OUR WORK - Key Persons
Angie provides development coordination, as well as program and operation support for KNLT. Her responsibilities include assisting in and supporting fundraising operations, receiving, recording and responding to donations and maintaining specialized databases. She also helps manage the Imperiled Bat Conservation Fund in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Angie joined KNLT in the fall of 2015. Before coming to KNLT, she worked at the Berea-based Mountain Association. Angie graduated from Berea College in 2002 with a BS in Agriculture and Natural Resources and a minor in Sustainability and Environmental Studies. She is a Kentucky native and currently resides in Rockcastle County.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Secretary
- Treasurer
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- Member of the Board
- Attorney, Childers & Baxter PLLC / Lexington, KY
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- Attorney, Dinsmore & Shohl LLP
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- Steward Coordinator
- Stewardship Coordinator
Derrick provides stewardship coordination, as well as land acquisition and program support for KNLT related to protecting, connecting, and restoring wildlands along the Pine Mountain Wildlands Corridor. Derrick joined KNLT in the fall of 2016. He previously worked for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and the Cumberland Gap National Historical Park Service. He is a Tennessee native and resides in Bell County. He graduated from Lincoln Memorial University in 2012 with a BS in Biology. He also graduated from American Public University in 2018 with a Master Degree in Environmental Policy and Management with a concentration in Fish and Wildlife Management.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Chairman, Kentucky Land Trusts Coalition / Louisville, KY
Donna provides overall program management. Her responsibilities include managing KNLT's general operations and providing support for development activities, outreach, events and board functions. She also manages the Imperiled Bat Conservation Fund as part of a partnership between KNLT and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Kentucky Ecological Services Field Office. Donna joined KNLT in 2001. Previously, she taught at Knott County Central High School and worked for Appalachian Communities for Children, Madison County Children's Network, Forward in the Fifth, and Mountain Maternal Health League. She is a 1991 graduate of Berea College.
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Professor of Biology, University of the Cumberlands / Williamsburg, KY
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- Advisor
- Author & English Professor, University of Kentucky / Versailles, KY
Greg provides strategic leadership and management of KNLT's efforts to protect, connect and restore wildlands. He serves a variety of key roles with responsibilities ranging from land acquisition efforts to partnerships and outreach to wildlands philanthropy. Greg joined KNLT in 2012 after many years of assisting on special projects. He served as the Assistant Director from 2012-2017 and became the Executive Director in 2018. He has previous experience working for private, government and nonprofit conservation organizations both in Kentucky and throughout the Appalachian region. Greg's background is in forest ecology, geographic information systems (GIS) and design.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Professor, UK Dept of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine / Lexington, KY
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Co - Founder Appalshop, Filmmaker / Whitesburg, KY
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- Advisor
- Founding Chair & Retired Director of KNLT
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- Retired Pathologist / Louisville, KY
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- Member of the Board
- Philanthropy Advisor / Portland, or
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- Member of the Board
- Retired Attorney, Stites & Harbison / Lexington, KY
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- Attorney / Louisville, KY
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- Member of the Board
- Retired State Ecologist, KY State Nature Preserves / Frankfort, KY
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Business Manager / Louisville, KY
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Owner, Revelry Boutique Gallery / Louisville, KY
Nicole leads the fund development efforts of KNLT to sustain and grow the support of individual donors, foundations, and community partners who make the mission possible. Nicole is the newest member of the KNLT team, joining in early 2020 just in time to celebrate KNLT's 25th anniversary. Her previous experience includes more than a decade of nonprofit service in the health and human services sector in Louisville. She holds a master's degree in Communication from the University of Louisville and an undergraduate degree in French from Wittenberg University.
o Pine Mountain Wildlands Corridor: Pine Mountain is a 125-mile long ridge comprised of a series of large forest tracts that are only broken by a few small roads and cumulatively represents one of the largest forest tracts remaining in the state. The mountain provides critical habitat for hundreds of rare species, projects part of the headwaters of three major rivers, offers vast tourism opportunities and holds potential for a local and sustainable forestry economy. Pine Mountain is a resilient intact ecosystem through a region of extensive resource extraction. KNLT is working in four primary areas along the mountain and has targeted 14 projects covering more than 9,000 acres.
Preston manages stewardship operations ensuring protection of KNLT conservation lands and overseeing planning and implementation of management goals including wildlands restoration and expansion of the Great Eastern Trail on Pine Mountain. Preston joined KNLT in 2013 after working for five years at two other nonprofit land trusts located in southwestern Illinois and the Ozark mountains of Missouri and Arkansas. He is a Kentucky native from Georgetown where he grew up working on his family's farm. He graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2005 with a BS in Natural Resource Conservation & Management and a minor in Geography. He also graduated from the University of Louisville in 2008 with dual master degrees in Urban Planning and Public Administration with concentrations in Land Use & Environmental Planning and Nonprofit Management.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board
- Visual Artist / Bronx, NY
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- Mining & Forensic Engineer, R.R. Crawford Engineering / Whitesburg, KY
Salt Trace Gap Preserve Expands (3/25/2022) - Over the winter Kentucky Natural Lands Trust (KNLT) protected an additional 431 acres of wildlands on Pine Mountain in Harlan County. KNLT worked with a local family and a regional company to acquire two separate tracts of land that expanded its Salt Trace Gap Preserve to 2,391 acres. The newly safeguarded wildlands protect forested habitat and headwater streams within a migratory corridor that stretches through…
Job Titles:
- Advisor
- Conservation Planning Consultant / Louisville, KY
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- Advisor
- Farmer & Author / Port Royal, KY
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- Member of the Board
- Executive Director, Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves / Frankfort, KY
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- Member of the Board
- Visual Artist, Writer & Art Professor, Transy University / Lexington, KY