The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

The Nature Conservancy in Rhode Island is thrilled to announce that Janet Coit, our state director since 2003, has been nominated by Governor-elect Lincoln Chafee to be the next Director of the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management. Her appointment is subject to official confirmation by the Rhode Island state senate.

Janet joined the Conservancy in 2001 as Director of Government Relations, after a successful career in Washington, D.C. and in Rhode Island working for the late U.S. Senator John H. Chafee. She was named as the Conservancy’s State Director in 2003, and during that time oversaw some of our largest projects in Rhode Island, including the acquisition of the 1,800-acre Tillinghast Pond Preserve in West Greenwich, bringing its land protection total to 30,000 acres. She also successfully directed the group’s more recent emphasis on coastal and marine restoration projects, such as our current oyster reef construction project in Charlestown.

“It is with such mixed feelings that I have accepted Governor-elect Chafee’s offer to head the Rhode Island DEM,” Janet said. “The staff at the Conservancy are an incredibly talented, hard-working, and effective group and together we have done so much over the last seven years. But I’m eager to accept this new challenge leading the State’s terrific DEM employees in protecting Rhode Island’s irreplaceable environment.”

“We are so proud of Janet and all of her accomplishments during her time as state director of the Conservancy in Rhode Island,” said Austin Smith, the Conservancy’s board chair for the state. “It has been an absolute pleasure working with her and we know she will be a terrific Director of the Department of Environmental Management.”

Janet’s will be wrapping up her work at the Conservancy in late-December. The Conservancy’s board of trustees in Rhode Island are currently developing a transition and recruiting plan for her position which will be announced in the coming weeks.