Board of Directors
Rudolph (Rudy) Alexander Ashton, III
Rudy practices in the areas of civil and criminal litigation in both state and federal courts with the law firm Dunn, Pittman, Skinner & Cushman, PLLC. On the civil side, he specializes in personal injury and insurance defense. He has also been a certified mediator since 1997 and has served as a mediator/arbitrator in civil cases in both state and federal court. Prior to moving to New Bern, NC in 1981, Rudy was a prosecutor in Raleigh with the Wake County District Attorney’s Office and the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office for approximately six years. He has served on court-appointed counsel lists in both state and federal courts and for the North Carolina Appellate Defender, Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals panel, and North Carolina Capital Defender. Rudy has an active appellate practice in both state and federal courts. He has argued cases in the North Carolina Court of Appeals, the North Carolina Supreme Court, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. He is also admitted to practice in the United States Supreme Court. He currently serves on the Local Rules Criminal Sub-Committee for the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Rudy has been an active member of the community. He has served on a number of boards and volunteered for numerous civic organizations including Home Health Hospice, YMCA, New Bern Historical Society, Scouts, P.T.O., and other athletic, religious, and educational organizations. In their spare time, Rudy and his wife Joanne enjoy all outdoor activities, sports, and boating on the Trent and Neuse Rivers.
Ryan Stancil
Ryan is a storyteller and communications strategist based in eastern North Carolina. Born and raised in NC and a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, Ryan draws inspiration from the people, places, and traditions that define the American South, particularly along the North Carolina coast. He and his wife, photographer and creative director Baxter Miller, spend much of their time along the Outer Banks and throughout Down East, where work, recreation, and everyday life intertwine. His work as a writer and producer explores regional identity, community, culture, history, and the environment. Through journalism and multimedia storytelling, he creates narrative-driven projects that examine the relationship between people and place. He is a regular contributor to Our State magazine and serves as a producer for Vivian Howard’s PBS series. In 2017, he and Baxter founded Sandbox Collaborative, a creative agency that specializes in strategic communications, content creation, and brand development. Sandbox works with businesses—particularly in the food and travel space—as well as nonprofit organizations and cultural institutions. His community work focuses on resilience and the future of coastal communities. He co-directed RISING, an NC Sea Grant Community Collaborative Research project, and helped establish the Down East Resilience Network (DERN), a regional initiative that brings together local leaders, researchers, and residents to strengthen the long-term resilience of Down East communities. You can usually find Ryan, Baxter, and their poodle, Calloway, somewhere between their home at the confluence of the Trent and Neuse Rivers in New Bern and their family cottage in Buxton Woods on Hatteras Island.
Merrie Jo Alcoke
Merrie Jo is a lifelong resident of New Bern, NC. An attorney by training, she has spent much of her career working at the intersection of law, public policy, government, and North Carolina’s natural resources. She served on the NCDOT Board of Transportation, representing Division 2. Prior to that, Merrie Jo was Director of the Governor’s Eastern Office and Deputy Director of Intergovernmental Affairs, where she worked with state and local leaders and communities across eastern North Carolina. Merrie Jo spent much of her legal career with the N.C. Attorney General’s Office, where she served as a senior coastal attorney with the N.C. Division of Coastal Management. She also practiced with Ward and Smith, P.A., where she focused on environmental and coastal matters, including regulatory litigation, state and federal water quality permitting, and land-use planning. Merrie Jo currently serves on the boards of the Coastal Studies Institute and NC Youth and Government and is a past board member of the Coastal Land Trust. She has a deep appreciation for eastern North Carolina and the people and communities that make it such a special place.
Lorrie Basnight
Lorrie grew up in Chapel Hill, but has spent summer days her whole life on the Pamlico River near Washington. Her family’s love of boating and the natural world, combined with many years as a camp counselor and scout, shaped her passion to preserve the coastal environment for future generations. Between 2011 and 2020, Lorrie was on the board of Sound Rivers, Inc., a nonprofit organization that guards the health of the Neuse and Tar-Pamlico River basins. For three of those years, she served as board president. Since 1995, Lorrie has been a pediatrician on the faculty at the Brody School of Medicine and currently serves as the Executive Director of Eastern Area Health Education Center, working to assure a strong healthcare workforce for rural and underserved areas. Lorrie has boated and camped all over eastern N. C. and enjoys birding, looking for wildlife, and basking in the richness of coastal black waters and swamps
Ken Hines
Ken has a forestry degree from NCSU and served as a Service Forester with the N. C. Forest Service in Rocky Mount. Ken then earned his MBA in Finance from UNC-CH and became a corporate banker. From 1990 – 2008, Ken was able to combine his forestry and finance backgrounds as the head of the forest products and timberland finance unit at John Hancock in Boston. He then led the Bond and Corporate Finance Group and was the first president of Hancock’s Renewable Energy Group. After retiring in 2013, Ken and his wife Cathy relocated to Wilmington. They are members at CCL and WUMC. Ken has done some consulting and has taught natural resource economics at NC State and Duke Universities. Ken currently serves as the Vice President of the Harrelson Center. Ken has served the Coastal Land Trust on the Strategic Planning and Land Protection Committees.
Hannah Holt
Hannah Holt is a retired business owner with more than three decades of experience in human resources, marketing, and business management. She spent 33 years with her family business, Holt C-Stores, where she was involved in operations, strategic growth, and business management. A lifelong North Carolinian, Hannah grew up in Eastern North Carolina and has lived in the Wilmington area for more than 20 years, where she raised her daughter. She is a landowner with a conservation easement and is deeply committed to protecting the lands and natural resources of North Carolina.
Hannah has served on numerous community boards, including the UNCW Foundation Board and the Employment Security Commission Board. She currently serves on the boards of the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust and the Cape Fear Community College Foundation, and chairs the Landfall Foundation Grant Committee. Hannah founded the Holt C-Store Golf Tournament, which has raised more than $1 million since 2013 to benefit the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust and UNCW. She is passionate about philanthropy, conservation, and strengthening the Wilmington community.
William Snyder
William Snyder is a professional forester with a Master’s degree in Forest Economics from Virginia Tech. He spent 39 years with International Paper Company until his retirement in 2019. During his employment, he held managerial positions in forest management, wood procurement, land sales and business support. During his career, William also served as Chairman for the Society of American Foresters at state and regional levels, served on various committees for the South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia Forestry Associations, served on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee for the Virginia Forestry Association, and was appointed to The Virginia Board of Forestry and the Chesapeake Bay Advisory Committee. William’s first involvement with the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust (NCCLT) was in 2002 when he oversaw International Paper Company’s first conservation easement with the NCCLT at Town Creek in Brunswick County. He later negotiated and closed land sales with NCCLT and the Nature Conservancy including Coharie Swamp, Angola Bay, Bear Garden and Juniper Creek. More recently, William was able to facilitate NCCLT’s acquisition of The South End at Topsail Beach. William is currently the Chairman of the Topsail Island Shoreline Protection Commission and the Chairman of the Beach Inlet Sound Committee for Topsail Beach. William and his wife, Vicky, have been married 49 years (as of 2025) and have 3 children and 5 grandchildren.
Dr. Yoshi Newman
Yoshi is a Certified Nature and Forest Guide with the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides. NFT is a practice that originated in Japan known as shinrin-yoku, which translates into forest bathing or taking in the atmosphere of the forest. A growing body of research indicates numerous health benefits associated with NFT. She has conducted walks with female veterans at Pamlico Rose Institute of Sustainable Communities in Washington, N. C. and works with Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Network to serve with a team of amazing people around the world focused on exploring the relationship between nature and emotions. Yoshi has volunteered to assist with numerous Coastal Land Trust events prior to joining the Board of Directors.
Dr. Stan Riggs
Dr. Stanley R. Riggs has been on faculty in the Department of Geological Sciences, East Carolina University for 54 years; he served as distinguished Professor of the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences and as an East Carolina University Distinguished Research Professor (2000 to 2021). In 2022, Stan was the recipient of the Governor’s “North Carolina Award in Science” for significant contributions to the “Land of the Longleaf Pine”. In 2021, he was awarded the 2021 Francis Parker Shepard Medal for “Excellence in Marine Geology” in honor of the “founder of American Marine Geology” by the International Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM). Dr. Riggs received his B.S. degree from Beloit College (1960), M.A. degree from Dartmouth College (1962), and Ph.D. from the University of Montana (1967). Stan was awarded the Oliver Max Gardner Award for the University of North Carolina system faculty member who “made the greatest contribution to the welfare of the human race” (1983), has been a member (1978-1983) and Co-Director of the International Geologic Correlation Program 156 on Marine Mineral Resources (1984-1992), was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Senior Research Fellowship in Marine Science by the Australian Minister for Science (1986), and co-designed and co-directed a USGS-funded, multi-institutional, cooperative study on the origin and evolutionary history of the complex, world-class North Carolina coastal-marine system. He served on the NC Governor’s Committee on Marine Natural Resources (1970s), NC Mining Commission-Environmental Position (1979-1989), NC Coastal Management Commission’s Science Panel (1997-2016), and the NC Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change (2005-2011). From 2012-present, he established and directed North Carolina’s Land of Water (NC LOW), a nonprofit organization focused on implementing coastal-marine science in the public domain. Stan has spread the word on coastal dynamics and climate change through myriad book publications, hundreds of public lectures, workshops, reports and television documentaries.
Ann Simpson
Ann grew up in rural Eastern NC and now lives in Chapel Hill where she works with moss+ross, a strategic consulting firm focused on nonprofits in the Triangle region. Ann has served in communications and fundraising positions with environmental organizations such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy and as executive director of North Carolina Catch, a nonprofit organization that supports local seafood promotion initiatives. She has also contributed original photography to four UNC Press book collaborations with her husband, Bland, most recently North Carolina: Land of Water, Land of Sky (Fall, 2021). She is a past president of the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust Board of Directors and the NC Sea Grant Advisory Board. Ann is excited to serve on the Coastal Land Trust Board and continue to pursue her lifelong passion for protecting the natural landscape of coastal Carolina.
Mary Tiller
Mary is the Regional Manager for NC State Industry Expansion Solutions (IES) serving Central North Carolina, including Alamance, Caswell, Cumberland, Hoke, Montgomery, Orange, Randolph, Richmond and Scotland Counties. Prior to joining IES, Mary worked for Cape Fear Community College in customized training, partnering with NC Works and other economic development organizations to assess the needs of manufacturers and deliver on-site services and training. In addition, Mary has more than ten years of technical sales and support experience in telecommunications. Following her lifelong passion for the North Carolina coast, she is pleased to serve on the Coastal Land Trust Board of Directors.
Linda Murchison
Linda is a retired licensed clinical social worker who worked for Lower Cape Fear Hospice for 20 years. During her years at hospice, she was also a volunteer chaplain at New Hanover Regional Medical Center. She serves in lay leadership positions at her church in Wilmington. She and her husband Reid have served on numerous nonprofit boards in Wilmington and Wyoming. Linda is a past board chair of the Wyoming Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and currently serves as board chair for the Center of the West in Cody, WY. Linda previously served two 3-year terms on the Coastal Land Trust Board, including two years as President.
Mavis Gragg
Mavis is a “death and dirt” attorney and conservation professional with nearly twenty years of experience, dedicated to empowering generational, family real estate owners, particularly heirs’ property owners, with the knowledge and tools to sustain ownership and stewardship of their land. Her work highlights the critical role of heirs’ property in advancing affordable housing, rural and urban planning, climate resiliency, and equitable markets. By integrating strategies inclusive of natural resource conservation, Mavis champions innovative approaches to stabilizing family land ownership while promoting sustainable land use practices. As the CEO of HeirShares, Mavis is leading the development of groundbreaking technology to provide affordable solutions for intergenerational, family-owned real estate ownership. A 2024 Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, she previously directed the eight-state Sustainable Forestry and African American Land Retention Program and managed The Gragg Law Firm, PLLC. Mavis has chaired the boards of the North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund Authority and the Triangle Land Conservancy land trust, reflecting her commitment to conservation leadership. In addition to her legal and conservation work, she is an art enthusiast and co-founder of Pop Box Gallery, a zero-commission art gallery in Durham, NC, where she also serves on the Nasher Friends’ Board and the North Carolina Museum of Art Foundation Board.
Webb Fuller
Webb Fuller grew up in Ahoskie, North Carolina, and considers himself a lifelong resident of Northeastern North Carolina. He earned a degree in Forestry from NC State, as well as a Master’s in Public Administration. He is also a graduate of the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at the University of Virginia. Fuller began his career as a policy analyst in the Secretary’s Office of the Department of Human Resources during the Holshouser administration. At the age of 26, he left that position to become the county manager for Currituck County. In 1982, he became the city manager of Nags Head, a position he held until his retirement in 2005. After retiring, he served one term on the Nags Head Board of Commissioners. In addition to his professional work, Fuller has served on numerous boards, including the Senior Executive Institute at the University of Virginia for 10 years. He was a member of the North Carolina City and County Management Association and was president in 2021 and 2022. He also serves on the North Carolina Coastal Resources Advisory Council, where he has served twice as chairman and is currently serving as vice chairman. Fuller and his wife, Dorie, have three children and five grandchildren, all of whom reside in Dare County.
Cheryl Bradley Smith
Cheryl is National Accounts Manager at Armstrong World Industries. Her business career includes stints as Vice President for Strategic Planning at Hatteras Yachts and Director for Client and Market Development at NCSU’s Industry Expansion Partnership. She is Chairperson of the Parks and Recreation Committee for the Town of Pine Knoll Shores and is active in the National Charity League having served as its President. She is a member of the state-wide Youth & Government Advisory Board, also serves on the Parent Advisory Committee, and is President of the Academic Booster Club at West Carteret High School. Cheryl has served two previous stints on the Board of Directors of the North Carolina Coastal Land Trust, most recently stepping down from the Board after concluding her second successive term in September 2023, as required by the organization’s bylaws. Additionally, Cheryl founded the Coastal Land Trust’s “Cycle for the Coast” bike ride and has served as a party host. She graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in marketing and accounting and received her MBA from Wake Forest.
Molly Perkins Harrison
As a lifelong North Carolinian, a graduate of East Carolina University and a resident of Nags Head for more than 30 years, Molly has become deeply passionate about the state’s coast and coastal plain. Her writing career, hobbies and interests have taken her throughout eastern North Carolina and its waterways for decades, giving her a deep appreciation for this diverse region of the state. With a campaign focused on safeguarding water quality, natural resources and quality of life, Molly was elected to the Nags Head Board of Commissioners in 2025, is currently serving a two-year term and will run again for a four-year term in 2027. Prior to Molly’s election, she served on the Nags Head Planning Board for six years and on several town working groups and committees, including the FOCUS Nags Head Comprehensive Land Use Plan Committee. Molly has also served on the boards of the Children and Youth Partnership for Dare County and the Dare County Arts Council, and volunteers with Dare County Schools and many local nonprofit organizations. Molly’s degree in English and writing from East Carolina University led her to work as a reporter, writer and editor for more than 30 years. She has written travel guides about the Outer Banks and North Carolina coast, a nonfiction book of stories about the Outer Banks, and hundreds of articles about eastern North Carolina and the coast for local, regional and national publications. Molly is a former editor of The Coast and Outer Banks Magazine, published by The Virginian-Pilot. She is currently managing editor of OuterBanksThisWeek.com and an editor with Wrightsville Beach Magazine, Topsail Magazine and three publications in Brunswick County. Molly and her family center their lives around the waters of eastern North Carolina. Her husband and son are boatbuilders in Wanchese, avid Outer Banks fishermen and passionate Hyde County hunters. Molly’s daughter, a freshman at UNCW, is a surfer. Molly loves exploring eastern North Carolina’s rural areas and shorelines on foot and bicycle and its waterways by paddleboard, kayak or just about any type of boat. Her family knows firsthand what a special place eastern North Carolina is, and Molly would be proud to do a small part to preserve its natural resources for generations to come.