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Accokeek Foundation Staff

Meet the team behind the Accokeek Foundation's mission.

Executive Leadership
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Anjela Barnes

Executive Director

Anjela (Piscataway, she/her) is Executive Director of the Accokeek Foundation located at Piscataway Park, where she has the honor of actively stewarding and caring for the traditional homelands of the Piscataway people. She returned to the homelands in 2009 when she joined the Foundation, managing marketing and development campaigns until becoming Vice President of Operations in 2018.

 

Anjela earned her Bachelor’s degree in Marketing at the University of Maryland in 2004. She is a certified Master Naturalist and has led many volunteer and citizen science projects, including the National Park Service’s bi-centennial BioBlitz event in 2016. Her passion and interests are in addressing the intersection of food systems, health, disease, and environmental change through a community-centered approach.

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Laura Ford

Strategic Philanthropic Advisor

Laura (she/her) served as the Accokeek Foundation's President from 2018 to 2022. During her tenure with the Foundation, she has been responsible for organizational advancement, including fundraising, communications, and strategic initiatives like the Foundation’s sustainable agriculture program. 

 

Laura is the Executive Trustee with the Corina Higginson Trust, a grantmaker in the Washington DC metropolitan region. She has a special interest in justice, equity, environmental, and food systems work and is a member of the Washington Regional Food Funders and the Chesapeake Bay Funders Network. Laura is an advocate for families like hers who are affected by Huntington's disease. She also is a certified horseback riding instructor and owns a small farm with her family in Southern Maryland.

Administration & Visitor Services
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Casey Harlow

Marketing & Visitor
Relations Coordinator

Casey (she/her) joined the Accokeek Foundation in 2012 as a volunteer with AmeriCorps and Volunteer Maryland. When her service year was up she couldn’t bear to leave, so she joined the team full-time in 2013. She loves anything artistic and learned how to spin wool into yarn using fiber from the farm's flock of Hog Island sheep. Casey is a Virginia Master Naturalist and when she's not marketing, you'll find her exploring the flora and fauna of Piscataway Park.

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Leah Norris

Marketing & Visitor
Relations Coordinator

Leah joined the Accokeek Foundation after working in visitor services with the Maryland Park Service for several years. When not at work, she enjoys reading, photography, and going on hikes with her dog, Juniper. 

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Nicole Watkins

Finance & People Culture Manager

Nicole (she/her) discovered the Accokeek Foundation during their Latte's with Lambs event and saw it as the perfect work environment after transitioning from being a gig worker in charge of her own finances to an office assistant to being a finance & people culture manager. When not on duty, she enjoys performing professionally in the DMV area, as well as crocheting, embroidering, walking her dog, and following the serotonin. 

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Tiara Thomas

Education and Interpretation Director

Tiara (she/her) is an enrolled citizen of the Piscataway Conoy Tribe. She is the current Vice Chair on the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs (MCIA). She also is the Chair of the Education Committee for MCIA. She serves as the Chair of the Parent Advisory Committee for the Charles County Title VI Indian Education Program, is a Parent Liaison for the Charles County Educational Equity Taskforce and is an Admin for Charles County Rise. She is a traditional Indigenous artist and former Fancy Shawl Dancer. When not working she enjoys spending time with family.

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Jeff Frederick

Stewardship Director

A well-traveled and nearly lifelong resident of Prince George’s County, Jeff (he/him) values the chance to live and work on Piscataway land. Jeff has a diverse and extensive background working in carpentry, construction, design, education, and mechanics. Jeff’s formal education led to a Bachelor of Art Degree in Industrial Design.  

Jeff was drawn to the Foundation for the opportunity to steward the land, work with endangered livestock, and integrate practices of Indigenous peoples into the current practices on our unique site. You will often find Jeff tinkering, shooting photos in nature or keeping reptiles.

Education & Interpretation
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Kate Hanfling

Educator

Kate (she/her) started at the Accokeek Foundation as a volunteer. During the pandemic she created fun activities for children and families to do together at the park. Kate officially joined the team as an Educator in spring of 2022. She now plans and delivers school-age programs as well as story times for the youngest of park visitors. Thanks to her past experience as a children's librarian, she is also working to revamp the foundation's library. 

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Micah Selengut

Program Advancement Associate

As a lifelong non-Native resident of this area, Micah (he/him) is striving to be a good guest on this land by working to restore Piscataway cultural landscapes, uplift Piscataway history and culture, and support ongoing tribal initiatives. Building off anti-colonial work at Brown University to reimagine STEM curricula around Indigenous perspectives, he is committed to working with Piscataway partners to reorient our local education system. You can find Micah surfing the Potomac on his SUP, bopping out on his headphones, or throwing a ball for his dog. Micah is honored to join the Accokeek Foundation  as we work to better preserve, protect, and interpret the traditional homelands of the Piscataway people. 

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Victor Settles

Educator

Victor (he/him) currently serves as an educator for the Accokeek Foundation, and was inspired to do so after attending a foodways event at Piscataway Park, which sparked his interest in how the park conducted education and interpretation on historic American narratives. Victor's passions include studying ancient history, religion, and ethnozoology. He also recently started learning to dance Salsa when his evenings are free. 

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Valdreace Williams

Educator

Valdreace (she/her) found the Accokeek Foundation while looking for areas to collect water samples for a research project. When she isn't learning about the history and ecology of the land, she is reading, dancing, painting, and enjoying unique experiences that can be found in the DMV. 

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Linda Zufelt

Educator

Linda (she/her) grew up in Gettysburg, where she saw first-hand that history doesn't exist in isolation. The only way to understand where we are today is to know where we came from. She has worked in museum education at several historic sites and museums before coming to Accokeek. When she isn't at work, she is exploring the history and nature of the DMV with her family. 

Natural Resources & Agriculture
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Javier Brown

Groundskeeper

Originally from Costa Rica, Javier (he/him) joined the grounds crew in 2019. He helps maintain the over 200 acres of parkland that the Foundation manages. Javier, his wife Molly, and their two daughters split their time between his home country and a small farmstead in Bryans Road, Maryland.

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Pam Brumbley

Conservation Horticultural
Coordinator

Pam (she/her) grew up in Southern Maryland and joined the Foundation in 2022. She has spent much of her life observing and photographing plants and wildlife in our local and regional ecosystems and has a special interest in propagating plants used by Indigenous peoples for fibers, medicine, food, and dye, as well as creating habitats for such plants to thrive. Pam enjoys learning historic and traditional gardening, seed saving, and land stewardship techniques. When not on the farm she is likely canoeing, camping, hiking, watching birds, digging into family history, or learning about local fungi. 

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Risharda Harley

Natural Resources Manager

A Prince George's County native, Risharda (she/her) believes that your food should be your medicine, and your medicine should be your food, and that the health of a person is bound to the health of the land and waters of where they live. She graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park with a B.S. in Natural Resources Management and enjoys helping others understand the natural world around them. Risharda enjoys movement and all types of arts and crafts, and can be found doing parkour on site, and in her free time cosplaying, bushcrafting, or rollerblading with her dogs.

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Warren Murphy IV

Maintenance Assistant

Warren (he/him) started at Accokeek foundation in the summer of 2018 as an SYEP intern. He enjoyed his time working here so much he interned two summers in a row only to finally join us again as a full-time employee in 2022 as a Maintenance Assistant, doing work he loves outdoors. Warren is a lover of the natural world and enjoys walking the trails of the park and forest bathing. Fun fact about Warren: he loves R&B music and loves to cook.

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Zí Proctor

Stewardship Coordinator

Zí Proctor (they/them) is a Piscataway farmer, a dreamer and visionary, and budding indigenous land steward born and raised on their ancestral homelands in southern “Maryland”. Being raised close to their roots and family in the Brandywine area made for a strong connection to Earth. It was from their grandfather from Cedarville that they drew inspiration to becoming an ehakihet (or land protector/ farmer.) Their current curiosities, intellectual pursuits, and passion projects, are primarily dedicated to land justice, food sovereignty, indigenous-led conservation and stewardship, disability and climate justice, emergent strategy, and building and sharing skills necessary for collective survival and liberation. Zí is fiercely committed to creating radically honest spaces of learning accessible for all. 

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