The Commission is honored to announce that Dana Chabot and Robin Fitch have joined the board of commissioners. The Commission is governed by a diverse board of 18 volunteer commissioners involved in land conservation around the country. Dana and Robin bring with them years of knowledge and expertise in land trust work.

Dana Chabot
For the last 16 years Dana (now retired) provided accounting and financial management services to not-for-profit organizations as a sole proprietor CPA, mainly in south-central Wisconsin. Among his clients were a half-dozen land trusts and conservation organizations. Dana helped these organizations develop budgets and financial reports that clearly communicate their operating results, operating reserves, and uses of restricted contributions. Prior to starting his own firm, Dana spent a total of 8 years as a CPA firm employee performing financial statement and compliance audits for not-for-profit, manufacturing, and retail organizations.

Dana has a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Minnesota and has ten years' experience teaching political theory at the college level. This helped prepare him to work with nonprofit boards of directors to improve their understanding of financial concepts. He has worked with the Land Trust Alliance, Land Trust Accreditation Commission, and Gathering Waters (Wisconsin) to provide financial management training and technical assistance to land trusts.

Dana and his wife Patricia (retired from Wisconsin DNR) now live in Minneapolis. He serves as a volunteer and director of the Ice Age Trail Alliance and enjoys hiking segments of the unique footpath that follows the edge of glacial advance across 1,000 miles of Wisconsin landscape.

Robin Fitch
Robin Fitch is an environmental scientist who retired from the Department of the Navy in 2014 after more than 34 combined years of service as a uniformed officer and civilian employee. Her professional path evolved from being a National Park Service Interpretive Ranger, to an unrestricted line officer in the Navy, to education, and finally to work in environmental science and policy. In her final assignment she worked extensively on marine environmental issues such as ocean noise and coastal and marine spatial planning both internally with the Navy and externally with multiple federal agencies including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Marine Mammal Commission, the National Ocean Council, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Since her retirement, Robin has engaged as a volunteer with several organizations, most notably the Jefferson Land Trust in Jefferson County, Washington, where she was on the Board of Directors from 2015 through 2021. She served as Vice President in 2016 and President from 2017- 2020, and remains an active steward with Jefferson Land Trust. She is also a Master Gardener with the Washington State University and rare plant monitor with the University of Washington. Robin holds a B.S. in Biology from Utah State University, a M.A and M.S. in Postsecondary Education and Biology from San Diego and Fresno State Universities respectively, and a PhD in Environmental Science and Policy from George Mason University. Robin and her husband Dan Brake live in Dayton, Washington and are parents to two young men.

Thank You We would like to thank Tom Reed and Bruce Runnels for their dedicated service to the Commission. Their wisdom, guidance and leadership will be missed. Learn more about Tom and Bruce and their time serving on the Commission.