Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay Announces New Board Members

The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay Wednesday announced the election of five new members to its Board of Directors. The newly elected Board members are Joe Carnahan, Kelly Gutshall, Sally Hornor, Jan Jarrett, and Tara Scully.

Alliance Executive Director, Al Todd, announced, "I am delighted to welcome our new Board members. They all represent valuable leaders in their own right but also bring a broad diversity of viewpoints, experience, and expertise to the Alliance that will clearly enrich the delivery of our mission and programs."

Joe Carnahan is General Manager of Emerging Businesses for Luck Ecosystems, a business dedicated to improving the outdoor environment through innovative products and sustainable practices.

Mr. Carnahan graduated from Virginia Tech in 2003 with a B.S. in Mining and Minerals Engineering. After earning his degree, he joined Luck Stone Corporation based in Richmond, Virginia. He received a M.B.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Mr. Carnahan is active in the Society of Mining Metallurgy and Exploration, the National Stone Sand and Gravel Association, and the Water Environment Federation. He is passionate about the James River and enjoys kayaking, hiking, and biking in the surrounding area.

Kelly Gutshall is president of LandStudies, Inc., an ecological restoration and design firm providing engineering, construction, and maintenance services throughout Pennsylvania and Maryland since 1989.

As a landscape architect, Ms. Gutshall has led numerous award-winning projects that have helped clients meet their goals while creatively addressing environmental challenges.

As a recognized leader in ecological and sustainable design, she helped pioneer the concept of “Economic Ecology,” an innovative approach that brings communities together to solve water issues and maximize economic and environmental returns on investment.

Ms. Gutshall enjoys collaborating with community leaders to help change perceptions about the landscape from purely aesthetic, to one of working, functional environments. In 2015, she was recognized for her environmental contributions and named a Watershed Champion by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.

Sally Hornor is Vice President of the Magothy River Association and serves on the board of the Magothy River Land Trust and the Chesapeake Environmental Protection Association. Ms. Hornor holds a B.S. in Biology, as well as a M.S. in Microbiology and a Ph.D. in Ecology.

She has been active in research as an aquatic microbial ecologist in diverse ecosystems such as sewage sludge, bog lakes, rivers, creeks, and the Chesapeake Bay estuarine system.

While raising two children, Ms. Hornor taught part-time at Anne Arundel Community College and then joined the faculty full time in 1993. She retired from teaching in 2015 but is still involved in research and monitoring projects at the AACC Environmental Center.

Ms. Hornor was the scientific director of Operation Clearwater for 27 years, a program started 45 years ago by the Severn River Association to monitor the bacterial water quality of bathing beaches and marinas during the swimming season. She has volunteered with the Severn River Association and the Magothy River Association over the last 30 years to restore historic oyster bars and to encourage citizen science projects.

Jan Jarrett has a 25-year career in public interest environmental and clean energy advocacy in Pennsylvania. She currently is a consultant on environmental policy and outreach, strategic communications, fundraising, and the development and implementation of issue campaigns.

Ms. Jarrett worked for 13 years at PennFuture where she helped develop public campaigns and policies to grow the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries, promote electronic recycling, cut toxic mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, and create environmental bonds to support watershed restoration.

She also previously served as a grassroots coordinator for at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation for ten years.

Tara Scully is an Assistant Professor at The George Washington University. She teaches introductory biology courses and laboratories to non-science majors and is an advocate for service learning.

Dr. Scully received her M.S., specializing in forensic science research with a concentration on fiber evidence, and a Ph.D. with a research focus on developmental biology from The George Washington University.

She has worked for a nonprofit agency training prosecutors nationwide on how to present forensic evidence—specifically DNA—in criminal cases, and is the author of the book Discovering Biology in the Lab: An Introductory Laboratory Manual.

More information is available on programs, initiatives and special events on the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay website.  Click Here to sign up for regular updates from the Alliance, Like the Alliance on Facebook, Follow them on Twitter, add them to your Circle on Google+ and visit the Alliance’s YouTube Channel.