Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition Names New Stewardship Award in Honor of Nicholas Institute’s Bill Holman

March 27, 2008

DURHAM, N.C. – The Hiwassee River Watershed Coalition (HRWC) of Georgia and North Carolina has named a new stewardship award in honor of Bill Holman, director of state policy at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke University.

The Holman Water Quality Stewardship Award will recognize the efforts of a person or group that has done the most to advance the coalition’s mission of facilitating water quality improvements in the upper Hiwassee River watershed.

The inaugural Holman Award will be presented in January 2009.

The HRWC’s board of directors chose to name the award in honor of Holman in recognition of his “persistent, constructive leadership in legislative, administrative and educational roles, his accomplishments that facilitate water quality improvements, and his sincere commitment to the environment and clean water.”

The HRWC is a local nonprofit conservation organization whose mission for the past 10 years has been to facilitate water quality improvements in lakes and streams throughout the upper Hiwassee River watershed within Cherokee and Clay counties in North Carolina and Towns and Union counties in north Georgia. 

Prior to joining the Nicholas Institute staff in 2007, Holman served for six years as executive director of the North Carolina Clean Water Management Trust Fund. He previously served as secretary and assistant secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and also has nearly 20 years experience working on environmental policy issues on behalf of the Conservation Council of North Carolina, the North Carolina Chapter of the Sierra Club, the North Carolina Chapter of the American Planning Association, the North Carolina Public Transportation Association and other associations.

For more information about the HRWC, visit their Web site at www.hrwc.net.

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