staff

TLC staff joined land trusts from across the nation in Providence, Rhode Island for Rally 2024, the national Land Trust Alliance conference. Learn about the highlights here.

Simply stated, Executive Director Sandy Sweitzer has delivered a decade of stellar service to TLC. She joined us in the summer of 2013 as Director of Development, a role she had deep background in and in which she immediately elevated our fundraising. In less than two years’ time, with the resignation of the then current […]

TLC staff recently took a field trip to the American Tobacco Campus in Durham to see the “Barrier Breakers” exhibit brought to the Triangle by Resilient Ventures. Curated by the negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the exhibit highlights baseball’s integration pioneers along with obstacles players of color faced and how they overcame them.

Every time you take a walk at Johnston Mill, White Pines, Horton Grove, or Brumley, you are seeing work from Matt Rutledge. Incredibly kind and generous, Matt teaches me the names of all the trees. Matt has walked hundreds of miles monitoring easements, led volunteer workdays, and created and rerouted numerous trails. He has also planted thousands of seeds and hundreds of plant plugs over the years to set the stage for improved habitats on TLC lands.

For many TLC members and enthusiasts, Robert “Bo” Howes is Triangle Land Conservancy. Always quick to remind us that our work can’t be summarized in merely “bucks and acres,” Bo is responsible for thousands of acres conserved and millions of dollars raised. Yet, his investment in the human side of TLC may be his biggest impact of all as Bo is incredibly generous with the wisdom he’s gained from his 15 years of experience.

One of TLC’s greatest unsung heroes is Leigh Ann Hammerbacher. Her steady perseverance and deep knowledge of conservation in North Carolina allows her to weave strategies out of red tape and chisel masterpieces out of apparent stonewalls. We are immensely grateful for all of Leigh Ann’s accomplishments during the past 16 years!

Laura Stroud joined TLC in July of 2015 as the Conservation and Stewardship Associate. Originally from Jacksonville, NC, Laura earned her Bachelor’s degree in geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She first came to TLC in the summer of 2011 as a Stewardship Intern, working to map and remove invasive species […]

This summer, TLC brought on a communications intern, Laura Whaling, to work with us on communications, and help with the TLC blog and newsletter. Laura is a Journalism major and political science minor at the George Washington University in Washington, DC. This summer she has worked beside Communications Manager Diana Hackenburg and aided her in […]

This summer, TLC staff and volunteers have had the pleasure of getting to know Duncan Dodson. Duncan is studying environmental science at Duke University and joined TLC this summer through the Stanback Internship Program. Duncan hails from Tulsa, Oklahoma where he spent many formative years as a Boy Scout. “I basically got to experience 12 […]