TEAM

President & Founder

Don Baugh is a national leader in environmental education programs and policies. Don’s hallmark is connecting students, educators and leaders to nature through life-changing field experiences. His career includes 38 years directing education programs at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, founding the No Child Left Inside Coalition, and leading the consulting firm Environmental Leadership Strategies. The impacts of Don’s work are far reaching. He directed 19 education centers, providing field investigation experiences to over 1,000,000 students. The No Child Left Inside coalition Don founded brought together 2,250 environmental groups, reaching 50,000,000 constituents. The partnership begot the first ever statewide high school graduation requirement for environmental literacy. It produced historic funding advances for outdoor environmental education.

Email: captbaugh@gmail.com

Chief Operating Officer

Erica is passionate about education and the outdoors. She graduated from Virginia Tech with a focus in Natural Resources and filled her days in Blacksburg with hiking, camping, backpacking, canoeing, and kayaking. Education and outreach are her specialties, and she has worked with a variety of organizations including NOAA, USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, NC NERR, Dewees Island POA, and the Newfound Harbor Marine Institute. Most recently, Erica worked at a charter school in Key West teaching marine science. Now, as Upstream Alliance’s Chief Operating Officer, she lives and works from the upper peninsula of Michigan with her family. On the weekends you can catch her fishing, hiking, running, rock-hunting, kayaking and boating on Lake Superior, using her USCG 100 Ton Master Captain's License.

Email: erica@upstreamalliance.org

Program & Communications Director

Olivia is a passionate and outspoken advocate for protecting wild spaces and connecting people to their landscapes. She graduated from the University of Vermont with a concentration in wildlife biology and environmental studies. Her desire to link people to the environment led her to The Nature Conservancy, where she monitored easements, conducted invasive species surveys, and led volunteers in various remediation projects. She spent a transformative summer in the Amazon Basin in Peru as a research technician studying macaw behavior, supporting citizen science expeditions, and playing soccer in the jungle. She is interested Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Justice in environmental work, ecology, and science communication. In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing, camping, paddleboarding and crocheting!

Email: olivia.mcdowell.liu@gmail.com

Director or Regional Programs & Partnerships

Ronnie is passionate about the history and environment of waterways. That passion has steered her toward a career in education and conservation. After graduating from Colby College, Ronnie taught at the Pennington School in New Jersey. While there, Ronnie earned a masters in Environmental History at Rutgers University focusing her research on coastal and ocean history. Ronnie spent summers working on the schooner Mystic Whaler and is an alum of the Williams-Mystic maritime studies program. In 2020, Ronnie moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to join the Gunston School where she taught humanities for, and later directed, the Chesapeake Watershed Semester, a place-based experiential semester program. Ronnie has enjoyed that her career has allowed her to share the history and environments she loves with others. On the weekends you can catch Ronnie running, doing yoga, paddling, driving the Eastern Shore, or walking countless miles with her black lab, Archie.

Email: ronnie@upstreamalliance.org

Director of Camden Education

Dr. Margarita Olivencia was born and raised in Camden City, NJ and attended Camden Public Schools, graduating from Camden High School. She holds a bachelor's degree in history, with a concentration in education, from Rutgers-Camden, and a master's degree in public administration, concentrating in management, from Wilmington University. She completed her doctorate in 2017 in Educational Leadership at Rowan University. She maintains to be a positive force in providing Camden community learners higher education opportunities through Upward Bound Pre-college Program and as an adjunct professor for both Camden County College and Rowan University. One of her life mottos is "passion is the driving force for change."

Camden Liaison

Jaycel is a resident of Camden, New Jersey, and a senior at UrbanPromise Academy. UrbanPromise is a partner of Upstream Alliance and part of the Discover the Delaware partnership. At UrbanPromise, Jaycel and other students participate in the UrbanTrekkers program, student-led canoe tours of the Cooper River. He loves outdoor activities and interacting with new people, and his passions include paddling, camping, and kayaking. In the summer of 2022, Jaycel and three other students participated in the Search for the Cooper River expedition, an adventure to find the source 17 miles upriver. The expedition was filmed, and the 28 minute documentary can be found in the “film page” of this website. The movie has been shown at the Chesapeake Bay Film Festival, Ocean City Film Festival, DC Film Festival, Garden State Film Festival and other venues across the mid-Atlantic and in New Jersey. Jaycel co-leads an effort to increase community engagement with the people of Camden, and provides staff support for kayak trips.

Board Member

Dr. Mike Hirshfield is the Chief Scientist and Strategy Officer at Oceana, an international non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to restoring the abundance of the world’s oceans. While traveling to countries such as Brazil, Canada, and the Philippines, he helps leaders strategically plan to ensure a healthy ocean. Dr. Hirshfield has led many advocacy efforts and protected many resources through his senior positions with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Center for Marine Conservation, Maryland Department of Natural Resources, and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia’s Estuarine Research Laboratory. A veteran of the Don Baugh and Tom Horton kayak expeditions, he has helped grow and transform them into more deliberate leadership opportunities for a broader audience. He received his Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Michigan and an A.B. from Princeton University.

Board Member

Delicia Reynolds Hand is an attorney with extensive regulatory, legislative and policy experience with a background in consumer finance, consumer protection, community economic development, health, and environmental policy. Presently, Delicia is Deputy Associate Director for the Consumer Education & External Affairs Division, at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). Delicia previously served as Legislative Director at the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) where she testified before Congress and led the organization’s legislative and regulatory consumer protection agenda. Delicia has also served as General Counsel at the Center for Community Change and Center for Community Change Campaign, and Senior Counsel to John Sarbanes, U.S. House of Representatives. Delicia began her legal career as a Skadden Fellowship Attorney. She holds a JD from the American University’s Washington College of Law, and obtained her master’s degree from Cambridge University, U.K.

Board Member

Michael Tannen is the managing partner of the Tannen Media Investment Fund LLC, an investment company specializing in early-stage investments in media, entertainment, and tele-communication. Mr. Tannen is an active naturalist and sports enthusiast and has been involved with various conservation and environmental organizations. He was on the board of the Rails to Trails Conservancy and is currently a board member of the Mohonk Preserve as well as Parks and Trails New York. He is also a New York State Park Commissioner.

Board Member

Walter R. Brown is president of the Henry L & Grace Doherty Charitable Foundation, which promotes marine sciences and education. The foundation assists institutions involved in oceanographic activities. Mr. Brown is a sailor and kayaker and is currently a trustee of the National Maritime Historical Society and Sea Education Association, as well as an advisor to the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory.

Board Member

Julia Baugh is a young businesswoman working in the San Francisco Bay Area. She graduated from Virginia Tech with a degree in Industrial Design and a minor in Green Engineering. She has since worked for a handful of small, green-focused start-ups. She is currently designing bags for flip & tumble. Julia is an avid outdoors woman, and on the weekends, she leads outdoor adventures for tech leaders in the SF Bay Area.

Board Member

Thomas B. Lewis graduated from the University of Maryland in College Park and obtained a law degree from its School of Law. After beginning his career with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Lewis served on the state’s Coastal Zone Advisory Commission, Power Plant Siting Commission, and the University of Maryland’s Sea Grant Advisory Committee. He taught courses on environmental and coastal law at the University of Maryland, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Delaware. For over 34 years he has practiced law with the firm of Gallagher Evelius & Jones LLP as a commercial lawyer. He currently serves on the board of the Chesapeake Bay Journal.

Board Member

Dr. Kevin Maxwell is the Chief Executive Officer of Prince George’s County Public Schools where he has gained national acclaim for his focus on the arts and environmental education. Dr. Maxwell was critical in the passage of the environmental literacy graduation requirement in Maryland, the nation’s first such requirement. He founded and is the co-chair of the Superintendents’ Environmental Education Collaborative (SEEC). He began his career as a high school teacher and has held positions as Community Superintendent for Anne Arundel County Public Schools. Dr. Maxwell holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Language, Literacy and Culture from UMBC. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Maryland.

Tidewater Regional Coordinator

James Hemphill is a student environmental activist with a passion for the Chesapeake Bay and environmental education. He grew up in Virginia Beach and experienced the Chesapeake Bay firsthand. He is a cadet at Virginia Tech studying environmental science. James has organized multiple youth-led environmental projects, including the construction of a 30-ton oyster reef at Great Neck Park; the conducting of a waste audit of schools and parks in Virginia Beach; and the removal of debris from coastal nature preserves in the tidewater region. Oceana, an international advocacy organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., awarded James its World Youth Hero Award, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation named him Student Leader of the Year in 2013. For six years, James has joined Don Baugh on kayak trips on the Georgia coast, Virginia’s seaside, and the Delaware Bay. In turn, James has helped others learn to appreciate the great outdoors through kayaking and backpacking.

DEIJ Coordinator

Jan-Michael Archer is Upstream Alliance’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice Coordinator. He is a champion in the field and leads UA’s efforts to make sure the outdoors is for everyone. Jan has worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Living Classrooms Foundation, Inc., and the University of Maryland championing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in the field of conservation. Jan had never paddled before his first UA trip on the Nanticoke River in 2017. He has been out on the water with UA ever since. He continues to show his love and support for UA’s mission by adding many new faces to our network. Currently a PhD candidate at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health, Jan focuses on addressing green-space inequity, air pollution, and climate resilience in communities of color. Check out his research at www.Ceejhlab.org or tweet @pronouncedyan