2026 Consortium Member of the Year

2026 Consortium Member of the Year Honoree: Rachel Carey

GREENHOUSES MANAGER, PROVIDENCE OF MD

WSA is thrilled to honor Rachel Carey, Providence of MD Greenhouse Manager as the 2026 Consortium Member of the Year.  

WSA's Consortium of Support Professionals amplifies the reach of WSA programs by going above and beyond, contributing their expertise and knowledge, and offering essential guidance to Stewards. By assisting Stewards in the planning and execution of projects across Anne Arundel County, the Consortium plays a vital role in ensuring their success.

Providence of Maryland is an Anne Arundel County-based nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to achieve their fullest potential and lead fulfilling lives. Their Greenhouse staff specializes in wholesale production of native plants, using environmentally friendly practices to cultivate a diverse range of native plants and offer them at competitive prices. Like WSA, their organizational commitment lies in an unwavering dedication to personalized support, meeting each person where they are, and collaborating with them individually to help them realize their unique individual goals.

As the Greenhouse Manager, Rachel has not only helped carry out Providence’s mission in her work with her team members where she handles each and every challenge and opportunity professionally and with grace. She has also carried their mission forward by happily supporting many Stewards, Steward communities, environmental nonprofits, and the public by supplying them with a reliable source of locally grown native plants. Here are just a few examples of how Rachel has supported Stewards in the past year:

·       Working with WSA staff to contract and grow over 5,000 native plants for WSA’s Wildflowers in a Weekend kits.

·       Generously providing space to WSA’s RePollinate Anne Arundel Program volunteers to stratify and prepare seeds for spring sowing.

·       Supporting the Cape Conservation Corps in their First Flowers Program.

·       Providing low-cost plants to several Steward communities for native plant sales, restoration projects, and community events.

·       Taking her team out to hand-collect local sources of native bay grass seed to be grown out  for shoreline restoration projects.

Rachel consistently works to find thoughtful solutions to help Stewards and beyond to reach their wildest native plant dreams. Stewards and WSA staff alike were continually so impressed with Rachel’s level of professional support, guidance, and enthusiasm for the Steward projects that we knew Rachel would make a great addition to WSA’s List of Consortium professionals. Her work meets both the mission of Providence of Maryland and WSA; helping people learn, grow, and achieve better lives and improve communities through planting native plants. 

Congratulations, Rachel! Your significant and lasting impact is clearly evident in your dedicated contributions to WSA, our Stewards, and beyond and we are incredibly thankful for all you have done for the community.

2021 Watershed Steward and Consortium Member of the Year

Each year the Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy honors volunteer Master Watershed Stewards and the environmental professionals who support their action for clean water. The Master Watershed Steward of the Year is awarded to a Steward(s) who excels in engaging their community to reduce pollution. The Consortium Member of the Year is awarded to an environmental professional who makes a significant impact on projects for clean water. The 2021 Master Watershed Steward and Consortium Member of the Year Awards will be presented at WSA’s Outdoor Exploration Field Conference on September 18th.

2021 Master Watershed Steward of the Year

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Jessie Bradley adding to a pile of pulled invasive material at Sandy Point State Park. From January to July 2021, Jessie cleared more than 35,000 sq ft of invasives from the state park.

Class 9 Watershed Steward Jessie Bradley was honored for her dedication to eradicating invasive species at Sandy Point State Park and planting native trees. For the last two and a half years, Jessie has spent 2-3 hours nearly every day wrangling and removing stilt grass, multiflora rose, English ivy, and more, rescuing native trees and shrubs. Each month, she clears out the equivalent of two tennis courts worth of invasive vines/growth at Sandy Point! In 2020, Jessie trained as a Tree Trooper and planted 90 native trees at the state park, which she cares for alongside Ann Fleer, fellow Tree Trooper, and Class 9 Steward.

In addition to her restoration efforts, Jessie was integral in revamping how Stewards report their action, providing essential feedback while testing the state-wide WSA reporting system through UMD.

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As part of his capstone project in November 2019, Phil and volunteers planted over 250 natives to refresh and restore an existing rain garden. Today, his committed team of congregants and Stewards maintains the projects year-round.

Phil Colbert, Class 11 Watershed Steward, received the Steward of the Year Award for his dedication to caring for an existing project at Mt. Moriah AME Church in Annapolis. In summer 2018, Mt. Moriah’s original Steward, Betty Powell, requested help caring for her capstone project, installed in 2016 as part of the RiverWise Program. With no prior experience with restoration work or caring for native plants, Phil’s desire to do something good for the environment and strong calling to be of service to his congregation propelled him to take the Certification Course and manage the projects at Mt. Moriah. Phil added new natives to the original project and replaced plants in patches where most of the original native growth had died off as part of his capstone project. 

Phil continues to mobilize his congregation to care for their projects. With support from Betty Powell and Congregational Steward Dr. James (Jim) Johnson, Phil partners with the Maintenance Corps for project clean-ups and continues to grow in his maintenance of the projects with a core group of volunteers. Under his care, the gardens are flourishing—a great example of a Steward caring for creation.

2021 Consortium Member of the year

Johanna Doty was awarded Consortium Member of the Year for her work connecting Stewards and WSA with the Anne Arundel County Public Library. As a result of Johanna’s connections, we are reaching a greater number of residents across Anne Arundel County than ever before, developing ways to engage new audiences through bilingual and family programming, and supporting branches struggling to manage stormwater runoff. Because of her efforts, three librarians have trained as Watershed Stewards, representing the Crofton, Severn, and Maryland City branches. In 2020 and 2021, Stewards led programs and projects, including environmental literacy sessions, stream clean-ups, and tree maintenance at seven library branches. Additionally, Johanna increased WSA’s opportunities to create programming that reaches a broad audience and shines a light on environmental justice and social equity issues. In November, WSA and AACPL will partner to host an Environmental Justice panel, accommodating 1,000 participants across the state of Maryland.

2021 Ron Bowen Environmental Legacy Award

The Ron Bowen Environmental Legacy Award honors the impact of WSA co-founder, Ron Bowen by recognizing an individual who has made a unique contribution to environmental stewardship in Anne Arundel County by connecting government or institutional resources with private sector investments to generate significant environmental actions.

This year, we recognize Bud Reaves with the Ron Bowen Environmental Legacy Award. As an Anne Arundel County Forester, Bud’s passion for planting and protecting trees has made him a valuable resource to WSA over the years. With his knowledge of invasive plants and critical areas, Bud plays an instrumental role in many Steward projects, including identifying invasive species and suggesting native plants and trees to replace them. Additionally, Bud is a go-to resource for Stewards and Staff alike when it comes to identifying trees.

Bud founded the Anne Arundel Weed Resistance, a volunteer organization that removes invasive plants throughout Anne Arundel County. Through a series of trainings, volunteers learn to identify and remove invasive species like English Ivy and multiflora rose. Across the county, “Weed Warriors” implement their knowledge to eradicate destructive species on private and public lands. 

“Bud has been an essential part of almost all of my Steward projects. Since 2010, with our first reforestation project together, Bud has offered countless hours planting, teaching, advising, identifying, coordinating, and just showing up with a machete, in support of my work as a Steward. Bud’s branches of knowledge are wide and he is so eager to share his information and time with Stewards, students and the public to advance forestry and conservation projects. He has patiently taught me everything I know about invasive plants and management techniques through the development of the Weed Warriors program. Bud encouraged me to pursue a forestry stewardship plan for my neighborhood, helped me to develop multiple site reforestation and planting plans, and has been a team lead in my weed warrior actions in my neighborhood, and adjoining natural areas. I know he has helped countless other stewards move from ideas to environmental action. Rooted in information, and with a genuine passion for his work as a forester, Bud is a giant in the canopy of environmental action.”

— Lara Mulvaney, Class 1 Watershed Steward

Bud discusses tree planting and invasive removal funding with a WSA conference attendee.

Bud leading a Tree ID walk at WSA’s annual conference

2020 Watershed Steward and Consortium Member of the Year

Each year the Anne Arundel County Watershed Stewards Academy honors volunteer Master Watershed Stewards and the environmental professionals who support their action for clean water.  The Master Watershed Steward of the Year is awarded to a Steward who excels in engaging their community to reduce pollution. The Consortium Member of the Year is awarded to an environmental professional who makes a significant impact on projects for clean water. The Master Watershed Steward and Consortium Member of the Year Awards were presented at WSA’s Annual “Leap into Action” Conference.

Master Watershed Steward of the Year Award

Master Watershed Steward Alison Milligan (left) was honored for her dedication to sharing her expertise of native plants with Stewards and her community. Alison exemplifies grassroots action and community leadership. She has single handedly planted over 6,700 native trees, shrubs, and perennials in 2019 alone. Last year, she volunteered almost 700 hours of her time advocating for the use of native plants in the landscapes of Anne Arundel County. When she is not acting as a direct resource, sharing her depth of plant knowledge with other Stewards and County residents in person, she writes Latin for Gardeners for our monthly Stewards Scoop newsletter.

WSA Consortium Member of the Year Award

Jim MacNicholl (right) was awarded Consortium Member of the Year for his work with the BayWise Master Gardeners. Jim serves as a tremendous resource for our Stewards, sharing his knowledge and expertise of native plants and project implementation freely. He has supported dozens of Capstone Projects and helped to forge a durable partnership with the BayWise committee of the Master Gardeners, where he serves as co-chair along with Robin Gill. Jim is truly an information and resource conduit, attending most of WSA’s workshops and sharing that knowledge with his wide network. He thoughtfully considers how to broaden our impact and address barriers to environmental action. And, best of all, Jim is never too busy to get his hands dirty.

Congratulations to Alison and Jim!

Thank you to Jack Turner for providing artwork for the awards.