TLC's Board Officers include a chair, vice chair, president, treasurer and secretary. The Board Officers are selected from among the Board of Directors. The chair presides at all meetings of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee. The vice chair acts in place of the chair, as needed. The president is the chief executive officer of the organization and is responsible for the management of TLC. The treasurer controls the funds of the organization, ensures that the books are kept properly and prepares or causes to have prepared financial reports. The secretary is responsible for recording the minutes of the Board meetings. Officers serve one-year terms.

TLC’s fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30. Read our bylaws here.
Board committees and members

Current Board Members:

Larry Tombaugh, Chair (Wake)
Larry served as dean of NC State’s College of Natural Resources from 1989 to 2001. He served as chairman and professor in the Department of Forestry at Michigan State University (1978-1989). He also was the director of the National Science Foundation’s division of applied environmental research, which provides grants to environmental scientists nationwide, and was deeply involved in environmental science policy up to and including the White House. Larry is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society of American Foresters, and served as chairman of the North Carolina Forestry Association Board of Directors in 2005 and 2006. Read A Land Ethic by Larry Tombaugh

Anne Stoddard, Immediate Past Chair (Orange)
Anne is the founder of The Stoddard Group, a commercial real estate consulting firm in Chapel Hill. Anne has served the TLC Board with distinction since 2005. She has been TLC Board Secretary (2005-08), member of the Land Protection Committee and Co-Chair of the Conservation Strategies Committee.

Stacey Burkert, Vice Chair (Durham)
Stacey is a community volunteer and mother of three young children. Before starting her family, she earned an MBA from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business and worked in the real estate investment field. As a volunteer, she has been active in organizational and fundraising capacities for The Junior League, Caring House and the Duke School.

Larry Zucchino, Secretary (Wake)
Larry is managing principal at JDavis Architects, PLLC and a licensed Landscape Architect for thirty years actively involved with landscape ecology issues. He has been active in statewide public environmental policy through his past appointment to the NC Environmental Management Commission.

Michael Mankowski, CPA (Orange), Treasurer
Michael is a Senior Director of Finance at Quintiles Transnational, a clinical research organization in Durham. Michael has served on TLC’s Finance & Investment Committee since 2005. A native North Carolinian, he lives in Chapel Hill with his wife and two young children.

Sepideh Asefnia (Wake)
Sepideh is president and owner of SEPI Engineering and Construction. Since founding SEPI 11 years ago, she has diversified focus from predominantly civil and roadway design, traffic engineering, and surveying services into environmental planning and permitting, water resources, and construction engineering inspection. Prior to forming SEPI, Sepideh worked with the North Carolina Department of Transportation in Highway Design and Traffic Engineering. Sepideh currently serves on the following boards: Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, Past Chair of the Board of Directors; International Affairs Council, Past Chair of the Board; NC State University Board of Visitors; Duke-Raleigh Hospital Board of Advisors; TrustAtlantic Bank Board of Directors; NC State University Civil Engineering Advisory Board; Institute for Emerging Issues- National Advisory Board; and the Global Learner Consortium Steering Committee.

Tom Bradshaw (Wake)
Tom is a champion for regional collaboration, especially its role in the implement of public transportation. Bradshaw recently retired as managing director and co-head of the Transportation Group at Citigroup Global Markets in New York. He got his start in newspapers, then in real estate. His election to the Raleigh City Council propelled him into the public arena. He became Raleigh’s Mayor in 1971 and spearheaded the Falls Lake project to provide the city’s long-term water supply. Governor Hunt appointed him as Secretary for Transportation and in that role he helped get I-40 funded to Wilmington. Watch an interview with Tom on UNC-TV's North Carolina People.

Christopher Hitt (Orange)
Christopher has a BA in government (1972), and a MS in Public Health (1975), both from Harvard. He worked from 1976-1980 as a professional staff member on the US Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, and then on the Nutrition Subcommittee of the US Senate Agriculture Committee. From 1981-1985 he was the Executive Director of the American Farm Foundation, a small nonprofit that promoted organic farming initiatives including local, small organic farms. Beginning in 1985, he helped grow Whole Foods Market from four stores and one region to 135 stores and eight regions by 2001 when he retired as the company-wide president. He has lived in Chapel Hill since 2000, and has been a member of TLC since 1992, when he established an easement with TLC on his property on the west side of Chapel Hill. Christopher is married to Carolyn Kay Briggs and has 2 children, Jess (age 22) and Caleb (age 31).

Bill Holman, (Wake)
Bill is a Visiting Fellow at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University. In a long career in NC as an envi­ronmentalist and administrator, Bill  has served as executive director of the Clean Water Management Trust Fund (2001-2006), Secretary of the NC Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Assistant Secretary for Environmental Protection (1998-2000), and lobbyist for several NC conservation groups (1979-1997). He has received numerous awards from NC conservation groups, along with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 2000, one of NC’s highest civilian honors.

Danny Kadis (Wake)
Danny  is president of Centrex Properties, a commercial real estate business started by his great, great grandfather. A former appointee to the City of Raleigh’s Board of Adjustment from 2003 to 2005, Danny currently serves on the Board of Directors for Triangle Land Conservancy and WakeUp Wake County in Raleigh, NC. He earned his Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional (LEED AP) designation in 2009, and he is currently a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). Danny has undergraduate degrees in Biology and Geography as well as a Master's Degree in Public/Environmental Policy.

William "Skip" London (Chatham)
Skip is vice president and general counsel of Static Control Components, Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of parts and supplies for the laser toner remanufacturing industry based in Sanford. He is currently on the YMCA Board for Lee County.

Grier Martin (Wake)
Grier is an attorney and a North Carolina native. He served four terms in the NC House of Representatives where he chaired the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation. Grier currently serves on the board of the NC Center for Voter Education. He has served on the board of directors of Preservation North Carolina and the Afro-American Cultural Center (now The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African- American Arts + Culture). In the Army Reserve, Grier has served in Afghanistan, and he is currently a lieutenant colonel with an airborne unit at Ft. Bragg. He lives in Raleigh with his wife and daughter.

John McAdams (Orange)
John McAdams is founder and President of the John R. McAdams Company, a land development consulting firm. John is a Raleigh native and graduate of Duke University. He served on the TLC board from 2001-2007, and as President from July 2004 – June 2006. He also served on the Land Committee, former Advocacy Committee, Board Development Committee, and the Our Water Our Land Campaign Committee.

Delphine Sellars (Durham)
Delphine Sellars is the Director of the Durham Center of North Carolina Cooperative Extension Services which is supported by Durham County Government and the universities of NC State and NC Agricultural and Technical State. She has over 30 years’ experience in the human services.

Mark Soticheck (Wake)
Mark is an audit senior manager in Dixon Hughes Goodman’s Financial Institution Services Group. Mark works primarily in the area of financial statement audits, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) and FDICIA compliance, SEC reporting and internal controls evaluation. Additionally, Mark has been a presenting speaker for firm-wide training sessions and external financial institution seminars on technical audit, industry, and accounting knowledge. Mark has served on TLC’s Finance & Investment Committee since 2008. He is also a board member of the NCACPA and is an Accounting Advisory board member of the NC State University Poole College of Management.

Dale Threatt-Taylor (Wake)
Dale has strong ties with Wake County farmers and landowners through her work first as a natural resource conservationist and now director of the Wake County Soil & Water Conservation District. She has served the TLC Board (2005 to present) with distinction.

Dean Urban (Durham)
Dean Urban is Professor of Landscape Ecology and director of the Landscape Ecology Laboratory in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. His research focuses on devising innovative approaches to applications of immediate practical concern, especially large-scale conservation planning and ecosystem management.