Our People
UVTA Staff
Russell Hirschler
Executive Director
Russell came to the Upper Valley in 2001, where he was drawn to the amazing quality of life and recreational resources the area offers. He has been the Executive Director of the Upper Valley Trails Alliance since 2008, where he is responsible for the day to day operations as well as the future vision of the organization. He was formerly the Director of Education at Save The Bay in Providence, RI. He also served as the Development Director at the Upper Valley Land Trust in Hanover, NH, and the Development Director/Program Manager at Wolftree, Inc, a science education organization in Portland, OR. Russell received his undergraduate degree in Natural Resource Management and Environmental Planning from Binghamton University and his Masters Degree in Organizational Management from Antioch University, New England. Russell grew up in and around New York City, but found opportunities to explore the mountains of New England, Alaska, Wyoming, and Montana at an early age. Since then he has been traveling and hiking worldwide for the last 30 years. He lives in Lyme, NH, with his wife, two children, and new puppy.
Sean Ogle
Trail Programs Director
Sean grew up in Knoxville, TN, and took advantage of the incredible natural resources of the region by hiking, backpacking, and kayaking from a young age. These experiences coupled with an extremely outdoorsy family fostered a connection with the natural world and particularly the southern Appalachian Mountains. After attending the University of Tennessee for Journalism, Sean was able to work in conservation in many places across the country. First, he served on a trail crew with the Student Conservation Association with the Florida Trail Association followed by a position as a leader for the Manchester Conservation Leadership Corps with the SCA New Hampshire Conservation Corps and finally as the project leader for Phoenix Field School in Arizona. He then returned to work with the Florida Trail Association as Field Coordinator in Tallahassee, FL. In 2014, Sean created the Smoky Mountain Corps, a residential conservation and sustainability program based in North Carolina, which runs conservation and leadership training crews for young adults. Sean also served as the Trail Resources Manager for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, overseeing trail programs with Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
Randy Richardson
Development Director
Randy has strong ties in the Upper Valley. He grew up in South Woodstock and later served as Headmaster at the Oliverian School in Pike, NH. He received his BA from Hamilton College and MALS degree from Wesleyan University, and has spent most of his professional life in education, first as a teacher and coach and then as an administrator. Before his time at Oliverian, Randy led the Derryfield School in Manchester, NH, and was a consultant at the Breakthrough Collaborative, a national program focused on educational equity. He is fully committed to the UVTA mission and fusing his love of the outdoors and the Upper Valley with his experience as an educational administrator and fund raiser. Randy lives and hikes with his family and dogs in Woodstock.
Program Manager
Kaitie grew up in Salt Lake City, UT, and as a child loved exploring the mountain ranges and national parks of her home state. In 2013, she began work at the Mill Hollow Outdoor Education Center as a residential cabin counselor where she worked to help the children of Salt Lake City foster a love of the outdoors. She went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in Psychology/Family Life and Human Development from Southern Utah University where her education was punctuated with weekend trips to explore the Canyonlands of the Southwest. Her time at UVTA inspired her to obtain a Masters Degree in Public Administration, Education and Non-Profit Management from Southern Utah University online in 2021. She lives in Enfield with her husband and son. At UVTA, Kaitie manages the Passport to Winter Fun program, a fitness incentive program designed to keep kids (K-6) physically active during the winter season. She also coordinates volunteer efforts and plans UVTA’s annual events: the Tour de Taste and the STOAKED Trail Race. Click on her name to find out why Danger is her middle name!
Simon Parsons
Field Program Coordinator
Simon grew up in southern New Hampshire. After spending a lot of his youth hiking, skiing, and running on trails in the woods throughout New Hampshire, Simon enjoyed a summer opportunity during college serving on an SCA trail crew with the Randolph Mountain Club. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in History and French from Bowdoin College and a Masters in Education from UVA, which led to a twelve year stint as a teacher and coach. After this time, Simon worked as the Education Director at the John Hay Estate at The Fells, a nonprofit historic estate in Newbury, NH. He was drawn to the Upper Valley Trails Alliance for its regional advocacy of trails and the opportunity to make an impact on trail building, volunteer efforts, and the general operations of the UVTA. He lives in New London, NH with his wife and two children.
UVTA Board of Directors
John "JB" Beyer
Operating Advisor to Tuckerman Capital, UVTA Board Chair
JB is a Deal Partner and Operating Advisor to Tuckerman Capital, a private equity firm, where he focuses on portfolio initiatives and new investments related to industrial and environmental sustainability. Previously, JB was a member of the investment team at Tuckerman. Prior to Tuckerman, JB managed corporate strategic initiatives for Backcountry.com, was an investor at Grey Mountain Partners (a private equity fund), and an investment banker at Robert W Baird. JB holds a BS from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, where he concentrated in Accounting and Finance, and received an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth where he was an Edward Tuck Scholar. JB is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys spending time outside taking advantage of the many natural resources of the Upper Valley, including hiking, backcountry skiing, mountain biking, trail running, and fly fishing. He can often be found with Abby, the family dog, on the trails around Norwich VT where he lives.
Chet Clem
President, Lyme Properties, UVTA Vice Chair
Chet is President of Lyme Properties, a real estate development company based in West Lebanon, NH that aims to build places people give a damn about, including the trail-and-transit oriented River Park West Leb development. Chet has a BA in Environmental Policy from Bates College where he wrote a thesis on hydroelectric dam relicensing as an opportunity for environmental, economic, and recreational revitalization, and an MBA in Entrepreneurship from Babson College where he was the recipient of the Changemaker award from the Lewis Institute for Social Innovation. He was previously Editorial Manager at The Onion, which lends a creative approach to issues at the crossroads of economic development and the environment. He’s also on the board of the Granite Outdoor Alliance, a NH outdoor industry association. Chet is on his second stint as a resident of Norwich, VT, this time with his wife Julie, their twins Gus & Winnie, and a dog named Willie Nelson.
Matt Oscadal
Mascoma Bank, UVTA Board Treasurer
Matt is a native to the Upper Valley where he grew up exploring local trails with his family and camping in the White Mountains. After experiencing the western states for a few years as a young adult, he returned to the East Coast and currently lives in Hartland, VT with his girlfriend, two dogs, and a cat. He is an avid skier, hiker, and rock climber and has worked with both local and national organizations to maintain our open spaces and keep access free to the public. He works as a commercial credit analyst at Mascoma Bank where he also serves on the Donation Committee, B-Corp Environmental Impact Team, and Emerging Leaders Committee. Prior to banking, he worked as an accountant at a private firm in Massachusetts and on staff at Grassroot Soccer in Norwich, VT. Matt earned his BA from Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA.
Stephanie McCaull
UVTA Board Secretary
Stephanie has a diverse background of experiences, including management consulting, admissions, career counseling and teaching English abroad. She holds a BA in English from Williams College and an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. She started her career in strategy consulting with Mercer Management Consulting in Boston and later worked for The Monitor Group’s marketing consulting practice. She returned to Hanover, NH to work as Associate Director in the Office of Career Counseling at the Tuck School of Business, and then as Associate Director of Admissions.
Additionally, Stephanie has extensive experience volunteering with local nonprofit organizations. She is currently on the board of the Vermont Center for EcoStudies, recently served as Chair of the Board of the Norwich Public Library, and she has served on the boards of The Montessori Children’s School and the Upper Valley Humane Society. Stephanie has also devoted countless hours to the Marion Cross School in Norwich, VT, chairing the PTO and running various school programs.
In her free time Stephanie is passionate about connecting with the natural world, and spends as much time as possible in the woods with her dog Obie. She enjoys hiking trails near and far, trail running, xc skiing, snowshoeing, monitoring peregrine falcons and attempting to identify plants, birds and animal tracks. She lives in Norwich, VT and is always delighted when her husband, Philip, and their two school-aged children, Kate and Drew, join her on the trails
Augustus 'Gus' Southworth
Gus has been practicing law since 1973 and recently retired as a partner from Carmody Torrance Sandak & Hennessey’s litigation group, which was named a “highly recommended” Connecticut litigation team in Benchmark Litigation’s Guide To Leading Business Litigation Firms and Attorneys. He practices in state and federal court in the areas of commercial and personal injury defense litigation, including medical litigation; representation of health care providers and hospitals in malpractice litigation; representation of physicians and hospitals in administrative proceedings, and regulatory and non-professional liability matters, including litigation and representation of private educational institutions. He grew up on a small family farm in Western Connecticut in the 1950s and 1960s and graduated from Dartmouth in 1966. He previously served on the Board Flander’s Nature Center, Woodbury, Connecticut. After spending part of every summer in the area, Gus now lives with his wife, Susan Moorman, at their family house full time on Crystal Lake in Enfield where he continues to pursue his interests of hiking throughout New England, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, biking, rowing his single shell on Crystal Lake and Connecticut River, and maintaining our 30 acres woods on the lake.
Karen Kaliski
Freelance Writer
Originally from the Albany, NY area, Karen spent many childhood weekends riding aimlessly around the backroads of Vermont in the backseat of her parents’ car. She inherited their appreciation of small towns and great scenery and set a goal to become a Vermonter herself. That was achieved in 1989 when a marketing position with a small, software start-up brought her to the Upper Valley. That experience led to product management and marketing executive positions inside several local, high tech companies. Since 2005, Karen has consulted with global enterprises including TechTarget, RSA Security, Salesforce.com, and Verizon as well as many national and local companies and organizations. Karen lives in Thetford, VT with her husband, two college-age children, and two cats. She is an avid traveler, hiker and kayaker and works hard on her golf game, to no avail. Karen earned a BA from St. Lawrence University and MPA from the State University of New York.
David Bartlett
Winrock Advisors Limited
David Bartlett founded Winrock Advisors Limited in 2013 as a specialized advisory firm focused on arranging private lending facilities and other special situations debt transactions for a global client base. Since 2006 David has also been Director of Pacific Harbor Holdings Limited (PHH), a Hong Kong SFC licensed asset manager, and the Managing Director and Office Head of Pacific Harbor Advisors (HK) Limited, an affiliate of PHH. David has over 20 years of experience in handling financial transactions in global markets. Prior to forming Pacific Harbor, the key principals established and managed Amroc Asia, a TPG / Avenue Capital affiliate – trading, advising and originating stressed and distressed debt transactions. While at Amroc, the team closed over USD1.2 billion in stressed, distressed and high yield transactions for a gross investment return of approximately USD500 million. In addition to the Amroc Investments business, the team sub-advised significant and wellknown managers who were looking for exposure to high yield, stressed and distressed debt in Asia. David was the Executive Director in Amroc Asia’s Hong Kong office from 2002 until 2006, generating transactions in China, Thailand and the Philippines. From 2000 to 2001, David was the COO of HNH Group Limited in Hong Kong. From 1998 to 2000, he was Project Manager of Corporate Banking & Investment Research of Asia Market Intelligence Group in Hong Kong. In 1997, David served for a year as Manager of Indonesian Equity Research at PT Samuel Sekuritas Indonesia in Jakarta, and from 1991 to 1994, he was the Program Manager of Africare based in Burkina Faso working with World Bank grantees and Project Manager at Associates in Rural Development in Burlington, Vermont implementing USAID financings. David was awarded a B.A. from the University of Vermont in 1990 and an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College in 1997.
Nancy Collier
Nancy has lived in the Upper Valley for over 40 years. She spends more time outside than inside whenever possible. Winter interests include pond hockey games, xc skiing and “spike” hiking. In the summer she rides bikes exploring back roads and trails all over the Upper Valley. Summertime also is a favorite time to explore small lakes and ponds in a kayak. Raised in Massachusetts, she found great satisfaction in outdoor opportunities in high school and college outing clubs. Her career ultimately focused on community and environmental planning in the public and private sectors. When she changed focus to family life and child rearing, she took on volunteer work for the local Conservation Commission and later the Planning Board. After a long tenure in community work, she switched to nonprofit work at a local land trust serving as Chair of the Board for almost a decade. She earned a BS from the University of Vermont and an MS from Antioch New England in Resource Management and Administration. Nancy and her husband John live in Hanover where they manage their own land for forestry and recreation, creating mountain bike trails and maintaining a hockey pond in the winter.
Geo Honigford
Geo Honigford is an avid hiker and excited to be working on making trails more accessible for all people. He is looking forward to learning more about trails from the building and maintenance perspective. He has recently transitioned from farming to rehabilitating older houses and lives with his partner in South Royalton. One of his two adult daughters works professionally building and maintaining trails. He brings to the UVTA a lot of experience in being a board member having served on numerous public and non-profit boards over the years.
Sarah Pushee
Red Clover Bikes
An Upper Valley native, Sarah developed a love for trails while running Cross Country at Thetford Academy. After high school the trail running evolved into mountain biking which she enjoys whenever possible. Sarah earned a BA in History from the University of Vermont which she, much to her parents’ dismay, chose to do nothing with it and embarked on a career in sales by going to work in a local bike shop. She went on to work in various sales and administrative roles in the plumbing and heating industry. In 2020, a friend approached her about repairing his kids bikes and being pandemically unemployed, she agreed. This event was the spark that led Sarah to start Red Clover Bikes in Fairlee, VT where she spends her time encouraging and empowering customers to enjoy the Upper Valley by bike. Sarah has served on the Bradford Planning Commission and is a volunteer mentor with Little Bellas, help empower girls through Mountain Biking. She lives with her husband Scott and their children, Eleanor and Archer in Bradford, VT
Emily Boren
Emily is most often found walking or skiing on the trails near her house in Lyme, NH with her dog. She was first introduced to the Trails Alliance when she volunteered to help construct the organization’s most extensive bridge project to date. Emily has always worked in and around education: most recently, as the Director of Admissions at the Mountain School in Vershire, VT. She brings a wealth of experience in community engagement and strategic development to the Board. With a passion for outdoor recreation and commitment to inclusivity, Emily is particularly excited about the all-girls Trail Corps week in the summer and can’t wait to volunteer with them out in the woods again! She and her husband Jay have three young kids in Lyme, and spend their free time hiking, swimming, biking and skiing together all over NH and VT.
Elizabeth Keeley
Born in Kingston-Upon-Thames, England, Elizabeth spent her early years living in France before moving to a small town just north of New York City. Growing up as a runner, a skier, and the daughter of two triathletes, Elizabeth’s appreciation for the great outdoors started at a young age. After graduating from Harvard with a degree in the History of Science, Elizabeth worked at a milk bank in the Boston area where she pasteurized donated human breast milk. She loved the opportunity to support the well-being of fragile babies, but her itch for the out-of-doors was too powerful! Elizabeth’s next move was to lead a backcountry trail crew, building stone structures across many miles of the Appalachian Trail in Maine. She’s led backpacking trips throughout New England, and now works for Dartmouth College’s Outdoor Programs Office. In her current role, Elizabeth has continued working on the Appalachian Trail as well as several other trails stewarded by the Dartmouth Outing Club. Her favorite type of trail work these days is building stone stairs and drainage structures. Outside of work Elizabeth sings in a choir, swims, and goes on outdoor adventures as often as she can! (Her favorite spot in the Upper Valley is actually mostly indoors at Lucky’s Coffee Garage in Leb.)
