We are Appalachia Rising

Planning Team

  • Greg is the Executive Director of Kentucky Natural Lands Trust, a conservation nonprofit working to safeguard biodiversity, stabilize the climate and support communities, with a primary focus in Central Appalachia. He has more than 25 years of experience as a conservation practitioner having helped protect tens of thousands of acres of wildlands. Greg has extensive knowledge of large landscape conservation including land acquisition, partnership collaboration, fundraising, planning, spatial data analysis/modeling and outreach/communications. He has worked for private, government and nonprofit organizations throughout the Appalachian region. Greg’s background is in forest ecology, geographic information systems (GIS) and design. He holds a B.S. in Natural Resources Conservation and an M.S. in Forestry from the University of Kentucky. Greg is the lead editor, co-¬author, cartographer and illustrator of Kentucky’s Natural Heritage: An Illustrated Guide to Biodiversity. Compiled by the Kentucky Natural Heritage Program, the book is an essential reference to the nature of the commonwealth and presents a persuasive case for biodiversity conservation.

  • Mark Burget currently serves as VP for Strategic Initiatives at Re:wild, a collaboration between the former Global Wildlife Conservation and Leonardo di Caprio. Re:wild protects and restores the wild, bringing together Indigenous peoples, local communities, influential leaders, nongovernmental organizations, governments, companies and the public to protect and rewild the Earth.

    Mark also is the Managing Partner of Tumalo Creek Partners, LLC, a mission-driven partnership dedicated to supporting the future of life. Tumalo Creek Partners works with non-profit organizations, private sector companies, leaders, communities, and philanthropists to improve strategic focus, recruit and retain extraordinary team members, and develop and deploy the financial resources necessary for mission success.

    Mark served as one of the most senior leaders of The Nature Conservancy, including as Chief Conservation Programs Officer, and most recently as Executive Vice President and North America Managing Director. In that role, he led nearly 3,000 staff in North America, including programs in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.  He was responsible for recruiting and nurturing an extraordinary team of high-performing leaders, executing conservation strategies, developing strategic partnerships, and raising funds to support priority projects.  

    Mark also served as President and Chief Operating Officer of the ClimateWorks Foundation, a $1B+ global philanthropic network focused on energy and land use policy in the U.S., China, India, Latin America and the European Union.  

    Mark earned both his J.D. and M.B.A. from the University of Virginia and his B.A. in Government from Dartmouth College. Mark has served on numerous boards, most recently including the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, the Volgenau Climate Initiative, the Energy Foundation (U.S. and China) and Allotrope Partners, LLC. He also has served on the boards of the European Climate Foundation, the International Council on Clean Transportation, the Climate and Land Use Alliance, the Institute for Industrial Productivity, and Bio-Logical Capital, LLC.​

  • Suzanne Dixon has 25 years of experience as a nonprofit executive leader. Dixon is an expert coalition-builder, policy advocate, and public communicator.  She is an accomplished fundraiser across individual donors, philanthropic institutions, and government funding sources.  She is co-founder of Thunderbird Strategies, a strategic consulting firm, and served as Senior Vice President at the National Audubon Society, where she led a team of more than 200 staff across the country to deliver bold, new conservation strategies and partnerships. She also co-led the transformation of Audubon’s Center Network from a public education model into policy and advocacy action centers. Dixon has served as President and CEO of the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and in senior leadership roles with the National Parks Conservation Association.

  • Matt Foster joined Re:wild in September 2019 as Director of Wildlands Priorities, where he provides strategic guidance to the Wildlands focal area in the protection of priority sites for saving threatened species and combating climate change.  Matt works with GWC team members and partners to increase the portfolio of site conservation investments through identifying Key Biodiversity Areas and other sites of high conservation priority that merit additional attention, and then developing projects to conserve these sites.  Additionally, Matt serves as one of the GWC representatives to the Key Biodiversity Areas Partnership committee and is a member of the KBA Technical Working Group.

    Prior to joining Re:wild, Matt consulted with the Global Environment Facility where he facilitated the development and then the initial implementation of a new suite of indicators to measure progress toward GEF goals during the next four-year cycle of GEF funding that began in July 2018. He also recently served as Science and Monitoring Manager at Rainforest Trust helping to standardize their methods for project selection and indicator reporting.  From 2011-2016 Matt served as Senior Conservation Planner at National Fish and Wildlife Foundation where he led efforts to develop a common approach for regional planning across the US and managed a process for standardized project mapping and monitoring of Foundation grants.  Matt worked with Conservation International from 2001 to 2011 focusing on conservation priority setting, including managing some of the early KBA identification processes in Latin America and Eastern and Southern Africa.  Matt has also held positions with International Fund for Animal Welfare, Rockford Public School System (Illinois), and La Voz Latina (Illinois).

    M.A. Energy and Environmental Analysis, Boston University,B.A. Latin American Studies, University of Illinois

    Matt's commitment and passion for biodiversity conservation began as a child in the prairies, creeks and forests of Northern Illinois, and has continued throughout his schooling and career, where he has been able to combine his love for international cultures and languages with nature conservation.  In addition to playing with maps and biodiversity data, Matt enjoys bicycling, running, swimming, cooking, and spending time outdoors with his wife and two sons.

  • Stephen Kertis is the founder and President of Kertis Creative, a multimedia strategy and communications firm. Stephen began his career at PBS as an Emmy-winning documentary producer and editor. He then joined a Nashville-based advertising firm as the director of production, where he worked with international and Fortune 500 companies.

    Founded in 2008, Kertis Creative is a small, potent group of strategists, filmmakers, photographers, writers, designers and curious people. Today, Kertis Creative helps local and national businesses and nonprofits vocalize and share their stories. Their clients include the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, ACLU, General Electric and Brown-Forman. He and his team are proud to produce work in Kentucky, throughout the US, and abroad.

    Stephen loves to travel, and is lucky to get to explore for both work and pleasure.

  • Trained as an attorney, Jay Leutze has become a leading voice for state and federal conservation funding for investment in public lands. He is the senior board advisor for Asheville's Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy (SAHC), one of the nation's most established land trusts. He has negotiated the purchase of tens of thousands of acres of lands which are now accessible by the public. He has served as chair of the SAHC land protection committee, directs the government relations program, and has been president of the board.  He is the best-selling author of Stand Up that Mountain (Simon & Schuster). In the tradition of A Civil Action, it's the compelling true story of a North Carolina outdoorsman who teams up with his Appalachian neighbors to save a treasured landscape from being destroyed.  

    He is the national spokesman for the Land and Water Conservation Fund Coalition and has testified before Congress on the need for increased funding for public land conservation. He is frequently asked to be a guest lecturer on conservation. Since publication of Stand Up That Mountain Leutze has lectured at 38 universities across the country, teaching courses in literature, environmental studies, environmental law and public policy.  He recently appeared at the National Press Club in Washington DC.  In 2012, he was awarded North Carolina's highest civilian honor, The Order of the Longleaf Pine, for his contribution to the conservation of land and water in his home state.  He was the winner of the North Carolina Governor's Conservation Communicator of the Year Award and was named Outstanding Conservation Advocate by the Roosevelt-Ashe Society.  Since 2007 he has been on the team leading the effort to pass and implement the landmark Great American Outdoors Act, securing $900 million per year in federal conservation funding in perpetuity.  In 2020 Leutze was invited to the White House for the Great American Outdoors Act signing ceremony.

     Stand Up That Mountain has won numerous awards, including The Reed Environmental Writing Award from the Southern Environmental Law Center, and was named theNonfiction Book of the Year by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance.  The American Bar Association honored Leutze with a "Silver Gavel" award, citing his book as "a work of art that has added to the public's understanding of the law."

  • Founder and Principal of Nobel Cause Consulting, with 25 years of on-the-ground leadership experience, Emily has designed and led numerous successful environmental initiatives that centered on social justice and urban sustainability, from campaigns to organizations. From her start as the founder of a grassroots advocacy organization to launching successful programs at national environmental organizations, her leadership has resulted in the protection of community gardens, equitable incentives for green roofs, effective broad-based coalitions, novel urban forest policy, lasting programs and organizational change, and greener cities.

    An inspiring public speaker, author, and recognized media voice, Emily has presented in venues from neighborhood schools to the United Nations on the essential role of urban nature in climate change adaptation and mitigation; improving our quality of life; environmental racism and justice; and growing equitable, healthy, resilient communities. She has been widely quoted in the media from local papers to the NY Times and the Guardian.

    Emily has a B.A. in Urban Studies from The New School and M.S. in Natural Resource Policy and Behavior with a specialization in Environmental Justice from University of Michigan. In her spare time, she can be found exploring the diverse birds and mushrooms of NYC and the Adirondacks.

  • Christy Plumer is the principal and founder of Eventide Strategies and has been engaged in Washington, DC conservation and energy policy since 1999. She has built her career around working with partners in the conservation, outdoor recreation, and sportsmen/women’s sectors to identify common ground and reach consensus on bipartisan conservation funding and policy solutions. After spending a decade in the U.S. Senate as an Environment and Energy Legislative Assistant for moderate Republican members of Congress including Senator John Chafee (RI) and Senator Bob Smith (NH), and Staff Director of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee’s Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife, and Water for Senator Lincoln Chafee (RI), Christy shifted to advancing federal conservation policy at The Nature Conservancy as Senior Policy Advisor for Fish and Wildlife and Director of Federal Land Programs. She also served as Director of Government Relations for The Conservation Fund and Northeast Campaigns Director for SolarCity. From 2016-2024, Christy led federal policy and strategic development for the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership as their Chief Conservation Officer. She holds a B.A. in Biology and Environmental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. in Environmental Studies from Brown University.

  • With over 15 years of experience in wildlife research and conservation, Andrew Snyder is currently the Key Biodiversity Area Coordinator at Re:wild. In this capacity, Andrew supports efforts of NGOs and governments to identify the most important places for safeguarding biodiversity through KBA identification to help achieve the Global Biodiversity Framework target of protecting 30% of the planet by 2030. He led the global update of identifying Alliance for Zero Extinction sites for amphibians and co-developed the KBA e-learning courses hosted at Conservationtraining.org. Sitting within Re:wild's Priorities and Monitoring program, Andrew monitors and tracks Re:wild’s global impact, identifying regional priorities for sites and species, providing GIS expertise, and supporting all Re:wild programs to ensure that our teams continue to have a vital impact on protecting and restoring our planet.

    Andrew has worked extensively in Guyana, having spent the previous 14 years conducting research on amphibians and reptiles and continues to work closely with key agencies and partners to advance conservation opportunities.

    He holds a Ph.D in Biology from the University of Mississippi and a BS in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from University of Maryland. Andrew is also a freelance natural history and conservation photographer who has a passion for wildlife conservation and communicating nature.

  • Amy Sobel, Co-Founder of Thunderbird Strategies, has over 25 years of executive leadership experience in international non-profit organizations, domestic political organizations, the Executive and Legislative branches of the U.S. Government, and educational institutions. Amy brings expertise in setting strategic vision, developing effective implementation plans, and building partnerships. She has led policy initiatives that have successfully advanced Executive Branch action and legislative victories throughout her career. Amy most recently served as Senior Vice President at the National Audubon Society, leading national field operations in strategic conservation and advocacy goals and overseeing implementation plans nationwide. Amy also brings experience from senior leadership roles at Human Rights First and the Women’s Campaign and government service at the U.S. Department of State and on Capitol Hill earlier in her career.

  • Henry Tepper is a Boston-based conservation consultant, and is an adjunct professor in the Masters Program in Sustainability at the Harvard University Extension School. He has a background in land conservation and has played a direct role in protecting more than one million acres around the world. Henry serves as the consulting Strategic Conservation Advisor to the Fundación Tierra Austral, which is Chile's most prominent land trust. He was a founder of Tierra Austral, and also played a central role in creating Chile's equivalent of the conservation easement, the Derecho Real de Conservación. Henry also advises land trusts in the United States, and has served on the Land Trust Accreditation Commission and the Land Trust Leadership Council. Before becoming a consultant, Henry worked as a state director at The Nature Conservancy for 13 years, as the president of Mass Audubon and as the executive director of the Columbia Land Conservancy.

  • Drew is a 5th generation Louisvillian, once removed. As the Executive Director of Accounts Strategy for KERTIS they amplify stories and storytellers within communities, organizations, and institutions pointing toward new narrative possibilities. Their practice includes systems thinking, ethnographic research, problem (re)framing, and implementation of emergent strategies & tactics. Drew's work has spanned over a decade across multiple geographies (including New York City, Orange New Jersey, Casper Wyoming, and Louisville Kentucky), and numerous partners including corporate, non profit, and non traditional organizational structures.

  • Denise Webb is a Junior at Berry College, majoring in Biology and Conservation. Passionate about conserving wildlife and promoting sustainability, she is committed to bridging the gap between environmental stewardship and community well-being. Since the age of 14, Denise has been engaged in the world of policy and change. A Senior Youth Staff at the Partnership for Southern Equity, she continues to work on issues ranging from health and racial equity to climate action and legislative reform/education.

    As an experienced public speaker motivating audiences of all ages, Denise uses her platform to advocate for sustainable solutions that address disparities directly impacting the American South. A Bonner Scholar and Youth Ambassador for the Mayor of Atlanta, she actively participates in multiple communities, volunteering, educating, and getting into “good trouble” to ensure a just and equitable future for all.