Staff & Board

Founder & President, Board of Directors — While working on his property and discovering Asiatic bittersweet, Jake Hughes from the Shenandoah National Park made Rod aware of the concept of Cooperative Weed Management Areas (CWMA).  In 2014, they organized the first CWMA to be formed in Virginia, now known as Blue Ridge PRISM. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Virginia Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation, the Noxious Weeds Advisory Committee for the State of Virginia, and the Advisory Board for the VA Forestry Association’s Board of Directors. Rod is also a Virginia Master Naturalist.

Treasurer, Board of Directors — Twenty years ago, concerned about the link between widespread degraded habitat and declining bird populations, Jim began working on introduced plant invasions in natural areas. He has taken the knowledge and experience gained through Northern Virginia projects and applied them on a landscape scale in Greene, and used that experience to work on county, regional and statewide scales with the Blue Ridge PRISM. Jim is a Master Naturalist, Tree Steward, a member of the Virginia Noxious Weed Advisory Committee, and Board Member of the Virginia Native Plant Society.

Executive Director — Lauren began her journey with invasive plants ten years ago as a volunteer helping build the new Patagonia National Park in Chile. She continued to volunteer on public and private lands in northern Virginia, including with the Fairfax County Invasive Management Area program and the Urban Forest Alliance. In 2022 she launched the Change.org petition asking Home Depot to stop selling invasive plants. Lauren received her MBA from UVA and has been a senior executive in both the corporate and nonprofit sectors, as well as an entrepreneur. She has a native plant micro-nursery in Greene County.

Director of Communications & Outreach — Rowena has a long history of service in the nonprofit world– as an executive director, board member, grant writer, employee, and volunteer. Rowena was a senior analyst for JLARC (Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission), the oversight agency for the Virginia General Assembly. She holds a master’s degree in public policy with a specialty in regulatory economics from William & Mary, and recently completed Master Naturalist training.

Invasive Management Specialist — Natali has a Bachelor of Science in Geography from James Madison University. After college, she worked as a Wildlife Management Intern in Vermont where she controlled invasive plants such as Eurasian water milfoil, and at the Prince William County Extension office as an Environmental Educator and Outreach Specialist. Natali is certified as a Level 2 Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional, is a Virginia Master Naturalist and a Virginia Certified Registered Technician.

Invasive Management Specialist — Jacob joins Blue Ridge PRISM with several years of boots-on-the-ground experience treating invasive plants in multiple states up and down the east coast, most recently in Virginia. Originally from Texas, he graduated from the University of North Florida with a Bachelors in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and began his professional career with two years of Americorps work with the Florida Park Service. Jacob is a Virginia Certified Registered Technician.

Tim has a MS in Forestry from the School of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University. Upon retiring, he took Tree Steward training in Arlington, VA, to become an amateur arborist and became knowledgeable about non-native invasive plant threats to trees. He did invasives treatment work in Northern Virginia, then moved to central Virginia and joined the Charlottesville Area Tree Stewards. As a volunteer at Monticello, Tim removed English ivy from over 2,000 trees, then expanded to a wider range of invasive plant treatment. He joined Blue Ridge PRISM at its inception, and provides training on invasive plant identification and control for PRISM and Tree Stewards. 

William has a BSc in Wildlife Biology from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse with a minor in Forest Botany. He also has an MS in Biology (working on the Walnut Husk Fly) from Cal State University Hayward, CA. William spent 30 years as a licensed General Contractor in California and also worked for 13 years as a Vector Biologist for two different mosquito abatement districts. William has always considered himself a naturalist. He spent 23 years as a volunteer docent at Strybing Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in San Francisco. He is also a Master Gardener and conducts many of our invasive plant workshops and volunteers at our events.

Ruth is a biologist and botanist who taught at several community colleges during her career and served as an instructor and administrator at Piedmont Virginia Community College prior to her retirement. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Belize in the late ‘60s. In her retirement, she has been actively involved with the Rivanna Master Naturalist Program since its inception in 2006. Ruth has been the Invasive Plant Educator for the Virginia Native Plant Society for a number of years, and as a member of the Blue Ridge PRISM, she provides expert advice to landowners and can be found at many fairs, festivals, and events representing our organization.

After teaching economics for twenty-five years at the University of Virginia, Mary Lee Epps is focusing on learning more about natural history in retirement.  She is on the board of the Jefferson Chapter of the Virginia Native Plant Society (formerly President) and a Master Naturalist. She is a frequent volunteer for the Ivy Creek Natural Area where she leads plant walks and school tours, serves on the Education Committee, and helps with a Junior Naturalist 4-H Club.  Mary Lee provides expert advice on native plants to Blue Ridge PRISM and volunteers at many of our outreach and education events.

Tom has been a Conservation Biologist for twenty years and has experience managing multi-state projects on both public and private lands. He earned his BS in Biology at the University of Colorado and an MS in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. Prior to joining the American Battlefield Trust, Tom served as Regional Science Coordinator for the American Chestnut Foundation, where he worked with partners and volunteers on chestnut restoration from Maryland to Alabama. Tom volunteers as a Virginia Master Naturalist and seeks any opportunity to manage invasives and restore native habitats.

Mike Wenger is a Certified Master Naturalist with the Old Rag Master Naturalist Chapter and works extensively with a variety of public organizations and schools on invasive plant control and replacement. After a 30 year career that spanned industry, the USAF, international business consulting, and university teaching, he retired and spends much of his time working on wildlife habitat maintenance and restoration issues. He is particularly interested in liberating native forest plants from invasive competition to bolster healthy ecology and habitat for insects, amphibians, birds, and mammals.