Board of directors

Allen D. Black, Chairman.  Mr. Black is a retired lawyer and founder of the firm of Fine, Kaplan and Black in Philadelphia. His legal career included serving as law clerk to Hon. John Minor Wisdom in New Orleans, a trial lawyer for the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice, three years during the Vietnam War as an appellate defense coulee in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the US Navy, as well as 40+ years of commercial litigation focused on antitrust litigation and professional liability litigation. He served on the faculties of the University of North Dakota Law School, the Rutgers Camden Law School, Temple University Law School, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. Mr. Black is an active member of the American Law Institute, and served for 22 years as a member of its Council. The 10 years he was first Vice President of the organization.  Mr. Black served for 20 years as a member of the Bucks County Airport Authority, 10 of them as chairman. He is a founding member and secretary of the Point Pleasant Community Association. He served on the board of the Friends of the Delaware Canal for seven years, and continues as a member of its Advisory Board.   

R. Randolph Apgar.  Mr. Apgar spent 30 years in health care administration and consulting. He also served in the Medical Service Corps of the U.S. Navy in Navy Regional Medical Centers, aboard the Hospital Ship USS Sanctuary, and as Project Officer for the design and construction of the Navy Hospital in San Diego. Mr. Apgar was a co-founder of the Point Pleasant Community Association. He served for 16 years on the board of the Friends of the Delaware Canal, 7 of them as President, and is currently a member of its Advisory Board. He was instrumental in forming the public-private partnership that designed and constructed the 220-foot timber frame aqueduct that carries the Delaware Canal across the Tohickon Creek.

Richard A. Beaumont.  Mr. Beaumont is founder of The RAB Group. Previously he was president, CEO, and Chairman of ORC Worldwide, and Director of Research of Industrial Relations Counselors, now serving as its Chairman Emeritus. Mr. Beaumont was Deputy Undersecretary of the U.S. Department of the Navy; Senior V.P. and member of the board of directors of the Hess Corp.; and President of the Board of the Swiss company, inlingua S,A. 

Boyce Budd.  Mr. Budd became a stewardship volunteer with The Nature Conservancy in the mid-80s and then became a Pennsylvania chapter trustee from 1996 to the present, including a six-year stint as Chairman of the Board of Trustees. He was owner and President of several air and ocean freight logistics companies prior to serving 12 years as a Tinicum Township supervisor. He has served as the President of the Tinicum Conservancy since 2013. The Conservancy is a land trust which currently holds 110 conservation easements on properties in Tinicum, Nockamixon and Bridgeton townships. Mr. Budd served in the U.S. Marine Corps and was a member of the gold-medal-winning 1964 US Olympic rowing team.

Michael DiBerardinis. Mr. DiBerardinis is Managing Director for the City of Philadelphia, overseeing numerous City departments.  He previously served as Philadelphia's Deputy Mayor for Environmental and Community Resources, providing leadership for more than 10,000 acres of land, 150 recreation centers and playgrounds, 150 neighborhood and regional parks, and 54 library branches. Since his 2009 appointment, DiBerardinis has raised more than $34 million in government grants, philanthropic funding and private partnerships; overseen the merger of the Fairmount Park Commission and the Department of Recreation; renovated City-owned ice skating rinks; restored summer swimming season at all public pools and expanded outdoor recreation offerings. Previously, Mr. DiBerardinis served as the Secretary of DCNR under Governor Edward G. Rendell. 

Mark Alan Hughes.  Dr. Hughes is Faculty Director of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania and Professor of Practice at PennDesign. He is a Faculty Fellow of the Penn Institute of Urban Research, a Senior Fellow of the Wharton School’s Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership, and a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Penn’s Fox Leadership Program. He has been a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, the Urban Institute, and a senior advisor to the Ford Foundation.

Craig D. Miller, , Treasurer.  Mr. Miller is a partner at Objectlab, a technology consultancy which has spent the past 20 years helping Media and Entertainment companies adapt to the Digital Age. He has consulted on strategic, high profile projects for clients such as Sony Music, BMG, Napster, Getmusic (Universal/BMG joint venture), and Sony Pictures. Mr. Miller has also provided executive technical management to several startup companies, including Ruckus, firstlook!, and MusicianFirst.

Advisory council

Dr. Vail Garvin.  Ms. Garvin is President and CEO of the Central Bucks Chamber of Commerce in Doylestown. Previously she was Senior Vice President–Corporate & Public Affairs at Independence Blue Cross in Philadelphia. She currently sits on the boards of the Naval War College Foundation, Independence Blue Cross, Doylestown Historical Society, and the Heritage Conservancy.

Debra Wolf Goldstein, Esq.  Ms. Goldstein is the founder of Conservation Matters, LLC, a law firm providing legal, policy, and strategic planning services to landowners, government agencies, and organizations in the environmental field. She has served as General Counsel to the Heritage Conservancy and Regional Advisor for the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). Prior to that, she was an attorney with the law firm of Wolf Block. Debra chairs the Land Use Committee of the Philadelphia Commission on Parks & Recreation, is a long-time member of the board of the Fairmount Park Conservancy and the policy committee of the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association, and served as Vice President of the Fairmount Park Commission. She has written numerous scholarly and popular publications, including the recent Universal Access Trails and Shared Use Paths: Design, Management, Ethical, and Legal Considerations, and has taught workshops on recreational liability, conservation easements, appraisals, and conflicts of interest.

James C. Greenwood, Jr. Mr. Greenwood is President and CEO of Bio, Inc. the largest trade association in the United States for biotechnology companies. He is a former Congressman representing the Eighth District of Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Greenwood also is one of the original board members of Historic Delaware Canal Improvement Corporation (HDCIC) and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Friends of the Delaware Canal. 

Gordon Heddell. Mr. Heddell served as the seventh Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Defense, providing oversight of all the Department's programs and operations. Mr. Heddell also served as a Special Agent in the United States Secret Service for 28 years. 

Marguerite C. Quinn. Ms. Quinn is a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, serving the 143rd district. She is Chair of the Delaware Canal Caucus of the Pennsylvania Legislature.  Ms. Quinn serves on the House committees for Appropriations, Transportation, Insurance, and Professional Licensure.

technical advisor

William Collins, RLA.  Mr. Collins is a registered landscape architect and Vice President of Simone Collins Landscape Architecture, a planning and design firm in Norristown, PA. Mr. Collins has more than 37 years professional practice experience in recreation, transportation, cultural, civic, and economic development projects including multiple award winning projects within the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor. Among other projects, he designed the restoration plans for the Tohickon Aqueduct, the largest structure on the Delaware Canal system, and helped fabricate operable lock gates for the mule barge traffic on the Maumee Canal of the Toledo MetroParks system.

Banner image courtesy of Ian Kindle