Nathalie Alfonso, artist Kevin Cunniff, chief sustainability officer of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida Kathy Worley, director of environmental science at Conservancy of Southwest Florida Jeffrey Carter, Southwest Florida program administrator and director at Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve Rev. Houston R. Cypress (Otter Clan), moderator
Join environmental artist Nathalie Alfonso, Kevin Cunniff representing the Miccosukee Tribe, Kathy Worley from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and Jeffrey Carter from Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve for an engaging panel discussion about the intersection of art and science within the Everglades, as highlighted in the Entangled in the Mangroves exhibition. The discussion will be moderated by artist and poet Rev. Houston R. Cypress (Otter Clan).
All museum lectures and public programs of The Baker Museum include same-day admission to The Baker Museum.
Image: Jennifer Basile (American, b. 1973). 'Stanley' The Great Blue Heron (detail), 2018. Relief print on rice paper, 48 x 24 in. Edition 1 of 1 (+ 1 AP). Private collection, Miami, FL. Courtesy of LnS Gallery.
Nathalie Alfonso
Nathalie Alfonso
Nathalie Alfonso is a South Florida–based artist whose practice explores the body, memory, ephemerality, landscape and the tension between visibility and invisibility. Working across drawing, installation, video and performance, she uses line and gesture to push the physical limits of mark-making and endurance. Her work has been exhibited at institutions including the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, The Baker Museum, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Spinello Projects, Dimensions Variable, the Frank Gallery, Sweet Pass Sculpture Park and Marymount University. Alfonso holds an MFA from Southern Methodist University and a BFA from Florida International University. She is a recipient of the 2025 Florida Prize in Contemporary Art from the Orlando Museum of Art and was previously nominated for the Joan Mitchell Fellowship (2021) and the United States Artists Fellowship (2023-24). She has participated in residencies at MASS MoCA, Anderson Ranch, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Kinosaito Art Center and R.A.R.O. Bogotá.
Kevin Cunniff
Kevin Cunniff
Kevin Cunniff is an environmental scientist with over 25 years of professional experience working in South Florida coastal, estuarine and freshwater wetland ecosystems. Cunniff brings his knowledge and expertise in science-based, data-driven environmental resource assessment, management, and restoration to serve the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida (“Tribe”) in a leadership role for the Miccosukee Environmental Protection Agency. Cunniff works to facilitate the sovereign government-to-government relationship between the Tribe and the federal government, advises the Miccosukee Business Council on environmental policy positions and actions, develops and maintains strategic partnerships with external entities, and serves as a technical science lead within the broader Everglades science consortium to assert Tribal interests and its leadership role within Everglades management and restoration. Cunniff represents the Tribe as a South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force member. Cunniff previously served the Seminole Tribe of Florida as director of the environmental resource management department and has worked in a professional scientific capacity within Florida state agencies and the private sector. Cunniff has a Bachelor of Science (biology) from Fairfield University and a Master of Science (biology, marine ecology focus) from Florida International University.
Kathy Worley
Kathy Worley
Kathy Worley has a master’s degree in biological science from Florida International University and a bachelor’s degree in biology from Colorado State University. She has more than 35 years’ experience in field research and has worked at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida for 30 years. She has been the director of environmental science since 2011 as well as a senior staff biologist. For the past 27 years, Worley has managed mangrove research projects evaluating causes of die-offs adjacent to development and assessing mangrove restoration projects for long-term success, along with evaluating the effect of hurricanes and other climatic stressors on mangrove systems and their long-term recovery. She also heads up the conservancy's sea turtle research and protection program.
Jeffrey Carter
Jeffrey Carter
Jeff Carter is the Southwest Florida program administrator at Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (RBNERR). For the past 16 years, Carter has served as the RBNERR’s stewardship coordinator and was appointed to his current role in 2023. Currently, Carter serves on the senior management team for the Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection (ORCP) and is responsible for developing and implementing policies for the administration and management of the Southwest Region of the Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection, which includes the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) and the three field offices of the SW Florida Aquatic Preserves. Carter promotes and coordinates the research, resource management, and technical support within the program to provide a greater understanding of ecological relationships and management of information necessary for coastal, watershed and estuarine management decisions.
Rev. Houston R. Cypress
Rev. Houston R. Cypress
Reverend Houston R. Cypress (b. Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, 1980) is a Two-Spirit poet, artist and activist from the Otter Clan of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida. Through his artistic practice, Cypress explores and articulates Queer Ecological Knowledge through community-based artistic, mystical and shamanistic techniques, including Deep Listening, Ceremony, Pilgrimage and Service. Cypress is also inspired by the dialectic between sovereignty and boundary dissolution, the biological and technological, and how languages can evoke states of consciousness. His marks appear on paper, on-screen, and on the land itself through experimental conservation initiatives.
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