Virginia’s Buffer Summit

Philippa Belsches is a facilitator, project manager, and consultant with Dialogue + Design Associates and has 20 years of professional experience in the nonprofit and private sectors. With a focus on facilitating collaborative networks, strategic planning, and partner engagement, Philippa is committed to supporting organizations and communities to envision and build strong and sustainable futures. Philippa holds a Master of Public Policy (MPP) from the University of Virginia and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service (BSFS) from Georgetown University. She lives in beautiful central Virginia.

Brandon serves the District as a Conservation Specialist and No-Till Equipment Manager for Clinch Valley SWCD. He works with producers on a voluntary basis to come up with solutions to agricultural issues, be it poor soil health, poor plant productivity, livestock access to water, and much more. The bread and butter and most common denominator of Brandon’s interactions with producers involve the establishment of a natural succession stream buffer.

A native to Russell County (Lebanon) and Department of Geology graduate from Radford University, he has worked in the private engineering and surveying industry primarily in the coalfields of Southwest Virginia. There, he has been an Environmental Scientist studying everything from geology to wetlands and the “wee-beasties” that live in Virginia’s freshwater streams.

He is proud to call Southwest Virginia home as well as his office. He looks forward to helping the people and places of this beloved region and being a trusted part of the community.

Jordon has worked for DCR/Virginia State Parks since 1999 in numerous roles. Over the last eleven years, Jordon has served as the District Resource Specialist for the seven parks in southwestern Virginia from Wilderness Road State Park to New River Trail State Park. Jordon has the opportunity to perform many unique tasks such as prescribed burning, trail maintenance and construction, invasive species treatments, RTE protection and monitoring, wildlife habitat management, chainsaw sawyer instruction, drone piloting, and other related resource management actions.

Thomas Burke joined Virginia NRCS as the State Forester in 2021. Prior to moving to Richmond, he was an Area Forester with the Virginia Department of Forestry working out of Halifax County. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2015 with a degree in Forest Management.

Kim  is a Conservation Program Manager for the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC). A forest ecologist by training, Kim’s work is currently focused on permanent protection of land and water resources and enhancing landscape connectivity. Prior to joining PEC, Kim worked as the natural resources manager for Albemarle County, and as a forest conservation specialist for the Virginia Department of Forestry, where she managed the agency’s forestland conservation and stewardship efforts throughout the Piedmont region. In the early days of her career, she worked as a rare plant botanist and vegetation ecologist with the Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service. She lives in Charlottesville and enjoys biking, cooking, and spending time with family.

Dr. Carol W. Doss is executive director of Upper Tennessee River Roundtable, a regional nonprofit based in Abingdon that serves nine counties and two cities in the Upper Tennessee River Basin in Southwest Virginia. She collaborates with agencies to plan and install on-the-ground projects to improve water quality of the rivers. Many projects include planting buffers to reduce erosion and sedimentation.

Carol coordinates many other projects, and education and outreach programs, which are all funded by grants. She helped develop several outdoor classrooms and co-authored two versions of an environmental education curriculum guide, with the most recent one called Teach The Clinch 2.0.

Upper Tennessee River Roundtable recently accepted ownership of the StreamSweepers program that employs a crew to clean up the rivers. This remarkable job training and cleanup program focused on the Clinch River for the past seven years, removing thousands of tires and other debris and litter. The crew recently hired by the Roundtable is busy cleaning up the Clinch in Scott County. Carol wrote several grant applications to secure funding for StreamSweepers. She is a native of Waynesboro, Virginia, and has lived and worked in Southwest Virginia for many years.

Amber is the Restoration Director for the James River Association where building diverse partnerships to get more projects on the ground is at the heart of her work. Amber serves as the convener for the Upper & Middle James Riparian Consortium and oversees the James River Buffer Program. She is also the owner of Find Your Nature, LLC where she holds restorative spaces for people to powerfully care for themselves, others, and the natural world. She earned a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture from Virginia Tech, is a Professional Landscape Architect in Virginia, a Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional, and has a certificate in Ecotherapy through the EarthBody Institute.

Christine is a professional facilitator, coach, and expert in building resilient communities. She also teaches yoga, meditation, and loves to be outside. Through her work as the Principal of Dialogue + Design Associates and host of the Yes! We Rise podcast, she guides civic leaders and community members to envision a more sustainable future and come together to make that vision a reality. A recipient of the Paul Dulaney Conservation Award, Christine has spent the last 20 years facilitating change nationally with a focus on Central Appalachia and the Chesapeake Bay. The granddaughter of a coal miner and a firefly scientist, she facilitates networks of change-makers and uses skills that include consensus-building, community planning, ecological design and mindfulness practices. Christine loves sailing, yoga and paddleboarding, and she lives at the base of the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia with her husband, two children, and an assortment of fruit trees and blueberry bushes.

Matt is the Director of the Virginia Department of Energy’s Division of Geology and Mineral Resources. He has been with the agency since 2003 and in his current role since 2022. Matt manages the activities of the Division, provides advice related to geology, mineral resources, and natural hazards, and serves on the Board for Professional Soil Scientists, Wetland Professionals, and Geologists. Matt previously worked for the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources and North American Exploration, Inc. He has diverse experience in geoscience that includes geologic mapping, mineral resources exploration, environmental hydrogeology, and geologic hazard assessment. Matt has taught part time for more than 20 years and has been teaching an introductory geology course at James Madison University since 2012.

Kevin began his park journey at a young age with influences from his grandfather and father. His grandfather, after returning from WW2, became the park manager of Warren Dunes State Park in Michigan. His father was also in parks for the entirety of his career beginning as a seasonal park ranger and ending his career as a grant’s writer and auditor for the DNR in Michigan. Kevin has a bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University with an Outdoor Recreation major and Leadership minor. He began as a college intern at Hungry Mother in 2011 as an interpreter and then rejoined the Hungry Mother team in 2016 as their Chief Ranger of Operations. He has since been an Assistant Manager of Operations at Shenandoah River State Park and the Assistant Manager of Administration at Hungry Mother before becoming the Park Manager in 2023. He has an amazing wife and partner Olivia and two smart and beautiful daughters.

Kevin serves as the Chesapeake Bay Program Manager for the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and is responsible for coordinating the state’s participation in the Chesapeake Bay Program. He previously served as the state coordinator for the Virginia Conservation Assistance Program (VCAP) with the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts (VASWCD). He holds a B.S. in Natural Resources Conservation and M.S. in Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation from Virginia Tech’s College of Natural Resources and the Environment. Outside of work, he enjoys life on the family farm with his wife, two young sons, newborn daughter, and an old hound dog, as well as many of the hiking trails found throughout the Bay watershed and beyond!

Patti has worked for the Department of Forestry for almost 25 years, in several roles and areas throughout the state. Earlier this year, she accepted the position as Watershed Program Coordinator for DOF, where she continues to promote sustainable management of Virginia’s forest resources to provide clean water. One of Patti’s favorite things about forests are the many benefits they provide to people and society. In addition to providing habitat for a variety of wildlife species, trees provide clean air, clean water, materials for buildings, medicines, and places of refuge from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. She enjoys hiking and backpacking when she has time, crocheting fun critters, and lives in the Shenandoah Valley with her husband Erik, and two children, Jake and Emma.

Molly is the Urban and Community Forestry Partnership Coordinator with the Virginia Department of Forestry. Molly assists communities throughout the state to help develop forest management techniques to foster the growth and health of Virginia’s urban forest canopy. She is an ISA certified arborist, tree risk assessment qualified and graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in Natural Resources Conservation with a minor in Urban Forestry. Prior to working for the Department, Molly worked as a Community Forester for the Wyoming State Forestry Division where she helped to enhance community forestry programs statewide. In addition to working in her position, Molly serves as programs chair on the Virginia Urban Forest Council, Trees Virginia, and manages the Throwing Shade VA program as well as the state’s Tree City USA and Tree Campus USA programs.

Jen is the neo-Appalachian artist behind MOONbow ARTworks. After spending ten years living in various parts of Alaska, where she established her art studio, she returned to Southwest Virginia in 2010. A lifelong painter, Jen has spent the last six years focusing on ceramics, illustrative drawing, and painting.

Inspired by the forests and mountains of Central Appalachia, Jen’s work celebrates the region’s native flora and fauna. Birds, bears, salamanders, wildflowers, mushrooms, and other wildlife that surround her home are recurring subjects in her paintings and pottery. Through paint and clay, she shares the beauty, wonder, and magic of the natural world, inviting others to bring a piece of the forest into their homes.

Ali Reilly serves as Education Specialist for Clinch Valley SWCD. Ali originally hails from the valleys and pastures of Shenandoah County but found her heart belonged to Southwest Virginia after graduating from Emory & Henry College in 2018. Her previous roles have included stewardship technician, garden manager, native landscaper, naturalist educator, and program coordinator, all with the common thread of reconnecting people to the land. Ali finds great joy in sharing her passions for the natural world with others, especially youth, and strives to spark a meaningful interest, appreciation, and respect for our environment in everyone she meets. Ali and her husband, Matt, are thrilled to raise their young son in the mountains, streams, and communities of their favorite place in the world–their home, Southwest Virginia.

Jared is a Castlewood, Virginia, native. He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from UVA-Wise. Having worked in the information security space for nearly a decade, he pivoted towards community and environmental health after helping to fight off a mega-landfill in his home of Russell County. He also volunteers at other nonprofits and sometimes helps with construction of new trails, locally. Outside of work, Jared is a passionate outdoorsman and craftsman. Weekends and spare time will see him blacksmithing, trail running, cycling, hiking, gardening, hunting or wood carving.

As the Wetland Program Lead for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, Ben serves as the statewide subject-matter expert on wetlands and leads the wetland habitat program. He and his team of wetland biologists identify, coordinate, and implement wetland management and restoration activities across the state. Prior to his current position, Ben spent four years as a consulting environmental scientist working throughout the Mid-Atlantic Region, with a focus on identifying onsite wetlands and other environmentally sensitive resources, wetland and stream mitigation bank site assessment and monitoring, and environmental permitting. Ben attended the College of Charleston where he received a B.S. in Biology and continued his education at Virginia Commonwealth University where he received an M.S. in Biology with thesis work focused on forest ecology and carbon cycling.

Wally is a Professor of Biology and Chair of the Department of Natural Sciences at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise. A herpetologist and conservation biologist by training, Wally’s work focuses on the impacts of land use and land use policy on Appalachian biodiversity, with an emphasis on management approaches that can benefit native amphibians. Prior to arriving in Southwest Virginia, he received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from The University of Alabama and his B.S. in Biology from North Georgia’s Piedmont College. Outside of his day job, Wally also serves as an elected Soil and Water Conservation Director for Wise County and currently serves as Area IV (Southwest Virginia) Vice Chair for the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts.

Caitlin is the Deputy Chief Resilience Officer within the Virginia Office of Resilience. She works closely with stakeholders at the local, state, and federal levels to support collaboration, information-sharing, and informed decision-making on all-hazards resilience across the Commonwealth. Prior to this role, Caitlin led the Virginia Department of Forestry’s Watershed Program (which is why she’s so excited to be here). She is grateful the Watershed program is now in such wonderful hands with Patti Nylander. Before working for DOF, Caitlin served as the 4-H Extension Agent and Unit Coordinator in Arlington County. Caitlin holds an MPA from Virginia Tech and a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Science and Hispanic Studies from the College of William and Mary.

David works part time, having mostly retired from Watershed Restoration Manager for Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, PA. Most of Dave’s past work focused on providing farmers and other rural landowners with the technical and financial assistance needed to implement agricultural conservation practices and forested stream buffers in southeastern Pennsylvania. Dave’s continuing work includes research projects to improve buffer restoration methods, consulting with the James River Association in VA, and doing educational/training events on buffers. Dave has degrees in natural resources management from the University of Wisconsin (MS) and Penn State’s College of Agriculture (BS), and lives in Lancaster County.