Board of Directors

Back left to right: Terra Mortensen, James Lowry, Phil Sankey, Carrie Merritt, Simone Washington, Wendy Seesock, Rob Angus.  Front left to right: Bill East, Alston Ray, Henry Hughes.

Officers:

Mr. E. Alston Ray, President
Birmingham, AL
Cahaba River Basin
Alston is an attorney practicing with the firm of Johnston Barton Proctor & Powell, LLP in Birmingham. Alston is also a fly fisherman. 
 
Dr. David Branham, Vice President 
Huntsville, AL
Tennessee River Basin
David is currently the Chief of the G-4 (Logistics) Office for the Army’s Aviation and Missile Life Cycle Management Command. David is an avid paddler on streams all over Alabama and the southeast.

Henry Hughes, Secretary

Homewood, AL

Cahaba River Basin

Mr. Bill East, Treasurer
Vestavia Hills, AL
Cahaba River Basin
Bill worked as a District Manager for BellSouth, retiring in 1991 after thirty five years with the Company. He is an outdoorsman and active river conservationist. Originally from Ashland, Alabama, he currently resides in Vestavia Hills. Bill has one child and two grandchildren.  

Dr. Rob Angus, Past President
Birmingham, AL
Cahaba River Basin
Rob is a professor of biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In addition to serving as the Alliance's Board President, Rob also serves on the Advisory Board of the Black Warrior Riverkeepers and on the Board of the Valley Lake Association. Rob, his colleagues, and his students have engaged in considerable research evaluating the effectiveness of erosion control strategies. Rob is a fisherman and musician who enjoys playing the banjo and hammered dulcimer.

Directors:

Mr. John Ackerman

Pratville, AL

Alabama River Basin

John is a Professor of National Security Studies at the Air Command and Staff College on Maxwell AFB. He earned his PhD in political science, international relations from the University of Alabama. He is the Chair of the Montgomery Group of the Alabama Sierra Club and a Sierra Club executive member. In his spare time he enjoys hiking, mountain biking, and fishing with his family.

Mr. Edwin Lamberth

Mobile, AL

Mobile River Basin

Edwin is an attorney with Cunningham, Bounds, Crowder, Brown & Breedlove, LLC. He is a 1994 graduate of the University of Virginia with a major in Government and Foreign Affairs. He attended Cumberland School of Law of Samford University, receiving his Juris Doctorate, cum laude, in 1998. After receiving his JD, Mr. Lamberth served as law clerk to Justice Champ Lyons, Jr. of the Supreme Court of Alabama from May 1998 to August 1999. During that time, he was also admitted to the Alabama State Bar. After his clerkship, he entered private practice. Mr. Lamberth is married to the former Kelley Pirnie of Montgomery, Alabama, and they have two daughters, Key and Libba, and a son, Win. 

Mr. James Lowery

Birmingham, AL

Cahaba River Basin

James recently retired as UAB’s Director of Management Support Services and considers himself an "Amateur Scientist."  He is active in environmental education as a member of nine environmental and science related Boards, serving as an officer on six.  James’ widespread involvement in Alabama non-profit  organizations was featured in the August 28, 2005 Birmingham News edition of “Good Work.”  Along with  countless environmental awards, James has been honored three times as a vigilant member of Alabama’s Civil Air Patrol, Squadron 01090.  James gives excellent presentations concerning constructed wetlands for wastewater treatment, as well as about urban streams he has walked.  He is also an experienced speaker about Antarctica, the Netherlands, and astronomy, and leads guided tours of Alabama’s Wetumpka Astrobleme (Impact Crater).  During rare breaks in his multifaceted community service, James enjoys paddling whitewater rivers as a member of the Birmingham Canoe Club.

Ms. Eartha S. McGoldrick

Birmingham, AL

Cahaba River Basin

Eartha is a University of Alabama at Birmingham alumni with a BA in Women's Studies. After college, she spent five years working in journalism for The Leeds News, the Birmingham Post-Herald, and The Fresno Bee as a page designer/copy editor before returning to Birmingham. She is currently a Program Advisor with the Clayton College of Natural Health. She is a Board Member of the Hulsey Little River Trust, an organizer of the Raindrop Festival and Raindrop Disc Golf Tournament, and volunteer webmaster for Urban Ministry. She enjoys spending time in the outdoors with her dog.

Ms. Carrie Merritt

Birmingham, AL

Cahaba River Basin

 Carrie has a degree in English literature and worked in the book industry for over five years.  After leaving her management position at an independent bookstore she began working as a freelance writer.  She also works at Sojourns, one of two fair trade stores in the state, located in downtown Birmingham.  Carrie worked at Oak Mountain for several years and lived in Yosemite off and on during her college years. 

Terra Mortensen

Dora, AL

Black Warrior Basin

Terra Mortensen is an account executive and the public relations director at Lawler Ballard Van Durand, a Birmingham-based advertising agency. She has a bachelor's degree in public relations from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and is a long-time member and current officer on the Public Relations Council of Alabama Birmingham chapter. She is a life-long tree-hugger and spends much of her free time exploring Alabama's creeks and woods with her husband, Tim Rooks, and little boy, River. 

Mr. Phil Sankey

Birmingham, AL

Cahaba River Basin

Phil is the owner of Sankey2 Advertising in Birmingham.

Ms. Wendy Seesock

Auburn, AL

Tallapoosa River Basin

Wendy serves as the Senior Research Associate for the rivers and reservoirs section of the Department of Fisheries at Auburn University. She is involved in several grassroots watershed organizations in and around the Auburn area.

Kelly M. Smith

Birmingham, AL 

Cahaba River Basin

Kelly M. Smith is a new board member for 2010. She started volunteering for the Alabama Rivers Alliance in 2008 when she moved into Birmingham's Roebuck Springs neighborhood, home to the endangered Watercress darter. Kelly migrated south to Birmingham from Tennessee 10 years ago to work at Southern Progress Corporation, where she's written and edited articles about everything from threatened Southeastern ecosystems to sustainable furniture. Kelly graduated from Sewanee: The University of the South in 2000 with a degree in English and a certificate in Environmental Studies. She's currently completing a Master's degree in Environmental Studies from Green Mountain College in Vermont, writing her thesis about environmental issues in the Black Warrior watershed. Kelly is a native of Athens, Tennessee, and spent her childhood playing in the cold mountain waters of the Hiwassee and Tellico rivers.  

Alex Varner

Leeds, AL 

Kelly Creek/Coosa Watershed

Alex is the President Co-Founder Higher Ground Coffee Roasters. He attended Auburn University and went to high school/junior high in St. Clair County Alabama, which he considers to be his hometown. He is a founding Member and currently serves on the board of Friends of Big Canoe Creek, and currently serves on the board of the Watershed Identity Foundation and the advisory board of Black Warrior Riverkeeper. He also volunteers with The Nature Conservancy's burn crew for prescribed fires in and around the state. He enjoys most outdoor pursuits and loves to paddle,hunt, fish, hike, backpack, swim, wander, wade, and run through the forests and streams and prairies of this place. He was a forest activist in the Northern Rockies for a couple of years before returning to my own bioregion to help things out here. He currently resides in the Kelly Creek/Coosa watershed in Shelby County.

Ms. L. Simone Washington, Esq.

Montgomery, AL

Alabama River Basin

Simone is a policy analyst with Alabama Arise.

 Advisory Board:

 Dr. Ramble Ankumah

Tuskeegee, AL

Chatahoochee River Basin

Ramble teaches environmental sciences at Tuskegee University. Dr. Ankumah is originally from Ghana, Africa.

Mrs. Karan Bailey

Shorter, AL

Tallappoosa River Basin

Karan is a consulting field biologist who has spent a considerable amount of her energies tracking the conservation status of the federally endangered flattened musk turtle in the Black Warrior River Basin.

Mr. Bill Bennett

Birmingham, AL

Cahaba River Basin

Mr. Sean Flynt

Birmingham, AL

Cahaba River Basin

Dr. Ben Ferrill

Huntsville, AL

Tennessee River Basin

Ben is a geologist and city planner with the City of Huntsville , an active paddler, and a local conservationist who is active with the Flint River Conservation Association.

Mr. Randy Haddock

Birmingham, AL

Cahaba River Basin

 Randy is Field Director for the Cahaba River Society.

Mr. Henry Hughes

Homewood, AL 

Cahaba River Basin 

Henry is a specialist in forestry education. He serves as Director of Education at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens and is the Executive Director of Friends of Shades Creek. In his spare time he enjoys photography, blackwater kayaking, and hiking. 

Rev. Mark Johnston

Nauvoo, AL

Black Warrior River Basin

Mark is the Executive Director of Camp McDowell, an Episcopal Church Camp and Conference Center near the Bankhead Forest and Alabama's Smith Lake.  Mark is a priest in the Episcopal Church and a graduate of University of the South.

Mr. Joseph B. Mays

Birmingham, AL

Cahaba River Basin

Mr. Michael Mullen

Troy, Alabama

Choctawhatchee River Basin

Michael is the Choctawhatchee Riverkeeper. He holds a BS in Chemistry and Biology from Athens College, an MS in Chemistry from the University of Arkansas, and an MS in Biology from the University of Alabama at Huntsville. He holds an AS Certificate in Environmental Science from the University of  Alabama, Huntsville, is certified in Watershed Management  from the University of British Columbia - IRES, and is a Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control (CPESC) - Cert. # 2129. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Alabama Water Watch. During his spare time he enjoys playing golf, fishing, and canoeing.

Mr. John Scott

Montgomery, AL

Alabama River Basin

Mrs. Beth Young

Birmingham, AL

Cahaba River Basin

Beth Maynor Young is an accomplished conservation photographer who has spent much of her life chronicling the natural beauty and remnant wild places of the contemporary South. In 1990, she founded Cahaba River Publishing, a conservation-motivated firm that supports her life's passion—nature and landscape photography. Today, Beth’s photographs give us a moving vision of the natural world and speak quietly yet deeply of our need to preserve the South's unique environmental heritage.

Beth’s conservation photography is part of many private and corporate art collections across the country. Her renown and popularity is a testament to the importance of environmental issues and the caliber of her photography. 

 Of Counsel: 

Mr. William L. Andreen (Bill), esq.
Tuscaloosa, AL
Black Warrior River Basin
Bill is the Edgar L. Clarkson Professor of Law at the University of Alabama School of Law.  He previously served as Assistant Regional Counsel for Region IV of the US Environmental Protection Agency in Atlanta, Georgia and is a graduate of Columbia Law School and the College of Wooster. He is a Scholar Member of the Center for Progressive Reform in Washington, DC and a Member of the Commission on Environmental Law and World Conservation Union.