Our Board

Wendy Cohen 

Wendy has lived in Holmes Run watershed for almost 30 years. She is a retired Resource Teacher for Gifted from the Arlington Public Schools and a Fairfax Master Naturalist. Upon retiring as a teacher, she worked for a year at Clean Fairfax, heading up its Clean Streams Initiative. She currently participates in stream cleanups, invasive plant management, tree plantings with Fairfax ReLeaf, and educational programs at Hidden Oaks Nature Center. She is the co-chair of the Climate Action Circle at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church and has organized monthly “learn and act” sessions for the Northern VA Jewish community. Wendy also is cofounder/organizer of the Fairfax Invasive Removal Alliance (FIRA).

Rosaura Conde

Rosaura Conde is a career public servant with extensive experience in the environmental field. She is a Team Leader at the Environmental Protection Agency, where her area of expertise is water quality science and policy. She has a passion for facilitating and organizing trainings and conferences for water experts and serves as a life coach for federal professionals. Rosaura holds a Master’s degree in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning, and a Bachelor’s in Biology. Rosaura serves as Council Secretary at Hope Lutheran Church in Annandale. 

Donna Jacobson   (treasurer)

Donna is a Certified Public Accountant with a Masters of Science in Accounting. Donna helped form Friends of Holmes Run as an outgrowth of her role as a civic-minded longtime citizen of Mason District in Fairfax County. Donna is deeply concerned about how land use and zoning decisions in Fairfax County affect both communities and the environment. She has been President of Lafayette Village Community Association in Annandale, VA since 2018.

George Lamb   (secretary)

George lives in Sleepy Hollow and has been a Fairfax environmental activist for many years.  He started as a volunteer with the Sierra Club, then served as Mount Vernon Group Political chair and Virginia Chapter Political Chair.  He was appointed to the Fairfax EQAC by Gerry Connolley in 2008 and continues as an at-large member and author of the Land Use Chapter of the EQAC Annual report.  He served for five years on the Tysons Task Force, helped found the Fairfax League of Conservation Voters, and in 2010 he was appointed as a Director of the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District.  He then served two terms as an elected Director of NVSWCD, stepping down to an Associate Director role in 2019.  He is thrilled to be associated with the Friends of Holmes Run, although technically his backyard flows into Tripps Run.  Together we can continue to improve our watersheds and conservation practices across Fairfax County.

Sarah McGowan 

Sarah became a charter member of Friends of Holmes Run after years of working around the edges to improve her portion of the watershed as a conscientious homeowner, civic association leader, longterm volunteer, Invasive Management Area (IMA) site leader and parks instructor. The first part of her career focused on youth development and volunteerism, including 13 years working with underserved youth and the Corporation for National and Community Service. Many of the projects she organized for youth were environmentally focused and she has a special interest in plants (both edibles and natives). She is a Virginia Master Naturalist and Certified Interpreter, putting those skills to work at such sites as Riverbend Park where she served as a naturalist. Sarah also served on Raymondale Civic Association board, where she chaired the neighborhood's Environmental Stewardship Task Force focusing on protecting neighboring Holmes Run. 

Sarah sees Friends of Holmes Run as an opportunity to get kids excited about the wonderful wetland resources that are in their own backyard, with the hope that some of those kids will become future environmental stewards. Sarah has a degree in Anthropology and an MSW from the University of Notre Dame and Boston College respectively.

Lynn Petrazzuolo 

Lynn Petrazzuolo is the CEO of Avanti Corporation, an environmental services contractor that provides services including environmental impact assessments and cost benefit analyses for federal agencies. She currently serves as an advisor on environmental programs to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior, developing guidance and training on impact assessments for underserved and vulnerable populations. A resident of Mason District for 30 years, Lynn volunteers as an invasive species coordinator at Annandale Community Park/Hidden Oaks. She has a degree in Environmental Sciences. 

Whitney Redding (director)

As the “volunteer in chief” of Friends of Holmes Run, Whitney works to protect and restore the natural functions of the Holmes Run/Cameron Run watershed through strategic actions, public education, and advocacy. Her vision is to connect property owners and community volunteers who are motivated to protect their local streams and green spaces but have no real knowledge on how to go about it, with access to expertise, volunteer opportunities, training and resources.

Whitney came by her interest in the protection of the Holmes Run watershed as a civic association president who has lived next to the resource protection area since 2002 and witnessed many changes accelerated by the forces of urbanization and climate change. She is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, an Invasive Management Area leader and volunteer tree rescue trainer for Fairfax County Park Authority.  She is a member of the Fairfax County Climate Resilience working group and leads the biodiversity subgroup of the Greener Mason Advisory Committee. She also is on the steering committee for Fairfax Tree Rescuers PRISM, a regional partnership to address the widespread problem of invasive plants.

Under her leadership, Friends of Holmes Run earned FCPA's Sally Ormsby Award in 2023 for demonstrating "leadership and vision" in protecting natural resources, and Fairfax County’s Environmental Excellence Award in 2025 for community outreach in Culmore.