CTLCV Board of Directors

David Bingham
Co-Chair

David Bingham is a retired physician  (OBGYN) who first joined the national League of Conservation Voters during the first Earth Week in 1970.  He comes from a political family (grandfather Hiram Bingham US Senator, uncle Jonathan Bingham a US Congressman, uncle Alfred Bingham a CT State Senator).  He joined the CT LCV  Board in its first year after organization.  He has been active on CT policy issues and electoral politics with the Sierra Club, NARAL, and the Rivers Alliance, and currently serves on the boards of Audubon CT, the Salem Land Trust (a founder) and the CT Land Conservation Council.  David was also an elected member of the Salem Planning and Zoning Commission for 36 years. He currently chairs the CTLCV Political Action Committee.

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Ken Bernhard
Co-Chair

G. Kenneth Bernhard is a principal with the law firm of Cohen and Wolf, P.C. He has extensive experience in land use and municipal law. From 1997-2005, Ken was Westport's State Representative to the Connecticut General Assembly and served as an Assistant Minority Leader. He served as Westport's Third Selectman from 1987 to 1989 and was elected to the Westport Zoning Board of Appeals in 1989. He served, or presently serves, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Westport Public Library; Mid-Fairfield County Nursing and Home Care; The Westport Chamber of Commerce; The Norwalk Human Services Council; Earthplace; the Westport Historical Society; and the Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation. Ken was appointed by Governor Jodi Rell to serve on the Judicial Review Council in 2005 and 2008. Also in 2008, House Minority Leader Lawrence Cafero appointed Ken to serve as a member of the Citizens Advisory Board of the Office of State Ethics. Ken received his B.A. in 1966 from Yale University, and his J.D. (1969) and LL.M. (1970) from New York University Law School.   

Marguerite Purnell
Vice Chair

Margie Purnell joined the CTLCV Board in May 2009. A graduate of Princeton University and resident of Washington, CT, Margie has an extensive background in botany, restoration biology, ecology and evolutionary biology, and wetlands. In addition to her work with CTLCV, Margie is affiliated with a variety of groups including the Fishers Island Conservancy, the Long Island Sound Study, the CT Association of Conservation and Inland Wetlands Commissions, and the Washington Inland Wetlands Commission.    

Woody Bliss
Treasurer 

Woody Bliss worked for IBM for 34 years and retired in 1993. That year, he was recognized by Who's Who Worldwide as a "Global Business Leader" because he had "demonstrated outstanding leadership and achievement" in computer science education in 55 countries. After leaving IBM, he served as the President of Business Atlantic, Inc., a company involved in high tech education consulting and development, from 1993 to 2001. He has been active in community affairs for many years, including serving as a county chairman for the United Way, a board member and fund raising chairman for the Fairfield County Boy Scout Council. He was Vice Chairman of the Board of Education when he lived in Amherst, NY. In Weston, he has served on the Board of Finance for three years, the Panel of Moderators for ten years, including four years as chair. He is long time member of the Kiwanis Club of Weston and a past president. He founded the Weston Kiwanis Club Foundation and served as its first President. In Weston, he was elected to the Board of Selectmen in 1999 and was elected First Selectman for four terms from 2001 to 2009. A long time environmental activist, he served as the Co-Chair of the Kelda Coalition, which helped preserve and protect 18,000 acres of open space in Connecticut. He served on the Advisory Boards of the Norwalk Youth Symphony and the Discovery Museum. He currently serves on the board of the Weston Education Foundation and is treasurer of Friends of the Weston Senior Activities Center. He is also treasurer of the CT Coalition of Education Foundations. As a women's rights activist, he serves on the National Board of the Republican Majority for Choice and is their CT Chapter Chair.  

David Anderson
Director

David Anderson served in the Connecticut General Assembly from 1980 to 1992. He served as Chair and Ranking member of the Energy and Public Utilities Committee. He initiated the bill to support the use of natural gas fueled vehicles in Connecticut. He has long been associated with bills to support energy conservation, to augment the Farm Preservation Program, and to institute dioxin controls on waste to energy plants. As a member of the Environment Committee he conceived and wrote the bill to mandate recycling in Connecticut. Anderson is founder and Chair of the Norwich Area Global Warming Action Group. He also serves as a  Board Member and active partner in Reforest the Tropics, a project in Costa Rica to reduce CO2 by planting a special matrix of trees. The project recently won an EPA award for its environmental value.  

Eileen Lavigne Flug
Director

Eileen Lavigne Flug serves as an elected Moderator for Westport's Representative Town Meeting, the town's legislative body.  A long-time environmentalist,, Eileen serves as an advisor to the Westport Green Village Initiative.  She has served as President of the Westport League of Women Voters, co-founded the School Nutrition Action Committee, and continues to serve on the boards of Friends of Westport Parks and Recreation, Westport Health and Wellness Advisory Council, and the PTA Food Services Advisory Committee.  She was General Counsel for Equities in New York and a Corporate Associate at Arnold and Porter in Washington DC.

Mary Hogue
Director

Mary Hogue is Chair of Fairfield's Earth Day Committee, a member of the Fairfield Forestry and FairTV Committees and Fairfield League of Women Voters.  She is a board member of Mill River Wetland Committee, FairPLAN (Fairfield's Protecting Land and Neighborhoods) and was on the State Vegetative Management Task Force.  Mary is a certified Project Management Professional as well as a graduate of the UConn Master Gardener, Master Composter and Meskwaka tree programs and has been involved for many years with the Connecticut Audubon Society, Mill River Wetland Committee, Fairfield PTAs and many other civic organizations. 

Sue Merrow
Director

Susan Merrow’s life work has revolved around environmental public policy as a lobbyist, an elected official, and a leader of environmental non-profit organizations. She served as President of the Sierra Club National Board of Directors and was elected six times from 1991-2003 as First Selectman of the Town of East Haddam, during which the town tackled major water pollution problems and began its program of acquiring large tracts of open space. She was appointed by Governor Malloy to Chair of the Connecticut Council on Environmental Quality. She is the Chairperson of 1000 Friends of Connecticut Property Tax Working Group.  In addition to serving on the Board of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters, she also serves on the East Haddam Conservation Commission, and the East Haddam Community Lions Club Environment Committee.  She is a member of the Committee that won and still oversees the Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers designation for the Eightmile River. A graduate of Tufts University, Susan lives in East Haddam with her husband of 47 years and three retired horses.

Margaret Miner
Director

Margaret Miner is the Executive Director of Rivers Alliance of CT, a statewide non-profit organization formed in 1992 to protect Connecticut's rivers and streams by promoting sound river-conservation policies and by assisting the many groups and individuals involved in watershed protection. She serves in several statewide capacities, including co-chair of the Water Planning Council Advisory Group.  Prior to coming to Rivers Alliance, she was Executive Director of the award-winning Roxbury Land Trust, and before that she was a local newspaper reporter, specializing in politics, land use and the environment. Among her publications are the fully annotated Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations, compiled with her co-author and husband, Hugh Rawson.

Peter Moss
Director

Peter Moss is an expert on natural resource, chemical, energy and environmental industries. He is on the board of the Mianus River Watershed Council and as chairman of the Mianus River Greenway Alliance played a key role in establishing a 12 mile long greenway in Greenwich, Stamford, and nearby NY State.  He also served on the Connecticut Greenways Council, the DEP Rivers Advisory Committee, and over the years on several Greenwich committees on environmental and town planning issues.  Since 1990, as President of Resource Capital Group, he has advised companies on corporate strategy, finance, acquisitions and divestitures. Previously, Peter was a Vice President of Citicorp responsible for M&A in the mining and metals industries worldwide, and before that Vice President of the international consulting firm, Commodities Research Unit Ltd., an executive in the minerals and planning departments of Exxon Corporation, and Chief Financial Officer and V.P. of Planning and Corporate Development at Lithium Corporation of America. He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from M.I.T., an M.A. in Physics from Columbia University, and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.  

Roger Reynolds
Director

Roger Reynolds is the Legal Director and Director of the Climate, Energy, Transportation and Land Protection Programs at Connecticut Fund for the Environment. He is also an Adjunct Professor at University of Connecticut School of Law where he regularly teaches the Environmental Law Clinic and Negotiation. Before going to CFE, Roger was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Connecticut for ten years where he was the lead attorney on numerous environmental protection, consumer protection and antitrust cases. He clerked for Supreme Court Justices Richard Palmer and Robert Callahan and graduated from NYU School of Law.

Katherine Wadsworth
Director

Kathy Wadsworth is a life long resident of Farmington, Ct and also lived in Quito, Ecuador from 2000 until 2011. Over the years she was employed as a draftsman for Chisholm Planning and Development, Hodge Surveying, Town of Avon Planning and Engineering Departments, Johnson & Dee Landscape Architects, and Donald Planning.
 
Kathy was the owner/operator of KAT Balloons, Inc., a full service Hot Air Balloon business based in the Farmington Valley from 1984 – 2009. She is an FAA rated commercial/instructor LTA pilot, a certified FAA Repairman, previously served as an FAA Examiner for Hot Air Balloons & an FAA Accident Safety Councilor with the Bradley Airport based FAA-FSDO. She has flown Hot Air Balloons in the USA, Canada, Europe and South America and has held records for altitude, distance  & duration. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Lighter-than-Air Society in 1988 and is a member of The Ninety-Nines (1995 - present), an international women’s pilot organization and its Connecticut Chapter. She became member of the Board of Directors of the Farmington Land Trust in 1999, serving on the Land Acquisition Committee, as Secretary, Vice President and later as President until 2008. She is still an active member, available to the Acquisition Committee and as a Land Steward. Kathy served on the Board of Directors of the Hill-Stead Museum in Farmington, CT from 2004 – 2006.
 
Kathy is a former member (1999 - 2009) of Road Kill Press, a cooperative fine arts print studio in Kent, CT. While living in Ecuador she was a member of the Asociación Grabadores de Ecuador, and its print studio, Estamperia Quiteña, in Quito, Ecuador. She now works out of her own studio in Farmington where she and her husband, Jorge Delano, are residing full time. She enjoys rowing, sculls and sweeps.

Lynn Werner
Director

Lynn Werner is the Executive Director of the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA), one of the oldest citizens watershed protection organizations in the nation. Lynn joined HVA in 1983. She helped form and then co-chaired the Clean Water Coalition, and served on the legislative Aquifer Protection Task Force. She now serves as Co-Chair of the state Rivers Advisory Committee in Connecticut and appointed member-at-large of the Watershed Initiative Steering Committee for the Massachusetts executive Office of Environmental Affairs. Other activities include founding member/past President of the Rivers Alliance of Connecticut; CT Department of Environmental Protection’s Water Bureau Advisory Committee; Massachusetts Watershed Coalition; and the New England Watershed Roundtable. Lynn is also Chairman of the Kent Inland Wetlands Commission.  

Maggie Carey
Director

Maggie Carey is an Advisor to the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a coalition of small island and low lying nations which function as an ad hoc lobby and negotiating voice within the United Nations system on climate change, sustainable development and ocean conservation issues. Maggie is also a Fellow with the Frank J. Guarini Center on Environmental, Energy and Land Use Law at NYU School of Law. Before moving to Connecticut and taking up her current position, Maggie resided in Washington D.C., where she advocated to end illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing world wild with the Pew Charitable Trusts. Maggie earned a B.A. in Political Science and International Studies cum laude from the University of Miami and a J.D. degree from American University, Washington College of Law. She is licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia and New York. Maggie's passion for environmental protection and ocean conservation was ignited as a child, growing up snorkeling, surfing and scuba diving in south Florida and noticing firsthand changes to the marine environment. Maggie still enjoys water sports activities and is also an avid snowboarder.

Advisory Council

Julie Belaga

Julie Belaga completed her term as the Chief Operating Officer and Board member of the Export-Import Bank of the United States in January 1999. Ex-Im Bank is the official Export Credit Agency of the U.S. government. She led the Bank's efforts to increase financing for U.S. firms that export products and services that benefit the global environment. Energy, water delivery systems, hazardous waste clean-up, solid waste treatment and pollution control are among the industry sectors included in the initiatives she spearheaded for the Bank. From 1989 to 1992 she was Regional Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency for New England (Region One). She was a Fellow at the Institute of Politics and an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. She served for 10 years in the House of Representatives where she was elected Assistant Minority Leader (1978, 1980 and 1982) and Deputy Majority Leader in 1984 just prior to running for Governor.   

Martha Phillips

Martha Phillips was executive director from 1992 to 1999 of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan, nonprofit grassroots advocacy organization founded in 1992 by former Senators Warren Rudman (R-NH) and Paul Tsongas (D-MA) to end federal deficit spending and promote entitlement reform and a balanced federal budget. She continues as a member of the board. She spent many years as a staff member in various positions in the U.S. House of Representatives beginning in 1965. Martha was deputy minority counsel to the House Ways and Means Committee (1977-1986) and Minority Staff Director to the House Budget Committee (1986-1992). Now a full-time resident of the Litchfield-Goshen area, Martha has been active in many environmental and civic organizations. She served on the Endangered Lands Coalition, which focused on preserving Connecticut’s water source lands. She was Action Chair of the Litchfield County League of Women Voters where she focused on preserving of water source and other fragile lands and promoting clean and sustainable energy. She is a past  president of the Litchfield Garden Club and previously chaired the Conservation Committee of that organization. At the national level of the Garden Club of America, Martha served for a decade as Vice-Chairman of the GCA National Affairs and Legislation Committee, where she was responsible for writing the Legislative Update and the Current Legislative Status Report which are distributed to 18,000 GCA members on line. She received the GCA Margaret Douglas Award for Conservation Education in May, 2015 and the Zone II (Connecticut) Conservation Award.  She was Vice President of Redefining Progress, a public policy think tank dedicated to promoting sustainability through sound economics. She serves on the board of the Connecticut Junior Republic, coordinates a used book store for the First Congregational Church of Litchfield, is an avid gardener, hiker and member of the Goshen Land Trust..  

Judy Harper

Judy Harper is a founder and served for over a decade as Director of the Connecticut Audubon Center at Glastonbury.   She supervised the teaching staff and the administration of this regional nature center as well as planned the Adult and Family Programs, coordinating and recruiting volunteers, overseeing all special events and fundraisers, and providing all publicity and marketing.   Judy joined the Glastonbury Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency and Conservation Commission in 1988 and has been Chairman since 1996.  She is currently secretary to the Great Pond Preserve Stewardship Committee and Glastonbury Community Council.  Judy serves on the Board of American P.I. E., (American Public Information on the Environment).  Judy has lived in Glastonbury all her adult life and has been an active volunteer throughout, serving on the Commission on Aging and the Board of Education.  She received the Governor’s Award for Drug Use Prevention, Glastonbury’s FOGY (Friends of Glastonbury Youth) Award for her volunteer work with the town’s children, and the Thank You Award from the Connecticut Valley Girl Scout Council for years of troop leadership and camp certification workshops.

Joseph McGee

Joe McGee is Vice President, Public Policy and Programs for The Business Council of Fairfield County. Joe has worked extensively with the business community, civic organizations and government officials in the areas of economic development, transportation, housing, energy conservation, environment and tax and fiscal policy.  Before joining The Business Council of Fairfield County, Joe was Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Economic Development, Chairman of the Connecticut Development Authority and Chairman of Connecticut Innovations, Inc. from 1990-1994, and Vice President at People’s Bank between 1979 and 1990. Prior to joining People’s Bank, he served as Staff Director for Congressman Stewart McKinney, from 1971 to 1978.   

B. Holt Thrasher

B. Holt Thrasher manages Mooreland Partners, a communication industry consulting organization. He is a former Partner of Broadview Holdings, a global information technology merger & acquisition advisory and investment firm. Prior to this, he was a consultant with Omnipoint, a PCS service provider and developer of wireless communications equipment. Earlier, Holt was a Vice President at Smith Barney, Harris, Upham & Co. and an associate with Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.. He serves on the boards of T-NETIX (NASDAQ: TNTX), the Kairos Foundation (as Co-President of this non-profit communications training organization), Audubon Connecticut (as Chairman of this operating Board of the National Audubon Society) and serves on the advisory board of Jefferson Partners Capital a venture capital firm. Holt holds an MBA degree from the International Institute of Management Development in Switzerland and a BA degree from Colby College.  

George Host

George Host lost his brother, an early and ardent environmentalist, in a canoeing accident in 1984 in northern Ontario, which spurred his interest in conservation.  He has served as a director of The Greenwich Land Trust and as its president from 1999 to 2003.  While he was president, the Land Trust helped preserve the 110-acre Treetops property that was owned by the singer and actress Libby Holman and is now owned by Stamford and Greenwich, and the 31-acre Calf Island that is now part of the Stewart B. McKinney National Wildlife Refuge that extends from Westbrook to Greenwich.  He has also served as a director of the Audubon Society of Greenwich, the Calf Island Conservancy and the Connecticut Fund for the Environment.    

Recent Alumni Directors

Tom Armstrong

Tom Armstrong is an environmental lawyer with more than twenty years experience in his practice area. He is recognized in his field by publishers of "The Best Lawyers in America and has written widely on environmental matters. Tom has also lectured at, or chaired, more than 25 seminar programs of the Practicing Law Institute, Connecticut Bar Association, and other organizations educating environmental, real estate, business, and legal professionals. Tom is on the panel of arbitrators for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund Pilot Program. He has served as a member of the Steering Committee, Environmental Policy Council of the Connecticut Business and Industry Association and as a Chairman, Connecticut Affiliate of the American Heart Association, both from 1993 to 1995. He serves as a member of a number of business and community organizations, including the Advisory Council on the Environment, Clean Sites Coalition, and High Noon. He coaches and referees youth soccer. He is a member of the Greater Hartford Chamber of Commerce and of the Hartford County, Connecticut, and American Bar Associations. Tom was Chairman of the Connecticut Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section (1995-1996) and Co-Chairman of the Toxic and Environmental Litigation Subsection, Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment Section (1988-1990) of the American Bar Association. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps (1969-1971).  ​

​Patricia McCullough

Patricia McCullough worked in various capacities with Northeast Utilities beginning in 1998.  Her most recent role there was as Director of Corporate Sustainability and President and Executive Director of the Northeast Utilities Foundation.  Pat is a graduate of McGill University and Western New England College of Law.  Additionally, she earned her masters degree in Environmental Law, at Vermont Law School. 
  

Kate Robinson

Kate Robinson has been a concerned environmentalist since 1973, when she fought I-291, the circumferential highway then being planned to go through West Hartford’s reservoir district. A graduate of Smith College, she received her law degree from the University of Connecticut Law School in 1983, and soon thereafter became a Staff Attorney for the Connecticut Fund for The Environment.  Specializing in water law, she helped found the Connecticut Clean Water Coalition, and served the environmental community in many different areas.  Since retiring and moving to Stonington,
she has been active in land preservation and is currently on the Board of the Avalonia Land Conservancy. She was a member of the sub-committee that wrote Stonington’s 2004 Plan of Conservation and Development. She has also served on the Boards of the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, The Renbrook School, The Capital Region Land Use and Transportation Plan, the Connecticut Commission on the Deaf
and Hearing Impaired, The YWCA of Greater Hartford, The Long Island Sound Plate Fund, The Governor’s Railroad Advisory Task Force, and active in many other civic areas.  In her spare time Kate is a passionate fly-fisher, makes beaded jewelry, and has only recently, and reluctantly, given up bee-keeping.   

Jessie Stratton

Jessie Stratton was born in Swarthmore, PA and grew up on the shores of Narragansett Bay in R.I. She received a B.A. in Political Science from Earlham College in 1969 and then taught American, Chinese, Japanese and Soviet history in Ohio. She and her family moved to Connecticut in 1978 where she became active in the arms control movement and environmental advocacy. She was elected to the CT General Assembly in 1988, representing the towns of Avon and Canton. She served as House Chair of the Environment Committee from 1993-2003. In that role she was recognized for her work on redeveloping brownfields, preserving open space, promoting energy conservation and the development of clean renewable energy and protecting Long Island Sound. She received numerous awards for her work in these areas and has also served on the Public Health, General Law, Program Review & Investigations, Regulations Review, Executive & Legislative Nominations Committees and continues to serve on the Government Administrations & Election Committee. Since 1999 Jessie has also served the Executive Director of the Hartford Chapter of the American Leadership Forum, a national leadership development organization. In 2003 she established Stratton Resources, LLC through which she consulted with the National Commission on Energy Policy. In addition to serving on the CTLCV Board, she was a member of CFE Board, The CT Waterfowl Trust board and the Board of Riverfront Recapture. She has lived in Canton, CT for 24 years and is an avid sailor, cross country skier and hiker.  Jessie joined the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection in 2011 as Commissioner Dan Esty's policy director.

Kirsten Peckerman

Kirsten Peckerman has worked with environmental organizations since the mid 1990s.  She serves on the Boards of Steep Rock, The Gunnery School and the Washington Garden Club.  She also works with Housatonic Valley Association and supports Weantinoge and Kent Land Trust.

Karyl Lee Hall

Karyl Lee Hall is an attorney with the Connecticut Legal Rights Project.  She was formerly with Murtha Culina, Connecticut Fund for the Environment, and Connecticut Legal Services.  She is currently Co-Chair of the Branford Conservation Commission, Co-Chair of the Science Roads Advisory Committee for Routes 146 and 77, member of the Advisory Board of the Branford Land Trust, and serves on the board of the Connecticut Council on Environmental Quality.