ABRA Staff & Directors – Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance

STAFF

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND SECRETARY – RICK WEBB retired in 2014 as a Senior Scientist with the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Virginia. He is a Board Member of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.

GIS ADMINISTRATOR – DANIEL SHAFFER is a Geographic Information Systems consultant. He was the principal architect of ABRA’s Compliance Surveillance Initiative (CSI) mapping system. He is responsible for the technical aspects of ABRA’s Conservation Hub.

HUB SITE RESEARCHER – ANDREW YOUNG is a law student at George Washington University Law School specializing in Environmental, Natural Resource, and Land Use Law. He is a Board Member of the Cowpasture River Preservation Association.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

CHAIR – ALLEN JOHNSON is also Chair of the Eight Rivers Council and Coordinator for Christians for the Mountains.

VICE-CHAIR – KATE BOYLE is Deputy Executive Director of Appalachian Voices.

TREASURER – LARRY THOMAS is President of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.

JUDY RODD is Executive Director of Friends of Blackwater.

BEN LUCKETT is an environmental attorney with Appalachian Mountain Advocates.

DAVID SLIGH is an environmental attorney and Conservation Chair of Wild Virginia.

RANDY KESLING is Conservation Chairperson of the West Virginia Chapter of Trout Unlimited and a Board Member of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.

ABRA CONSERVATION HUB

ABRA’s Conservation Hub program promotes responsible resource management by providing access to critical information needed for effective public involvement in environmental review and oversight.

Following the defeat of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline in 2020, ABRA initiated the Conservation Hub to support informed public engagement with the broader range of environmental issues confronting the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Mountain region. The Conservation Hub builds on the analysis and information sharing capacity achieved through ABRA’s Pipeline CSI project during the years of ACP opposition.

The Conservation Hub is based on the use of GIS mapping to provide details and context for land development projects and management practices that involve risk of environmental harm, as well as for environmental preservation and restoration initiatives. The Conservation Hub also provides access to regulatory documents and assessments related to specific projects or issues.

Multiple Conservation Hub sites, focused on individual projects or issues, have been developed collaboratively with ABRA’s partners and allies. Going forward, we invite conservation groups, individuals, and communities to provide ideas for new Hub sites and GIS mapping that can contribute to informed public engagement on behalf of environmental integrity in the Allegheny-Blue Ridge region.