San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance Board Members

Diane was born and raised in Sioux Falls, S. Dakota. She earned her Chemistry degree at the University of Florida and her degree in Podiatric Medicine in San Francisco. She did her residency at UT San Antonio and decided to hang her shingle in San Marcos.She has lived in San Marcos for 33 years. She’s been running on the trails for most of her time here and now enjoys mountain biking as well. She is a member of the Trail Crew and loves seeing a trail built from start to finish.Diane is Chair of the San Marcos Parks Board and acts as a liaison between SMGA and the City. Developing a strong relationship with the Parks Department is critical to building and maintaining our trails, conserving land and promoting all the benefits the Natural Areas provide.

Jon Cradit was raised in Martindale, running up and down the river and swimming in it with every chance. He grew up knowing how important the river is and learned how fragile the natural system that supports it is. As a kid he enjoyed camping with the local scout troop and eventually became a scoutmaster and a committee chair. A graduate of Southwest Texas State, with a degree in environmental management, he worked several years for Texas environmental regulatory agencies, and then moved to the Edwards Aquifer Authority, where he conducted karst studies and groundwater flow research from Uvalde to Kyle.Jon earned a state license as a Professional Geoscientist and a Registered Sanitarian. His main pastime is caving. He’s a member of the state caving organization and a Fellow in the national caving association. He has caved throughout the US and Mexico, enjoying the karst systems from the inside. He and his wife, Lisa, were early members of SMGA and SMRF. Jon has served as a director of SMRF and currently works as part of SMGA’s Trail Crew.

Born and raised in Austin, Eric Weeks developed a passion for nature while spending time outdoors as a Boy Scout. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Resource & Environmental Studies from Texas State University in the spring of 2014. During his last semester, he obtained a position leading the City of San Marcos’ Conservation Crew mitigating impacts of river recreation. In 2015, Eric was promoted to Habitat Conservation Plan Specialist and later the Discovery Center Coordinator. Eric is passionate about environmental stewardship, particularly invasive plant management and native restoration. He leads monthly natural area volunteer workdays. In his free time, Eric enjoys hiking, gardening, and spending time with his wife and two dogs.

Alan Holzgrafe moved to San Marcos in 1984 from Wichita Falls to attend Southwest Texas State University. It was the start of a wonderful relationship with a very special city. It was also the beginning of lifelong friendships oriented around caving, paddling, and enjoying many of the area parks and green spaces. He spent free time caving with the campus caving club, paddling the San Marcos River, participating in river cleanups, and going on many campus Outdoor Center sponsored trips. He worked at the campus Aquatic Biology Department, at the U. S. Fish Hatchery on McCarty Lane, and the Edwards Aquifer Research and Data Center. He graduated with an accounting degree in 1988. He sees himself more a biologist at heart than an accountant.Since the start of his career took him to Guam, his relationship with San Marcos became a distant one, but he visited every chance he got to pick up where he had left off. In 1995, he returned to Texas to continue and complete his career in San Antonio. Since last summer he has been working with the SMGA trail crew. He remains eager to spend time and energy on continuing that wonderful relationship with San Marcos and the area that became so special to him in 1984.

A native Texan, Susan moved to San Marcos 50 years ago to begin her junior year at Southwest Texas State University, where she earned both her B.A. and M.A. in English. With her husband, Larry, she has a grown daughter, son-in-law, and five-year-old granddaughter, who live in Austin.In addition to teaching English at Texas State for nearly 40 years, Susan worked for 20 years as a newspaper journalist in San Marcos—primarily at The Daily Record, and later at The Chautauquan—and served as lay chaplain for the Episcopal campus ministry (and later with the joint Episcopal-Lutheran ministry) at Texas State from Jan. 1995 to Aug. 2007. She has been retired since the end of 2017.Susan’s favorite pastimes are snorkeling and canoeing, watching and photographing birds and other wildlife, gardening with native plants, traveling, playing 12-string guitar, reading mysteries, and spending entirely too much time on the computer. Susan is the author of Icons of Loss and Grace: Moments from the Natural World (Texas Tech UP) and co-editor of What Wildness Is This: Women Write About the Southwest (University of Texas Press). Her work has been anthologized in Getting Over the Color Green (University of Arizona Press), Let There Be Night: Testimony on Behalf of the Dark (University of Nevada Press), and To Everything on Earth (Texas Tech UP). She has critical essays in Seeds of Change: Critical Essays on Barbara Kingsolver and Artifacts and Illuminations: Critical Essays on Loren Eiseley. Her work has also appeared in numerous publications, such as ISLE, Southwestern American Literature, Texas Parks & Wildlife, Northern Lights, and EarthSpirit.

Scott was born and raised in Florida where he grew to love the ocean, classic rock and blended cultures. After college in North Carolina, he served in the Peace Corps for 2‑1/2 years in the Pacific Islands of Micronesia where he learned to love the simple life, gracious people and fishing. He has lived in San Marcos for the last 30 years, getting his graduate degree at SWTSU as a licensed professional counselor.
Scott has worked on the Trail Crew for 7 years and is presently Chair of the Stewardship Committee. He was instrumental in getting the crew our first work truck as well as other machinery and often leads the crew on their weekly workday.”Being in nature is where I find my solace and sanctuary. We are so lucky to have so many great trails in our neck of the woods…. Life is good! “

As Communications Manager for The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University, Anna Huff is both passionate in her public relations practice and committed to inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards. She received a Bachelor’s of Science in Public Relations from Texas State University in 2015. She has served as a Board member and a member of the Outreach Committee for SMGA since 2016, where she helps raise awareness about the important work SMGA does to keep greenways and trails accessible to the San Marcos community.

Matt Lewis moved to San Marcos from Houston at the age of 15. In 2003, he earned a degree in geography with an emphasis in urban and regional planning from Texas State University, and in 2011, he received his urban design certification and Congress of New Urbanism Accreditation (CNUa) at the University of Miami, School of Architecture.Before launching Simplecity.Design, Matt spent his public sector career, between 2004-2016, as the Director/ Assistant Director in three of the fastest growing communities in the nation—Hutto, San Marcos, and Austin. Relevant experience includes leading Vision San Marcos: A River Runs Through Us, winner of the Central Texas APA Current Plan of the Year in 2013, which included extensive public outreach and written to be a concise strategic planning document created for every day users; and directing the Heart of Hutto Old Town Master Plan & Smart Code, winner of the 2009 Envision Central Texas Community Stewardship Award honoring innovative projects helping to preserve and enhance our region’s quality of life, natural resources, and economic vitality.Through Simplicity.Design, Matt is committed to preserving the natural environment by enhancing the design and quality of our built environment. Nationally recognized for his award-winning designs, he is considered an industry leader for his ability to establish a community vision through fun and innovative engagement and turn it into a fiscally sustainable reality.

Matt spends his free time at the river, on the trails, and at the skatepark.

Greg grew up in Houston and developed a love of the outdoors when sailing with his dad and camping as a teen in the great parks of Texas. Greg got his bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Baylor University, then spent 7 years back in Houston at Baylor College of Medicine, where he also completed his residency in Internal Medicine. He semi-retired in March 2021 and began working with the SMGA trail crew on Thursday mornings. He continues to work with Christus Hospice-San Marcos.Greg has lived in San Marcos since 1988. He enjoys the Hill Country and sees the need to preserve greenspace as this area’s population expands. He spends time working on his property with an eye toward improving it for local wildlife. He has served as a member of the City Airport Commission and the San Marcos Education Foundation, as an assistant scoutmaster for Troop 112, and as a member of the board of the Upper San Marcos Watershed District and various church committees. He enjoys hiking, sailing, and backpacking. Now that they have time, he and his wife are exploring and hiking parks throughout Texas and the country.

Andy Nance is proud to have served on the SMGA Board for the past three years and is looking forward to a second upcoming term. Andy completed his Masters of Architecture in 1996, graduating from the University of Texas at Arlington. His interest in architectural ideas and forms prompted him to travel extensively throughout Europe and the United States, visiting many of the great buildings of the world.After graduating he moved to New York City and worked for Skidmore Owings and Merrill on large-scale international projects. His experience in the city has been an invaluable resource for architectural ideas and strategies. Following New York, Andrew moved to Boulder, Colorado, where he was an integral part of a design build firm, broadening his skill set managing construction projects.In 2002 he returned to Texas and began teaching along with practicing architecture. He has taught at the University of Colorado, the University of Texas at Arlington, San Antonio College, The University of Texas at San Antonio, and at Texas State University (interior design), and continues to work on a variety of project types.Andy moved to San Marcos in 2003 with his wife, Michelle, who teaches at Texas State, and was instantly drawn to the newly developing greenbelt spaces around the city. He is currently the chair of the Conservation Committee, which works with the COSM, land owners and regional conservation partners to identify possible new and existing real estate to better connect our green spaces. Though he is an architect and builder by trade, he really loves connecting with nature on our trails.

Olivia Palomares was born and raised in Paris, Texas. She earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the School of Healthcare Administration at Texas State University. She began her career in the nonprofit sector working with vulnerable groups, which helped her understand that effective marketing is an invaluable tool. Knowing how to get the resources you need thanks to effective communication makes a difference. Since working at nonprofits, Olivia has taken on various marketing roles at startups and enjoy the value that the role provides to emerging brands.

In her free time, Olivia enjoys spending time on the trails in San Marcos or swimming in the river.