Our Staff
Benjamin VanDyke | Program Coordinator
Benjamin joined the CAKE CISMA team in the winter of 2018 as program coordinator. He graduated in May of 2018 with a B.S in Environmental Biology from Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids. During college, Benjamin attended the Au Sable Institute of Environmental Studies in Mancelona, where he took field work classes in land resources and wildlife ecology, all the while developing an appreciation for the natural beauty of northern Michigan. Benjamin has worked to educate and inform the public on natural resource conservation through working at the Mackinac State Historic Parks, the Kalamazoo Nature Center and the Battle Creek Outdoor Education Center. He enjoys meeting new people, hearing their stories and connecting them to ways that they can better protect, preserve and defend their local wildlife and other natural resources. In his spare time, Benjamin hiking and exploring the local nature preserves.
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Ed DeRosha | Strike Team Crew Leader
Ed is life-long resident of northern Michigan, a devoted dad and an environmental advocate. He earned degrees in advertising and social science/education at MSU and, after many years, resumed his formal education in preparation to work for environmental concerns by earning a bachelors in freshwater science at Western Michigan University’s remote program at the Northwestern Michigan College campus in Traverse City. A rewarding summer internship with the Elk-Skegemog Lakes Association further stimulated his passion for protecting the unique watershed of this area. Ed lives on Skegemog Point, where he enjoys cooking, writing bad poetry, and viewing wildlife from his house and kayak.
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Keegan Angerer | Hemlock Survey Technician
Keegan is a Michigan native and a graduate of Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Natural Resource Management and a minor in Biology. Keegan has an interest in invasive species management and prevention, and will be assisting the CAKE CISMA with hemlock woolly adelgid surveys throughout the CAKE service area. Prior to joining the CAKE CISMA staff, Keegan worked as an ecological monitoring technician in Nevada for the Great Basin Institute, where he monitored invasive species populations and the ecological quality of native habitats. Keegan is also a Scuba Schools International certified divemaster; he worked in Honduras for the summer of 2018 as a science divemaster where he led groups and performed captures, dissections and analysis of invasive lionfish.