Board of Directors
Jon Beall, Co-Founder
Jon Beall retired after selling a telecommunications contracting company in Austin to work on regional planning activities. He served six years on the City of Austin Environmental Board and currently serves on the Board of the Hill Country Conservancy and the Barton Springs Conservancy. Jon participated as a stakeholder in the revision of Austin’s Water Protection Ordinance and Travis County’s revision to their Environmental Criteria Manual. He earned an Economics Degree from Texas A&M University and an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. Jon is a former Officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Anne Brockenbrough, Co-Founder
Anne Brockenbrough is a rancher and writer who runs a working ranch outside of Austin, Texas. She grew up on a farm in Virginia, received a BA from the University of Virginia, an MA in Creative Writing from Hollins University, and an MFA from the University of Texas where she was a Michener Fellow in Poetry. She was a migrant cowgirl, working on ranches in Wyoming and cattle stations in Australia before moving to Texas in 1997. She served on the board of the Central Texas Cutting Horse Association for over ten years.
Becky Jolin, Attorney
Becky Jolin is an environmental lawyer in Austin, TX. She graduated from the University of Texas School of Allied Health Sciences and the University of Houston Law Center. She is a member of the Austin Bar Association and the State Bar of Texas. She has been interested in the natural world since childhood and joined WCCA to help preserve wildlife habitat, open spaces, and agricultural land in Eastern Travis County, Texas.
Steve Butler, Attorney
Steve Butler is a real estate lawyer in Austin, TX. He graduated from Southwestern University and went on to the University of Houston Law Center. He is a member of the Austin Bar Association, American Bar Association, Austin’s Young Lawyer’s Association, and the State Bar of Texas. He serves as a member of the Real Estate Council of Austin and has been on the Board of Directors for the Colorado River Foundation since 2005. Butler joined WCCA to continue his family’s legacy of preserving open space and giving to parks, such as Butler Park, Butler Shores, and Butler Park Pitch & Putt.
Willie Martin Fowler, Historian
Willie Mae Fowler moved to Littig in 1940 with her parents and siblings. After growing up and working on the family farm, she earned a degree in education and taught in Manor for many years. Willie is passionate about protecting the cultural heritage of Littig, especially the Littig cemetery, which she painstakingly restored. She was instrumental in getting the cemetery designated as a historical landmark "so that the community would have something of their very own." She joined the board to carry on her dedication to this beloved area.
Staff
Shelby Koebley
Programs Manager
Shelby Koebley is an environmentalist and naturalist in Austin, TX. She grew up in NE Ohio near the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. She received her BA in Environmental Policy from Sewanee: The University of the South in 2014. Shelby was an Americorps VISTA at Sewanee and worked with the University Farm to support local landowners on the Plateau with agricultural best practices in 2016. She soon moved to Austin and has a continuing passion to preserve working lands, watersheds, and wildlife habitats.
Steps & Strategies
- Conserve working farms and ranches
- Partner with landowners
- Create greenways along eastern creeks and Wilbarger to the Colorado river
- Protect and plant native grasses and forbes to enhance wildlife habitat and riparian areas in the Wilbarger Creek Watershed
- Conserve the cultural heritage of the Littig Community
- Work with municipalities to monitor and improve water quality in the Eastern creeks