Land Trust Staff

The Fresh­wa­ter Land Trust, a 501©(3) non-profit orga­ni­za­tion, has six full-time employ­ees, one part-time employee and is gov­erned by a 15-member board of directors.

Wendy Jack­son
Exec­u­tive Director

Wendy Jack­son has over 18 years of expe­ri­ence in the field of real estate with most of those years spent in con­ser­va­tion. Since join­ing the Fresh­wa­ter Land Trust in 2001, Wendy’s pas­sion for river and land con­ser­va­tion has fueled her work to estab­lish pre­serves and projects such as the Turkey Creek Nature Pre­serve, the Five Mile Creek Green­ways project, and Red Moun­tain Park. Dur­ing her tenure as Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, the Land Trust has helped to pro­tect over 10,000 acres of land in north-central Alabama. She has also helped to secure almost $17 mil­lion dol­lars in gifts of land, cash and other contributions.

Wendy has been rec­og­nized across the state for her busi­nesslike approach to con­ser­va­tion and her unique abil­ity to bring diverse part­ners together for the ben­e­fit of con­ser­va­tion. She is the 2005 recip­i­ent of the James Dock­ery Envi­ron­men­tal Lead­er­ship Award that is pre­sented to indi­vid­u­als who have played a lead­er­ship role in pre­serv­ing the South’s envi­ron­ment. She is cel­e­brat­ing her tenth anniver­sary at the Fresh­wa­ter Land Trust this year.

Brian Rush­ing
Direc­tor of Land Conservation

Brian Rush­ing is the Direc­tor of Land Con­ser­va­tion and came to the Land Trust in March 2003. With an edu­ca­tional back­ground in forestry, geol­ogy, envi­ron­men­tal plan­ning and man­age­ment, busi­ness, and real estate, Brian tai­lored his aca­d­e­mic pur­suits for a career work­ing with land trusts. He is a grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­sity of the South (B.S.), Louisiana State Uni­ver­sity (M.S.), and the Uni­ver­sity of Alabama (M.B.A.) and has worked in nat­ural his­tory and envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion for a num­ber of years.

Since com­ing to the Land Trust, Brian has worked to com­plete the Land Trust’s imple­men­ta­tion of the Jef­fer­son County Green­ways Pro­gram, and to date has nego­ti­ated numer­ous land acqui­si­tions. In addi­tion to on-the-ground land acqui­si­tion and stew­ard­ship activ­i­ties, Brian has also worked with the Land Trust’s Board of Direc­tors to develop a num­ber of poli­cies and pro­ce­dures that guide the land acqui­si­tion and stew­ard­ship work of the Land Trust and that keep these activ­i­ties con­sis­tent with the Land Trust Alliance’s Stan­dards and Practices.

Katie Baker
Direc­tor of Phil­an­thropy 

Katie joined the Land Trust in August of 2010 with seven years of fundrais­ing experience. She man­ages the Land Trust’s fundrais­ing efforts from indi­vid­ual and cor­po­rate con­tri­bu­tions to events and grant funding. Katie grad­u­ated from the Uni­ver­sity of Alabama with a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Polit­i­cal Sci­ence and Ger­man. She lives in Birmingham’s South­side and enjoys spend­ing time in the out­doors with her two dogs.

Rhonda Blevins
Office Man­ager

Rhonda Blevins began work­ing as Office Man­ager for the Fresh­wa­ter Land Trust in July of 2007. Out­side of work, Rhonda stays busy with her 4 chil­dren and 5 grand­chil­dren, and she loves to enjoy the out­doors with them!

Valerie Wil­son
Vil­lage Creek Coordinator

Valerie Wil­son came on board with the Fresh­wa­ter Land Trust in August of 2009 as its first-ever Vil­lage Creek Coor­di­na­tor. She has a back­ground in com­mu­ni­ca­tions and mar­ket­ing. Since join­ing the Land Trust, Valerie has cre­ated the Cham­pi­ons for the Vil­lage Creek Green­way and launched numer­ous efforts to improve the Vil­lage Creek water­shed. Valerie is from Foley, Alabama, and she grad­u­ated from the Uni­ver­sity of Alabama with a degree in telecom­mu­ni­ca­tions and film. Valerie lives just five miles from the head­wa­ters of Vil­lage Creek. She is mar­ried and she and her hus­band have a two-year old son.

Mary Eliz­a­beth Rober­son
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Coordinator

Mary Eliz­a­beth joined the Fresh­wa­ter Land Trust in April 2011 and is respon­si­ble for all media and out­reach for the orga­ni­za­tion. She is a native of Birm­ing­ham and a grad­u­ate of the Unvier­sity of Alabama. She majored in pub­lic rela­tions with a minor in gen­eral busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion. In her free time, Mary Eliz­a­beth enjoys trav­el­ing, run­ning, SEC foot­ball and spend­ing time with her family.

Rebekah Pine
Land Stew­ard

Rebekah is from Huntsville and had the bless­ing of grow­ing up sur­rounded by nature on Monte Sano Moun­tain. She attended Birmingham-Southern Col­lege and received a B.A. in urban envi­ron­men­tal stud­ies in 2009. After com­plet­ing her under­grad­u­ate degree, Rebekah con­tin­ued her edu­ca­tion and received a M.S. in geog­ra­phy with a con­cen­tra­tion in phys­i­cal geog­ra­phy from the Uni­ver­sity of Alabama. Rebekah brings a wealth of field and research expe­ri­ence from her time at Birmingham-Southern and Uni­ver­sity of Alabama. Rebekah enjoys spend­ing her free time relax­ing and play­ing Fris­bee with her two-year old choco­late lab, June.