Richard "Dick" Wiedhopf - 2026
President
Membership

President@TucsonCactus.org

 

2024 marked the 64th year for the TCSS, and the 22nd consecutive year Dick has served as president.

Under Dick's leadership, TCSS has grown to be the largest local cactus and succulent society in the world. He helped establish Pima Prickly Park and has been an active participant in making it a center point of our society's conservation and education efforts. The cactus rescue program he helped start has rescued over 137,500 plants and has expanded to include urban rescues. Dick considers his work with TCSS to be a privilege and has enjoyed every minute of it..

 

 

Vonn Watkins - 2026
Vice President
Program Director

VP@TucsonCactus.org

Vonn has served as TCSS Vice President for over 18 years. As Program Director, he has arranged more than 300 speakers and workshop programs for the society including monthly meetins, Sonoran conferences and a national convention.

Vonn is one of the founders of the TCSS cactus and succulent plant rescue program and Pima Prickly Park. He is an educational specialist on various species of Cylindropuntia, Grusonia and Opuntia and is one of the authors of the book, Field Guide to Cacti & Other Succulents of Arizona. Vonn  created the TCSS logo and has been on the research committee for many years. He has also been recognized with various service awards as well as an honorary life membership in recognition of his numerous accomplishments.

 

 

 

Barbara Watts - 2026
Secretary

Secretary@TucsonCactus.org

 

Barb is currently the webmaster for TCSS and a member of the Technology Committee working to re-develop our website into an interactive and dynamic database platform. This includes integrating software that will simplify and improve the recording and preparation of Board minutes. Given her role in the development of these tools, Barb believes it is a natural progression for her to take on the Secretary position where she can effectively manage both the technical and administrative aspects of this responsibility.

 

 

 

 

Mark Dworschak - 2026
Treasurer

Treasurer@TucsonCactus.org

 

 

Mark is a 40 year Arizona resident (35 in Tucson) and longtime TCSS member. His focus has been in the rescue program but is looking forward to expanding his TCSS participation as Treasurer. He retired from the Pima County Community College District after 24 years of work in finance and is a graduate of the University of Arizona with an Economics and Finance degree. Mark is excited to see TCSS's efforts to expand its reach through enhanced conservation and education programs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joel Fontaine - 2025

CactusJoelF@gmail.com

 

After growing up in New England and completing my military service in the south, I have called our Sonoran Desert community home for the past 40+ years.

I was introduced to the Tucson Cactus & Succulent Society in 2020 by my neighbor and I immediately found a home away from home where I learn about these great plants with every activity. I learn best by doing, as such, I volunteer almost daily at Pima Prickly Park, for native and urban plant rescues and all of our plant sales. Each day is a learning activity.  My overriding passion is my love for Pima Prickly Park. It is not only a place of learning but for me it is also a place where I find a quiet, peaceful joy. I enjoy early morning and late evening peaceful solitude in the gorgeous place that we have created together.  

 

Brad Haeckel - 2025
Library Committee

Librarian@TucsonCactus.org

 

We have a phenomenal club. It is an honor to be serving our community of Tucson and beyond through the conservation work accomplished by the TCSS.

As we move forward into the future, we continue to build on our solid traditions of community focused cultivation and sharing our vast collective knowledge through educational outreach. We have modernized with hybrid meetings and adopted new techniques to have more successful cactus rescues.  Together we are a stronger Society. I am delighted to be a part of this organization and will continue to serve as long as you will have me.  

 

 

Brian Vandervoet - 2025

 

I was appointed to the TCSS Board in January 2022. A member of TCSS for six years, I am a leader on the Cactus Rescue Crew, assist at Cactus Sales, and volunteer at the landscaping projects at Pima Prickly Park. I've been a resident of Santa Cruz County for 50+ years and own a produce importing company and am also a partner in a produce warehouse in Rio Rico. I bring a small business orientation to TCSS Boarad discussions. I served on the Tubac/Rio Rico School Board for 16 years and am a fervent supporter of public education. I'm also a strong advocate of water conservation. One of my favorite cacti is the Santa Cruz beehive cactus, Coryphantha recurvata, found in the Pajarito Mountains west of Nogales. I served in Peace Dorps, Peru, workin in the Amazon River basin and am fluent in Spanish.

 

Steve Watts - 2025

Steve@TucsonCactus.org

 

As a career, I taught agriculture at the high school and community college levels in the Pacific Northwest.  As years progressed, my side gig of developing software for wholesale plant nurseries became my full-time work. My wife and I both fell in love with the Sonoran Desert while on a cicycling vacation to Tucson in the winter of 2014. After a few trips, we felt we belonged here and made a permanent move to Tucson in the summer of 2016. Sometime that first year, I took a UA Master Gardener class on cactus and succulents and was hooked. In order to learn more, I trained to become a master gardener and then found TCSS. The most important motiuvator that drives my volunteer efforts for TCSS is that we are a mission-driven organization. Learning and teaching have been the most important parts of my life since I was a teen. The fact that TCSS has learning and teaching as two parts of our mission makes TCSS the obvious choice for a place to express my passion for leaning.  

 

 

Edie Campbell - 2026

 

 

Donna Ellis - 2026

Cactus@TucsonCactus.org

 

I have been a member of TCSS for over 40 years. In addition to serving on the Board, I am the Cactus Rescue Coordinator and have recently Business Manager, a new position to team with and assist the Treasurer. As Cactus Rescue Coordinator since 2016, I follow up on leads for possible rescue sites. I correspond with developers, conduct scouting expeditions to evaluate potential sites, work with the State of Arizona to secure native plant removal permits and tags, and work with Rescue Field Manager Steve Watts to implement rescues. Rescues constitute one of the major fundraising and educational activities of the organization. My main goals as coordinator include making sure rescues are fun, safe, productive, and legal for the hardworking volunteers who who up. I think resuces are educational because they allow people to experience firsthand the tough weather and seemingly impossible terrain in which desert plants survive and thrive.

I also love to work on other club activities and hand out with fellow "Tpical TCSS Character-Type People" who are (as my daughters have described Mom and Dad) "Sorta weird but in a good way".  

 

 

 

Julie Shulick - 2026

UrbanRescue@TucsonCactus.org

I am very pleased to have been voted into the Board of Directors position for the Tucson Cactus and Succulent Society (TCSS). I have enjoyed assuming management of the Urban Rescue Program and I believe that the assistance our club provides to homeowners in need of cactus removal is a valuable srvice to our community. OUr dedication helps raise awareness and advance the knowledge of the value of our native plants. Through these efforts, we continue to aid in the protection and conservation of cacti in our area which has resulted in Pima Prickly park and the club receiving beautiful and occasionally rare specimens.

In addition to my work with the Urban Rescue program, I am eager to bring fresh ideas and new approaches to TCSS. One area I am particularly interested in improving is our website. With my 15+ years of web development experience I believe a streamlined and updated look for the TCSS website can be completed with the help of a small group of volunteers. As a board member, I look forward to collaborating and working alongside the dedicated people in the club and I will promote an inclusive environment where everyone's voice is heard and valued.

 

 

 

Kris Thompson - 2026

Education@TucsonCactus.org

 

Kris has been a member TCSS for over 20 years. She has enjoyed working at rescues, sales, PPP, garden tours, Sonoran and special events. Teaching plant science to hundreds of children has been especially rewqrding as has her work with SARSEF. As K-12 Education Chair, she also assist with school grants and cultivates new educational opportunities in Southern Arizona. Kris serves as a greeter at our monthly meetings and offers TCSS logo merchandise and other items form the Cactus Casuals Boutique. In addition, she helps with TCSS marketing, refreshments, etc. In 2016, Kris received the President's Sevice award and the Presidentn's Special Service award in 2021.

 

 

 

 

Ray Fisher - 2027

 

Ray has been a member of TCSS for about five years and, during that time, he has been active in cactus rescues, sales support, and supporting special events including the annual Christmas party. He was awarded the TCSS President's Award in 2023 for his role in the design, construction, and maintenance of the new Pima Prickly Park Labyrinth. Ray learned about cactus and succulents through TCSS and now wants to assure the further dissemination of such knowledge to others by participating as a TCSS Board member.

 

 

 

Randy Hellwig - 2027

Randy is serving on the board of TCSS in order to help the club continue the goal of cactus rescues and to aid the club expand it's general educational, conservation, and training programs in cactus growing, desert landscaping, and water harvesting/smart irrigation.

 

 

 

 

Amy Pearse - 2027

 

Amy grew up in Ohio, and after being a snow bird for the last few years, she became a permanent Tucson resident in June of 2024. She has volunteered with TCSS native and urban cactus rescues for three years. She is particularly interested in helping with the development of the Sonoran Xeriscapes program and values working with TCSS, appreciating its enthusiastic commitment and its mission to learn, educate the community, and help the desert survive.

 

 

 

Clarke Stephens - 2027

 

Clarke has been a member of TCSS for the past several years and has served on native and urban
rescue teams during this time and has helped out on several projects at Pima Prickly Park. He looks to
the TCSS mission statement as his reason to get involved as a Board member and believes TCSS can
do so much more in the future if we use our collective knowledge to expand our educational and
community programs.

 

 

 

 

Michiel Pillet - 2026
CSSA Affiliate Representative

CSSA@TucsonCactus.org

I joined TCSS when I moved to Tucson in 2016, but first started growing cacti when I was a teenager in the mid-2000s. Everything I do involves conservation. I am the Programing Officer for the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Cactus and Succulent Plants Specialist Group hosted by the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evoluntionary Biology at the University of Arizona, a member of teh IUCN SSC Succulent Plant Illegal Trade Task Force and IUCN Climate Crisis Commission, and a member of the Cactus and Sullent Society of America Conservation Committee. I also own a conservation-focused nursery here in Tucson. My involvement in the community is centered around building bridges: from the local to national to intrenational community and between stakeholders from various sectors of society. This opens up new ways to enjoy our prickly friends and is the best approach to protecting them. Please feel free to reach out.