Staff Directory

Main Office		Cumberland County Office
140 A S.W. Broad Street
P.O. Box 1032		831 Arsenal Avenue
Southern Pines, NC 28388		Fayetteville, NC 28305
Phone: (910) 695-4323		Phone: (910) 483-9028
Fax: (910) 695-1087		Fax: (910) 483-1646

Name	Title	Telephone
Candace Williams	Executive Director	910-483-9028
Nancy Talton	Administrator/Contracts and Grants	910-695-4323
Valerie Alzner	Land Steward Associate	910-695-1343

SALT Staff

Candace Williams, Executive Director

Candace is the Executive Director for the Sandhills Area Land Trust and directs the land protection efforts of the Cumberland County office in Fayetteville. She is the recipient of the 2006 Governor's Conservation Achievement Award as the NC Land Conservationist of the Year - the State's highest natural resource honor and in 2008 was recognized by the National Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution with the Woman in American History Award for outstanding service and contributions made in the field of conservation on behalf of the people of North Carolina.

Candace has a Master's Degree in Conservation Biology from Antioch University in New Hampshire. She is a native of Fayetteville, NC, but worked in New England for twenty-five years. She returned to North Carolina in 2000 to work with the NC Wildlife Resources Commission as a sea turtle biologist. As the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Coastal Waterbird Program Coordinator, she was in charge of the protection of all coastal nesting bird colonies on the South Shore of Massachusetts. She has also worked with the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program and as a migratory songbird bander for Manomet Center for Conservation Science in Manomet, MA. She brings to her position great passion for the natural world, and an eagerness to build partnerships with organizations, communities, and landowners in protecting land and the diverse flora and fauna of the Sandhills and the middle Cape Fear River region.

Nancy Talton, Contracts and Grants Administrator

Nancy came to the Sandhills Area Land Trust in 2002 with a background in medical management, business development, and nonprofit administration. She has lived and traveled throughout the United States, Mexico and Japan, while serving as the wife of career Naval Aviator. She has experienced the diversity and complex ecosystems throughout the country including Monterey Bay, California, the Louisiana bayou, and the New Jersey's Delaware Water Gap area. She hiked on the Appalachian Trail, in the mountains of New Mexico and Colorado, and the Yosemite high country. She canoed the white waters of Virginia and California and after years of world travel and adventure, Nancy settled in a log home on several acres in Moore County.

Valerie Alzner, Land Steward Associate

Valerie, a native of Michigan, first came to the Sandhills in 1990 with her husband Kerry, who was stationed at Ft. Bragg with the Army. While at Ft. Bragg, she too joined the Army in 1993 as a Blackhawk helicopter mechanic/crew chief. From 1996 to 2000, they were stationed at Panama, Ft. Lewis in Washington State (where Valerie joined the Washington Army National Guard), and Okinawa, Japan. In 2002, Valerie returned to Michigan to attend Michigan State University where she received a B.S. in Fisheries and Wildlife in 2005. Since graduation, she has worked as an intern at the U.S. Army Environmental Center at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in MD and last summer banding birds in West Virginia for the Institute of Bird Populations. She joined SALT in June of 2007. Valerie and her husband Kerry have two daughters.