Michael C. Collins
Executive Director
mike@americanclimatepartners.org
540-672-2542
Michael Collins is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of American Climate Partners, formerly Conserv/The Association of Conservation Real Estate (2006-2012), and the Center for Natural Capital (2012-2022).
Mike is also Program Director of ACP’s StreamSweepers program, recipient of the 2014 Sanctioned Event of the Year from the American Canoe Association and a Commendation from the Virginia General Assembly, sponsored by Virginia Delegate Ed Scott and State Senator Emmett Hanger in 2015.
With four colleagues Michael founded the forerunner of ACP, The Association of Conservation Real Estate – Conserv, in 2006. In 2009 Conserv partnered with the Rappahannock River Basin Commission and the Virginia Department of Forestry on several market-based conservation programs and projects.
From 2004-2009, he led the creation of a new planning department for the Town of Orange, Virginia. For his conservation work with the Town, in 2005, Mike received the Chairman’s Award from the Culpeper Soil and Water Conservation District. In 2002, Mike and Dr. Nick Evans formed Virginia Groundwater, LLC, a science-based well drilling firm that continues today as Center for Sustainable Groundwater (CSG). In 2000, he began working as a water resources consultant and led several hydrogeologic and EPA award winning source water protection studies. In 1998, he and his family opened Healthy Home, LLC, a sustainable goods general store in Charlottesville, to provide environmentally friendly construction supplies to the Charlottesville region. From 1990-1998, Mike worked as an Environmental Planner for the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission in Charlottesville and led several groundwater, surface water, and sustainability projects and programs including the Rivanna River Basin Roundtable and the State of the Basin Report, the Interfaith Roundtable on Sustainability, and the Thomas Jefferson Sustainability Council and the Sustainability Accords of 1998. The Sustainability Council was selected as a Case Study of the President’s Council on Sustainable Development. He began his career as a tenured science teacher with Culpeper County Public Schools.
Mike is a former member of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) and a Class C contractor.
Mary Dennis
Administrative Manager
Mary Dennis lives Orange County, Virginia, where she and her husband have a small farm growing produce for market and seed stock for organic seed catalogs. For the previous 15 years, she worked in the nonprofit sector, most recently in administrative operations at the Pew Charitable Trusts and The Wilderness Society, both in Washington DC. In past lives, she also worked in client services for small technology companies in Northern Virginia and Ohio and, at the beginning of her career, managed an independent bookstore in Columbus, Ohio. She has a BA in English literature and creative writing from the Ohio State University, an MBA from Case Western Reserve University, and has visited all 50 states.
Kara Nichols
Program Director, Southern Climate Restoration Solutions
As American Climate Partners expands its work catalyzing climate-smart practices across the Southeastern United States, Kara collaborates with the leadership team to architect the organization’s new Southern Climate Restoration Solutions program, starting with the orchestration of a multi-year, $2m grant-funded initiative in collaboration with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) across 12 states. This project supports NRCS’s nationwide implementation of a new Conservation Evaluation and Monitoring Activity (CEMA), encouraging widespread adoption of conservation practices by providing financial assistance to producers for measuring soil organic carbon stocks before and after.
With a broad skill set cultivated from cross-sector leadership roles and diverse programs for social impact, Kara is drawn to visionary public/private partnerships aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and pioneering teams driving positive change. Her experience spans major international cities, including Washington, DC, New York, San Francisco, London, Tel Aviv, and Hong Kong. Despite her global reach, Kara remains rooted in her Southern Missouri origins and has thrived living on farms from her home state to Kenya and Colorado. Collaborating with teams in rural communities across 12 African countries, Colombia, and multiple counties in Colorado, she brings a unique perspective to her work at ACP.
Following an early career in corporate communications, brand strategy, and information technology design, Kara has dedicated the last 15 years exclusively to social impact initiatives. Notably, she led a global partnership at Columbia University’s Earth Institute, establishing and scaling a program for girls’ education and broadband technology implementation in rural high schools across East and West Africa.
She enjoys hiking, cycling, growing produce and flowers, and spending time outdoors, in the mountains and on rivers whenever possible, and she’s continually involved in design/transformation projects for home and office interior spaces.
Caleb Pellmann
Agriculture and Wildlife Habitat Services Manager, SoilKeepers
Virginia born and raised, Caleb joined ACP in Spring 2022. In his time at ACP, Caleb hopes to improve the resiliency of his home of Orange County by connecting residents with the local systems that maintain and improve the health of our area. Since graduating from William and Mary with a B.S. in Biology, Caleb has pursued fine woodworking, architectural salvage, and green design. At home Caleb and family cultivate a ¼ acre no-till vegetable and seed garden where they focus on soil health as the basis of nutrition. In his free time Caleb can be found canoeing on Mine Run, juggling or skateboarding.
2025 StreamSweepers Crew
Upper Tennessee River Basin
We have clean-up projects going on the Clinch River and along the Virginia Creeper Trail/South Fork of the Holsten River, both in Southwest Virginia. Crew photo coming soon!
2025 StreamSweepers Crew
Upper Ohio River Basin
We have a clean-up project going on the Tug Fork River in West Virginia and Kentucky, and we hope to launch a new project on the Levisa Fork River in Southwest Virginia later this year. Crew photo coming soon!
Taylor Burgess
Central Appalachia Advisor, StreamSweepers
Taylor Raymond Burgess serves as a Grundy Virginia Town Councilman, Owner of Burgess Consulting Group LLC., CEO of Boys & Girls Club of Central Appalachia, Vice President of Big Sandy Land Foundation, Associate Director of Big Sandy Soil & Water Conservation District, and Project Manager of StreamSweepers Central Appalachia Project. A 1995 Graduate of The University of Virginia Wise, Taylor has served on the UVA-Wise Alumni Board for over 25 years and is a dedicated benefactor of UVA-Wise and Charlottesville GO HOOS! Taylor is also an professional photographer working for organizations such as The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Image Associates, NASCAR, The Carolina Hurricanes, and many newspaper, magazine publications, and live concert music websites. Taylor has over a decade of river guide and waterway cleanup experience as the former General Manager of Appalachian Adventures in Todd, NC. Taylor’s wife, Pebbles Burgess, works with The Virginia Attorney General’s Office Civil Trial Division in Richmond, Virginia, and is a Professor at Appalachian School of Law.
Jeff Waldon
Special Advisor, Nature Based Solutions for Carbon Capture
Mr. Waldon is managing partner for a new company focused on bioenergy and carbon capture and sequestration utilizing purpose-grown biomass and pyrolysis to produce bio-oil and biochar. Mr. Waldon also serves as an advisor regarding land management, carbon, biomass energy, timber, and wildlife for clients throughout North America. Mr. Waldon has extensive experience in international forestry, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and the international carbon markets working on land conservation and climate change.
Mr. Waldon recently served as the Chief Technical Officer for Forest Carbon Offsets LLC a company devoted to the development of forest carbon offset projects in tropical forests and the United States. FCO developed the first Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) project in the tropical western hemisphere certified by both the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance and the Verified Carbon Standard. He also served as the first project manager for the Natural Bridge (Virginia) State Park conversion winning a project team award for Deal of the Year from The Land Report.
Mr. Waldon was formerly the founder and Executive Director of the Conservation Management Institute, a center within the College of Natural Resources at Virginia Tech and managed research centers at Virginia Tech for 23 years.
Hervé Bonin
Special Advisor, Soil Science
Hervé has performed research and practical application work on managing microbiomes in soil, on plant and root surfaces, in animal guts and in compost on over 11,000 farms in Europe and USA for the past 29 years, and more recently on other natural ecosystems. He education includes a Master’s degree from the AgroParisTech (formerly Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon, France) in Biochemistry, Genetic Engineering, Biotechnology, and Microbiology as applied to Agriculture; and a certificate in Leading Change in Organizations from the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Education program.
Mary “Maddie” Gordon
Special Advisor, StreamSweepers
Maddie is the former project manager for our Clinch River Clean-up. Her passion for the Clinch River comes from growing up fishing the river with her granddad who grew up along the Clinch. Her granddad and his family depended on the river for many things including water and food. He shared with her his passion of being on the river from the time she was able to walk, and she still remembers the times they had together. Maddie says that having the opportunity to help clean and preserve the river her grandfather loved so much was an amazing opportunity.
Maddie worked for StreamSweepers from 2017 through 2022, leaving to devote more time to her family’s business ventures: Greystone Manor, an assisted living facility located in Castlewood, and Clinch Life Outfitters in St. Paul.
Myron Neuhauser
Special Advisor, Farm Fields and Grasslands
Myron Neuhaser has significant experience in farm management consulting, operations, agronomy, and urgent-operations management including animal care, maintenance and repair. Born and raised in South Dakota, he has worked throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern US regions.
Richard “Buzz” Van Santvoord
Special Advisor, Pollinator and Wildlife Habitats
Buzz has extensive experience in designing fulfillment systems and processes for direct to consumer as well as business to business programs. He has been a Vice-President of a multi-title $185mm catalog company and has more than 30 years of professional work experience in the land management, construction, civil engineering, retail management, and distribution and business operations industries.
He has also been a surveyor, a draftsman, a firefighter, a district retail store manager, a call center manager, and a fulfillment executive. He has supervised a 200 seat customer service center, managed 650,000 square feet of warehouses, stocked, sold, and inventoried every classical record in print, been airlifted by helicopter to fight a 300,000 acre forest fire along side a crew of Eskimos, drawn a property map of the summer home of Dan Fogelberg, and survived three days at the original Woodstock festival. He is an Eagle Scout and spent 15 years as a volunteer youth sports coach. He enjoys woodworking and golf and birding in his spare time.
Buzz is most effective at strategic planning, process analysis and improvement, as well as team building and motivation.
Photos atop the Rapidan Mill courtesy of Evan Clinthorne.