our Board

Our Board of Directors
	Charles Dunkerly, President First connecting to the environment as a West Virginia river guide, Charles is currently a film producer/director for the National Park Service. For the past ten years, he has worked on award-winning interpretive films, on topics as diverse as on the Olympic National Park, Thomas Jefferson, and "prescribed fires."


	Jeff Feldman, Vice President
	A leadership development trainer, team building facilitator and green building consultant, Jeff Feldman has been a teacher of one sort or another for over twenty years. With degrees in Environmental Education and Experiential Learning, Jeff served five years on the faculty at Penn State University. In 1993, Jeff founded Eagle’s View Enterprises, a leadership development and team building firm offering training, facilitation and coaching to leaders and organizations across the public and private sectors. Jeff’s latest venture, GreenPath Consulting, shares approaches and attitudes for living more lightly on the planet. Jeff lives in a passive solar, strawbale house with his wife, dogs, cats and chickens.

	Keith Alexander, Secretary
	Dr. Keith D. Alexander is Director of Archives at the Robert C. Byrd Center for Legislative Studies at Shepherd University. He also coordinates the Historic Preservation program, part of Shepherd University’s Institute for Environmental Studies. After graduating from Penn State in 1992, Alexander worked in Washington, DC as an environmental policy analyst before returning to graduate school. He received his MA in 1996 and his PhD in 2003 in history from the University of Maryland, completing his dissertation on the history of the German Green Party. He has been involved in historic preservation efforts in West Virginia and in Germany. His research interests include historic preservation and environmental sustainability, as well as service learning in preservation education.

	John McGrath, Treasurer
	John is an analyst for the Internal Revenue Service coordinating and managing information technology projects. Before graduating in from Penn State in 1990, he studied developmental economics in Lima, Peru. He worked in the privatization effort of state run companies in Budapest after the fall of communism. He has founded or helped build new technology companies in data warehousing for multi-unit restaurants and accounting compliance for federal contractors. He is a native of North East, PA and now resides in Shepherdstown, WV..

	Catherine Irwin, Chair, Development Committee
	Catherine is the Director of the Contemporary American Theater Festival's Casting the Future Initiative. She was the CATF Managing Director from 1999 to the fall of 2004. Her theater management career includes work as the Director of Development of Arena Stage and Managing Director of the Living Stage Theater Company, Arena Stage's outreach program. She has also worked with the Round House Theatre, the African Continuum Theatre Company, Child's Play in Arizona and the MeadowBrook Theatre in Michigan. Catherine lives in Shepherdstown and is a member of the Rotary Club, having served on their Board as Vice-President and then as President. She was a member of the Leadership WV Class of 2001.

	Mark Madison, Ph.D., Chair, Selection and Programming Committee
	Mark Madison is the historian for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He teaches environmental history to professional conservationists at the National Conservation Training Center . He has previously taught environmental history at Harvard University and the University of Melbourne (Australia). He has degrees in history, biology, and the history of science. For almost three years, as a Peace Corps volunteer, Mark did tropical reforestation in the rain forests of the Philippines.

	Steve Chase, National Conservation Training Center Liaison
	Steve Chase is the Chief of Facility Operations and Administration at the National Conservation Training Center of the Fish & Wildlife Service. He also oversees the NCTC Conservation Heritage Program and works on community-related projects. Steve graduated in 1983 from the University of Hartford , with a BA in Mass Communications and Earth Science. He received a Master of Public Administration from the Barney School of Business and Public Administration in 1990. He has served as a Legislative Fellow for the Connecticut State Legislature and was awarded a Presidential Management Internship in 1990.

	Amy Mathews Amos, Past President
	Amy has 20 years experience working in environnmental science, policy and advocacy for non-profit conservation groups and government agencies. She holds a B.S. in natural resource management from Cornell University and graduate degrees in environmental science and public affairs from Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs. In 2001 she started her own consulting business, continuing to do research and advocacy work for conservation groups and charitable foundations, and assisting them with program development and strategic planning.

	Chris Hoelzl , Board Member
	As Vice President for Program Development for the Smithsonian Channel, Chris is responsible for the programming and development of all original productions, co-productions, and the acquisition of completed programming for Smithsonian Networks. Prior to this he worked for TLC when the network emerged as the pre-eminent non-fiction network on North American Cable. He was the lead development producer for all BBC and UK programming at TLC during his tenure, supervising more than 80 hours of programming annually. As a television and radio reporter he reported for NBC and NPR affiliates in the Midwest, and has worked as sports cinematographer on assignment for ESPN. He has worked as a writer and editor for Time-Life Books, and as a political consultant. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri, and holds an MA in journalism. He spent two years at German universities on scholarship studying History and Economics.

	Alexander Kemnitzer, Board Member
	Alexander has spent his entire life living along the banks of the Potomac River and the C&O canal. He currently lives in Shepherdstown and is a student at Shepherd University, majoring in Economics.

	Edward Leavy, Board Member
	Edward Leavy attended Columbia College in New York City graduating in 1964. He earned two law degrees including a Masters of Lawfrom New York University Law School. Since graduation from law school Edward has worked in various capacities as a civil rights attorney. Howeverover the past years he has seen that the despoliation of the environment is the most major threat to continued human habitation ofthe globe, and would like to put his remaining finite energies towards whatever steps can be taken to support any and all conservation efforts.

	Rachael Dorsey McGowen, Board Member
	Originally from Shepherdstown, WV, Rachael received her BA from University of Mary Washington. Before starting her sustainability consulting firm, she was Director of Strategic Planning and Marketing for ecofabulous.com, a sustainable lifestyle website in San Francisco. Previously, she was Director of Press and Marketing and Warm Up Producer at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center/MoMA; Director of Communications and Public Programs at The Kitchen (multidisciplinary art center); and Development Associate at the Miami Art Museum, as well as some brief and glorious stints as a European tour manager. Since moving with her husband, Shawn McGowen, to Charlottesville, VA in 2009, she has joined the board of the American Conservation Film Festival and serves as co-chair and founder of the Central Virginia Chapter of the Clean Economy Network as well as on the steering committee for the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation Future Fund. A certified yoga instructor, she is passionate about sustainability and also enjoys biking, hiking, adventurous eating, and traveling.

	Lissa Cobetto, Festival Director
	Lissa Cobetto has 30 years of experience connecting audiences with information and entertainment via live theater, film and the internet. Her focus has always been on creating the best audience experience possible. Before ACFF, she worked with the Contemporary American Theater Festival, the Shepherdstown Opera House, the Franklin Park Performing and Visual Arts Center in Purcellville, VA and CDnow.com, the first music store on the internet. She has studied and taught at Pittsburgh Filmmakers and holds a graduate degree from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

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