KARST - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Board Member ( Term Expires 2023 )
Andrea Gillis rejoined the board in 2019 to fill out a three-year term. She is a former board member and former chairman of MAKC, as well as chairman of the Ohio Cavers and Climbers. While on the MAKC board a number of years ago Andrea spearheaded a project to clean a rock outcropping containing Machan's Rock Cave in Ohio. She has helped on more than two dozen Harlansburg Cave survey trips.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Preserve Manager
Job Titles:
- Secretary
- Electrical Engineer for Allegheny Power
- Permit Manager
Carl works as an electrical engineer for Allegheny Power, now First Energy, and is a registered Professional Engineer in the state of Pennsylvania.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Member of the Board
- Life Member of the Robertson Association
- Member of the Cleveland Grotto
Curt Harler, a long time member of the Cleveland Grotto and a former executive vice president of the National Speleological Society, was elected to a three-year term on the MAKC Board of Directors in 2021.
Curt is a life member and conservation life member of the NSS, fellow, frequent contributor to the NSS News and co-editor of Caving Basics, published by the NSS. He is a regular columnist in the Cleve-O-Grotto News, contributed to the Speleo-Digest series, and is an honorary life member of the Cleveland Grotto.
Curt is a life member of the Robertson Association and TRA Grotto (OTR), and has explored about 500 different caves worldwide. He has been a survey team member on some notable explorations, including Hidden River Cave and Sarah Furnace Cave and many Ohio caves. He is a volunteer at Mammoth Cave National Park, and the American Cave Conservation Association, has been a committee member/organizer of two cave clean-up projects in West Virginia and Ohio, an participated in eleven other cave clean-up projects in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.
Job Titles:
- Hall Cave Preserve Manager
Job Titles:
- Hall Cave Preserve Manager
Job Titles:
- Vice Chairman
- Vice Chairman, Board Member ( Term Expires 2025 )
Hope Brooks joined the MAKC board in November of 2019. At the November 2021 meeting Hope was elected vice chairman of MAKC.
Job Titles:
- Silers Cave Preserve Manager / Membership
Kerry Speelman is a licensed professional geologist.
A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown with a BS in geology and biology minor, he is working on documenting the caves in southwestern PA. Keep an eye out for him as he usually is ridgwalking, ridge running, and mountain biking all while looking for undocumented caves.
His duties with MAKC so far have involved cave surveying and fund raising. A former chairman and vice chairman of MAKC, he was also the editor of the MAKC's guidebook for its first open house and wrote up the super-thick newsletter for the Summer of 2004 reporting his progress on the Somerset County Cave Survey.
Mike Schirato is a licensed professional geologist and is employed by the Department of Environmental Protection in Ebensburg.
A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown with a BS in geology, he began his caving career with the geology club in 1999. He joined the board in 2003 and has helped with cave surveys, fund raising, and cleanup projects.
He is currently working on exploring and mapping the caves of Somerset, Cambria, and Blair counties.
Job Titles:
- Archivist
- Member of the Board
Paul Damon, Sr., is the archivist for the MAKC and a long-time NSS member. He might be best known for editing the book Caving in America, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the National Speleological Society.
Rick Smith has always had a fascination with the underground since the age of 8 when he entered his first cave, McClure Cave. It was not until many years later he found the caving community and since then has visited caves throughout Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Rick has held positions in both the Nittany Grotto and Bald Eagle Grotto while serving as Vice-Chair for the Mid-Appalachian Region (MAR). Joining the MAKC in 2019, Rick was elected to the board in the Fall of 2022. He is looking forward to helping the MAKC continue their mission of preserving, conserving and helping to educate others about the importance of caves and karst.
Ryan Maurer joined the MAKC Board in November of 2019. He was re-elected to the board in 2021 and following his re-election to a three-year term, was elected chairman.
Job Titles:
- Founding Member of the Loyalhanna Grotto
Tom Metzgar lives in Washington Township, Westmoreland County, where his Scotch-Irish and Germanic ancestors settled during the 1770s.
After graduating from Penn State in 1981, Tom returned to his native county where he lived for awhile on the farm formerly owned and operated by his schoolteacher parents. He supervises PPG Industries' Corporate Emergency Response Center and the Loss Prevention Associates at PPG's Allison Park Coatings and Resins Research Center. During 4-H outings of the early 1970s, Tom became captivated by the Chestnut Ridge caves of the Hillside area of Derry Township. Fortuitously, years later, he would become enamored of a Hillside caver, Kim Opatka-Metzgar, who became his wife in 1994.
A long-time Pittsburgh Grotto member, Tom is a founding member of the Loyalhanna Grotto. He formerly edited the grotto newsletter and has held every office except chairperson.
Tom has caved in many parts of the United States, but concentrates on his native Keystone State. His ideal caving trip consists of bushwhacking into the remote greenbrier-infested flanks of Chestnut Ridge, sweating out a gallon of perspiration while digging at a sinkhole, breaking through to virgin cave, and documenting the discovery for publication. He reads voraciously, often mentally transporting himself back in time. He regularly adds books, maps, periodicals, photographs, postcards and documents to his extensive collection, specializing in Pennsylvania topics. Tom is best known in his community as a local historian and genealogist, and has written extensively for local publications. He has volunteered as a board member and officer of numerous historical and conservation organizations. He recently resigned from nearly all of them in order to concentrate on writing.