Maria Gunnoe, Community Organizer and Media Spokesperson: Maria is an OVEC organizer in Boone County, but her work extends far beyond the countys borders. In 2009, Maria won the Goldman Environmental Prize for North America, the Nobel of environmental awards. Shes been interviewed for books, national newspapers and magazine articles. She has been filmed for numerous documentaries on the impacts of Mountaintop Removal. To help inform community members, reporters and politicians, Maria arranges Mountaintop Removal flyovers with SouthWings.org; she has served on their Board of Directors for eight years.

Maria is working with community members in Boone County on the Twilight Project, where OVEC has purchased land with mineral rights in order to preserve the land and leave the coal safely underground. The land includes a building slated to become an educational center and an organizing base. See www.mtrstopshere.com. Contact Maria at 304-245-8481, 304-989-9581 or maria@ohvec.org.