Board of Trustees

Summer 2008

Jean C. Nelson, Chair of the Board - Nashville, Tennessee: Ms. Nelson is the co-founder and President of the Land Trust for Tennessee. She is the former General Counsel of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She also served as Chief Deputy Attorney General for Tennessee, and was a partner in the law firm of Gullett, Sanford, Robinson & Martin in Nashville.

Frederick S. Middleton III, President - Charlottesville, Virginia: For 30 years Mr. Middleton has been in the vanguard of the environmental movement in this country. He founded the Southern Environmental Law Center in 1985 and has served as its President and Executive Director since that time. Mr. Middleton is a native of Alabama, and received his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Deaderick C. Montague, Vice President - Chattanooga, Tennessee: Mr. Montague is a writer who has been an environmental leader in the South for many years. He served as SELC’s board chair from 1994 to 2004. As former President of the Lyndhurst Foundation, Mr. Montague played a significant role in the revitalization of downtown Chattanooga through public/private partnerships and sustainable development practices.

Joel B. Adams, Jr. - Asheville, North Carolina: Mr. Adams is a financial advisor and owner of a Raymond James Financial Services office. He is chair of the board of Warren Wilson College and is an advisor to the College’s Environmental Leadership Center. He is former chairman and current trustee of the North Carolina Nature Conservancy and in 2003 was awarded their North Carolina Conservation Leadership Award

James David Branch - Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Dr. Branch is an ophthalmologist in private practice and a consulting associate of Duke Medical School’s Department of Ophthalmology. He has served on several local bank, business, and community boards, including the North Carolina Banking Commission, the YMCA, and the Winston-Salem Foundation. Dr. Branch currently serves on the boards of Saint Augustine College and Appalachian State University, and has been on the Transit 2001 Commission for North Carolina since 1995.

Dell S. Brooke - Birmingham, Alabama: Ms. Brooke manages the EBSCO Foundation for EBSCO Industries, a family owned global sales, service, and manufacturing corporation in Birmingham. A philanthropic and community leader, Ms. Brooke is a strong supporter of environmental protection in Alabama. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Alabama Symphony.

Martin S. Brown - Nashville, Tennessee: A philanthropist and community leader in Nashville, Mr. Brown is the former CEO of Therapeutic Antibodies (now known as Protherics, PLC), a biotechnology company developing immunotherapeutic techniques. He is also the former CEO of Jack Daniel Distillery and Vice Chairman of Brown-Forman Corporation. Mr. Brown serves on the boards of the Land Trust for Tennessee and the National Parks Conservation Association, and is a former director of Fisk University and a member of U.Va.’s Alumni Board of Managers.

Marion A. Cowell, Jr. - Charlotte, North Carolina: Mr. Cowell is of counsel with the law firm of Kilpatrick & Stockton and retired Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of First Union Corporation. He is past president and current board member of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Law Alumni Association. Mr. Cowell represents Charlotte and several surrounding counties on the North Carolina State Board of Transportation.

Dennis M. Crumpler - Charlottesville, Virginia: A North Carolina native, Mr. Crumpler is an investor in technology businesses and conservation-oriented real estate projects. He is the former CEO of XcelleNet, Inc., a highly successful systems software business in Atlanta, and was vice chair and director of Green Mountain.com, a leading national retailer of alternative source clean electricity.

J. Stephen Dockery III - Charlotte, North Carolina: Mr. Dockery is an investment banker with Wachovia Securities. He was formerly with the investment banking firm of Bowles Hollowell Conner, and was in private practice with the law firm of Robinson Bradshaw in Charlotte.

James G. Hanes III - Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Mr. Hanes is the owner-operator of Senah Farm in Burkes Garden, Virginia. He is former chairman and trustee of Old Salem, Inc. in Winston-Salem, and a former trustee of the National Audubon Society.

Matthew E. Hapgood - Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Mr. Hapgood is co-founder and President of FlyRight Inc., a start-up aviation services business for corporate and commercial pilots. He is a former investment banker with Wachovia and a treasury analyst for Exxon Corporation. Mr. Hapgood is a member of the Executive Finance and Board Adjunct Committees of the Educational Foundation of America.

Elizabeth H. Haskell - Martinsville, Virginia: Ms. Haskell is a director and vice president of the Martinsville Bulletin. She has spent 38 years in environmental public service, and was Secretary of Natural Resources in Virginia and chair of the State Air Pollution Control Board. In recognition of her contributions to the state, Ms. Haskell was named the 2005 Outstanding Virginian by the General Assembly. She serves on the board of Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest.

Anna Kate Hipp - Greenville, South Carolina: Ms. Hipp is active in several local and state environmental projects, and serves on the boards of Brookgreen Gardens and the Friends of the Reedy River. She is the former chair of the board of Mary Baldwin College. Ms. Hipp is an instrument rated pilot with over 3000 hours and has flown in seven all-women's air races.

Glynn D. Key - Washington, D.C.: Ms. Key practices general corporate and environmental law with the firm of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale & Dorr. A Chattanooga native, she was former Special Assistant and Counsel to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt. Ms. Key serves on the University of Virginia Board of Visitors, and is past president of U.Va.’s Alumni Association.

Elliott H. Levitas - Atlanta, Georgia: Mr. Levitas is a partner in the law firm of Kilpatrick & Stockton. He represented Georgia’s 4th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1975 to 1985. Mr. Levitas also serves as an adjunct professor at Emory Law School, and is a former trustee of the Georgia Conservancy.

Mark B. Logan - Charlottesville, Virginia: Mr. Logan is on the Investment Committee of Tall Oaks Capital, a venture capital firm working with information technology, health care, and life sciences businesses. He is former CEO of VISX, Inc., world leader in laser vision correction, past CEO of Insmed Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and was on the Board of Directors of Bausch & Lomb. Mr. Logan currently serves on the board of directors of the University of Virginia Heart Center.

Nimrod W.E. Long III - Birmingham, Alabama: Mr. Long is President of Nimrod Long and Associates, a landscape architecture, urban design, and land planning firm, which has been the recipient of several national and international landscape and streetscape design awards for such projects as the redesign of Peachtree Street and Woodruff Park in Atlanta for the 1996 Summer Olympics, and Miller Park Plaza in Chattanooga. He is past president of the Black Warrior-Cahaba Rivers Land Trust.

Mary Elizabeth Lupton - Birmingham, Alabama: Ms. Lupton is a native of Durham, North Carolina and a long-time resident of Birmingham. A former medical technologist, Ms. Lupton served on the board of the University of Virginia Medical School Foundation. She has been actively involved with SELC for the past ten years.

Allen L. McCallie - Chattanooga, Tennessee: Mr. McCallie is a partner with the law firm of Miller & Martin. Active in many of Chattanooga’s revitalization projects, Mr. McCallie is chair of the board of the Lyndhurst Foundation and also serves on the board of the Trust for Public Land’s Chattanooga Advisory Council. He is a former board member and president of the Chattanooga Nature Center and past board member of the Tennessee River Gorge Trust.

Edward M. Miller - Charlottesville, Virginia: Mr. Miller is chairman of WestWind Management, a venture capital company, and Sabre Yachts, Ltd. Mr. Miller founded and was president of FedEx (Caribbean and South America) Ltd. He is Trustee of the WestWind Foundation and remains active with Outward Bound where he served as chairman of the Hurricane Island School, an Outward Bound sailing expedition school located in Maine.

Susan S. Mullin - Brookneal, Virginia: A former designer in New York City, Ms. Mullin manages a large working farm in Southside Virginia. She served on the Conservation Committee for the Garden Club of Virginia and is a past board member of the Southside Soil & Water Conservation District. Ms. Mullin currently sits on the board of trustees of the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation.

Stephen E. O'Day - Atlanta, Georgia: A leading environmental litigator for over 25 years, Mr. O'Day is a partner with the law firm of Smith, Gambrell, and Russell, and is head of the firm’s Environmental Law Practice. He is a trustee of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, and past trustee of the Georgia Conservancy. Mr. O’Day serves on the Georgia Quality Growth Partnership.

Virginia McGee Richards - Charleston, South Carolina: Ms. Richards is an experienced environmental lawyer presently with Hagood & Kerr. A North Carolina native, she was formerly associated with Jones, Day in New York, and was Assistant Regional Counsel with EPA Region IV in Atlanta, focusing on environmental enforcement actions. Ms. Richards has also served as pro bono counsel for several environmental groups, including Environmental Defense and the Sierra Club.

William H. Schlesinger – Millbrook, New York: Dr. Schlesinger is president of the Institute of Ecosystem Studies and a noted authority on global environmental change. For 27 years he was on the faculty of Duke University, where he retired as dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences and professor of biogeochemistry. Dr. Schlesinger was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2003, and his research has been featured in Scientific American, National Geographic and The New York Times and on PBS’s NOVA.

J. Rutherford Seydel II - Atlanta, Georgia: Mr. Seydel is a partner in the law firm of Lawson, Davis, Pickren & Seydel, and specializes in commercial real estate and corporate and foundation law. He is co-founder and chairman of the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, and is vice chairman and treasurer of The Conservation Fund. Mr. Seydel, through the Atlanta Spirit Company, is part owner of NHL franchise Atlanta Thrashers and NBA franchise Atlanta Hawks.

Terence Y. Sieg - Charlottesville, Virginia: Mr. Sieg is President and Chairman of J.W. Sieg & Co., a distributor of Anheuser-Busch products in central Virginia. Mr. Sieg founded Rocky Mountain Magazine, a periodical that won the National Magazine Award for General Editorial Excellence; and is founder, publisher and editor in chief of La Belle France, a travel guide to France.

Kit S. Smith - Columbia, South Carolina: Ms. Smith has worked in county and state government in many positions, currently serving on the Richland County Council. She is Adjunct Professor at the University of South Carolina's School of Public Health, and was Chief of Staff at the SC Department of Mental Health. Ms. Smith is former chair of the Palmetto Conservation Foundation and served on the Local Government Advisory Committee to EPA.

Thomas F. Taft, Sr. - Greenville, North Carolina: Mr. Taft is president of the law firm of Taft, Taft & Haigler in Greenville. He was legal counsel to Gov. Jim Hunt 1973-1975, and a state senator from 1985 to 1990. A graduate of Duke and UNC Law School, he has served on the University of North Carolina Board of Governors and currently serves on UNC Law School’s Board of Directors. In November 2007, Mr. Taft was appointed to the Joint Commission on Science and Math Education established by Carnegie Corporation Of New York And Institute For Advanced Study. Mr. and Mrs. Taft have protected hundreds of acres in North Carolina through conservation easements, and recently endowed an environmental law professorship at UNC Law School. Mrs. Taft, an Associate Professor in environmental science at East Carolina University, is on the board of the NC Natural Heritage Trust and the NC Museum of Natural Science.

William L. Want - Charleston, South Carolina: Mr. Want is an environmental law professor at the Charleston School of Law. He is the author of The Law of Wetlands Regulation, the country's leading legal treatise on wetlands law. As an attorney with the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, Mr. Want brought several early landmark enforcement cases under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. He was a founding board member of the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League.

Nancy Hanes White - Raleigh, North Carolina: Ms. White has been a leader on environmental issues in North Carolina for many years. She has served on the boards of the North Carolina Nature Conservancy, the SPCA, and the North Carolina Humane Federation. Ms. White is currently on the campaign steering committee for the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and is on the board of the North Carolina Zoological Society.

President's Council

Summer 2007

Dennis W. Barnes - Charlottesville, Virginia: Former President of the Southeastern Universities Research Association in Washington, D.C. Past Associate Vice President for Governmental Relations/Associate Provost for Research at the University of Virginia. Taught environmental law in the Law School and in the Department of Environmental Sciences.

Terry E. Grant - Charlottesville, Virginia: Active philanthropist and volunteer with chamber music, theater, and refugee groups. Classical pianist.

Robert L.V. French - Earlysville, Virginia: Fourth generation forester and founder of Northland Forest Products, a New England company committed to sustainable forestry and conservation practices. The company is certified under the Rainforest Alliance’s SmartWood program for meeting the standards of the Forest Stewardship Council. Now retired to Virginia, Mr. French serves on the board of the Piedmont Environmental Council.

Pricey Taylor Harrison - Beaufort, North Carolina: 57th District Representative to the North Carolina House of Representatives. Member, NC Coastal Resources Commission. On boards of Duke University Marine Lab & UNC Institute of Marine Science. Trustee, Environmental Defense Fund, North Carolina Coastal Federation, and Save Our State.

Douglas Epps Jones - Tuscaloosa, Alabama: Professor of Geology and expert on Alabama geology and natural history. Former Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Alabama – Tuscaloosa. Former Executive Director, present Curator of Paleontology of the Alabama Museum of Natural History, University of Alabama. Past board chair of the Alabama Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, and served on SELC’s board from 1996-2004.

Hugh C. Lane, Jr. - Charleston, South Carolina: President of the Bank of South Carolina. Numerous environmental and civic causes, including serving on the Advisory Committee for the ACE Basin National Estuarine Research Reserve. Former member of the South Carolina Coastal Council.

Hunter Lewis - Charlottesville, Virginia: Co-founder and past CEO of Cambridge Associates, an institutional investment and financial advisor to almost 800 clients including major universities, foundations, and other nonprofits. Co-founder and current Editorial Director of the Axios Institute, dedicated to the study of human values. In the environmental field, Mr. Lewis has served as chairman of the National Environmental Trust, chairman of the Worldwatch Institute, longtime treasurer of the World Wildlife Fund, director of World Wildlife Fund International, and director of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

Will Martin - Nashville, Tennessee: Nashville area businessman and lawyer. Senior Fellow with World Wildlife Fund USA, past Director of Polar Affairs for the Wilderness Society and Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Mike Morency - Middleburg, Virginia: Native of Middleburg and farmer. Serves on board of the Piedmont Environmental Council. Past board member of the Hill School in Middleburg.

George L. Ohrstrom II - Berryville, Virginia: Member, Clarke County,VA Planning Commission. Board member, Piedmont Environmental Council and Virginia League of Conservation Voters.

Mark Pentecost - Atlanta, Georgia: Retired gynecologist. Former board chair of Piedmont Medical Center, Fayette Community Hospital, and Westminster Schools. Native Atlantan, serves on Board of the Atlanta Union Mission.

Martha Pentecost - Atlanta, Georgia: Painter, grew up in Birmingham. Active in community service in Atlanta with Meals on Wheels and Atlanta Symphony.

John B. Scott, Jr. - Montgomery, Alabama: Retired partner, law firm of Capell Howard. Board of Directors of the Alabama Conservancy from 1969 to 1988, former Chair of the Alabama Nature Conservancy, and SELC trustee from 1987 until 2001.

Alice Stanback - Salisbury, North Carolina: Board member, North Carolina Nature Conservancy. National Advisory Council for the Sierra Club Foundation and the Duke Cancer Center board.

Brad Stanback - Canton, North Carolina: Board of trustees and science cabinet, The American Chestnut Foundation. American chestnut grower under ACF program to re-establish the species. Involved in wildlands conservation and ecological restoration, primarily in the Southern Appalachians.

Fred Stanback - Salisbury, North Carolina: Board member, North Carolina Nature Conservancy. Board of Visitors of Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, and the Advisory Board of the Land Trust for Central North Carolina.

Jennifer Stanley - Oxford, Maryland: Prominent philanthropist, well known NPR supporter. President, Town Creek Foundation. Served on boards of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Wilderness Society.

Cameron Vowell - Birmingham, Alabama: Chair of the Alabama chapter of the Nature Conservancy. Former chair of the Alabama Environmental Management Commission.

Brad W. Wyche - Greenville, South Carolina: Founder and Executive Director, Upstate Forever. Former Chairman of the SC Board of Health and Environmental Control. SELC trustee from 1991 to 1999.