WHO WE ARE
Meet Our Staff
NALT is based out of Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania and has remote offices in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, enabling our staff to travel near and far to offer ecological insight, land planning expertise, sophisticated mapping and innovative conservation strategies. Each individual on our team is a valued member of the NALT family. Learn a little bit more about each of us.
Want to build a meaningful career with NALT? Join our team!
Steve Carter
President
Steve brings more than 20 years of conservation planning and non-profit management to NALT and has spearheaded NALTs expansion of over 500 conservation projects in 24 states. Steve is passionate about preserving natural lands, ecological re...
Susan Chase Levin
Assistant to the President
Susan grew up right here in Chadds Ford. With a degree in Plant Science from the University of Delaware, environmental stewardship has always been important to her. After hopping around the Mid-Atlantic region, she and her husband moved ba...
Mike Duus
Director of Stewardship
Mike Duus is the Director of Stewardship for North American Land Trust (NALT). Mike began his career with NALT in 2016 working out of its Southeast field office in Boone, NC. In 2020, Mike was promoted to Director of Stewardship and relocat...
Amy Bruckner
Project Director
Amy E. Bruckner is the Project Director at North American Land Trust (NALT). She has more than 20 years of experience in technical project management at NALT. Since 2003, she has worked on researching and reviewing property data and problem...
Jeff Somers
Director of Finance & Administration
Jeff Somers began his work with North American Land Trust (NALT) as a financial consultant in early 2020 and joined NALT full-time in July 2021, assuming the role of Controller. Jeff has used his over 30 years’ experience in financial...
George Asimos
Outside General Counsel
Mr. Asimos has practiced real estate and land use law for 35 years. He has represented North American Land Trust since its founding and he has drafted or supervised the drafting of most of North American Land Trust’s more than 550 conservat...
Laura Sylvester
Legal Manager
Laura Sylvester recently joined our NALT team as the Legal Manager. She brings her skills as a Project Manager to NALT to coordinate the implementation of conservation projects, particularly the legal aspects, helping to further NALT’s miss...
Matt Stutzman
Northeastern Program Manager
Originally hired in 2015 to help handle the monitoring workload in the northeastern states and across the US, Matt now has 7 years of experience at NALT being trained to assist with and now conduct biological inventories and Baseline Docume...
Wyatt Moyer
Environment Scientist
Wyatt Moyer is an Environmental Scientist here at North American Land Trust (NALT), hired in 2021. Wyatt serves a multitude of roles, while his primary duties entail monitoring our conservation easements for compliance across the United Sta...
Adrian Gatewood
GIS/CAD Manager
Adrian is NALT’s GIS/CAD Manager, local to the NALT Chadds Ford office. Adrian started work with NALT as an intern with West Chester University in 2018 and came on full-time following graduation. He, along with the mapping team, handles NAL...
Steve DiSipio
GIS/CAD Specialist
Steve began working for NALT as an intern with West Chester in Spring 2022 and came on full-time following graduation. He is the newest addition to the mapping team and assists in all of NALT’s mapping needs using various GIS and CAD tools....
Patty Kennedy
Southeastern Program Director
Patty is NALT’s Southeastern Program Director. She brings over 20 years of experience in conservation; environmental planning and stewardship; and sustainability implementation. Previously, she was the Vice President of Conservation and Sus...
Williams Gandy
Southeastern Program Manager - Biogeographer
Will is a Southeastern Program Manager and Biogeographer with North American Land Trust. Will began working for NALT out of its Southeast field office in Boone, North Carolina, but currently works out of Asheville, North Carolina. Will prim...
Alex Llewellyn
Stewardship & GIS Specialist
Alex is NALT’s Stewardship and GIS Specialist based out of Woodstock, Georgia. Alex began working with NALT in 2018. During her time at NALT she regularly conducts monitoring visits to properties, works alongside land owners helping maintai...
Sara Johnson
Conservation Biologist
Sara is a Conservation Biologist with the North American Land Trust based out of Huntsville, Alabama. Sara began working with NALT in 2023 as a member of the Southeast stewardship and monitoring team. Sara assists landowners with their cons...
Ron Lance
Big Ridge Preserve Land Manager
Ron has grown and planted trees since high school, making greenhouses and nurseries constant fixtures in his life. He has written tree guides, and after many years of work and pleasure, he has produced his most recent book on hawthorns, and...
Bilton Morgan
Knights Island Preserve Manager
Bilton Morgan first began working for NALT back in January 2004 as the Manager for Knights Island, a NALT-owned property found in Cecil County, Maryland and home to America’s beloved bald eagle. Bilton is an active steward of this 250 acres...
Our Board
Our Board of Directors includes professionals from diverse backgrounds and regions of the country, but they are all committed to one thing – ensuring that NALT remains a vibrant and creative force for land conservation.
Interested in learning more about board leadership? Please contact us!
Prior to his retirement, Tred served as Managing Director and Global Head of Agency Securities Lending at Goldman Sachs from 1998 to 2016. At Goldman Sachs, he was also a member of the Management Committee of Goldman Sachs Bank USA. Tred began his career at Goldman Sachs in 1984 and served in a number of business management roles including CFO of the Equities Division, CFO/CAO of Prime Brokerage, head of margin lending to private wealth clients and head of the off-shore fund administration business.
Prior to Goldman Sachs, Tred spent five years at Price Waterhouse & Co., as an auditor and management consultant, and he qualified as a CPA in New York. From 2000 to 2016, Tred served as a member of the Executive Committee on Securities Lending of the Risk Management Association, an industry trade group. Tred earned his A.B. in Economics from Harvard College and an M.B.A. in Finance and Accounting from Columbia Business School. In addition to his work with NALT, Tred volunteers with the Career Exploration Office at Bowdoin College and is an advisor to the Smart Women Securities organization at Bowdoin.
After serving on the Board for many years as Assistant Secretary, Steve is now a voting member of the Board. He is also NALT’s President, and you can read more about him here.
Mr. Butler works for Nalco in the water treatment division of Ecolab. He was a VP for land acquisition for Toll Brothers where he championed smart development with conserved open spaces. Prior to that, he worked at GE as an Environmental Manager in Acquisitions, Divestitures and Discontinued Operations. A major project was the clean-up and re-purposing of the GE transformer test facility in South Philadelphia. He took the property through a PA Act 2 clean-up and successfully transferred the property to the USPS for re-use as a regional mail sorting facility.
Jack earned a BS in Wildlife Biology from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at Syracuse University and an MS in Environmental Engineering from Northeastern University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer. He enjoys playing tennis, swimming, hiking and outdoor photography in his spare time.
After working with our NALT Team as Director of Conservation Easements for over 18 years, Karen retired several years ago and soon after became a Board Member. Prior to joining NALT Karen had a career in the collegiate environment working at UCLA, Immaculata College, and Swarthmore College as the Vice President’s Assistant managing insurance, college mortgage program, overseeing purchasing and leasing college homes for faculty housing, and other areas of college operations that included focusing on the legal side of a variety of different matters. Married to her husband Ray for 54 years and mother to two adult children, you can often spot Karen cheering for her four grandchildren at a variety of their sports and choir events.
One of Karen’s proudest accomplishments has been her education. After supporting her children through their educations, Karen began taking college courses at the age of 47 graduating with high honors and receiving The Wall Street Journal Student Achievement Award. Karen has always been active in community volunteering with highlights that included being part of Chester County’s Hospital Volunteers, serving over two decades as a youth instructor, visiting homebound patients, and always remembering there’s a need to give back to our community.
Ms. McIlvaine Smith was an elected member of the PA House of Representatives from 2007 through 2010. Previously, she was a Borough Council member in West Chester, serving as vice president from 2004 to 2006. A lifelong resident of Chester County, she graduated summa cum laude from West Chester University with a degree in elementary education. She taught fourth grade in the West Chester Area School District, environmental education at the Brandywine Valley Association, and recently retired from the Unionville Chadds Ford School District. Because of her interest in ecology and the environment, she also worked at both NALT and Willistown Conservation Trust for several years. From 1980 until 2007, she and her late husband owned and operated their family water conditioning business, Brandywine Water Systems, Inc. Through her maternal side, she is an enrolled tribal member by birth of the federally-recognized Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma.
Paul operated a family wholesale and retail seafood and poultry business from 1962 until 1992. In 1994, Paul joined Andy Johnson at Conservation Advisors, a for- profit environmental consulting business. Paul served as the Business Manager of Conservation Advisors and soon was instrumental in the transition of Andy’s company into a 501(c)3 not-for-profit, North American Land Trust.
In October 2004, Paul was voted unto the Board of NALT and served as Vice President, and later served as Treasurer. In addition, he has served as Board member and Treasurer of the Chadds Ford Historical Society, Chairman of the Pocopson Township Open Space Review Board, Chairman of the Bayard Taylor Library Board, and presently serves as Board member and Treasurer of the Brandywine Valley Hemophilia Foundation and is a member of the Pocopson Township Zoning Hearing Board.
Paul and his wife, Janet, enjoy retired life in their 18th century home on preserved land on the banks of the Pocopson and Brandywine Creeks.
Based in Virginia, Jeff is currently serving as managing partner for a new company focused on bioenergy and carbon capture and sequestration utilizing purpose-grown biomass and pyrolysis to produce bio-oil and biochar. With extensive experience in international forestry, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and the international carbon markets working on land conservation and climate change, Jeff advises clients and NALT on land management, carbon, biomass energy, timber and wildlife.
He recently served as the Chief Technical Officer for Forest Carbon Offsets LLC a company devoted to the development of forest carbon offset projects in tropical forests and the United States. FCO developed the first Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) project in the tropical western hemisphere certified by both the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance and the Verified Carbon Standard. He has managed research centers at Virginia Tech for 23 years and has been integral in the development of NALT’s bat studies!
John served for 34 years with senior staff at the Brandywine Conservancy after previously serving for 7 years as Chester County, PA’s first open space planner. John has a Bachelors degree in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Virginia Tech. He also served for 12 years as an adjunct professor of planning at West Chester University, PA, and is presently in his 15th year as a member, and now chair, of the Board of Supervisors in East Bradford Township, Chester County, PA.
John’s work has focused constantly on preservation of open space, natural resources, historic resources, and scenic landscapes, and to promote sustainable community design. He has made dozens of presentations on those topics to broad audiences across many municipalities and states, including for the Governor’s Center for Local Government Assistance and the Department of Community and Economic Development in PA. He has worked with landowners, developers, local and county governments and other land trusts.
John and his wife Maureen have four grown children, two granddaughters, and a rescue dog named Biloxi from Mississippi. While both still work part-time, they love to swim, walk/hike and travel to explore new places.
Bill is a former Quarles & Brady litigator whose practice focused on environmental issues and commercial/business disputes. Joining us from Milwaukee, Bill devotes much of his time to a variety of community and volunteer activities, including monitoring conservation easements for the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust, presiding over hearings for the Village of Grafton Zoning Board of Appeals, and serving on the Board of Celebrate Grafton, a non-profit dedicated to sustaining a vital and healthy business and retail community by showcasing and sponsoring various local events and encouraging tourism. In his free time, Bill enjoys golfing, working at home outdoors and reading. He is also attempting to learn rudimentary Spanish by attending college courses at the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee.
Jeff is NALT’s Controller and holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Villanova University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Bloomsburg University. As a volunteer, he has served as a leader on a number of church councils. He supports Villanova and Philadelphia sports teams and enjoys spending time with his family and four legged friends locally and in Cape May Point.
John v.H. Halsey is founder and President of the Peconic Land Trust, a nonprofit land conservation organization serving Long Island, NY. The Trust’s professional staff identifies and implements alternatives to development that result in the perpetual protection of working farms and natural lands on Long Island. Since it was founded in 1983, the Trust has completed more than 400 projects. In partnership with landowners, communities, municipalities, and like-minded organizations, the Trust has protected approximately 12,000 acres. The Trust is currently engaged in over 100 pending projects comprising several thousand acres that are key to defining the communities of Long Island and to preserving its rural heritage. John serves on the board of the North American Land Trust in an emeritus status (meaning he is a non-voting board member working in an advisory capacity), as well as the boards of Nassau Land Trust, South Fork Land Foundation, and the Southampton Youth Association. He is former Chair of the Land Trust Alliance/New York Advisory Board and board member emeritus of the Long Island Community Foundation. Mr. Halsey earned a B.A. from Dartmouth College and a M.S.W. from the University of California, Berkeley.