MCTGA Leadership Team

​Bill Sapp

Executive Director

Although Bill traces his roots to Georgia, he grew up in a small lumbering town in the Adirondack Mountains. The Adirondacks nurtured his love of nature and outdoor recreation. He brought this passion for the outdoors south to Georgia over thirty years ago and has been working tirelessly to protect the natural resources of the state ever since.  

Bill’s background as an environmental attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, combined with his success in protecting and preserving wetlands and at-risk land throughout Georgia, prepared him well to lead MCT. 

At SELC, Bill’s biggest accomplishment was to form and lead the Okefenokee Protection Alliance in its fight against the Twin Pines mine. This coalition is comprised of over 52 local, state, and national organizations and has a combined membership of over 5 million individuals. After six years of battling the mine, the Alliance was able to lay the groundwork for a conservation buyout by The Conservation Fund. Bill hopes to bring the same collaborative spirit to his land trust work in the North Georgia Mountains.

Some of Bill’s other experiences include positions at the EPA, Region IV, Alston & Bird, the U.S. District Court in Savannah, and the Army Corps of Engineers. 

Bill attended college at St. Lawrence University and then went on to get a law degree at Harvard Law School, where he met his wife Allison. Later, he earned a master’s of environmental law degree, with honors, from The George Washington University Law School.  

​Jim Kaminer

Chair

Jim Kaminer has practiced commercial real estate law for more than 40 years with Seyfarth Shaw LLP and retired in late 2019.  His practice included most areas of commercial real estate with an emphasis on real estate finance, office leasing, and real estate transaction structuring.  He has a longstanding interest in conservation and in sustainable development.

Mr. Kaminer previously served on the Boards of the Chattahoochee Hill Country Conservancy and the Merrie-Woode Foundation.  He has been a member of, and advisor to, the Georgia chapter of The Nature Conservancy for more than 25 years and served as chairman of the Board of Trustees in 2018 and 2019. Mr. Kaminer also currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Mountain Conservation Trust and is on its executive committee.

Mr. Kaminer was born in Houston, Texas. but grew up in Atlanta.  He received his undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University in 1969 and then served 3 years in the U.S. Army.  He received an MBA from Georgia State University in 1973 and his law degree from Emory University School of Law in 1976.  He and his wife Barry resided in Atlanta for many years but recently moved to St Simons Island; they have four children, Wright, Heath, Cooper, and Andrew.

Mr. Kaminer enjoys spending time outdoors, whether on the marsh or in the mountains. He is an avid fisherman and traces his interest in conservation back to his first fishing trip to the Florida Keys in 1968.  Mr. Kaminer has spent many years fishing and paddling on the rivers and streams of North Georgia and North Carolina.

Steve Friedman

Board Member

Steve Friedman began his land conservation career in 1998 with the Georgia Chapter of The Nature Conservancy, leading its real estate program. In 2005, he joined the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (DNR) as Chief of Real Estate, where he worked with partners including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, Department of Defense, and private foundations to expand Georgia’s State Parks and Wildlife Management Areas.

During his tenure, Steve played a key role in adding land to Panola Mountain, Black Rock Mountain, Smithgall Woods, and Vogel State Parks, as well as protecting wildlife areas such as Pigeon Mountain, Dawson Forest, and the Altamaha River corridor. He was also a driving force behind efforts to conserve enough gopher tortoise habitat in Georgia’s coastal plain to prevent a federal listing of the species. Over his career, Steve helped protect nearly 300,000 acres of land through acquisitions and conservation easements.

Steve retired from DNR in 2024 and joined the Mountain Conservation Trust board in 2025.

Leslie Hankey

Vice Chair

Leslie Hankey lives on Burnt Mountain in Pickens County, Georgia, and is a lifelong outdoor enthusiast. She retired from the faculty of Kennesaw State University, where she served as a Lecturer of Technical Communication and Communication Design. Earlier in her career, she held roles at Whitefield Academy as the Special Projects Coordinator and at Oxford Industries, Inc. as a Retail Group Manager.

In addition to her professional work, Leslie was a conservation volunteer with the Chattahoochee Nature Center and the Atlanta Botanical Garden, where she engaged elementary students with hands-on programs about Georgia’s unique carnivorous plants.

Leslie brings expertise in communication strategy, user experience design, and visual rhetoric to help MCT tell its stories, engage the public, and build stronger support for protecting Georgia’s natural heritage.

She holds a B.B.A. in Marketing from the University of Georgia, an M.S. in Information Design and Communication from Southern Polytechnic State University, and a Ph.D. in Technical Communication and Rhetoric from Texas Tech University.

Chris Jenkins

Board Member

Chris Jenkins lives in Rabun County, where he has built his life around conserving wildlife and wild places. He is the founding Chief Executive Officer of The Orianne Society and serves on the boards of the Indian Ocean Tortoise Alliance, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, and the BIPOC Outdoor Collective. He has also held leadership roles with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Partners for Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, and the Gopher Tortoise Council.

Over the course of his career, Chris has protected and restored tens of thousands of acres of public and private lands. Through the Orianne Society, his work in the North Georgia Mountains has centered on conserving rare species—including hellbenders and bog turtles—and restoring critical riparian and bog habitats.

An avid sportsman, Chris enjoys hunting and angling in the rugged North Georgia Mountains and beyond. As a board member of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, he works to protect public land policy, ensuring lands remain accessible to all “Public Land Owners.” With the BIPOC Outdoor Collective, he helps connect inner-city communities to nature through programs and adventures in the Georgia Mountains.

Chris has also worked with the Wildlife Conservation Society, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, University of Massachusetts, University of British Columbia, and National Geographic. He earned a B.S. and M.S. in wildlife biology and conservation from the University of Massachusetts and a Ph.D. in biological sciences from Idaho State University.

Nancy-Clair Laird McInaney

Secretary/Treasurer

Nancy-Clair Laird McInaney was born and raised in Atlanta, GA, and has spent countless hours in the North Georgia mountains. She earned a BA from Brown University in Religious Studies and a Master’s in Community Development with an emphasis in land-use planning from the University of California at Davis (2001). She was a wilderness instructor and course leader for the National Outdoor Leadership School and Outward Bound in Oregon, Utah, Wyoming, and Alaska.

She served as Director of Outreach and Volunteers for the Tahoe Adaptive Ski School, Watershed Manager with the Sierra Nevada Alliance, and Program Manager with Project MANA. She is a 2014 graduate of the Institute for Georgia Environmental Leadership Program and together with Steve, is a proud mom to Will and Nicholas who love exploring the mountains and streams of North Georgia.

Chuck LeCraw

Board Member

Chuck LeCraw, a native of Atlanta, graduated from The Westminster Schools before attending the University of Virginia, where he earned a degree in architecture. He furthered his education with construction management courses at Georgia Tech.

Chuck’s career began with Holder Construction and Cates Development, but he soon ventured out independently, founding his first company. He specialized in building high-end custom homes and developing luxury properties, with notable projects including Brookhaven Place in Brookhaven and Ardemore Townhomes in Buckhead. Additionally, he played a key role as Executive Director of the Summerhill Redevelopment Project during the 1996 Olympics.

Later, Chuck founded The Cornerstone Inspection Group, which focused on residential and commercial inspections for buyers and sellers. Cornerstone also managed inspections for construction loans on behalf of various lending institutions. When Chuck sold the company in 2017, Cornerstone conducted over 2,000 home inspections annually.

Chuck is a realtor with The Big Canoe Company. He lives in Big Canoe, Georgia, with his wife. Together, they have four children and six grandchildren. Chuck enjoys outdoor activities like boating, hiking, and fishing.

Becky Champion

Board Advisor

Becky Champion brings a wealth of conservation experience and expertise to MCT. She is recently retired from the Watershed Protection Branch with the Environmental Protection Division of Georgia DNR where she was Assistant Branch Chief for Watershed Protection for the Coosa-Tallapoosa-Tennessee Rivers.

She has served on the Board of Directors of the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, TERN, Chattahoochee Valley Land Trust, Georgia Conservancy, Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District, Garden Club of Georgia, and Georgia & Alabama Land Trust.

Becky received her Ph.D. from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1993. She spent most of her career teaching for various universities and colleges in Georgia – Columbus State, Kennesaw State, Mercer College of Pharmacy, and Brenau University. In addition to her teaching responsibilities with Columbus State, Becky was Executive Director of Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center.

Becky enjoys gardening, playing with her dogs, working on her old house, and playing what she describes as a less than mediocre round of golf.

One of Becky’s favorite quotes comes from Margaret Mead, “[n]ever a doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Tavia McCuean

Board Advisor

Tavia McCuean has spent over 35 years in the conservation of our natural and built resources. The majority of those years were spent as vice president and executive director of The Nature Conservancy for almost 20 years and then served as vice president of stewardship and conservation for the Forestar Group. Prior to that position, Tavia served as executive director at The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation and also worked at the Northwest Florist Water Management District.

Currently, Tavia is working as a fundraising consultant via McCuean Consulting and Coxe Curry & Associates.  She is a graduate of Auburn University and attended the nonprofit management program at Harvard Business School.