Election Candidates 2021

Andrea Leslie is an aquatic ecologist who works for the NC Wildlife Resources Commission as the Mountain Habitat Conservation Coordinator, coordinating project review to minimize impacts to rare and important species and their habitats. She is passionate about working through partnership and has developed and supported aquatic conservation networks across Western NC and the broader Southeast US to implement species and habitat restoration, land protection, and community education.

She has a B.S. in Biology from University of Illinois (1989) and M.S. in Aquatic Ecology from University of Florida (2006). Before joining the NC Wildlife Resources Commission, she spent two years with the Peace Corps in Senegal, worked for the US Park Service at Mount Rainier National Park, and danced through several NC agencies, including the Division of Water Resources, Ecosystem Enhancement Program, and Natural Heritage Program.

Andrea has lived and worked in western North Carolina for more than 20 years. She loves all things to do with water – snorkeling, swimming, canoeing, and nerding out with insects, fish, crayfish, mussels, and salamanders. She crawls out of wetlands and streams to garden, hike, bird, hunt mushrooms, and botanize.

Jeremy McCargo is the Anadromous Research Coordinator for the NC Wildlife Resources Commission. In his role with the Commission, Jeremy assists district staff with Striped Bass, shad, and river herring monitoring activities, represents the Commission on ASMFC technical committees, coordinates closely with NC Division of Marine Fisheries staff, and cooperates with universities and non-governmental entities to research, monitor, and restore anadromous species and their habitats. He received his B.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife Management from NC State University in 2001 and M.S. in Forest Resources from the University of Georgia in 2004, after which he began his career with the Commission as the District 1 Assistant Fisheries Biologist.

Jeremy has participated at various levels of AFS for many years. He has been a member of the North Carolina Chapter throughout his career, and he also served a few years on the Southern Division AFS Warmwater Streams Committee. He was an active member of the NCSU Student Fisheries Society during his time at NC State, serving as undergraduate vice-president and was a member of the Georgia student sub-unit.

Jeremy enjoys spending his free time in the outdoors and tries to spend as many hours as possible enjoying the beach and surf fishing with his son and daughter. He is a huge sports fan and loves all things NC State.

Casey Grieshaber is the District 6 Fisheries Biologist for the NC Wildlife Resources Commission. Prior to District 6 she was the Assistant Fisheries Biologist in District 4. As a Fisheries Biologist for the commission, she conducts surveys and research on sport fish in Piedmont reservoirs and rivers. She has been involved with the North Carolina Chapter of AFS since 2014 and the parent society since 2011.

Casey received her B.S. degree in Marine Biology from UNC-Wilmington where she was involved in the Tidewater Chapter of AFS, presenting her research on Southern Flounder. Following this she worked for NC State University in Puerto Rico conducting research on amphidromous fishes. While in Puerto Rico she was able to attend the first ever Puerto Rico Chapter meeting (although it was in Spanish- a language she has yet to master- this was still a wonderful experience)! She then returned to North Carolina and began working on her M.S. degree at NC State University. This work focused on the impacts of contaminants on bass, sunfish, catfish, and the State-Endangered Robust Redhorse in the Yadkin-Pee Dee River.

After nearly two years at the Pacific Northwest National Lab in Washington State she returned to North Carolina and began a career with the Commission.

She hopes to increase her involvement in NCAFS and looks forward to future years with the chapter!

I was raised in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and I have been happy to call the Triangle home for the last 23 years. After earning my B.S. in Ecology and Environmental Biology from Appalachian State University in 2010, I worked an array of jobs ranging from retail to landscaping to shipping and receiving. From 2013-2016, I worked for the NCSU Fish and Wildlife Co-op Unit as a technician and it was during this time my dedication to freshwater fisheries conservation was solidified.  Following a year long technician position at the NC Wildlife Resources Commission with the Eastern Aquatic Wildlife Diversity program, I started Grad School at North Carolina State University studying Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology under the direction of Dr. Jay Levine. While in Grad School, I was an active member of the NC Student Fisheries Society and served as Treasurer in 2019. Upon completing my Masters work at NCSU in 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, I was lucky to land a newly created Aquatic Listed Species Biologist position at the WRC. Currently, I live in Hillsborough, NC and spend my free time hiking, biking, running, swimming and fishing wherever I can from the mountains to the coasts of North Carolina.