Ivins Night Sky launched on January 8th, 2019. We are a 100% volunteer, not for profit, citizen organization. We registered as a Utah nonprofit corporation in February 2019 and received 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS in March.
Our mission is to improve, preserve, and protect the night sky over Ivins and our heritage of dark skies through environmentally responsible outdoor lighting, and to serve as a resource for City officials, residents, and businesses.
Directors & Officers
- Kai Reed (President)
- Christy Lueders
- Nathan Dupre
- Paul Andrews
- Louie Goldstein
- Roni Thomas
- Tim Povlick
Kai Reed – President
Kai has been involved with grassroots advocacy in southern Utah since she first moved to Ivins in 1998. She was the Administrative Director of Citizens for Dixie’s Future (now Conserve Southwest Utah), a local citizen’s advocacy group focusing on smart growth and sustainability issues. In 2011 she was one of the founding board members of Friends of Snow Canyon State Park dedicated to protecting and preserving the Park and in 2012 she helped create the Southern Utah Bicycle Alliance which works to make cycling safe and enjoyable for all cycling enthusiasts. She’s now very excited to be working with the Ivins Night Sky Initiative with the goal of achieving the International Dark Sky Community Designation.
Christy Lueders
Christy earned an MBA in finance from USC, worked for many years in corporate finance, then spent 11 years as the Chief Financial Officer of the YMCA of Greater Seattle, a large non-profit organization. She has enjoyed the night skies from early years of Girl Scout camping where she loved tent-less nights of brilliant skies. A resident of Ivins since 2008, she served as Treasurer on the board of Friends of Snow Canyon and is happy to work with INS to protect our night skies.
Tim Povlick
BSEE, MSEE, PE. Worked at So. Cal. chip maker of smartphones in the camera portion of the system. Responsible for color tuning camera sensors which required knowledge of color. Patents: 20150381890 20150381868, 320100253810, 4,462,102
Nathan Dupre
I grew up in New Orleans where I earned a BSEE from University of New Orleans. Moved to Seattle and had a great career at Boeing. Neither place could I see the night sky. Moving to Ivins in 2013 has been great and am honored to serve and work for saving our Night Sky.
LOUIE GOLDSTEIN
My formal education culminated in a doctoral degree from the Eastman School of Music, and in 2021 I retired from a 42 year career as a Professor of Music (Piano) at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. I am grateful to my wife, Vicki, for saying, during our discussions about what to do next, “what about moving to Utah?” Today we are amazed to find ourselves living in Ivins, with a patio facing Red Mountain. Our night sky viewing reminded me of long forgotten campouts in Northern Michigan. I am thrilled to see the stars again, horrified to learn how rare a sight it now is, and excited to be working toward preserving a small part of it.
Contact Us
Let us know if you want to participate by sending an email from the Contact Us page. We have a lot of projects planned, so it’s likely you will find something that intrigues you. We need all the expertise and help we can get.
Special thanks
We owe a special thanks to a number of people who have shared their expertise, including: Ivins Mayor Chris Hart for his encouragement, Mike Scott and Patty Dupre for starting this initiative, John Barentine and Adam Dalton at the International Dark Sky Association, Rosemary and Alan Bell, Joe Bill with the Fountain Hills Dark Sky Association, Manning Butterworth with the St. George Astronomy Group, Bettymaya Foott with the Colorado Plateau Dark Sky Cooperative, Joanne Kendrick with Keep Sedona Beautiful Dark Sky Committee, Ron Levandoski, Janet Muir at Ogden Valley Starry Nights, Grace Rickard with the Borrego Dark Sky Coalition, Lisa Rutherford and Paul Van Dam, Ed Stewart with Dark Skies, Inc., and many more.
Technical Committee
Michael Barton – US Naval Aviator; General Motors Research Labs, Semiconductor Physics; Intel Corp Sr. Sales and Marketing Mgr.; Entrepreneur with two successful NASDAQ IPOs.
Nathan Dupre – Elec Engineer Univ of New Orleans, Boeing System engineer.
Alan Koharcheck – Chief Operating Officer, Ktech Engineering
Tim Povlick – BSEE, MSEE, PE. Worked at So. Cal. chip maker of smartphones in the camera portion of the system. Responsible for color tuning camera sensors which required knowledge of color. Patents: 20150381890 20150381868, 320100253810, 4,462,102
Marty Spahr – Electronic sales engineer for 30+ years with Samsung’s LED division and Citizen LED. Expertise includes LED lenses, heat sinks, thermal solutions, metal clad PCB’s.
Community support
Updated: March 4, 2019
The initiative was launched in 2019 and continues today. Special thanks to Mike Scott and Patty Dupre. A number of people, organizations, and businesses have already expressed support for our effort to improve, preserve, and protect the night sky in Ivins, including: Snow Canyon State Park, Red Mountain Resort, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Colorado Plateau Dark Sky Cooperative, Ogden Valley Starry Nights, Leslie & Craig Andrews, Paul & Lois Andrews, Laura Birnbaum, John Browne, Paul & Olivia Buck, Kristine Bush, Richard Cline, Brian Cooke, Boris & Veronika Derugin, Marc and Chrystal Deshowitz, Donna Dizon, Nathan & Sarah Dupre, Rick & Susan Erickson, Diane & Doug Evans, Emily Evans, Kathleen Flanagan, Frankie Fleming, Bob Greely, Christine Haddad, Gordon & Jane Hanks, CJ Hansen, Rob & Kathy Herrick, Kathy Hoffman, Alison Holland, Lynne & Scott Johnson, Owen & Sandy Johnson, Judith Kapuscinski, Alan Koharcheck, John Kolb, Dan Krupicka, Annette Lamb, Rob & Carrie Lasich, Ron Levandoski, Christy & Joel Leuders, Philip & Jaynee Long, Betty & Ron Marianetti, Doug & Susan Mavor, Julie & Jerry Morben, Don Olson, Tennis & Patricia Olson, Brenda Peters, Diane Rezny, Ben & Liz Savage, Michael Slafter, Fletcher Shives, Ron Smith, Kathie & Marty Spahr, David Tall, Susan & Stephen Talley, Sally & Richard Tom, Ken & Shelly Weisbacher, Bill & Ellen Wentworth, Bob Whitbeck, Dow & Stacy Williams, Susan Williams, Vicki & Terre Wilson, Suzy & Roger Zumwalt.