BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Margaret Schiller
president
Margaret Schiller, writer, actor and community activist, was elected Vice President in 2019. Margaret has worked for classical music organizations and co-founded the New Jersey Women's Theater Collective. A lifelong tenure in scouting, from Brownie to Cub Scout leader, has influenced her affinity for nature ever since that first sleep-away camp experience. She is committed to protecting the environment so that others may enjoy this special corner of New Jersey in perpetuity. Margaret is developing specialized creative hikes within the Ridge and Valley to inspire and heal nature lovers, old and new. She has resided in Green Township and Allamuchy for the past twenty years.
GEORGE SCHABERG
VICE PRESIDENT / LAND PROTECTION CHAIRMAN
George Schaberg has been an RVC Trustee since 2013. He is an avid dog walker, hiker, mountain biker, kayaker, skier and snowshoer. Passionate about rural properties and land, he works as NJ real estate professional and previously worked for Raritan Headwaters Association as the Land Projects Manager. George holds a Master’s degree in Business Management from St. Michaels College, and is a volunteer with Raritan Headwaters Association and Pass-It-Along. If he’s not outside doing something fun or walking the dogs, he likes to keep busy and be involved in the community.
jason kurtz
secretary / treasurer
Jason has been an RVC Trustee since 2011. He is a property and casualty consulting actuary in New York, having received his BSc in business administration from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business. Jason is an avid hiker, fisherman, birder, and conservationist, and looks forward to helping preserve more land in the region.
Christine Hepburn
Trustee
Christine Hepburn is a former research psychologist who has served on the boards of various environmental organizations and founded a land-use advocacy group in her former town of Madison. She also served on Madison’s Zoning Board, Planning Board, and Environmental Commission. As the first Chair of Madison's Open Space, Recreation and Historic Preservation Trust Fund, Chris worked to acquire open space and protect 18th-century structures. Since 2008, Chris has worked on improving wildlife habitat on her own property in Hardwick where she has found the home of her dreams. She and her husband teamed up with RVC to permanently protect their forested land and Chris hopes to encourage others to protect and steward their land.
Rene Mathez
Trustee
Rene’s family moved to an old stone house in Knowlton Township along the Paulins Kill in 1968. Ever since Rene has called this farm home and has felt a strong commitment to keeping Knowlton rural and beautiful.
Rene taught mathematics at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City for 31 years, which gave him time to engage in the two activities about which he is most passionate: farming vegetables and preserving farms and open space.
In order to have more influence on land use in Knowlton, Rene ran for Township Committee in 1995 and served on that body for 21 years. He also co-chairs Knowlton’s Open Space Advisory and Agricultural Advisory Committees. In addition, he is vice chair of the Warren County Agricultural Development Board and a member of the Knowlton Township Planning Board.
Rene has an BA from Yale and a Master’s Degrees in Environmental Engineering from N.J.I.T. and in Civil Engineering from M.I.T.
joel mcGreen
TRustee
Joel McGreen is a retired engineer. He worked for over 33 years as a project engineer and business manager at Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, NJ. Since retiring, he has volunteered for various Blairstown committees including the Planning Board, Environmental Commission, Open Space Committee, and Agriculture Advisory Committee. As chairman of the Blairstown Open Space and Agriculture Advisory Committees for the past 10 years, Joel has helped preserve farmland and open space in Blairstown. He worked part time for the Land Conservancy of New Jersey from 2007 to 2009, managing Harmony and White Townships’ farmland preservation programs. He also worked part time as a personal fitness trainer from 2005 to 2009. He has been on the RVC Board of Trustees since 2001.
Eric Svendsen
Trustee
Eric Svendsen has been working as an environmental scientist for the past 30 years, and has a lifetime love of the natural world. He spent his youth hiking and camping throughout the nation, feeling more at home in the backcountry than anywhere else.
He recently relocated to Hardwick after spending his adult life in Sussex County. He enjoys hiking, woodworking, and spending time with his family.
Eric has a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science, and previously served on Environmental Commissions in both Sparta and Stillwater.
sharon wander
Trustee
Sharon was so inspired by a life-changing wilderness trip to Montana that she abandoned a career as an editor and copywriter and returned to college to pursue a degree in Wildlife Ecology. She met her future husband and business partner, Wade, at Cook College, and both went on to earn graduate degrees from Rutgers University. For her doctoral dissertation Sharon studied the effects of forest fragmentation on breeding Ovenbirds.
Capitalizing both on their degrees and on many years of field experience with the plants and animals of New Jersey, Sharon and Wade then established their own environmental consulting practice, Wander Ecological Consultants (WEC), in 1985. Since then they have conducted endangered species surveys, produced environmental impact statements, performed wetland delineation and permitting, developed mitigation and restoration plans, and provided a variety of other services to a diverse array of clients. As a partner in WEC, Sharon wrote the Natural Resource Inventory for Fredon Township. In the 1990s Sharon and Wade became particularly interested in butterflies, and have since been very active members of the North American Butterfly Association (NABA) – leading field trips and presenting programs for the North Jersey chapter and compiling the Springdale 4th of July count since 1992. As Director of the NABA Butterfly Count Program, Sharon edits the organization’s annual report for some 450 butterfly counts in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
She and Wade are especially proud of the butterfly garden at their Fredon Township home, which has attracted a state-record 84 species. Sharon hopes put her knowledge of natural history and her interest in habitat restoration to constructive use for the Ridge and Valley Conservancy.
STAFF
Susi Tilley
executive Director
Susi Tilley’s passion for the natural world developed during her time growing up in Switzerland where she spent holidays hiking or skiing in the mountains.
After an education in Business Administration and working for several years in the private sector, she moved to the United States in 1991, and worked as Vice President of an entertainment lighting and staging company for over 14 years.
Prior to assuming the role as Executive Director of Ridge and Valley Conservancy, Susi served as Development and Outreach Director from 2016-2017.
Susi believes that building a strong conservation organization involves practicing community conservation by building partnerships with other people doing important community work. By connecting people to people, and people to land, her hope is to continue to expand preserved land in the Ridge and Valley Region of New Jersey. Susi and her husband raised three children and now live in Hardwick, neighboring RVC’s preserves. She spends her time reading across a wide variety of subjects, hiking, training her dogs, and enjoying her backyard with family and friends.
gABBY ACAMPORA
LAND PROJECTS & STEWARDSHIP MANAGER
Gabrielle joined Ridge and Valley Conservancy in 2024 as the Land Projects and Stewardship Manager. Growing up in Lehigh Valley, PA, she gained an appreciation for the outdoors while hiking along the Appalachian Trail and Delaware Water Gap.
After graduating with a B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of Notre Dame in 2022, where she also played the sousaphone for the Band of the Fighting Irish, Gabrielle has continued cultivating her love for the environment through her work. She has worked in habitat management and invasive species reduction and prescribed burn work as a wildland firefighter in all environments, from barrens and dunes to marshes and old-growth forests.
Gabrielle spends her free time doing a wide variety of activities, including dancing in a pre-professional ballet company, competitively figure skating, painting, and learning to play the electric bass. Gabrielle looks forward to expanding the RVC community and helping improve the natural resources and wildlife habitat of the RVC preserves for a greener future.
Sarah Schnurr
Outreach & Office Administrator
Sarah joined Ridge and Valley Conservancy in 2022. Since graduating in 2012 with an art education degree, she has worked in a variety of different roles and organizations, including as a STEM educator at a children’s museum, a marketing coordinator for a telescope company, and a freelance digital content consultant. Sarah looks forward to growing RVC’s community programs and helping more people discover the peace RVC preserves have to offer. Sarah enjoys spending time outside, crafting, and gardening.
John Ragsdale
Stewardship Coordinator
John is a retired real estate and construction professional with over 45 years of commercial and residential construction management experience working throughout the US. His experience includes environmental property assessments, site remediation and underground tank removals as an NJDEP licensed professional.
Since retiring, John has served on the Town of Newton Planning Board and worked as a Watershed Ambassador under the NJDEP/AmeriCorps program in Sussex County. As a Watershed Ambassador, he conducted stream water quality sampling and assessments under NJDEP guidelines. John also provided educational presentations to schools and organizations in Sussex County on water quality and local environmental issues.
He is a graduate of West Virginia University with a Forestry Management Degree.
counsel & advisors
Carla Lee Lewis, Land Protection Coordinator
Matthew Dank, Esq., Legal Counsel