Faculty

Kali Hannon is managing director for the Heart of the Rockies Initiative. Kali works from the lower Blackfoot Watershed in Montana, near the confluence of the Blackfoot and Clark Fork Rivers. She has a passion for people, working landscapes, wild places, and collaborative conservation. Kali earned a master’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Montana, where she also earned a certificate in Natural Resources Conflict Resolution. In her free time, she enjoys exploring the outdoors with her partner, Eli, their son Rye, and their bird dog, Scout.

Karen Buck is Vice President of Nonprofit Impact which radically impacts how organizations fulfill their missions and achieve results. Karen works with land trusts to create business, fundraising, and marketing plans. She has spent much of the past year helping organizations clarify strategy, recalibrate plans, and build skills and practices needed to survive rapid and unprecedented change.

Kari is Projects Branch Chief for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Kate Losey is the remote monitoring project manager for the Land Trust Alliance. She has experience with the stewardship and monitoring needs of small and regional land trusts before coming to the Alliance. Her experience with implementing remote monitoring and saving time on the reporting process using technology is critical to assisting land trusts understand the strengths and challenges of remote monitoring. She holds a master’s degree in human dimensions from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a bachelor’s degree in wildlife ecology and French from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Kate Patton has served as the executive director of the Lower Shore Land Trust since 2006. As the ED, Kate has led fundraising efforts, nonprofit administration, land conservation, stewardship, marketing and public education for the organization. Under Kate’s tenure, the organization has added nearly 9,500 acres and 61 conservation easements to its portfolio for nearly 24,000 acres of protected lands. Kate was recently appointed by Governor Hogan to the Chesapeake Bay Program Citizen Advisory Committee.

Kathleen Biggins is co-founder and president of C-Change Conversations, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting productive, non-partisan discussions about the science and effects of climate change. Kathleen led the development of the C-Change Primer, a non partisan, accessible presentation that provides a 360 degree view of climate change. The Primer has been presented to almost 15,000 people in 30 states. C-Change also hosts climate change discussions with nationally recognized scientists and business and military leaders; supports burgeoning C-Change chapters in several cities; and writes op-eds, blogs, and newsletters to help more people understand the urgency of climate change and come together to address it. Kathleen is a former journalist and advertising executive and ives in Princeton, NJ.

Growing up in New England, Kathleen always admired the beauty of our local landscape. After finishing college and earning a master’s degree in regional planning from UMass-Amherst, Kathleen transitioned to a career in land conservation. She completed a year of AmeriCorps service at Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust in Massachusetts, then worked at a regional land trust in New Hampshire before joining the team at Connecticut Farmland Trust. She loves working with farmers and landowners to ensure their land will always be available for farming.

Kathy Leavenworth, a retired consultant in interpersonal training, communications, group dynamics, strategic planning and outdoor team-building, has been involved in civic, community and educational issues for more than four decades. Leavenworth served as president of the Ohio School Boards Association and as a member of the Ohio State Board of Education. In addition to Western Reserve Land Conservancy, she serves on the boards of the Land Trust Alliance , Cuyahoga Valley National Park Conservancy, The West Geauga Educational Foundation and is president of the Geauga Humane Society’s Rescue Village.

Katie Brasted founded the Woodlands Conservancy in 2001 to preserve and restore forested wetlands that provide wildlife habitat. Her research on forested wetland recovery was included in the book, Hurricane Katrina and the Lessons of Disaster Relief. Her honors and roles include: Loyola Institute for Environmental Communication Fellow; a CitiBusiness Women of the Year; Louisiana Wildlife Federation’s Habitat Management Committee; EPA’s Urban Waters Partnership Program; Certified Louisiana Master Naturalist; FHWA Recreational Trails Program for Louisiana Advisory Committee.

Katie is a senior engineer and geomorphologist with 16 years of experience working in the river restoration and flood management fields. She is the founder of Watershed Science and Design, a small consulting firm located in Boulder, CO, that was built to focus on developing sophisticated, creative, and science-based solutions to river management problems. Katie has a master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley and was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to do post-graduate research at TU Delft in The Netherlands on the intersection of flood management and river restoration in large scale river management programs and projects Since 2014, she has been focused on assisting the State of Colorado’s 2013 flood recovery efforts and is a lead author of the State of Colorado’s Fluvial Hazard Zone Delineation Protocol. Katie understands how human actions and interventions can influence a river system-and vice versa. She has been immersed in helping communities navigate the inter-connectedness and inter-dependencies of the physical and social landscape within watersheds.

Katie Konchar is the project manager for The Nature Conservancy’s Gulf of Mexico Whole Systems Program. She has 15 years of experience in applied ecological research concerning biological diversity, climate change, land use change and habitat restoration. Katie has been implementing and managing estuarine habitat restoration and shoreline resilience projects in Florida for the last 8 years and is currently serving as the project manager for a suite of nature-based solutions under development at Tyndall Air Force Base. Katie earned a master of science in botany from University of Wisconsin and a master of science in ecological restoration from the University of Florida.

Katy McWilliams has been working in conservation and land protection in Georgia and South Carolina since 2003. She currently serves as the director of land protection of TNC-South Carolina, focusing on co-operative land projects, conservation easement portfolio management, and land trust organization coordination.

Katrina is the executive director for the Hudson Highlands Land Trust, Inc. (HHLT). Katrina holds a master’s of science in environmental policy from Bard College and a master’s of science in environmental science from Pace University. Her environmental science degree focused on land and natural resource management. Her environmental policy degree focused on Hudson Valley land trusts and their adoption and implementation of Land Trust Standards and Practices for land acquisitions and stewardship. In 2007, Katrina used her knowledge of the Standards and Practices when volunteering at the Rensselaer Land Trust – working with the board of directors to draft and submit their original accreditation application (2007). She has since taken the lead on the HHLT accreditation application (2008) and its renewal application (2013). Katrina currently serves as president of the Friends of Fahnestock and Hudson Highlands State Parks board. She is also on the Friends of North Twin Lake Park Steering Committee.

Keith Fountain has been involved with conservation real estate in Florida for more than 29 years, directly or through managed staff closing more than 4,300 real estate transactions valued at more than $880 million.  Keith spent over 19 years in the nonprofit sector before managing a law firm and consulting firm representing landowners, nonprofits and government agencies in conservation projects and nonprofit governance issues.  Keith is a frequent presenter to colleges and business gatherings on conservation real estate programs, particularly conservation easements.  Keith lives in Florida but loves to recreate in the West, particularly Alaska, where he spent 1991 as a backcountry volunteer.

Kelley Beamer serves as the executive director at the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts, and has more than 15 years experience developing strategic advocacy campaigns to advance land conservation. Prior to joining the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts, Kelley served as the advocacy and outreach manager for the Cascadia Green Building Council, where she implemented stated wide public awareness and advocacy campaigns, and managed a branch network in Portland, Bend, Klamath Falls, and Eugene. Kelley began her conservation work in Oregon in 2006 as the conservation organizer for Friends of Columbia Gorge, where she organized public support for protecting the unique values of the Gorge and advocated for Land and Water Conservation funds to support the US Forest Service land acquisition program in the Gorge.

Kelly Watkinson is the Land and Climate Program Manager with the Land Trust Alliance. Kelly coordinates the efforts of the Alliance to help land trusts protect resilient lands, mitigate climate change, and pursue renewable energy solutions. Her previous experience includes 11 years as a resource and land conservation professional working to protect and restore lands of Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Kelsey Kuhnhausen is the communications manager at the Coalition for Oregon Land Trusts, where she works alongside 30 conservation organizations across the state to bring people together to protect the natural world. She has nearly a decade of experience in nonprofit communications, strategy, and design, and has worked with a variety of organizations including Portland Audubon and Boys & Girls Clubs of Portland. Kelsey is from Idaho, and has a bachelor’s degree in communications & media production from Boise State University.

Kelsi Dew is a Princeville resident, serves as the historical outreach coordinator for the Town of Princeville and is a former AmeriCorps Member through the Conservation Trust for North Carolina. Kelsi owns a small urban homestead in Princeville, where she ties her love of history, conservation and agriculture into one space that promotes backyard food production and food sustainability.

Kent Wimmer is the coordinator for the Northwest Florida Sentinel Landscape. He is also Defenders of Wildlife’s senior Northwest Florida representative advocating for protecting landscapes and wildlife habitats. Kent has been involved in planning, advocating and protecting greenways and conservation lands in Florida for over 30 years with federal, state and local agencies and non-governmental organizations. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and he earned a master’s in environmental planning from Florida State University and a bachelor’s in natural resources from Ball State University.

Kevin McGorty has served as the director of the Tall Timbers Land Conservancy since 1994. The conservancy is a department of Tall Timbers. Founded in 1958, the mission of Tall Timbers is to foster exemplary land stewardship through research, conservation, and education. The Tall Timbers Land Conservancy (created in 1990) has worked with other conservation organizations to permanently save 40 percent of the Red Hills region of Southwest Georgia and North Florida. Kevin also served on the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance.

Kevin Tate is the project manager of the Shenandoah Valley Conservation Collaborative – a partnership of land trusts, watershed groups, regional nonprofits, and federal and state agencies working towards shared goals in water quality, agricultural vitality, and land conservation in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Kevin Tate is an alumni of the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in wildlife ecology and conservation who has worked with diverse farmers throughout the Americas.

Keymah Durden is one of the founders of Rid All Green Partners, and will soon serve as its first CEO. Keymah was born and raised in the predominantly black neighborhoods on the east side of Cleveland, which is also where Rid All operates. Rid All is one of the most successful urban farms in America, and is a strategic partner with Western Reserve Land Conservancy, on whose board he also serves. From the Kinsman neighborhood in Cleveland to Ghana in West Africa to Israel, Keymah has worked to create better communities through clean water, food production, and environmental conservation.

Kimberly Tillman joined NFLT in 2020 and serves as the O2O program coordinator. In this position she coordinates the partnerships now 26 organizations to the end result of a 100-mile long completely connected landscape of conservation lands by 2050. This wildlife corridor supports plant and animal diversity, room to roam, clean air and water, recreation, military buffers, working lands and resilience in the northeast portion of the state of Florida. Kimberly is a wildlife biologist with 17 years of experience in natural resource management, conservation and education. Kimberly was a land management specialist with the St. Johns River Water Management District where she specialized in habitat management and population recovery of threatened and endangered species like the Red-cockaded woodpecker and Florida Scrub-jay. As a private contractor she has collaborated with federal and state agencies and private landowners focusing on land conservation, habitat management, population management for listed species and educational program development. Most recently, Kimberly worked with the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville Florida to develop a program that brings butterfly gardens to Florida schools and promotes habitat and wildlife conservation with outdoor learning. Kimberly has a bachelor’s degree in biology. She is a certified prescribed burn manager, aerial ignition operator, authorized gopher tortoise agent, a trained bander for Red-cockaded woodpecker and Florida Scrub-jays as well. Kimberly and her husband have two young children that love to be outside.

Kris Larson serves as executive director for the Minnesota Land Trust, where he has worked in various capacities since 1998. The Minnesota Land Trust is a state-wide nonprofit organization with a mission to protect and restore Minnesota’s most vital natural assets. From 2003 to 2006, Mr. Larson served as the executive director of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts based in Denver, where he oversaw program delivery to more than 60 land trusts and local government conservation programs. Prior to 1998, he worked at the Brandywine Conservancy in Pennsylvania. Mr. Larson has an undergraduate degree from Carleton College and a master’s in environmental design from the University of Georgia.

Kristen Weil, manager of urban analytics for the Trust for Public Land, works to identify areas to create parks for people. Expert-informed spatial assessments identify where parks can have multiple benefits to improve community health, increase equitable park access, and help mitigate climate issues including extreme heat. Kristen is the manager of the ParkServe mapping platform, which provides planning capabilities to all urban areas across the country to help cities strategically fill gaps in their park systems.

Kyle Gray is a project partner for Throwe Environmental with expertise leading climate resilience planning and financing projects across the East Coast. Kyle leads Throwe’s work with the Southeast New England Program Network and is a Field Liaison for the National Coastal Resilience Fund and Long Island Sound Futures Fund. He holds a master’s degree in marine affairs and community planning certificate from the University of Rhode Island and is a certified Climate Change Professional.

Kylie Paul works at the Center for Large Landscape Conservation as a Road Ecologist, advancing the development and implementation of wildlife-friendly transportation policies and projects in international, federal, state, tribal, and local contexts. For over 20 years she’s worked in many sectors, including nonprofit conservation, wildlife field research, local government, consulting firms and private business. Throughout her work, she’s focused on creative, collaborative approaches to wildlife conservation and road ecology.