Vermont Board of Trustees
These committed leaders provide support and guidance for our work in Vermont.
Meet the Board of Trustees
The role of the Board of Trustees is to help The Nature Conservancy advance its mission of protecting the lands and waters on which all life depends. We counsel, connect and capacitate the organization so it can have successful conservation outcomes in Vermont and across the region. As ambassadors for the organization, we hope to co-create a Vermont future where both nature and people thrive.
Laurie Grigg—Board Chair
Trustee since May 2023
Dr. Grigg is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Norwich University, where she teaches classes in intro to geology, oceanography, GIS, freshwater ecosystems, and energy and the environment and where she also conducts research with students and collaborators. Her research focuses on the reconstruction of past climate and ecosystems in Vermont since deglaciation. More recently, she has examined past linkages between changes in lake productivity, erosion and climate. She received her BA in geology from Colorado College, her MA in geography from the University of Oregon, and her PhD in geography from the University of Oregon. She enjoys spending time with her family and being active outside.
Grace Amao
Trustee since June 2024
Grace is a lifelong Vermonter with a passion for raising children, animals, and gardens. She most enjoys skiing, hiking, cooking, and exploring other cultures through travel. Grace proudly makes her home in Hinesburg on a 150-year-old family farm, which spans nearly 1000 acres of organic working lands. She graduated with honors from Middlebury College, having also attended the University of London and the University of Vermont for graduate studies. Over the past two decades, Grace has focused her career on the built environment; she is currently the VP of Customer and Energy Services at VGS.
Gina Beinecke
Trustee since September 2023
Gina is passionate about native plants and rebuilding habitat for pollinators and wildlife. She has just completed her tenure as the New England chair for Conservation & Legislation at the Garden Club of America, where she focused on north-south pollinator corridors across five states and advocated for conservation legislation at both the state and federal levels. Gina graduated cum laude from Harvard University and lives in Woodstock Vermont, where she is restoring a wetland with the help of some wonderful beavers and preparing her 600-acre property to become a native plant seed farm. If you’re in Woodstock, Gina can often be found pulling invasive plants beside the road or planting habitat; helpers are always welcome!
Walter Beinecke
Trustee since June 2024
Walter spent much of his career as an entrepreneur building businesses in healthcare and non-profit fundraising. Over the past 10-15 years he has committed himself to driving private capital to climate solutions. He is the chairman of 424 Capital, an impact-oriented investment firm focused on building and operating companies in the Healthcare and Energy Transition spaces. In his day-to-day work Walter leads the firm’s Energy Transition investments. He leads the investment syndicate and chairs the boards of two leading asset managers & operators of commercial and utility scale solar in the US: QE Solar; and Radian Generation. He also chairs the board of two companies focused on engineering and financing net zero projects in US hospitals and other large built environment campuses: Environ Energy and Climate Efficiency Partners. Walter serves as chairman of the Oceola Foundation, a charitable foundation focused on conservation and climate resiliency. Walter and his wife Gina settled in Woodstock VT in 2020 and are focused on land conservation, sustainable forestry and habitat improvement. You can find them backcountry skiing on the hill behind their home on most winter evenings.
George Burrill
Trustee since July 2008
George is the co-founder and former president of Associates in Rural Development (ARD), a major global provider of environmental, economic, governance and engineering consulting services. During his time leading ARD, he worked on a variety of conservation issues in the U.S., Latin America, Asia and Africa, where he also lived for several years. Prior to founding ARD, George was involved in higher education as an administrator and professor. He has a strong New Zealand connection, where he now lives six months of the year. George received his B.A. in political science from Drew University, his M.A. in government from the University of Arizona and his Ph.D. in policy studies from Union Graduate School. He is committed to building strong and sustainable connections between Vermont and New Zealand, and he has been instrumental in establishing The Nature Conservancy in New Zealand.
Harry Chen
Trustee since May 2021
Dr. Chen recently spent four months teaching emergency medicine in Uganda. Prior to that he was the interim commissioner of the Vermont Department for Children and Families. He has served as a senior advisor for the CDC Foundation, executive director of the Center for Health and Wellbeing at the University of Vermont, Vermont commissioner of health, State Representative Rutland-Windsor 1, emergency physician for 30 years (26 at Rutland Regional Medical Center) and faculty at the UVM College of Medicine. He received his BA from the University of Michigan, his MD from Oregon Health Sciences University and post-graduate medical training at Boston City Hospital and Oregon Health Sciences University.
Annie Crawford
Trustee since May 2019
Annie worked for the Vermont Land Trust and Vermont Works for Women in roles related to fundraising, finance, HR and management. She now leads a team in the operations division at National Life in Montpelier. She earned her BA at Wellesley College as a geology major. Annie loves time outside—especially with her Scottish terrier, walking or gardening and observing. Annie is also the chair of the Conservation Committee.
Stephen Kiernan
Trustee since May 2021
Stephen is a novelist and author of seven books, which have been translated into many languages and developed for television and film. Previously he was a newspaper journalist and won many awards for that work. He also spent 15 years as a national advocate for improving care of the terminally ill, toward the increased use of hospice, palliative care and advance directives. Stephen is a graduate of Middlebury College who subsequently earned an MA degree at Johns Hopkins University and an MFA degree from the Iowa Writers Workshop. Stephen has an ongoing goal of being active in Vermont's beautiful outdoors more than 300 days a year.
Walt Looney
Trustee since August 2025
Walt Looney is an avid hiker, skier and birder who divides his time between Shaw Hill Farm in Stowe and a cottage on Martha’s Vineyard. He is a director and treasurer of BiodiversityWorks, Inc., an organization that promotes wildlife conservation in Massachusetts, and has served as a trustee of land trusts in Vermont and Massachusetts. Before retiring, Looney practiced as a lawyer for 38 years, managing the Hong Kong and London offices for a New York-based firm. He holds degrees from Boston College, University of Virginia, and Harvard Law School.
VT Trustee
Linda McGinnis
Trustee since May 2020
Linda's love of this beautiful planet is in her DNA. She has lived and worked on sustainable development issues across Africa, Latin America, Europe, South Asia and nearly every corner of the US. No matter where she lands, watching the sunset is her happy place. After 20 years working as lead economist/policy analyst for the World Bank, she moved to Vermont to be closer to family. Since 2010, her professional focus has been on state-level climate change research, policies, and investment, with a particular emphasis on equity. She provided her expertise across two administrations, serving as director of Governor Shumlin’s Energy Generation Siting Policy Commission, as co-chair of the Clean Energy Development Fund, as advisor to ANR on climate change strategy and on Governor Scott’s first Climate Action Commission. She currently serves as board Chair and senior fellow at VT Energy Action Network, whose mission is to bring public, private, non-profit and academic leaders together to achieve Vermont’s climate and energy commitments in ways that create a more just, thriving and sustainable future for Vermonters. Linda also served as past board chair of the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps. She is a graduate of Stanford (BA), Princeton (MPA), l’Institut des Etudes Politiques - Paris (MEcon), and Harvard Business School (Exec Ed). Linda chairs the TNC Policy Committee.
Candace Page
Trustee since May 2021
Candace worked as a newspaper reporter and editor for nearly 40 years. After stints at the Providence, RI, Journal and United Press International, she was a mainstay at the Burlington Free Press in her hometown. Among her jobs there: statehouse bureau chief, columnist, editorial page editor and managing editor. As editorial page editor she made the newspaper a consistent influential voice for conservation and land-use planning. For nearly a decade in the early 2000s, she was the newspaper’s environmental reporter. She provided sustained coverage of phosphorus pollution in Lake Champlain, the state’s threatened and endangered species, mountaintop wind energy development and the impact of catastrophic flooding during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. In semi-retirement, she is a consulting editor at Seven Days, the Burlington-based weekly. She has served on the board of the High Meadows Fund and Hildene, the Lincoln family home in Manchester, VT. Candace is a graduate of Brown University (1969).
Dan Reicher
Trustee since June 2022
Dan is a senior scholar at Stanford’s Woods Institute and partner at the Climate Adaptive Infrastructure Fund. He was Google’s director of climate and energy initiatives, founding director of Stanford’s Center for Energy Policy and Finance, president of New Energy Capital, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy and Department of Energy Chief of Staff, a member of the Clinton and Obama transition teams and the Obama Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. Earlier in his career Reicher was an assistant attorney general in Massachusetts, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council and a staff member of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island. An avid kayaker, Reicher was a member of the first expedition on record to navigate the entire 1888-mile Rio Grande (with support from the National Geographic Society) and to kayak the Great Gorges of the Yangtze River in China. He attended Dartmouth College and Stanford University Law School and did coursework at Harvard’s Kennedy School and MIT.
Chuck Ross
Trustee since August 2025
Chuck Ross is a seasoned leader in agriculture, public service, and higher education. A seventh-generation Vermonter, Ross was raised on his family’s farm in Hinesburg, Vermont where he continues to work. From 2021 through 2024, Ross served as the Climate Catalyst for the Extension Foundation, and he is currently the Board Chair of the Intervale Center, a nonprofit focused on sustainable agriculture and food systems. He previously served as Director of UVM Extension, Vermont Secretary of Agriculture, Food & Markets, and as State Director for U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, with a focus on energy, sustainable development and state and national political matters. Ross was elected to the Vermont Legislature where he served as Chair of House Natural Resources. He holds a B.A. in Geography from the University of Vermont and an M.A. in Geography from the University of Washington.
Rebecca Stanfield-McCown
Trustee since May 2021
Dr. Stanfield-McCown is the director of the National Park Service’s Stewardship Institute located at Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historic Park in Woodstock, VT; she has just started a yearlong detail with the White House Council on Environmental Quality, serving as the deputy director for Environmental Justice Public Engagement. Her work focuses on supporting park service staff and partners so they can better serve the American public. Rebecca manages programs that focus on enhancing cultural competency and diversity skills, leadership development, and evaluation and promotion of practices that contribute to successful public land management. Rebecca holds a Bachelor of Science degree in natural resources recreation and tourism from Colorado State University and a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in natural resources from the University of Vermont.
Fran Stoddard
Trustee since May 2021
Fran is a media consultant who has been involved in education, public relations, media production, facilitation and strategy development for more than 30 years. She is passionate about stories that motivate change. A national award-winning media producer, Fran has served as producer/host of television and radio programs on Vermont Public and local ABC and CBS affiliates, as well as several webinar series. She was an adjunct associate professor of media communications and production at Champlain College. Fran is a trained facilitator who has served as moderator/host for community events, panels and debates, and as a facilitator for board retreats and community summits. She has an Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner Certification from Champlain College; an MA in archetypal psychology from Goddard College, Plainfield, VT; and a BS in communications from Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Fran is currently the chair of the Governance & Nominations Committee.
Beverley Wemple
Trustee since May 2020
Dr. Wemple is a professor in the Department of Geography & Geosciences at the University of Vermont, a faculty fellow at the Gund Institute for Environment and director of UVM’s Water Resources Institute. Her research examines how environmental change influences water resources. She has a particular interest in mountain landscapes and rural communities. In the US, she has worked in the Cascades of the Pacific Northwest and the Appalachian Mountains of the Northeast. Since 2013, she has been engaged in scientific research and capacity building in the Andes, including as a Fulbright Science and Technology Fellow in Ecuador in 2017. Her recent projects have examined rural community responses to extreme events and adaptive and nature-based approaches to improve flood resiliency and address water quality concerns. Beverley is a graduate of the University of Richmond, Virginia (BA in economics and German) and Oregon State University (MS in geography, PhD in forestry and bioresource engineering).
Since 2018, TNC Vermont has partnered with the Rubenstein School of the Environment and Natural Resources to offer a board fellowship program that enables exceptional graduate students to gain real-world experience and provide service while learning about the community impacts of conservation decisions.
Justin Dempsey—Board Fellow
Board Fellow since August 2024
Justin is a doctoral student in ecological economics at the University of Vermont under Jon Erickson, where he studies place-based renewable energy systems across the state. He is a graduate fellow at the Gund Institute for the Environment, as well as a member of Leadership for the Ecozoic. His work involves both qualitative and quantitative methods, including ethnography and input/output analysis. He helps teach a course in ecological economic theory. Justin received his BA in political economy from Union College. Before beginning his doctorate, he completed an MSc in geography at University College London, where he studied urban political ecology under Jason Dittmer. Justin enjoys watching films, cycling, playing basketball and board games, traveling to new places and seeing old friends. He lives in Burlington, Vermont with his partner, Maja, but visits his parents and sister in his hometown of Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
Sophie Lieberman—Board Fellow
Board Fellow since August 2026
Sophie Lieberman is a doctoral student in ecology and natural resources at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Vermont and Gund Graduate Fellow studying how interactions between land use patterns and climate change drive shifts in biodiversity and ecosystem services. She studies the intersection of ecological dynamics and social systems, primarily on agricultural and multi-use landscapes. She has previously worked as a vegetable farmer in Connecticut and Illinois, field ecologist in Idaho, and researcher on carbon capture with enhanced rock weathering with the Yale Center for Natural Carbon Capture. Co-founder and Stewardship Team member of Zumwalt Acres, a mission driven, sustainable agriculture community organization that hosts educational fellowships for young adults, grows food to feed the local community, and engages in research with university partners on sustainable agriculture and climate mitigation. She has her BA in Environmental Studies from Yale University. Sophie enjoys growing food, exploring Vermont by bike, and learning the banjo.