Meet our current board members!
Dana Stahl - Executive Director
Executive Director, Dana Stahl, has been with KCCB for 5 years. Dana lives in the country in Murray with her husband, their four dogs and a revolving door or foster dogs that she rescues along with many foreign exchange students. Dana grew up in rural Northern Michigan and it was there she developed a great love of the outdoors and a passion for recycling by collecting cans to earn extra money for college. Michigan has a bottle bill, and it was quite lucrative 20 years ago to collect cans for a teenager! Dana’s passions are reading- mostly historical fiction, walking her dogs, riding her horse Roko, volunteering and traveling the world to explore new cultures. Dana is very passionate about waste reduction; she believes most items that enter our landfills don’t really need to be there. Through teaching refuse and reduce as top priorities and promoting repurposing, composting and recycling secondly, we can drastically reduce our waste and increase the health and longevity of the planet. Dana especially loves teaching environmental lessons at schools, leading enviro club and talking to Cass County resident’s about environmental topics and piloting new innovative programs such as the glass recycle drop off in Plattsmouth. Her favorite new initiatives with KCCB are pumpkin recycling and the sustainable dinnerware program that eliminates hundreds of pounds of single use plastic in Cass County every year! Each day Dana lives by the motto “Be the change you wish to see” by picking up at least 1 piece of litter every.single.day and refusing to use any single use plastic.
Cindy Cruse - Assistant Director
Cindy Cruse has been fulfilling the role of assistant director for nearly two years. She is the mother of six along with four dogs. She loves to read, walk, play sports and be home with her kids and pets! Cindy said it was by happenstance that she came to work for KCCB. Dana and Cindy attended rotary together and she heard KCCB was hiring; she was immediately interested as she wanted to be part of something meaningful and that even her kids could help and learn from and decided to give it a try. Cindy states that having a husband who is a contractor and has a lot of “stuff” makes it a challenge to reduce waste but she’s improving every day. Cindy says her main role with KCCB is to be a “2nd Dana”, on call and ready whenever needed. There hasn’t been a job so far Cindy has failed or at least tried to do! Cindy notes that Dana and her work perfectly in sync together as a team and that it’s been a real blessing having this opportunity to learn so many real-life lessons on how we can make the world a better place. Cindy said her dream for KCCB is to have Cass County fully embrace KCCB, “we do so much work behind the scenes that others don’t see but if we can get our entire community to support us and take action, we can truly make Cass County the best place to work, play and live!”
Sydney Honaker - KCCB Intern
Sydney Honaker grew up in Beaver Lake and is currently a sophomore at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She is pursuing a degree in Environmental Science as well as Fisheries and Wildlife. Sydney will be working with KCCB to help with community engagement and social media posts. Sydney became involved with KCCB first as a volunteer sewing reusable bags, helping with litter cleanups and working at our booth at the Cass County Fair. We noticed her great passion and knowledge watching her interact with the public! Sydney said she became involved with KCCB as she is passionate about bettering her local community and the desire to have a positive impact on the environment. She hopes her time with KCCB will be a time of growth for herself and the organization. She wants to encourage more people to make simple life changes that help our environment. In her free time, Sydney likes to read, paint, sew and hike. She has also started quite the collection of houseplants boasting a collection of 30 different plants. At college, she enjoys Husker Football games and being on the UNL Soil Judging team. Welcome Sydney! We are so glad to have you working with KCCB!
Elizabeth Umshler - President
Eagle resident, Elizabeth has been a member of KCCB for 5 years and is the proud mother of a daughter and fur babies. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends and likes to golf in her free time. Elizabeth decided to become a member of KCCB after doing several litter cleanups in Eagle coordinated by KCCB as she wanted to get more involved. She is very passionate about beautification in the county and doing what she can to support environmental education and betterment for the community. Her dream for KCCB is to continue to engage and educate younger generations so they can have a better understanding of the importance of recycling, composting and creating litter free environments.
Monica Battreal - Vice President
Our newest board member Monica Battreall is married to Mike Battreal and together they have three grown children Brennon, Savanah and Gavin along with three pups Athena, Willow and Harley and an “eccentric” cat Penelope. Monica works for Congressman Flood with a focus on the Cass County area. One of her families’ favorite things to do is be outdoors, especially at the lake. She loves being with her family, reading, especially cookbooks, novels and mysteries, she especially loves wine and dreams of visiting Italy someday. Monica grew up volunteering so when she met the passionate director of KCCB, Dana Stahl, she knew she wanted to become more involved. In addition, Monica’s daughter Savanah has also become very passionate about conservation and has encouraged her mother to get more involved in environmental pursuits. Monica states she has always loved being involved in the local community and is excited to serve KCCB. “Pollution is our current reality and it’s going to require that we all give a bit to make a difference.”
Rachel Brandenburg – Treasurer
Rachel has served on the KCCB board for 4 years and has lived in Cass County for 9 years with her husband, three kids and two beloved dogs, they reside in Beaver Lake. Originally from Rural Nebraska, her passion for environmental health began early on a memorable 3rd grade litter cleanup field day. Rachel said, “despite an unfortunate incident with broken glass that required stitches, she felt a strong pride in contributing to our community’s cleanliness.” Outside of KCCB, Rachel enjoys the outdoors-walking the dogs, exploring the county or going to events with her kids. She also enjoys crocheting and crafting. She especially loves KCCB’s annual “Trash to Treasure” event where kids use recycled materials often thrown away to make a new treasured item. Rachel became a board member as she was drawn to an organization that prioritizes environmental education and advocacy for a cleaner and greener future. She is grateful for the practices of reduce- reuse-recycle and admires KCCB’s Director, Dana Stahl whose passion and commitment drives our mission and vision forward. Rachel’s dreams for KCCB are to continue to grow our youth engagement within the organization and encourage young minds to take an active role in environmental stewardship which is crucial for sustainability. She also hopes that KCCB continues to grow a stronger volunteer network throughout Cass County, fostering a community-driven approach to environmental conservation.
Debbie Vidlak - Secretary
Debbie, a resident of Union, has been a member of KCCB for 7 years and has served in several different roles over the years. Debbie has a masters in pathology and microbiology and currently works at UNMC as the project coordinator for the Buffet Cancer Research Center Clinical Trials Office. In her spare time, Debbie volunteers with several nonprofits focusing on community improvement, sustainability and animal rescue. Her passion is community cat welfare, and she volunteers as a TNR (trap, neuter, release) coordinator for a local rescue group. Debbie learned about KCCB through a mutual acquaintance who was very passionate about the programs with KCCB. The values of KCCB aligned well with Debbie’s and she feels engaged and invested in making positive change in her community serving on the KCCB board. Debbie’s goals for KCCB are to work towards long-term sustainability such as waste reduction and recycling. In addition, to have the core goal to continue beautifying the community.
Karin Forest
Karin has served on the KCCB Board since 2020 and lives with her husband Jim and is a mother to three grown sons. Karin’s hobbies are gardening, reading and dog and cat rescue. She is a master Gardener and has been involved with Happy Paws Rescue for 10 years. Karin was born and raised in SW Germany and moved to the states in 2001. Her interests with KCCB are beautification, gardening and conservation. Her passion is to focus on education on environmental issues such as water conservation, native plants and water quality. She is particularly concerned about microplastics and believes in focusing on reducing and reusing wherever possible.
Jim Petersen
Former Cass County Commissioner Jim Peterson has been a resident of Eagle for 51 years. Jim lives with his wife Colleen whom he has been married to for 55 years, they have four children and five grandchildren. Jim was formerly a Jr. High Band Director at Waverly schools and for 25 years has been directing the choir at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Elmwood! Jim is the owner of Midwest Insurance exchange and is slowly transitioning this business to his daughter Erica. Jim has served as president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Nebraska and Liaison to Keep Nebraska Beautiful when he served as commissioner. Jim enjoys living on an acreage, being able to garden and enjoy nature, he also loves to fish. Jim has been involved in KCCB since the very beginning, his first role was facilitating the purchase of recycling trailers for the communities of Cass County and being a part of the establishment of KCCB. He is excited to again serve on the board in his retirement. Jim is especially interested in expanding public awareness of solid waste issues and increasing recycling rates and composting. “Our community needs a sustainable, viable plan” Jim states. Jim was elected to the board in January 2024.
Steve Dodd
Retired U.S. Navy, Plattsmouth resident, Steve is a former president of KCCB since 2021. Steve and his wife Julie are both active members of the county recycling and composting communities and are constantly searching for new ways to reduce their footprint on the planet. Steve’s hobbies include motorcycling and volunteering for many organizations such as KCCB and veterans’ organizations. Steve decided to get involved with KCCB when he discovered that Cass County doesn’t have a landfill and exports all its waste to Iowa and parts of Nebraska. With this discovery, Steve felt it a duty to work towards a more sustainable future by working towards a circular economy where everything gets reused, recycled or composted. One large project that Steve assists with is the Environmental Fair and the St. Johns Fish Fry’s in which a new pilot program using compostables and recyclables diverting over 1,000lbs of landfill waste.