Our Team

Richard “Dick” Conant

Board Director, Personnel Committee Chair, Griswold Town Committee Chair Dick Conant has an undergraduate degree in Biology and Environmental Studies from Colby College and a Master’s of Science degree in Marine Science from Long Island University. He worked for 33 years in the Federal government as a marine/wetland biologist with the National Park Service, USDA-Agricultural Research Service, and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers before moving to southeast Connecticut in 1993 to manage environmental programs and supervise the Environmental Department at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton CT. Since retirement from federal service, Dick has volunteered his time with the Avalonia Land Conservancy, serving on the Board of Directors, chairing the Development Committee, and managing the Avalonia Griswold Town Committee. He also sits on the Board of the Groton Parks Foundation and volunteers as a trail steward at the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center in Stonington. Since 2021, he has chaired the Groton Shellfish Commission. In his spare time, Dick is an avid reader and a life-long runner, skier and mountain hiking/climbing enthusiast.

Scott Dawley

Board Director

Scott Dawley has a degree in forest technology from Unity College in Maine. He has worked for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for 34 years and currently holds the position of eastern district operations supervisor in the Parks & Forest division. Scott is a member of four Avalonia committees: Acquisition, Communications and Outreach, Stewardship, and the Griswold Town Committee.

James Neil Duncan

Board Vice President, Stewardship Committee Chair

Neil and his wife came to the USA from the UK in 1996, moved to Ledyard in 2003, and became US citizens in 2015. Neil earned PhDs in both chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Liverpool, UK, which prepared him for a career at Pfizer. He retired in 2017 after 35 years of working in the fields of metabolism and toxicology.

Neil grew up in a very rural part of England. He credits his father, a horticulturalist and arborist, with teaching him to appreciate the environment and understand the importance of protecting and preserving important local habitats.

In recent years, Neil and his wife have enjoyed creating a garden comprised of numerous rare and unusual perennials, shrubs and trees to sustain natural wildlife habitats for birds and pollinating insects. They enjoy hiking in local preserves as well as taking vacations in the Northeast US (particularly Acadia and other parts of Maine) and abroad to Australia and New Zealand. They marvel at the flora and natural history of these countries. Trees and flowering shrubs are Neil’s main interests in the plant kingdom; he feels fortunate to have great collections of maples, oaks, firs and spruces in our area.

As chair of Avalonia’s Ledyard Town Committee, Neil has been involved in multiple stewardship activities. The preservation of key habitats is essential to Neil for countless reasons, including providing access to these important areas for interested members of the public.

Peter Gauthier

Board Treasurer

Peter Gauthier has a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of New Haven. Peter worked at Electric Boat for 42 years, first as a pipefitter and eventually as a Manager in the Quality and Radiological Controls organizations before retiring in 2019.

Peter has been a regular at Avalonia Stewardship workdays for several years, supporting such activities as clearing invasive species, plantings, and trail development. Peter also serves on the School Building Committee in Norwich and donates platelets through the Red Cross. Peter was previously the Chair of the Canterbury Recreation Commission and was President of the Canterbury Athletic Association which ran baseball, softball, basketball, and soccer.

Peter and his wife Candy spend their time with their sons Chris and Tim and their families of five grandchildren and with friends, skiing, cycling, and hiking. Candy and Peter also like to travel and have driven to Alaska and visited most of the National Parks in the western United States.

Tobias Glaza

Director of Stewardship

With over two decades of experience, Toby brings an understanding of ecological and stewardship principles to his work at Avalonia, as well as a portfolio of field skills. He holds a B.S. in Environmental Studies from Northland College and a Masters in Botany from Connecticut College. He is an ESA certified ecologist and recently earned a graduate certificate in Environmental GIS.

Toby began his career, in the Upper Midwest, in a series of field intensive positions with the Great Lake Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission, Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, and US Forest Service. In 1997, he began work at the Mashantucket Pequot Museum & Research Center, rising to the position of senior researcher. Subsequent positions include Land Management Coordinator for the Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation and classroom science instructor at Norwich Free Academy.

Prior to joining Avalonia, Toby was the co-director of a digital humanities project at Yale University for nearly a decade, where his work emphasized collaboration, education, outreach, and project management between the institution and indigenous communities. His research areas included ethnobotany, historical Native and colonial land use, and changes in land tenure over time in southern New England.

Mark Hibbard

Board Member

Mark is a life-long resident of the Mystic-Stonington area and is retired from the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant where he worked as a senior financial analyst. He loves the outdoor life and is an avid boater, fisherman, golfer, and hiker and enjoys landscaping and gardening too. Mark has been an Avalonia Stonington Town Committee member for several years and recently became a member of the Communication and Outreach Committee.

Christopher Houlihan

Board Member, Governance Committee Chair

Chris Houlihan has been a partner in the NYC law firms of Galef & Jacobs and Putney, Twombly, Hall & Hirson and is now Of Counsel in the NYC office of Bond Schoeneck & King. Over the years, he has been a corporate litigator with a strong corporate practice representing businesses and counseling foundations, trusts, and other not-for-profit entities.

In 2022, the Stonington Board of Selectman appointed Chris to the newly formed Flood Prevention, Climate Resilience and Erosion Control Board and he serves as the Board Chair.

He is a former vice-president and trustee of Historic Stonington (formerly the Stonington Historical Society) where he led the restoration of the Palmer House Icehouse and the HMS Nimrod cannon, as well as issues with the Lighthouse Museum.

He is a former commodore of the Watch Hill Yacht Club where he planned and carried out restoring the clubhouse after Superstorm Sandy, the demolition and rebuilding of the beach cabanas, and the raising of the clubhouse to withstand future storms. He worked with the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council to carry out goals for flood prevention and erosion control, as well as planning for the enactment of the Westerly Harbor Management Plan and local dredging issues.

For the past twenty-two years, Chris has been a trustee of Suffield Academy where he serves on the Executive Committee, the Budget, Finance and Audit Committee, and chairs the Long Range Planning Committee.

In addition to Avalonia’s Governance Committee, he serves on the Acquisition, Finance, Development, Personnel and Stonington Town Committees.

Chris is a lifelong sailor. He and his wife, Nancy, live in Stonington.

Christopher Kepple

Director of Philanthropy

Christopher Kepple has spent the last decade working in documentary film and fundraising. He loves to raise money for nonprofits by getting to know stakeholders, creating innovative fundraising strategies, engaging organizational history, and designing campaigns that drive growth and change. He’s worked for some iconic local institutions including Historic Stonington, The Mystic & Noank Library, Norwich Free Academy, The James Merrill House, Green Planet Films, Irish Visions, and now Avalonia Land Conservancy.

Christopher’s guiding principle in both film and fundraising is to engage in meaningful topics that matter to audience members, patrons, and supporters. He is especially drawn to spaces where environmental and humanities topics are center stage.

Dennis Main

Board President, Northern Town Committee Chair, Finance Committee Chair

Dennis S. Main has an MBA with a concentration in finance and accounting from UCONN and experience as an auditor and as a financial manager with the State of Connecticut. He has served 4 terms as President of Avalonia Land Conservancy, Inc. and is the current Finance Committee and Northern Towns Committee Chairs. He is also licensed in Connecticut as a real estate broker and has contracted for forestry management projects with the U.S.D.A. He and his wife, Renee, reside at Mainagery Farm in Bozrah, an e-Bird hotspot. He has served on Bozrah’s Inland Wetlands and Conservation Commission, Board of Finance, and most recently chaired the Board of Assessment Appeals. As both a Connecticut and Florida Audubon Society (Sarasota and Venice Chapters) member, Dennis enjoys birding, as well as forestry, gardening, and golf in both the North and South.

Ukiah Pastor

Office Administrator

Ukiah Pastor is Avalonia’s office administrator and supports our office manager, Mary Anne Sherman. Ukiah’s experience includes project management, bookkeeping, and customer database management.

Ukiah lives in Groton. She’s an avid snowboarder who loves cooking from scratch.

Elanah Sherman

Board Secretary, Advisory Council Chair, Ad-hoc Education and Outreach Committee Chair

Elanah has been involved in the disability rights movement for about thirty-five years. In numerous positions, both paid and volunteer, she has provided Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance guidance to private nonprofits, municipalities, and agencies of State government. She also has been an advocate for legislative agendas that support the civil rights of people with disabilities. Her special interests include access to the arts and the outdoors.

In collaboration with the then-Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, Elanah organized a grassroots advocacy project called Out-Of-Doors that paired State park personnel with local people with disabilities. For about 20 years (and counting!), she has served on the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection-affiliated Open Space, Natural Heritage, and Watershed Land Acquisition Review Board as the point person on disability-related matters, a position mandated by state statute. (She is currently Secretary of the Review Board.) Elanah is also a member of the Trust for Public Land (Connecticut Chapter) Advisory Board.

To Elanah, being elected to the Avalonia Board represents an enormous privilege and a tremendous opportunity. She is working with Avalonia on developing a disability access agenda that is seamlessly integrated into all programs and activities. A resident of Norwich, she has an equally strong interest in seeing Avalonia establish a greater presence in distressed communities.

In the non-environmental domain, Elanah is a graduate of Trinity College (CT) with a Bachelor’s Degree in Religion. She is an enthusiastic hiker (generally accompanied by her two dogs); a participant in the national FrogWatch citizen-scientist program (yes, she crushes on frogs); a follower of anything and everything arts-related; and a library volunteer who organizes events related to arts and social history.

Mary Anne Sherman

Office Manager

Mary Anne is a native new Englander who has lived in Connecticut since 2003. A professional jeweler, she draws much of her inspiration from nature and especially the water. She has worked with non-profits for over 20 years, first as part of the Artists’ Cooperative Gallery of Westerly, RI (where she served variously as sales bookkeeper, regional show chairperson, and president) and most recently as an assistant bookkeeper at Sacred Heart School in Groton.

Megan Trujillo

Board Member

Megan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology with a minor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Connecticut and a Graduate Certiﬁcate in Environmental Education from Hamline University, where her work focused on policy, equity, inclusion, and community-based engagement in conservation. She is a conservation professional working in watershed restoration, green infrastructure, and environmental outreach, with experience coordinating collaborative projects, supporting land stewardship, and developing educational tools that help communities connect with the natural world. Megan also serves on the board of the Colchester Land Trust, where she supports youth engagement, land acquisition, accreditation, and community outreach. She enjoys working with others to promote conservation, grow participation, and help advance the land trust’s mission. She has worked and volunteered in environmental education and conservation for more than a decade and loves inspiring others to get involved in hands-on conservation and stewardship projects. Outside of her professional work, Megan enjoys traveling, gardening, hiking, and adventuring with her husband and their dog, Alfred.