General manager

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Stephanie Bonney was born and raised in New England. She has a degree in psychology from Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Having always had an interest in deathcare, Stephanie went back to school briefly for mortuary science and apprenticed at a funeral home in Vermont before becoming the youngest and first female superintendent of Vermont’s only independently operated crematory (and 60-acre cemetery). This position provided vast insight into the injustices that plague the modern funeral industry, some of which came from within her own organization. In hopes of connecting with people whose values more closely aligned with her own, she searched for her next adventure. 

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Good friends and an alignment of stars led Stephanie to the Murray family in 2021. After a year of Zoom calls and a whirlwind visit, she and her family moved to Charlottesville in December 2022. Stephanie believes Panorama Natural Burial has something to offer everyone, with a very clear mission of land stewardship, honesty, and family values. She’s looking forward to seeing the business blossom into something truly special for Virginia.

Programming coordinator

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Megan has lived in Central Virginia for twenty years. She joins Panorama Natural Burial at the intersection of a longstanding interest in the cycles of life. Megan has a background in behavioral research, is a birth doula, and is currently immersed in all matters end of life. She loves supporting people through transitions, processing deep experiences, bringing community together, and communing with nature. Megan serves as our programming coordinator, curating a robust selection of programs throughout the year that bring the many dimensions of our space to life for the community to share in. Megan lives in Charlottesville and has two awesome teenagers.

Assistant manager

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Ryan is of and from the hills of Barboursville, Virginia, and has spent years traveling, learning, and teaching around the world, most recently studying gastronomy in Italy. He has backgrounds in anthropology and the intersection of wild spaces and human needs. He is also a semi-professional musician, volunteer radio DJ, amateur chef, and yeoman gardener. Ryan is now dedicating his time to restoring local habitats and improving ecological balance for native plants and animals, as well as for the humans who traverse nature. Panorama offers a great opportunity to build relationships between the environment and the individuals around it, and deepen the connection people have to place. Ryan can most often be found in the woods playing music, finding mushrooms, or touching plants.

Land steward

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Rarely does one stumble on work that feeds body, mind, and spirit. Christopher Murray has been incredibly fortunate that Panorama Natural Burial has become one of those vocations. Having buried three family members at the 200-year-old cemetery on Panorama Farms, he saw how leveraging that experience might help the Murray family save Panorama from encroaching development; how it could give the local community a third deathcare option for their loved ones; and how it would cement the legacy of his parents Jim & Bunny Murray, who were avid environmentalists.

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Chris developed affordable housing while working for The Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA). Now retired, he subsequently developed and owned Carlton House, a 10-room “group care home” for the formerly homeless and minimally employed. His private sector work includes being a principal in a local, architectural woodworking firm; designing products for several international furniture manufacturers; and, in the early 1990s, co-founding The Children’s Furniture Company. 

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Chris has a bachelor’s degree from Washington & Lee University; a Master’s of Fine Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University; and is a Certified Aging in Place Specialist. A local resident since 1953, he is married; has two children and three grandchildren.