To contact any board member, please email admin@friendsoflow.org
Brenda (Bren) Anderson, President
Bren and her husband, Jon, are long time weekend residents (1986) of Lake of the Woods and full time since 2008. She currently serves on the Clubhouse committee and has previously served on the Nominating and several Ad Hoc committees. Before retiring she was the senior Washington representative for Ashland Inc., handling government relations and public policy advocacy for the company with the U.S. Congress and the Administrative branch. Bren also worked with a number of national associations to advance and protect the interests of industry partners making coalition building an important part of her job. She developed and implemented a successful grassroots program for Ashland, educating employees of the impact of legislative issues on the company and its workforce, thereby facilitating their ability to communicate with their elected officials. Following her 20 year career with Ashland, Bren spent one year as Regional Director representing New York state member companies of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). Bren received her BA, magna cum laude, from The American University, Washington, DC.
Tom Sheridan, Director
Cheryl H. Brown, Secretary
Cheryl H. Brown is from Charlotte, NC where she attended the University of NC-Charlotte. She was employed by IBM before marrying her husband, Stan Brown, and moved to Cincinnati, OH. His job transfers took them to Reno, NV; Tampa, FL; Miami, FL; Atlanta, GA and finally Washington, DC where she was employed by the American Chemical Society (ACS).
At ACS, Cheryl was involved in many different capacities always working with membership involvement. She served as the staff liaison to various committees as well as managing and executing member programs and special events for the organization. After 28 years at ACS, Cheryl retired and moved to Lake of the Woods (LOW). Since retiring to LOW in 2016, she chaired an organizing committee for the LowLinc 2021 Fall Wine Tasting Event that involved many volunteers and drew over 300 LOW members. She is currently serving as a voting member on the LOW Clubhouse Committee and volunteers for other groups when needed.
Jane Haltmaier, Treasurer
Jane and her husband John moved to Lake of the Woods in 2016, fulfilling her long-time dream of living on a lake and owning a boat. She graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1975 and earned a Ph.D. in economics at the University of California, Berkeley in 1982. She worked at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington D.C. for 30 years, serving as an economist first in the Domestic Research Division and then in the International Division. She became Chief of the Emerging Market Economies Section in 2002 and a Senior Advisor in the International Division in 2008. Her job involved extensive travel to many different countries. She has also taught economics part-time at Georgetown University and the University of Maryland. At the Lake she has been active in the Lake of the Woods Childhelp Auxiliary, serving as President and Treasurer. She has also been Chair of the Finance Committee for the past five years and is a member of the LOW Lions Club.
Mike Rugless, Director
Mike Rugless became a full time resident of Lake of the Woods in 2002, moving here from Fairfax, Virginia. Mike holds Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from Stanford University and an MBA in Finance from The George Washington University. He served in the US Navy Civil Engineer Corps and the Navy Seabees for 26 years, and is a 1984 graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. After retiring as a Navy Captain, he became a Senior Project Manager for Parsons Brinckerhoff Engineering of New York City, and for 16 years he led the company’s work for FEMA in disaster relief and recovery. He served four years on the Lake of the Woods Board of Directors, holding the offices of President, Vice President and Treasurer. He was Chairman of the LOWA Environmental Control Committee (ECC) for seven years and also chaired an Ad Hoc committee to rewrite the boating safety rules and develop a new boating license test. Currently, he is again serving as one of the seven members of the LOWA Environmental Control Committee.
Nancy King, Marketing
Nancy King has been a member of the Lake of the Woods community since 2006. She taught marketing, sales, public relations, and customer service in Fairfax County Public Schools and Northern Virginia Community College for more than thirty years. During that time, she also consulted for companies such as Presidential Classroom, Rosendorf Evans (Tysons Corner Center) and Fine Landscapes (McLean, VA). She has a long history of service here at Lake of the Woods. She currently acts as the chair of the Clubhouse Committee; serves on the Golf Committee as an advisor; and was a member of the Ad Hoc Woods Center Complex committee. She started and continues to teach the Farm Team, which has served over 600 new golfers since 2008. She received a President’s Award and 2 Honors Awards for her service to the community. Nancy holds an MA cum laude in Education with a focus on Marketing and a BA in Education, both from Virginia Tech.
Jim Hopkins, Director
Jim Hopkins became a full time resident of Lake of the Woods in 1994, moving here from Alexandra, VA. Jim holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Education from the University of Maryland with an additional 30 hours of postgraduate credits in mathematics and computer science. He served as a high school music and mathematics teacher for 30 years. Before retirement Jim began a second career as a computer programmer with a series of contracts with the Army Research Institute in Alexandria , VA. When he moved to Lake of the Woods , he continued fulfilling computer programming contracts and began providing professional computer assistance to organizations and individuals within the community. Jim has served the community as a member on the Lake of the Woods Planning Committee and Rules Committee. Jim also served on the Orange County School Board for sixteen years including serving as Chair of the Blue Ridge Virtual Governor’s School Joint School Board.
Teri Vickery, Vice President
Teri Vickery and her husband Doug have been residents of Lake of the Woods since June, 2017. Prior to retiring, Teri worked for 25 years in international banking and 10 years at USDA, with expertise in credit and risk management. She has extensive living and travel experience in Latin America, Europe and Asia and is fluent in Portuguese and proficient in Spanish and French. Teri received her Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, from the University of Virginia. Teri is a former Board member of Lake of the Woods Association, serving as President, Vice President, and Secretary. Currently, she is on the Orange County Planning Commission and is also a member of the Planning and Clubhouse Committees at Lake of the Woods. She is also an active member of the LOW Lions Club and a LOWLINC volunteer. Contact her at [email protected].
Debbie Hein, Director
Debbie and her husband, Steve, became weekend residents of Lake of the Woods in 2012 and moved here full-time in 2016. Debbie graduated from Connecticut College in 1979, and received her M.Ed from the University of Buffalo in 1989. Steve’s Coast Guard career took them to several duty stations, where Debbie was active in the Wives’ Club, and taught preschool. In 1989, they moved to Northern Virginia, where Debbie taught elementary school for 27 years. During that time, she mentored new teachers, was the NEA union representative and served on the Administrative Advisory committee. Debbie is currently the President of the LOW Garden Club and serves on the Clubhouse Committee.