Bill is a business strategy consultant. He currently serves on the Board of the Davey Tree Company, a $1 billion-dollar green industry service company.
His distinguished career in conservation includes his role as Executive Director of Maine Audubon, where he oversaw the expansion onto the Gilsland Farm campus. He was campaign manager for two successful referendums establishing Maine’s Returnable Container Legislation and the first citizen chair of the newly established Pesticide Control Board. He was appointed by the governor to the committee responsible for removing Maine’s Billboards.
Bill founded Resources Conservation Services Inc, a business that manages recycling programs for industrial clients. After selling the company, he went on to work in New Zealand for the Nature Conservancy’s Asia and Pacific program. Upon returning to the U.S., he managed large forest conservation transactions for TNC which he chronicled in his book, Investing in Nature. In 2008, he was appointed Chief Conservation Officer of the Nature Conservancy and Executive Vice President in 2014. He founded NatureVest, a partnership with private investors that has brought over $200 million dollars of investment into conservation problems worldwide.
Penny has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Chebeague & Cumberland Land Trust for 13 years and served as President of the Board for 7 years. As President, Penny led the organization through a national accreditation process and CCLT became the 12th all-volunteer land trust to receive the national award. Penny also serves on the Maine Land Trust Network Steering Committee which sets goals and policies for the land trust community throughout Maine. As a member of the Town of Cumberland Conservation Commission for 10 years, Penny and led efforts to inventory vernal pools and New England Cottontail populations in the town. She has received awards for her environmental work from the Natural Resources Council of Maine, EcoMaine and the Cumberland/NY Liions Club. Penny has a Law Degree and a Masters in Environmental Studies from Vermont Law School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bowdoin College. Prior to coming to Maine, Penny worked for the MA Office of Environmental Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency Region I and a lobbying firm in Washington, D.C.. She currently lives in Cumberland with her husband and three children and is a stay at home mother. Penny enjoys outdoor adventures with her family and sharing her environmental interests with the local community.
Eric is a business lawyer at Eaton Peabody in Bangor. He received his BA from Yale and JD from Michigan Law School. Eric and his wife, Deb, came to Maine from Chicago and are currently practicing social distancing in Deer Isle.
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Kate Williams has biology and ecology degrees from Tufts University and the University of Florida, and has conducted field work in marine, forest, and wetland ecosystems across North America. Kate’s research has focused on two primary topics: survey techniques and biases, and understanding the impacts of anthropogenic activities on wildlife. She is currently working at the Biodiversity Research Institute as their Wildlife and Renewable Energy Program Director.
After growing up in southern Maine and graduating from Middlebury College, Erin served as Executive Director of the Spannocchia Foundation for 12 years, supporting an education center and organic farm in Tuscany, and splitting her time between Italy and Maine. Since 2013, she has been the Executive Director of the Emanuel and Pauline A. Lerner Foundation, based in Portland, ME. The Lerner Foundation supports the Aspirations Incubator, a 6-year initiative to raise the post-secondary education aspirations of middle school students growing up in rural Maine communities. She also serves as a grantmaking advisor with the Rocking Moon Foundation, based in Washington, DC and midcoast Maine. Erin earned a Masters of Public Policy and Management from the Muskie School at the University of Southern Maine in 2005, and serves as Chair of the Maine Philanthropy Center board. Erin and her husband Ben Slayton co-own Farmers’ Gate Market in Wales, ME, providing local, pasture-raised meats and sustainably-grown produce from a network of farms in central Maine. They have 2 children, ages 11 and 7.
Will Everitt is the Development Director for Friends of Casco Bay. Since graduating from Rutgers College, Will has been a dedicated community organizer, working with environmental and social justice groups from Alaska to Maine. He moved to Maine in 1999, opening Toxics Action Center’s office in the state, helping residents protect their families from pollution and toxic pesticides. During the 2010 election cycle, Will was the State Director of the League of Young Voters, returning to Friends of Casco Bay in November. When he isn’t at work, you’ll likely find him hiking somewhere in the wilds of Baxter State Park. He lives in Portland with his wife and daughter.
Ivan J. Fernandez is Professor in the School of Forest Resources, Climate Change Institute, and School of Food and Agriculture at the University of Maine. He has received numerous honors and awards and has served on various U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Science Advisory Board committees in Washington DC since 2000. He recently chaired and continues to serve on a panel of the EPA Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) that is evaluating the Clean Air Act’s secondary National Ambient Air Quality Standards for oxides of sulfur, oxides of nitrogen, and particulate matter.
He represents the University of Maine in the USDA Northeast Climate Hub, and has been involved in leading the Maine’s Climate Future assessments in 2009, 2015, and 2020. In 2019 he was appointed to the Maine Climate Council, and also serves as co-Chair of its Scientific and Technical Subcommittee and a member of its Natural Working Lands working group. He has taught courses in soil science, forest soils, carbon and climate, and climate adaptation among others and served as a department Chair for a decade. He is a soil scientist, with a research program that focuses on the biogeochemistry of ecosystems in a changing physical and chemical climate and is actively engaged in promoting climate change solutions in Maine.
Sara is a recent law school graduate focused on building her career in environmental policy and advocacy. After growing up exploring coastal Maine, she earned a degree in marine science at the University of Maine before taking a sharp turn and moving to Bozeman, Montana. After three years of exploring the mountains, she boomeranged back to Maine to pursue law school. Sara spends her free time training her dog, singing karaoke, and sitting on porches drinking coffee.
Suzanne Lafreniere is the Public Policy Director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland. She earned her BA in Philosophy at Loyola University of Maryland and her Juris Doctor from the University of Maine School of Law. She lives in Scarborough with her husband Denis and daughters Lucie and Claire.
Jonathan Wood is a pediatric critical care specialist at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Though born in Bangor, he was raised in New Hampshire and only in 2002 “returned” to Maine to take a job as Medical Director of EMMC’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. In recent years Jonathan has volunteered as a board member for the Bangor chapter of For Kids’ Sake and for the Maine Migrant Health Program, for which he is currently serving as president. He is an avid outdoorsman who loves to hike, ski, snowshoe, chop wood, haul brush, and, most recently, whitewater canoe. Jonathan received a BA in history from Yale University and an MD from the Dartmouth-Brown Program in Medicine. He and his wife, Robin, live in Hampden, where they enjoy a big back yard and three dogs, who entertain them in the absence of their four grown children.