I am the Director of Advocacy at Historic Charleston Foundation and have two decades of professional experience as a place-based community advocate.

As a private consultant, I provide services to local governments, businesses, non-profits, and individuals to accomplish complex sustainability and conservation goals through simple approaches to communication, strategy, organizing, and advocacy. I have helped clients launch multiple land and water conservation funding programs; diverse advocacy coalitions; and new models for conserving landscapes through innovative solutions, such as carbon offsets and conservation burials.

Prior to consulting, I served in executive positions at the Coastal Conservation League in Charleston, S.C. — first as the chief conservation officer and most recently as the chief strategy officer where I was a key member of the executive leadership team that led a successful $20 million comprehensive fundraising campaign. As the director of the Coastal Conservation League’s Food and Agriculture Program, I helped launch GrowFood Carolina, South Carolina’s first local food hub in 2011.

I began my career in conservation after graduating from the University of the South with a B.S. in Natural Resources in 1999 and served for more than two years as an agroforestry Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, Africa. In 2002, I joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation in Washington, D.C. where I worked on regulatory issues pertaining to air quality, consultations with tribal governments, and environmental justice.

I am a proud South Carolina Liberty Fellow and a Riley Institute Diversity Leadership Initiative Fellow dedicated to the conservation of natural and built environments.