For the Second Sunday in Lent, GCRH welcomes Beth Roach, co-founder of the Alliance of Native Seedkeepers, who will preach on the theme of water.

Beth was born and raised in Surry along the shores of the James River during the Kepone era of the 1980s. Living on ground zero of her native peoples and their clash with English colonization, she developed a fascination for how our bloodlines tell our stories. Beth carried this curiosity with her to James Madison University where she earned her degree in Public History. She spent the first 7 years of her career at Virginia State Parks blending a love of historical storytelling with a deep appreciation for our natural environment. Within Beth's lifetime, the health of her family's beloved river, the James, has been greatly restored.

As an advocate for the restoration of tribal rights and water and climate justice, Beth strives for better relations between tribal governments and local/state/federal agencies. For over a decade, she has served on the Tribal Council of the Nottoway Indian Tribe of VA. For two years, Beth served as vice-chair and co-chair of the Virginia Council on Environmental Justice. In 2018, she co-founded the Alliance of Native Seedkeepers, an emerging benefit corporation, to protect endangered indigenous seeds by rematriating seeds to their ancestral communities and to support environmental advocacy. Recently, she launched a tribal resilience initiative with the North Carolina Commission on Indian Affairs, NC State, and the Virginia Coastal Policy Institute (WM) to develop a network of tribal leaders and other stakeholders to promote climate-resilient projects in tribal communities within the shared waters of VA and NC and beyond. Beth is currently a public fellow for UVA's Coastal Futures Conservatory, returning to her roots as an interpreter and public historian to tell stories from her water, seed, and environmental justice work. She also works part-time as development associate for the VA Chapter of the Sierra Club and program lead for Women's Earth Alliance/Sierra Club's US Grassroots Accelerator. Her past work includes grant management for the James River Association and climate justice organizing for Mothers Out Front.