Fred joined HIA as the business manager in 2015 and as such, has run our stores. He was recently elected to the board and currently serves as board president.
After growing up in Vassar, a small community in the farmlands of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula “Thumb,” he moved to the U.P. in 1975 to start graduate school at Northern Michigan University. After graduation, he began a long business career in the home improvement & building material industry. Over the years, company promotions moved him around the Upper Peninsula, living in the Copper Country, Iron Mountain, Chatham, and Marquette.
“I love the U.P. and all the beauty and opportunity it has to offer. I love the smaller population centers scattered in the vastness of the peninsula’s 16,452 square miles, and I love the rugged landscape of our forests, land & lakes.”

“I have many personal interests, but I particularly enjoy music (I play guitar); photography (I like family, landscape & wildlife subjects); hiking; camping; and ANY opportunity to travel

Bob has been serving on the Hiawatha Interpretive Association board for 5 years. Bob is a graduate of University of Wisconsin, Green Bay with a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Control.

Bob is a retired fisheries biologist having spent 31 years with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, plus time spent as fisheries technician with Kansas Fish and Game and U.S. Forest Service. Since retirement, Bob has been actively volunteering. The volunteering Bob spends his time pursuing includes:  the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with outreach education, the National Park Service with North Country National Scenic Trail maintenance, U.S. Forest Service -Grand Island National Recreation Area with recreational maintenance and invasive plant removal, The Nature Conservancy with trail maintenance and Monarch Joint Venture conducting monarch butterfly surveys.

Bob is interested in native plant gardening. Bob has been growing and cultivating many of my own plants for over 10 years.

After 31 years of teaching Art and Alternative Education in Manistique, Wisconsin, Costa Rica, and a summer in Thailand, Johanna and her husband retired in Marquette. She spends her days volunteering in Marquette with the Regional History Center, and the Children’s Museum, working as a League of Women Voters board member, and when there is time, hiking, swimming, skiing, and traveling. Her new love is her grandson, Steen.

Jane Ryan joined the HIA Board several years ago in order to maintain a connection to our wonderful forests and Grand Island. Jane enjoys working with the dedicated HIA Board members. Jane believes in our mission to educate visitor about the value of our public lands and to encourage good stewardship.

Jane is a retired school teacher and on the verge of turning 80 (‘20). Jane moved to Marquette in 1968 with her husband, Randy. Jane and Randy raised two sons. Together they loved outdoor sports. Especially winter sports like skiing, snowshoeing, and ice skating. The family cottage on Lake Superior provided the opportunity to enjoy biking, hiking, backpacking, and water sports with their sons. Fly-fishing and grouse hunting were among Randy’s passions.

Upon retirement in 1998 Jane and Randy began a volunteering life in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore; checking trails and campsites during the summer for several years. Later they volunteered with the Forest Service, monitoring conditions in the Big Island Lake Wilderness and eventually working on Grand Island, again monitoring trails and campsite conditions and helping visitors plan their experiences.  Jane says the experience was wonderful and kept she and her husband out-of-doors for several days a week. Randy has since passed away but Jane still enjoys skiing Marquette Mountain or volunteering with HIA programs.

HIA Board Secretary

B.S. Applied Biology (botany emphasis) and Secondary Science Education from Ferris State University 

Retired Plant Ecologist, USDA Forest Service – 40 years of service on Hiawatha National Forest – Forest lead on native plant restoration from 1995-2017 – implemented environmental education programs for 40 years – coordinated native and non-native plant projects on the West Unit of HNF.

Volunteer work: Schoolcraft Conservation District board of directors, Co-chair AMITY of Manistique, Chapter Leader TOPS MI0628, Girl Scout Leader Junior Troop 5221, Kids Fishing Day committee and volunteer coordinator, member of Manistique Area LIONS club.

Hobbies: Photography, XC Skiing, Hiking, Mountain Biking and spending time out-of-doors with my furry kids Kyna (Miniature American Eskimo), Sunny and River (Golden Retrievers). 

A relative newcomer to the area, Sandy joined the HIA to become more familiar with the workings of nature related programming for kids and adults.  Giving time and financial support to provide experiences for groups of kids has become a fun way for Sandy to get familiar with these programs.

Before moving to the UP, Sandy came from a background of board work including a county wide start up program for the homeless in McHenry County, Illinois, UCC (church) boards and committees as well as a board for the Family Health Partnership Clinic, a not-for-profit clinic serving the under-insured.  HIA is an entirely new sector that fits in with living in and caring about the environs of Hiawatha National Forest surrounding communities.

Sandy’s life in the UP consists of; backpacking, backcountry skiing, kayaking, cello and gardening are some of the activities keeping her busy.

Andie Balenger is a graduate student at Northern Michigan University, where she studies the administration of outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism. A proud native Yooper from Gladstone, Michigan, Andie grew up forging deep connections with the natural landscape. She spent much of her childhood exploring the streams, ponds, and rivers of Hiawatha National Forest, where her family’s hunting camp is located. Her love for the outdoors was nurtured through the abundant public recreation opportunities of Little Bay de Noc and the surrounding natural areas.

Andie’s research interests are deeply informed by the concept of Two-Eyed Seeing, a framework developed by Mi’kmaw Nation elders Albert and Murdena Marshall. This approach emphasizes the importance of weaving Indigenous and Western perspectives to foster a more holistic understanding of the world. Drawing on this philosophy, Andie is focused on developing a place-based management framework for recreation professionals in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula that bridges these two worldviews. Her academic work is driven by a strong commitment to creating sustainable, ethical, and inclusive outdoor experiences that honor the environment and the diverse communities that engage with it.

Greetings! My name is Jennifer Engstrom, please call me Jenny. I am a lifelong UP resident and an early retiree that appreciates our public lands.

My love for the outdoor trails began years ago as an escape from the stress of working in the healthcare industry, raising teenagers and caring for aging parents. To decompress, I began taking long hikes and found how therapeutic this simple exercise was.

After the children were grown, parents passed on and thirty years as a Registered Respiratory Therapist I was blessed to retire with my husband Chris in 2020. We immediately hit the road for eighteen months, exploring the USA in our camper. Along the way we volunteered at different state and national parks. By living in various public lands for months on end, I gained even more respect for these special places and how complex they are to protect.

In the fall of 2021, we returned to our beloved home in Marquette. My husband and I continued to volunteer with Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in 2022 and 2023. I also picked up a retail job at a local shop for the holiday seasons and started an AIRBNB rental in our home. The little business we created has been such a great experience as we enjoy meeting people from around the world and helping them enjoy the area we love so much.

As our business endeavors became more consuming, the flexibility to volunteer for months at a time became too difficult. My husband and I decided to focus on flexible volunteering and are now more involved with the Marquette Chapter of North Country Trail as Trail Angels, hike leaders and section adopters. In the spring of 2024, I chose to leave the retail job. Those shop skills proved to be an asset when I volunteered with the Hiawatha National Forest office in the summer of 2024. It was at the Munising branch that I was introduced to the Hiawatha Interpretive Association. Shortly after, a friend suggested I get more involved with this group, so I joined the Hiawatha Interpretive Association’s Board of Directors. It certainly is interesting how life leads us where we are meant to be.

I am outdoors to my core and I love living in a place where the seasons change. I fully embrace all that the natural world has to offer ~ from paddling my SUP or canoe, to hiking the trails, camping, birding, tracking, fishing, snowshoeing, skiing, backcountry camping, and biking. The Hiawatha National Forest is the place to be ~ and I use all of these experiences outdoors to spur my creativity and curiosity in order to create art and to learn.

My name is Jody Henseler and I live in Traunik, MI on my family’s homestead. I grew up running through the woods, camping, and paddling the lakes and rivers around the Upper Peninsula and northern Wisconsin. Currently, I am an Assistant Professor at Northern Michigan University (NMU) as well as a STEM Education Consultant at Glenn T. Seaborg Mathematics and Science Center, NMU.

I have a MS Degree in Natural Resources: Environmental Education from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. I also have a BS Degree in Elementary Education from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point — with which I taught upper elementary-8th grade science for 33 years. During this time, I was a member of our School Forest Advisory Board, a board member of Woodland Dunes Nature Center, a co-chair hosting a Wisconsin Association for Environmental Educators conference, and learned onboard research vessels on Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. I have also helped create a mural for Sea Grant Wisconsin’s 50th Anniversary for the city of Sturgeon Bay, WI as well as working with NOAA’s Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary to get students and teachers on the water.

I became a member of the Hiawatha Interpretive Association’s Board of Directors because what we do and what we are about, is who I am. I have volunteered for  many different organizations through the years, all having to do with the outdoors.  Becoming a board member gives me the opportunity to continue sharing my  expertise and passion in the outdoors to hopefully ignite interest, enthusiasm, and creativity in the great Hiawatha National Forest.