Vivian is frequently in the field with writers, photographers and filmmakers. OVEC makes media outreach a priority, from local to international news outlets. We connect journalists with our members in their home communities. When media outlets carry news and photos about our members and our issues, we reach potential new members (building our base of power). We inform a broad audience and stir people to action. Hundreds of stories covering the work of our members, volunteers, staff and board appear in the media each year.

Vivian offers media training for our members, covering skills such as crafting a message, writing letters to the editors and practicing on-camera interviews. If you would like media training in your community, contact Vivian or one of OVEC’s organizers.

Vivian also edits our newsletter, the Winds of Change. Each day, she collects and posts onto the OVEC website news relevant to our work. She also develops content for the website and is responsible for sending out Action Alerts whenever important events are happening.

On May 9, 2017, Vivian Stockman appeared live on C SPAN’s “Washington Journal” for a program on coal.

Several years ago she appeared on a WV TV show, “Decision Makers,” opposite then Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy. See part 1 here part 2 here.

Contact Vivian at 304-553-1962 or [email protected]

Vivian needs help with proofreading and editing, and with writing newsletter articles. We always need folks to write letters to the editor and opinion pieces, to comment online, to develop YouTube videos, edit photos and help with other visual work.

Take one of OVEC’s media trainings and then step forward to be a spokesperson for your community. Your stories about mountaintop removal and other environmental problems are vital, and the media is essential to getting your story out. Contact Vivian for details.

Dustin coordinates half-time on our TOME Project and devotes the rest of his time to mountaintop removal and Marcellus Shale issues.

Dustin is an 11th generation Appalachian native raised in Boone County, one of the top coal producing counties in Southern West Virginia. Once an avid coal supporter, he became aware of its destructive practices when Patriot Coal Company began blowing up a mountain named for his ancestors, Cook Mountain, and threatening his 200-year-old family cemetery. After witnessing increased flooding, entire communities uprooted and erased, and an ever-escalating rate of poverty and health issues throughout the coal producing region of Appalachia, he became a volunteer with OVEC, and one of our most eloquent and effective speakers.

In 2010, he helped lobby in the West Virginia State Legislature for successful passage of stronger cemetery protection legislation and was featured in the March 2012 issue of Sierra Magazine for this work. He aided his family in getting WV Route 26 named as a Civil War Veterans Memorial Highway in honor of his 7th great-grandfather and Union Soldier, William Chapman Cook, whose grave was threatened by mountaintop removal. Dustin was awarded the Super Citizen Lobbyist Award from OVEC in 2011. He has traveled across the U.S., as far as Maine and California, speaking on panel discussions and giving presentations on the effects of mountaintop removal on Appalachian communities.

Contact Dustin at 304-522-0246 or [email protected]

Tonya writes most of our grant proposals, researches new grant opportunities and prepares grant reports. She maintains contacts with foundation officers, people and organizations that are important members of our network. She gathers work reports and talks frequently with staff and key volunteers to keep funders informed about all our work. She also helps with the logistics of events and meetings.

Contact Tonya at 304-522-0246 or [email protected]

Tonya keeps a huge file of our mentions in the news hits for the organization's archival records and to share with our funders. She needs help with this time-consuming work of cutting and copying news articles. Contact Tonya for details.

Robin is the staff coordinator for multiple aspects of our oil and gas related work, including the following issues we are currently organizing around in various communities:

• Rogersville Shale development public education and monitoring
• Mountaineer & Leach Xpress pipeline opposition
• Base-line water testing and water quality monitoring in at least 4 Central and Western WV counties
• Support strategies for N-Central WV communities affected bu UOGD
• Networking with allies in the Ohio River Citizens’ Alliance, and also within ORSANCO’s Watershed Organizations Advisory Committee to prevent and raise awareness about UOGD related pollution in the Ohio River Basin.

Also an ordained minister (PCUSA), Robin provides leadership on faith-based outreach and networking, and serves as an active member of these faith-based coalitions:

• WV Interfaith Power & Light
• WV Presbytery Stewardship of Creation Ministry Team
• Presbyterians for Earth Care

Contact Robin at 304-522-0246 or [email protected]

You can help Robin by joining the Membership Committee, hosting a house party for OVEC, entering data in our database, or joining in special event planning and logistics. If you need information on cemetery preservation, Robin is one staffer who can help. Contact Robin for details.

Maryanne is a behind-the-scenes, but vitally important staff person at OVEC. The bulk of her work entails handling payroll, income and expenses for the organization. She also confers with the auditor and files regular reports to state and federal authorities. She meets with OVEC’s Finance Committee and prepares quarterly reports for OVEC’s board of directors. She also is a key person in sending membership renewal and donation letters.

Maryanne reminds folks like you to join OVEC and stay current on your dues, and to explore no-cost ways of giving, such as linking your Kroger Plus card to OVEC or setting up an Amazon Smile connection to OVEC (search for Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition).

Contact Maryanne at 304-522-0246 or [email protected].

OVEC Mourns Loss of Founder Dianne Bady Dianne McFarland Bady: August 8, 1950 – October 23, 2017

In 1987, Dianne founded OVEC to organize citizens to fight illegal pollution in the West Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio Tri-State area. After many successes, in 1997, OVEC moved on to educating and organizing citizens to oppose mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia.

Dianne worked with lawyers to take legal action against mountaintop removal companies which are violating the Clean Water Act and other relevant laws, as well as corporate landowners of mountaintop removal sites, and state and federal regulatory agencies which don’t enforce laws. She also worked with other OVEC staff on researching and communicating information regarding oil and gas fracking companies’ growing interest in the very deep Rogersville Shale in our immediate area, and the concept of the Appalachian Storage Hub. She helped to lead and organize community meetings to inform others of this interest and to begin to formulate resistance plans.

In September, 2016, after 24 years with the organization, nine of them as executive director of OVEC, Janet Keating retired.

Besides keeping OVEC in tip-top shape, over the years, Janet also served on steering committees for The Alliance for Appalachia, The CLEAN (Citizens Leading for Energy Action Now) and Christians for the Mountains. She served on the Government Concerns Committee of the West Virginia Council of Churches.

In 2016, Janet WV Citizen Action Group’s Thomas A. Knight Excalibur Award. CAG’s Julie Archer presented the award at the group’s annual Spring Fling, held June 3. Julie’s remarks as she presented the award reveal some of what Janet accomplished with OVEC. Here are Julie’s remarks: