Committees

Vicki J. Brown is a naturalist and marketer with 30 years of experience leading marketing at such organizations as Joslin Diabetes Center, IDC and Wolters Kluwer | UpToDate. She co-founded Pollinator Pathways NH and serves as an advisor on old-growth forests in Rockingham County, NH for the Old Growth Forest Network. Vicki leverages her passion for sustainability, healthcare outcomes and natural resources at mission-oriented organizations, including the NH Department of Health and Human Services, where she provides marketing and strategy consulting on diabetes, heart healthand other services for the public health division. A NH Natural Resources Steward and NH Big Tree volunteer, Vicki volunteers for UNH Extension, her town's Conservation Commission, and her local land trust. She writes and presents frequently on pollinator and gardening for wildlife topics. Vicki has an M.S. in Science Communication / Industry and Technology Assessment from Boston University. LinkedIn Profile.

Mary Tebo Davis is a Natural Resources Field Specialist for UNH Cooperative Extension. With degrees in environmental conservation, education, and permaculture certifications, she leads 400 Natural Resources Stewards and NH Big Tree volunteers throughout the state. Mary also partners with NH communities to create ecologically-based landscapes and gardens. She has collaborated on many revitalization projects, especially in NH’s largest city, Manchester, renovating vacant degraded spaces creating community gardens and ecological landscapes, establishing the first green roof on city hall, and bringing permaculture to inner city neighborhoods. Mary is a co-author of two books: “Integrated Landscaping: Following Nature Lead” and “Landscaping at the Water’s Edge” and served as an editor on “NH’s Innovative Land Use Planning Techniques – A Handbook for Sustainable Development”. UNH Extension Profile.

Tim Fleury is Forestry Field Specialist and the Merrimack County Forester at UNH Cooperative Extension. Tim began working for UNH Extension as the Merrimack County Forester in 1996. He advises landowners on proper woodlot management and promotes forest conservation and management through public education, with a special focus on the invasive Emerald Ash Borer. In 2019, he received the James W. Toumey Award for outstanding achievement in service to the New England Society of American Foresters.  He served for 3 years in the Peace Corps doing forestry and conservation extension in the Dominican Republic. He also worked in Southeast Alaska as a forest technician for the U.S. Forest Service. Tim has an M.S. in Forest Resources Production and Management from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in Forestry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Amy Gaudreau is the Forest Stewardship Outreach Program Manager at UNH Cooperative Extension. Amy conducts outreach and marketing on behalf of the UNH Extension Forest Stewardship Area and the Natural Resources Program. In her role, she collaborates with UNH Extension forestry and wildlife staff, and partner agencies, to develop landowner outreach programs and resources. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Conservation and Sustainability and earned a Master of Science degree in Natural Resources and the Environment from the University of New Hampshire.

David Govatski is a retired forester and silviculturist who has studied and explored old growth forests and ancient trees all across North America. He has written several articles on old growth forests in New Hampshire and has led dozens of field trips to these special places. David is also involved in the NH Big Tree Program. David's professional background was with the U.S. Forest Service, where he worked for 33 years until retirement in various positions and locations across the country as a Forester, Silviculturist, and Forest Fire Management Officer. Since his retirement, he works as a Naturalist for Raven Interpretive Programs. David has also worked as an expedition ship naturalist in Alaska and Iceland. David has a Bachelor of Science degree in Forest Management and technical certification in Silviculture, Wildland Management, and Forest Fire Management. David is co-author of "Forests for the People: The Story of the Eastern National Forests." He served as technical advisor for the documentary film "The People's Forest." David has written numerous magazine and journal articles on forest history.

Chris Kane is a consulting ecologist with over 20 years of experience in land conservation and stewardship, conservation planning, resource inventory and field ecology.   He is an Associate Ecologist with the NH Natural Heritage Bureau, and formerly in the Stewardship Department of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.  Chris is currently also providing a variety of natural resource inventory, botanical survey, land conservation planning and stewardship services to municipalities, agencies and organizations in New England with his business Kane Conservation. He is a former Adjunct Faculty member at Antioch New England Graduate School.  Conservation and ecology are Chris’s second career, having formerly toured, performed widely as a classical guitarist, and taught for 20 years at various colleges and universities in New England. He also served as Co-Coordinator of the 2004 Eastern Old-Growth Forest Conference.

Berta Khasina is a NH Natural Resources Steward. She has a bachelor's degree in sociology with a minor in consumer behavior from Brooklyn College and a master’s degree in early childhood special education from Hunter College, NY. Berta loves all things natural and has a special fondness for old trees, pollinators and beneficial insects.

Bob Leverett  is co-founder of the Native Tree Society, co-founder and President of Friends of Mohawk Trail State Forest, Chair of the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Forest Reserves Science Advisory Committee, and co-author of the American Forests Champion Tree-Measuring Guidelines Handbook. Educated as an engineer, Bob is a recognized expert in the discipline of measuring trees for both science and sport. Currently, he is working with climate scientists to help measure carbon sequestration in individual trees. Co-author of several books, including the Sierra Club Guide to Ancient Forests of the Northeast, he has been the central figure in the Ancient Eastern Forests Conference Series. A co-discoverer of most of the known old growth in Massachusetts, his association with old-growth forest confirmations dates to the middle 1980s.

Janine Marr is the land and recreation manager for the Monadnock Conservancy in southwestern New Hampshire where she manages their fee-owned properties and, in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders, co-manages the many public hiking trails that meander through the region. Janine is also an adjunct faculty member at Antioch University New England’s Environmental Studies department. At Antioch’s Center for Climate Preparedness and Community Resilience, Janine was the project manager and lead researcher for a pilot project aimed at increasing resilience to severe weather events for vulnerable populations, including older adults. Janine has a PhD in environmental studies and a masters in forest health & ecology from Antioch. As chair of her town’s conservation commission, NH Advanced Master Gardener, and contributor to the Monadnock Shopper News Woods and Garden column, Janine provided education and outreach on a variety of forest and garden topics. She recently moved and started a plant nursery within hiking distance of the old growth forest on Mt. Sunapee.

Sarah RobbGreico is Northeast Regional Manager for the Old-Growth Forest Network (OGFN), the only national network in the U.S. of protected, old-growth, native forests where people of all generations can experience biodiversity and the beauty of nature. Sarah’s work focuses on the forests of New England and New York, where she pursues the goal of the OGFN, to locate and designate at least one protected forest in every county in the United States that can sustain a native forest. Sarah has over 15 years’ experience in nonprofit leadership including running a watershed partnership in Philadelphia to clean up some of the city’s most severely urbanized waterways and co-directing an international, intergenerational dance/theater company. She is a former board member of the Hogback Mountain Conservation Association and the American Water Resources Association (AWRA) - Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Section. She holds a B.A. in Biology from Vassar College and an M.F.A. in Dance Performance and Choreography from the University of Colorado, Boulder.  A Massachusetts native, Sarah now lives with her family in rural, southern Vermont surrounded by the forests of the Green Mountains.

Steve Roberge works for the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension as the Extension Forestry Specialist. He grew up in Berlin, NH surrounded by the White Mountains and forests where he skied, hiked, and camped.  Steve earned a B.S. in Forest Science from the University of New Hampshire and a Masters of Forest Science from Yale University.  As an Extension Forester, it is his responsibility to educate forestland owners about their important role as stewards of the forest. He also serves as UNH Extension’s Maple Specialist, providing programming and training for NH’s maple producers. Steve currently serves on the New Hampshire Forester Licensing Board and is one of the founding board members of the Glass Museum, a non-profit arts and music organization in Peterborough.

Justin Schlawin is a Forest Ecologist with the Maine Natural Areas Program, a division within the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. Justin has expertise in identification and tracking of Maine’s most significant areas of old forest, remote sensing, and botanical inventory. Justin manages a forest inventory in Maine’s Ecological Reserves to track changes in Maine forests over time, works with public land managers towards best management of significant botanical features, conducts remote sensing models to predict the locations of Maine’s significant habitats, and contributes to MNAP’s statewide inventory of rare plants and rare and exemplary habitats. Justin previously worked in land stewardship for The Nature Conservancy and the Kennebec Land Trust. Justin graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bates College in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Ecology.

Christine Tappan is the founder and lead guide for BirchWalking, a social impact organization that “brings beings together in nature and creates safe spaces to deepen connections that promote resiliency and capacity for all to thrive and live well”. BirchWalking provides a range of nature connected experiences including guided forest therapy walks and mindfulness for individuals, families, groups, and teams in New Hampshire and beyond both in person and virtually. Christine is also certified as a Workplace Mindfulness Facilitator (CWMF) through the Mindful Leader Institute, Brown University.  A volunteer with the Old Growth Forest Network, she is a County Coordinator for Rockingham and Strafford counties in New Hampshire, leading efforts to identify and preserve old growth forests. Christine is also former Associate Commissioner of Human Service & Behavioral Health, NH Dept. of Health and Human Services, and current Chief of Strategy and External Affairs at Ascentria Care Alliance. 

Elizabeth “Liz” Thompson is a conservation ecologist and botanist living in Jericho, Vermont, where wildness is not too far away. Liz is recently retired from a 40-year career in land conservation in Vermont but remains actively involved in the work. She co-authored Wetland, Woodland, Wildland, A Guide to the Natural Communities of Vermont, as well as Vermont Conservation Design and, most recently, Wildlands in New England, Past, Present, and Future. For 20 years she taught Field Botany and Ecology at the University of Vermont. Liz’s current favorite pastime is walking in nature with a camera, finding the beauty in small and ordinary things.

Nancy Volpe is a Natural Resources Steward Volunteer for UNH Cooperative Extension.

Joel White is a retired high school physics teacher, living with his wife Jean in Lancaster, New Hampshire. Their log house is on 19+ acres of woodland overlooking the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, with Burke Mountain on the horizon. Joel’s interests, beyond being a good custodian of his woodland, include old-growth forests, Big Trees and control of invasive plant species, especially Japanese knotweed. Joel has a B.S. in Physics from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

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