The Center’s Board of Directors meets quarterly in Virginia. Center board members are listed below with their positions and professional affiliations. Click on the board member’s name below to read their bio.
Chris French is the GIC’s Board Chair. Having worked on stormwater and watershed management issues for nearly two decades, Chris brings an extensive background from both the public and private sectors. He is currently the national regulatory manager at Hydro International. He previously worked as regional regulatory manager for Contech Engineered Solutions, and has also held positions with government agencies such as the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and non-governmental agencies such as the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. Additionally, he served on committees and advisory boards of several national and community-based organizations, including his former position as the government affairs and regulatory committee chair for the Stormwater Equipment and Manufacturer’s Association.
Jeff Corbin is Vice-Chair of the GIC’s board and since 2016 was the Senior Vice-President for Water Quality Markets and Mitigation at Restoration Systems, LLC. In that role Jeff was responsible for expanding the company’s visibility in water quality markets across a multi-state region. In December 2022, Restoration Systems was acquired by the Davey Tree Company and Jeff is now the lead for policy and business development for a sister company of Davey called Native Shorelines. Jeff’s work focuses on shoreline protection and resiliency by designing and implementing living shorelines in Virginia and Maryland.
Prior to joining RS, for six years he served two EPA Administrators (Lisa Jackson and Gina McCarthy) as Senior Advisor for the Chesapeake Bay and Anacostia River. In that role, he coordinated all aspects of the agency’s Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts and served as the chief liaison among the Office of the Administrator and numerous federal, state, and local agencies and organizations. While at the EPA, Jeff was an avid and outspoken advocate for the use of market-based conservation approaches.
From 2006-2009, Jeff served Virginia Governor Tim Kaine as his Assistant Secretary of Natural Resources and worked with the Commonwealth’s six natural resource agencies. Jeff’s responsibilities involved many different aspects of protecting and restoring Virginia’s natural resources, including water, air, fisheries, and land issues. Before working for Governor Kaine, Jeff served for nine years as the Virginia Deputy Director and Senior Scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. During that time, he was an outspoken advocate for environmental protection throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed. His duties involved various aspects of science, policy, education, legislation, advocacy, and media relations.
Jeff and his wife moved to Richmond, VA, in 1996 and live there today with their two sons. An avid angler, Jeff likes to spend his spare time exploring local rivers.
Rick Roth is GIC’s Board Secretary. He is an Emeritus Professor of Geospatial Science, Radford University. His academic interests include sustainable communities, green infrastructure planning, rivers, and watersheds. He has taken a leadership role with a number of local and regional environmental and conservation organizations, including Friends of the New River, Friends of the Rivers of Virginia, the New River Watershed Roundtable, the New River Valley Environmental Coalition, the Radford University Environmental Center, and the Radford University Green Team. Dr. Roth received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Virginia (1972) and a Master of Planning Degree in Urban and Regional Planning (1989) and a Ph.D. in Environmental Design and Planning from Virginia Tech (1993).
Ralph Jones is Treasurer of the GIC’s board. He is recently retired from the position of managing director of Cadmus which he co-founded 1983. He is an expert in federal and state drinking water programs and their operations, the functioning of drinking water systems and the administrative challenges systems face, and protecting the public from waterborne contaminants. In recent years he has focused more on asset management and financing options for water and wastewater infrastructure. This change in emphasis led to his increased involvement in water conservation and water reuse, since integrated water management plans may reduce the scope of infrastructure investment.
Before co-founding Cadmus, Dr. Jones worked at Abt Associates Inc., Contract Research Corporation, and Westat. He was an instructor and assistant professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and from 1968 to 1976 was a research associate at the Joint Center for Urban Studies of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Jonathan E. Jones, P.E., P.H., D.WRE. is the Chief Executive Officer of Wright Water Engineers, Inc. (WWE) in Denver, where he has worked for nearly 37 years on water resources engineering assignments throughout the United States. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in 18 states and an invited member of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers. During his tenure at WWE, he has managed many of the firm’s largest assignments for public and private sector clients.
Johnathan was the chairman of a committee of over 100 engineers who prepared the widely disseminated 1992 reference published by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and Water Environment Federation (WEF) Design and Construction of Urban Stormwater Management Systems and served as editor-in-chief of the ASCE publication Great Works in Urban Water Resources (1962–2001). Along with Eric Strecker, P.E., and Ben Urbonas, P.E., he is co-developer of the widely cited International Stormwater BMP Database https://bmpdatabase.org/. He chaired the Blue Ribbon Panel that reviewed the WEF/ASCE Manual of Practice Design of Urban Stormwater Controls and also served as chairman for the committee that drafted the ASCE publication Public Safety Guidance for Urban Stormwater Facilities.
Since 1988, Johnathan has instructed continuing education classes attended by engineers, attorneys, planners and landscape architects, public works staff, and others. He has authored or coauthored over 100 papers, serves as one of the associate editors of the American Water Resources Association publication Water Resources IMPACT, has reviewed articles for multiple technical journals, and is active in multiple professional organizations. Jon is an avid bicyclist and enjoys the mountains of his home in Boulder CO whenever he gets a chance to escape.
Deborah Gillette Nagle has worked for 30 years as an environmental engineer, and later as a senior manager. She has experience in a variety of water programs, with most of her time focused on the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program under the Clean Water Act. The key program areas of experience include municipal and industrial stormwater, with an emphais on green infrastructure, as well as utility discharges and associated sanitary sewers. Prior to working in the civilian sector, Deborah served seven years with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She is a 1982 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, with a degree in Engineering. She retired from the Army Reserve in 2012 with the rank of colonel.
If you are interested in joining the board, attending a board meeting, or have other questions, please contact Karen Firehock. The center’s corporate documents are available for inspection.