Staff, Board of Directors, and Volunteers

Staff, Board of Directors, and Volunteers

Staff

Jim Oldham, Executive Director, joined Equity Trust in January 2010, bringing with him close to twenty years experience working for social and environmental justice nationally and internationally. Jim is the founder of Las Lianas Resource Center, a bi-national US/Ecuadorian non-profit organization that partners with indigenous peoples for collective rights, environmental protection, sustainable development, and cultural autonomy. Jim was executive director of Las Lianas from 2003 through 2009. Prior to that, he directed Las Lianas’ predecessor, the Amazon Program of ISIS at Hampshire College. Between 2006 and 2008, Jim also worked with inner city communities in Worcester, Massachusetts, as the environmental justice coordinator for the Regional Environmental Council. His got his start in non-profit organizations as a community organizer and then director of a small food bank in Seattle.

Rebecca Fletcher, Outreach & Services Coordinator, has been with Equity Trust since 2005. Rebecca provides counseling to farmers, land trusts and others on land tenure issues; works with the Equity Trust Fund’s lenders and borrowers; designs outreach materials; and provides education on the shared equity models we promote. A graduate of Hampshire College, Rebecca now lives in Florence.

Steve Hasbrouck, Bookkeeper, joined Equity Trust in the spring of 2009. Steve is responsible for keeping the organization’s financial systems running; tracking grant and project spending; and providing support for the management of the Equity Trust Fund. As well as bookkeeping, Steve is well-versed in budgeting, computerizing bookkeeping systems, and providing audits, and has provided these functions for organizations throughout the Pioneer Valley. A graduate of the University of Massachussetts, Amherst, Steve now resides in Belchertown.

Consultants

Kirby White has worked with community land trusts, and as a TA provider, CLT executive director, and author of instructional materials, since 1981. Previously the Director of Technical Assistance for the Institute for Community Economics, he has provided on-site technical assistance to approximately 50 community land trusts in locations from Fairbanks to Key West. He is editor and co-author of The Community Land Trust Handbook, The Community Land Trust Legal Manual (original and revised editions), The Community Loan Fund Manual, and Managing the Money Side: Financial Management for Community Based Housing Organizations, and he oversaw the production of the video "Hands and Homes: Community Land Trusts in Action." Since joining Equity Trust in 2004, Kirby has worked with conservation land trusts and organic farmers to develop ownership strategies to protect the financial sustainability of these farms as community assets.

Board of Directors

David Abromowitz has been on the Equity Trust board since 1994, and has served on the Equity Trust Fund committee even longer. David is a lawyer at Goulston & Storrs in Boston, where his focus is on public/private financing and development transactions, affordable housing, economic development and Section 42 tax credit matters, assisted living and senior housing, and strategic advice for businesses, including non-profits. David conducts a broad national practice, representing for-profit, non-profit and governmental organizations, and is nationally known for his expertise in many areas of affordable housing and economic development.

David Abromowitz has been on the Equity Trust board since 1994, and has served on the Equity Trust Fund committee even longer. David is a lawyer at Goulston & Storrs in Boston, where his focus is on public/private financing and development transactions, affordable housing, economic development and Section 42 tax credit matters, assisted living and senior housing, and strategic advice for businesses, including non-profits. David conducts a broad national practice, representing for-profit, non-profit and governmental organizations, and is nationally known for his expertise in many areas of affordable housing and economic development.

	Jody Bolluyt is a biodynamic farmer in the Hudson Valley. Together with her husband Jean-Paul Courtens, Jody runs Roxbury Farm, one of the largest CSA farms in the country. Jody grew up in rural Iowa working for large-scale corn and soybean growers during summer vacations. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in biology and botany. In 2000, working with Equity Trust, Roxbury Farm secured long-term land tenure on 150 acres of land to which Jody and Jean-Paul hold a lifetime lease. Through the help of Equity Trust, Roxbury Farm CSA members, and Open Space Institute, Roxbury is now a protected farm, one of the first to make a new kind of land tenure work, and it is becoming a model for other small farms around the country.

Jody Bolluyt is a biodynamic farmer in the Hudson Valley. Together with her husband Jean-Paul Courtens, Jody runs Roxbury Farm, one of the largest CSA farms in the country. Jody grew up in rural Iowa working for large-scale corn and soybean growers during summer vacations. She graduated from the University of Iowa with a degree in biology and botany. In 2000, working with Equity Trust, Roxbury Farm secured long-term land tenure on 150 acres of land to which Jody and Jean-Paul hold a lifetime lease. Through the help of Equity Trust, Roxbury Farm CSA members, and Open Space Institute, Roxbury is now a protected farm, one of the first to make a new kind of land tenure work, and it is becoming a model for other small farms around the country.

Ellie Kastanopolous, Executive Director of Equity Trust from 2003 through 2009, has been a board member since 1994. Ellie managed the Equity Trust Fund, and ETI's operating finances since she joined the staff in 1997, in addition to providing technical assistance to groups around the country. Previous to that Ellie was the Director of the Maine Homestead Land Trust Alliance, a statewide coalition of community land trusts. Ellie and her children are homeowners and leaseholders with Covenant Community Land Trust in Orland, Maine.

Monica McGloin, Board President, is a long-time board member, who also served on the ICE board. Monica works with Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center in Cincinnati, and has been involved with numerous local and national organizing efforts over the years, including the Cincinnati Cooperative Land Trust. A member of the Dominican Sisters of Hope, she has been one of the key players in ETI's religious lands efforts, a program aimed at helping religious orders think through ways they can deal with the large amounts of property owned by religious groups.

Mary O'Hara, Vice President, is one of seven partners at Burlington Associates in Community Development LLC, a national consulting cooperative. She has 27 years of experience in the field of community development lending and community reinvestment, and has served in leadership positions at the Massachusetts Urban Reinvestment Advisory Group, Boston Community Capital, and the Institute for Community Economics. Mary is currently working with two leading cooperative financing and development non-profits - ROC USA™, a national social enterprise developing and financing resident-owned manufactured home communities ("mobile home park" cooperatives), and the Cooperative Fund of New England, a regional CDFI that finances consumer, housing, agriculture, and worker cooperatives, including CLTs and CSAs.

	Scott Reed is an organic CSA farmer in Western Massachusetts. Riverland Farm, his thriving 11-acre CSA, has over 100 members and a well-stocked, staffed farmstand. In addition to farming, for more than 20 years Scott has worked on land tenure issues as a member of the Valley Community Land Trust, and he also founded the Greenfield Area Land Trust.

Kathy Ruhf, Clerk, is a consultant and project manager working on farm tenure and transfer, food systems and agriculture policy. Kathy served as Co-Director and Director of the New England Small Farm Institute from 1987 to 2004. She is a principal with Land For Good, INC. and a member of the USDA Advisory Committee for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers. She is also Coordinator of the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group.

Kathy Ruhf, Clerk, is a consultant and project manager working on farm tenure and transfer, food systems and agriculture policy. Kathy served as Co-Director and Director of the New England Small Farm Institute from 1987 to 2004. She is a principal with Land For Good, INC. and a member of the USDA Advisory Committee for Beginning Farmers and Ranchers. She is also Coordinator of the Northeast Sustainable Agriculture Working Group.

Kirby White, Treasurer, has worked with community land trusts, and as a TA provider, CLT executive director, and author of instructional materials, since 1981. Previously the Director of Technical Assistance for the Institute for Community Economics, he has provided on-site technical assistance to approximately 50 community land trusts in locations from Fairbanks to Key West. He is editor and co-author of The Community Land Trust Handbook, The Community Land Trust Legal Manual (original and revised editions), The Community Loan Fund Manual, and Managing the Money Side: Financial Management for Community Based Housing Organizations, and he oversaw the production of the video "Hands and Homes: Community Land Trusts in Action." Since joining Equity Trust in 2004, Kirby has worked with conservation land trusts and organic farmers to develop ownership strategies to protect the financial sustainability of these farms as community assets.

Kirby White, Treasurer, has worked with community land trusts, and as a TA provider, CLT executive director, and author of instructional materials, since 1981. Previously the Director of Technical Assistance for the Institute for Community Economics, he has provided on-site technical assistance to approximately 50 community land trusts in locations from Fairbanks to Key West. He is editor and co-author of The Community Land Trust Handbook, The Community Land Trust Legal Manual (original and revised editions), The Community Loan Fund Manual, and Managing the Money Side: Financial Management for Community Based Housing Organizations, and he oversaw the production of the video "Hands and Homes: Community Land Trusts in Action." Since joining Equity Trust in 2004, Kirby has worked with conservation land trusts and organic farmers to develop ownership strategies to protect the financial sustainability of these farms as community assets.

Current Volunteers

Equity Trust has a group of talented, dedicated volunteers for whom we wish to express our heartfelt gratitude. Thank you to all of our current volunteers:

Terri Antholzner	Meg Bowman	Jontz Johnson and Jude Johnson	Andrew Elliott
Juanita Nelson	Peggy Scherer	Suzette Snow-Cobb	Elizabeth Smith
Bridget Spann	Steve Snow-Cobb Nathan Lyczak Ralph Fletcher Jake White