Commissioners

Commissioners

	Chair: Larry R. Kueter is a shareholder and a member of the Executive Committee with the Denver, Colorado law firm of Isaacson Rosenbaum P.C. Since 1990, his practice has included representing numerous landowners, local land trusts, governmental entities, and statewide and national conservation organizations in land conservation matters. He currently serves as legal counsel to the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts and has been legal counsel to the Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust since its creation in 1995. In 2003 and 2004, he served on the Land Trust Alliance's Standards and Practices Revision Committee, and in 2004 and 2005, he co-chaired the Land Trust Alliance's Standards and Practices Program Design Steering Committee.
	Vice Chair: David MacDonald has been part of the land protection staff at Maine Coast Heritage Trust for the past 15 years, first as a project manager and now as MCHT’s director of land protection. He has worked with landowners, communities, and partner trusts to assemble dozens of conservation transactions along the Maine coast. David also serves as a volunteer board member of three local conservation organizations in eastern Maine – the Somes-Meynell Wildlife Sanctuary, the Island Foundation, and the Pleasant River Wildlife Foundation. He lives on Mount Desert Island with his wife Caroline and two young children.
	Secretary: Ann Taylor Schwing is of counsel for Best Best & Krieger L.P. in Sacramento, California, where her practice is limited to appeals, motions and research. She is author of Open Meeting Laws 2d (2000), California Affirmative Defenses (2010) and The Regulation of Money Managers (with Tamar Frankel, 2009), and editor of Tamar Frankel's Securitization (2005). She received the American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Ninth Circuit in 2004. She has been a Commissioner and Secretary with the Land Trust Accreditation Commission since 2006 and has served on nonprofit boards - American Inns of Court Foundation, Sacramento Law Foundation and The Land Trust of Napa County for which she is also a multi-committee member, volunteer and land and conservation easement donor. She has been a master and member of the governing board of the Anthony M. Kennedy Inn of Court since 1989. She was selected in 2007 to be a Fellow in the Fellowship of the American Bar Foundation, a national honorary organization of attorneys, judges and law professors who demonstrate outstanding dedication to the welfare of their communities and to the highest principles of the legal profession publicly and professionally.
	Treasurer Lucinda Hunt-Stowell (Cindy) serves as a board member for several environmental and land trust organizations in Connecticut and is a consultant to not-for-profit organizations through the NonProfit Assistance Initiative with the Connecticut Community Foundation. She is currently chair of Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust board in Woodbury, Connecticut. Her corporate and consulting background includes over 30 years experience in Project and Strategic Planning, Business Process Management, Quality Improvement and Organizational Development.
	Elizabeth “Liz” Crane-Wexler is a certified forester who earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Forest Management from Clemson University and a Master of Forestry degree from North Carolina State University. She initiated the Forest Legacy Program in the Southern Region as an employee of the Forest Service in Atlanta. She began her forestry career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Costa Rica, and worked seasonally in Alaska in addition to working as a hydrologist and rural development specialist for the Forest Service. Currently Liz is a Conservation Easement Specialist for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Washington, DC.
	Scott Dickerson has served as the executive director of Coastal Mountains Land Trust, an accredited land trust, since 1998. A resident of Maine all of his adult life, Scott designed and made custom fine furniture for a national clientele from 1972 through the mid-1980’s and authored articles for the journal Fine Woodworking. Since 1986, he has worked in conservation as a land planning consultant and as staff for non-profit organizations. He is author of the book celebrating the Ducktrap Watershed conservation program, To Save a River, with photographer Dennis Shultz, published in May 2002. He received a Bachelor's degree in environmental planning in 1972 from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and a Master’s degree from College of the Atlantic in 1995 for his thesis research on ecological reserve planning. Scott will serve a 3-year term starting January 1, 2011.
	Molly Doran has served as the executive director of Skagit Land Trust, an accredited land trust in Washington, since 2002. Prior to working in land conservation, Molly spent over 20 years managing schools and teaching outdoor education in North and South America and Africa for the National Outdoor Leadership School. She holds a masters degree in Applied Behavioral Sciences with an emphasis in managing and consulting from the Leadership Institute of Seattle, Bastyr University. A Canadian, she graduated from the University of Waterloo with an emphasis in Environmental Studies. She and her husband raise their two sons in Bow, Washington.
	Tom Duffus is the upper Midwest director for The Conservation Fund (TCF). In addition to his current position with TCF and leadership roles on volunteer boards, Tom has served in management positions over the past 24 years with Adirondack Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy. Tom has directly closed on over 387,000 acres of conservation projects – both land and conservation easements in 7 states and two Canadian provinces and is an experienced conservation easement practitioner. He has extensive experience conserving forestland as well as farm, open space, biodiversity and wilderness lands. Tom has been engaged in all aspects of running land conservation organizations as well as the work of protecting and managing conservation land. He is currently serving on the Alliance's Conservation Defense Advisory Council. Tom holds a Master of Forest Science degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.
	Jean Hocker, president emeritus of the Land Trust Alliance, was the Alliance’s president from 1987 to 2002, where, among many other things, she oversaw the initial development of Land Trust Standards and Practices. She is now president of Conservation Service Company, LLC, where she provides consulting services that draw on more than 25 years of land conservation and nonprofit experience. From 1980 to 1987, she led the Jackson Hole Land Trust (WY) as its founding executive director.
	Glenn Lamb has been active with Columbia Land Trust (WA) since its founding in 1990, serving at various times as President, Vice-President and Secretary, and since 1999 as Executive Director. Glenn is inspired by the many private landowners throughout the northwest that have worked with land trusts to place their land in conservation, and believes that we all have much to learn by listening to the challenges and opportunities facing private landowners. Glenn graduated from the University of Rochester, NY with degrees in Natural Resource Management and Sociology, and has a master in urban planning from the University of Oregon. Glenn has previously worked for county and city parks departments. Glenn has served on the board of the national Land Trust Alliance, Washington State Parks Foundation, the Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership, the Chinook Trail Association, the Vancouver Rotary Club, and Habitat Partners, and he volunteers in the Big Brother Big Sister program.
	Cary Leptuck is president of the board of French and Pickering Creeks Land Trust in Pennyslvania. In 2005 he retired after 26 years as president and CEO of an accredited nonprofit health care organization. He now provides governance consulting for nonprofits.
	Kevin McGorty is the director of the Tall Timbers Land Conservancy, which is a department of a larger organization named Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy – an accredited land trust. Kevin manages an annual budget of approximately $600,000, supervises five full-time employees, and has helped save 110,000 acres of land on 80 conservation easement properties in northern Florida and southwest Georgia. In addition, he is involved in land use planning and environmental advocacy. Kevin previously served as director of the Historic Tallahassee Preservation Board, an agency of the Florida Department of State. Kevin has also served on a number of special committees and panels for the Land Trust Alliance, including the steering committee that developed the framework of the accreditation program.
	Heather Richards is the director of land conservation for the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC) in Virginia. Prior to her work at PEC, she was director of the headwaters conservation program at the Potomac Conservancy. Heather fills the position left vacant by the departure of Marc Smiley and will serve a 3-year term.
	Steve W. Swartz is general counsel to the Humane Society Wildlife Land Trust, a Washington, D.C.-based international land trust affiliated with The Humane Society of the United States. Since joining the Trust in 1999, Steve has been involved in virtually all aspects of managing a nonprofit organization and has assisted in nearly 100 conservation transactions. He also serves as corporate secretary of the Trust.
	Kathy Treanor is the founder and senior advisor for the Piedmont Land Conservancy (PLC) in Greensboro NC. In addition, she also served as PLC's first president and executive director. Kathy was re-appointed by NC Governor Easley for a second term with the North Carolina Zoological Park Council, serves on the national board for the public broadcasting Simple Living TV with Wanda Urbanska program and is helping to establish the Friends of Greensboro Parks & Recreation Foundation. She is the author of the PLC's book Forever These Lands, a photo-documentary of neighbors protecting land.
	Michael B. Whitfield is the Coordinator of the Heart of the Rockies Initiative, a partnership of land trusts in three states and two Canadian provinces in the Northern Rockies. In this role, Michael coordinates a large landscape initiative to protect high priority lands through collaborative planning, capacity building, and capital fundraising. He was previously the long-term executive director and founding board president of the Teton Regional Land Trust in Idaho. He is also a conservation biologist and research associate with the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative, through which he investigates the ecological needs of sensitive wildlife species and partners with management agencies to conserve their habitats
	Jessica Whittaker is the executive director the Sippican Lands Trust, an accredited land trust in Massachusetts. She manages the operations of a small, single town land trust, over-seeing two part-time staff. She negotiates all land deals and is directly involved with policies, stewardship management, development and outreach, while managing the day to the day activities of the organization and staff. Jessica has almost doubled the Trust’s acres under conservation since joining in 2004. Along with the Head Steward, Jessica oversees the stewardship program, which includes over 75 volunteer stewards. Jessica is a licensed attorney and also serves on the board of the Rochester Land Trust.