Our Board of Directors

Ian Kline, Chairman

Ian Kline serves as Cadmus’ president and CEO. Under his leadership, the firm has experienced significant market and capability diversification through organic growth and through acquisition. Ian has also led the firm’s geographic expansion from an east coast-based consultancy with offices in Boston and Washington, D.C., to a multi-national firm with offices serving clients across the United States, Germany, and Korea.


Ian joined Cadmus in 1995 as an associate. He was named president in 2005 and CEO in 2007. He has an extensive background in performing strategic and policy analyses for many public, private, and non‐profit organizations and he played a leading role in developing and implementing major public health and environmental protection programs at the national and state levels. He has also served as a senior technical advisor on the firm’s work in the areas of climate change and sustainability.


Ian participates on the Global Adaptation and Resilience Investment Working Group (GARI), a private sector working group focused on climate adaptation and resilience in conjunction with the UN Secretary General’s Climate Resilience Initiative. He serves on the Advisory Council of the Cornell University Atkinson Center for Sustainability and the Advisory Board of the Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. Ian is Chairman of the Board of The Nature Generation, a nonprofit organization that works to inspire environmental stewardship in children and young adults through literature and learning.


Ian holds an M.P.P. in environmental policy and management from the University of Southern California and an A.B. from Cornell University. He also is a graduate of Harvard Business School’s comprehensive executive leadership program.


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Amy Marasco, President

Amy Marasco is the founder and president of The Nature Generation and is responsible for the strategic direction of the nonprofit organization. She is an executive management consultant with more than 30 years of experience providing business and organizational consulting services to government agencies, public and private sector companies, and nonprofit organizations. Her firm, RethinkIt, specializes in consulting on the environment, education, transportation and infrastructure and coaches clients and their organizations on innovative solutions to transform operations to improve effectiveness. 


Ms. Marasco was the co-founder of, with her late husband Dave Newton, the Marasco Newton Group (MNG), a $50M environmental and IT consulting firm with more than 350 employees. Together they created the operating principles of a truly participatory company—a firm that provided extraordinary service to its customers, empowered and rewarded its employees fairly and ethically, and reached out to its community in need. In addition to her duties as CEO directly managing multi-million-dollar high profile projects, she led multiple management studies, facilitated executive strategic planning retreats and coached clients on innovative organizational initiatives. Ms. Marasco led an array of management improvement and organizational studies that resulted in more efficient and effective government programs, including assisting senior government executives to define and implement quality management practices and governance, thereby creating highly successful leadership teams and management operations.


Ms. Marasco is an elected official, serving her fourth term on the Town Council and second term as Vice Mayor of the Town of Hillsboro, Virginia. She currently serves as Board Chair of The Cadmus Group and is a board member on the Visit Loudoun, Hillsboro Preservation Foundation, and Loudoun Bed and Breakfast Guild boards. She has also served on the board of the National Association for Olmstead Parks; Project Performance Corporation; Sanford Cohen and Associates; Hillsboro Charter Academy Board; on the Executive Committee for Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia; on the board for Habitat for Humanity of Loudoun County, Virginia; on the Whittaker Foundation; and as a Board Member of the Marasco Newton Group Board of Directors.


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Cindy Shephard, Treasurer

Cindy currently serves on the Board of The Nature Generation; she served on the Advisory Board since NatGen’s inception. As the Chief Operating Officer at Cadmus she brings more than 25 years of experience in financial management, operations, and accounting. She has a passion for ensuring that Cadmus continuously improves the ways in which it does business. She guarantees that staff management, workload allocation, and project management are the best in the industry, and that they benefit clients and employee-owners.


With her background in financial training and executive leadership, Cindy has helped steer Cadmus’ corporate policy development, financial management, and quality assurance. She also brings considerable expertise in acquisitions and integrations. Cindy is responsible for ensuring that administrative systems and performance data are structured to enable executive team, division and team leaders, and project managers to make the best decisions possible.


Previously, Cindy served as Vice President and Group Controller at SRA International, and as the Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Administration for the Marasco Newton Group. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Accounting from the University of Tennessee.


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Debi McGhee, Secretary 

Debi McGhee has extensive expertise in helping government entities ensure that their program missions are known and understood by their stakeholders. She has more than 25 years of experience, with recent years specializing in proposal development and consulting for communications activities, specifically conducted at the Environmental Protection Agency. She has advised customers on effective mechanisms for electronic public access and assists customers in both the technical aspects of web site development and the management and the conceptual design and layouts of primary and secondary pages.


As the first Executive Director of the Newton Marasco Foundation (now, the Nature Generation), Ms. McGhee helped to create this environmental stewardship non-profit and led fundraising and governance activities.  


“I have been part of the foundation from the beginning because I truly believe in the mission of inspiring the next generation of environmental stewards. I love our seed grants to kick start small projects throughout the country to get the message of environmental sustainability out to all.” - Debi


Along with her role as a board member at the Nature Generation, Ms. McGhee is an independent proposal consultant directing capture and proposal development teams in the pursuit of federal contracts that range from small task orders to multi-hundred million-dollar opportunities. Throughout her career she has created proposal organizations in multiple small and mid-sized companies.


In addition to her work with the Nature Generations she supported Project Performance Corporation’s support for Habitat for Humanity to become the first corporate house sponsor in Northern Virginia. She also served on the board for Habitat for Humanity of Loudoun County, Virginia.


Ms. McGhee holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from the University of Maryland. She is also a member of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals and a 2002 graduate of the Leadership Arlington Program.


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Darby Bade

Darby Chellis Bade is the GDIT Vice President for the EPA Business Area Lead and Executive Lead for GDIT’s Climate Change Initiatives. In this capacity she is responsible for the overall successful program and financial execution of nearly 20 programs. She is also responsible for coordinating and implementing internal and external climate change initiatives within GDIT and with customers. Darby leads the successful delivery of product deliverables including the identification of innovative ways to meet customer requirements, developing and maintaining customer and partner relationships, supporting the development and growth of over 500 staff, and working closely with internal and external partners. Darby has worked for GDIT for 27 years working for the Marasco Newton Group, SRA, CSRA, and now GDIT.


Darby is a 2020 graduate of the ACT IAC Partners Program, is an ACT IAC Fellow, and is a graduate of the GDIT Executive Leadership Program. Darby holds a B.A. in Environmental Science from American University in Washington DC, an M.S. in Management Information Systems from University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA, and is PMP certified.


In retirement, Ellen continues to tutor students in math and the sciences. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in education and a B.S. in physical therapy.


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Ellen Claussen

Ellen Claussen has been a life-long educator across two different careers and various volunteer positions. Her first career was as an educator in math and sciences ranging from grammar and high schools through colleges as her family moved up and down the East Coast. 


Ellen changed direction when her children went away to college by going back to college herself to get a degree in physical therapy. In this second career, she most enjoyed educating geriatric patients on how to be physically active in their later years. As a volunteer and supporter, Ellen established a strong connection with the Camden Public Library (Maine) and its children’s library. It is consistently ranked as one of the top 50 public libraries in the country. 


In retirement, Ellen continues to tutor students in math and the sciences. She holds a B.S. and M.S. in education and a B.S. in physical therapy.


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John Claussen

John Claussen is former Chief Environmental Counsel at GE, President of TRC Environmental and Vice President of CH2MHILL. Across his professional positions, John enjoyed managing multi-disciplinary staffs directed at finding the most effective solutions to environmental and energy challenges. 


His interest in environmental issues has extended to volunteer positions with The Nature Conservancy and various land trusts. John’s other volunteer interest has been in education leading to public library board positions and board chair of Maine Media Workshops (an educational institution focused on storytelling through photography and film making). 


John holds a B.S. in engineering, M.S. in engineering management and a J.D. in law.


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Dr. M. Catherine Connery  is an Associate Professor of Bilingual Education at Heritage University on the Yakama Nation in Washington state. Over the past 30 years, she has contributed as a public school elementary teacher, instructional coach, consultant, professor, writer, editor, and researcher. 


While completing a Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in Painting and Master’s degree in Elementary Education from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she worked with local school children at the Anita Purves Nature Center. Students in Dr. Connery’s elementary Content English as a Second Language and Spanish-English dual immersion classrooms in western Colorado motivated her to pursue a second Master’s in Bilingual & ESL Education from Adams State College.  She went on to obtain a Doctorate of Philosophy in Language, Literacy, & Sociocultural Studies with an Emphasis in Bilingual & ESL Education from the University of New Mexico while supervising student teachers and teaching for the Albuquerque Public Schools. 


Across her career, Dr. Connery has served as an educator and advocate for linguistically and culturally rich, K-21 dual language learners; students with indigenous, refugee, and immigrant histories; and their dedicated educators in western Colorado, New Mexico, Washington state, upstate New York, Harlem, and the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Her teaching, scholarship, and research utilizes creativity, cultural-historical theory, and literacy education to actualize educational equity, democracy, and social justice. An award-winning author of multiple books and presentations, Dr. Connery’s recent scholarship has focused on the benefits of children’s literature for youth with incarcerated parents; culturally responsive teaching-learning practices; recent innovations in teachers’ professional development experiences; and the cultivation of green literacy in the PreK-12 classroom.


In returning to Heritage University, Dr. Connery recognizes her academic home on the traditional lands of the indigenous peoples represented by the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation. She offers gratitude for the land itself; those who have stewarded it for generations; and for the opportunity to study, learn, work, and be in community on Yakmumamí Tiichám, the land of the Yakama people.


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Patricia Dean

Patricia Dean, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Seidel School of Education at Salisbury University. Her many academic interests include children’s literature, cultural diversity, emergent writing and literacy, and elementary reading and language arts methods. She is an animal lover, an avid reader and passionate about protecting our planet. Her work with the Green Earth Book Awards in one of her most important endeavors in which she actively engages and promotes.


Dr. Dean began her education career in northwestern Pennsylvania, teaching Kindergarten,  First and Second grades, and Gifted Education. In 2002 she moved to Salisbury, MD to begin her work at Salisbury University. She has traveled with university students to international destinations, including Italy, New Zealand, Australia, Denmark and China, leading courses in Children’s Literature, Creative Arts as well as international internships.


Dr. Dean’s professional affiliations include: National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), the International Board for Books for Young People (IBBY), and the International Reading Association (ILA). She is currently serving on the Hans Christian Andersen Award committee for United States Board for Books for Young People (USBBY).


Dr. Dean received her B.S. in Elementary Education & Science and her M.Ed. in Elementary Education and Math,,both from the Clarion University of Pennsylvania. She earned her Ph.D. in Language and Literacy Education within Curriculum and Instruction from The Pennsylvania State University, graduating in 2005. 


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Lydia Kline

Lydia Kline is a Science Policy Analyst at the National Institute of Health’s Fogarty International Center (FIC). As a member of FIC’s Division of International Science Policy, Planning and Evaluation (DISPPE) she develops and researches concepts for FIC’s new Center for Global Health Studies, helps provide strategic information to the Fogarty Director on program planning and evaluation, and is part of a core team developing FIC’s new strategic plan. Ms. Kline has previously worked at the non-profits Partners in Health and World Education, as well as at research centers at Harvard University (the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights), Georgetown University (the Institute for the Study of International Migration) and Massachusetts General Hospital (the Center for Global Health).


Ms. Kline earned her MPH degree from The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health as a Sommer Scholar, an MS degree from Georgetown University and her undergraduate degree from Harvard University. She is co-author of The Uprooted: Improving Humanitarian Responses to Forced Migration.


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Linda Manning

Linda Manning has an interdisciplinary background in natural resources policy and analysis, community problem-solving, facilitation, conflict-management, communications and social science and policy research. Her work has focused on improving communication of environmental issues and problems in order that individual citizens, land and water managers, government officials and educators can more effectively engage public support and resources in protecting the natural environment. She specializes in the design and facilitation of complex technical/scientific dialogues in order to solve management issues, prioritize scientific inquiry and inform policy makers.


Ms. Manning has worked collaboratively and in a management capacity with a variety of audiences from executive-level federal government officials to subsistence farmers in West Africa. Her focus on alternative dispute resolution and management priorities consistently reflect the richness of these multiple viewpoints and values in any issue in which she is engaged. Her subject area experience is both broad and deep with experience and interest in the following topics: flood risk management, water quality, brownfields redevelopment, endangered marine mammals, sustainable development, biodiversity protection, pollution prevention, wildfire policy, and international environmental policy


Prior to her 13 year career in environmental consulting for SRA International and the Marasco Newton Group, Ms. Manning was employed as a community planner for the Southern Maine Regional Planning Commission, a researcher/writer for the National Consortium for Environmental Education and Training at the University of Michigan and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mali, West Africa. Ms. Manning is now the founder and President of Council Oak, an interdisciplinary consulting firm located in Annandale, VA.


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Ed Miller

Ed Miller is a Senior Vice President at the Cadmus Group LLC (Cadmus) where he leads proposal development and corporate communications. In addition, Mr. Miller serves on Cadmus’ Executive Committee and participates in a variety of corporate planning and strategic initiatives. He joined Cadmus in 1992 and spent several years building a practice focused on providing marketing and outreach support using social science, social marketing, risk communication, and a wide range of creative communication techniques to design, implement, and evaluate innovative voluntary pollution prevention and public health protection programs. Rather than rely on traditional regulatory approaches, these voluntary efforts encourage positive behavior to promote public health and environmental protection. Mr. Miller enjoys bringing his skills to bear to help the Nature Generation expand its brand presence.


Prior to Cadmus, Mr. Miller was an Associate at ICF, Inc., where he conducted extensive energy sector modeling and economic and financial analyses of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where he earned a master’s degree at the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy and a bachelor’s degree in economics.


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Holly Roth

Holly Roth is a Shareholder at Polsinelli, PC, an AmLaw 100 law firm with 900 attorneys in 21 offices throughout the United States. Ms. Roth's practice focuses on all aspects of federal, state and local contracts and grants. She is a strategic counsellor and litigator who has represented clients in multi-million dollar federal government

contract bid protests before the GAO and Court of Federal Claims.


Ms. Roth holds a B.A. from Scripps College, and M.B.A. from the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana) and a J.D. from American University's Washington College of Law. Ms. Roth's legal career began advising clients on environmental contracts with the Environmental Protection Agency and various Department of Defense Agencies. However,

as far back as high school, Ms. Roth was acutely aware of the importance of environmental stewardship. She has been a volunteer/contributor to The Nature Generation since for over 10 years.


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Amy Norgren Salfi

Amy is the Chief Strategy Officer at Excel Technologies, a Woman Owned Small business providing cybersecurity services, resilience strategy and planning, organizational change management, and technology innovation to civilian agencies.

Amy also serves as the Industry Chair for the ACT-IAC Climate Change Community of Interest, where she is collaborating with the contractor community and federal government experts to address the climate crisis. Prior to her position at Excel, Amy spent more than 30 years at Booz Allen Hamilton. At Booz Allen, she led teams delivering complex interdisciplinary services to the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Interior, and the Department of Homeland Security.


Amy holds a Master's Degree in Environment and Natural Resource Policy from George Washington University, Bachelor's Degrees in Environmental Policy Studies and Political Science from Dickinson College, and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

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Edward R. Saltzberg

Edward R. Saltzberg, Ph.D. has been a director and senior officer of environmental and management consulting firms for over 20 years. He is founder and president of ERS Advisors, an independent consulting firm in Washington, D.C. Dr. Saltzberg’s environmental expertise is in water quality and hazardous waste programs. He has been instrumental in developing and implementing growth strategies and expanding corporate technical capabilities.


Dr. Saltzberg is a former Board member of the Marasco Newton Group. He currently chairs the Economic Development Authority in his hometown of Falls Church, Virginia where he helps promote revitalization of underutilized commercial and residential sites.


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Nathan Smith

Nathan Smith is a Vice President at the Cadmus Group LLC. He leads Cadmus’ Strategic Ventures Group, which advises clients on climate change, sustainable transportation, alternative finance, public health, and international environmental project development. Nathan leads accounts for the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. General Services Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, the Transportation Research Board, U.S. Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of Justice, state and local governments, and commercial entities.


Nathan has more than 16 years of experience supporting federal agencies and multi-national corporations in the design and creation of performance-driven energy and environmental management programs. He has managed and delivered environmental, sustainability, energy efficiency, training, facilitation, and program support contracts to federal government clients. Prior to joining Cadmus, Nathan led Project Performance Corporation’s (PPC) Energy, Environment, and Climate Solutions Division. Nathan was the Program Manager for PPC’s support to DOE’s Advanced Manufacturing Office, where he led a team of energy-efficiency experts and web-based tool developers who supported the Better Plants program. Nathan supported development of greenhouse gas inventories under Executive Order 13514 for DOE and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. He has managed the design, development and deployment of large, web-based information management systems for several DOE programs. He designed and developed custom geographic information systems (GIs) applications that use spatial data sets to optimize environmental remediation projects. As a certified Project Management Professional, Nathan developed and delivered project and program management training courses for DOE’s Project Management Career Development Program, the Food and Drug Administration, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and several EPA Program Offices.


Nathan is a member of the Project Management Institute and an affiliate member of the Alliance of Regional Collaboratives for Climate Adaptation. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia and a Master’s of Environmental Management from Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment.


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Rebecca Tirrell

Rebecca Tirrell is a Senior Manager of Emergency Management Programs at General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT), bringing expertise to advance critical client-focused missions.  Ms. Tirrell began her career as a biochemist performing and developing new experimental procedures in academic research laboratories for the University of Virginia in the areas of Pathology, Internal Medicine and Microbial Ecology.


Keenly aware of environmental stewardship through early lessons of “searching for treasures” with her grandfather in Virginia’s salt marshes, Ms. Tirrell continues to devote her professional career to prevention, preparedness, and response to oil spills and hazardous substance releases. As part of her passion for the environment, she became a board member for The Nature Generation in 2015. As a volunteer and board member, she brings her enthusiasm for learning and environmental protection to a new generation of youth through her support of the Green Earth Book Awards.


Ms. Tirrell holds a B.S. in Biology from Radford University and M.S. in Environmental Sciences from The University of Virginia.



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Evan Thomas

Evan Thomas is a 1997 graduate of Shippensburg University, with a Bachelors of Science in Business Administration. He is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Accredited Professional. This accreditation is issued by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI).


Mr. Thomas currently is a marketing specialist for Arlington-based GHT Limited, a mechanical, electrical, plumbing engineering design firm that focuses on delivering high-performance, energy-efficient building and work spaces. He communicates the firm’s expertise in sustainable design via project descriptions, white papers and blog posts. Evan has 15 years of experience in non-profit, start-up, and for-profit organizations.


Mr. Thomas, a volunteer and donor with The Nature Generation for more than eight years, also supports Arlington’s environmental/educational resources including:  Lubber Run Amphitheater, Planetarium, Nature Centers, and school system. He resides in Arlington with his wife and two children.


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Theresa Thomas

Theresa Thomas is the Senior Director of Proposal Management for Appian, a global leader in multiple enterprise technology markets. She started her career as an environmental consultant beginning a path of professional and personal development. She has supported proposals with a cumulative value of nearly $2 billion dollars. Ms. Thomas holds a B.A. in Biology from George Mason University and M.B.A. from Trinity University.


Keenly aware of the importance of environmental stewardship, in both her professional and personal life, she is a founding member and the current President of AppianGREEN, has received the President’s Volunteer Service Award, and has been a volunteer/contributor to The Nature Generation since its inception.


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Roger Vance

Roger Vance is a historian and journalist who served as Editor-in-Chief of the world’s largest publisher of history magazines for more than two decades. He has been elected to eight consecutive terms as Mayor of the Town of Hillsboro, Virginia, and is the appointed Loudoun County Planning Commissioner from the Blue Ridge District. He has long been a vocal advocate for smart growth, environmental protection and preservation of farmland and open spaces. Born in Virginia but raised in Ohio, Roger received his BA degree in Journalism from Kent State University. He was one of the founding board members of the Hillsboro Preservation Foundation and was a founder and is a current board member of the public Hillsboro Charter Academy. He has lived in Hillsboro since 1995.



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