Board Member Bios
P.O. Box 25571 Alexandria, VA 22313
BOARD OF OFFICERS 2013
PRESIDENT: TOM SOAPES
Tom Soapes has lived in Alexandria since 1978 and at the Watergate of Alexandria in North Old Town since 1985. At Watergate, he served 15 years on that condominium's board of directors. He is retired from the federal civil service. He worked for sixteen years with the National Archives and Records Administration, mainly with the presidential library system, and for seventeen years with the Smithsonian Institution. At the Smithsonian, he was Chairman of the Archives Division of the National Air and Space Museum and, later, director of the Smithsonian Institution Archives and Archivist of the Smithsonian.
He is a graduate of the University of Missouri with undergraduate and graduate degrees in history. He is a U.S. Army veteran with service in Vietnam. He has served on the NOTICe board for 3 years as treasurer and membership chair.
Sally Ann Greer is a 28-year resident of Canal Way in North Old Town. She was co-founder of NOTICe and served as President for two terms, as well as being a Board member for several years. She has served on the Canal Way Homeowners Board three times as President and was a member of the Board of Directors for the Federation of Civic Associations. Sally Ann has also served as Chairperson of the Old Town North Urban Design Advisory Committee until she reached her term limit. This position made her aware of new construction projects, additions and/or renovations proposed for the North Old Town area and included responsibility for seeing that these projects were completed in keeping with our guidelines and current zoning regulations. She was active in the struggle concerning the Mirant Plant and has long advocated to develop a new Small Area Plan for North Old Town.
She is also concerned about the location of a potential new Metro Station at Potomac Yard and where and how its site is chosen.
Ann Kaupp notes that with the closing of the GenOn plant, NOTICe has an important role to play as a vital civic association in Alexandria. We must make sure that we participate in the decision-making regarding the redevelopment of this site that likely will involve new traffic patterns in addition to dense development. This is an opportunity to enhance our quality of life in North Old Town and to create an even more cohesive and vibrant community.
As a board member of the League of Women Voters for several years, Ann wrote articles about the health effects of pollution from coal-fired plants and invited a University of Virginia pulmonologist to speak to the community. She served on the NOTICe board for many years, most recently as secretary, and arranged for NOTICe records to be archived at Barrett Branch Library.
She also served as a member of the founding board of At Home in Alexandria, a non-profit organization formed to help support residents who want to live independently in their homes as they age. Ann served two terms as a board member of her homeowner’s association at Marina Towers and was instrumental in our building adopting green roof technology.She looks forward once again to serve our community as a NOTICe board member.
TREASURER: FRANCES ZORN
Fran Zorn has been a resident of Old Town North since 2005, living at Alexandria House. She retired 4 years ago after 30 years with USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service. She helped found one of the government’s first policy analysis and research offices, and later worked as Regional Administrator for the Northeast Region. She finished her career as national manager of the regional offices.
For 15 years she was a Girl Scout leader, volunteer manager for other scout leaders, and was also Association Chair of Arlington Girl Scouts. She spent most of 2011 as the volunteer treasurer of Libby Garvey’s political campaign for Virginia State Senate.
Her community interests for Alexandria center around development and density, and this past summer followed the issues connected to the Harris Teeter development and its effects on traffic and parking issues when they came before the Planning Commission and City Council this year. She is a member of Citizens for an Alternative Alexandria Waterfront Plan and supports the work they are doing. She believes development of the GenOn property presents a new issue to consider as waterfront policy is decided.
MEMBERSHIP: see Zorn, above.
WEBMASTER: GREG OGDEN
Greg Ogden has resided at 414 Princess St. for about 25 years and has been constantly involved in the associated homeowner matters. He is a retired Army LTC, having served 24+ years, including Vietnam service. He then was a Senior Scientist & Program Manager for 9 years in a Fortune 500 company, followed by a position as COO of a start-up company in Old Town offering corporate personnel services. This was followed by 6+ years part time as advertising manager for a professional society, based also in Old Town.
He remains active in his church, sings in its accomplished volunteer choir where recently he served as its president. He holds a BA from Bucknell, an MS in Nuclear Physics from the University of Alabama, and an MS Education from Boston University.
Greg is active in civic matters. He has belonged to NOTICe for several years and 2013 is his third year on the board. He regularly delivers Meals on Wheels. He continues his 19+ years serving support groups for persons with certain addictions. He currently is the NOTICe representative to the (inactive) Alexandria Motorcoach Task Force. His main civic concerns for North Old Town deal with traffic (motor and bicycle), quality of life matters, and particularly their related details to plans for waterfront development.
MEMBER AT LARGE: ERNIE LEHMANN
Ernie Lehmann has been a resident of Alexandria, VA for nine years and lives less than ½ mile from the GenOn-Mirant Potomac River Generating Station. Ever since he moved to Alexandria he has been active in retiring this plant.
Ernie brings with him a background in education and union activism. He founded and for more than 30 years headed the union that represented 1000 Department of Defense Dependent School teachers who teach on overseas US military bases. He also established a university for these teachers to take graduate courses and graduate degrees while working overseas.
He has over 50 years of experience in organizing and representing employees and citizens which includes negotiating national contracts, representing employees and the union in well over 100 arbitration cases, public relations campaigns, conducting rallies, picketing and was the labor liaison in a US Senatorial campaign in 2008. Most recently he co-founded a new ‘village’ for seniors in Alexandria, the At Home in Alexandria, AHA!
His life has been dedicated to public service. In so doing he has enabled and empowered employees and citizens to know, assert, protect and defend their rights. Outside of being on the NOTICe (North Old Town Independent Citizens Civic Association) Board for nine years he was president of the Portner’s landing Unit owners Association, is a member of the Alexandria Democratic Committee and was a Board member, 6 years, of the local Sierra Club, the Mount Vernon Group and is Vice-Chair of AHA!.
EDITOR, Newsletter: CHRISTA WATTERS
Christa Watters has been a resident of North Old Town since 1983. She was elected to the NOTICE Board at the 2010 Annual Meeting, and served as president in 2012. She is a contributor and editor for the NOTICe newsletter, and a member of the NOTICe Zoning and Planning Committee. She serves as a member of the Alexandria Waterfront Commission and just completed a 3-year term as a board member of the Canal Way Homeowners’ Association.
From 2007 to 2011, she participated in the Royal Breakfast Group, organized by NOTICe members to monitor and advocate on behalf of local air quality and residents’ interests in the negotiations to clean up the Mirant (GenOn) Potomac River Generating Station, which closed on October 1, 2012.
A graduate of the University of Massachusetts with a degree in government, she is a retired community newspaper reporter and editor. She enjoys hiking and bicycling, and is a member of Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia.
MEMBER AT LARGE: ROGER WAUD
Roger Waud has been a resident of North Old Town for the past fourteen years. He is a past-President, a past Vice President, and past Treasurer of NOTICe.
He is past President of the Board of Directors of his Homeowners Association, Marina Towers.
He is also a member of the City's Mirant Community Monitoring Group, co-chair of the Alexandria Federation of Civic Associations, a committee member of UDAC (The North Old Town Urban Design Advisory Committee), and a Board member of Agenda Alexandria.
He is concerned about the size and mix of ongoing commercial and residential development in North Old Town in so far as it contributes, rather than detracts, from the historical character of the city.