Sherry Belknap (Bloomfield)
Sherry Belknap is a fifth generation Vermonter from Bloomfield. He works as a National Sales Manager for a forestry products company. Five years ago nobody knew much about the Nulhegan River, but thanks in large part to Sherry's vigilance and hard work, what could have become a large-scale forest monoculture maintained by aerial herbiciding is now a National Fish and Wildlife Reserve. Sherry and his wife recently re-constructed and opened the DeBanville Store in Bloomfield. Sherry is deeply dedicated to river conservation and intends to continue his hard work to preserve the integrity of the Nulhegan and other Vermont rivers.

David Deen, Co-Chair (Putney)
David brings a long history of concern for the waters of the State of Vermont. He has been an articulate advocate for the Connecticut River since 1989. He is the Connecticut River Watershed Council's River Steward. CRWC is the premier watershed organization for the entire Connecticut River watershed. He is serving in his 14th year as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives. Most of his service in the House has been spent on the Natural Resources Committee or the Fish and Wildlife Committee. In his third occupation David has owned and operated Strictly Trout, the oldest professional fly-fishing guide business in Vermont, for 22 years.

John Gorczyk (Montpelier)
John F. Gorczyk is a 1969 graduate of the Johns Hopkins University. He moved to Vermont in 1971 for the outdoor quality of life that it provides and began his career as a teacher at the Wilmington High School. His criminal justice career began in 1973 and spans over three decades. He started with Vermont corrections as a correctional officer and has held a variety of positions including Probation Officer, Director of Program Services, and Deputy Commissioner. In November of 1991 he was appointed Commissioner of Corrections, a post he held until January of 2003. Since leaving the position of Commissioner John has continued in his employment with the Vt. Corrections as a grant writer and manager.

He was a participant in the Executive Sessions on Sentencing and Corrections, commissioned by the National Institute of Justice and the Corrections Program Office of the Office of Justice Programs; former President of the New England Council on Crime and Delinquency; a Toll Fellow; President of the Northeast Association of Correctional Administrators; past chair of the ACA Committee on Restorative Justice; co-author of “What the Public Wants from Corrections” and “Restructuring Corrections: Using Market Research in Vermont”. In 1998 the Department received the Ford Foundation, Kennedy School of Government award for Innovations in Government. In 2006 John received the Louie Wainwright Award from the Association of State Correctional Administrators for his “pioneering” work in evidence-based practice, intermediate sanctions and restorative justice.

More importantly, in his leisure time John spends as much time as possible out doors. He is an avid bird listener and watcher and can be found on most summer weekends on one body of water or another canoeing with his wife Sue.

Kim Greenwood (Duxbury)
Kim Greenwood has a long history of water protection. She grew up on and in the White River in East Randolph with a favorite swimming hole just behind Gram’s house. During and after college, she analyzed water, soil and sludge samples in a laboratory for many years. She has worked as a Water Quality Engineer for the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation and currently serves as Staff Scientist for the Vermont Natural Resources Council, where her focus remains on water quality. In addition, she is the principal of Solid Ground Environmental that provides training and consulting in erosion prevention and sediment control on construction sites to protect water quality. She serves on the Duxbury Cemetery Commission and several professional boards and lives with her partner Ian and their bees in the foothills of Camel’s Hump.

Keith Jones (Burlington)
Keith Jones was born in Burlington and raised in Worcester and Montpelier. After graduating from Montpelier High School, he attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, from which he graduated with a BA in History and French, and a minor in Geology.  Keith received his JD from the University of Southern California's Gould School of Law in Los Angeles.  During his time there, he served on the Board of the Environmental Law Society.  He also coordinated a joint USC-UCLA environmental law project through which students reviewed federal Title V permit applications and authored public comments in conjunction with local citizen groups.  Upon graduation from law school, he returned to the East Coast and practiced with the firm of Williams & O'Leary, LLP in Boston, Massachusetts before returning to Vermont to join Primmer Piper Eggleston & Cramer, PC.  With both firms, his practice has focused on general civil litigation.  He has represented corporations and individuals in a wide range of disputes, including contract, employment, insurance and shareholder cases.

Having spent his youth canoeing, kayaking, swimming and camping throughout Vermont, Keith is eager to contribute to the preservation of lakes, rivers, streams and other water-related places for the next generation, including his children.  After living all over the country for the past ten years, he recently decided to return to Vermont in large part because of the accessibility of and value placed on the natural environment in this State.  He believes that VRC's proactive approach to conservation of specific special places, even before they are necessarily threatened with imminent private development, is visionary and he looks forward participating as a member of the Board of Directors.

Christy Mihaly, (Montpelier)
Chris grew up appreciating and enjoying the waters and environs of the Farmington, the Connecticut, and the Allagash Rivers, among others. As a Girl Scout she worked on the cleanup and restoration of a town park along a local stream in New Jersey, and in high school participated in a “water analysis” class taking samples from local water bodies and analyzing (and publicizing) the results. She graduated from Dartmouth College, and Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, where she was an editor of the Ecology Law Quarterly. She practiced law with the firm of Shute, Mihaly & Weinberger in San Francisco for fifteen years, representing local governments and community organizations in environmental protection and land use planning. She worked with California community groups and nonprofits including the League to Save Lake Tahoe and Save the Bay, and the intergovernmental Sacramento Area Water Forum, to assure long-term protection of water and wildlife resources, open spaces, and agricultural lands. After 20 years in the Bay Area, Chris and her family were ready to give up living on their houseboat on the Bay in Sausalito, and move Back East. In 2004, their search for a New England small town with an old-fashioned sense of community brought them to Montpelier, where Chris joined the Tobacco Enforcement Unit of the Vermont Attorney General’s Office. She is grateful for the opportunity to work with the dedicated folks at VRC to help protect and preserve some of Vermont’s irreplaceable wild and beautiful places.

Tino O'Brien (Montpelier)
Tino is the father of two girls in college and a son and step-daughter in high school, and is married to the executive director of Vermont Natural Resources Council, Elizabeth Courtney. He is unable to resist swimming in any water that is relatively clean and still liquid and would "rather surf and snowboard than go to heaven". While living in Maine, Tino founded and was the first president of a coastal land trust that is flourishing today. After twenty years as an educator and Outward Bound "lifer", for the last six years Tino has been a consultant to large organizations on management and organizational change processes. Tino also serves as chair of the Board of Directors of the Central Vermont Community Action Council.

James Powers, Treasurer (Montpelier)
Jim Powers is a CPA and a long-term resident of Montpelier. He spends his free time outdoors with family, kayaking, fishing, and downhill skiing. A long-time contributing supporter of the VRC, Jim has served on other non-profit boards as both Director and Treasurer.

Barbara Ripley (Montpelier)
Barbara is an attorney specializing in environmental law. She has been in private practice for 5 years, prior to which she was Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources for nearly 5 years. She lives in Montpelier with her husband, Chuck Daghlian, and two daughters. Three older children are grown and living in Boston with their own families. As soon as it is warm enough to swim in the summer, Barbara makes it a point to jump into some water somewhere, every day. A favorite spot is Shady Rill in Middlesex.

Brice Simon, Chair (Stowe)
Brice C. Simon, Esq. has engaged in the general practice of law in Stowe, Vermont since 2001. Attorney Simon began his practice as a litigation associate in 2000 with Webber, Reis, Holler & Urso, LLP in Rutland, Vermont, and came to Stowe to focus on property-related litigation, environmental law, real estate and criminal defense. His practice has grown to include corporate and LLC formations and maintenance, complex civil litigation including personal injury and workers’ compensation, and all aspects of land use and real estate law. Brice is now with Stevens Law Office in Stowe, focusing on Criminal and Civil litigation and Environmental / Land Use Law. Simon is a 2000 graduate of Vermont Law School with a Juris Doctorate and a Master of Studies in Environmental Law. While at VLS, Simon served as a law clerk for the Vermont Legislative Counsel and for the Agency of Natural Resources, as a member of the Sharon Planning Commission, as Town Liason for the Student Government, he represented VLS in regional moot court competitions, and assisted with the early phases of the Environmental Legal Clinic at VLS by obtaining funding for his own projects through the Schweitzer Fellowship program. Attorney Simon continues to build his civil and criminal litigation practices, with construction litigation and landlord/tenant disputes, personal injury and discrimination cases, while remaining involved in environmental and land use matters, including permitting, environmental compliance and mitigation.

Brice is enthusiastic about being involved with the VRC, an organization that provides a productive outlet for his desire to help translate environmental ideals into real world protections of habitat and threatened or endangered species. He believes that by participating on the VRC board he is able to contribute to conserving some of Vermont ’s important undeveloped watershed areas.

Stephan Syz (Montpelier)
Raised in a family that fought the filling of Connecticut tidal estuaries for the construction of I-95, Stephan went on to wear hats as a naturalist at the Connecticut Arboretum, a volunteer to establish the Connecticut Citizens Action Group, an environmental planner for the City of Philadelphia and a watershed planner for the State of Vermont. He was the founding Chair of the Montpelier Conservation Commission and the Vermont River Conservancy, a member of the Montpelier City-State Commission, the Chair of the Montpelier-Berlin Bike Path Committee and a member of other non-profit and civic organizations. He has worked to successfully protect many acres of land in Vermont. Stephan lives in Montpelier with his wife, Linn, who is works with the New England Grassroots Environment Fund. They have two sons, one pursuing environmental law at Hastings Law School in San Francisco. The other is practicing law in the San Francisco Bay area.

Michael Woodfield, (Calais)

Mike grew up in Baltimore, Maryland and attended LaSalle College in Philadelphia for three years. He spent some time in Wyoming where he discovered a real enjoyment for the outdoors. Mike came to Vermont in 1977 to complete his B.A. degree at Goddard College. He owned and managed State Street Market, a natural food store in Montpelier for over 20 years. He is currently the owner of First in Fitness, a health club in Montpelier and Berlin. Mike has always enjoyed outdoor activities including hiking, canoeing and bicycling. He has a long standing interest in environmental issues and especially preserving wild places. He lives in Calais with his wife, Eleanor, a teacher at U-32 High School and their daughter, Mila. His other daughter, Heather lives in Queens, New York.

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