About Conservation NH
Our mission is to enrich the quality of life in New Hampshire by improving the environment and conserving natural resources.
We accomplish this by:
- Convening the state’s environmental and scientific communities to develop environmental policy priorities.
- Communicating our environmental priorities by engaging citizens and businesses.
- Reporting the votes and actions of elected officials on environmental issues and holding them accountable.
- Educating New Hampshire citizens how they can best participate in the electoral process to advance environmental policy priorities.
We believe that conservation issues are non-partisan, and that all Granite Staters care about our environment and quality of life. Our job is to help link that love of New Hampshire to the public policy decisions being made in Washington, D.C., Concord, or our town halls, and to the personal decisions being made around the kitchen table.
Conservation NH achieves this task in a number of ways. First and foremost, we seek to educate people on the numerous ways protecting the environment affects our daily lives. Conservation efforts have and will continue to save a favorite hiking or fishing spot, ensure a safe supply of local food, or give the right incentives to become more energy efficient.
This education encourages people to take action, especially when conservation efforts are threatened. We work to ensure that the public is aware of the policy discussions underway at the national, state, and local levels. We help them to get engaged in the process and prevent their quality of life from coming under attack.
Conservation NH also engages the diverse state environmental community. We convene the many organizations dedicated to protecting New Hampshire’s natural resources, and assist them in developing policy priorities.
Conservation NH is leading the charge in the state for big picture environmental advocacy.
Board of Directors
Roger Stephenson, Chair
Ken Colburn
Michele Goldsmith
Tom Gross
Charles Levesque
Thomas Masland
Rick Russman
Advisers
Elizabeth Hager
James Bassett
Susan Arnold
Bruce Clendenning
Staff
Jim O’Brien, Executive Director
Susie Hackler, Director of Development
Aaron Goulette, Federal Policy Coordinator (Heat Is on Campaign)
Mike O’Meara, New Media Director
Interns
Paulson Edum, Southern New Hampshire University
Nathaniel Boesch, Southern New Hampshire University
Michael Samuels, Hampshire College
Biographies
Roger Stephenson, Chair of Conservation NH
Roger is the Executive VP of Programs for Clean Air – Cool Planet, an organization committed to finding and promoting solutions to end global warming. Roger was national field director for the League of Conservation Voters and provided campaign support to environmental leaders in both major parties running for congress. He later developed the LCV Education Fund and was its first executive director. Roger worked in both Clinton-Gore administrations under Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and the Director of the National Park Service from 1995-1999 as an advisor on communications and external relations. He was the Interior representative to the Council on Environmental Quality in 1998 and 1999, where he managed program development and stakeholder relations for President Clinton’s American Heritage River initiative. At the end of 1999 Roger returned to New England to serve non-profits, government and businesses through private practice in public relations.
Ken Colburn
After serving as Executive Director of the Northeast States for Coordinated Air Use Management, Mr. Colburn started Symbiotic Strategies, an independent consultancy to pursue his interests in climate change, energy, public policy, and the intersection of environmental and economic opportunity. Currently, Ken is also Environmental Policy Director at Stonyfield Farms. Previously, Mr. Colburn led the Air Resources Division of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES), helping to make that state a leader in reducing air pollution and greenhouse gases. During this tenure, Mr. Colburn led climate change efforts in the national air directors’ organization, representing the states at many gatherings of the UNFCCC process, including Kyoto. Prior to joining NHDES, Mr. Colburn was Vice President of Energy and Environmental Policy at the Business & Industry Association of New Hampshire, representing the state’s business community on environmental and energy matters in legislative and regulatory forums. Mr. Colburn holds a B.S. degree in mathematics from M.I.T. and M.B.A. and M.Ed. degrees from the University of New Hampshire.
Tom Masland
Tom is an attorney at Ransmeier & Spellman where he represents both landowners and conservation organizations in land protection projects and conservation transactions. Tom is a frequent writer and lecturer on conservation easements and estate planning topics to professionals as well as the general public. Tom is a member of the boards of the Squam Lakes Conservation Society, and the Lakes Region Advisory Board of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation. Tom also is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, and was the founding Chair of the Elder Law Section of the New Hampshire Bar Association. Born in Hanover, New Hampshire on July 17, 1951, Tom graduated from Princeton University and received his law degree from the University of Maine. Tom lives in Canterbury with his wife Sylvia Bates, a land conservation professional, and has three children. Tom and Sylvia enjoy travel, hiking, canoeing, skiing and gourmet cooking.
Rick Russman, Chair of Conservation NH Voter Center
Rick is an original founder of Conservation NH. He practiced law for more than 35 years in Exeter and served as a New Hampshire State Senator for ten years, from 1990 to 2000. He was a founder of the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators with over 700 members nationwide. Rick is very active in the NH conservation community, serving on the policy advisory committee for the Forest Society, a board member of the Residential Ratepayer Advisory Counsel at the Office of Consumer Advocacy at the PUC, a board member of the South East Land Trust of NH and chairman of the Friends of Kingston Open Space. Rick is a National Outings Leader for the Sierra Club leading back packing trips throughout the South West and the Rocky Mountains. He also leads service trips for Wilderness Volunteers. If Rick is not kayaking, biking, or playing in the White Mountains, he’s cutting cord wood for next year’s winter.
Michele Goldsmith
Dr. Goldsmith has a Ph.D in Biological Anthropology and has been studying the behavioral ecology of gorillas in both the Congo and Uganda since 1991. As a National Geographic researcher, she has been examining the role of tourism on the behavior and well-being of endangered mountain gorillas. Her main interests are in animal behavior, conservation and ethics. Currently, she is an associate professor at Southern New Hampshire University and teaches anthropology and environmental science.
Tom Gross
Tom is the founding partner of the management consultancy, Genesis Consulting Group, which he founded in Geneva, Switzerland in 1990. With partners in Holland and Canada and associates in Europe, North America and Latin America, Genesis guides and facilitates organizational change and leadership effectiveness processes and programs with multinational corporations world-wide, as well as, not-for-profit organizations and multi-stakeholder networks. Tom is a member of the Board of Directors of the J. William and Harriet Fulbright Center of Washington D.C. devoted to international peace and education and the Upper Saco Valley Land Trust, Conway, N.H. devoted to local conservation. Tom received his Ed.D. from Harvard University in organizational behavior; his M.A. from Yale University in organizational behavior and his B.A. from Princeton University in psychology.
Charles Levesque
Charlie is founder and President of Innovative Natural Resource Solutions, LLC (INRS). INRS is a forest and natural resource consulting firm with offices in New Hampshire and Maine. Charlie has nearly 30 years of professional expertise and experience in the private, non-profit and government natural resource sectors. Prior to starting his own consulting firm in 1994, he was executive director of the Northern Forest Lands Council (NFLC), a non-profit group created by the Congress and the states of Maine, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont to develop forest policy recommendations for the 26 million-acre Northern Forest region. Charlie was also director of the Trust for New Hampshire Lands. Charlie also served as executive director of the New Hampshire Timberland Owners Association. He holds a B.F.S. in forest resources from the University of New Hampshire and is a 1995 Leadership New Hampshire graduate. He is a Certified Environmental Management Systems Lead Auditor and a Society of American Foresters Certified Forester and NH licensed forester. He serves on numerous local, state and regional natural resource and civic boards and was the elected town moderator in Deering, NH for five years. His outdoor recreational interests have resulted in bicycle rides across the United States and runs and bike climbs up the northeast’s highest peak. His Old Pound Road Sugar House is a producer of fine New Hampshire maple syrup. He and his wife have two children and reside in Antrim, New Hampshire.
Elizabeth Hager
Elizabeth Hager is Executive Director of the United Way of Merrimack County in Concord. She has been working in that position since 1996 after years of volunteerism, including roles as both president of the board and campaign chair of the United Way. Ms. Hager has served on the boards of directors of many organizations including the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, the Concord YMCA, Concord Child and Family Services, the Friends Program and Steering Committee of the NH Child Advocacy Network. She founded and chaired the New Hampshire Women’s Lobby and served on the New Hampshire Commission on the Status of Women. She is a director of Lincoln Financial Variable Funds and formerly served on the boards of CFX and TDBank North for New Hampshire. Ms. Hager was in public service for almost three decades: she was first elected to the New Hampshire Legislature in 1972 and served for 13 terms. Ms. Hager was also a Concord City Councilor for many years, serving as the city’s first female mayor from 1988 to 1990. She and her husband, Dennis Hager, have two married daughters and three grandchildren.
James Bassett
Jim lives with his family in Canterbury and is an attorney at the Concord law firm of Orr & Reno. He represents clients in land use matters before town and state boards, and is a trial lawyer with experience in both federal and state courts. Jim has represented towns and landowners in regard to land use issues including the interpretation and enforcement of conservation easements, the permitting of docks and cell towers, and the enforcement of state and local land use and environmental regulations. Jim has served in both state and local government: for close to a decade he was a member of the State’s Rivers Management Advisory Committee (RMAC) overseeing the State’s river protection program. He was a long-time member of both the Board of Selectmen and the Planning Board in Canterbury, serving as chairman of both, and he is currently a member of the Canterbury Conservation Commission. During his tenure with the town, Jim has participated in successful efforts to preserve thousands of environmentally sensitive acres in Canterbury, including many miles of shoreline along the Merrimack River. Jim is currently a member of the Board of Overseers at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, recently served as chairman of the 2009 United Way Campaign in Merrimack County, and was a long-time member of the Board of Trustees at the Capital Center for the Arts in Concord. Jim and his wife, Ellen, live on an old dairy farm in Canterbury with their three children and an ever-changing mix of animals, including dogs, cats, horses, chickens, and a pig named Peanut. Jim enjoys hiking, biking, skiing, cutting and splitting wood, running marathons and the road race up Mount Washington, and traveling in remote and beautiful areas of the world.
Susan Arnold
Susan joined the Appalachian Mountain Club as Director of Conservation in May 2003, where she oversees AMC’s trails, research, and conservation policy programs. From 1997 to 2002, Susan served as Policy Director for Governor Jeanne Shaheen. Susan also has worked in Washington, DC for a US Senator, and as a lobbyist on smoking and health issues. Susan currently serves as Board Chair for NARAL Pro-Choice NH, and chairs the Zoning Board of Adjustment for her town of Strafford. In addition to throwing tennis balls for her golden retriever, Susan enjoys walking/hiking, swimming, kayaking, and cross-country skiing. Inside sports include reading and cooking, and increasingly, yoga.
Bruce Clendenning
Bruce Clendenning has a background in conservation and environmental policy, with more than a decade in the field. He has been the Policy Director for the Northern Forest Alliance for the past three years, where he has focused on federal conservation funding, sustainable forestry policy, and efforts to ensure and build community economic connections to their local forests and other natural resources, throughout the Northern Forest region stretching from the Adirondacks and Tug Hill in New York, across Vermont and New Hampshire, and all the way to the Downeast Region of Northern Maine. Prior to that, Bruce led the effort at Conservation New Hampshire to ensure climate change and renewable energy were featured issues in the New Hampshire Presidential Primaries in 2008. He has also served in the Policy Department of the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Superfund Programs Section of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. Bruce has a Masters in Resource and Environmental Policy from the George Washington University and completed two majors in his BA program at Brandeis University.
Staff Profiles
Jim O’ Brien, Executive Director
Jim has served as Conservation New Hampshire’s executive director since 2006. Jim has over a decade of direct political and campaign experience, serving in leadership positions for local, state and national campaigns. He has extensive experience in management, coalition building and fundraising for political organizations and non-profits. In 2002, Jim served as the campaign manager of the Gordon Humphrey for Governor campaign, where he effectively managed a staff of over 30 and a $3 million budget. Jim also served as the development director for the American Red Cross in Concord, raising over $2 million for a capital campaign. Jim is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, where he studied political science, history and economics. Jim is a selectman in the Hopkinton and was past chair of Leadership Greater Concord. In 2007, Jim was named one of New Hampshire’s forty leaders under 40 by the Manchester Union Leader. Jim lives in Contoocook with his wife and three children.
Susie Hackler, Director of Development
Susie is a Peterborough, New Hampshire native and recently moved back to the area. As an undergraduate, she attended Harvard and McGill University with a degree in psychology. Concentrating on medicine and health care, she has worked in various health-related settings, including an international consulting firm and the federal government. She went on to study public health and received a master’s degree in public health and epidemiology from Yale University. With an interest in the intersection of public health and the environment, she studied environmental law and received her JD from Vermont Law School. There, she became a Schweitzer Fellow and received a Rubin Grant to work with a mobile legal organization studying health care issues among women in the most rural corners of Vermont. She lives with her husband Jason in a 1790’s farmhouse – both of which keep her busy and having fun.
Aaron Goulette, Federal Policy Coordinator (Heat is On campaign)
Aaron is a life-long New Hampshire resident originally from the state’s northernmost city, Berlin. He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science from the University of New Hampshire in Durham. Aaron has an in-depth working knowledge of power structures and political process in New Hampshire. He has experience at the local, state and national levels with political candidates, parties, organizations and issue advocacy groups. He is a veteran of two presidential campaigns and has worked with candidates in eight other states.
Mike O’Meara, New Media Director
Mike is a native of the state’s largest city Manchester, and a life-long resident of New Hampshire. He attended the University of New Hampshire, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science in 2002 and a Master’s Degree in Management of Technology in 2004. Before volunteering with the Education Fund, Mike worked at Raytheon as part of the company’s Enterprise Preparedness Program. In this role, he helped manage all aspects of the company’s emergency preparedness and crisis management activities. When not sitting in front of a computer, Mike tries to spend as much time as possible outdoors.
Nathaniel Boesch, Intern
After moving between various states throughout his childhood, Nate migrated from Colorado to the great Granite State in 2006, where he completed his secondary education at Concord High School in 2007. After briefly studying anthropology at the University of Vermont, Nate transferred to Southern New Hampshire University, where he is currently a senior in the Honors Program pursuing a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science and Creative Writing and English, with a minor in Environmental Law and Politics. While at Southern New Hampshire University, Nate was one of four students who founded the Environmentally Sustainable Students organization and is currently on the executive board of the Outing Club. Nate has also assisted with the World Affairs Council of New Hampshire’s annual symposiums and spent six months studying international law and politics in The Hague, Netherlands. When not living in Manchester during the school year, Nate resides in Henniker. He enjoys hiking, biking, skiing, reading and random road trips, each of which hopefully gets him closer to discovering the meaning of life.
Michael Samuels, Intern
Michael is a Deerfield, New Hampshire native, and a recent graduate of Concord High School. He is a second-year student at Hampshire College, in Amherst, MA, where he studies writing and a little bit of everything else. He also works for Hampshire’s Communications Office, writing articles about the college, its faculty, students, and alumni. During the summer he sculls out of the Amoskeag Boathouse in Hooksett, and plants, weeds, trellises, mounds, harvests, and generally plays in the dirt on the Bee Thankful Farm CSA in Deerfield.
