BOARD OF DIRECTORS

David Bingham, Co-Chair, 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 a US Senator, uncle Jonathan Bingham a US Congressman, uncle Alfred Bingham a CT State Senator). He joined the CTLCV 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 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.

Mary Hogue, Co-Chair, is Chair of the Town of Fairfield Forestry and a member of the Sustainable Fairfield Task Force and Fairfield League of Women Voters. She is a board member of Mill River Wetland Committee, Co-President of 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 as well as CT-NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) Organic Landcare Professional program, and Maine Compost School. Hogue has also been involved for many years with the Connecticut Audubon Society, Mill River Wetland Committee, Aspetuck Land Trust, Fairfield PTAs and many other civic organizations. She has been honored as “Fairfielder of the Year” and Aquarion’s “Volunteer of the Year” for her advocacy work on the environment.

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. Anderson 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 carbon dioxide by planting a special matrix of trees. The project recently won an EPA award for its environmental value. Most recently, Anderson has been working with CTLCV and a member of the legislature to get a bill passed mandating climate change education in our public schools. 

Jessica Bailey is CEO and co-founder of Greenworks Lending. Prior to that, Jessica led the design and management of the C-PACE program at the CT Green Bank. In its first two years, the program financed $75 million in clean energy projects and executed the first securitization of commercial efficiency assets – more than doubling the volume of PACE transactions between 2013 and 2014. Bailey worked from 2004-2012 at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), an $800 million foundation based in New York. As the Fund’s program officer for sustainable development, she co-managed a $7 million portfolio of grants focused on combating climate change and promoting clean energy.

In 2014, Jessica was named a “Champion of Change” by the White House for solar deployment. The Hartford Business Journal dubbed her a “Green Warrior” for her work designing the successful Connecticut C-PACE program. After co-founding Greenworks Lending and scaling C-PACE nationally, Jessica was named to Connecticut Magazine’s 2018 list of “40 under 40.” She received her graduate degree from Yale University and undergraduate from the University of Notre Dame.

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. He served as the Town Attorney for Westport, Weston and Wilton representing a total of ten administrations. From 1997-2005, Ken was Westport's State Representative to the Connecticut General Assembly and served as an Assistant Minority Leader. He was appointed to be 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, 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 and he presently serves on the Public Defenders Service Commission. 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. He is admitted to practice law in both Connecticut and New York.   ​

Woody Bliss graduated from Cornell University in 1959, receiving both a bachelor's and master's degree in Mechanical Engineering. He worked for IBM for 34 years and was recognized by Who's Who Worldwide as a Global Business Leader for outstanding leadership and achievement in computer science education in 55 countries. Bliss has been active in community affairs for many years, including being elected to the Weston Board of Selectmen in 1999 and was elected First Selectman from 2001-2009. A long-time environmental activist, Bliss served as the Co-Chair of the Kelda Coalition, which helped to preserve and protect 18,000 acres of open space in Connecticut, and on the Board of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, among many other board tenures. In 2013, Bliss was voted Weston's Citizen of the Year, and in 2014 he was elected a Police Commissioner in Weston, a title he still currently holds. In his free time he enjoys skiing, tennis, sailing, bridge, and backgammon.

​Maggie Carey is an attorney with a background in international environmental law and policy, specifically related to our oceans and seas. Most recently, she served as Oceans 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 issues related to climate change, sustainable development and ocean conservation. Before moving to Connecticut, Maggie resided in Washington D.C., where she advocated to end illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing world-wide with the Pew Charitable Trusts. Maggie earned a B.A. in Political Science and International Studies cum laude from the University of Miami, holds a J.D. degree from American University, Washington College of Law and is licensed to practice law in D.C. and New York. Noticing detrimental changes to her local marine environment over the years while snorkeling and scuba diving throughout her childhood in south Florida ignited Maggie's passion for environmental protection and ocean conservation. She still enjoys water sports activities and is also an avid snowboarder.

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 a Co-Chair 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 51 years and two retired horses.

Margaret Miner is the recently retired Executive Director of (now consultant to) Rivers Alliance of CT, a statewide non-profit organization formed in 1992 to protect Connecticut's rivers by promoting sound water policies and by assisting groups and individuals involved in watershed protection. Rivers Alliance has been the key advocate on legislation protecting aquifers, streamflow, and water quality. She serves in leading statewide water-policy groups. Her many awards include a Lifetime Merit Award from the EPA Region 1 (2016), the first state Water Planning Council’s Champion of Water Award (2019), and the upcoming induction into the CT Women’s Hall of Fame. Her background is in editing and writing (philosophy, science, medicine, history) and local reporting. Prior to Rivers Alliance, Miner was the Executive Director of the award-winning Roxbury Land Trust. Among her publications are the fully annotated Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations, compiled with her co-author and husband, Hugh Rawson. Her daughter, Catherine, is Executive Director at the Weantinoge Heritage Land Trust; her son Nathaniel teaches scuba diving around the world. 

Peter Moss has been an executive in several natural resource, chemical, and energy companies, and also a consultant and investment banker advising companies in those industries on strategy, finance, acquisitions and divestitures. He has been on the board of the Mianus River Watershed Council, and as chairman of the Mianus River Greenway Alliance, Moss played a key role in establishing a 12 mile long greenway in Greenwich, Stamford, and nearby New York 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. 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 is the Senior Legal Counsel at Connecticut Fund for the Environment and Save the Sound where he represents the environmental community in courts and administrative agencies. He is also an Adjunct Professor at University of Connecticut School of Law where he founded and runs the Environmental Law Clinic. Before CFE/Save the Sound, Reynolds was an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Connecticut for ten years where he was the lead attorney for the state 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.

Ann Sawyer has been a resident of Greenwich and a conservation advocate for almost 30 years. Locally, she serves on the board of directors and executive committee of the Greenwich Land Trust and is a long-time member of its Leadership Circle. Ann also belongs to the President’s Society of the Appalachian Mountain Club. She is a past board member of Audubon Greenwich and past Audubon chapter president. Highlights of her professional career include worldwide marketing manager of biotech products with Perkin-Elmer and director of Medical Outreach at Americares. She has an undergraduate degree in Biology from Bates College and a more recent Master’s degree in Strategic Communications from Columbia University. She is happiest outdoors at high elevation in the cold and has summited four of the Seven Summits in recent years. She has long admired the work of CTLCV and has experienced first-hand the power of citizen engagement and advocacy.

Brenda Watson is the Executive Director of Operation Fuel, Inc. a statewide non-profit, that provides energy and utility assistance to struggling, low-to-moderate income households. The non-profit aids with all home energy sources including water utilities, and the replacement of boilers and water heaters. Watson’s professional career spans 20 years in the areas of transportation planning, municipal government, community organizing, program planning, as well as development and fundraising. She serves on the National Energy and Utility Affordability Coalition as Board Secretary, is an appointed member of the Low-Income Energy Advisory Board and recently served on Governor Ned Lamont’s Transition Committee for Energy Policy. Watson has Bachelor’s degree in political science and public administration from Florida Memorial University, and a Masters in public policy from Trinity College.

Lynn Werner is the Executive Director of the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA), a nationally ranked watershed protection organization working to protect the environmental health of the tri-state (MA, NY, and CT) Housatonic River watershed, and in partnership with organizations across the Northeast to advance climate change sustainability within and beyond the watershed by advancing key land and water initiatives and public engagement. Werner helped create and co-chair the CT Clean Water Coalition, now the Rivers Alliance of CT, and continues to serve on RA’s Board of Directors. She has served on multiple Connecticut-wide legislative initiatives including the Aquifer Protection Task Force, the Rivers Advisory Committee, the Water Bureau Advisory Committee and the Stream Flow Advisory Committee, as well as the Watershed Initiative Steering Committee for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and the New England Watershed Roundtable. Werner also serves on the Boards of EarthShare National, EarthShare New England, and the Steep Rock Association, and Chairs her hometown of Kent’s Inland Wetlands Commission.  

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ADVISORY COUNCIL

Julie Belaga
Joseph McGee
​Martha Phillips

B. Holt Thrasher
​Tom Swarr
​Katherine Wadsworth

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RECENT ALUMNI DIRECTORS

Tom Armstrong
Karyl Lee Hall
​Patricia McCullough

Kirsten Peckerman
Kate Robinson
​Jessie Stratton