Jackie Crenshaw, President, Environmentalist and Entrepreneur
Jackie is co-owner, with her husband, Woody, of Riverstone Organic Farm, a local farm specializing in organic vegetables and pasture raised meats. She also co-owns a yarn store in Floyd. Prior to this she was active, with Woody, in restoring and managing The Floyd Country Store and running Crenshaw Lighting. She has been a long-time advocate of environmental stewardship, teaching environmental studies and serving with conservation and community development organizations.
She lives with Woody in a passive solar cabin near the Blue Ridge Parkway where she delights in tending her flower garden.
John Hopkins, Vice President
John is a writer, editor, and self-taught environmentalist. After retiring from daily journalism, he founded and led an advocacy group that promotes safety and facilities for bicycling and walking. Eventually he retired again, to the Blue Ridge hills where he was born.
Nancy Manley, Secretary/ Treasurer
Retired from over 40 years working for the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Nancy moved to Willis to support her community. She lived in various locations around the nation in her work.
She has an undergraduate and master’s degree in environmental engineering and is a registered professional engineer in Georgia and Virginia. Nancy also volunteers for several non-profits in Floyd including Angels in the Attic, Havens Chapel Food Bank, Plenty!, and SustainFloyd.
Tim Smith, Retired Reference Librarian
Originally from southern California, Tim holds a Ph.D. in Classics, which he taught for three years in the mid-1970s at UNC-Greensboro. He then switched careers and became a librarian, first at Wytheville Community College, and then at Ohio University in Athens, OH. He was the main web manager for a number of years for the library at Ohio U. He retired in the Spring of 2016 and moved to Floyd, where he quickly became involved with SustainFloyd and the Old Church Gallery.
He has become more involved with Floyd than with any other community where he’s lived because he found this to be the best place he’s ever lived and wants to contribute actively to it. With SustainFloyd, he is a member of the Board and of the Communications and Film committees.
Woody Crenshaw, Craftsman, Entrepreneur
Woody is co-owner, with his wife Jackie of Riverstone Organic Farm, in Floyd County and is actively engaged in the Floyd community. During his 28 years in Floyd he has been an advocate for the creative economy of Southwest Virginia. He has been involved in a number of projects including the Floyd Center for the Arts, SustainFloyd, The Crooked Road Heritage Music Trail, Round the Mountain Artisan Trail, and the Floyd Fund. He has served as President of the Crooked Road Organization, Round the Mountain and SustainFloyd and the Floyd County Chamber of Commerce organizations. He was part of a group that renovated the town center of Floyd, an effort that resulted in an award of Excellence from the Virginia Mainstreet program in 2010. He and his wife Jackie restored and operated Floyd Country Store for 10 years.
He has a lifelong interest in both science and religion, subjects he explores from his woodland cabin in Floyd County, a passive solar cabin he built with his wife Jackie 20 years ago.
Fred First, Author, Photographer, Biologist
Fred gives voice to the beauty of Floyd. His two books, A Slow Road Home and What We Hold in Our Hands have received acclaim. He has aired more than 30 NPR radio essays and written regular columns for two local papers. His photographs appear widely in such publications as Blue Ridge Country, Appalachian Voice and his photo-blog, Fragments from Floyd. He is a past board member of the Jacksonville Center for the Arts and participates in a number of committees related to tourism and natural resource use in Floyd. He has also served as associate professor of biology at Wytheville Community College, then as a physical therapist before turning to a writing career.
Silvie Granatelli, Professional Potter and Mentor
Silvie Granatelli grew up in suburban Chicago. She has undergraduate and graduate degree in Ceramic Arts. Silvie has taught at Berea College in Kentucky and Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. She moved to Floyd, Virginia in 1981 to set up a working studio, where she has spent the last 39 years working as a potter and mentoring young aspiring potters through her apprenticeship program. She was one of the founding members of 16 Hands Studio Tour and one of the original owners of Troika Contemporary Crafts Gallery in Floyd.
Silvie lives with her husband, Jim Newlin on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Andrew J. Morikawa, Nonprofit Governance Leader and Facilitator
A former Peace Corps volunteer, Andy served as founding executive director of the Community Foundation of the New River Valley, from 1997-2010. On retirement, he joined the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance as Senior Fellow. In 2017, the Virginia Tech Office of the Provost retained Andy to facilitate group development and the strategic planning process for a faculty team charged with designing the university’s approach to innovation and entrepreneurship, a strategic growth area for Virginia Tech.
He serves as a founding board member of the Dialogue on Race, a community-based initiative to end racism in Montgomery County, Virginia. The program is an innovation in social entrepreneurship now in its fifth year tackling difficult issues such as racial profiling by law enforcement and the inequitable treatment of African American students by the public school system. He is a board member of Via International, Community Housing Partners, SustainFloyd, and The Community Group.
Haden Polseno-Hensley, Writer, Builder and Coffee Roaster
A founding member of SustainFloyd’s Board of Directors, Haden was instrumental in organizing the SplitRail Eco-Fair and the 350.org event in SustainFloyd’s nascent years.
Haden and his wife, Rose McCutchan, own and operate Red Rooster Coffee Roaster, a business dedicated to producing high quality organic coffee through sustainable practices in downtown Floyd. Haden’s passion for the community and his desire to create economic development through sustainable practices has driven him to become an advocate for small business, farms and artists in Floyd. He has past served on the board at the Jacksonville Center and is currently a board member and the Treasurer of Blue Cow Arts, the non-profit affiliate of Across the Way Productions (Floyd Fest.)
A native of Floyd, Haden and his wife now live in the house he was raised in, where his parents, Donna Polseno and Rick Hensley, still maintain their pottery studio & galleries as members of Floyd’s 16 Hands art collective.
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