The Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle

You can help preserve what none of us wants to lose: Open land in the Eastern Panhandle

Profiles and Progress: PROFILES

Board Members

Grant Smith

Grant Smith joined the board of the Land Trust in 2001, upon his retirement from a 38-year career in the U.S. Department of State, where he rose to the position of Ambassador. After working on baseline surveys and monitoring of conservation easements held by the Land Trust, he became secretary of the board, and was elected president in 2005. In that capacity he has negotiated easement documents, cooperated closely with the Farmland Protection Boards and the Civil War Preservation Trust, and represented the Land Trust at meetings of the Coalition of West Virginia Land Trusts. Grant and his wife, Renny, have been landowners in Jefferson County since 1988 and are members of the Potomac Valley Audubon Society, the Jefferson County Historical Society and the Shepherdstown Men's Club. Grant holds a bachelors degree in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University and a Masters in International Affairs from Columbia University. He is currently a senior fellow at the Central Asia Caucasus Institute of Johns Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies. He can be contacted at 304-876-2583

Bonnie M. Stubblefield

Bonnie recently retired, after 30 years of government service, from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), where she held numerous science and leadership positions, including Regional Director, Eastern Region and Associate Director for Science. Prior to joining the USGS, she worked as a research scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and three universities. Her educational background includes a Ph.D. in Marine Geology and Geophysics, as well as degrees in Geology and Oceanography. She has authored or coauthored over 100 papers and abstracts that have been published in professional journals and books. Her career provided her with an in depth knowledge of living and non-living natural resources and wholistic approach to the study and understanding of watersheds and ecosystems. She provided guidance and oversight of the science and scientific information that USGS provided to underpin the major ecosystem restoration efforts of the Greater Everglades Restoration in South Florida and the Chesapeake Bay Restoration. She is a resident of Berkeley County and was a member and vice president of the Berkeley County Planning Commission from 2005-2006. In addition to being vice president of the Land Trust, she is a member of the Berkeley County Chamber of Commerce and the Project Team for the Opequon Creek Watershed. She can be contacted at 304-274-2350.

Dr. Peter Vila

A longtime member of the board of the Land Trust, Peter is currently Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Shepherd College. He did his post-doctoral work at MIT, and was a teaching fellow at Harvard University. Peter has been an independent consultant for the U. S. Forest Service assessing the impact of aerial application of insecticide to aquatic communities; for the U. S. Geological Survey assisting in habitat determination and field sampling; and the U. S. Army corps of Engineers assessing the impacts of harbor dredging and doing DNA blood sampling of sea turtles. He has published several studies, including one on the biological assessment of Three Mile Run in Berkeley County, and has been awarded eight research grants in the past six years.

Edward Moore

A native West Virginian from the ”other panhandle,” Edward and his wife, Helen, returned to the state in 1991 upon retirement from his work in Washington with various government agencies. They built a new home on an 80-acre farm they purchased many years ago. Shown on early maps as the “Spring Farm,” it is located on Engle-Molers Road, about a mile southeast of Shepherdstown. In 2005 they donated an easement on the entire farm to the Land Trust and the Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board, the first pure donation of an easement in Jefferson County. Ed Moore joined the Board of Directors in March 2006 and serves as Secretary of the Land Trust.

Barbara Humes

Barbara is a native of Martinsburg and graduated from Shepherd College (now Shepherd University). She has a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Maryland and has had a career as an educator in the Prince George’s County, Maryland, school system and with Montgomery College, Maryland, and has consulted on numerous information management projects. Barbara is currently a program officer with the US Department of Education in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Barbara currently resides in Harpers Ferry and has participated in the following areas of community service:

Harpers Ferry Planning Commission
Municipal Liaison to the Jefferson County Planning Commission
Member, Jefferson County Youth Board
Harpers Ferry Comprehensive Land Use Plan Committee
Elk Run Source Water Protection Committee
Member, League of Women Voters
Member, Berkeley County Historical Society

Professional Assistance

Lavonne Paden

Lavonne was the past president of the Land Trust and left the board to assist the Canaan Valley Institute and the Natural Resources Conservation Service in instituting land protection efforts throughout the state of West Virginia.

Lavonne is a CPA and financial institutions consultant with over 20 years experience. She began her career with an international accounting firm, auditing a variety of commercial, governmental and nonprofit institutions. From 1984 through 1990, Lavonne was the Vice President and Controller of the Acacia Group, a $1 billion diversified financial services company in Washington, D.C. In 1992, she took a two-year professional fellowship assisting the U. S. congress through the General Accounting Office in their oversight of the financial services industry.

Since 1993, Lavonne has consulted for both regional and national financial institutions in developing reporting systems and performing financial studies for management. Most recently, she assisted a Washington, D.C.-based insurance group providing medical malpractice insurance for doctors and hospitals to successfully complete a $10 million public stock offering.

Lavonne has researched and written about the preservation of land, including estate planning, conservation easements, and land use issues. She is interested in land planning issues, tourism and the promotion of public awareness of land protection. Lavonne was instrumental in the 2001 legislative forum which resulted in the drafting of the real estate transfer tax mechanism to fund the county Farmland Protection Boards. She was a member of the Berkeley County Planning Commission from 2001 to 2004. More recently, she has served as the Executive Director of the Berkeley County Farmland Protection Board, has assisted 15 counties in starting Farmland Protection Boards and has advised the West Virginia State Authority, which became operational in 2005.

Dr. James Keel

Also a past president of the Land Trust, Jim is a doctor of Veterinary Medicine, and has a Masters degree in food science and radiobiology from Purdue University.

Jim retired as a colonel in the U. S. Army in 1981. He spent his military career in Denmark, Yugoslavia, Thailand, Germany, and other foreign military posts.

Jim's family has a long history of land conservation, with his father starting Michigan's largest land trust, the Little Traverse Conservancy. Jim was an early member of the Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle, overseeing its operations from start-up stage to a 600-plus member mailing list. He has spoken to dozens of community groups educating them on conservation easements, and oversaw the negotiation and closing process on several easements in the Eastern Panhandle.

Jim has participated in the following areas of community service in Jefferson County:

Potomac Valley Audubon Society, President and Board member 1986-1991
South Jefferson Ruritan Club, Member and Treasurer 1984-1993
The Opequon Watershed, Board of Directors 1992-1995
Soil Conservation Service Representative, Potomac Headwaters RC&D 1992-1994
West Virginia Representative, Seventh American Forest Congress
Participated in 2001-02 Jefferson County Rural Option initiative
Actively supported West Virginia Nature Conservancy, Jefferson County Historical Landmarks Commission, Jefferson County Historical Society

Rodney Bartgis

Rodney was an early board member on the Land Trust, and a native of Berkeley County. He left the board in 2001 and currently serves as West Virginia State Director of the Nature Conservancy. The Land Trust continues to collaborate with the Nature Conservancy and utilizes Rodney's expertise and contacts.

Dr. John Sims

John has his PhD in Geology from the Northwestern University. He has broad familiarity with the geology and ecology of several regions of the US including the mid-Atlantic region. John, a retired Senior Research Geologist from the U.S. Geological Survey, has expert knowledge of topographic and soil maps and a working knowledge of metes and bounds descriptions of parcels. He is an Adjunct Professor of Geology at Mountain State University.

John also owns the geological consulting business John Sims & Associates. John Sims & Associates conducts contract geological research and geological and geotechnical surveys throughout the USA. John has published extensively on topics in earthquake research, stratigraphy, and sedimentation as well as numerous geologic maps.

Read about the Land Trust's PROGRESS