Marjorie Mayfield Jackson is the founding Executive Director. She left a dozen-year career as a newspaper writer to co-found the Elizabeth River Project around a kitchen table and has led the organization since its incorporation in 1993.

“I did not want to accept a community that would abandon its home river as dead,” recalls Jackson of the founding. “Today I am tremendously proud of how far we’ve come as a community to bring the Elizabeth River to life.”

Jackson holds a masters from Loyola University, trained extensively with the US Environmental Protection Agency in environmental risk management and in her previous career was nominated for a Pulitzer by the Virginian-Pilot. She lives on the Lafayette branch of the Elizabeth with her husband, Bob.