Board of Directors

BETSY MARTIN (President)

After moving to Stratford Landing in 1994, I became enthralled by the creek and wildlife, but repelled by the trash. I began organizing and working on creek cleanups in 2002, and they’ve expanded ever since. In 2012 I accepted the Potomac Champion Award from Alice Ferguson Foundation on behalf of the Friends in recognition of our efforts to clean up Little Hunting Creek. When I retired from my position as Senior Survey Methodologist at the U.S. Census Bureau in 2007, I became certified as a Virginia Master Naturalist. I serve as Chair of the Chesapeake Bay Exception Review Committee, which grants or denies developers’ requests for exceptions to the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Ordinance to develop in Resource Protection Areas. I am a Co-Director of and Ambassador for the Audubon at Home program, helping Northern Virginia homeowners create wildlife habitat in their yards.

VACANT – (Vice President)

CELIA BOERTLEIN (Secretary)

After she retired in 2009 from a career as Geographic Consultant and Statistician-Demographer with the Census Bureau, Celia's volunteer activities only increased. She is a Volunteer Naturalist and Program Assistant for Huntley Meadows Park and Historic Huntley. She is a lifetime member of the Friends of Huntley Meadows Park, and in June 2022 was elected to the Board of the Friends of Huntley Meadows Park. She is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, and a member of the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia. She serves as volunteer Library Assistant at Fairfax County's Martha Washington Library. Celia (on left, with daughter Lisa) has been a long-time Potomac Watershed Cleanup participant and site/team coordinator, especially on Little Hunting Creek, in her neighborhood of Stratford Landing.

PAUL SIEGEL (Treasurer)

A long time ago, I taught human ecology at the University of Michigan, about the time “environmental studies” was invented and the first “Earth Day” was graced by the birth of my daughter. My interest in the inter-relations of people, social organization, and the environment dates back to my experience as a Woodcraft Ranger growing up in Southern California. In 1994 I moved to this house, on the edge of the creek and storm drain, and began to learn about the inter-relations in a less abstract fashion. I’m inspired by the natural community this creek gives us access to. Betsy and I began calling ourselves the “Friends of Little Hunting Creek” when I tried to represent the Little Hunting Creek Watershed Plan to civic organizations and the County Government. I retired from a position as Census Bureau statistician, in 2004. In 2018 I became a Fairfax Master Naturalist and Betsy and I were recognized with Fairfax County’s Environmental Excellence Award. I play early (medieval and renaissance) music on strange instruments. AND I manipulate the ecosystems of dough.

BRYAN BIRCH (Member at Large)

Bryan Birch serves as the Deputy Executive Director, and Director Member Services, for the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States (EANGUS).

In 1984, he left for boot camp from New York where he grew up. After seven and a half years of faithful service in the United States Marine Corp, he was honorably discharged in 1992 and began his 27 years of employment with EANGUS. EANGUS has awarded him various Letters of Appreciation and made him an Honorary Life member of the EANGUS Auxiliary. In 2005 he received the highest award, the Minuteman Award, given by EANGUS for outstanding and exceptional service to the Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States.

He is active in his local church and his community of Gum Springs, where he and Ursula, his wife of 26 years, live. He has been responsible for activating the Gum Springs cleanup, which had languished prior to his efforts, and was named TRASHMASTER of Little Hunting Creek.

GREG CRIDER (Member at Large)

I have lived in the Mount Vernon area for over 40 years and retired from the US Department of Commerce in 2006 where I was a contract manager. I have lived on both sides of Route 1; one home was adjacent to Huntley Meadows Park where I often walked in from the back side using the deer trails. In 1987 I moved to the Williamsburg Manor neighborhood where I can put a canoe in Little Hunting Creek out my back door. My home on William and Mary Drive is the next to last property that has canoe access, but only around high tide. I enjoy the outdoors and our area's beautiful local, state and federal parks. I’ve participated in the creek clean-ups for a number of years and serve as site leader for the annual creek cleanup in Colonel John Byers Park. In 2018, my team received the “Trashmaster Award” for our clean-up due to the largest turnout ever of 24 participants, including Girl Scout Troop 900. I am a member of the Friends of Dyke Marsh and of Huntley Meadows Park, and volunteer as a "Weed Warrior" for the National Park Service to keep invasive plants at bay along the GW Parkway and Dyke Marsh as well as to plant native plants.

MIMI FRIEDMAN (Member at large)

My son, Will, and I reside in the River Farms area of Alexandria. I have lived in Alexandria for over 50 years. I am passionate about our environment and preserving it for future generations. I have been a Scout leader, Sunday school teacher and served on my HOA. I am honored to be asked, and happy to serve Friends of Little Hunting Creek and forward its agenda of community and individual stewardship.