Bob Gallagher, Chairman
Bob Gallagher founded the West/Rhode Riverkeeper organization in March 2005 after 35 years of practicing law in Washington, D.C. He served as Riverkeeper until July 2007 and then as Executive Director through 2009. As Executive Director, he is responsible for the overall direction of the organization and participates directly in policy development and advocacy. He serves as a trustee of the Chesapeake Environmental Protection Association and sits on the board of directors of the Scenic Rivers Land Trust. He was appointed by the County Executive to the Maritime Industry Advisory Board and by the County Council to the Impact Fee Advisory Committee. He enjoys sailboat racing on the Chesapeake and lives with his wife, Cate, in Shady Side.
Terence Smith
Terence is an award-winning journalist who has been a political reporter, foreign correspondent, editor and television analyst over the course of a four-decade career. He is currently a special correspondent for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and a frequent guest host for The Diane Rehm Show on National Public Radio. He speaks, writes and broadcasts on national politics, international affairs and environmental issues involving the Chesapeake Bay and ocean policies. Married with two grown children, he lives in Shady Side, where he squeezes in as much sailing and tennis as possible.
David Burke
David is a professional planner with over three decades of private and public sector experience in managing coastal, wetland, watershed and land conservation programs and projects. While with the Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources for 23 years, David was the principal architect and director of the State’s award winning Non-tidal Wetlands Regulatory program and Governor Glendening’s GreenPrint initiative – a precedent setting statewide green infrastructure based approach to land conservation. Since 2003, David has been engaged with living shorelines and conservation planning consulting services and is President of Burke Environmental Associates in Annapolis, MD. David has traveled throughout the western states to enjoy mountain and canyonland hiking experiences and presently lives with his wife on 9 woodland acres in Harwood, Maryland.
Anson “Tuck” Hines
Dr. Hines is Director and Marine Ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center on Chesapeake Bay, which conducts research and education on linked ecosystems of the coastal zone. He has a B.A. degree in Zoology from Pomona College and a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of California at Berkeley. He has conducted research on coastal ecosystems in Chesapeake Bay, Florida, California, Alaska, Belize, Japan, and New Zealand. He has been project leader on a diverse array of research programs, including: effects of thermal discharges of coastal power plants; sea otters and kelp forest ecology; long-term ecological change in Chesapeake Bay; blue crab ecology; marine food web dynamics; impacts of fisheries, aquaculture and fishery restoration; crustacean life histories, especially crabs; and biological invasions of coastal ecosystems.
Martin Poretsky, Treasurer
Martin is the president of Poretsky Building Group. He has received numerous awards for constructing environmental and affordable housing projects. He has recently served on the Boards of the Chesapeake Bay Trust, Trust for Public Land, Smart Growth Alliance, and the Living Classrooms Foundation. Martin is an avid sailor and lives on the Rhode River.
Michael Stein
Michael is a retired attorney. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Columbia University School of Law. He has been employed as: Lecturer in Law at the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland; trial attorney in the United States Department of Justice; General Counsel of the United States International Trade Commission; and partner in the law firm of Dewey Ballantine, where his specialty was international trade. He currently lives on the West River, in Shady Side.
Tony Syme
Tony was a co-founder and President of NLX Corporation, a local technology-oriented systems integration company, specializing in the development and support of simulation and training systems for the military and commercial industries. Prior to joining NLX, Tony held management positions at Quintron Corporation, where he was responsible for the overall operational performance and technical direction of flight training systems on several USAF programs. When he’s not enjoying his waterfront view of the West River, he now spends his time as a technology business consultant. Tony lives in Shady Side.
John Van Alstine
John is a waterman who makes his living on the West and Rhode Rivers. He works alone on his 40-foot wooden boat, the Patricia Anne. John is the Director of Anne Arundel County Working Watermen. He fishes from the Potomac River to the Susquehanna Flats in the upper Chesapeake Bay. He lives on Church Creek in Galesville, where he sells oysters and crabs.
Donna Schlegel
Donna is owner and manager of Chalk Point Marine and with her husband, Alex, operate Hartge Yacht Yard. Her boating background began in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska commercial fishing industry. In her twenty-five years of experience in marina and boatyard management, she has been an active supporter in the advancement of marine industry standards and safe boating practices. As a skilled seaman who has sailed upon most U.S. coastal and inland waters, she has also skippered and navigated numerous offshore passages and made landfall in several foreign countries. The Schlegels take great pleasure in living on the shores of West River.
