Meet the teambehind the work.

Jerelle Carter brings more than two decades of community health experience to his role as TTF's Director of Health & Wellbeing, work that is also, for him, a family calling. The great-grandson of Raleigh Martin Carter, one of the Carter Farm's original 1889 landowners, Jerelle carries his family's legacy of land, health, and mutual aid into TTF's Roots programming: from the Rooted in Motion accessible trail corridor to the Roots to Resilience Community Wellness Garden, and TTF's broader Ancestral Health and Wellness work.

Jerelle holds a Master of Public Health in Health Promotion and Safety from Eastern Virginia Medical School and a Bachelor of Science in Health Promotion from Appalachian State University. His career spans community health education, chronic disease prevention, and mental health skill-building.

He holds certifications in Diabetes Self-Management and Chronic Disease Self-Management through Stanford University, along with credentials as a Community Health Worker, Mobile Crisis responder, and Qualified Mental Health Professional-Associate (QMHP-A). A CrossFit Level 1 coach and longtime group fitness instructor, Jerelle brings the same hands-on, relationship-centered approach to wellbeing at TTF that has shaped his entire career, now rooted, quite literally, in his own family's ground.

Neal Bowman is a Virginia State certified, trained naturalist and ecological steward who specializes in cultivating woodland botanicals, native species, and medicinal plants, and serves as TTF's Land Steward.

Neal's path to land stewardship spans decades and disciplines. He spent years in facility and project management for BB&T Bank, eventually overseeing 1,500 buildings across Virginia and Tennessee, before founding his own contracting company. As family members aged, he began taking on the hands-on work of caring for land and property himself: repairs, gardening, and lawn care, a calling that grew into his current work as gardener, blacksmith, and caretaker for regional institutions including the Blue Ridge Institute & Museum, the Martinsville & Henry County Historical Society, the Smith River Sports Complex, and formerly Old Salem Museums and Gardens.

He has coursework in forestry, wildlife management, and ecology from Virginia Tech; horticulture and agribusiness training from Patrick & Henry Community College; and specialized workshops through Virginia Tech's Sustainability Center, Virginia State University, and the University of Vermont on woodland plants, medicinal plants, and specialty crops. Neal completed his naturalist training through the Commonwealth of Virginia at the Museum of Natural History and volunteers with the Department of Wildlife Conservation.

At TTF, Neal focuses on reviving traditional herbal folklore and sustainable land practices, and collaborates on food-as-medicine initiatives that illuminate how biodiversity and ecosystem health form the literal groundwork for nutritional wellness. He co-presented at the 2026 Global World Dietetic Conference on "Beyond the RX: Food as Medicine as a Tool for Community Autonomy in Rural Virginia," and brings that same naturalist expertise to designing and managing the foundation's Wellness Gardens every day.