WPC Board of Directors

Ryan Jeroski

Ryan Jeroski is Municipal Manager for the Township of Hampton. He was the Assistant Township Manager for Peters Township from 2016 to 2023. Previously, Ryan was Assistant Borough Manager/Secretary for the Borough of Oakmont from 2012 to 2016. Ryan is an Oakmont native and holds a Master of Public Administration, Public and Nonprofit Management from the University of Pittsburgh and a BA in Political Science from Westminster College.

Ryan joined the Emerging Leaders Advisory Committee in 2023 and served as co-chair in 2024 and 2025. In addition to his volunteer time with WPC, he regularly volunteers with Allegheny Land Trust and serves on its Environmental Quality Board. In his personal time, Ryan enjoys running, hiking, and spending time with his family.

 

Erin Spangler

Erin Spangler is the Director of Collective Impact Initiatives at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank. She leads initiatives to strengthen community partnerships and previously served as the organization's nutrition and wellness coordinator, focusing on healthy food access.

A native of Warren, PA, Erin holds a Master of Public Health, Health Policy and Management from Temple University, an MS, Nutrition from Notre Dame of Maryland University and a BA, Art History, Film and Digital Video-making from Chatham University.

Erin joined the Emerging Leaders Advisory Committee in January of 2024 and is in her second year of a two-year tenure as co-chair. She enjoys hiking, cooking for her family, and has been a regular volunteer with the Conservancy’s community greening department since 2018.

Mike Boyle

Mike Boyle is president of the Derrick Publishing Company of Oil City, Pennsylvania, a publisher of general circulation newspapers in Western Pennsylvania.

Mike’s business-related interests included serving as director of PennWell Corporation, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based global information provider serving a broad range of industries. He also served as a director of National City Bank of Pennsylvania and its predecessor banks.

Mike has served as a trustee of Point Park University and chaired its finance committee. He also served as a director of Housing Opportunities Inc., a social service organization assisting with homeownership. Mike joined the board of the Conservancy in 1975 and has served in several key roles including acting president and board chair. He currently is on the finance, personnel, executive, and diversity and inclusion committees.

Mike is a graduate of Georgetown University. He and his wife live in the Pittsburgh area where they raised their three children.

 

Dennis Fredericks

Denny Fredericks is retired from Consol Energy where he served in various roles from 1977 to his retirement. He served most recently as the manager of conservation properties and activities of CNX Land Resources. His responsibilities included coordinating conservation efforts and partnerships with agencies and organizations to protect and enhance wildlife populations and habitats on 500,000 acres of support properties for energy extraction across the United States.

Additionally, he supported the role of recreational hunting to manage wildlife populations in compliance with science-based wildlife management plans, final disposition of critical wildlife habitats to public trust when possible, and the education of energy regulators to realize the value of of the land base prior to, during and post mining. He developed internal land use practices including timbering operations while establishing and preserving critical wildlife habitats. Denny provided support to other company functions such as permitting and engineering to address the protection of threatened and endangered plants and animals through interaction with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Denny serves as a Pennsylvania forest fire crew chief, president of the Washington County Sportsman and Conservation League, board member of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and is a board member of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies Energy and Wildlife Coal subcommittee. He is a hunter-trapper education instructor for the Pennsylvania Game Commission. He has served on the board of the Conservancy since 2006 and serves on the Ridgway advisory committee.

 

Robert T. McDowell

Rob McDowell served as CFO of Education Management Corporation from 1991–2006 until his retirement. Prior to Education Management Corporation, he was a CPA with Arthur Andersen & Co. (1981–1988) and a financial analyst with Texas Instruments (1978–1981). Rob holds two degrees from the University of Pittsburgh: a Bachelor of Arts in economics in 1977 and an MBA in 1978.

Additionally, he was chair of Achieva, which serves persons with intellectual disabilities in several Southwestern PA counties. Rob chaired the Achieva Finance Committee.  He now serves on the board for Achieva Support and continues on the finance committee. He also served on the board of Arc of Pennsylvania and was a member of its finance committee. Rob’s professional affiliations include membership in AICPA, retired status.

Rob and his wife, Elizabeth Etter, have five grown children. After his retirement from the corporate world, Rob and Elizabeth operated an organic vegetable growing business at their farm in Crawford County for several years. He has served on the board of the Conservancy since 2006 and serves on its finance committee.

 

Daniel S. Nydick

Dan Nydick is a principal software engineer with Microsoft where he's been helping design computer storage products since 2018. Before acquisition by Microsoft Dan spent ten years as director of engineering development and co-founder of Avere Systems, a Pittsburgh startup where he led the team developing the company’s high-end computer storage products. Before Avere, Dan spent four years as technical director at Network Appliance where he developed architectures for their next generation scalable storage systems.

Dan co-founded four other technology startups, including Spinnaker Networks (acquired by Network Appliance) and Scalable Networks (acquired by Fore Systems); he has also held roles with Transarc, Fore Systems, and other Pittsburgh high technology companies. Earlier in his career, Dan spent eight years involved in research on distributed computer systems and storage at Carnegie Mellon University and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. He has published and/or presented academic papers on a variety of topics, ranging from computer storage and semiconductor testing through distributed timekeeping and particle physics. Dan joined the board of the Conservancy in 2009. He served as past board treasurer, and is a member of the executive and finance committees.

Dan and his spouse Lee live in the Pittsburgh area where they raised their two daughters.

 

Stephen G. Robinson

Steve Robinson is active in both business and non-profit sectors in the Pittsburgh area. He is a managing partner of Pittsburgh Equity Partners, a Pittsburgh-area venture capital partnership. Prior to the founding of Pittsburgh Equity Partners, he was a general partner in Robinson Venture Partners, a family venture capital partnership which has been active since 1982.

Steve is also an investor in and current or former director of numerous early-stage venture capital backed technology-oriented companies in Western Pennsylvania, including Webmedx, Precision Therapeutics, Bit Armor, mSpoke, True Commerce and Bethany Hospice.

His numerous current and past non-profit board positions include the Pittsburgh Venture Capital Association (past President) and the advisory committee of the Donald Jones Center for Entrepreneurship at The Tepper School.

He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pittsburgh in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science. Steve has served on the board of the Conservancy since 2000. Steve chairs its personnel committee and serves on its executive committee.

 

Alexander C. Speyer, III

Alex Speyer is president of North Star Coal Company. Alex is a chemical engineering graduate from Carnegie Mellon University, and a Pittsburgh native. Alex was elected to the board of directors of the Conservancy in 1995, serves on the executive committee, and chairs the finance committee and the Fallingwater advisory committee.

He is a life trustee of Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and chairs the endowment committee of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, served as a board member of the National Wildlife Federation and of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation.

Alex and his wife, Silvia, have two adult children and four grandchildren.

K. William Stout

Bill Stout is vice president of Medicare and Marketplace Product Operations at PA Health & Wellness and subsidiary Centene Corporation. Prior to that, Bill was head of provider network integration at Aetna, responsible for provider integration and migration aspects resulting from Aetna's acquisition of Coventry Health Care. During his twenty-year tenure with Aetna, he held progressive provider network management positions in Philadelphia, Western Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. and nationally. Before joining Aetna, Bill was in managed care operations with San Francisco-based Catholic Healthcare West.

Bill earned a master’s degree in health care administration from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. degree in health policy and administration from Penn State University. He lives in Imperial, PA with his wife, Lyndy, and their four children. Bill has served on the board of the Conservancy since 2002, and currently serves on the executive, personnel, and diversity and inclusion committees.

Megan M. Turnbull

Megan Turnbull is a shareholder with the law firm of Weiss, Burkardt and Kramer, LLC, a specialized Pittsburgh law firm focusing on the needs of local government. She works with municipalities and school districts in the role of solicitor, labor counsel and special counsel. She has a passion for training local officials and public employees on the building blocks of good government. She is a certified mediator and pursing a parliamentarian credential.

Megan has held professional leadership roles locally and at the state level. She currently serves as a regional delegate to the solicitor organization of the Pennsylvania School Board Association. She recently ended her term as the chair of the Municipal Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association and held chairwoman roles for the solicitor and the political action committees of the Allegheny County Bar Association. Megan has been recognized as a Super Lawyer and Rising Star by her peers consistently for the past fourteen (14) years.

Megan joined the Board of Directors in 2017, has been a member of the Conservancy since 2012, serves on the executive committee and chairs the community greening advisory committee.

Megan earned her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh and her bachelor’s degree in history from Penn State University. She lives with her husband, Amitava, and their three children in Franklin Park.