Marilyn Taylor - Chair

Marilyn has served on the PLC board since 2016. Marilyn’s career includes more than three decades as architect, planner, partner and chairman of the design firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. In 2008 she left practice to become Dean of the School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania; having completed that term, she is now Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, leading studios advancing the critical role design plays in addressing physical, societal and environmental challenges. She currently splits her time between Philadelphia, PA and South Hill, New Boston in an 1820's farmhouse which she has joyfully restored with the help of great local craftsmen. 

Joshua Young - Vice Chair

Josh joined the PLC board in 2016, after serving on the Development Committee for several years. Until he took early retirement he was a personal trust and investments banker with State Street, Shawmut and other banks. His 20-year second career was as a major gift officer for Tufts University School of Medicine. Josh now serves on the Board of Advisors for the medical school. He and his wife Hollis have had a home in New Boston on the corner of Gregg Mill and Lull roads since 1972. They have two grown sons, Joshua and Andrew. Josh continues to consult on fund raising and enjoys gardening with his wife.

Aaron Gill - Treasurer and Immediate Past Chair

Aaron has served on the PLC Board since 2013. He was drawn to the organization's history of watershed conservation when first joining the Land Protection Committee in 2012. Aaron also supports renewable energy projects as a way to reduce society's dependence on fossil fuels. As a Deering Selectman he developed a plan and gained voter support to install solar panels on Deering's Town Hall and Highway Garage to offset power demand among all town-owned buildings. That array went online in 2020. Aaron is a Commercial Lender with Millyard Bank in Nashua. He now lives in Mont Vernon with his husband Rob Girard; Together they enjoy travel and perennial gardening.

Rita Carroll - Secretary

Rita is one of the two former co-chairs of the Bedford Land Trust (BLT), which was recently merged into the PLC. Since 2007, she had served as administrator, trustee, chairman and co-chairman. She has also been an employee of the Society for the Protection of NH Forests (SPNHF) for more than 10 years, originally as the Policy and Reservation Stewardship Coordinator and now ‘semi-retired’ as the administrator of the NH Tree Farm Program, a forestry certification program co-sponsored by SPNHF. Rita has a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Technology and before moving to NH with her family and falling in love with the out-of-doors, she was a laboratory technologist. She resides in Bedford.

Mike Boyko

Mike is a retired manager from Verizon. Before joining the PLC board in 2015, Mike served (and still serves) as an easement monitor and member of PLC’s Stewardship Committee. In addition to his volunteer service to PLC, Mike has served on the Town of Weare Open Space Committee, and donates his time to the U.S. Forest Service as a trail adopter. Mike was named PLC's Volunteer of the Year in 2014.

Dave Butler

Dave joined the PLC board in 2019. He is a member of the PLC Stewardship Committee, and was PLC’s Volunteer of the Year in 2017. He has been a volunteer property monitor since 2012. Dave is the property monitor at PLC’s Florence Tarr Wildlife Sanctuary and Marston-Dunlap Wildlife Sanctuary both in Bedford/Goffstown, as well as the trail maintainer at the Tarr Sanctuary and the Town of Bedford’s Marston-Dunlap property in Bedford. He leads outings for PLC and the Harris Center, and writes articles for the PLC newsletter that share insights about the natural and human history of our region. Dave attended UNH Cooperative Extension’s NH Coverts program in 2017. Dave retired in 2015 after working as an engineer for 35 years. He is a resident of Bedford.

Jess Charpentier

Jess is forestry faculty at the UNH Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. Prior to her time in academia, she worked for 10 years for a land trust in northern NH and for LCHIP on land conservation projects across the state. Protecting the northern landscape has been the driving force behind Jess’ work. Her land ethic is deeply rooted in protecting the region’s most important ecosystems while promoting sustainable use of renewable natural resources. Jess holds a MS in Resource Management and Conservation and a PhD in Environmental Studies from Antioch University. She serves on PLC’s Land Protection Committee. When not working she spends time in her hometown of Henniker with family enjoying the outdoors.

Andrew Eills

Andrew has always had an appreciation of New Hampshire’s natural treasures and preserved lands.  His involvement with the Piscataquog Land Conservancy began in 2018 through riding The Rose Mountain Rumble,  which introduced him to PLC’s mission and stewardship.  Since then Andrew has been a member of the organization's Land Protection Committee and he joined the Board in the fall of 2023.  Andrew practices health care and corporate law with Sheehan, Phinney, Bass and Green, P.A., where he is a shareholder. He has served on non-profit boards including Red River Theatre and Granite VNA.  Andrew holds a B.A. from Stanford University and J.D. from Tulane University Law School. Prior to college, he lived in France and earned a certificate d’assuidite’ from the Universite’ de Grenoble.  A New Hampshire resident since 1987, Andrew and his partner, Julie, reside in Amherst with their English lab, Jasper.

Betsy Holmes

Betsy has increasingly gotten involved in PLC activities since 2006, starting as a member taking walks, later becoming an event host, and then serving as a property monitor.  She joined the PLC board in 2023.  She recently retired as library director at New Hampshire Institute of Art and has advanced degrees in both Library and Information Science, and Fine Arts.  She combines her interest of the outdoors with her art as a plein air painter- PLC properties appear regularly in her work. Betsy also volunteers with Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UNH as an art history instructor and is a docent at the Currier Museum of Art. Betsy and her husband Ralph live on Deering Reservoir where the headwaters of the Piscataquoq River run right past their dock.

Doug Powers

Doug was trained in developmental and reproductive biology. He was Professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at Boston College and a member of the faculty at Harvard Medical School. In addition, he spent a number of years developing techniques focused on the diagnosis and treatment of infertility.
Doug has served on several non-profit boards including High Mowing School in Wilton, NH, where he was also the school’s Interim Executive Director. He and his wife, Doria Harris, live in in Lyndeborough, are property monitors for the PLC, and are organizers of The Rose Mountain Rumble. He is an enthusiastic cyclist and furniture maker and is a juried member of the League of NH Craftsmen. Doug serves as the Chair of PLC's Land Protection Committee.

Gary Samuels

Gary joined the PLC board in 2016.  He has also been a member of the PLC Land Protection Committee since 2015, and has served as its chair.  He is a member of the Piscatquog River Local Advisory Committee, the Deering Conservation Commission and the Deering Budget Advisory Committee.  He retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2010, where he was a research mycologist who explored in tropical countries in the Americas and West Africa in search of microbes that could be used in the control of fungal diseases of cacao. He and his wife Patty have lived in Deering since 2011. 

Mike Thomas

Mike joined the PLC board in 2019.  He is a retired biologist from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station where he assisted in studies of forest insect pests and in studies on the epidemiology of mosquito-borne diseases. He is a member of the PLC Land Protection Committee, the Piscataquog River Local Advisory Committee, the Deering Conservation Commission, and is a Curatorial Affiliate at the Yale Peabody Museum’s Division of Entomology. Mike also volunteers with the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and the NH Audubon Society. He is an avid nature photographer. His photographs have been published in magazines and books. Mike and his wife Sue live in Deering where they enjoy the outdoors and everything New Hampshire has to offer.