ABOUT
SARA CAMPFIELD, PRESIDENT
After graduating from Purdue, with a degree in agronomy, Sara worked in schools in West Central Indiana for nine years, including five years as a biology and chemistry teacher. In 2019, she was named executive director of the Putnam County Soil & Water Conservation District, and she, her husband John and their two daughters moved to Greencastle. The Putnam County Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD) is a government organization dedicated to helping residents and land owners in Putnam County preserve our natural resources. The SWCD can help with identifying natural resource concerns and getting technical assistance to help with those concerns. The SWCD office is co-located in the USDA Service Center in Greencastle.
Sara says she learned a lot about identifying plants by participating in FFA in high school. Today she is a member of PC RIP, the county’s task force to educate the public about invasive plants and work to remove invasive plants in public areas in Putnam County. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, hiking trails and camping.
LISA ZEINER, VICE-PRESIDENT
Lisa Zeiner is director of the Putnam County Planning and Building Department and Deputy Emergency Management Agency Director, both roles drawing from experiences in an extensive career. Before her current appointment in 2020, Lisa worked as an environmental health specialist for the Putnam County Health Department, at an engineering firm, in healthcare, at a title company, and with the Hendricks County Planning Department. She has extensive knowledge of zoning regulations, septic system design and construction, as well as land surveying and engineering, and emergency preparedness.
In 2008, Lisa and her husband, Todd, moved from Hendricks County into his grandparent’s farmhouse north of Fillmore. There they raised their four children and ran a dairy/beef farm. A grandmother of two, she homeschools her youngest child, who is in eighth grade. In her spare time, she enjoys knitting, sewing, hiking, and camping.
ASHLEY WELLS, TREASURER
After graduating from South Putnam High School, Ashley received her BA in economics and finance from Hanover College. In 2017 she established a consulting company, Lift Financial, serving as a Virtual CFO for small- to medium-sized businesses all over the country. At the same time, she earned an MBA from IU’s Kelley School of Business and a Master’s degree in agricultural economics from Purdue University. Today she also serves as Controller for Liberty Trailers, a Fillmore-based manufacturer.
An avid runner, Ashley loves the experience provided by the beautiful trails in Putnam County. She and her husband, Jackson, live with their four children at Heritage Lake.
JOHN GARNER
John and his wife, Gail, have lived in Putnam County for 45 years. John taught at Cloverdale High School for 10 years and spent 30 at Greencastle High School teaching chemistry, physics and environmental science. He is an active member of Cloverdale United Methodist Church and a 10-year member of the Greencastle Sustainability Commission, currently serving as board chair.
For the past five years, John has organized the Nature Play Days in Putnam County and serves on the Indiana Children and Nature Network (ICAN) committee. He is an administrator for the Putnam County Families in Nature group on Facebook, the catalyst for many pollinator gardens in the county and works with schools to organize outdoor areas and outdoor activities.
JUSTIN HALL
Justin Hall grew up in Greencastle and graduated from Greencastle High School in 2005. In high school, Justin was active in both cross country and track. He holds a Bachelor of Science in business management from Liberty University and has worked in quality engineering and engineering management for Crown Equipment for 10 years as well as Midmark and Resonetics (both medical device companies).
In 2018 Justin moved back from Ohio, to Greencastle, to be around family for his wife Katie and the adoption of their third child. He worked as a project manager for Duke Energy until 2022 when he decided to go into real estate full-time. Justin now manages his own rental properties, flips houses and works for FC Tucker, helping to build their property management portfolio as well as assisting buyers and sellers. Justin also helps with the management of the Little Walnut Creek Conservancy properties, trail and lake management.
Justin and his wife Katie have been married for more than 15 years and have three children, Charlotte (Charlie) is 13 and is in 8th grade at Greencastle Middle School, Boaz is 9 and is in 4th grade at TZ and Shepherd is seven and in 1st grade at Deer Meadow.
Justin’s passion is trail running and seeing people’s lives changed by pushing their limits. He has completed several ultra-marathons, the most recent being the Badger Trail 100-mile race in Belleville, Wisconsin. He has crewed and paced at some of the United States’ most prestigious races including the Western States 100 in Lake Tahoe, Eastern States 100 in Pennsylvania and the War Hammer 100 in Tennessee at the Sheltowee Trace Trail. Justin has the desire to bring this style of event to the Putnam County area. He understands the impact that a race of this size and style can have on the local economy as well as how it showcases the trails.
BRAD ONTROP
I’ve been married to my beautiful wife for 15 years and we have 7 children. We moved from Eastern Indiana over to Putnam County. This allowed me to join the Basecamp Country Real Estate team as a land broker and focus my real estate in the area I love the most, the outdoors!
I love to hunt deer, turkey, and small game, and fish the ponds and lakes near me, especially now that my children are old enough to share my passion for the outdoors. We spend our summers, boating, camping, hiking, riding our ATVs, working with and showing our 4H animals, and enjoying any chance we can to take a family vacation to explore all this country has to offer. My wife and I are very active in our home Parish, St Paul Catholic Church in Greencastle Indiana. We put our Faith, our family, and our friends first in our lives and in that order.
MATT OWENS
Growing up in Mount Meridian, Matt was homeschooled through his K-12 education and connected to the community through 4-H, sports and church. Working at Greencastle Physical Therapy his junior year, he discovered a career focused on optimizing health through movement.
Matt attended Bethel University, in Mishawaka, on a basketball scholarship, earning a bachelor’s degree in exercise science. During summers, he worked in the Plainfield Parks maintenance department. What started as a way to earn a little money, and get a pass to the aquatic center to access weights and the basketball courts, helped him see how public parks, trails and recreation opportunities positively impact the health and wellness of communities.
After earning his doctorate in physical therapy from IU in 2017, Matt began working at Athletico, in Greencastle, and today he manages the clinic. He, his wife Danielle and their four children, are involved in the community through events and opportunities associated with the parks, including youth soccer for their oldest two girls, ParkFest picnics with friends and the revitalization of a Greencastle running club on Tuesday nights. Outside of work and family time, Matt enjoys running, hiking, biking, disc golf, the occasional pick-up basketball game, and playing music.
BRITTNEY WAY
A Greencastle native, Brittney is chief photographer for DePauw University and owner of her own company, Brittney Way Photography. Her imagery wheelhouse includes storytelling, travel, lifestyle, and portraiture. She says the most enjoyable aspect of her work is “drawing out the authentic aspects of a subject through different perspectives of the lens.” She enjoys travel and drawing fresh inspiration from places around the world. In the last year, she added Yosemite and Iceland to her photography passport.
Brittney has a heart for the community. She joined the Putnam Parks & Pathways board as chair of its arts committee because she has many aspirational ideas to help the county thrive artistically. A quote she refers to as her motto is: “I am going to make everything around me beautiful – that will be my life.” Elsie de Wolf
Relationships are most important to her and she recently welcomed a new and very important family member, her daughter Jade. Becoming a mother has instilled in Brittney an even greater passion to be involved in the community, establish connections and help beautify Putnam County. She believes in making the world a better place now and for generations to come.
JIM WOODY
A Montgomery County native, Jim was raised on a farm where the original acres have been owned by family for more than 100 years, land recognized with the Hoosier Homestead Award. He continues to be connected with the farm with activities like mowing, invasive plant control, tree pruning, and wild mushroom hunting, “all the things no one else wants to do” on the 320-acre property.
A Purdue University graduate, with a degree in agriculture systems management, Jim’s career was in soil conservation work, with the Department of Natural Resources and Indiana State Department of Agriculture, serving a total of 30 years and 10 months. Retiring in 2020, gardening more has become a daily warm season activity – raising healthy produce for use, preservation for use later, and giving to family, friends and neighbors. He also became a lot more interested in invasives, saying it’s a learning process that started years ago on the family farm. Jim has lived in Greencastle since 1980 and quickly is becoming the go-to trail maintenance expert on the nearly 18 miles of People Pathways.
ERIC FREEMAN, STAFF
Graduating with an English degree from DePauw University in 1984, Eric returned in 2016 to serve as tourism director for the Putnam County Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB), the county’s marketing and promotion agency focused on leveraging Putnam County’s unique assets to encourage visitation and support economic development.
The CVB has focused on partnerships during his tenure, with the Putnam County Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Greencastle sharing the Visitors Center as a headquarters, creating a team approach to retail and restaurant development related to tourism. In 2020, the CVB assumed responsibility for People Pathways, the county’s 18-mile trail system, launching partnerships with Friends of the Park of Putnam County and the Putnam County Parks Board, which also now share the Visitors Center as a headquarters. The four organizations completed the county’s first five-year master plan for outdoor recreation and are now pursuing it as a team.
Eric holds a master’s degree in non-profit administration from the University of Notre Dame. He and his wife, Beth, a kindergarten teacher, have three children, with the youngest currently studying at DePauw.
MIKE RICHMOND, STAFF
With a B.S. in business marketing from Indiana State University, Mike launched a social media program for the Putnam County Visitors Center in 2018, where he also leads email marketing and website development. In 2019, he became executive director of Main Street Greencastle and still holds both positions, working under the title “Community Developer.”
A member of the Heritage Preservation Society of Putnam County board, Mike organizes the county’s First Fridays program which draws thousands to Greencastle’s Courthouse Square April through October, and he is a volunteer for many music and other events around the county. Mike is an avid trail runner and middle school cross country coach; he is also a golfer and an IU Basketball fan.
Indiana natives, Mike and his wife, Annie, a third-grade schoolteacher, live in the country south of Greencastle. His interests and work life find balance on the Putnam Parks & Pathways Board, where he co-chairs the Events and Public Relations committees and leads a variety of outdoor recreation-related marketing and design efforts.