President – Peg Muskrat
Peg has been an ELT board member since 2005. She has lived in Egremont since 1972 where she and her husband, Jack, have raised three children. She is a woman with many local relationships as she has been Egremont’s Town Clerk since 1982, is a retired 5th grade teacher from Undermountain Elementary School, and is active in many Egremont organizations. Peg became President of ELT in the fall of 2013.
Vice President – Wendy McCain
In addition to serving on the ELT board, Wendy is a member of the Board of Directors of Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. She and her late husband, Tom, moved to the Berkshires in 1989 and together with Susan and David Shapiro and their third neighbor, donated a conservation restriction on over 50 acres on Baldwin Hill to ELT and Berkshire Natural Resources Council. Wendy originally joined the ELT board at its inception, took a few years off, and then rejoined in the fall of 2011. She became ELT’s Vice President in May 2021.
Treasurer – Maureen Ferguson Steiner
Maureen Ferguson Steiner joined the ELT Board in 2010. She and her husband Tom have owned a farm in Egremont since 1999, and now live full-time in Egremont having moved from their residence in Hillsdale, NY where they lived since 1984. Maureen has been a banker in NY with JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, as well as a management consultant with McKinsey and Co. She is currently a real estate investor and manager in residential real estate in NY and Florida. Maureen and Tom have three children. Maureen became Treasurer of ELT in the summer of 2013.
Secretary – Peggy Barrett
Peggy joined ELT’s board in 2007. She grew up near Baltimore and moved to Egremont in 1976 after marrying Peter who is a Great Barrington native. She worked at the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School as office manager, and then was a site manager for the local non-profit Landmark Volunteers. She volunteered for several years at Indian Line Farm in South Egremont as a harvester/planter/weeder and for the Literacy Network as a tutor. She became Secretary of ELT in May 2021.
Membership – Robin Goldberg
Robin, along with husband, Peter, and daughter, Sarah, moved to Egremont in 1992. A special education teacher, she now tutors at a local school and at the Literacy Network. Besides serving as an Assessor in Egremont, as a member of the Egremont Green Committee and as co-chair of the Egremont Cultural Council, she volunteers at the Breaking Bread Kitchen and can often be seen walking one of the Baldwin Hill Loops. She joined the ELT board in the fall of 2011 and has been the membership coordinator since the fall of 2013.
Board Member – Eric Bachman
Eric Bachman joined the ELT Board in 2023, and has had a house in Egremont since 2015 with his wife Lisa He grew up in western New York, was interested in herpetology (reptiles and amphibians) from an early age, and studied zoology in college. Eric was a practicing endocrinologist until 2012, and is a research physician working in translational medicine in genetic diseases. He is a past President of Friends of Salem (MA) Woods, where his group was instrumental in preventing the 160 acre Salem Woods from becoming a golf course. Initially, Eric will be helping lead land stewardship efforts and raising awareness of invasives and their control.
Board Member – Molly Cliff
Molly first came to the Berkshires in 1968, originally with her parents and siblings and now with her own family of 6. She practiced law in New York and Hong Kong where she started a consulting and recruitment business. She and her husband moved back to the US full time in 2020. While she has lived in many places around the world (New York, Beijing, London and Hong Kong), she has always considered the Berkshires home. She is very interested in protecting and preserving land in Egremont and is delighted to help with the important work of the ELT. Molly joined ELT in February 2021.
Board Member – Taylor Linscott Lamme
Taylor grew up in the heart of the Berkshires, surrounded by the gorgeous land the ELT is committed to protecting. After college, she left for the West Coast and spent nearly two decades between California and Paris, working in HR for tech companies. In 2021, Taylor was drawn back to the Berkshires and she’s thrilled to now call Egremont home again. She’s particularly passionate about the local community, conservation, and education. Taylor joined ELT in 2023.
Board Member – Ethel Patterson
Ethel became a permanent Berkshire resident in 2010 after many years as a weekender. Her professional background is in Corporate Banking, primarily in Manhattan and Toronto, Canada, where she is originally from. Her local volunteer activities include 10 years (7 as Chair) on the Board of Berkshire South Regional Community Center and various projects for the First Congregational Church in Great Barrington. Ethel is an avid gardener with a particular interest in invasive species removal and native species plantings. She also enjoys birdwatching and walking “the loop” from her home on Townhouse Hill Road. Ethel joined the Board in 2022.
Board Member – Abigail Rogers-McKee
Abigail moved to the Berkshires in 2003 with her husband and son. She spent many years in Manhattan where she was a risk management consultant for insurance brokerage firms. She has lived in Egremont since 2014; she is an avid gardener and has volunteered at the Berkshire Botanical Garden for the past nine years. She is also a substitute librarian in Egremont, a member of the Egremont Historical Commission, a tutor for the Literacy Network, and the current president of the Egremont Garden Club. She can often be seen walking her dog, Kinsey, on Baldwin Hill Road. Abigail joined the ELT Board in 2017.
Board Member – David Seligman
David joined the ELT Board in 2017, having recently moved full-time to South Egremont with his wife, Katherine Sontag. A retired educator, David served as Academic Vice President and Dean of Faculty at several liberal arts colleges, and specialized in environmental ethics. David is a member of the Egremont Conservation Commission and has been active locally, statewide in Wisconsin, and nationally in Trout Unlimited. He is an avid fly fisherman and fly tier.
Board Member – Susan Shapiro
Susan came to Egremont in 1968 and has been a board member of ELT since 1998. A ceramic artist and teacher, she is an enthusiastic gardener and angler and is interested in preservation of open spaces and stewardship of land. She and her husband David, together with three neighbors, gave a conservation restriction jointly to ELT and the Berkshire Natural Resources Council covering over 50 acres on Baldwin Hill.
Board Member – Marj Wexler
Marj came to Egremont as a weekender in 1977 and has been a full-time resident since 2002. She served on the Egremont Planning Board from 2005 to 2010, and is presently the Associate Planning Board member. She is an active member of the Egremont Green Committee. Marj joined the ELT Board of Directors in the fall of 2012 and served as the Secretary from December 2014 until May 2021.
Board Member – Heidi Zorn
Heidi was raised in Heidelberg, Germany, as a dependent of the Armed Forces. She came to the US for college, and after college, in 1994, she moved to Sheffield, MA, where she met her husband. They settled in South Egremont in 1999 and now have three children and several animals. She and her family are self-professed “nature lovers,” and they enjoy walking local trails on a daily basis and working in their yard. Heidi is currently a board member of the Eagle Fund, president of the South Egremont Parent Association, and the founder/leader of a rabbit 4-H club. She and her husband run three businesses in the center of Egremont: Zorn Family Chiropractic, Zorn Core Fitness, and Enlighten Sauna. Heidi joined the Egremont Land Trust in February 2015.
Board Member Emerita – Ursula Cliff
A founding member of ELT, Ursula was its president from 1997 until the fall of 2013. In 2017, she became ELT’s Vice President. She was for many years a member of the Egremont Conservation Commission and Project Native and is a past Trustee of the Massachusetts chapter of The Nature Conservancy. She is a past President of the board of the Community Health Program. She and her husband Walter have given conservation restrictions on 125 acres of their land. Ursula resigned from the board in January 2021.
Board Member Emeritus – Walter Cliff
Walter was born in Detroit and moved east for graduate law school. He practiced law in New York City for forty-five years before settling permanently in South Egremont, where what had been a vacation home became a full time residence. A founding member of ELT, he was treasurer from 2006 until the summer of 2013. He is a former member of the boards of the Literacy Network and Shakespeare and Company, and he is a Past-chair of the Berkshire Natural Resources Council.