The Institute for Engagement & Negotiation (IEN) at the University of Virginia is pleased to announce that Bettina Ring is the recipient of the 2022 Gerald P. McCarthy Award for Leadership in Environmental Conflict Resolution. The McCarthy Award is presented annually to an individual who demonstrates leadership in preserving and protecting the Commonwealth's environment through collaboration.
Bettina was selected for the award based on her decades of leadership and use of collaboration and conflict resolution to benefit Virginia’s natural resources. Her career has been distinguished by her incredible efforts to protect forest and farmland, as well as to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion. She is a cofounder of the Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute (VNRLI) and has helped to connect many of Virginia’s leaders to the program. Bettina served as State Forester of the Virginia Department of Forestry and Secretary of Agriculture & Forestry in the Northam Administration, the first woman appointed to both of those positions.
Through her leadership, Secretary Ring brought various agencies together to collaborate in helping the agriculture and forestry industries to expand their exports, to expand the diversity of small businesses and types of businesses eligible Virginia Agriculture and Forestry Industry Development Fund grants, and to connect farmers with food banks and urban communities to address food insecurity. She worked with the Black Family Land Trust, Virginia Bar Association, members of the Virginia United Land Trusts, and the Uniform Law Commission, in the unanimous passage of the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act legislation, and she was an integral part of the first of its kind Governor’s Summit on Equitable Collaboration hosted by IEN.