ShoreRivers Chief Joins BVG
Jeff Horstman ’82, Executive Director of ShoreRivers, will join the College’s Board of Visitors and Governors.
Jeff Horstman ’82, Executive Director of ShoreRivers and a lifelong advocate for environmental conservation and sustainability on the Eastern Shore and Chesapeake Bay, will join Washington College’s Board of Visitors and Governors.
Horstman, who studied political science at WC, is married to Beth Church Horstman ’80, a former member of the President’s Leadership Council. Their daughter Nielly is a 2010 graduate of the College.
“Washington College has done so much for me, our family, and the region, and I am excited and proud to be selected to the Board of Visitors and Governors,” Horstman says. “I want to bring any talent or service that I can to help the College continue producing the next generation of environmental leaders.”
The former Executive Director of the Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy and the Miles-Wye River Riverkeeper, Horstman oversaw the merging of the Sassafras and Chester river associations and Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy into ShoreRivers, a regional environmental group dedicated to protecting and restoring the rivers of the Eastern Shore. At ShoreRivers he directs the advocacy, education, agricultural, restoration, and Riverkeeper programs that promote a vision of clean waterways across Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Before devoting his career to environmental protection and restoration, Horstman had more than 30 years in the financial services industry. He and his wife built a pension management company, which he sold to Susquehanna Bank, staying on in the role of COO of Retirement Plan Services. Previously, he was President of Pension Benefits, Inc. & Abacus Advisors.
Horstman grew up in Queenstown, and while at Washington College worked for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources helping integrate Wye Island into a state holding. While a student, he helped cut and clear the many trails and paths that people now enjoy at Wye Island Natural Resources Management Area, where he still regularly walks and bikes.
His deep connections to the Wye River go back to his family, which donated major tracts of land along the river that became the Aspen and Wye Institutes, the University of Maryland Agricultural Research Center, and the Wye Research and Education Center.
Horstman is a former board member of the Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Harry Hughes Center for Agro-Ecology at Wye Institute. He currently serves on the boards of Waterkeepers Chesapeake and the Delmarva Land and Litter Challenge, and is a member of the Maryland Clean Agriculture Coalition. Horstman also serves on the advisory board of the Aspen Wye Fellows and the Chesapeake Bay Conservation Corps.