Rose Brown lives in Charlottesville with her son and dog. She is a stream monitoring contractor at Rivanna Conservation Alliance as well as a certified massage therapist at Common Ground Healing Arts. She has been living without garbage since 2009 when she founded the Zero Garbage Challenge, and she provides information, workshops and presentations to the community about household waste reduction. She also undertakes education and stewardship projects around the watershed as a volunteer Rivanna Master Naturalist. Previously, she has worked for StreamWatch, Rivanna River Basin Commission, Thomas Jefferson Soil & Water Conservation District and The Nature Conservancy.