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The Board of Directors at Northwoods Center |
The Board of Directors consists of 15 voting members, and is responsible for the general management of and authority over the property, business, and affairs of the NorthWoods Stewardship Center.
Board members are nominated from surrounding communities and are eligible to serve two consecutive three-year terms. Once a Board member has served two consecutive three-year terms, s/he must leave the Board for a minimum of one year before being eligible for re-nomination to return to serve another two consecutive three-year terms.
Members of the Board receive no compensation for their participation on the Board of Directors, and we thank them for their dedication to serving and advancing the NorthWoods mission. |
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| Nancy Engels, President (East Charleston, VT) |
Nancy Engels has been involved in communications—graphic arts production & design, writing, editing, photography, publishing and publications since grade school. Most of her undergraduate work was at Antioch College, with post grad work in Boston in bookmaking, public relations and accounting.
Before retirement Nancy had served as Director of Curriculum Production and Promotion at the Unitarian Universalist Association in Boston; Publications Coordinator for Public Information and Government Education in the Office of the Massachusetts Secretary of State, where she also helped write the grant and became Materials Developer for its National-Endowment-for-the-Humanities-funded Architectural Heritage Education program. Most recently she retired from managing the day-to-day operations of the Church of the Larger Fellowship, Unitarian Universalist, in Boston—a church-by-mail and -internet for non-churched UUs all around the world.
Nancy & her husband Peter live in an 1860s era farm house on Echo Lake in East Charleston where they garden, chop wood, volunteer in the community and entertain family and many visitors. |
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Bill Bevans, Vice President (Craftsbury, VT)
Bill Bevans began his career in organization development in the Sixties, before it even had a name. Since 1994, Bill has coached executives and leadership teams at CoachWorks Farm to improve their performance together. He specializes in guiding teams who are leading transitions and transformations. Read More
His knowledge and experience are broad based including organization design, career counseling, executive development, leadership training, team development, labor relations, compensation, work restructuring, and performance management systems design. Drawing on that experience, he has developed a new model for improving organization effectiveness. |
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| Lydia Spitzer, Secretary (North Pomfret, VT) |
Ms Spitzer is a supporter of the Altai Conservancy (a Vermont/Siberia environmental organization), as well as a sometime quilter, singer, artist, interior designer, writer, and student of tracker John Brown, Jr. She feels that anything she may accomplish is irrelevant compared to what simply being out under sky, among hills, trees, rocks and waters has taught her. She believes that (in her own words)), “Like the ancient mythical figure Antaeus, we disconnect from Earth at our peril.” Ms. Spitzer resides in North Pomfret and is a NorthWoods Stewardship Center cooperating landowner and has donated generously to the Center in form of land, money, time and spirit. |
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Allen Yale, Treasurer (Derby, VT)
Allen Yale has been a resident of the Northeast Kingdom since 1967. He currently lives on a “retired” farm in Derby, on which he has managed the woodlots since 1973. He was a social studies teacher at North Country Union High School for twenty years, and history professor at Lyndon State College for eleven. At LSC he also prepared students for licensure in secondary social studies.
In retirement, he actively manages his Tree Farm. Besides cutting twelve cords of firewood a year to heat his home, he thins his pine plantation, sawing the logs into lumber with his home-made band sawmill. |
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Allen is on the advisory committee of the American Precision Museum, in Windsor, Vermont, and president of the Derby (Vermont) Historical Society. For twenty-two years he has been an active member of Vermont Coverts: Woodlands for Wildlife. He is also active with a small carving club that specializes in wildlife carving.
He has been on the Board of Directors of the NorthWoods Stewardship Center for two years, serving as treasurer for the past years and a half. |
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| Tim Gustafson-Byrne (Newport, VT) (bio coming soon) |
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Jill Kilborn (Island Pond, VT)br>
Jillian Kilborn is a wildlife biologist with the NH Fish and Game in charge of managing our 25,000 acre Connecticut Lakes Natural Area in Pittsburg and Clarksville NH. She has been with the Department full time since 2000 except for a leave of absence during which she completed her master’s thesis at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She holds an undergraduate degree from the University of New Hampshire. Both degrees are in wildlife management and conservation. |
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| C. William “Bill” Kilpatrick, Ph.D. (Fairfax, VT) |
Dr. Kilpatrick earned a B.S. and M.S. in Biology from Midwestern State University and a Ph.D. in Biology from North Texas State University. He joined the faculty of St. Lawrence University for a year before taking a position at the University of Vermont in 1974. Currently Dr. Kilpatrick holds the Howard Professorship of Zoology and Natural History in the Department of Biology at UVM and has over the past 35 years authored over 60 scientific papers or book chapters. He currently teaches mammalogy, courses in molecular ecology and molecular systematics and coordinates the forensic concentration at UVM.
Dr. Kilpatrick is a member of a number of professional organizations and chairs the Grants-in-Aid Committee for the American Society of Mammalogy. He also is the chair of the Mammal Scientific Advisory Group for the Vermont Endangered Species Committee and sits on the Reptile and Amphibian Scientific Advisory Group. He has served on the Board of Directors for the North American Symposium on Bat Research, is a member of the Fragile Areas Advisory Committee and the mammal team for development of a Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy for Vermont and the U.S. Forest Service Panel on Endangered and Threatened Mammal Species Viability for the Northeastern Region.
Dr. Kilpatrick is the sole proprietor of Northeastern Wildlife Genetics, Inc. and has testified as an expert witness in both DNA forensics and Wildlife Biology before the Public Service Board and in State Criminal Courts. Dr. Kilpatrick and his wife, Margaret, reside in Fairfax, Vermont. |
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Anthony Lazzara (Morgan, VT)
Anthony Lazzara is a retired science teacher now residing on Lake Seymour in Morgan, VT. After teaching an environmental science course for seniors at King Philip Regional High School in Wrentham, MA for more than three decades, Anthony retired in 2003 and is currently winding down a year-round construction business.
Anthony says, “I believe as stewards of this fair Earth and providers for the coming generations, we need to be knowledgeable in the natural sciences and versed in the practical means of living as closely and simply as possible to the Earth. |
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| Though I enjoy working my land, woodcrafts in the off-season, and maintaining temperature and precipitation records since 1968, my true passion is the lay of the land, the cycles of the seasons and unraveling a few of nature’s secrets, if possible. Above all, I am a teacher, and always will be, and I hold a belief that all knowledge should be freely taught and exchanged. I still talk to groups and organizations on my specialties of climate change and as of late, personality typing, which I have found to be a powerful tool in understanding human motivation and mitigating these behaviors and beliefs toward a common goal of mutual respect and purpose.” |
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| Eleanor Leger |
Eleanor Leger has over twenty years of experience as a management consultant and senior executive in the financial services and software industries. In 2007, she left her role as head of customer experience for the Quickbooks division of Intuit to found Eden Ice Cider Company with her husband Albert, who is a Chemistry teacher at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH.
The Legers purchased an abandoned dairy farm in Charleston, Vermont, and have planted a new orchard of heirloom, cider and traditional dessert apples. Their first and second vintages of Eden Vermont Ice Cider have won gold medals at The Big E Wine Competition, and the Great Lakes International Cider & Perry Competition, respectively.
Eleanor was at the forefront of internet developments in the insurance industry as Corporate VP of Strategy for Alexander & Alexander Services, as VP/GM of CNA's Legal Professional Liability programs where she built the world's first website for commercial insurance, and later as Chief Product Officer of EmployeeMatters (acquired by Intuit in 2000). Prior to her industry experience Eleanor was a consultant with Bain & Company and a Principal with Mercer Management Consulting.
She holds a BA cum laude in Economics from Harvard and an MBA with distinction from the Wharton School.
Eleanor & Albert enjoy hiking, cross-country skiing, opera, and VPR. They have 2 children: Caroline, 21, who is in her second year at Trinity College Dublin where she studies nothing but English Literature and is a leading actress; and Tom, 19, who is a freshman at Cornell where he is pre-med, a distance runner, and a member of the Emergency Medical Service.
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| Ben Luce, Ph.D. (Lyndon Center, VT) |
Dr. Ben Luce is a professor at Lyndon State College, where he is involved with the Sustainability Studies Program in the Department of Natural Sciences. Dr. Luce is also involved in area community efforts to improve access to and development of renewable energy systems on a local scale. |
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| John Miller (Coventry, VT) |
| A documentary photographer and writer, Mr. Miller has taught documentary photography at the University of Vermont and is an Associate Professor of Photography as well as Acting Chair in the Department of Fine Arts at Johnson State College. He has been the recipient of commissions and grants for his personal photo-essays and oral history research from the Museum of Our National Heritage in Lexington, MA, the Vermont Folklife Center, the Vermont Community Foundation, the Vermont Council on the Arts and the Vermont Historical Society. He is also the author of two books. Mr. Miller received his B.A. from the University of Vermont and M.F.A. from the State University of New York in Buffalo, NY. He lives in Coventry, Vermont. |
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Susan Taylor (Derby, VT)
Susan M. Taylor holds a Masters Degree in Clinical Psychology and is licensed as an alcohol and drug abuse counselor. She and her husband, Carl, provide social services through their non-profit organization The Chrysalis Center for Human Development.
Many of their services take place at their equine stable on Derby Pond. Their emphasis is on bringing people, animals and nature together in a safe healing environment. |
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| Beth Torpey (Morgan, VT) |
| Beth Torpey is an experienced biologist and environmental scientist, with a Master’s degree in the latter from Rutgers University. She has worked in many areas of environmental protection, ranging from ensuring compliance to environmental standards by public service utilities, serving on a technical assistance team for clean up of Superfund sites in New Jersey, and most recently leading a model prevention program against the invasive Eurasion milfoil in the Northeast Kingdom’s Seymour Lake. |
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Charles Woods
Charles lives on a farm with his wife Missy in Morgan, Vermont where they raise rugged and much loved grass-fed Scottish highlander cattle. They also manage their Bear Mountain Farm for sustainable forestry and wildlife habitat improvement as well as nurture brook trout habitat in their ponds and streams.
Charles is a retired biology professor. He taught at the University of Vermont for many years, as well as at the University of Florida and was Curator of Mammals at the Florida Museum of Natural History. As a professor he taught courses in Mammalogy, Comparative Biology of Birds and Mammals, Ecology, Conservation Biology, Evolution and Comparative Anatomy. |
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His field work in the West Indies culminated in designing and establishing 2 National Parks in Haiti, as well as publishing 3 books on the Antilles (Biogeography of the West Indies: Past, Present and Future (1989), The Biogeography of the West Indies: Patterns and Perspectives (2001), and Mammals of the West Indies (2010). He has also worked in Pakistan and India over a period of 10 years and eighteen expeditions, partnering with the Pakistan Museum of Natural History in Islamabad, and the Zoological Survey Department in Karachi. He is a co-author of the book Biodiversity of Pakistan (1997).
In addition to caring for the cows, donkeys, chickens, mountain dogs, and assorted chickens on the farm, and haying in the summer months, Charles has been closely associated with the NorthWoods Stewardship Center. He has been on the Board since 2002, serving as Chair in 2008. Over the years he has filled in as Acting Executive Director on two different occasions. Both Charles and Missy are committed to NorthWoods.
In addition to his commitment to NorthWoods and to Bear Mountain Farm, Charles continues his academic ties via an Adjunct Professor appointment in Biology at UVM, as well as being a Professor Emeritus of Biology at the University of Florida and Curator Emeritus of Mammalogy at the Florida Museum of Natural History |
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| Dan Whipple |
| Dan has worked for VOSHA for more than 12 years, serving nearly 10 years as a compliance officer, accident/fatality investigator, discrimination investigator and presently as Compliance Assistance Specialist (CAS)/Green Mountain Voluntary Protection Programs (GMVPP) Coordinator.
Prior to his employment at the State of Vermont, Dan graduated with an Associate of Applied Science from New Hampshire VOCTEC College in Berlin. He than spent ten years in the machine tool industry holding a number of different machining and supervisory positions. Dan is a 15 year member of the Charleston Volunteer Fire Department, where he holds the rank of Second Assistant Chief.
Dan has two grown sons who went through the Kingdom Corps program and are now holding environmentally-related jobs. |
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