Seminar Faculty Bios

David Allen is the principal for Development for Conservation LLC, a consulting business specializing in organizational development for nonprofit conservation organizations. David’s background includes 28 years working in annual fundraising, major donor development, communications, and marketing. He has worked for  Nature Conservancy chapters around the country (including Wisconsin) and for the Sand County Foundation in Wisconsin, devoting his professional career to helping conservation organizations and land trusts pursue excellence in all aspects of their conservation endeavors. David is a skilled teacher and presenter, particularly in major gift fundraising, and served The Nature Conservancy as an internal consultant and national trainer within the context of his Wisconsin assignment. David has conducted numerous workshops for Land Trust Alliance and other land trust service organizations. He is currently consulting with land trusts in seven states. (SEM06)

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. (SEM19)

Olivia Bartlett is the stewardship director at Black Canyon Regional Land Trust. Before moving to Ridgway, she completed her master’s in ecological modeling while working as an intern at Squam Lakes Conservation Society. (SEM07)

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. (SEM25)

Allan Beezley has an extensive background in real estate matters involving land conservation, including land use, and governmental procedures and regulations. His law practice focuses almost entirely on land conservation and affordable housing matters. He represents national, statewide and local conservation organizations as well as governmental agencies in land conservation matters throughout the western United States. He also represents nonprofit organizations in the development of affordable housing. Allan has been involved in over 1200 land conservation transactions since 1991. Prior to founding his own firm, Allan C. Beezley, P.C., Allan was the Western regional counsel for The Nature Conservancy, managing shareholder of Dietze, Davis & Porter, P.C., where he represented three national title insurance companies on title claims, an Assistant Boulder County Attorney involved in land use, housing, public works, property taxation and general matters, and a Judicial Law Clerk for Judge Edwin Ruland, Colorado Court of Appeals. Allan graduated from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1976 and was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 1977. (SEM03)

Bob Bendick is director of U.S. government relations of The Nature Conservancy. Previously, he was vice president and managing director of the 10-state Southern U.S. Region of the conservancy. Before coming to the conservancy, he was deputy commissioner for Natural Resources of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. (SEM08)

Renee Bouplon is 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. (SEM12)

Jennifer Brady-Connor is program manager for the Land Trust Accreditation Commission. Previously she worked at the Land Trust Alliance for the standards and research program (assisting in the research and program design of the nascent land trust accreditation program) and the northeast program (providing technical assistance to land trusts across New York while promoting and administering the NYS Conservation Partnership Program.) She worked for the Land Trust of the Saratoga Region for many years and has also held numerous professional and leadership positions in environmental conservation. (SEM15)

Maria Elena Campisteguy is principal/executive vice president for the Metropolitan Group (MG). She has more than 25 years experience helping nonprofit organizations and public agencies develop powerful brands and messages, design strategies to engage new constituents, expand programmatic and service reach, advance policy and increase their base of funding support. She has led many major branding, marketing, fundraising and communications initiatives and campaigns for national and local organizations. As the leader of MG’s Multicultural Communication practice, Maria Elena designs and facilitates planning processes that bring diverse groups to the table to work toward a common vision. She has designed and implemented hundreds of outreach and public will-building campaigns, programs and initiatives to increase grassroots and constituent participation and engagement, and change attitudes and behaviors of traditionally hard-to-reach communities. Passionate about the importance of increasing the relevancy of environmental organizations to more people, Maria Elena was the lead strategist on the re-branding work for the Land Trust Alliance and the branding and communication work for the Land Trust Accreditation Commission. She facilitated the 10-year strategic plan for the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico, which included a comprehensive strategy to refine the organization’s outreach and communication to develop a broader base of “stewards of nature”. Other current and recent clients include Center for Park Management, Environmental Protection Agency, US Fish & Wildlife Service and Colorado Conservation Trust. Maria Elena is the Principal in charge of MG’s Washington, DC office. She is currently on the board of directors of the Land Trust Alliance and chairs their communication committee. (SEM11)

Mike Dennis has over 35 years of experience in the conservation real estate business and currently serves as legal counsel at Ecosystem Investment Partners. Previously, he served 25 years as general counsel and six years as vice president for real estate at The Nature Conservancy.   In addition to building and providing leadership and oversight to the conservancy's legal and conservation real estate programs, he helped develop conservation partnerships with both the private and public sectors. In both sectors he implemented cutting edge conservation strategies and secured the philanthropic resources to support these efforts.  Currently, by appointment of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Mike is entering his 21st year of service as a board member of the North American Wetlands Conservation Council. In addition he continues to serve on the boards of the Land Trust Alliance , the Conservation Law Center, Cuenca los Ojos, the Neoptrop Advisory Council  and as Counsel to the Malpai Borderlands Group . He received his bachelor's from Northeastern University, law degree from  Suffolk University Law School and LLM, Tax Law, Boston University Law School. (SEM18)

Peter Dykstra is regional director, Pacific Northwest for The Wilderness Society. He is also an attorney, who previously practiced in the areas of conservation and water law. (SEM19)

Larry Fisher is a research professor at the School of Natural Resources and the Environment at the University of Arizona, where he focuses on environmental conflict and mediation, public lands policy, large landscape conservation, and international conservation and sustainable development. Previously, Larry worked for 10 years as a federal mediator for the US Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution. (SEM08)

Francis “Fitz” Fitzgerald is the director of conservation, Northern Region, for the Minnesota Land Trust. He is based in the northern field office in Ely, MN. He is responsible for all conservation activities and projects in the northern 25 counties of Minnesota. He was formerly the program manager/project director of the San Luis Valley Program Area for the Colorado Nature Conservancy. He is a veteran of the US Marine Corps, was a licensed Minnesota Real Estate Broker, was a partner in a private contracting firm for 16 years, and owned and operated a large resort near Ely, MN during the 1990’s. He holds a bachelor’s in natural resource management and wildlife biology from the University of Wisconsin. He enjoys nature photography, fishing, hunting, kayaking and everything outdoors! (SEM02)

Laurel Florio is an attorney and consultant primarily working with land transactions and conservation easements. She has been participating as a member of the Alliance's faculty for many years, conducts seminars and training sessions 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. (SEM10)

Ellen Fred is an attorney whose national practice includes various areas of real estate and tax law, focusing primarily on land conservation transactions and nonprofit tax issues. Ellen lives on a cooperative farm with her family in Northern Michigan and is a member of the State Bars of California and Michigan. (SEM19)

Anne Garnett is a veteran consultant, nonprofit leader, and fundraiser, with more than 30 years experience. She specializes in fundraising and campaign development, including feasibility studies, prospect research, and special events, Congressional relations and advocacy, strategic planning, public and media relations, and in leading policy campaigns. She has worked as a consultant to the Land Trust Alliance on federal policy and fund development as well as on national and agricultural community projects since 2005. A former executive director of the recently-accredited Aquidneck Land Trust in Newport, Rhode Island, Anne also served as director of development for Save the Bay, Inc. and the Rhode Island Zoological Society, and was named Fundraising Executive of the Year by the Rhode Island Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. She has taught workshops on fundraising and media relations at regional and national conferences, served on numerous boards, and has also worked as a guest naturalist and trip leader for several organizations. (SEM13)

Jane Ellen Hamilton trains land trust members and attorneys across the country on conservation easement matters and works as an attorney and as a consultant negotiating conservation easements and establishing conservation easement and stewardship programs for land trusts and public entities.  She is a member of the Land Trust Alliance’s Conservation Defense Advisory Council, a member of the “Saving Land” Editorial Board, and she is a senior faculty member for the Alliance. Jane Ellen is the course author for the Land Trust Alliance’s curricula Conservation Easement Drafting and Documentation and Evaluating and Selecting Conservation Projects and is a contributing writer to the Acquiring Land and Conservation Easements course. (SEM12)

Allison Handler is a consultant with Solid Ground Consulting Group. Allison brings more than a decade of experience with organizations dedicated to housing, community development, land use planning, and conservation. She focuses on strategic planning, organizational assessment, fundraising planning, and governance. Her professional background includes serving from 2003-2008 as the executive director of Portland Community Land Trust; prior to moving to Portland, she served as a housing developer for the Missoula Housing Authority and as a land use planner for the Missoula Office of Planning and Grants. She holds a master’s  from the University of Montana and a bachelor’s from Williams College. She has served on the board of directors of the National Community Land Trust Network, Housing Land Advocates, and DemocracyLab.org. She is a member of the faculty for the Community Land Trust Academy. (SEM18)

Steve Hobbs is the Minnesota project director for The Conservation Fund. He has been involved in conservation work for more than 25 years first working in Virginia and Nevada for The Nature Conservancy and over the last 14 years working for local government and nonprofit organizations in Minnesota. Most recently he was the executive director of the Belwin Conservancy. His expertise is in developing large-scale conservation initiatives and has successfully negotiated hundreds of real estate truncations for conservation. He is a passionate advocate for conservation and recently obtained his pilot’s license. (SEM02)

William Hutton is one of the nation's leading authorities on the tax and financial aspects of land conservation transactions. Bill provides tax advice to nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals. He is also a professor of law emeritus at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. (SEM05)

Jessica Jay is the founding partner of Conservation Law, P.C., a law firm devoted to ensuring the permanence of land conservation through sound land conservation transactions and the defense and enforcement of perpetual conservation easements. Jessica represents and partners with land trusts, government entities, and landowners to conserve working landscapes and environmentally significant properties in the Rocky Mountain West. She actively engages conservation professionals, easement holders, and landowners in conservation workshops, and guides the next generation of land conservationists through her Land Conservation Law courses at Vermont Law School and Denver University Law School. Jessica collaborates with the conservation community to develop and implement legal defense and enforcement mechanisms, to design and protect conservation easement incentives, and to create flexible and durable perpetual conservation easements that anticipate changing conditions, climate, and public interests over time. (SEM01)

Shawn Johnson is a senior associate at the Center for Natural Resources and Environmental Policy at the University of Montana, where he helps advance a portfolio of work on the theory and practice of large landscape conservation. Shawn is co-author of Working Across Boundaries: People, Nature, and Regions (Lincoln Institute, 2009). (SEM08)

Rebecca Kihslinger has worked on a wide variety of wetland compensatory mitigation issues at the Environmental Law Institute and directs Environmental Law Institute's work on climate adaptation and natural hazards, as well as the integration of conservation science and local planning. (SEM25)

Dune Lankard is a native Athabaskan Eyak from the Copper River Delta of Alaska. He is co-founder of the Eyak Preservation Council, the Native Conservancy Land Trust, the FIRE Fund, and the RED OIL Network — Resisting Environmental Degradation of Indigenous Lands. (SEM16)

Kris Larson is the executive director of the Minnesota Land Trust, where he has worked in various capacities since 1998. In his current capacity, Kris oversees a program with one of the largest conservation easement portfolio’s in the county. Kris previously served as the executive director of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts and worked at the Brandywine Conservancy in Pennsylvania. He has a master's in landscape architecture from the University of Georgia’s School of Environmental Design and is also a graduate of Carleton College. (SEM09)

Matthew Leivas, Sr. serves on the board of the Native American Land Conservancy, a nonprofit Native lands organization in Indio, CA whose mission is to acquire, preserve, and protect sacred tribal lands. Matthew is a Chemehuevi tribal salt singer, and is a co-founder of the Paiute Salt Song Project. (SEM16)

Jay Leutze is a trustee for Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, a land trust in North Carolina and Tennessee that has protected over 50,000 acres of land between Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Highlands of Roan.  In addition to his duties as trustee he advises the land trust on state and federal land acquisition, including the 10,000 acre Rocky Fork tract, one of the highest priorities for acquisition by the US Forest Service.  He has testified before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations on the need for a fully funded LWCF.  He crafted the legislation establishing North Carolina's Mountain Resources Commission and his work led to the creation of the Yellow Mountain State Natural Area.  He is a founding trustee of Muddy Sneakers, an outdoor education program teaching the 5th grade North Carolina science curriculum outside on public lands. He earned his law degree from the University of North Carolina. (SEM14)

Bill Long is a consultant with Solid Ground Consulting Group in Montana. Bill recently 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. (SEM18)

Erik Meyers is vice president for Sustainable Programs at The Conservation Fund, a leader in forging partnerships to conserve America's legacy of land and water resources. Erik directs projects that link land conservation with economic and social dimensions. Erik has a law degree from Fordham University and bachelors from Georgetown University. (SEM25)

Beth Rose Middleton is assistant professor of Native American Studies at University of California, Davis. She authored Trust in the Land: New Directions in Tribal Conservation, released in 2010, which discusses the emerging field of Native American land trusts and features 14 case studies about Native-led land conservation efforts.

Ezra Milchman leads Metropolitan Group’s Environment and Sustainability Program with emphasis on organizational development, branding/marketing, constituent engagement and fundraising. Ezra brings nearly 20 years of experience in the environmental sector where he has led private and public fundraising campaigns, built powerful brands and public awareness campaigns, and grown organizational impact through strategic planning, board and staff development, and improved financial management. (SEM11)

Clint Miller is the Upper Midwest field representative for The Conservation Fund and 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. With 25 years of wildland and structural fire fighting experience, Clint is currently an EMT and firefighter with the Pine Island Fire Department. He enjoys kayaking, fishing, hiking and traveling with his family. (SEM02)

Kivi Leroux Miller is president of Nonprofit Marketing Guide and the author of The Nonprofit Marketing Guide: High-Impact, Low-Cost Ways to Build Support for Your Good Cause. Through training, coaching and consulting, she helps small nonprofits and communications departments of one make a big impression with smart, savvy marketing and communications. She teaches a weekly webinar series and writes a leading blog on nonprofit communications at Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com. She also presents highly rated in-person workshops on a variety of nonprofit marketing topics around the country. (SEM22)

Dan Murphy is the conservation director for Black Canyon Regional Land Trust overseeing easement acquisition and project management. After graduating from the University of Vermont, he moved to Ouray to begin working on conserving the pristine landscape of southwestern Colorado. (SEM07)

Peter Nichols is a partner in Trout, Raley, Montaño, Witwer & Freeman, P.C., 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). (SEM19)

MaryKay O'Donnell is the Midwest conservation manager for the Land Trust Alliance and is responsible for assisting land trusts across 13 Midwestern states with assessments, organizational improvements, trainings, and mentoring.  MaryKay provides program services to Michigan's Advancing Conservancy Excellence program, a cooperative effort with Heart of the Lakes, and Wisconsin's Land Trust Excellence and Advancement program, a cooperative effort with Gathering Waters Conservancy.  She came to the Alliance in 2007 with 18 years of conservation experience in land acquisition. MaryKay co-authored a Standards and Practices Curriculum Guide titled Acquiring Land and Conservation Easements. (SEM03)

Tom Pierce is a consultant with Solid Ground Consulting Group and  is an 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, teaching conservation property law. (SEM18)

Jane Prohaska is an attorney and independent consultant. Jane previously served as president and executive director of the Minnesota Land Trust for nine years. She also worked for The Nature Conservancy for almost 20 years, initially as regional counsel and later as vice president and regional director. Jane began her career as an attorney with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office. She is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School and Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. (SEM09)

Leslie Ratley-Beach is conservation defense director for the Land Trust Alliance. Previously,  Leslie worked with the Vermont Land Trust (VLT) for almost 13 years.  She was most recently stewardship director leading the program responsible for more than 1,430 conservation easements on over 470,000 acres of land with more 1,200 landowners.  Prior to that she was project counsel with VLT where she drafted and helped negotiate more than 500 conservation easements.  In both those capacities she led teams of professionals delivering conservation services to landowners, partners and staff since 1995.  Leslie served on the Alliance stewardship excellence committee and authored articles in the Exchange and an Alliance curriculum on conservation easement stewardship as well as leading numerous workshops and seminars at Rally and for the Land Conservation Leadership Program.  Leslie also was part of the national team assembled by the Alliance to revise Land Trust Standards & Practices in 2004. She has a law degree from Boston University and practiced real estate law for nine years in Boston.  Leslie has a bachelor's from University of Oregon in journalism and political science. (SEM23)

Kevin Redding is executive director of Piedmont Land Conservancy in North Caroline. (SEM14)

Illene Roggensack is president of Third Sector Innovations, providing marketing, management, planning and fundraising services. She holds a bachelor’s in public relations/advertising, a masters in business administration and Certified Fund Raising Executive. Illene is a frequent Rally presenter and sits on the editorial board for the Alliance's Saving Land quarterly magazine. (SEM20)

Hawk Rosales is executive director of InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a nonprofit land conservation consortium of ten federally-recognized Northern California Indian tribes. The Council established the first InterTribal Wilderness in the U.S, and was the first tribal entity to enter into a conservation easement with a private land trust. (SEM16)

Eric Rowley is a certified public accountant, who has been practicing for 30 years and works with nonprofit organizations with special emphasis on land trusts and conservation organizations. He has volunteered on several nonprofit boards and regularly provides financial presentations to nonprofit boards and committees. (SEM21)

Dianne Russell is executive director of the Institute for Conservation Leadership. Dianne has worked with thousands of local, state and regional activists and groups in the environmental and conservation community since 1985. (SEM17)

Chuck Sams is CEO of the Indian Country Conservancy, a nonprofit Native land trust organization based in Portland, OR focused on the acquisition of conservation lands for tribes and tribal organizations throughout the United States. Chuck previously served as the national director of the Trust for Public Land's Tribal & Native Lands Program. (SEM16)

Lynn Scarlett is visiting scholar and co-director of the Center for Management of Ecological Wealth at Resources for the Future working on issues pertaining to ecosystem services, landscape-scale conservation, and climate adaptation. Lynn is former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. (SEM08)

Lynne Sherrod is Western policy manager for the Land Trust Alliance. Previously, she served as executive director of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust (CCALT), where she worked extensively with a variety of partners and diverse interests to build bipartisan political support for conservation from the grassroots level up. During her nin-year tenure as CCALT’s first full-time executive director, CCALT partnered with more than 125 ranching families to protect 225,000 acres of productive working landscapes. She now works with land trusts across the West to help frame advocacy and legislative outreach for the cause of land conservation. (SEM13)

Stephen Small is a leading authority on land protection options and tax strategies. Steve wrote the Federal income tax regulations on conservation easements for the Internal Revenue Service and the tax law treatise The Federal Tax Law of Conservation Easements. Steve also delivers speeches and leads workshops on tax issues and land preservation. (SEM24)

Marc Smiley is co-owner of the Solid Ground Consulting Group. With over 20 years experience providing direct organizational development consulting services to land trusts nationwide, Marc has done training and development work through the Land Trust Alliance, state services centers, private foundations and others in support of land conservation. (SEM18)

Mark Steinbach is the executive director of the Texas Land Conservancy. Previously, he worked at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He holds a bachelor's and master's from Texas A&M University, as well as a doctorate from the University of Montana in Missoula from the College of Forestry and Conservation. (SEM25)

Bob Tesch, CFP, is a relationship manager for Wells Fargo Private Bank, advising high net-worth families and successful organizations throughout the country, and currently serves as president of the Montrose (Colorado) Community Foundation. (SEM20)

Joan Turley is the stewardship coordinator at Squam Lakes Conservation Society and teaches graduate level courses in GIS at Plymouth State University. Joan coordinates interns at Squam Lakes Conservation Society and mentors master's students from Plymouth State University. (SEM07)

Marie Vicek has been a paralegal at Allan C. Beezley, P.C. in Boulder since 2001. During that time she has worked almost exclusively on land conservation matters and has been involved in over 500 land conservation transactions. Prior to her land conservation work Marie worked for a domestic relations law firm in Boulder, Colorado. She graduated from the Denver Paralegal Institute in 2001 and has a bachelors from Hampshire College. (SEM03)

Brad Webb is senior programs manager at the Institute for Conservation Leadership (ICL), and has served ICL in the Western office located in Bozeman, Montana since September 2001. He currently manages the Executive Director Leadership Program and has taken the lead as trainer and program manager since 2003. (SEM17)

Barb Welch is a consultant in nonprofit organizational management, and works with Solid Ground Consulting Group.  She was executive director of Frenchman Bay Conservancy for 14 years and has served on the boards of several local nonprofits and on the Steering Committees of the Maine Land Trust Network and the Maine Coast Protection Initiative. (SEM18)

Mark Weston has over 25 years experience as an independent real estate appraiser with special interest in valuation of conservation easements. Mark is co-author of the Land Trust Alliances Tax Benefits & Appraisals of Conservation Projects, 2007. He is a contributing author to the Water Rights Handbook for Colorado Conservation Professionals, 2011; Colorado Water Trust, and Appraising Easements: Guidelines for Valuation of Land Conservation and Historic Preservation Easements, 3rd edition. Mark is an appraisal instructor for the International Right of Way Association, assisted in development of and instructs the five-day conservation easement valuation seminar for the Appraisal Institute, and is an AQB Certified USPAP Instructor. (SEM04)

Jessica Wilkinson is a senior policy analyst and director of the Wetlands Programs at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, DC. She oversees the Institute’s program of wetlands research and training. She holds a master's from Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a bachelor's from Barnard College, Columbia University. (SEM25)

Sara Wilson is a partner and consultant at Mayes Wilson & Associates, LLC. Sara has more than 20 years of experience working with land and water conservation volunteers, board directors and nonprofit executives. By analyzing organizational capacity and helping organizations define priorities, she helps nonprofit leaders transform their passion and commitment for the mission into organizational success. She recently graduated from the Board Consultant Institute, two years of intensive training for board and organizational consultants. Sara was the associate director for the Nature Conservancy's US Virgin Islands and Eastern Caribbean program and the director of volunteers for the Oklahoma Chapter. (SEM10)