Seminar Faculty Bios

Ole Amundsen III is the strategic conservation program manager at The Conservation Fund. A seasoned professional, with nonprofit and government experience, Ole focuses on assisting partners achieve their full potential by helping organizations complete strategic conservation plans and approach plan implementation holistically. He holds a bachelor's in Government from Colby College and a master's in City Planning from MIT. (SEM-8)

Jeff Appel is a practicing attorney in Salt Lake City. He is also a member of the board of directors of a land trust, and has extensive experience with both water rights and conservations easements. (SEM-7)

Sylvia Bates is the director of Standards and Research for the Land Trust Alliance and, since 2006, leads the Alliance's work on Land Trust Standards and Practices, land trust assessments, the Standards and Practices Curriculum and other cutting-edge issues.  She has worked in the land conservation field since 1987, most recently as an independent consultant and real estate broker, providing assistance to land trusts, landowners and public agencies on land conservation projects, easement stewardship and organizational development.  She was formerly the director of land protection for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.  Sylvia has a degree in environmental biology from Yale University and has done graduate work at the Yale School of Forestry. (SEM-6)

Renee Bouplon is the associate director of the Agricultural Stewardship Association where she oversees the conservation easement and stewardship programs. She co-authored the Land Trust Alliance’s curriculum book Conservation Easement Stewardship. Renee formerly served as director of Conservation Easement Programs for the Columbia Land Conservancy. (SEM-2)

Sarah Brooks joined the Methow Conservancy in 2004 and now serves as associate director,  where she is responsible for  fundraising, financial oversight, and the daily operations of the organization. In her tenure, the Methow Conservancy has doubled its annual fundraising and successfully completed a $20 million capital campaign for land conservation. Sarah is passionate about inspiring people to care for places they love and believes it is a real honor to raise funds for conservation. Sarah has a master's degree in public administration from the University of Washington and an undergraduate degree from Carleton College in Minnesota. (SEM-1)

Paul Doscher is vice president for land protection at the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests where he has been involved in land protection projects and easement and fee land stewardship for 27 years. Paul is a former professor of environmental science and architect. He and his family own and operate a small organic Christmas Tree Farm and Certified Tree Farm. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Trout Unlimited and a member of the Risk Management Committee. (SEM-9)

Peter Dykstra is the regional director, Pacific Northwest at The Wilderness Society. He is also an attorney, who previously practiced in the areas of conservation and water law. (SEM-7)

Laurel Florio is an attorney/consultant primarily working with land transactions, conservation easements and non-profit organizational/pre-accreditation procedures. She is a member of the Land Trust Alliance’s Faculty, speaks annually at the Alliance’s National Conference, and conducts seminars and training sessions, including Core Curriculum Courses for the Alliance and other entities, as well as acts as a consultant to the Alliance, land trusts, landowners, governmental and other nonprofit organizations around the country regarding land transactional and organizational matters. Additionally, Laurel has been part of the Alliance Curriculum Team, as a reviewer for several core publications, such as Conservation Easement Stewardship, and the 2007 report on Amending Conservation Easements. She has also completed many organizational assessments for land trusts in preparation for Accreditation, re-accreditation and other matters in the pursuit of professional excellence. (SEM-4)

Anne Garnett is a veteran consultant, nonprofit leader, and fundraiser, with more than 30 years of experience. She specializes in campaign development and fundraising. (SEM-3)

Reggie Hall grew up and was educated in New England attending Williams College and Vermont Law School where he received a law degree and a master’s in environmental law. He started his land conservation career at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida before moving on to the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy in North Carolina. Currently, he is the director of the Land Trust Loan Program with The Conservation Fund in their Arlington, VA office. He Co-Chairs the Virginia Union of Land Trusts and has received numerous awards for his work to protect America’s special places including a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Region 5 Division of Realty Service Award, a U.S. Department of the Interior Partners In Conservation Award and a National Trust For Historic Preservation Award For Federal Partnerships in Historic Preservation. (SEM-8)

Jane Ellen Hamilton works as a consultant and attorney helping land trusts prepare for Accreditation, draft conservation easements and address easement stewardship issues. She is a senior faculty member for the Alliance, wrote the curriculum books Conservation Easement Drafting and Documentation and Evaluating and Selecting Conservation Projects and co-wrote Acquiring Land and Conservation Easements. She serves on the Alliance’s Conservation Defense Advisory Council and the Editorial Board of Saving Land. (SEM-2)

Paul Hardy has been the executive director of the Feather River Land Trust since its inception in 2010. Paul has a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Davis and a master’s degree from the University of Arizona. (SEM-14)

Heather Harker is director of consulting and executive transitions at Third Sector New England. Prior to coming here, she was the assistant director of the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, focusing on policy development, advocacy and program implementation. She worked closely with the director to pass significant pieces of legislation and to expand the agency’s services four-fold. While there, Heather received the prestigious three-year Kellogg International Leadership Program fellowship. Receiving an Echoing Green fellowship for social change, she also lived in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Sabah) working with the deaf community to establish a public health educational series, English as a Second Language programs and a summer youth leadership camp, all while teaching in schools for the deaf. Heather has a bachelor's in international relations from Brown University and a master’s in public administration, specializing in leadership and nonprofit management, from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. (SEM-11)

Joanne Horgan is Third Sector New England's senior human resources manager for the Fiscal Sponsorship program. Joanne has 20 years of experience in a wide range of human resources functions, including employee relations, training, performance management, policies and procedures development, and legal compliance. She currently supports 15 nonprofits, each with varied missions, staffing and programs. Joanne also co-facilitates supervisor and human resources trainings and workshops. (SEM-11)

Bill Long is a consultant for Solid Ground Consulting. Bill retired after 30 years on the staff of the Montana Land Reliance. As one of three managing directors, he was responsible for managing land transactions, fundraising, financial management and planning. Bill focuses on strategic planning, growth related challenges and opportunities, mediation, organizational development and team building. (SEM-10)

Matthew McQueen is a sole practitioner in Santa Fe, New Mexico specializing in conservation easements and has over 20 years of legal experience and including over ten years representing both land trusts and landowners. Matthew received a master’s degree in natural resources policy and a law degree from the University of Michigan, a master’s of business administration from the University of New Mexico, and a bachelor’s degree from Williams College. (SEM-15)

Clint Miller has been working in the conservation arena for more than 26 years from Alaska to Florida. He received degrees in wildlife biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Colorado State University. A former wildlife biologist, he has been working on land preservation projects for the past 13 years. Clint ran a community-based conservation program for The Nature Conservancy in South Dakota and was the Southern Region Director for the Minnesota Land Trust. He has an extensive background in conservation easement and fee sale negotiation, management and monitoring. He is currently the Upper Midwest Field Representative for The Conservation Fund. With 25 years of wildland and structural fire -fighting experience, Clint is currently an EMT and assistant chief with the Pine Island Fire Department. He enjoys kayaking, skiing, hiking and traveling with his family. (SEM-8)

Kivi Leroux Miller is president of Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com and author of The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause and, coming in August 2013, Content Marketing for Nonprofits: A Communications Map for Engaging Your Community, Becoming a Favorite Cause, and Raising More Money. Through training, coaching and consulting, Kivi helps small nonprofits and small communications departments at larger organizations make a big impression with smart, savvy marketing and communications. (SEM-12)

Peter Nichols is of counsel at Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti LLP in Colorado practicing water, environmental, conservation, and related law. Peter served as the initial executive director and is a board member emeritus of the Colorado Water Trust. He is the principle co-author of Water Rights Handbook for Colorado Conservation Professionals (Bradford 2005; 2011). (SEM-7)

Tom Pierce is a practicing attorney focused on land conservation, land use and planning, real property and environmental law, and nonprofit organizational and legal issues. He has been an adjunct professor at the University of Hawai`i, William S. Richardson School of Law, where he taught conservation property law. (SEM-10)

Kevin Reilly has been a member of the board of directors of the Truchas Chapter of Trout Unlimited in New Mexico since 2004 and he Chairs the Trout Unlimited Risk Management Committee. After practicing law in New Mexico for many years he retired in 2002. He served as director of the Civil Litigation Division of  the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office and as  managing lawyer of his law firm. Kevin was New Mexico’s representative to the Trout Unlimited National Leadership Council for five years and chaired the NLC’s Native Trout Workgroup. (SEM-9)

Leslie Ratley-Beach joined The Land Trust Alliance as its first conservation defense director in August 2007. Leslie leads the national conservation defense insurance program (Terrafirma) and the Alliance’s conservation defense center. She is a national author and speaker. Previously, Leslie worked with the Vermont Land Trust for almost 13 years as stewardship director and prior to that was project counsel. Leslie has a law degree from Boston University and bachelors’ degrees from the University of Oregon. (SEM-9)

Dianne Russell is executive director of the Institute for Conservation Leadership(ICL), where she leads the fundraising, financial management, and program design and delivery for ICL.  She has worked with local, state and regional leaders in the environmental and conservation community since 1985, including over 1,800 groups across North America. Her areas of specialty include leadership, organizational change, strategic planning, collaborative strategies, and fundraising.  Dianne's previous staff positions have been with Union of Concerned Scientists, Americans for the Environment, and the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE).  A native of the Great Lakes region, Dianne earned a double degree in religion and sociology from Wittenberg University (Ohio).  (SEM-16)

Lynne Sherrod is Western policy manager for the Land Trust Alliance and works with land trusts to help frame advocacy and legislative outreach for the cause of land conservation.  (SEM-3)

Marc Smiley has worked with land conservation groups since 1982 as a board and staff leader, and staff member to more than a dozen groups and as a consultant to hundreds of land trusts nationwide. Marc is a former Accreditation commissioner, and currently serves on the Saving Land editorial board. (SEM-5)

Stephen Small is a tax attorney at his own firm, the Law Office of Stephen J. Small, Esq., P.C., in Newton, Massachusetts.  He is the author of The Federal Tax Law of Conservation Easements (Land Trust Alliance, 1985); Preserving Family Lands:  Book I (special updated fourth edition, Landowner Planning Center, 2009); Preserving Family Lands:  Book II -- More Planning Strategies for the Future (Landowner Planning Center, 1997); and Preserving Family Lands:  Book III -- New Tax Rules and Strategies and a Checklist (Landowner Planning Center, 2002).  More than 145,000 copies of the Preserving Family Lands books have been sold. Before going into private practice, Steve was an attorney-advisor in the Office of Chief Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C., where he wrote the federal income tax regulations on conservation easements. Steve has worked directly on matters that have resulted in the protection of more than 1.5 million acres of land around the country.  He advises business and individual landowners and is recognized as the nation’s leading authority on private land protection options.  He advises private landowners on federal income and estate tax planning to help preserve valued family land, including planning for the next generation of ownership.  He has worked with landowners around the country to preserve a wide range of property, from small family parcels, timberland, and dairy farms to western and southwestern ranches, southern plantations, Atlantic coast barrier islands, farmland, and wildlife habitat.  Steve has given more than 350 speeches, seminars, and workshops around the country on tax planning for landowners, succession planning for family lands, and tax incentives for land conservation.  He is a member of the Massachusetts and District of Columbia Bars. (SEM-13)

Rob Wade is the creator and coordinator of Learning Landscapes, and a founding member of the Feather River Land Trust. He has worked in the field of Place-based Education for 18 years. Rob has a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and a master’s degree from USF. (SEM-14)

Elizabeth Wroblicka helped to start the original attorney roundtables at Rally, has published articles in Exchange and Saving Land on conservation easement violations, did the original research into conservation easement defense, and has taught numerous courses on conservation easement drafting, stewardship, and enforcement, and chairs the Massachusetts Easement Defense Subcommittee. (SEM-6)