After more than three decades of environmental advocacy for one of Hampton Roads’ most important waterways, Marjorie Mayfield Jackson will retire as executive director of the Elizabeth River Project.
Jackson, along with three others, created the Elizabeth River Project in 1991 around a kitchen table. She left her job as a reporter for The Virginian-Pilot to focus on the project full-time, and since then, nearly 7,000 families have joined the project’s River Star Homes, which is made up of homeowners who have pledged to keep the river clean by taking care of their own yards. In addition, thousands of children across the region have learned on the Dominion Energy Learning Barge and 40-acre Paradise Creek Nature Park.
Before the Elizabeth River project was formed, the Elizabeth was considered one of the most industrialized rivers in the world and was “virtually devoid of life for miles at a stretch.”
“I’ve had the great privilege of leading many thousands of supporters and partners to make so much progress toward turning around the health of a river once presumed dead,” Jackson said in a statement. “I’m hoping this is the next great thing I’m able to help do to continue the transformation of the Elizabeth River into the future.”