Meet Your Team

ACLT Staff and Board

Greg Bowen, Executive Director
gbowen@acltweb.org
Greg Bowen is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and has over 30 years experience in land preservation and public policy. Prior to joining the staff, he volunteered on three land trusts and was on the ACLT Board for over 3 years. He is a member of the Maryland Sustainable Growth Commission and is chair of its Rural Economies Workgroup. Greg is a lifetime resident of Calvert County, growing up on a tobacco farm near the Patuxent River. His passion is preserving Calvert’s working landscapes and its ecological and culture assets.

Miriam Gholl, Acting Community Relations Manager
miriam@acltweb.org
When former Community Relations Manager Pam Shilling left us to take a job at AnnMarie Gardens, Miriam was asked to come out of retirement to help out. She had worked with Greg for over 30 years in the local Planning & Zoning Office, and he was confident she could take on the challenges of the job. Since retiring in 2011, Miriam had been a part-time social media marketer and webmaster for her husband’s business and spent a good part of the remainder of her time providing similar services for several local non-profits. Since June 2019, she has been busy trying to fill Pam’s big shoes and is extremely impressed with ACLT’s volunteers, who have been a huge help.

Autumn Phillips-Lewis, Land Manager
landmanager@acltweb.org
Autumn earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science from Elizabethtown College in 2012 and a Master of Science degree in Applied Ecology and Conservation Biology from Frostburg State University in 2014. Autumn spent two summers at Soberañia National Park in Panama where she conducted her master’s thesis research on the influence of tree-fall gaps on directional seed dispersal by small mammals in Neotropical forests. Prior to this, she did research on carbon sequestration at Elizabethtown College and worked at the Penn State Cooperative Extension Horticulture and Pollinator education and research programs. Autumn is excited to manage ACLT’s valuable land along the Chesapeake Bay and has a special interest in implementing new ideas and activities to further educate and connect people with the natural resources ACLT has to offer.

Janel Young, Office Coordinator
Info@acltweb.org
Janel joined ACLT in December 2014 as the Office Coordinator. She is in the office part-time, mainly handling accounts receivable and payable, but also assisting with various other projects as needed. Janel has a background in public relations and marketing and holds a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from Towson University. When Janel is not at ACLT she keeps busy with her husband and three young kids – you might spot them at various community events. Janel also enjoys photography and runs a small portrait photography business.

Volunteer Staff
Virginia ‘Ginny’ Murphy, Membership Coordinator
For 23 years (Yes! 23 Years!), ACLT has relied on Ginny Murphy to coordinate the ACLT membership program. Ginny knows many of our members personally and is in an excellent position to keep our database up to date and accurate. She is now a seasoned veteran, working on the third iteration of ACLT’s computerized database. Ginny says, “As for my work with ACLT, I believe deeply in its mission of preservation and I have had a special love for this area since my parents built our cabin at Scientists Cliffs in 1948. As Membership Coordinator, I feel I can at least help in some small way in getting people involved to help with our endeavors.”

ACLT Board of Directors
The ACLT is a nonprofit corporation governed by a Board of Directors that meets bi-monthly. The corporation has an Annual Meeting of the membership each year to report on the business of the corporation and to elect new board members. The Board is served by five standing committees that oversee Land Preservation, Land Management, Outreach & Membership, Administration & Fundraising, and Budget & Finance.

David Farr, President
Department of Agriculture, Biologist, Retired
Dawn Balinski, Vice President
Elected Member of the Calvert County Board of Education
Cheryl Place, CPA, Treasurer
Director of Internal Audit, The Nature Conservancy, Retired
Gary Loew, Secretary
US Army Corps of Engineers, Programs Integration Division, Chief, Retired
Richard Aldrich, CCE/A
Lead Cost Analyst, Naval Solutions Incorporated
Joy Bartholomew
Chief Executive Officer at Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation, Retired
Walter Boynton, Ph.D
Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES)
Denise Breitburg, Ph.D
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Senior Scientist
Stephen Cloak Jr.,
Senior Technical Specialist, Deloitte Consulting LLP
Karen Edgecombe
Former ACLT Executive Director
Kathleen Ellwood, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor, College of Southern Maryland
Bob Field
U.S. Postal Operations Director, Retired
Elizabeth Johnston
GAO Congressional Affairs Liaison to the House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform and Senate Committee on Government Affairs and Homeland Security, Retired
Ronald Klauda
Division Director at Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Retired
Steve Kullen
Calvert County Department of Planning and Zoning, Watershed Planner, Retired
John Little
Flag Harbor Marine Services, Owner/Operator
Suzanne Shelden
Shelden Studios, Owner/Artist
Peter N. Stathis
U.S. Government Accountability Office, Retired
Robyn Truslow
Public Relations Coordinator & IT Supervisor at Calvert Library
Randi Vogt
Calvert County Department of Planning & Zoning, Principal Planner, Retired