Board of Directors

Executive Director

With over 4 decades of State Park work, Sam was appointed Chief of the WV State Parks System in 2014.  Along the way he worked at Twin Falls, North Bend, Moncove Lake, Greenbrier Forest and Stonewall Resort State Park.  He retired as Chief of State Parks in 2019 but continued to work part time on special assignments throughout the park system.

In 2020, he returned to fulltime work as the General Manager of Canaan Valley Resort until his retirement in 2022.  Currently, Sam serves as the Executive Director of WV TRAIL.

He currently also serves on the boards of the Statewide State Park Foundation, the State Parks Endowment Fund and the Statewide Physical Activity Plan as well as other park foundations. 

Co-Chair

For more than 20 years, Kelly has supported dozens of U.S. communities to improve quality of life, public health, and local economic growth through community and trail development. Her early years in community development and outdoor recreation began at West Virginia University (WVU), where she led backpacking trips for the Outdoor Recreation Center and developed technical assistance resources for the Northern WV Brownfields Assistance Center. As the Senior Director of Trail Development for Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC), Kelly convened and collaborated with diverse stakeholders to advance trail building and active transportation policy at the local, state, and national levels. During her 17+ years at RTC, Kelly also worked closely with community partners in West Virginia to conduct corridor assessments, advance rail-trail planning, and advocate for public investment in trails, active transportation, and outdoor recreation. Additionally, she co-managed RTC’s leadership support of the Industrial Heartland Trails Coalition (IHTC) for nearly 10 years and led the effort to complete a comprehensive planning and action strategy for the Parkersburg to Pittsburgh Corridor, a major spine of the IHTC network.  Kelly continued to serve WV communities as a Community Planner for the National Park Service’s Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program (RTCA) in 2024-2025. She holds a M.S. in Recreation, Parks, and Tourism Resources from WVU. Kelly lives with her family in Pittsburgh, PA, frequently visits family and friends in WV, and loves biking and walking in the hills of Appalachia and swimming in its rivers. 

Co-Chair

Kent’s work with trails in WV dates to 1988 when he was recruited to help acquire a 61-mile section of abandoned CSX rail corridor between Parkersburg and Clarksburg. That led to the creation of the North Bend Rails to Trails Foundation, which he served as Vice-Chair and then Chair after the passing of founding Chair Dick Bias.  Kent had a diverse career that included stints as a design-build contractor, newspaper editor and publisher, economic development professional, and founding executive director of the WV Community Development Hub, the state’s leading community development organization. After retiring from the Hub, he worked as a consultant for six years with the Rails-to-Trail Conservancy as his primary client. In retirement, Kent continues to work in community and organizational development as a volunteer Board member of numerous non-profits, including WV TRAIL, Harrison Recreational Trails, and the Mountaineer Trail Network Recreational Authority.

Vice Chair

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Secretary

Bre Shell, AICP is an urban planner based in Huntington, West Virginia. Over her 12-year tenure with the City of Huntington’s Planning Department, she transformed the office from a one-person operation into a robust five-person team and served as Planning Director. Under her leadership, the city completed two Comprehensive Plan updates and modernized its Zoning Ordinance to align with a forward-thinking vision for growth and livability. A champion for active transportation and public health, Bre led the expansion of the Paul Ambrose Trail for Health (PATH) while developing a long-term maintenance strategy to ensure its sustainability. Working collaboratively, she has shaped several complete streets plans, multi-modal transportation design and construction projects, including the redesign of a key state highway corridor into a more accessible, people-centered gateway into the city. Bre has served on the West Virginia Complete Streets Advisory Board and currently leads as President of the West Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association. Currently she is raising her three outdoor loving kids while advocating for safe streets and trail networks in Huntington and across the state.

Treasurer

Dennis Strawn has 30+ years of experience in walking and bicycling advocacy, starting out as the Advocacy Coordinator for the Mountain State Wheelers Bicycle Club, for which, he is still an active member. He enjoys traveling to other states and learning their successes so he can bring them back to West Virginia. He currently serves as Treasurer for WV Trail. Dennis also serves on the Complete Street Advisory Board, the Regional Intergovernmental Council’s Transportation Technical Advisory Committee and Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee.  CSAB is tasked with advising WVDOT on policies concerning bicycle and pedestrian improvements to the transportation system. TTAC reviews and approves transportation improvement amendments and discusses policy for motorized, public transit and non-motorized improvements to the transportation system.  BPAC works with the RIC staff on improving bicycle and pedestrian access at the planning level.

Board Member

Rick has been working in natural resource management since the mid-eighties, when he completed an undergraduate internship with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Working in the Adirondacks on trail systems in the state’s extensive Wilderness system, he made that experience the basis for his MS in Forest Resource Management at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse where he studied Wilderness Management, forest recreation, soils, and hydrology, to better understand recreational impacts on trails and campsites. After working in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, the Otter Creek Wilderness, the Laurel Fork North and South Wilderness, and the Dolly Sods Wilderness for the US Forest Service, Rick returned to school for a Ph.D. in Forest Science from West Virginia University, followed by a post-doc in invasive species dynamics. Since then, Rick has held several academic positions and has done research in remote sensing, invasive species dynamics, geospatial science and technology education, and in the non-profit world as an Executive Director of AmericaView, a remote sending research and education organization funded by the USGS. He now works as the Science and Management Specialist for the West Virginia Land Trust, working on protected area management, trail system planning, design, and management, and is Associate Professor of Geography at West Virginia University.

Board Member

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Board Member

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Board Member

Mitch moved to West Virginia in 2019 to pursue rock climbing in the New River Gorge and complete a Business Management degree at WVU Tech in Beckley. After graduating, he worked as a rock climbing guide in both Acadia National Park and the New River Gorge National Park, gaining valuable experience in outdoor leadership and recreation management. This passion led him to a role at the Region 4 Planning and Development Council in Summersville, where he served as a Project Specialist focused on outdoor recreation development and regional revitalization.

Mitch now serves as the Director of Outdoor Economic Development for the City of Beckley. In this role, he leads the Beckley Outdoors initiative—a community-driven effort to leverage the area's outdoor recreation assets as a catalyst for economic growth, downtown revitalization, and population retention.

An avid rock climber, mountain biker, and skier, Mitch spends as much time as possible exploring the outdoors and sharing his love for wild places.