Dorothy Heinrichs | Chair
Dorothy graduated with a degree in botany from Miami University. She has held programmatic and development positions with conservation organizations in Washington, DC, including The Conservation Foundation, American Forestry Association, The Nature Conservancy, and the American Farmland Trust. After moving with her family to New England, she became Vice President of Institutional Advancement at the Vermont Law School and recently retired from her position as Director of Patient and Family Giving at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. As the elected chair of the town Selectboard for Orange, NH, she led the town through a 1,000-year flood and a global pandemic. An avid hiker, she has climbed Cardigan Mountain 1124 times as of this writing.
Dr. Peter M. Groffman | Vice Chair
City University of New York Advanced Science Research Center and the Earth and Environmental Sciences Program at the Graduate Center
Brooklyn College Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Peter is a Professor at the City University of New York Advanced Science Research Center and the Earth and Environmental Sciences Program at the Graduate Center, and Brooklyn College Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. His research focuses on climate effects on ecosystem biogeochemical processes related to carbon and nitrogen cycles and he has been working at Hubbard Brook since 1992. Groffman was a Convening Lead Author for the 2013 U.S. National Climate Assessment Chapter on Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, a lead author for the Second (Wetlands) and Third (North America) Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Program on Climate Change (IPCC). He was President of the Ecological Society of America (2025 – 2026).
Roger Larochelle | Secretary
Roger joined the HBRF Board in 2019, serving as Secretary and chair of the Governance Committee. He is the former Executive Director of the Squam Lakes Conservation Society and the Mayhew Program. He currently serves as Town Moderator of Hebron, NH and as School Moderator for the Pasquaney School District. Roger is a graduate of UNH with a BA in Anthropology with a concentration in archaeology and geomorphology. He is spending his retirement time being active and outdoors, and in service to others. He lives in an old farm house in Hebron, NH with his wife Jennifer and occasionally their three children and their growing families.
Dr. Matthew P. Ayres
Dartmouth College
Matt is a professor of biological sciences at Dartmouth College where he teaches ecology and trains students in the nature and practice of ecological research. Matt has been a research mentor for many Dartmouth undergraduates and Ph.D. students. Matt was co-chair of Dartmouth’s graduate program in ecology and evolutionary biology from 2002 – 2015 and co-chair of the expanded graduate program in ecology, evolution, environment and society from 2015 – 2025. Matt has been conducting research in the Hubbard Brook Forest since the 1990s and is a co-investigator in the current NSF award for long term ecological research at Hubbard Brook. Matt’s research contributions include studies of how weather, forest management, and trade influence the distribution and abundance of forest insects. Matt is also faculty director of the Dartmouth foreign studies program in Biology and senior faculty fellow in the Institute of Arctic Studies at Dartmouth.
Dr. Alexandra "Alix" Contosta
University of New Hampshire
Alix is a Research Associate Professor and the Associate Director of the Earth Systems Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. She is also faculty within the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. Her research explores the interactions between climate, land use, and ecosystem processes across northern temperate and boreal landscapes. Her teaching includes courses in environmental science, soil science, biogeochemistry, and winter ecology. For the past five years, Alix has served on the Science Alliance for Protect Our Winters, a Boulder-based non-profit advocating for climate action. During winter, Alix spends as much time as possible on cross-country skis. In the summer, she is a long-distance open water swimmer enjoying the rivers, lakes and ocean waves of the New Hampshire seacoast.
Tyler Edwards
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
Tyler is a lifelong learner and storyteller who envisions a future where informed research drives changes in policy to better protect our planet. She believes that sustainable agriculture is an essential part of that future. She currently works as a Grassroots Advocacy Coordinator for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition in Washington, DC, where she empowers organizers around the country to take action to change federal policy. Her past involvements with Hubbard Brook and the Research Foundation include helping to establish an ongoing record of aquatic insect emergence at the forest, creating a podcast about the research process at Hubbard Brook, joining the inaugural cohort of the Young Voices of Science Program, and participating in the 2021 Youth Climate Town Hall.
Kathleen Hubbard
Dartmouth Health, Geisel School of Medicine
Kathy is the Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations for Dartmouth Health and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Prior to joining Dartmouth, she held fundraising roles at The Trust for Public Land and Health Leads. Before her shift to a career in fundraising, Kathy served as Deputy Director of the California Ski Industry Association, where she collaborated frequently with the U.S Forest Service and co-led a joint review of the partnership between the ski industry and U.S. Forest Service in California/Region 5. Kathy holds an MA in Philosophy from Tufts University, where she specialized in Bioethics, and a BA in History from Dartmouth College. She lives in Lebanon, NH.
Ali Jackson
Lake Champlain Basin Program
Ali lives in northern Vermont, with her two boys and husband, exploring the Cold Hollow Mountains and the Eastern Greens—hiking, biking, swimming, skiing, and just generally playing in the dirt and snow. She leads education and public engagement programs for the Lake Champlain Basin Program based in Grand Isle, VT cultivating stewardship and connection to lands and waters across New York, Vermont, and Québec.
Dr. Gene E. Likens
Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Gene is Founding Director, President Emeritus, and Distinguished Senior Ecologist Emeritus at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies. He is best known for his discovery of acid rain in North America with colleagues, for co-founding the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study, and for founding the Institute of Ecosystem Studies. He is an educator and advisor at state, national, and international levels. He has been an advisor to two governors in New York State and one in New Hampshire, as well as one US President. He currently holds faculty positions at Cornell, Rutgers, SUNY Albany, the University of Connecticut, and Yale, and was awarded a Chair as Albert Einstein Professor from the Chinese Academy of Science and also named Honorary Professor at Jinan University, Guangzhou, China. Gene has been awarded eleven Honorary Doctoral Degrees. In addition to being elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, he has been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Austrian Academy of Sciences, and an Honorary Member of the British Ecological Society. He was awarded the 2001 National Medal of Science, presented at The White House; and in 2003 was awarded the Blue Planet Prize (with FH Bormann) from the Asahi Glass Foundation, considered to be the Nobel Prize of Ecology. He is the author, co-author, or editor of 26 books and more than 600 scientific papers. Gene divides his time between Clinton Corners, NY, Storrs, CT, and Campton, NH
Dr. Suzanne Pierre
Critical Ecology Lab
Suzanne Pierre is a forest ecologist and biogeochemist focused on the plant and soil interface under changing environmental conditions. She is focused on nutrient and carbon cycling through plant and soil microbial communities experiencing human-driven environmental change from the plot to the regional scale.
Pierre received a Doctor of Philosophy in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University and an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies from New York University. As an undergraduate, she was a research assistant in Dr. Peter Groffman's Lab, working at Hubbard Brook. As a Ph.D. student, she conducted parts of her dissertation research in Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and Bartlett Experimental Forest. She also completed a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellowship at UC Berkeley. Suzanne Pierre is a 2022 National Geographic Wayfinder Award recipient and a National Geographic Explorer.
Christopher Rimmer
Emeritus, Vermont Center for Ecostudies
Chris Rimmer is a co-founder and Director Emeritus of the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, a non-profit wildlife conservation group in Norwich, VT. He completed undergraduate studies in Wildlife Biology at the University of Vermont and graduate work in Ecology and Behavioral Biology at the University of Minnesota, where he studied Yellow Warblers on the remote coast of James Bay, ON. Prior to graduate studies, Chris was an itinerant field biologist, with stints in Peru, Ellesmere Island, James Bay, coastal Massachusetts (Manomet), and Antarctica. Much of his work over the past 3+ decades has focused on full life-cycle conservation research of Bicknell’s Thrush, from mountains of New York and New England to cloud forests of the Dominican Republic and Cuba. When not chasing birds or butterflies, Chris spends as much time as possible salt water fly-fishing, rock gardening, swimming, hiking, and grandparenting.
Dr. Lindsey Rustad
U.S. Forest Service, retired
Lindsey is a Senior Research Ecologist, now retired from USDA Forest Service. She also serves as Faculty Associate at the University of Maine. Her areas of expertise include biogeochemistry, climate change, advanced environmental sensor systems, and the integration of Art and Science. Her recent work includes large-scale extreme weather experiments in forest ecosystems. She was the USDA Team Leader at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest for 15 years and remains involved in numerous past and ongoing research activities at the forest. She is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America; has received numerous awards in science, education and outreach; serves as a Lyda Hill If/Then Ambassador and role model for women and girls in STEM, and has contributed to Art and Science exhibits around the world. She currently lives in rural Maine with her husband and outdoor writer, Lou Zambello, and enjoys flyfishing, adventure travel, and lots of time with her three adult children, and grandchildren.
April Salas
EFI Foundation
April Salas is founding executive director of the Revers Center for Energy, Sustainability and Innovation at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business. Additionally, April is the Town of Hanover, NH's inaugural Chief Sustainability Officer and founding chair of Community Power Coalition ofNH (CPCNH). CPCNH is a joint power agency (CCA) akin to Silicon Valley Clean Energy and Marin Clean Energy and became the state’s 2nd largest utility upon incorporation in October 2021. April brings nearly 20 years of public and private sector experience in global and domestic energy markets, rooted in energy systems analysis. Her broad industry knowledge covers a range of energy domains, including electric power, liquid fuels, natural gas, energy finance, distributed energy resources, technology integration, resilience, cyber security, energy equity, natural capital, ESG and sustainability.
Ian Halm | Advisor
U.S. Forest Service
Ian is the Site Manager and a Forester for the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. He has been working for the US Forest Service and Hubbard Brook since 1990. In this role he keeps track of research that is going on, designs research projects, ensures the real-time data is streaming to the office, and ensures all the infrastructure within the Forest is maintained and functional. He ensures that the long-term data is collected in the most accurate and efficient manner possible. Ian’s main science interests involve how to measure effects of snow and ice on ecosystems.
A collateral duty of his job is to suppress forest fires throughout the country and has done this work in areas from north of the arctic circle to California and dozens of other states. Ian has also sailed all seven seas and has been to all of the continents. His interests include Timber framing, Telemark skiing, canoeing, biking, and tree cutting. Working at Hubbard Brook is the best job in the world and Ian loves to get to work every day and contribute to the valuable science that takes place.