Forever Maryland’s distinguished Board of Directors includes many Marylanders who are widely known for their dedication to conserving Maryland’s mountain forests, farms, working landscapes, rivers, bays, and historic resources.
Kristin Kirkwood
Chair
Kristin Kirkwood is the Executive Director of Harford Land Trust. She joined Harford Land Trust in 2017 after many years with a global consulting firm managing projects ranging from timber traceability to combating wildlife trafficking.
Kristin is also the Chair of Harford County’s Planning Advisory Board and the Economic Development Advisory Board’s Land Use Committee.
She is the eighth generation to operate her family farm, Newark Farms, in White Hall where she lives with her husband, Chet, and two children, Forest and Sage.
Kristin holds a B.S. in Finance from the University of Maryland, College Park and a M.A. in Sustainability and Natural Resource Management from Harvard University.
David Lillard
Vice Chair
David Lillard is executive director of Catoctin Land Trust and convener of the Heart of Maryland Conservation Alliance, a regional conservation partnership. He serves on the steering committee of the RCP Network and the Safe Water Conservation Alliance, and the Chesapeake Bay Citizens Advisory Committee. Previously for West Virginia Rivers Coalition, he was Chesapeake Bay region staff lead on the Bay Program and source water protection programs and state-lead staff for the Choose Clean Water Coalition. He is also on staff of The Downstream Project, a nonprofit protecting watersheds by promoting awareness, alliance, and action through creative technology and communication. He is a founder of the Land Trust of the Eastern Panhandle and the American Conservation Film Festival.
Steve Kline
Treasurer
Steve is the President of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy (ESLC) and joined the organization after spending two decades as a lobbyist in Washington. For the last ten years of Steve’s time on Capitol Hill, he led the government relations work of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), a national hunting and fishing conservation organization. During his tenure in the nation’s capital, Steve was the principal architect of a variety of successful legislative campaigns, and worked extensively on public policy issues related to public lands conservation, recreational fishing, wetlands protection, wildlife health, access, infrastructure, forest management, and private lands conservation.
Steve is also a former elected official and President of the Centreville Town Council, as well as the council liaison to the Centreville Planning Commission, in Queen Anne’s County. He was a delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention and has advised national, state, and local political candidates on issues related to natural resources. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Mary’s College of Maryland and a master’s degree in government from Johns Hopkins University.
Steve is an Eagle Scout, a seventh generation Marylander, and is proudest of all to be a husband and dad. He is an avid bird hunter, angler, little league coach, and an obsessive reader of non-fiction.
Phyllis Joris
Secretary
Phyllis, originally from Belgium, was excited to join the NeighborSpace team as the Program Manager. Now, she serves as its Executive Director. The NeighborSpace mission speaks to several of her passions – community, the outdoors, equity – and she is excited to dedicate her time and energy to making it a reality. Phyllis graduated from college with a master’s degree in mathematics.
She and her husband now live in Cockeysville with their five children: four boys and a girl between the ages of 6 and 12. Over these child-rearing years, she has volunteered with a few different local non-profits, and is currently the PTA President at her children’s elementary school. Her favorite place to unwind is her garden and she looks forward to rolling up her sleeves on the NeighborSpace sites as well.
Bill Crouch
Bill sources, manages and oversees all conservation real estate activities in Maryland, working to establish positive and productive relations with partners and landowners throughout the state.
Bill, who recently added real estate responsibilities in Delaware, brings extensive transactional experience to the world of land conservation. For eight years prior to joining The Conservation Fund, Bill served as acquisitions officer for Phillips Edison & Company, one of the country’s largest shopping center owners. Bill’s ability to combine relationship skills with transactional expertise has helped position The Conservation Fund as the preferred conservation real estate partner in Maryland.
Bill has a BBA in Finance from James Madison University and a J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law. Bill is a member of the Maryland bar.
Nick Dilks
Nick co-founded Ecosystem Investment Partners (EIP) in 2006 and has extensive experience in land conservation, finance, private equity fund management and real estate. Prior to EIP, he spent 10 years with The Conservation Fund, most recently as its Vice President for Real Estate. He has a BA in Environmental Science & Policy from Duke University and an MBA from the University of Maryland.
John Griffin
John works to advance large landscape conservation initiatives as the program manager for the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership. The Partnership is a landscape collaborative with over 50 partners from government agencies, land trusts, and other nonprofits around the Chesapeake Bay watershed. John is the former Secretary of Maryland Department of Natural Resources under two Governors, the Deputy Secretary of the Department, the General Manager of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, and served as Chief of Staff for Governor Martin O’Malley. he brings decades of experience with resource conservation and environmental protection. John has BA and MA degrees and lives in Annapolis, MD.
Matt Heim
Matt Heim is the Executive Director of the Lower Shore Land Trust. A native of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Matt has dedicated nearly two decades to the environmental nonprofit sector. He was the inaugural director of Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake’s One Water Partnership program and previously served as the Mid-Atlantic Campaign Coordinator for the international nonprofit Oceana, leading highly successful grass-roots ocean policy campaigns.
Matt holds a graduate degree in environmental history, with a focus on the shifting land-use patterns of Maryland’s Lower Shore region. He lives in Salisbury, Maryland with his wife and three children, and can often be found along the shores of Assateague Island when he's off.
Francis (Joe) Hickman
Joe is a nationally recognized farm management consultant and also a partner at Cross Street Realtors. Joe manages over 50 farms on the Delmarva Peninsula for domestic and international clients. Joe is particularly proud that over 40% or 7,500 acres of the farms under his management are permanently protected with conservation easements with holders such as MET, ESLC, MALPF, DALPF ,Ducks Unlimited, or National Historic Trust. He is the former Board Chair of the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy and continues to serve on its Board of Directors. Joe also serves as Chairman of the Kent County Planning Commission.
Joe was born and raised just outside of Chestertown on his family’s farm "Black Horse Flag Farm.” He graduated from Hamilton College with a B.S. in Biology. Joe and his wife Marianne live on and manage the farm he grew up on and raised their four children. Their three young grandchildren enjoy visiting the farm with their parents!
Sarah Knebel
Sarah Knebel is a Principal Environmental Project Manager at Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., where she focuses her time coordinating BGE’s Environmental Stewardship Program and Environmental Justice Council. Prior to gaining her current position in December 2025, she worked at Scenic Rivers Land Trust for 10 years, the latter half of that time serving as the executive director. She has a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Policy from University of Maryland, College Park. She is a part-time climbing instructor at Movement in Columbia, MD. In her spare time, she loves to relax and explore by cooking, climbing, gravel biking, sailing, camping, and hiking. She lives in Baltimore City.
Katie Lautar
Born and raised in Baltimore, Katie came to this work through her love of Baltimore, nature, and communities. She is currently the Executive Director of Baltimore Greenspace where she has worked for 11 years. Katie has more than 17 years experience in community organizing, designing non-profit programs, and creating education programs. She earned a Master’s Degree in Environmental Education from Lesley University, while living outdoors in different bio-regions. Most of her early work was spent learning with and teaching the resilient inspiring brave youth of Baltimore.
Riley Layman
Riley is the executive director of the Baltimore County Land Trust Coalition, where she advocates and provides technical support for the primarily volunteer-based local land trusts of Baltimore County. She entered this field because she cares deeply about wildlife, access to nature, and the livability of both urban and rural communities.
Riley has a Bachelor and Master of Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia. While in Charlottesville, she worked at an apple orchard and aided communities in the development of hazard mitigation grant applications. Today, she lives in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore with her boyfriend and 43 houseplants. Her hobbies include traveling, hiking, kayaking, going to Orioles games, reading nonfiction books, and playing for an adult kickball team.
Anna Mudd
Anna Mudd is the Senior Director of Policy for Potomac Conservancy. In this role, she advocates for public policies that prioritize the nexus of clean water and environmental justice in Maryland and Virginia. An experienced strategist, Anna interacts with elected officials, relevant government agencies and other decision-makers, and also serves as the primary liaison with partner organizations and coalitions in the environmental policy space.
Before joining Potomac Conservancy, Anna spent several years working in local and state politics, government, and non-profit advocacy. She is a Maryland native and currently resides in Annapolis. In addition to spending quality time with her large extended family, Anna also enjoys exploring Maryland’s many trails and public parks with her husband, son, and goldendoodle.
Barry Salisbury
Barry Salisbury, a retired attorney, spent her summers as a youth on the Eastern Shore of Maryland with her grandparents. It was there that she fell in love the outdoors. She studied to be an environmental lawyer (UVA environmental science major; University of Maryland law school) and, as fate would have it, ended up in Frederick County.
There she practiced law with her husband for years, until she decided to work full time raising their five children on their farm in the beautiful Middletown Valley — where the have preserved more than 700 acres and are working to preserve more of the valley.
From coaching lacrosse to working at her church and the Frederick Rescue Mission, Barry has been involved in numerous activities. Her passion is to build collaborative approaches to making the world a better place now and forever.
Adair Stifel
Adair Stifel lives northwest of Baltimore on a farm with her husband, Arne, and daughter, Este. Adair worked for the Jackson Hole Land Trust, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, Snake River Ranch, and Utah Open Lands before moving back east in 2002 when she worked for the Land Preservation Trust and the Maryland Environmental Trust, doing conservation easement outreach and landowner relations.
Adair enjoys hiking, biking, skiing, climbing, fox hunting, and steeplechase racing. She is a graduate of Pomfret School in Connecticut, Hobart William Smith Colleges in New York and holds a MA in Community & Regional Land Use Planning from the University of Oregon. She previously served on the boards of the MD/DC Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, the National Steeplechase Foundation, and the Irvine Nature Center. Currently, she serves on the board of the Wyoming Chapter of the Nature Conservancy, and capital campaign committee of the MD/DC Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.
Gary S. Burnett - MET Liaison
Gary Burnett is the Deputy Director of Parks, Operations, for the Maryland National Park and Planning Commission - Montgomery Parks. He has over 40 years of park experience. He received a B.S. in Conservation and Resource Development from University of Maryland. After working seasonally with the National Park Service, he had 30 years of service with the Maryland Park Service starting in 1987. Throughout his career, he has worked at every operational level for the Maryland State Park Service from Park Ranger to Park Ranger Major/Director of Support Services in 2010 before retiring in 2016.
He joined the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Montgomery Parks, in 2016 as the Regional Operations Manager for the Northern Parks before being promoted to the Southern Parks Division Chief for Montgomery Parks in 2020 and promoted again in 2022 to his current role as the Deputy Director of Parks. He oversees five operational divisions within the Montgomery Parks and is responsible for the operations of 37,000 acres with 419 parks and an operational staff of over 550.
Gary is currently the Chairman of the Maryland Environmental Trust board of Trustees. He had held leadership positions within the Maryland Recreation and Parks Association, DNR Black Officers Association, and served on boards for Cecil County Tourism Board, Howard County Environmental Alliance, and Baltimore County Community College - Catonsville for Recreation and Parks majors among others. He was also the founder and president of the 501(c)3 Friends of Carrie Murray Nature Center.