Board of Trustees

Eric Sukalac
President

Eric Sukalac is Chief Product Officer for TPA Stream, Inc., a software service organization helping with administration of employee benefits. He has a B.S degree in Computer Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. Eric hopes to contribute his enthusiasm for Geauga County and its many parks, as well a strong technical and strategic planning background.

Keith Corkwell
Vice-President

Keith Corkwell, Senior Director of Driveline and Future Transportation for the Lubrizol Corporation, is returning to service on the Foundation board after taking a short hiatus after serving two prior 3-year terms. Keith contributes his strengths toward administration, management, fundraising and event support. He is active with the Boy Scouts of America, formerly as Camp Director and Cubmaster, now as Scoutmaster of Scout Troop 99.

Sheryl Vernon, CPA
Treasurer

Sheryl has worked as a non-profit accountant, taught accounting at a local college, worked as an external auditor for a local CPA firm, and performed internal auditing at a local university. Sheryl joined the Foundation in 2018 as a volunteer member of the Finance Committee and joined the Foundation Board as a Trustee in 2020. She began serving as the Treasurer in 2022. She grew up loving the Metroparks in Cuyahoga County and after moving to Auburn Township, began hiking in the many Geauga County parks with her husband.

Mary Beth O'Neill
Secretary

Mary Beth O'Neill is very happy to call Geauga County her home hailing from Buffalo, New York. Mary Beth served on the Board as secretary for the Foundation for 8 years from 2004-2012. She has recently returned to the Foundation because of her love for and commitment to all of our beautiful green space in the County and the opportunity to get everyone outside! When she isn't walking her dogs Casey and Cricket in the parks, she is a realtor with Keller Williams Greater Cleveland Northeast and makes sure everyone knows what a fabulous place Geauga County is. She also serves on the Ravenwood Health Board and is a proud graduate of Leadership Geauga.

Dan Best
Trustee

Dan Best, who is a naturalist retired from Geauga Park District, brings a wealth of knowledge to the Foundation in areas of natural and cultural history of our resources, and nature education. Dan holds a degree from Ohio State University School of Natural Resources, Environmental Interpretation. He is a Certified Interpretive Guide and Certified Interpretive Guide Trainer by National Association for Interpretation and has many connections in the Geauga community and Northeast Ohio conservation community. You will be sure see him as a regular participant in the Foundation’s Explorers Series hikes and other special events.

Linda Brown
Trustee

Linda, who joined the board in 2020, owns her business psychology practice where she works with clients’ people-related needs in talent management, assessment, and executive coaching. She finds it difficult to sit at her desk for hours so she hikes our Geauga park trails regularly, treasuring the precious gifts that these wonderful spaces afford us.

Matthew Burnham
Trustee

Matt is the Managing Partner and Chief Compliance Officer of Auxin Group Wealth Management. He became an active member of the Foundation in 2018 and joined the Board in 2020. In addition to his role as Vice President, he is also the Chair of the Investment Committee. Matt, his wife and two young children are relative newcomers to Geauga County having moved to the area from Akron in 2018. He has a passion for the outdoors and felt our county’s geography and park systems were an ideal location to share this with his children. You can regularly find him running or hiking on the more challenging trails of Geauga County.

Andy Bushman
Trustee

Andy joined the board of trustees in January 2023 after volunteering on committees through 2022.

Adam Henry
Trustee

Adam is the General Counsel & Senior Portfolio Manager for Rosenthal Capital Management where he focuses on portfolio management and compliance for the firms three independent hedge funds. Adam originally served on the Foundation Board starting in 2013, before taking time off. He returned to the board in 2019. In his current role as co-President, he will guide all board committees. Born and raised in Geauga County, Adam now lives in Chagrin Falls and enjoys exploring Geauga’s parks with his wife and two sons.

Kyriaki Karalis
Trustee

Kyriaki Karalis has served on the Foundation’s Advancement Committee since 2020 and is now joining the board as Trustee. Kyriaki is Digital Media Strategist for Meister Media Worldwide and plans to contribute her expertise in strategic planning and event planning with her eye on branding and customer experience. Kyriaki is an avid cyclist and a former board member of Cleveland Area Mountain Bike Coalition. She has experience planning outdoor events and is leading the Foundation’s Race Committee in the transition of Geauga Park District’s Caveman Crawl to the Foundation for Geauga Parks.

Carl Langer
Trustee

Carl is an attorney who joined the board of trustees in 2018. When he is not serving as a business advisor, contributing to growth strategies, effectively managing corporate governance, identifying risk, and creating executive compensation programs, he can be found riding horse trails in and around Geauga County.

Marcia Owen
Trustee

A long time Geauga County resident, Marcia has been a park appreciator since growing up among the fields and forests near Punderson State Park. A graduate of Ohio University with a B.A. in Business Administration, she has broad experience in operations management and business development from her years working in the digital media industry and in nonprofit economic development. Her most recent success has been in the role of Director of Operations for Geauga Growth Partnership. She also serves on the Geauga County Genealogical Society and the Geauga Public Library Foundation. You will likely find her hiking one of our many Geauga and NEO parks or taking trips with her husband to hike in our National Parks.

Mark Sarlson
Trustee

Mark joined the board of trustees in January 2023. He is an attorney with Roetzel & Andress, and is active on the boards of Prevent Blindness, Cascade Capital Corporation and Growth Capital Corporation. Having served nonprofits for nearly 30 years, Mark brings a wealth of experience to FGP. For the past seven years he has explored many parks in Northeast Ohio and is looking forward to being more involved in Geauga County.

Richard Frenchie
Emeritus Trustee

Richard J. Frenchie’s passion is for education, health care and philanthropy. He has served as a Director on many boards, working to make a difference both for Geauga County and Ohio. Richard served on the Foundation’s board from 2008 – 2014, the last five years as President, and currently serves as an Emeritus Trustee. Richard lives in Chagrin Falls.

Paige Orvis
Director of Development & Marketing

Paige Orvis, a long-time Geauga County resident, has grown deep roots in the county’s conservation community. She previously enjoyed a long career with Geauga County Park District which helped prepare her to hit the trail running and advance the work of the Foundation. Paige is a graduate of Kent State University with a B.A. in English and Creative Writing, and has experience in marketing, communications, and development, most recently for Geauga Growth Partnership. “The conservation and protection of Geauga County’s unique natural resources has been a core value of mine from a young age.” says Ms. Orvis. “I couldn’t be more pleased to assist the Foundation in furthering its mission.”

Erin Stevenson
Administrative Associate

Erin joins the Foundation with a sincere interest in the outdoors having grown up in rural Pennsylvania among the trees and streams of her family’s forest. She has extensive experience as a business analyst having worked for environmental consulting firms and local companies, most recently with the Eaton Corporation. Erin is a Penn State University graduate with a B.S. in Environmental and Renewable Resource Economics. She resides with her family in Chesterland and engages in numerous volunteer activities for West Geauga Schools' PTO, Cub Scouts, and as a softball coach. When she is not working or volunteering, you will often find Erin cheering for her kids on various sports fields or participating in Geauga Park programs with (or without) her children.

Sue Atkinson
Bookkeeper

Sue joined the team in 2021 to provide assistance with bookkeeping and finance. She supplements her work as an independent consultant, providing business financial and operations management assistance, office design and relocation, commercial real estate investment and sales assistance. Sue will often be found in the parks with grandchildren and dog Tina.