board and upper level leadership experience with nonprofits such as civic clubs, homeless shelters, Boy Scouts and his church.

Michael Rychener, Ph.D., Treasurer

MICHAEL RYCHENER, Ph.D., has worked as a freelance consultant since retiring from IBM in 2013. At IBM, he was an IT Specialist in the Business Intelligence Center of Competence in IBM Global Business Services division. This work included web design, web database applications, custom business intelligence and analytics, search engine development for the PC eSupport site and application development for the PC online assistant. Previously, he held a number of consulting contracts at companies in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina and in central New Jersey. He was a Research Engineer/Scientist at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, PA, in the areas of Engineering Design, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. His book Expert Systems in Engineering Design (1988) summarizes his university research. He earned a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon, an M.S. in computer science from Stanford University and a B.A. with high honors in mathematics from Oberlin College.

Robert Karski, Executive Director

ROBERT KARSKI, is retired from a career as an engineer and corporate communicator at Cisco Systems. He works with teams and organizations to develop, synthesize, communicate, and implement great practices and innovations with a focus on simplification, alignment, and productivity. He consults with all levels of an organization to identify and align goals and opportunities, eliminate distractions, spark creative approaches, and guide a team and product to beat expectations. His greatest joys are working with groups to jointly uncover solutions to what had seemed as intractable problems. The people he’s worked with know him for his communication skills, collaborative team and project leadership successes, and his speed of overcoming obstacles. His background in nearly all facets of software/system development & test, writing, editing, and liaison enables him to understand and relate to a full spectrum of roles and activities.