Ben Gilmer

Ben Gilmer is president of Refresh Appalachia, a social enterprise of Coalfield Development Corporation that’s a regional economic and workforce development initiative. With more than 15 years of experience in the nonprofit, government, academic, and private sectors, his specialties include agriculture and food systems, economic and community development, and sustainable natural resource management. From 2013 to 2015, Gilmer was a senior project manager at Downstream Strategies, an environmental consulting services company. He was a geographer at The Nature Conservancy from 2008 to 2013 and has worked as a GIS specialist in the West Virginia government. Gilmer is a board member of Mountain State Justice.