Meet our board of directors
Van Murray, President
Van is Managing Partner of Aeolus - Powered by AppDirect. He has extensive experience in the Information Technology industry having founded AppSmart (now AppDirect) as well as held executive roles at NeoCloud, NeoNova Network Services and Cherokee Investment Partners. He has also worked with the NC Department of Public Instruction Implementation Services Division in Raleigh, NC and Glaxo Wellcome International Standards and Systems. Van earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from North Carolina State University and has achieved multiple technical certifications from Cisco and Google. He is an outdoor enthusiast, currently serving for the NC BASS Federation Nation and has competed in many bass fishing tournaments on Jordan Lake. In 2017, Van received the Top 40 Under 40 Leadership Award from the Triangle Business Journal.
Daphne Vogelsang, vice president
Daphne is Clean Jordan Lake’s group cleanup coordinator. She has been a member and track captain of CJL since 2010. She is also on the board of Friends of Lower Haw River, volunteers for Haw River Assembly and Carolina Wetlands Association. Before NC, she lived near the ocean her entire life. Clean beaches, water quality, nature conservation and protecting wildlife are her passion. She has a BS degree in Environmental Systems, specializing in water quality from UCSD. She worked for the San Diego Navy Environmental Department as civilian project manager of active soil remediation, then continued to be in the field as site inspector for their Water Program. She lives next to Jordan Lake enjoying the trails, paddleboarding and beaches with her family and dogs.
JOE FLEMing, Treasurer
Joe is an accountant by trade working for Cisco Systems. He currently manages a team within the Corporate Revenue department. Joe is a CPA and has his MBA from Clemson University. He has worked in various accounting and finance positions for more than 20 years. His passions include the environment and sustainability. Joe serves as a Pillar Lead for the local Cisco Green Team Chapter. He also serves as lead of Cisco's Finance Volunteer Leadership Group and on the recruitment team of the Eastern NC Red Cross. Joe’s hobbies include playing soccer and reading history books, especially from the revolutionary period.
ANITA NELSEN, Secretary
Anita Nelsen has over three decades of experience in drug discovery and clinical development spanning global pharmaceutical and contract research organizations. She held executive leadership roles at Allucent and PAREXEL International with a focus on clinical trial operations and translational medicine. She also held positions of increasing responsibility during her 20 year career in genetic research and precision medicine development with GlaxoSmithKline. She has successfully anticipated and led tranformational initiatives to drive growth and operational efficiency. Anita received her bachelor’s degree in Biology from UNC-Chapel Hill. Anita lives approximately one mile from Jordan Lake where she spends many hours hiking and birdwatching. She also enjoys camping, cooking/baking, and gardening. Her favorite quote is attributed to Mark Twain: “Twenty years from now you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.”
Carl fisher
Carl is our Adopt-A-Shoreline program manager. He has lived in Chatham County since 1995 and is a Research Programmer Analyst at Research Triangle Institute in RTP. He loves the outdoors and is passionate about the environment, having participated on Jordan Lake and Haw River cleanups since the 1990s. Since joining the Board, Carl has taken a leadership role in organizing our semi-annual trash cleanup events. He takes long walks along the shoreline to the select sites months ahead, posts the event at our meetup.com site, recruits Track Captains to lead volunteers and walks the sites again to flag the routes and mark Trash Treasure Hunt items just ahead of the cleanup. He and his wife enjoy kayaking the many rivers and creeks that feed Jordan Lake, and are likely to return with their boats full of trash that happened to find its way aboard.
Jan Sherwin
Jan is an IT managed services industry executive with 25 years of expertise in commercial business development/sales, strategic account service delivery and technical operations and enterprise transformation program implementations across Fortune Global 1000 industries and markets. She has proven success accelerating revenue growth and improving profit contribution through the implementation of business-led and technology-enabled solutions. She volunteers with ASPCA, STEM program mentoring, Women Giving Back, Habitat for Humanity, US Humane Society Founders, and United Way. Jan lives just 1 mile away from Jordan Lake and appreciates its beauty and tranquility every day.
BRANDON ViaVant
Brandon moved to Cary in 1997 and has been enjoying Jordan Lake ever since. He is an avid outdoorsman, an adventurer, an engineer and musician. He enjoys camping, boating, fishing, sailing and traveling to unknown destinations. He has already led many cleanup events captaining his boat with his colleagues at Xylem. As a successful music festival producer and promoter, his event planning and marketing skills are well-honed. Growing up and splitting time between living on a nature preserve in Merritt Island, Florida to also exploring deep within the swamps of southern Louisiana, he is a naturalist at heart and is looking forward to making a difference and furthering Clean Jordan Lake’s mission.
Eric Fagerman
Eric is a Project Manager & Engineer for Hallam-ICS, spending much of his time engineering his way through life. Originally from Michigan, he has called North Carolina home since 2012. Growing up surrounded by all of Michigan’s beautiful lakes and natural wonders, he developed a deep love for freshwater and the outdoors.
When not busy designing innovative solutions, you can find him exploring nature—whether it’s fishing, camping, hiking, or just soaking in the beauty of the great outdoors. Eric is passionate about keeping our waters clean and ensuring that future generations get to enjoy the same pristine lakes and rivers that inspired him.
He believes in finding a balance between work and nature, and is always looking for ways to blend his engineering expertise with his love for the environment.
YOU…
Interested to apply to join our board… please email vanmurray@cleanjordanlake.org
