Carole Napolitano (Education Committee Chair, Celebrations, Communication & Outreach Committee), a leadership consultant and executive coach, first became interested in preservation and environmental concerns when, as a high school teacher in Omaha, Nebraska, she organized students in a celebration of the first Earth Day in 1970.

Carole and her family moved to an historic home in Round Hill in the foothills of the Blue Ridge in 1977 when the western part of the county was still largely pastoral. For Carole and her family the Blue Ridge has served as a stunning backdrop and a recreational resource … for hiking, rock-climbing, and glorious sunsets on the Bears Den overlook. A favorite memory for Carole and her husband, Stephen, is having stayed up till the wee hours any number of times waiting in high anticipation for a forecasted snowfall to make its way over the mountain from the west. Carole and Stephen have three adult children and six grandchildren.