Staff

Lori Brown
Executive Director
Email: ctlcv@mindspring.com

Jane Ryan
Development Director
Email: jane-ryan@earthlink.net

Chris Joyell
Interim Program Director
Email: ctedfund@earthlink.net

Russ Brenneman, Chair (Biography)

Tom Harrison, Secretary (Biography)

Robert Moore (Biography)

William Ruskin (Biography)

Lois Hager (Biography)

Alan Brewster (Biography)
Sharon E. Lewis (Biography)

CTLCV Ed Fund Board Biographies

Russell Brenneman (Chair) is an environmental lawyer who has been involved in land conservation and environmental issues in Connecticut for more than thirty years. He helped organize several of the earliest community land trusts, drafted the legislation enabling conservation easements in this state and chaired the Connecticut Greenways Committee that was the precursor of the Greenways Committee. He serves on the boards of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association and the Environment and Human Health, Inc. He is a former member of the Conservation Law Foundation of New England and the International Council on Environmental Law. Mr. Brenneman is also the co-Chair of the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he is counsel to the Hartford and New Haven law firm, Murtha Cullina, where he founded its environmental practice group. He was one of the organizers of what is now the Environmental Law Section of the Connecticut Bar Association. In prior years he has served as president of the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority and as chair of the Connecticut Energy Advisory Board. He is a member of the adjunct faculty of Trinity College, Hartford, and for a number of years taught environmental law at the University of Connecticut School of Law.

Tom Harrison (Secretary) is a partner at Day, Berry & Howard, where he is a member of the firms' Environmental and Land Use Department. He has been practicing environmental law since 1970, and has been assistant attorney general in New York's Environmental Protection Bureau, chief of enforcement in the U.S. EPA's New York region. In 1997 Connecticut Governor John Rowland appointed Mr. Harrison to the Council on Environmental Quality. Mr. Harrison is also a member of the Department of Environmental Protection's Compliance Advisory Panel. He is the immediate past Chairman of the Connecticut Bar Association's Environmental Law Section and a member of the board of the Connecticut Air and Waste Management Association. Active in numerous professionalboards and forums that encompass environment and business interests, Mr. Harrison is a frequent author and speaker on environmental issues in Connecticut.

Robert Moore is the former Deputy Commissioner of the State Department of Environmental Protection and was responsible for the Agency's air, water and waste permitting, enforcement and management programs. He has Thirty four years of experience in environmental policy development and implementation with extensive background in managing a large, complex government organization, initiating innovative programs and soliciting public involvement. He is currently the Chief Administrative Officer for the Metropolitan District Commission, (MDC), in Hartford, CT, which provides water supply, wastewater treatment and collection, hydropower, recreation, and mapping utility services for the eight member towns in the greater Hartford area.

Bill Ruskin is a partner at the law firm of Shipman and Goodwin, where he specializes in environmental law and toxic tort litigation. Formerly he was the co-head of the Environmental Practice Group of Schulte Roth & Zabel, LLP in New York City and an in-house counsel at Ciba-Geigy Corporation in Ardsley, New York. Mr. Ruskin is the former vice-chair of the New York Conservation Education Fund and a former member of the Executive Board of the New York League of Conservation Voters. He is currently serving on the board of the New York League of Conservation Voters Education Fund. Mr. Ruskin has been involved in a number of pro bono environmental projects in recent years and is a frequent author and speaker on environmental litigation issues.

Lois Hager is an experienced public administrator with expertise in pollution prevention and waste management. As DEP Recycling Coordinator, Ms. Hager designed Connecticut's statewide, mandatory recycling program and oversaw its implementation in the late 1980's. Ms. Hager was a founding member of the Northeast Recycling Council that developed interstate standards to encourage the use of recycled materials by the newspaper and plastics industries. As Director of DEP's Waste Planning and Standards Division in the 1990's, Ms. Hager oversaw the state's cost recovery program and its hazardous waste tracking system. She directed the development of the state solid waste management plan and was responsible for evaluating the need for landfills and energy recovery facilities. Ms. Hager expanded the DEP Office of Pollution Prevention and directed the development and implementation of the state's first Pollution Prevention Plan. She was one of the authors of the interstate Reduction of Mercury in Products legislation developed by the New England Waste Management Officials Association and passed in Connecticut in 2002. An advocate of environmental justice, she authored the proposal for and directed the implemenation of a $500,000 EPA project to encourage neighborhood activism around environmental justice issues in the City of Hartford. Ms. Hager retired from DEP in 2000 and is now a citizen advocate.

Alan Brewster is the Deputy Dean for Management and Resources of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES). In addition to administrative and financial management of the School, he also directs an executive training program on sustainable development for municipal officials in China. Prior to joining F&ES, he was the Senior Vice President of the World Resources Institute, a policy research center in Washington focused on the global issues of environment and sustainable development. A graduate of Wesleyan University and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton, Alan has also served in local public office in New Jersey as a school board member, Chairman of a local planning board, and City Council President.

Sharon E. Lewis is Lead Organizer and Special Projects Director for the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice in Hartford, CT. She develops and coordinates special projects, designs educational materials, develops training curricula and facilitates workshops for the coalition’s members. She also testifies at public hearings and lobbies elected officials in support of environmental justice legislation. Prior to joining the Connecticut Coalition, she worked as a teacher in the Hartford public school system for 6 years. She also has extensive experience in the reinsurance and insurance industry having spent 17 years in the industry specializing in self-insurance. Sharon is a member of the Capitol Region Council of Governments’ Environmental Justice Advisory Board and Women’s Voices for the Earth (Missoula, Montana) Board of Directors. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College. Ms. Lewis is the newest addition to the CTLCV Ed Fund board of directors.