Valley Conservation Council is governed by a board of directors elected by our members. We have been fortunate over the years to have many talented, caring, and knowledgable people who can serve as directors from the many different communities in our region.
New to the 2012 Board: Kevin Craun, James Flory, Karen Hembree, Ryan Hodges, Bill Jones, and Judi Race.
Meet VCC’s 2012 Directors
Laurie Berman moved to Highland County in 1975. There she began taking an active role in local environmental protection while also being involved in green home construction and restoration as well as intensive organic gardening. In 1988 Laurie cofounded of Bear Mountain Outdoor School, an educational retreat center focusing on sustainable living and building skills. Some of her community involvement has included being founding board member and past president of the Highland Center, founding board member of the Highland County Arts Council and founding board member and current president of Highlanders for Responsible Development, which is dedicated to the preservation and responsible use of the natural environment of Highland County. She is an avid naturalist, permaculture enthusiast, hiker, musician, and mother of three grown daughters.
Mark Botkin, former VCC Board Chairman, is a partner in the Harrisonburg law firm BotkinRose PLC. Mark has substantial experience in estate planning and conservation easements. He is a frequent presentor on easement and tax topics. Having been raised on a farm in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, he enjoys helping farm families preserve their farmland for future generations. Mark has a BA from the University of Virginia and his JD from the University of Richmond School of Law.
Faye Crawford Cooper began her conservation career in the 1980s, serving as Director of Stewardship with the Virginia office of The Nature Conservancy. In 1990 she spearheaded the founding of VCC and later became executive director. She then became the first Valley regional manager for the Virginia Outdoors Foundation, helping landowners in the region conserve thousands of acres. Today she is the Virginia liaison to EPA’s Highlands Action Program and consults with landowners and organizations through her business, Cooper Conservation Advisors. An Augusta County native, Faye lives in Staunton with her husband Peter.
Kevin Craun is the owner/manger of the 300-acre Van Ike Farm on the North River in southern Rockingham County. He is the third generation to take over the responsibility of maintaining this family farm since his grandfather first purchased a portion of the land in 1929. Kevin has implemented many conservation practices on the farm, including placing land under a perpetual grassland easement. The farm demonstrates Kevin’s passions for preserving the land base that supports the intensive agricultural industry in the Shenandoah Valley and encouraging others to consider strong soil and water conservation. He holds a BS in Dairy Science from Virginia Tech and has worked in field positions with various organizations and agencies, including the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, USDA Farm Service Agency, and the Virginia Tech Dietary Phosphorus Research Study. Kevin is also actively involved in the establishment of the Shenandoah Valley Beef Cooperative. Kevin and his wife Patti enjoy family time with their young daughters who are learning to show livestock. You’ll often find the family cheering on the Hokie football and basketball teams.
James Flory studied at Eastern Mennonite College and received a BFA in sculpture and a minor in mathematics from James Madison University. In 1981, Mr. Flory founded the business Renaissance Stone Masonry, which specializes in historic preservation, conservation, and traditional stonework. A Rockingham County resident, Mr. Flory’s great, great, great grandfather moved to the Valley from Pennsylvania and settled in the Frieden’s church area. James resides with his wife Yvonne on a 10-acre plot west of Dayton, which was his great-grandmother’s home place. They recently purchased land in Highland County and have begun restoring the land and buildings.
Karen Hembree joins the board after serving on VCC’s development committee. A resident of Staunton, Karen also owns property in Rockbridge County and has a strong interest in conservation and architectural design. Currently, Karen is a Senior Financial Analyst with Sprint and oversees fiscal compliance for Sprint’s capital assets. With a great love of music, Karen serves on the Staunton Musical Festival Board of Directors. Karen also serves on the Board of the Valley Children’s Center and advisory board of the Staunton Performing Arts Center.
Ryan Hodges grew up in Bath County from age 12 and returned with his family in 1985, leaving behind a banking career in Atlanta, Georgia. He and his wife Mary have two children and live on the Jackson River north of Warm Springs where they raise trout, chickens, and bees. Ryan’s hobbies, fishing and cycling, have led him all over Bath and Highland Counties. Ryan is the chairman of the Mountain Soil and Water Conservation District, past chairman of VCC and is the founder of the Jackson River Restoration Foundation. Ryan is a partner of Virginia Hot Springs Realty, LLC, and Clarkson and Wallace and serves as the Principal Broker.
Keith Holland is both a farmer and builder based in Rockbridge County. In recent years he and his wife Penny have placed a number of farms under easement. Keith shares the concern of many in VCC: how to balance land protection and still provide affordable housing options for local working people. Keith represents the Buffalo District on Rockbridge County’s Growth Planning Committee.
Roger Houser is a fifth generation Page County farmer. Roger and his wife Debbie also run Luray Homes, a development and building firm. In 2007 they placed an easement on 100 acres of the family farm and plan to do more in the future.
Bill Jones and his wife Lee Elliott live on Chimney Run Farm, an 800-acre property in Bath County which they conserved in 2008. Bill is a consulting hydrologist with Environmental Data in Warm Springs. He studies physical hydrology of surface and ground-water resources with an emphasis on areas underlain by carbonate (karst) aquifers. He has studied karst areas across North America, France , Eastern Europe , China and Southeast Asia . Bill is the author of over twenty papers on karst hydrology and water tracing. He is the first author of “Recommendations and Guidelines for Managing Caves on Protected Lands” (2003) prepared for the U.S. Department of the Interior. Bill holds a BSF degree in Forest Management from West Virginia University and an MS degree in Environmental Science (Hydrology) from the University of Virginia. He is a director of the Karst Waters Institute, a fellow of the National Speleological Society, and serves on the board of the Cowpasture River Preservation Association and as a member-at-large of the Upper James RC&D.
Kurt Kunze of Botetourt County grew up on a dairy farm in northern Illinois. With a graduate degree in hand from Northern Illinois University he spent 10 years on active duty in the Air Force. In 1977, Kurt joined the U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) where, over a 20-year career he managed regional offices of the AID Inspector General in Panama, Kenya, and Egypt as well as serving at the headquarters office in Rosslyn, Virginia. Upon retirement in 1997, Kurt and his wife, Amparo, purchased their 150 acre farm in Botetourt County. They have since devoted their time to renovating their historic home and improving the farm. In 2002, they placed the farm in a conservation easement to protect its historic character, extensive woodlands, and wetlands.
Jim Lawrence of Winchester is a past chair of the Shenandoah Resource Conservation and Development Council where he represented the Lord Fairfax Soil and Water Conservation District. Lawrence serves on the Frederick County Easement Authority. He works as project coordinator for the Winchester Green Circle, a biking and walking trail along Town Run and Abrams Creek. He also coordinates tree planting and other projects for Opequon Watershed, Inc. and has done significant restoration work in support of trout habitat on Red Bud Run on the north end of Winchester. Jim graduated in 2001 from the Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute. His work experience includes restoration contracting, farming, and woodlot management.
Tom Lockhart is an attorney practicing in suburban Maryland. His roots in Warren County go back many generations and he is in the process of conserving his family farm there. Tom has been very active with Scenic 340 and their efforts to conserve important historic and natural heritage lands along the South Fork of the Shenandoah river.
Ann Morse has recently returned to Staunton, her hometown, and has lived in Botetourt and Shenandoah counties. She is a former VCC Board Member who served while residing in Botetourt County. While a VCC Board Member, she served briefly on the Board of the Virginia Conservation Network. In the town of Fincastle, she and her husband restored a 200-year-old log home, and Ann served on the Board of Historic Fincastle, Inc. Before that, Ann lived in Massachusetts and served on a Conservation Commission which administered the State’s Wetlands Protection Act. She also worked as a Regional Planner in Floodplain Management for the State Department of Environmental Management. She has worked most of her career for the National Park Service in Yellowstone and Shenandoah national parks as a ranger. She has a degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resource Management.
Bill Noack and his family have owned two historic farms in the Valley region, Meadow Mills in Page County and more recently, Brandenberg, a conserved farm in the Middlebrook area. Bill had a 37-year career with General Motors and from 1989 until his retirement from GM in 2002, he was the company’s director of public policy communications, based in Washington, D.C. In that capacity, Bill was responsible for developing GM positions on a wide range of public issues including energy, the environment, vehicle safety and international trade. He also was instrumental in creating auto and industry coalitions that generated greater public understanding of a number of environmental and technology issues. Today Bill has a consulting business, Noack and Associates. He and his wife Lois now live on a 40 acre farm south of Annapolis.
Judi Race moved from Pennsylvania with her husband, Don, in 1976 to Roanoke, and then to their Botetourt county farm in 1978. Living in an 18th century farmhouse and in a lovely rural setting, their interest in historical preservation and land preservation grew. After hearing a presentation on conservation easements by Faye Cooper in 2002, they began the process of putting their farm in an easement. Since then, they have acquired additional acreage which they have also placed in easement, and they and their two grown children and their families live on three preserved farmsteads on over 200 acres. Their interest in land stewardship and implementation of farm management practices earned them The Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation 2010 Clean Water Award. Since its inception, Judi has been a member of the Botetourt Community Partnership, a community group that discusses land use issues in the county. The Races raise beef cattle, a few chickens and enough veggies to keep them satisfied.
Tony Russell was a senior executive in the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries before moving with his wife, Jeanne, to the Shenandoah Valley in 1996. Tony is Executive Director of Lime Kiln Theater in Lexington and served previously in that position at Boxerwood Education Association (BEA). Prior to joining BEA, his local interests combined multiple business activities including Russell – Kettlewell Consulting, running his horse farm, engaging in restoration work, and participating in several successful community projects. He holds a BS and a Master’s degree in Biochemistry from Liverpool University, England. Having immigrated to the USA from the UK in 1992, Tony takes pleasure in the fact that he obtained his US citizenship at Monticello on July 4th (2005). Tony and Jeanne live on a conserved farm in southern Augusta County.
Ray “Buff” Showalter and his family have a poultry and cattle farm west of Dayton in Rockingham County. He and Debbie are both lifelong residents of that area. They recently placed an easement on 114 acres of land that incorporates practices providing significant watershed protection for the Dry River. Buff is vice-president of Poultry Specialties, an equipment supplier. His interests include hunting, fishing, hiking and playing music.
W. Denman Zirkle lives on his family’s farm in Shenandoah County and works out of New Market as the Executive Director of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefield Foundation. Denman served previously as chief executive officer of Carret and Company, a New York-based investment advisory firm. He is a board member of the Civil War Preservation Trust and a founder of the Zirkle Mill Foundation.
