The Saturday Morning Program on April 29 was devoted to topics on sustainability, which is Blue Ridge School’s theme for this year. Five guest speakers, including BRS Trustee Kevin Jones (above), addressed a variety of sustainability topics related to their careers and expertise.
Robbi Savage is the executive director of the Rivanna Conservation Alliance and has thirty-seven years of nonprofit executive management experience. She has represented the Rivanna Conservation Society for nine years. She has also represented the national association that oversees fifty state government water quality and environmental officials in Washington, D.C., for twenty-eight years. She was the founder and president of America’s Clean Water Foundation as well. In addition, Robbi created and managed the World Water Monitoring Day Program.
In 2004, Robbi served as the U.S.’s Earth Day ambassador to Germany, was the U.S. Water ambassador to Taiwan in 2005 and 2006, a U.S. delegate to the Bonn Charter on International Water Supply in 2004, a U.S. delegate and presenter at the 2003 World Water Forum in Kyoto, Japan, and one of the key sponsors of the United Nations Global Assembly for Women and the Environment in 1991.
In 1992 and 2002, Robbi created and facilitated the Years of Clean Water that included the World Water Summit hosted by Senator Edmund Muskie, Senator Howard Baker and President Jimmy Carter at the Carter Center in Atlanta. Robbi has testified before Congress more than 100 times, has been extensively published, and has received hundreds of national and international awards.
Robbi is a graduate of Harvard University’s Executive Environmental Management Program. She served as a visiting scholar at the University of Texas’ Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Policy and is currently teaching at UVA’s Department of Urban and Environmental Planning (for nonprofits) and the Batten School of Public Policy (implementing federal policy).
Sally Hurlbert is currently the management specialist at Shenandoah National Park in Luray, Virginia. She has worked at Shenandoah since 1996. She worked previously as an interpretive park ranger in the Interpretation and Education Division until 2016 when she moved into her new position as management specialist. In this new role, she has five main responsibilities: external affairs in which she works with local, state and federal government officials and other stakeholder groups; public affairs in which she works in media relations, public relations, and managing tourism and marketing partnerships; land issues in which she helps manage the lands along the 300 miles of Park boundary; management of the Park’s Freedom of Information Act; and as liaison to the Shenandoah National Park Trust.
Prior to joining the National Park Service, Sally worked for eleven years as a geologist with the Department of Interior Minerals Management Service in Anchorage, Alaska. Sally graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Geology from Stanford University and a Master’s degree in Geology from Oregon State University. She resides in Stanley, Virginia, with her husband Dan, who is the geographic information systems specialist at Shenandoah. Her two children reside in New York City and Denver.
Kevin Jones (CPA, J.D. tax partner) has thirty-five years of experience counseling clients on the tax aspects of business transactions, and he has extensive experience negotiating and litigating tax controversies at the federal and state levels. He has performed research and tax planning, and has implemented tax minimization strategies for business entities in a variety of industries, including professional services, government contracting, high technology, manufacturers, distributors, mass media, construction, real estate, hospitality and retail. In addition, he is the tax advisor to the Washington Redskins. Previously, Kevin worked in both law and accounting firms and was a law clerk to The Honorable Laurence J. Whalen at the United States Tax Court.
Kevin graduated cum laude from Temple University’s School of Law where he was a member of the Temple Law Review. He also worked for the national tax office of a Big Four accounting firm where, as a member of the firm’s “Think Tank,” he worked on the development of new and cutting edge tax strategies for implementation on behalf of the firm’s clients nationwide. Kevin recently completed a five-year term as a member of the editorial advisory board of The Tax Adviser, the monthly magazine of tax planning, trends and techniques published by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The board is comprised of top tax professionals from the Big Four and other accounting firms, college professors and major law firms. In this role, Kevin was responsible for reviewing feature articles in order to ensure that all published articles maintain the publication’s high editorial standards. Kevin himself is a prolific writer and often performs speaking engagements for in-house training, client practice development and outside continuing education providers. Kevin has also been an adjunct professor of accounting at the University of Maryland where he has taught undergraduate tax courses. He is a member of the American Bar Association (Section on Taxation) and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He is also a member of the Virginia District of Columbia Bar Association and the Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants.
Shawn Tevandale started out at as a paramedic who discovered cycling and fell in love. Since then, he has been a sponsored athlete for eight years with experience in racing road, cyclocross, and mountain bikes. His focus through most of his sponsored years has been endurance mountain bike racing with a focus on twelve- to twenty-four hour races. As such, he understands comfort, nutrition and lightweight performance on a bicycle. Shawn continues to race and train on a regular basis and owns Blue Ridge Cyclery with two locations in Charlottesville.
Steve Hood (Ret. U.S. Army Colonel) has over thirty years of continuous leadership experience in the U.S. Military Intelligence Community (IC) and the Defense Industry. In the latter, he was responsible for numerous billion-dollar capture efforts during which he successfully increased corporate revenue over forty-five percent within two years of hire. Simultaneously, he led thirty-six employees on four separate contract vehicles over four states and deployed personnel in Afghanistan, reporting directly to the CEO. Steve is currently the regional sales lead for Avaya Federal. In this role, he provides a wide array of information technology to the U.S. Intelligence and law enforcement communities. Steve served twenty-six years on active duty with the U.S. Army. His Army service culminated as the Director of the Joint Intelligence and Operations Center (JIOC) in Baghdad Iraq. In this capacity, Steve was personally involved in intelligence operations leading to the killing or capturing of numerous insurgent leaders. Steve has also led large complex organizations with extensive budgetary responsibilities. As the commander of the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC), Steve led an organization of 1,800 employees with an annual budget in excess of 400 million dollars with world-wide intelligence missions supporting critical national level wartime requirements. He personally briefed or provided products to the highest level of US Government decision makers to include the members of Congress. Uniquely qualified and experienced in joint, inter-agency, and combined intelligence operations, he has a thorough hands-on knowledge of how the U.S. defense and intelligence communities work and how industry supports them.
Blue Ridge instructors also shared some of their sustainability expertise. Science teacher Jamie Bourland led a discussion on BRS wastewater. History teacher Jim Niederberger facilitated videos on BRS disposal and single-stream recycling. Assistant Headmaster for Co-Curricular Programs Vinton Bruton led a discussion on fish and wildlife management.
