Erin joined VRC staff after serving as VRC’s River Stewardship Manager. Erin brings a deep knowledge of Vermont waters and watersheds from previous experience as a watershed and lake education coordinator and state wetlands ecologist. She is a people person dedicated to building awareness and partnerships that benefit communities and their health, our environment, and the economy. As Conservation Director, Erin enhances conservation partnerships and leads strategic visioning for the public access sites and riverlands the organization will conserve and restore. She also writes proposals, baseline documentation reports, and management plans when she isn’t out in the field working with landowners, watershed partners, and municipalities. Erin’s work mantra is respect, relate, protect, conserve, restore, celebrate, repeat.
Erin currently lives in Essex, VT, with her partner and two active and curious kids while they search for a home with a little bit of land for homesteading experiments. Erin and her family love to hike, explore swimming holes, cook with friends, bake pies, and travel to new places.
Kassia joined VRC’s staff in 2021, bringing with her nearly two decades of experience at state and national conservation nonprofits, where she’s worked to inspire people to invest in protected lands and waters. As development and operations director, she leads efforts that make each of our conservation successes possible — from writing grants to secure funds for dam removal, to connecting donors with opportunities to protect riverside wetlands and forests, to overseeing the organizational systems that support all VRC’s efforts. Across all of our communications, Kassia helps us share the stories of our projects and the impact Vermont River Conservancy has on wildlife, families, and communities.
Kassia’s basecamp is in Montpelier, VT, from where she heads out paddling, backpacking, XC skiing, and traveling, getting to know some of the world’s wildest places alongside her husband, daughter, and black lab.
Alaya joined our team in November of 2022. She brings several years of administrative support and office management experience and specializes in identifying and creating simplified systems for getting the essential work done. With undergraduate studies in ethnobotany and conservation biology, she also brings a passion for understanding humans and our relationship to nature. Alaya grew up swimming in Vermont’s rivers, lakes, and reservoirs and holds a deep respect for VRC’s dual legacy of access and conservation. As administrative assistant, Alaya manages the daily tasks that keep VRC (and our mission!) humming. If you give us a call, Alaya will probably be the one to answer!
After 12 years in Colorado, Alaya is happy to be back living in her hometown of Montpelier, VT. She lives with her husband and two children. Together they love good food, good books, and a good day spent outdoors. In the summers you can find them swimming, paddle boarding, and fishing along Vermont’s waters.
Remy joined VRC’s team in February 2023. His passion lies at the intersection of conservation and recreation and has been working to protect Vermont’s natural resources through project management, regional coordination, and field assessment since graduating from the University of Vermont in 2015. As VRC’s Conservation Manager, Site Steward, Remy hopes to use his experience in community engagement, volunteer management, and recreational development to manage Vermont’s natural resources and improve accessibility to its waterways.
Remy enjoys being the caretaker of Colchester Pond Natural Area with his partner and their Australian shepherd. As an avid outdoor enthusiast, he enjoys snowboarding, disc golfing, kayaking, gardening, and everything else Vermont has to offer. When he needs to recharge, Remy craves good food, close friends and a night of board games.
Hayley is an ecologist and conservation specialist who joins VRC’s staff from the Field Naturalist Program at the University of Vermont, where she has created tools for municipalities, nonprofits, and private landowners. Her experience with river and stream conservation includes projects at home in New England, and farther afield: for her master’s project, she conducted ecological assessments, geospatial analysis, and stakeholder interviews to build a riparian management plan for a 500,000-acre cattle ranch in southeast Oregon.
As Conservation Manager, Southern Vermont, Hayley joins with communities in the Connecticut River Watershed to tackle the same question she asked out west: with limited resources and diverse ecological and cultural goals, which riparian areas should we protect first — and how? A poet and former high school teacher, she also brings a spark for hosting public events that gather us together around our waterways.
Having recently relocated from Burlington, Hayley looks forward to engaging with the Brattleboro community as she makes the area her new home.
Amanda joins VRC as River Steward for our 2023 summer season. Through the early fall, she’ll be caring for our sites via field-based easement monitoring and land stewardship projects. Amanda has a BA in Environmental Science, with an emphasis on terrestrial ecology as well as graduate-level study in conservation ethics, ecology, and natural resource management. Backed by her rich experience as a service project leader, park ranger, trails manager, and conservation educator, Amanda brings enthusiasm and a can-do sense of adventure to everything she does. She looks forward to hiking and monitoring the beautiful properties conserved through VRC, visioning how they can be best protected and utilized, and working directly with community members to engage them in hands-on work supporting our conservation goals.
Amanda is a local Vermonter who currently lives in Barre in a house that she built (and continues to improve upon) with her own two hands! She loves planting trees and gardening and has a passion for long-distance paddling. (She’s completed all but one section of the Northern Forest Canoe Trail, saving the Allagash Wilderness for last!)
Addie joined the VRC team in 2023 through the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board AmeriCorps program. Prior to moving to Vermont, Addie lived in Southwest Florida and the Midwest. She recently graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in geography and additional environmental studies and geology coursework. Addie has worked on water-related projects with state and federal geological surveys in Indiana and Vermont, bringing knowledge of hydrology and outreach to the team. As the Community Engagement Coordinator for VRC, Addie hopes to increase community knowledge of rivers and their importance. She wants to use her scientific knowledge and creative ideas to achieve goals and gain more knowledge about Vermont ecosystems and human communities!
Addie currently lives in Montpelier with her partner Luke and their dog Gus. While she isn’t serving at VRC, she enjoys trail running and exploring the natural beauty of her new home state.
Vermont River Conservancy
29 Main Street, Suite 11
Montpelier, VT 05602
802-229-0820
vrc [@] vermontriverconservancy.org
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