Brian Donahue is Professor Emeritus of American Environmental Studies at Brandeis University, and a farm and forest policy consultant. He holds a PhD from the Brandeis program in History. He co-founded and for 12 years directed Land’s Sake, a non-profit community farm in Weston, Massachusetts, and now co-owns and manages a farm in western Massachusetts. He sits on the boards of The Massachusetts Woodland Institute, The Friends of Spannocchia, and The Land Institute. Donahue is author of Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town (1999), and The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord (2004). He is co-author of Wildlands and Woodlands and A New England Food Vision.

Judy Dow is of French Canadian and Abenaki descent. She is Gedakina’s Executive Director and has an education career spanning more than three decades. with degrees in Native Studies, Education and Teaching for Social Justice. She is also an environmentalist, consultant, author and basketmaker conducting classes and workshops for students of all ages. Judy was the 2004 recipient of the Governor’s Heritage Award for Outstanding Educator and the Arthur Williams 2022 Award for Meritorious Service to the Arts.

David Foster is an ecologist, Director Emeritus of the Harvard Forest, and President Emeritus of the Highstead Foundation. He co-founded the Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities initiative in 2010 and was lead writer of Wildlands in New England: Past, Present, and Future in 2023. David has written and edited books including Thoreau’s Country: Journey Through a Transformed Landscape; Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1,000 Years of Change in New England; Hemlock: A Forest Giant on the Edge; and A Meeting of Land and Sea: The Nature and Future of Martha’s Vineyard.

Caitlin Littlefield is a Senior Scientist at Conservation Science Partners. Caitlin is a broadly trained research ecologist and works at the intersection of forest ecology, conservation biology, and climate adaptation science. She works with land managers and planners across the country – from the US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service, as well as numerous state agencies – to understand how forests and wildlife are responding to global change and to jointly craft and deploy climate adaptation strategies. Prior to her current position, Caitlin taught in the UVM Forestry Program, conducted research at the University of Montana, and received a PhD from the University of Washington and a Masters from the University of Vermont. She has also served as a third-party verifier for forest carbon projects, which has taken her from the temperate rainforests of coastal Alaska to the bottomlands of Alabama. Caitlin lives in Richmond VT, where she has planted hundreds of trees along the Winooski River and serves as the town’s tree warden.

Verandah Porche works as a poet-in-residence, performer, and writing partner. Based in rural Vermont on the notable commune Total Loss Farm, since 1968, she has published Sudden Eden (Verdant Books), The Body’s Symmetry (Harper and Row) and Glancing Off (See Through Books). She has read her work on NPR stations, in the Vermont State House, and at the John Simon Guggenheim Museum.

Liz Thompson, Managing Editor of From the Ground Up, is a true New Englander. Raised in eastern Massachusetts, she learned to appreciate wild nature in the salt marshes, dunes, and beaches of Cape Cod, and in the woods and wetlands near her inland home. She studied and worked in central and coastal Maine before moving to Vermont to continue her career in ecology, conservation, and education with The Nature Conservancy, Vermont Land Trust, and the University of Vermont. She co-authored Wetland, Woodland, Wildland: A Guide to the Natural Communities of Vermont; Vermont Conservation Design; and Wildlands in New England. She serves on the steering committee for WWF&C and the board of Northeast Wilderness Trust, and is chair of the Northeastern Old Growth Conference for 2025. Liz enjoys walking in the woods and wilds, often with a camera, noticing the beauty in the ordinary.