The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Forest in Frozen Head State Park © Byron Jorjorian

Young Conservationists Group

Our Steering Committee 

Ronda Helton — Co-Chair
Ronda Helton is senior director of marketing for the Tennessee Performing Arts Center and War Memorial Auditorium. Since moving to Nashville in 2004, she has also worked as director of business development at Locomotion Creative, senior director of marketing for the Nashville Symphony and CEO of the Tennessee Hotel & Lodging Association. Previously, Ronda lived in Denver, where she was an account supervisor for Marketing General Inc., and in Washington, D.C., where she served as director of communications for the American Hotel & Lodging Association and also handled publicity for D.C.-based rock band Army of Me.

Ronda is a member of the boards of the Martha O’Bryan Center and the Nashville Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She has also served on the board of the Nashville Chapter of the American Marketing Association and the advisory council for the Frist Center for the Visual Arts’ Avant-Garde Society. She received a Nashville Emerging Leader Award in the community service and non-profit category in 2012 and is a 2009 alumna of Nashville’s Young Leaders Council. Ronda enjoys reading, canoeing, hiking, biking, snowboarding and walking along the Cumberland River in Shelby Park, which is just a few steps from her East Nashville home.

Miranda Christy — Co-Chair
Miranda Christy is an attorney in the Nashville office of Stites & Harbison PLLC. She represents conservation organizations on acquisition and conservation easement transactions. Her practice also involves assisting clients with a wide variety of transactions involving commercial and real estate finance, loan syndications, and general real estate law. Miranda has a BA from Kentucky Wesleyan College where she double-majored in Religion and Philosophy and double-minored in Spanish and Music (Piano).  She obtained a Master's in Theological Studies from Vanderbilt Divinity School prior to attending law school at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.  In addition to her conservation-oriented activities, she is a mentor for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Middle Tennessee and Youth Villages. Miranda enjoys hiking, horseback riding, golfing, photography, and live music.

Peter Westerholm
A native of Texas, Peter first came to Nashville to attend college, and has now lived in Nashville for the better part of the past fifteen years.  In addition to a bachelors degree from Lipscomb University in public administration, he holds a masters degree from the Pepperdine School of Public Policy.  Peter works as a budget analyst for the State of Tennessee, and lives in East Nashville, where he enjoys reading, yardwork, and on occasion, exercise.  Peter has been involved in various community activities over the years, lending his time and support to various arts, civic, and neighborhood organizations.

Mary Beth Ikard
Mary Beth Ikard, APR, serves as communications director for the  Nashville Area MPO — a regional partnership for mobility, economic prosperity and environmental sustainability through quality investments in transportation. 

Since earning her BA in journalism and English from Indiana University–Bloomington, Mary Beth has worked in media relations, public relations, advertising and policy policy in Indiana and Tennessee. In Indiana, she worked in the press office of the late Indiana governor Frank O’Bannon; in the public information office of Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration; and at an Indianapolis advertising agency. After relocating to her hometown of Nashville, she worked for KVBPR — one of the southeast’s leading PR firms — and then was the communications director for the non-profit Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation before taking her position with MPO.

She currently serves on the boards of directors for the League of Women Voters-Nashville and the Nashville Adult Literacy Council, and co-chairs the Generation Conservation (Gen-C) steering committee for The Nature Conservancy–Tennessee Chapter. Mary Beth is a 1997 graduate of Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet and a published poet. She enjoys live improvisational music, mountain hiking and collecting antiques.