Our Team

Prior to joining Keep America Beautiful, Jenny Lawson was Chief Civic Innovation Officer at Points of Light leading forward-thinking initiatives, partnerships, and campaigns to advance the mission of Points of Light around the world since 2012. Jenny designed, led, and championed programs and research to aid companies in achieving their social change goals through the actions of their employees including The Corporate Service Council of leading brands, The Civic 50 ranking of community-minded companies and a newly developed digital community – The Community for Employee Civic Engagement (CECE). She was also the executive sponsor of Listen. Learn. Act to End Racism, Points of Light’s partnership with Morehouse College and served as an advisor to the National Trust for Civic Infrastructure.

Jenny came to Points of Light from the Pew Center on Global Climate Change (now C2ES), where she led Make an Impact, a global campaign focused on energy efficiency and environmental awareness with some of the nation’s largest companies. Lawson also served as Director of the Office of the President at the Nature Conservancy’s national headquarters, leading initiatives to engage corporate thought-leaders in sustainability efforts. Her career began with community development and affordable housing advocacy in northern Virginia, where she served as the founding Executive Director of the Alliance for Housing Solutions and continues to serve as the board chair today.

She is a graduate of the University of Virginia where she studied Philosophy and Mathematics.

Comptroller

Noah Ullman was named Keep America Beautiful’s Chief Marketing Officer & Digital Transformation Lead in June 2018. In this role, Noah is responsible for all Keep America Beautiful marketing functions, including guiding the more than 65-year-old brand’s digital marketing initiatives. Prior to joining Keep America Beautiful, Noah held various sales, marketing, and business development roles across a 20-plus year career, including creating more than 20 product launches from Fortune 50 companies to entrepreneurial ventures. Most recently, Noah was the Director, Technology Consulting for BlumShapiro Consulting, New England’s top regional business advisory firm. Prior to his role at BlumShapiro, Noah had a 10-year stint at Microsoft, where he launched innovative technologies through partnerships and audiences including three years overseas leading Microsoft’s audience marketing effort in Central and Eastern Europe. In addition to his business background, Noah is an inventor with several U.S. and international patents.

Tim Shephard comes to Keep America Beautiful with a strong background in storytelling and videography – including the founding of his own nonprofit. Tim earned his degree in Media Communications and Film Production and has worked in Hollywood, on the Olympics, in commercial enterprises, and has run his own business. He also brings a strong mission focus maintaining a decade plus long history of volunteerism.

Kelly Morris’ career spans the tri-sectors having worked for large and small scale organizations spanning community improvement nonprofits to land development to higher education. She began her career as the Executive Director of Keep Bulloch Beautiful, from there she served as the Outreach Coordinator for Johns Hopkins University Office of Sustainability. After leaving JHU she worked as the Sales and Marketing Manager for Savannah Quarters, a master-plan community located just outside of Savannah, GA. Recognizing her desire to share knowledge and experiences, she then worked for Savannah Technical College where she served as both the Career Services Coordinator and public speaking faculty. In addition to her role at Savannah Hydroponics and Organics, Kelly also serves as the Marketing Manager for Keep America Beautiful.

Kelly holds a BA in Communication Studies from Augusta University and a MA in Professional Leadership and Communication from Georgia Southern University.

Whereas marketing and business development are a large part of her professional pursuits, food is her first love and passion. Food has been at the epicenter of Kelly Morris’ life since childhood. Her fascination with food and its cultivation is derived from her family; her maternal family were farmers and her paternal family is laden with restaurateurs. Food, to Kelly, represents life - not just a means to sustain it, but a means to earn a living and to provide shared experiences. She finds it remarkable that humans not only cultivate their own food, but also use it as a tool to foster community.

An avid communicator, Kelly seeks to help connect others with their food by sharing knowledge and experiences with others.

In her free time, you’ll find Kelly living her best life with her husband, Andrew, and children: Jack and soon-to-be born baby while whipping up tasty treats with farm fresh foods.

David Scott, Ph.D., joined Keep America Beautiful in 2019 as Senior Director, Research, Monitoring & Evaluation. David oversees research in support of the Keep America Beautiful mission, and data and evaluation strategies to help understand the impact of the organization and its network of more than 600 community-based affiliates.

For more than two decades, David has worked at the intersection of data, analytics, evaluation, and technology to demonstrate the social impact of nonprofits, corporations, and foundations. Most recently, David directed research and evaluation activities at VentureWell, a nonprofit that cultivates a global pipeline of innovators and entrepreneurs.

Prior to VentureWell, David oversaw business intelligence and evaluation activities at Timshel, a social impact technology and strategy firm.

David began his career in the Survey and Evaluation Research Laboratory at Virginia Commonwealth University after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Grady graduated from Georgetown University with a BA in English and minors in international business, history, and studio art. A professional project manager, Grady worked on the production teams of the 2008 Papal Mass at Yankee Stadium, the Bravo series Long Way Round, the PBS series Texas Ranch House, and Michael Moore's documentary film SiCKO while living in New York City.

In April of 2010, Grady began an 18-month trip around-the-world, during which he visited 25 countries on 5 continents. Upon his return to the United States, Grady founded RETREET to redefine disaster relief and, through it, find purpose, community, and fulfillment for himself and others. Almost a decade into running RETREET, the organization merged with Keep America Beautiful, where it now is being taken to scale across a vast network of affiliates. Grady is an eagle scout, a 2015 graduate of Municipal Forestry Institute, the past-president of the Texas Urban Forestry Council, an at-large commissioner for the City of Dallas’ Arts & Culture Advisory Commission and the chair of the city’s Public Art Committee, and the president-elect of the Trinity River Audubon Center advisory board. Grady also is studying to become a certified arborist.

Jerí Irby is Keep America Beautiful’s RETREET Manager. Before joining the organization, Jerí spent over 9 years developing her professional forestry experience with Oklahoma Forestry Services. While with OFS Jerí held the roles of Area Forester for the Regeneration and Tree Improvement program from 2017-2022 and Forestry Education Coordinator from 2012-2017. Jerí is a passionate conservationist who has worked with diverse audiences that range from youth to adults on forest practices and land management. She has effectively developed and managed partnerships with a wide range of organizations including government agencies, private businesses, and non-profits.

Jerí is active in the Oklahoma chapter of the Society of American Foresters as well as a board member of the Oklahoma Invasive Plant Council. She holds a Master of Science in Land Resources and Environmental Sciences from Montana State University and a Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources and Ecology Management from Oklahoma State University.

Thea has worked in operations for over 15 years. She has held increasingly senior positions in a variety of roles within the field. After completing her M.A., she was recruited to start, build, and lead the Strategic Research Department for the IUPAT – an AFL-CIO affiliated building trades union – at their headquarters in D.C. In addition to her responsibilities as their Director of Strategic and Market Analysis she also helped build and launch a national database for all chapters to share experiences and best practices, network with colleagues, and store their documents, etc. Thea led the training for this database and traveled to all 50 states to train the local union staff. She was also involved in worker coalitions, organizing for immigrant and women’s rights, and served as panelist and lecturer at many conferences and conventions. After working at the IUPAT she spent several years as a Senior Consultant for a boutique firm specializing in serving nonprofits. There she assisted a variety of organizations and schools in building, streamlining, and training teams, implementing best practices, as well as auditing processes and procedures. Thea was then hired as Director of Prospect Research and Market Analysis by The Jackson Laboratory – a medical research nonprofit with laboratories in California, Maine, and Connecticut – to professionalize and expand their prospect research and management department. In 2021 Thea started her tenure at Keep America Beautiful as Chief of Staff to the CDO. In 2022 Thea moved to a more organization-wide role as Director of Operations and Board Relations under SVP, David Scott. There she has been involved in all aspects of the organization with a focus on systems and helping to create process using digital tools to maximize resources.

Thea has her M.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in New York; her B.A. from Fairfield University in Connecticut; certificates in Business Analytics and Strategic Corporate Research, both from Cornell University in New York. She is currently working toward a second masters (M.S.) in Accounting through Southern New Hampshire University. Thea lives in North Carolina with her rescue dog, Nellie, and enjoys exploring new eateries, running, hiking, and anything outdoors.