Meet Our Team

Jim Bays | President

Jim has worked as an environmental scientist for more than 45 years, studying wildlife and terrestrial ecology, and aquatic biology with a specialization in lakes and wetlands. As a technical consultant for CH2MHILL and Jacobs Engineering, he has led and participated in the planning and design of wetland projects worldwide for wildlife habitat, water quality treatment, aquifer recharge, and public recreation. He’s performed comprehensive studies on the water quality and aquatic ecology of wetlands, lakes, reservoirs, and estuaries within the United States and globally. Since 2007, he has enjoyed working with volunteers in the restoration of marshes and improvement of water quality in Crescent Lake in St. Petersburg. As President of SoUL, Jim is looking to encourage community-based groups to implement similar wetland and water quality projects on their urban lakes.

Margaret Zak | Secretary

Margaret is an environmental scientist with 37 years of professional expertise, having worked for the federal government, industry, and in environmental consulting. Her experience includes assessments and environmental/ecological remediation and restoration related to the current and historical effects of various land uses on environmental systems and she has helped to design studies to assess these impacts. Her passion for Crescent Lake stems from this work along with the desire to protect this natural resource for the enjoyment of the general public. Since moving to St. Petersburg, FL from Pittsburgh, PA in 2015, Margaret has enjoyed seeing how SoUL’s restoration efforts have attracted many forms of wildlife and recreators to the lake.

Lucy Trimarco | Director

Lucy developed her love of lakes while spending childhood summers on Lake Tonetta in New York. When she moved to the Crescent Lake neighborhood in St. Petersburg, she was surprised to see almost nothing growing in the lake and very little wildlife. The lake suffered regular algae blooms that occurred after frequent spraying with herbicide. This became the impetus to write the first of many Tampa Bay Estuary Mini Grants in 2007. She became a founding member of Friends of Crescent Lake that same year and has been active with the group ever since. She has been trained as a Florida Master Naturalist in Freshwater Systems, and as a data collector for Lakewatch. She also completed the Urban Lakes and Ponds workshop given by Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.

Achim Apweiler –VP of Fundraising and Board Member

Achim Apweiler is a humanitarian and development consultant at Apweiler Consulting LLC, based in St Petersburg, FL. He has 20 years of program management experience in international development, humanitarian aid and refugee response, including building and leading large-scale country operations and diverse teams. Achim is skilled at developing and managing consortium programs with International NGOs and the Red Cross / Red Crescent movement. Achim has been a key volunteer with SoUL since 2016 and is passionate about social equity and environmental improvement.

SaraEve Schaeffer- VP of Marketing and Board Member

Sara Eve is Principal of 108 LLC, where she focuses on human centered design, and is a Director with HSAG Inc, where she supports national quality improvement (QI) activities.

Sara Eve maintains the SoUL InstaGram media platform and is our principal outreach specialist on social media. A long-time volunteer with SoUL, Sara Eve focuses on making sure that the importance of our work is balanced with a perspective where we combine work with fun to the benefit of our local urban lakes.