We are Appalachia Rising

Appalachia Rising 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.

Greg Abernathy headshot

  • Ana Denman is an Austin-based nature lover who began her work in wildlife conservation after meeting Wes on a plane in 2010. Over the past 14 years at Re:wild, she has served in a variety of roles, including office manager, executive assistant, event planner, and bookkeeper, and now works on the Philanthropy Partnerships team. She joined the Appalachia Rising team in January 2026, supporting philanthropy efforts for conservation in the region. Outside of work, Ana enjoys traveling with her family, gardening, exercising, and reading.

    Ana earned her B.L.A in Latin American History at the University of Texas at Austin, and an M.L.A in Latin American Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.

  • 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.​

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  • Kirsten Pfalzgraf is a Senior Project Manager at KERTIS Creative, a Louisville-based creative agency built on the belief that human connection drives action. Before joining KERTIS, she spent more than a decade as the Director of Marketing at Louisville Public Media, leading marketing efforts for the city’s three public radio stations and the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. She also spent seven years in communications and marketing at the Speed Art Museum, Kentucky’s largest art museum.

    Pfalzgraf holds a B.A. in Journalism and an M.A. in Liberal Studies with a concentration in marketing from Indiana University. She also earned a Certificate in Digital Marketing from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and is a 2016 Leadership Louisville Ignite graduate. Additionally, she participated in PRX’s Project Catapult 2019 cohort, a six-month podcast training program for public media.

  • 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."

Jay Leutze headshot

  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • Caroline graduated from the University of Virginia in 2025 with a Bachelor of Arts in Environmental Sciences and a minor in History. She was awarded Highest Distinction on an Honors Thesis exploring the effect of climate change on bumble bee nest temperatures and overall decline. In addition, throughout her time in college she served as a Student Co-Chair of the Nitrogen Working Group at the University, which focused on reducing the University's nitrogen footprint through a combination of statistical analysis, social outreach, and institutional change. 

    An avid animal lover and nature enthusiast, Caroline believes firmly in the rights of nature and the human obligation to co-exist responsibly. She is invested in the creation of an equitable and just society which respects the dignity of and advocates for each human and all species.

  • 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.

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