Commissioners

Commissioners

	Chair: Larry R. Kueter is a shareholder and a member of the Executive Committee with the Denver, Colorado law firm of Isaacson Rosenbaum P.C. Since 1990, his practice has included representing numerous landowners, local land trusts, governmental entities, and statewide and national conservation organizations in land conservation matters. He currently serves as legal counsel to the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts and has been legal counsel to the Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust since its creation in 1995. In 2003 and 2004, he served on the Land Trust Alliance's Standards and Practices Revision Committee, and in 2004 and 2005, he co-chaired the Land Trust Alliance's Standards and Practices Program Design Steering Committee.
	Vice Chair: David MacDonald has been part of the land protection staff at Maine Coast Heritage Trust for the past 15 years, first as a project manager and now as MCHT’s director of land protection. He has worked with landowners, communities, and partner trusts to assemble dozens of conservation transactions along the Maine coast. David also serves as a volunteer board member of three local conservation organizations in eastern Maine – the Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary, the Island Foundation, and the Pleasant River Wildlife Foundation. He lives on Mount Desert Island with his wife Caroline and two young children.
	Secretary: Ann Taylor Schwing is of counsel for McDonough Holland & Allen in Sacramento, California. She serves on three nonprofit boards - Anthony M. Kennedy Inn of Court, American Inns of Court Foundation, and The Land Trust of Napa County where she is also a multi-committee member, volunteer and land and conservation easement donor. She is author of Open Meeting Laws 2d (2000), California Affirmative Defenses (2005) and The Regulation of Money Managers (with Tamar Frankel, 2005), and editor of Tamar Frankel's Securitization (2005). She received the American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Ninth Circuit in 2004.
	Treasurer Lucinda Hunt-Stowell (Cindy) serves as a board member for several environmental and land trust organizations in Connecticut and is a consultant to not-for-profit organizations through the NonProfit Assistance Initiative with the Connecticut Community Foundation. She is currently chair of Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust board in Woodbury, Connecticut. Her corporate and consulting background includes over 30 years experience in Project and Strategic Planning, Business Process Management, Quality Improvement and Organizational Development.
	Elizabeth “Liz” Crane is a certified forester who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Forest Management from Clemson University and a Master of Forestry degree from North Carolina State University. She initiated the Forest Legacy Program in the Southern Region as an employee of the Forest Service in Atlanta. She began her forestry career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica, and worked seasonally in Alaska in addition to working as a hydrologist and rural development specialist for the Forest Service. Currently Liz is a Conservation Easement Specialist for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Washington, DC.
	Tom Duffus is the upper Midwest director for The Conservation Fund (TCF). In addition to his current position with TCF and leadership roles on volunteer boards, Tom has served in management positions over the past 24 years with Adirondack Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy. Tom has directly closed on over 387,000 acres of conservation projects – both land and conservation easements in 7 states and two Canadian provinces and is an experienced conservation easement practitioner. He has extensive experience conserving forestland as well as farm, open space, biodiversity and wilderness lands. Tom has been engaged in all aspects of running land conservation organizations as well as the work of protecting and managing conservation land. He is currently serving on the Alliance's Conservation Defense Advisory Council. Tom holds a Master of Forest Science degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
	David Hartwell is President of Bellcomb Technologies, a company that designs and produces structural, lightweight panels for industrial applications. He also serves on the boards of numerous non-profit organizations including The Land Trust Alliance, National Audubon Society, Conservation Minnesota and the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the Mississippi River Fund. David and his wife, Elizabeth enjoy travel and often (but not often enough) go to distant places to bird watch, see the countryside, its people and hike. He loves to garden is constantly trying to outdo his record 14’ tomato plant.
	Jean Hocker, president emeritus of the Land Trust Alliance, was the Alliance’s president from 1987 to 2002, where, among many other things, she oversaw the initial development of Land Trust Standards and Practices. She is now president of Conservation Service Company, LLC, where she provides consulting services that draw on more than 25 years of land conservation and nonprofit experience. From 1980 to 1987, she led the Jackson Hole Land Trust (WY) as its founding executive director.
	Cary Leptuck is president of the board of French and Pickering Creeks Land Trust in Pennyslvania. In 2005 he retired after 26 years as president and CEO of an accredited nonprofit health care organization. He now provides governance consulting for nonprofits.
	Kevin McGorty is the director of the Tall Timbers Land Conservancy, which is a department of a larger organization named Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy – an accredited land trust. Kevin manages an annual budget of approximately $600,000, supervises five full-time employees, and has helped save 110,000 acres of land on 80 conservation easement properties in northern Florida and southwest Georgia. In addition, he is involved in land use planning and environmental advocacy. Kevin previously served as director of the Historic Tallahassee Preservation Board, an agency of the Florida Department of State. Kevin has also served on a number of special committees and panels for the Land Trust Alliance, including the steering committee that developed the framework of the accreditation program.
	Heather Richards is the director of land conservation for the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) in Virginia. Prior to her work at PEC, she was director of the headwaters conservation program at the Potomac Conservancy. Heather fills the position left vacant by the departure of Marc Smiley and will serve a 3-year term.
	Steve W. Swartz is general counsel to the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust, a Washington, D.C.-based international land trust affiliated with The Humane Society of the United States. Since joining the Trust in 1999, Steve has been involved in virtually all aspects of managing a nonprofit organization and has assisted in nearly 100 conservation transactions. He also serves as corporate secretary of the Trust.
	Kathy Treanor is the founder and senior advisor for the Piedmont Land Conservancy (PLC) in Greensboro NC. In addition, she also served as PLC's first president and executive director. Kathy was re-appointed by NC Governor Easley for a second term with the North Carolina Zoological Park Council, serves on the national board for the public broadcasting Simple Living TV with Wanda Urbanska program and is helping to establish the Friends of Greensboro Parks & Recreation Foundation. She is the author of the PLC's book Forever These Lands, a photo-documentary of neighbors protecting land.
	Wes Ward, vice president for Land Conservation for The Trustees of Reservations has been with the organization since 1981. He oversees the land conservation efforts of the organization from the Doyle Conservation Center in Leominster. He works closely with the Massachusetts Land Trust Coalition (of which he was co-founder and then-chair for the Coalition’s first eight years), the Land Trust Alliance, and local and state agencies as well individual landowners and families. He earned a masters degree in Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in addition to a masters degree in Landscape Planning from University of Massachusetts. Born in Vermont, he graduated from Marlboro (Vermont) College, with interests a B.A. in literature and history.
	Michael B. Whitfield is the Coordinator of the Heart of the Rockies Initiative, a partnership of land trusts in three states and two Canadian provinces in the Northern Rockies. In this role, Michael coordinates a large landscape initiative to protect high priority lands through collaborative planning, capacity building, and capital fundraising. He was previously the long-term executive director and founding board president of the Teton Regional Land Trust in Idaho. He is also a conservation biologist and research associate with the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative, through which he investigates the ecological needs of sensitive wildlife species and partners with management agencies to conserve their habitats
	Jessica Whittaker is the executive director the Sippican Lands Trust, an accredited land trust in Massachusetts. She manages the operations of a small, single town land trust, over-seeing two part-time staff. She negotiates all land deals and is directly involved with policies, stewardship management, development and outreach, while managing the day to the day activities of the organization and staff. Jessica has almost doubled the Trust’s acres under conservation since joining in 2004. Along with the Head Steward, Jessica oversees the stewardship program, which includes over 75 volunteer stewards. Jessica is a licensed attorney and also serves on the board of the Rochester Land Trust. Jessica is a commissioner-elect and it is anticipated Jessica will complete Wes Ward’s term when he steps down later this year.