The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Lynn McNamara, conservation assistant in the Vermont Chapter, helps remove invasive plants. © Candice Black/The Nature Conservancy

Lynn McNamara, Conservation Assistant in the Montpelier office of the Vermont Chapter.

MONTPELIER OFFICE
(802) 229-4425
Fax: (802) 229-1347
27 State Street, Suite 4
Montpelier, VT 05602

Robert Klein, State Director, ext. 101

Joan Allen, Associate Director of Land Protection, ext. 114

Jon Binhammer, Director of Land Protection. ext. 110

Emily Boedecker, Director of Marketing and Philanthropy, ext. 112

Dan Farrell, Conservation Information Manager, ext. 107

Maggie Fox, Director of Operations, ext. 102

Phil Huffman, Director of Conservation Programs, ext. 109

Jennifer Kramer, Associate Director of Philanthropy, ext. 104

Lynn McNamara, Conservation Assistant, ext. 116

Joe Merrill, Finance Manager, (207) 373-5218

Rose Paul, Director of Science and Stewardship, ext. 108

Sharon Plumb, Invasive Species Coordinator, ext. 120

Donia Prince, AmeriCorps Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator, ext. 111

Susan Reid, Communications Manager, ext. 113

Susi Richardson, Major Gifts Manager, ext. 103

Emily Seifert, Stewardship Manager, ext. 119

Kim Ward, Office Manager, ext. 100

WEST HAVEN OFFICE
(802) 265-8645
Fax: (802) 265-4823
115 Main Road
West Haven, Vermont  05743

Paul Marangelo, Conservation Ecologist, ext. 22

Murray McHugh, SLVC Stewardship Program Coordinator, ext. 23

To contact a staff member, email us at vermont@tnc.org or call one of our Vermont offices.

Return to the Vermont Home Page

Who We Are

Robert Klein, State Director of the Vermont Chapter of The Nature Conservancy - as well as a Conservancy Vice President - and has been with the Vermont Chapter since it first hired staff in 1979. He has overall responsibility for the Conservancy's Vermont program. Bob has at one time or another handled all of the jobs currently being done by the Vermont staff, and he has extensive contacts with landowners, government agency directors, donors, and conservationists in Vermont and the region. He is directly involved with planning, budgeting, personnel management and training, real estate negotiations, government relations, fund raising and public relations, and serves as the liaison with the Vermont Chapter Board of Trustees, the Eastern North America Division office and The Nature Conservancy's World Office. In his free time, Bob pursues photography, skydiving, hiking, motorcycling, and other outdoor interests. He is married to Jean Vissering, a landscape architect, and they have two children.

Joan Allen, Associate Director of Land Protection, joined The Nature Conservancy in 1999, with responsibility for the chapter’s land conservation activities, including acquiring land and conservation easements. Prior to joining the Conservancy, she was Southwest Regional Director and Mettowee Valley Director for the Vermont Land Trust, and held positions with the Nashua River Watershed Association and regional land trusts in Northern Massachusetts and New Hampshire. She earned an MS in Resource Management from Antioch New England Graduate School in 1995, following a 17-year career in the non-profit renovation of abandoned buildings and the finance and establishment of low-income housing cooperatives in New York City. During that time she served on the Board of the NYC Audubon Society, an experience that fed her desire to get reacquainted with the natural world. Joan enjoys the opportunity to maintain close connections to the land and to work with woodlot owners, farmers, and other Vermonters who share her love for the state’s natural landscape. She lives in Randolph with her husband and enjoys dancing, choral singing, and long walks.

Jon Binhammer, Director of Land Protection, is responsible for the land conservation program of the Vermont Chapter, including negotiating land purchases and conservation easements. He has been with the Vermont Chapter since 1991. Prior to coming to the Conservancy in Vermont, Jon's endeavors included environmental education and prairie restoration and management throughout the Midwest. He has a BA in biology from Grinnell College and a MSEd from Northern Illinois University. An avid amateur birder, botanist and naturalist, Jon developed an appreciation of the natural world from an early age and a strong desire to protect it that continues to this day. He lives in Brookfield with his wife and two children, and enjoys playing ultimate Frisbee.

Emily Boedecker, Director of Marketing and Philanthropy, is responsible for philanthropy, marketing and communications at the Vermont chapter, and she is currently one of the conservation co-chairs for the Vermont Housing and Conservation Coalition. Prior to joining the Conservancy in 2004 Emily worked in the high-tech industry in France and California. From an early age she has been captivated by nature, from the ponds and streams of her native England, to the pristine peaks of the Savoie and Haute-Savoie regions of France, to the high dessert lands of California, and now the forested hills of Vermont. After working in a volunteer capacity with the Sierra Club in California to prevent poorly planned development she decided to change careers and pursue an opportunity to move east with the Conservancy. Emily is delighted to be living in Vermont with her husband Bill and dog Tache, who all enjoy hiking, not to mention a home garden and the abundance of local foods.

Dan Farrell, Conservation Information Manager, grew up in New York City. As a young person he belonged to a small theater company there and painted landscapes. After getting a diploma in sound engineering, he moved out west and fell in love with nature while wandering through the California mountains. Returning to New York to study Environmental Science at Columbia University, he became interested in plants during biodiversity field work. He continued his plant studies after moving to Vermont 12 years ago, then went on to study relationships between plant diversity and landscape diversity at the University of Vermont. After receiving his MS in Botany, he worked at the Vermont Nongame and Natural Heritage Program, managing natural community data. Lately, Dan’s interests include wild edible plants and primitive skills. He was drawn to The Nature Conservancy by a great respect for its overall mission and for the people within the organization and by its scientific approach to conservation. Among other things, the Conservation Information Manager position allows him to indulge his love for making maps.

Jennifer Kramer, Associate Director of Philanthropy, says that ever since she was a teen – in the seventies when the environmental movement was gaining traction - conservation has been her abiding personal passion. But Jennifer says, “when I was nearing that certain mid point in my life, I took stock and decided that protecting this planet had to be my profession.” She returned to school to get a Masters in Environmental Science from Antioch University New England where she spent two years studying all the things that she cares most deeply about. Jennifer emerged to be hired by the Vermont Chapter as a major gifts fundraiser. Now she travels around Vermont, visiting our wonderful members and taking them to see the work they support. “Those are the days when it’s hard to believe that this is actually work” she says.

Paul Marangelo, Conservation Ecologist, has been with the Vermont Chapter since 2004. His responsibilities include administering the volunteer water chestnut management program, managing upland invasive species, and providing aquatic ecology expertise to projects statewide. Paul also coordinates landscape modeling assessment and strategy implementation to protect the ability of wide-ranging mammals to move between Vermont and neighboring states and countries. Paul’s career has taken him from Michigan to Vermont in a variety of roles as an aquatic ecologist, aquatic biologist, wetland restoration specialist and a consulting freshwater mussel expert. His expertise also includes aquatic invasive species, and fluvial ecology and geomorphology. Paul holds a MS (1997) in Resource Ecology and Management from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources and Environment and a BA (1986) from Rutgers College. Paul's interest in conservation science grew from a love of hiking and backpacking, and first took form researching invasive and native freshwater mussels and rivers. Fortunately for conservation, Paul quickly abandoned his first “career” as a rock musician and turned to science.

Lynn McNamara, Conservation Assistant, joined the Vermont Chapter in May of 2008 and assists with a variety of conservation-related tasks including stewardship start-up for newly acquired lands or easements, data management, and helps out wherever needed. Prior to joining the Conservancy, she worked at a variety of positions, from studying the effects of climate change on fish populations in the Alaskan arctic, to environmental education in NH, to assisting at a local animal hospital. She earned a Master's degree from Antioch University New England in 2006, focusing on the ecology of invasive plants, specifically wild chervil in Vermont. Lynn grew up along the south coast of Massachusetts, spending as much time as possible by the ocean. She moved to Vermont in 1999 and lives with her husband in Montpelier. She enjoys gardening, kayaking, hiking and quilting in her spare time.

J. Murray McHugh, Southern Lake Champlain Valley Stewardship Program Coordinator, is the steward for the natural areas surrounding the West Haven office of the Vermont Chapter and also manages the Champlain Valley Native Plant Restoration Nursery, where native tress and shrubs are grown from locally-collected seed for local restoration projects. Murray joined the Conservancy in 2002 from the nursery industry where he grew a wide range of plants from garden variety selections to wild saltmarsh grasses for large-scale restoration. He received a BS in Biophysical Resource Management from the University of Michigan, a MS in Ecology from Rutgers University and spent a year studying Landscape Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. Murray spent his younger years in Michigan and now lives with his wife and two children in the Southern Lake Champlain Valley, where he especially enjoys spending time with his son looking for critters.

Joe Merrill, Finance Manager, is responsible for compiling and reporting a variety of financial information for Vermont chapter staff, program managers and Trustees, and also helps guide the annual budgeting process. Joe pulls double-duty, as we share him with the Maine Chapter of TNC. He worked in public accounting, private industry and banking before casting aside Corporate America to join TNC in 2005. A lifelong Mainer, Joe grew up in the town of South Paris and received an accounting degree from the University of Maine. When not crunching numbers, he enjoys going out into nature with his camera, writing, and playing guitar (poorly). He lives close to the Maine Chapter offices in Brunswick with his wife Doreen.

Rose Paul, Director of Science and Stewardship, has a range of duties that include supervising five staff, conservation planning at multiple scales, and conservation science initiatives such as helping partners assess stream culverts for aquatic organism passage, training Master Gardeners about invasive plants, and planting a strain of disease-tolerant American elms at our natural areas. Rose has an undergraduate degree in Botany from the University of Massachusetts and a Masters Degree from the Field Naturalist Program at the University of Vermont. She formerly worked for the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and in environmental education. Rose got her start as a naturalist by unflinchingly examining dead birds, worms, and jack-in-the-pulpits when she was little.

Sharon Plumb, Invasive Species Coordinator, joined The Nature Conservancy in the summer of 2008 as the Wise on Weeds! program coordinator. She has gotten her hands dirty working on farms and as a trail crew leader for the Student Conservation Association and VYCC. She has shared her love for nature with others as an educator and program manager for several organizations, including Shelburne Farms and the Vermont Institute of Natural Science. Sharon holds a M.S. in Natural Resources Planning from UVM. A native Vermonter, Sharon discovered her love for adventure and nature through hiking and skiing in the Northeast and beyond. She is thrilled to have a small home with a big garden that she shares with her husband Mark in Berlin.

Donia Prince is the AmeriCorps Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator in Montpelier. Donia holds a B.A. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated this spring with a B.A. in biology: field naturalist from Johnson State College. Donia has a wide range of skills that come from her experience as a political and community organizer, business owner, dairy farmer, choral music director, elder caregiver and naturalist.

Susan Reid, Communications Manager, is the resident writer and editor of the chapter's news letters, web site and news releases. She grew up on a dairy farm in Ontario, has an undergraduate degree in English literature from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and an MA in journalism from the University of Western Ontario. Her lifelong appreciation of nature started on family camping trips and developed as she worked her way through college with summer jobs in the Rocky Mountains, the Yukon and the Fundy shore. Before joining The Nature Conservancy, Susan worked in newspapers in Vermont and Canada. She and her husband and their two daughters moved to Vermont in 2001.

Susi Richardson, Major Gifts Manager, has been with the Vermont Chapter since 1994. When she first began with The Nature Conservancy she assisted the administrative team, and now her focus is working with the philanthropy team, processing gifts and pledges that come to the chapter, and working on a database to enter and update information. She assists with planning events and coordinating mailings that come from the Vermont office. Susi was born and raised in Vermont and some of her fondest memories of childhood are the times she played outside. Her love of animals steered her to college to be a Veterinary Technician, which is where she worked prior to coming to The Nature Conservancy. She lives in Duxbury with her husband, and looks forward to summer camping trips with her family, especially spending time with her grandchildren enjoying the outdoors.

Emily Seifert, Stewardship Manager, is responsible for the stewardship of more than 30 of the chapter's natural areas throughout Vermont. Managing for ecological values and visitor use includes invasive plant control, boundary marking, and trail maintenance. She also monitors properties under conservation easement, leads volunteer workdays, and recruits, trains and supervises seasonal staff. Emily has a BS in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. She's been attending the Conservancy's annual gatherings in Vermont with her parents and grandparents since she was a child, and has worked for the Conservancy as an AmeriCorps member and volunteer coordinator before joining the Vermont Chapter in 2007. In her free time, Emily enjoys field botany, gardening, cooking and hiking. She grew up in Fletcher, VT and now lives in Montpelier with her husband, Paul.

Kim Ward is Office Manager with the Vermont Chapter. Kim’s work includes accounts payable, meetings registration & logistics, and generally being the face of the office. She greets guests and meeting participants alike, answers general inquiries, and assists the staff in getting their work done by keeping the office in shape and the resources present. Prior to joining the Conservancy, Kim worked for eight years in proofreading and offset preparations, two at Capital City Press in Barre and six at the Lane Press, Inc. in South Burlington. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont and her BFA in Creative Writing from Johnson State College. In 2003, she founded The Vermont Playwrights Circle, a group dedicated to the networking, support, and promotion of plays written by Vermonters.