Tom Hanna, Westmoreland (President)
After graduating from Dartmouth College (where he played center field for the baseball team that went to the College World Series), Tom began his career as a newspaper reporter. He then attended Boston College Law School and has practiced law in Keene for nearly three decades, concentrating his practice in the area of land use. He has represented several landowners who have donated conservation easements, which he has done himself on his woodlot in Chesterfield.
Tom is a past member of the Board of Governors of the NH Bar Association and of the Supreme Court Professional Conduct Committee. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the Monadnock United Way, was a ten-year member of the Westmoreland Planning Board, and serving his second stint on the Conservancy's Board of Trustees. He is an avid hiker, tennis player, and local baseball historian. Tom and his wife, Elke, have three sons.
Ken Stewart, Keene (Vice President)
Ken has proven his financial management acumen as a dedicated member of the Conservancy's Finance Committee for several years. While serving on the committee, he was an extremely helpful advisor throughout the restructuring of the Conservancy's dedicated funds and investments. A former MARKEM executive, Ken is now employed by the Putnam family in their 1911 Office in Keene. Ken and his wife, Mary Lou Caffrey (a Keene attorney who has frequently represented both the Conservancy and landowners in conservation transactions), have been loyal supporters of the Monadnock Conservancy for many years.
Mike Krinsky, Marlborough (Treasurer)
Mike is president of The Mountain Corporation, a socially responsible and environmentally friendly wholesale T-shirt manufacturing company. He and his wife Jenny have lived in New Hampshire for over 30 years and in Marlborough for 25. Instrumental in land protection issues in Marlborough, Mike chaired the Zoning Board of Adjustment for several years and the Conservation Commission for about 15 years. He currently chairs the Open Space Committee and, additionally, is a trustee with The Nature Conservancy, New Hampshire Chapter.
Elizabeth Story Wright, Dublin (Secretary)
Story comes to the board of the Monadnock Conservancy with a strong array of service on other non-profit boards. She has served on the Monadnock Family Services Board for six years, two as chair. In 1975, she helped form and chaired The Harrisville School (now the Harrisville Children 's Center); served six years on the the ConVal School Board, two as chair; and chaired the Supervisory Union Board (ConVal and Jaffrey/Rindge). She has served on the boards of the Peterborough Players, Sharon Arts Center (eight years with six as treasurer), Cheshire Medical Center and Foundation (nine years, two years each as chair), and the Hospice Board prior to its merger with Home Health Care.
She served eight years on the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Board, was a founder and served four years on the Monadnock Community Foundation Board, served eight years on the Monadnock United Way Board (two years as chair and three years on the Allocation Committee), served on the New Hampshire Public Television Board (eight years), and was on the founding RiverMead Board.
Story and her husband Tom live in Dublin, where her hobbies include horseback riding, gardening, and reading.
Suzanne Whittemore, Swanzey (Immediate Past President)
A native of the Keene area, Suzanne recently retired from Keene State College after more than 18 years in technical services and project management. She received her B.A. in History from Keene State, and, during the completion of her degree work, she wrote and published an historic guide to Cheshire County, In the Shadow of Monadnock. Suzanne is also a graduate of the HERS Leadership Program at Wellesley College and the Monadnock Leadership Program.
In the early 1990s, she served as chair of the Land Conservation Investment Program Swanzey Task Force, which successfully preserved four important Swanzey properties. She has served on the Swanzey Open Space Advisory Committee (a model for other towns developing open space plans), Swanzey Open Space Committee, as well as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Historical Society of Cheshire County, Swanzey BikePed Committee, HHCS Hospice volunteer, and a variety of on-campus and professional committees and organizations.
Victoria Reck Barlow, Swanzey
Victoria and her husband, Bruce, live on Honey Hill, 120 acres of LCIP-conserved forest with public hiking trails in central Swanzey. A founding member of the Swanzey Open Space Committee and its chair for many years, she is the Town’s assessing coordinator. She holds a master’s degree in science teaching from Antioch New England Graduate School and a Certificate of Excellence in Handspinning from the Handweavers Guild of America.
Victoria enjoys growing vegetables, managing the extensive perennial gardens on the property, and harvesting firewood with her working steers.
Karen Bennett, Antrim
Karen is the UNH Cooperative Extension Specialist, providing education to private landowners, land managers, conservation volunteers, and public decision makers. Prior to this, she was the Hillsborough County and Merrimack County Forester. Karen has served on the NH Forester Licensing Board and the boards of NH Project Learning Tree and Beaver Brook Association.
Stephen Gehlbach, Jaffrey
Stephen is Dean Emeritus of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he served for sixteen years. He continues to teach epidemiology and conduct research on osteoporosis at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester.
Stephen now lives the "semi-retired life" in Jaffrey where his wife, Carol's, family has enjoyed summers since 1949. He is also active with the boards of the Sharon Arts Center and The Peterborough Players. He devotes spare time to gardening, walking, and gazing at Monadnock. A consuming project is capturing the seasons of the mountain and its environs with his digital camera.
Kenneth Goebel, Marlborough
Following the completion of his degree in education at SUNY Cortland, Ken spent 21 years as a YMCA director in upstate New York and in New Hampshire. His transition from YMCA work to higher education fundraising began in 1994 when a Y campaign volunteer asked him to help raise money for Utica College of Syracuse University, where he was a trustee. Ken has since worked for Colgate University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Connecticut, and now as director of development for Keene State College.
Throughout his work, Ken has maintained a love of the land and an appreciation for the environment. He looks forward to sharing his passion and interest for the Earth through his involvement with the Monadnock Conservancy. Ken is an avid climber and hiker and often bushwhacks his way up Monadnock from his home. You can also find him hanging off the Hewes Hill ledges at Tippin Rock Farm (now part of a Conservancy easement).
Nancy "Pooky" Hayden, Marlborough
Pooky (as she prefers to be known) calls herself a project undertaker, not one who buries projects but one who is most stimulated by their start-up phases. She has lived at Too Bad Farm in Marlborough since 1970 and has raised vegetables, cows, children, and chickens there. Before that time she had graduated with honors from Radcliffe College and done graduate-level work in landscape design and urban planning and worked for the children’s television program Zoom.
She served on numerous boards: The Harrisville School, The Harris Center, the Monadnock United Way, Women’s Crisis Services, the Grand Monadnock Arts Council, Tricinium, the Society for the Protection of N.H. Forests, the Keene Elm City Rotary, Monadnock Community Foundation, Historic Harrisville, Monadnock Music, and Giving Monadnock. Even more proudly, Pooky served on the Zucchini Central Committee, which produced the first, second, third, etc. Annual International Zucchini Festival.
During this time she also became a certified mediator and conducted her own (losing) campaign to be a New Hampshire state senator. For her, the common thread of these diverse activities is the fostering of community. The Greater Keene Chamber of Commerce recognized this fostering by naming her their Citizen of the Year in 2003.
Rhett Lamb, Keene
Rhett has been the planning director for the City of Keene since 1996. He performs a broad
array of planning and development tasks including the development of comprehensive plans, drafting of zoning ordinances and subdivision/site plan regulations, and review of development proposals. He is also involved in the implementation of management systems and computer mapping to support planning functions and municipal decision-making.
He is an adjunct professor at Antioch New England Graduate School, and is a member of the New Hampshire Planners Association and the Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association. He served on the New Hampshire Governor’s Climate Change Policy Task Force and has been working on the City of Keene’s Climate Initiative since 1998. Rhett has a master’s degree from Tufts University, where he specialized in land use and water resource protection issues. Previously he worked for the Town of Falmouth, Massachusetts, as assistant town planner.
Rhett lives in Keene with his family. He is a life-long skier and helps coach the Keene High School ski team.
Jeff Miller, Marlborough
Jeff is a Dartmouth graduate and has an MBA from Harvard Business School. He retired in 2007 as MARKEM’s last president. He is currently a director of four companies, including Cognex Corporation, Watlow Electric Manufacturing Company, and two other privately held companies.
Jeff lives with his wife and two daughters on 240 protected acres in Marlborough, where ledge is never more than inches away. He is using much of his spare time giving back to the Monadnock Region, following the MARKEM community culture instilled by the Putnam family for whom he worked for twenty-six years.
Richard Pendleton, Peterborough
Richard holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Geosciences from Hobart College and a Master of Science in Hydrology from the University of New Hampshire. He has worked in environmental consulting – including soil and groundwater assessments and cleanups – since 1987. He started Eastview Environmental, Consulting & Field Services of Peterborough in 1997 to serve private, commercial, and municipal clients in southern New Hampshire and Vermont. He holds New Hampshire Professional Geologist License No. 58.
Richard is a former member of both the Peterborough Conservation Commission, where he worked extensively on conservation easement monitoring projects, and the Water Resources Advisory Committee. He led the updating of Peterborough’s aquifer zoning. He is a founding partner of Nubanusit Neighborhood & Farm residential community, the first co-housing project in New Hampshire. He enjoys exploring the Monadnock region’s open spaces by foot, skis, snowshoe, canoe, and bike with his wife and daughters.
Sheldon Pennoyer, Greenfield
Sheldon received his architectural degree from Rhode Island School of Design, where he studied architecture and landscape architecture. After working in the studio of one of his professors, he co-founded OPA (O’Neil Pennoyer Architects), where he helped implement the firm’s current practice of integrated design. He strengthened that commitment by becoming a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Accredited Professional in 2004. Currently living on a farm in Greenfield, Sheldon has served on the Greenfield Planning Board and designed several community buildings for the town.
