Agriculture, Forestry, Land Management
Karen Cannon
Sub-Group Chair
(AFL sub-group member)
Karen Cannon has been a Frederick resident for 15 years. She previously lived in Montgomery County where she was active with the Sierra Club Montgomery County Group and Maryland Chapter. She graduated from Colgate University with a degree in English and Environmental Studies and has had a lifelong interest in environmental issues and sustainability. Her professional career began in scientific publishing, but for the past 20 years has been in Information Technology and Cyber Security, developing and leading Project and Portfolio Management teams in the financial industry. Outside of work, she enjoys organic gardening, hiking, horseback riding, and traveling (when that was possible). She is also planning a home renovation to bring her home energy use as close to net zero as possible.
Barb Trader
(CEMWG Co-chair, AFL sub-group member, liaison to PAO sub-group)
Barb Trader retired to Frederick in 2016, with her husband, Mark Gregory, after a 40 year career in disability services and federal advocacy. Her masters and undergraduate degrees span two main interests – the enjoyment and preservation of wilderness areas and life satisfaction for people with significant disabilities. Barb’s environmental activism started at a young age and she was named the 1972 Youth Environmentalist of the Year by her Congressman, the Honorable Les Aspin. She’s a co-founder of the Multifaith Alliance of Climate Stewards of Frederick County, a member of the Sierra Club Catoctin Group and the Smarter Growth Alliance, and a board member of Envision Frederick County and SHIP of Frederick County (the Student Homelessness Initiative Partnership). In 2019, Barb founded Healthy Soils Frederick, which has already achieved some legislative success toward the advancement of regenerative land management practices. Barb co-authored the Climate Emergency Resolution and was a leading advocate toward its adoption. She now serves as the Co-Chair of the Climate Emergency Mobilization Workgroup. In her spare time, Barb loves to hike, run, read, travel, play table games and have friends over for dinner and conversation.
Tom Anderson
(AFL sub-group member)
Tom's background includes 25 years as an environmental scientist addressing inadequate past environmental practices, adjunct professor at Montgomery College, and managing a certified tree farm in Frederick County. He has worked to enhance the environment as both an officer and a member of the Frederick County Sustainability Commission and the Frederick County Forest Conservancy District Board.
Patrice Gallagher
(AFL sub-group member)
Patrice Gallagher moved to Frederick County from Washington, DC more than twenty-five years ago, bringing her graphic design business with her. She became involved in local issues not long after arriving, at first to address overcrowding at her children’s elementary school in Jefferson. She operates her design business in downtown Frederick (Gallagher Design), and contributes time and design skills to a variety of groups and causes. She is proud to be a founding board member of Envision Frederick County, and of the Frederick Zero Waste Alliance.
Erin Goodnough
(AFL sub-group member)
Ms. Goodnough is a program manager and human geographer with thirteen years of geospatial experience including model and tool development, database design, decision-support geospatial analysis, remote sensing, feature extraction and field-based survey design. She writes reports, technical documentation and proposals, provides training to novice and advanced users, and briefs decision-makers regularly. Overseas experience includes Afghanistan, Malawi, Indonesia, Jordan, Liberia, and Timor Leste.
Kerri Hesley (AFL sub-group member)
Kerri Hesley, M.D. is a physician with Associated Radiologists in Hagerstown where she was medical director of DIS Women’s Imaging for many years. She was instrumental in the creation of Meritus Center for Breast Health, and was its first medical director. She resides in Frederick County where she and her husband Tim Gibian raised their 3 children. While always an avid recycler and composter, she became involved in the environmental movement after chronically lamenting the amount of plastic litter/pollution that she saw and read about, and realizing “if not now, when”? She is secretary of the Zero Waste Committee of Sierra Club of Maryland and is involved with Sierra Club Catoctin Group. She recently completed the ZeroWasteUSA course.
Richard Jefferies (AFL sub-group member)
Richard Jefferies (CEMWG, AFL and Composting subgroups) Richard grew up in Frederick, then lived and worked in California for many years before returning to Frederick in 2010. Inspired by his grandfather, an early organic farmer, Richard has developed 40 acres of farmland in north Frederick County using regenerative practices such as silvopasture, aerobic composting, permaculture, no-till vegetable production, holistic orcharding, food forest, wetland restoration and biodiverse companion planting.. He has integrated sheep, donkeys, guineas and chickens into a growing biodiverse farm ecosystem. Richard is chapter leader of Bionutrient Food Association Central Maryland and a board member of Silvoculture: Nuts for the Future. He is a partner in Key City Compost, Frederick’s first commercial composting company.
Lisa Orr
(AFL sub-group member)
Lisa Orr currently serves as executive director of Mountainside Education and Enrichment and as an advisor and steering committee member of Community F.A.R.E (Food-Advocacy-Resources-Education), the Frederick County Food Council (FCFC), and Frederick County Farm to School. She is also the market manager for the pilot online farmers market, Frederick Fresh Online, a joint initiative of FARE and the FCFC. Lisa worked for 8 years as Frederick County’s Sustainability Program Coordinator where she developed the Green Homes Challenge and implemented residential energy conservation and solar programs. She served 10 years as Executive Director of Volunteer Frederick where she created signature programs such as the SummerServe youth service program and The BIG Sweep county-wide clean-up. Formerly, she worked as an information systems manager and research geologist. Her passions include protecting the natural resources upon which we all depend through energy conservation, renewable energy, regenerative agriculture, food waste reduction, and sustainable living. Lisa completed a graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Management from Case Western Reserve University and has a Master in Geology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Linda Norris-Waldt
(AFL sub-group member)
Linda Norris-Waldt is the Advocacy and Communications Director of the US Composting Council, a national trade organization that advocates for the commercial composting industry, trains and certifies both people and products in best practices of compost production. Linda has been in the recycling industry for 28 years, having spent 10 years as the recycling manager for Frederick County, MD. She is a University of Maryland graduate, an active member of the Frederick County League of Women Voters, a member of the MD-DC Composting Council Steering Committee and Maryland Compost Advocacy Coalition; and is part of the Frederick Compost Workgroup, a citizens advocacy group for composting and food waste in Frederick County. She lives in Middletown MD.
Greg Wilson
(AFL sub-group member)
Current: 2016-Current: Senior Research Associate, Colorado State University providing consulting, coordination, and project management services to national research for the USDA Agricultural Research Service Long Term Agricultural Research Program.
2014-2017: Consultant to Frederick County dairy farm operation for business, cropping, animal nutrition, and general farm operations.
2011-2016: Research Associate, Iowa State University providing consulting, coordination, and project management services to national research for the USDA Agricultural Research Service Green House Gas (GRACEnet) and Resilient Economic Agriculture Practices (REAP) Programs.
1982-2011: USDA positions as Auditor, Accountant, Computer Specialist. From 2002-2011, Project Data Coordinator for USDA ARS national research programs for Natural Resource Programs;
Research publications include Greenhouse gases, nitrogen utilization, water quality, and others involving natural resources. Involved in local Frederick church, support Frederick County Department of Social Services through their Partners of Faith initiatives, member of Healthy Soils Frederick, and member of Frederick County Food Council