The Great Falls Citizen's Association, formed over 25 years ago, represents the residents of Great Falls by presenting the community's concerns to various government agencies and elected officials. Its monthly meetings are open to all residents.
Its Executive Committee consists of elected officers and 12 at-large members They include:
Sue F. Bennett
Bennett and her family have lived in Great Falls for 30 years. Sue started a family business at the Village Center called "For Goodness Sake Natural Foods" 25 years ago which was re-located in Leesburg at Market Station. Along with the store, Sue has also worked in the Natural Food Industry with the start of one of the first brokerages for the East coast and Europe. Then after the sale of her brokerage, she became National Sales Manager for Hyland's, then Essential Organics and also for Durham Research. Bennett has also been a part of the CAP (Citizens Against the Pipeline) program and a very strong supporter of both Great Falls Friends and the Great Falls Citizen's Association. Visit www.home.com.
Jack Bowles
Born in Richmond and a lifetime Virginia resident, except for
stints in Colorado and D.C., Bowles and his wife Violet Woo
moved to Great Falls two years ago to be a part of special community situated in a beautiful natural setting. During the day. Bowles is a Senior Policy Advisor with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Outside of work he is a Red Cross Emergency Response Team Leader for Fairfax County and is active with the Great Falls Citizens Association. Most recently, Bowles has been involved with Citizens Against the Pipeline, trying to stop the water main that Fairfax Water is installing down Walker and Arnon Chapel Road. The water main battle highlights how fragile is the quality of life here in Great Falls, and how important it is to address every issue that impacts it. Though a member of GFCA for just a year, Jack has taken an interest in a variety of issues, including land use and zoning, environment and trails, membership, and communications.
Eugene (Gene) T. Herbert
Herbert has been a lawyer for 47 years, the last 26 of which, he has lived in Great Falls (Riverside Manor). He is married, has a Jack Russell terrier, and three grandchildren who live with their parents in Great Falls. For the last 15 years, Herbert has been an arbitrator and mediator and served for five years as the Ombudsman of the International Monetary Fund. He am interested in the possibility of expanding the membership of GFCA to a level where the organization would have unquestioned political power to ensure the election of candidates for office, irrespective of party affiliation, who have the best interests of Great Falls at heart; who share the objectives of GFCA.
Estelle Holley
Married, three adult children, 28 year resident. Dranesville
member of Fairfax County Park Authority for 12 years, chair for two years. During Holley's 12 years, I was instrumental in acquiring six active recreational parks, including the Great Falls Grange Park, The Utterback Store Road Nike Park, and the Springhill Park; plus several environmental areas for parkland. She also served as president of GFCA for two years. Holley is currently a member of the GFCA Executive Board and a member of the Land Use & Zoning committee and Trail Blazers. She also works as a volunteer archeologist for Fairfax County. Preservation of open spaces and acquisition of additional parkland in Great Falls where possible. Preservation and enhancement of the rural character of the community and accomplishment of the dark skies policy.
Michael J. Keeler
Married with three children who have lived in the wonderful neighborhood of "Hidden Forest" on Forest Park Road since 2000. Children Jack and Jamie attend the Langley School and Lilee attends the Mother's Day Out program at Christ the King Lutheran Church. Michael has coached his sons teams in the Great Falls Soccer Club for the past five seasons and infrequently plays in the adult game at 4 p.m. on Sundays at the Grange. Keeler grew up in Cherry Hill, N.J., attended St. Joseph's Preparatory School in Philadelphia, Pa. and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in international affairs and economics from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a Masters degree in IT from New York University. Keeler is an entrepreneur running his third venture, Ecologic Leasing Solutions. Keeler has had a lifelong interest in the relationship between environmental conservation and economic development, especially in the context of corporate sustainability. His personal objective is to change his home, community, and company to become net contributors to the health of our natural environment, moving beyond sustainability to environmental restoration. Keeler's family frequently explores the many hiking trails in and around Great Falls and would like to find a way to enable all Great Falls residents to walk or ride their bikes on dedicated paths where ever they want to go in the community, improving health and safety and reducing traffic congestion and emissions.
Eric Knudsen
Knudsen purchased a lot in 1979, the next year he and his wife, with the help of friends built their first house in Great Falls. Several houses and two daughters, Devon and Leigh, later, they settled in their current house in 1989. His wife Tena works as a Research nurse at NIH and Knudsen is in the IT field at the Patent & Trademark office. Devon graduated from UVA last year and is currently in China. Leigh is a senior at Radford. Knudsen has been a board member at Great Falls Swim & Tennis and a member of the Trailblazers.
Stella Koch
Is married and has lived in Great Falls since 1984. She was a biology instructor for 17 years. Koch has worked for Audubon Naturalist Society (www.audubonnaturalist.org) as Virginia Conservation Advocate since 1991. Her scope of work at present largely focuses on local and regional habitat protection with an emphasis on water resources. She is currently chair of the Fairfax County Environmental Quality Advisory Council, serves as vice-chair of the Center for Watershed Protection www.cwp.org, serves on the Difficult
Run Watershed Plan Steering Committee and the Potomac
Leadership Steering Committee, and is a member of the Fairfax Watershed Network. She has previously been a commissioner on the Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin, served on the Citizens Advisory Committee to the Chesapeake Bay Commission and been Environmental Committee Chair for the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens
Associations.
John Lesinski
Lesinski has been a resident of Great Falls since 1999 and is a partner in Domes Commercial, real estate brokerage and consulting firm with offices in Falls Church. He and his wife, Heidi have three dogs.
Patrick Muir
Muir has lived in Northern Virginia since 1991, having settled in Great Falls five years ago. Muir became interested in becoming more involved in preservation of Great Falls after witnessing the large disconnect between the desires of the Great Falls community and Fairfax County in connection with the installation of the water pipeline along Arnon Chapel. He is a patent attorney with an office at the Village Center.
Kathleen J. Murphy
Married, three children, a resident of Great Falls for nine years. Murphy is a management consultant who has worked in strategy and organizational transformation for more than 25 years across diverse industry sectors, for both domestic and global businesses. She also consults to the family business owned by her husband, a luxury renovation business in Manhattan. As an emerging community undergoing radical transformation with respect to its residential development and community composition, Great Falls has the opportunity at this threshhold point in its evolution to define the kind of community we want to become and to take deliberate actions to realize our community vision through our shared efforts.
Douglas M. Natal
Natal, his wife Kaz and their three children Ryan,
Maggie and Thomas, have lived on Forest Park Road in the
heart of Great Falls for approximately seven years. Doug is a native of Cumberland, R. I. He graduated from Villanova University in 1987 with a bachelor of science degree in business administration and a concentration in financial management. In 1994, he received his MBA in international commerce from Virginia Tech. In 1989, he moved his family to Fairfax City where he became an icon within Fairfax City's political leadership. In 1996, the Fairfax Mayor John Mason, appointed Doug Natal to be the unbiased spokesperson for the multi-million dollar bond referendum committee. He also served on the Fairfax City Economic Development Committee, which produced recommendations for economic growth and will provide guidance to Fairfax City's leadership through the year 2020. His opinions have been featured in radio and TV programs advocating smart growth and fiscal responsibility.
David Olin
Olin is owner and chief of paintings conservation at Olin
Conservation, Inc. He grew up in Great Falls. He has a B.A.
and M.A. in the history of art and architecture. He is a
Dranesville District appointee on the Fairfax County History
Commission and currently serves as president of the Great
Falls Citizen's Association, serving in his eighth year and president of Great Falls Heritage, Inc. He served on the board of directors for the Washington Conservation Guild. He was appointed to serve on the Great Falls Community, Jamestown Foundation Pilot Program for Virginia's 400th Anniversary. He is a CAP assessor for the National Heritage Preservation, Inc. and Inter Museum Services. In addition to conservation and historical research in the history of art and architecture, he has pursued technical studies and scientific analysis of works of art in conjunction with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He is dedicated to preservation and is willing to tackle a third term as president
of the GFCA in an attempt to aid the organization continue its transition into a new era of issues. He maintains a strong interest in the review and planning process and is committed to maintaining the public voice of the GFCA.
David Petersen
Petersen moved to Great Falls in 1992 when he married his wife, Sherry. They have one daughter, Kirklen, 9. He is a director in IBM. Petersen was involved with Citizens Against the Pipeline (CAP) trying to prevent the water line that Fairfax Water was installing north of Georgetown Pike. He wants to help preserve Great Falls.
Glenn T. Prickett
Prickett is senior vice president for business and U.S. government relations at Conservation International (CI) and executive director of The Center for Environmental Leadership in Business (CELB). CI is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the Earth's biodiversity. CELB, a division of CI, engages leading corporations in creating conservation solutions. Visit www.celb.org or www.conservation.org. Prior to joining CI, Prickett served as Chief Environmental Advisor at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Senior Associate with the International Program of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust and the Board of Trustees of the Keystone Center. Glenn graduated from Yale University in 1988 with a B.A. in economics and political science.
Jackie Taylor
Taylor has been a Great Falls resident since 1984; GFCA board since 2004. Married to Chuck Taylor, they have one daughter and three grandchildren. Taylor retired in 2002 from 28 year career in technology sales to Fortune 500 and government for industry leading vendors, including IBM, Applied Date Research; Oracle and Siebel Systems. Before going into sales for IBM, she taught high school in Montgomery County, Md. Taylor holds a B.S. from the University of Maryland. Her true agenda is to promote awareness, interest and action in the preservation of habitat for our wildlife residents.
Dianne Van Volkenburg
Van Volkenburg has been a Great Falls resident since 1998. She is married with four children ranging from 3 to 8 years of age. Hobbies include sporting events, gardening, and sewing. Van Volkenburg is currently a Realtor with Weichert, Realtors in Great Falls. She will continue to represent the Seneca Road Coalition on issues related to zoning, planning and development.