Dorothy Heinrichs | Chair
Dartmouth Health
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. She now serves 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.
Charley Driscoll | Vice Chair
Syracuse University
Charley is a Distinguished and University Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Syracuse University. He received his PhD from Cornell University. Charley's research addresses the effects of disturbance on forest, freshwater, and marine ecosystems, including air pollution (acid and mercury deposition), land-use, and climate change. He has been a principal investigator and researcher at Hubbard Brook for the past 45 years. He has testified at US Congressional and state legislative committee hearings, and served on many local, national, and international committees. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He lives with his wife, Kim, in Skaneateles, NY.
Michael Shoob | Treasurer
Michael was the Executive Director of The Hitchcock Foundation at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. He retired in 2012 after leading the Foundation for 26 years, and prior to that taught elementary school. He graduated from the San Francisco State University with a BA in geology and received an MA in curriculum development from the University of Wyoming. He is a cofounder of the Good Neighbor Health Clinic, a free medical and dental clinic in White River Junction, VT, and has served on the boards of a number of health-related non-profits. He lives with his wife, Judy Yocom, in Thetford, VT.
John Smitka | Secretary
John is a practicing attorney and a partner at Signal Ridge Capital Partners,Framingham, MA. John received his MBA from the Boston College Carroll School of Management in finance and securities analysis. He began his investment career as a portfolio manager for a large Rhode Island bank that is now part of Bank of America. He returned to Boston College to earn a law degree and enjoyed a successful career as an attorney with the Department of the Navy, as senior counsel for Boston Edison (now Eversource), corporate general counsel for Eastern Utilities Associates (now National Grid), and as a partner with McDermott, Will & Emery, Boston. John attended Colgate University where he was a dual major in history and international relations. After Colgate, John served as a destroyer officer in the Navy with a rank of lieutenant. John lives in Wellesley, MA with his wife, Amy Bormann (daughter of Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study co-founder Herb Bormann). Daughter Abigail graduated Trinity College and Harvard (M.Ed) and works as the Major Gifts and Campaign officer for the New England Conservatory of Music. Son Andrew resides in a group home in Salisbury, NH. John enjoys rowing, sailing, and squash.
Alexandra "Alix" Contosta
University of New Hampshire
Alix Contosta is an ecosystem ecologist who explores fundamental topics in ecology and biogeochemistry within the context of societal grand challenges. Key themes of her research program include changing winters and changing seasonality, declining resilience in natural and human systems, and interactions between land use, land management, and climate in agricultural systems. Alix uses a combination of field experimentation, environmental sensing, data and synthesis to pursue her research agenda. In addition to research, Alix also dedicates her time to teaching, mentoring, public engagement, and the advancement of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in ecosystem science.
Tyler Edwards
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
Tyler is a lifelong learner and storyteller who envisions a future where community informed research drives systematic 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 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, growing through the Young Voices of Science Program, and participating in the 2021 Youth Climate Town Hall. As a member of the Board of Trustees, she hopes to build networks of support for young scientists and encourage Hubbard Brook researchers to connect with their communities.
Ali Jackson
Sciencenter
Ali works for the Sciencenter in Ithaca, NY, where she directs the museum's local education efforts, both onsite and in collaboration with community-based organizations. She also leads the Sciencenter's participation in national projects, including for the National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Net), and leads a multi-organizational education development team, contributes to project leadership and STEM education professional development, and serves as the Northeast Regional Hub for NISE Net. Ali lives in northern Vermont, with her two young children and husband. They've spent the past year and half exploring the Cold Hollow Mountains and the Eastern Greens—hiking, biking, swimming, skiing, and just generally playing in the dirt and snow.
Roger Larochelle
Roger is Executive Director of the Squam Lakes Conservation Society (since 2003). Roger joined the HBRF Board in 2019, and now chairs the governance committee. He grew up in Manchester, NH, but was always drawn to the Lakes Region and White Mountains. He is a graduate of UNH with a BA in anthropology with a concentration in archeology and geomorphology. Roger previously served as Executive Director of the Mayhew Program for at-risk boys and as a land surveyor and cartographer. He serves as the Moderator and on countless committees in Hebron, NH, living in an old farmhouse with his wife Jennifer and, occasionally, their children Grace, Alex, and Chloe.
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, and Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Connecticut. 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 recently 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. Using critical social theory and ecological theory to inform study design, her research ultimately aims to demonstrate the relationship between social inequality, environmental perturbations, and biogeochemical outcomes across scales. She is the founder and Executive Director of the Critical Ecology Lab, an independent research institution supporting scientists, students, and marginalized communities addressing human-driven environmental change. .
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.
Nicholas Rodenhouse
Wellesley College
Nick is a retired professor from Wellesley College. At Hubbard Brook he was a part of the avian ecology research group for 20 years and became very proficient at finding the nests of black-throated blue warblers. He continues to work with his Hubbard Brook colleagues publishing research about birds, insects and the forests that sustain them. He has a particular interest in the effects of climate change on birds. When not doing research he enjoys woodworking, repairing almost anything, and restoring old classic stereo gear and speakers—so he can sit with a good book and listen to jazz. His wife Marianne usually tells him to turn the volume down.
April Salas
Microsoft
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.
Anant Sundaram
Dartmouth College
Anant is a finance professor at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business. His expertise is in business valuation, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, and assessing the impact of the emerging climate economy on companies (and vice versa). He has published widely in law, finance, and management journals, as well as in the popular press. Anant pioneered numerous MBA and executive education courses, including the first course on business and climate change in a US business school. He is a founding member of the Foundation for Advancement of Research in Finance, was Faculty Director of the Tuck Environmental Sustainability Forum, was on the advisory board of The Energy and Resources Institute, and a member of a National Academy of Sciences steering committee on climate education. He is co-editor of the Handbook of Business and Climate Change (Edward Elgar Publishing, forthcoming December 2021). He is a faculty affiliate at Tuck's Revers Center for Energy, its Center for Business, Government and Society, and Dartmouth's Irving Institute of Energy and Society. He created "Fossil Fuel Beta" (FFß), a metric to measure the stock price impact of a company's exposure to fossil fuel price changes and emissions risks. Anant lives in Hanover, NH, with Faith Beasley.
Harriet Van Vleck
Harriet is a New Hampshire native and interned with the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation while in college. She graduated from Bowdoin College with a BA in geology and environmental studies. In part triggered by her experience with HBRF, she pursued graduate research focusing on land management effects on nutrient cycling, primarily in agricultural systems. She received her PhD in ecology from the University of Minnesota and then continued to work with colleagues there and at The Nature Conservancy on the implementation of a statewide prairie conservation plan. Her work focused on the ecological and economic impacts of transitions in land use and land cover. Harriet has maintained an interest in science education and effective communication of science through her teaching and research and on the HBRF board. She currently works with the Merrymeeting Food Council, a project of multiple nonprofits in MidCoast Maine, where she lives with her husband and their son.
John Campbell | Advisor
John is a Research Ecologist for the USDA Forest Service and the Project Leader for the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. He received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the University of New Hampshire, Department of Natural Resources, in 1989 and 1995, respectively, and his PhD from the State University of New York - College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 2006. John’s research focuses on understanding ecosystem response to both natural and human disturbances, and how environmental change impacts hydrological, biological and chemical processes in forest watersheds. His areas of expertise are in air pollution, forest harvesting, ice storms, soil freezing, and drought. John has published more than 100 peer-reviewed research papers, and is a member of the American Geophysical Union, Ecological Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America.