David Bingham
Co-Chair
Jan 2011-Jan 2012

David Bingham is a retired physician in Norwich specializing in OBGYN. His Grandfather, Hiram Bingham, was Governor and US Senator, and two of his uncles served terms as Connecticut State Senator and New York Congressman. David has also run for Congress in 1994 focusing on both fiscal and social responsibility to assure a sound environment. He has been active with the Sierra Club, NARAL, Audubon Society, and the national League of Conservation Voters. He currently serves on the Boards of Rivers Alliance, the CT Land Conservation Coalition, the Salem Land Trust and the Sierra Club (CT Chapter). David is also an elected member of the Salem Planning and Zoning Commission and has worked with The Nature Conservancy and the Salem Land Trust to ensure land preservation.   

Ken Bernhard
Co-Chair
Jan 2011-Jan 2012

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
Jan 2011-Jan 2012
Board term:  though Jan 2012

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.    

David Damer
Secretary
Jan 2011-Jan 2012
Board term:  though Jan 2014

David Damer’s career has focused on managing environmental issues related to electrical energy generation, transmission and distribution. Dave has worked in leadership roles with New Jersey-based PSEG, Wisvest-Connecticut, and United Illuminating in environmental management and environmental policy.  Dave has held leadership positions with many related trade associations, including SIPRAC (DEP’s Air Bureau Advisory Committee); CBIA’s Environmental Advisory Committee; Edison Electric Institute’s Environment and Energy Committee; Electric Power Research Institute’s Environment Committee; the New England Power Pool’s Environmental Planning Committee; the New England Section of the Air and Waste Management Association; the US EPA’s Acid Rain Advisory Committee; and the Ozone Transport Assessment Group (Strategies and Controls Subgroup).  Dave served on Guilford’s Conservation Commission for 10 years, including a term as Chair. In addition to his role with CTLCV, since his retirement in 2004 Dave has continued his affiliations with various environmental organizations, including the Natural Resources Council of Connecticut (presently serving on the Board of Directors); the Nature Conservancy; Connecticut Fund for the Environment; Environmental Defense; Trout Unlimited; Connecticut Audubon; and the Guilford Land Conservation Trust. Dave is also on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority.  He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.     

Woody Bliss
Treasurer 
Jan 2011-Jan 2012
Board term:  though Jan 2013

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. He is currently President of Business Atlantic, Inc., a company involved in high tech education consulting and development. 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 chairman. He is long time member of the Kiwanis Club 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 in 2001. 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 currently serves on the Advisory Boards of the Norwalk Youth Symphony and the Discovery Museum.   

David Anderson
Director
Board term: though Jan 2014

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 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.  

Tom Armstrong
Director
Board term: though Jan 2012

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).  

Julie Belaga
Director
Board term: though Jan 2014

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.   

Russell Brenneman
Director
Board term: though Jan 2014

Russell Brenneman is an environmental lawyer who has been involved in land conservation and environmental issues in Connecticut for more than thirty years. He helped organize several of the earliest community land trusts, drafted the legislation enabling conservation easements in this state and chaired the Connecticut Greenways Committee that was the precursor of the Greenways Council. He is vice-president of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, a 100-year-old forest and open space advocacy organization, serves on the board of the Conservation Law Foundation of New England, is a director of Environment and Human Health, and is an elected member of the International Council on Environmental Law. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Mr. Brenneman is of counsel to the Hartford and New Haven law firm, Murtha, Cullina, Richter and Pinney, where he founded its environmental practice group. He was one of the organizers of what is now the Environmental Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association. In prior years he has served as president of the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority and as chair of the Connecticut Energy Advisory Board. He is a member of the adjunct faculty of Trinity College, Hartford, and for a number of years taught environmental law at the University of Connecticut School of Law.   

Joseph McGee
Director
Board term: though Jan 2013

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.   

Sue Merrow
Director
Board term: though Jan 2013

Susan Merrow served twelve years as First Selectman of East Haddam, from 1991 to 2003.  During her tenure, she served on the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and as its President in 1998.  She serves on the Boards of the Connecticut River Watershed Council and the Middlesex County Community Foundation.  She is a member of the Committee to study the Eightmile River for possible inclusion in the Federal Wild and Scenic Rivers program.  Having served in many volunteer capacities in the Sierra Club during the 70’s and 80’s, she became President of the National Board of the Sierra Club in 1990 and 1991.  She still serves on the Sierra Club’s National Political Committee.  She is author of One for the Earth: Journal of a Sierra Club President, Sagamore Press, 1992.  A graduate of Tufts University, Susan lives in East Haddam with her husband of 35 years and three retired horses.   

John Millington
Director
Board term: though Jan 2012

John Millington is Counselor to the Chairman and President on the Council on Foreign Relations. Mr. Millington has worked for Time, Inc. as assistant to the President and also as Managing Director of the International Book Division, as President, Life Circulation Company, and as Circulation Director, Sports Illustrated. He was a co-investor and Managing Director of Bangkok World Newspaper, Ball Communications and Atlas Communications as President and Publisher. Mr. Millington is President of the Steep Rock Land Trust, a Trustee of the Washington (Conn.) Housing Trust, former Director of the Council on Environmental Quality, and serves on the board of Connecticut Fund for the Environment.  

Margaret Miner
Director
Board term: though Jan 2013

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
Board term: though Jan 2013

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.  

Martha Phillips
Director
Board term: though Jan 2013

Martha Phillips was executive director from 1992 to 1999 of the Concord Coalition, a bipartisan, nonprofit 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 is active in many environmental and civic organizations. She served on the Endangered Lands Coalition, which focused on preserving Connecticut’s water source lands. She is Action Chair of the Litchfield County League of Women Voters; the LWV is focused on preservation of water source and other fragile lands and promoting clean and sustainable energy. She is Vice-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 is a Vice-Chairman of the GCA National Affairs and Legislation Committee, where she is responsible for writing the Legislative Update and the Current Legislative Status Report which are distributed to 18,000 GCA members on line. She is Vice President of Redefining Progress, a public policy think tank dedicated to promoting sustainability through sound economics. She is also Vice President of the Litchfield Historical Society, serves on the board of the Connecticut Junior Republic, and coordinates a used book store for the First Congregational Church of Litchfield.  

Kate Robinson
Director
Board term: though Jan 2013

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.   

Lynn Werner
Director
Board term: though Jan 2014

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.  

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 is a graduate of the Greenwich Country Day School, St. Paul’s School, Harvard College and the University of Virginia School of Law.  He received his early schooling overseas when his family lived in London and Yokohama.  He graduated from His business career has focused on real estate investment and development primarily in Western Europe and California, and he has been involved with his schools and church. His interest in conservation was spurred by the loss in 1984 of his brother, an early and ardent environmentalist, in a canoeing accident in northern Ontario.  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.   

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.   

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.

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.

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.