John McCarthy
John W. McCarthy III ’84 has joined the staff of the Piedmont Environmental Council in Warrenton, Virginia. As senior adviser and director of strategic partnerships, he works with state and local governments on environmental issues including water, transportation, zoning and land use, and conservation.
The environmental council is a community-based environmental group that helps nine counties in Virginia’s Piedmont area to conserve land, strengthen communities and rural economies, celebrate historic resources, protect air and water, promote sustainable energy, improve people’s access to nature, and more.
Before joining the environmental council, McCarthy was county administrator for Rappahannock County for 28 years, retiring in June 2016.
He has chaired nonprofit groups including the Fauquier Hospital Board, a community health group known as the PATH Foundation, and the Northern Piedmont Community Foundation.
In January, the Virginia General Assembly honored him with a resolution commending his accomplishments as county administrator and noting his “wry sense of humor and his love of the Chicago Cubs.”
McCarthy majored in geography at Mary Washington and earned a master’s degree in planning from the University of Virginia in 1986. He was an adjunct instructor in the UMW Department of Geography from 1988 to 2014.