Promotion And New Hires Expand Endowment’s Capacity

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (Endowment) today announced staffing changes toexpand the organization’s capacity and enhance sustainability to serve its dual mission of keeping working forests as forests and advancing family-wage jobs in rural, forest-rich communities.

“As we enter our second decade of service as the nation’s largest public charity addressing the forestsector space, we remain among the most leanly-staffed organizations of our peer group,” said EndowmentPresident & CEO Carlton Owen. “We’ve worked hard to develop a partnership and leverage model thatdirects the lion’s share of our financial resources to advance our work on the ground. These changes will slightly increase staffing to position us well for the future.”

Changes effective today are:
Peter Stangel, who has been with the Endowment as Senior Vice President leading the programmatic team since 2010, will become Chief Operating Officer. In this new role Stangel will retain a significant program portfolio while also taking on added administrative responsibilities. He will remain in Aiken, SC, with increasing work at the organization’s Greenville, SC headquarters.

Alicia Cramer, currently a member of the Endowment’s Board of Directors and formerly Vice President of The Westervelt Company in Alabama, will assume the Senior Vice President role. Cramer comes to theEndowment not only with an understanding of the organization’s work from the Board perspective, butshe has rich industry experience that will be critical to helping the organization ensure that everything it does “ultimately supports the North American forest industry.” She will be based in Loganton, PA.

Matt Krumenauer, currently an Endowment consultant, will become Vice President, Special Projects. He will continue to work on advanced wood-to-energy solutions to address the nation’s burgeoning foresthealth crisis, which is being driven by climate change and forests clogged with small-diameter, dying or dead trees with little market value. Krumenauer will remain CEO of Oregon Torrefaction, LLC, an Oregon Benefit Corporation and Endowment subsidiary, dedicated to creating markets for low-value wood fromforest restoration via “torrefaction” – the roasting of wood to create a renewable energy-rich product that can replace coal with a much smaller environmental footprint. He will be based in Salem, OR.

“We are excited to have each of these outstanding professionals on our team,” said Owen.###

For more information contact:
Carlton N. Owen, President & CEO, 864-233-7646, carlton@runslikeclock.work
The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) is a not-for-profit public charity working collaboratively with partners in the public and private sectors to advance systemic,transformative, and sustainable change for the health and vitality of the nation’s working forests andforest-reliant communities – www.usendowment.org