Each June, the CFNRV Board experiences some changes. New members are elected and some roll off the board after their term is complete, while others are re-elected to new term. Board members can serve up to three terms (each term is three years), plus one year, for a total of 10 years.
New Terms & New Members
This year, four current members were elected for another three-year team: Bill Ellenbogen, Angela Joyner, Jamie McReynolds, and David Riggan (pictured above). Two new members, Ellen Gibson and James Harder, both of Montgomery County, joined us.
Emily Gibson
Emily is the Director of Local Government and Community Relations at Virginia Tech where she focuses on cultivating meaningful relationships with key community groups such as local governments, chambers of commerce, economic development offices, and more.
She facilitates engagement with the university on issues including housing, infrastructure, sustainability, education, economic development, and planning. Prior to joining Virginia Tech in 2022, Emily spent sixteen years in local government, including seven years as Director of Planning and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for Montgomery County.
Emily has been a central partner in the CFNRV’s work on childcare, specifically helping to convene university and business leaders through the NRV Childcare Summit Series and the Partnership for Progress at Virginia Tech. She lives with her husband, Eddie, in Blacksburg and her son, James, recently graduated from NRCC and was accepted to Virginia Tech in their computer engineering program.
James Harder
James is a Portfolio Manager at Cardinal Holdings, LLC. In the last few years, James managed technology-focused economic development grants in Virginia Tech’s Department of Computer Science.
While at Virginia Tech he also directed the university-wide strategic planning initiative Beyond Boundaries and laid the groundwork for a new experiential learning initiative (now called the Bridge Experience program).
James holds a PhD in Public Administration and Policy from Virginia Tech, previously served on the Virginia Board of Forestry, and worked in the Capitol Hill office of U.S. Representative Rick Boucher (VA-9th).
Farewell to Paula Alston
We’re sending a big thank you to Paula Alston, who just finished her service on our board of directors. Our team so appreciates all Paula has done to champion our work over the years. Paula joined us in 2015 and was the co-chair of our scholarship committee throughout her time with us. She also served as board secretary for a three-year term.
Under her leadership on the scholarship committee, we streamlined the application process to make it easier to apply and updated the review process to attract new readers to evaluate the applications. Paula helped recruit readers and was instrumental in guiding them through the process.
We are deeply indebted to Paula for her insight, her intuitiveness, and her attention to detail. Her impact on the scholarship process will be felt for many years to come. Her enthusiasm, humor, and passion for our community brought so much to our work. Thank you, Paula!
Learn more about our board members on this page.