Charles River Watershed Association Announces New Advisory Board Members, Staff, Honors & Roles
NOVEMBER 29, 2023: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BOSTON, MA––Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA) is pleased to announce the addition of several new members to its Board of Advisors, staff, and several honors and new roles for current staff.
“Our Board of Advisor members are an incredible resource for our staff with their breadth of knowledge and expertise in all things water including science, law, and regulations,” says Executive Director Emily Norton. “These talented new advisory board members will enable CRWA to be an even more effective, impactful organization.”
“We are in an exciting growth phase to have the talent and resources necessary to achieve a truly clean and healthy Charles River, and climate resilient watershed,” says Norton. “Our talented and accomplished staff continue to enable CRWA to be an even more effective, impactful organization.”
NEW BOARD MEMBERS
KEDRICK BROWN is a professional trader with over two decades of institutional trading experience in areas ranging from cash equity market making to energy derivatives trading. He has a Master in Design Engineering degree from Harvard, an MBA from Wharton, and a Bachelor of Science from Rutgers, where he majored in physics. Kedrick is the author of the book “Trend Trading: Timing Market Tides” and is the sole inventor of five US patents. He has maintained a great appreciation for nature since spending his early years in a small town located in a mountainous region of the Liberian rainforest.
MICHELLE DESILVA comes to CRWA with experience in investments, nonprofits, philanthropy, and the environment, and is currently a Senior Fellow at the Conservation Law Foundation, working on impact investing to support healthy communities. She started her career in investments at Fidelity Investments and Thomson Reuters, and directed an angel investing firm in the Midwest. Michelle later worked extensively with community foundations in strategy and branding, and advising financial advisors, estate planning attorneys, and their clients in the creation of charitable funds and achieving community impact. She has held numerous board positions in healthcare, public radio, theater, sexual assault, literacy, and environmental and marine causes. Michelle has a B.S. in Finance from Babson College, Nonprofit Management degrees from Northeastern University and Boston University, and recently completed a 1.5-year Advanced Leadership Initiative program at Harvard University, concentrating on social impact, conservation, and ecological urban design. Michelle loves rowing, swimming, hiking, boating, and spending time with her family at her Cape Cod house.
JOHN GANNON is an accomplished municipal law attorney practicing in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in a career spanning thirty years. As a municipal law attorney, he has represented well over 100 municipalities in Massachusetts, including service as City Attorney for the City of Somerville, Acting Town Attorney and Assistant Town Attorney for the Town of Watertown, and associations and partnership with two private Massachusetts municipal law firms representing a significant number of cities and towns in the state. He presently serves as a municipal law attorney for a state government agency, where he has provided guidance to nearly all of the state’s 351 cities and towns. He graduated from Brown University in 1984, with a combined Bachelor’s Degree in American Urban History and Political Science. He obtained his Juris Doctor from Suffolk University Law School in 1989. His practice has included national issues and multiple state jurisdictions. He was recently elected to a third term as a City Councilor At-Large for the City of Watertown, and he spends time volunteering with numerous non-profit organizations. He is excited to be joining the Board of Advisors of the Charles River Watershed Association (CRWA). He is looking forward to bringing his years of experience in municipal law, environmental law, public interest law, legislative advocacy and non-profit management to further the mission of the CRWA.
GREG HERREMA is currently CEO of Discovery Life Sciences. He is also a Senior Advisor to Novalis Life Sciences and currently serves on the boards of LevitasBio and Telesis Bio on their behalf. Greg worked for nineteen years at Thermo Fisher Scientific where he most recently served as senior vice president and president of its $8 billion+ laboratory supply distribution business. Prior to Thermo Fisher Greg worked for fourteen years in GE where he progressed through multiple sales and marketing roles before transitioning into his first general management responsibility. Greg is a Senior Fellow of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative program. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech. In addition to his role with CRWA, Greg also serves on multiple other Boston-based non-profit boards focused on land conservation and community engagement. Greg and his wife Itsuko live in Boston’s South End neighborhood. They have a daughter and son who live nearby in NYC and Philadelphia. Greg enjoys just about any outdoor activity but his favorites are fishing, cycling, and golfing.
SCOTT HORSLEY has over 30 years of professional experience as a consultant to federal, state, and local government agencies, non-profit organizations, and private industry throughout the United States, Bulgaria, Nicaragua, the Caribbean, the Pacific Islands, and China. Scott has served on numerous advisory boards and committees to the EPA, the National Academy of Public Administration, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MA DEP), Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA), National Groundwater Association, and Massachusetts Audubon Society. Scott has received national (EPA) and local awards (Mashpee Conservation Commission) for his work in the wetlands and stormwater management fields. Scott Horsley serves as Adjunct Faculty at Tufts University in the Graduate Department of Urban & Environmental Policy & Planning and at the Harvard Extension School in the Graduate Department of Sustainability.
NICK NELSON is a fluvial geomorphologist and regional director for Inter-Fluve with over 16 years of experience in river and wetland restoration and planning. Nick has been involved in the fieldwork, feasibility analysis, design, outreach, permitting, construction observation, and monitoring of river and wetland restoration projects throughout New England and the United States including more than a dozen dam removals in Massachusetts and the recovery of retired cranberry bogs to functioning wetlands in southeastern Massachusetts. He has taught classes at the University of Minnesota and Northeastern University, and currently teaches a class at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He taught a workshop in Shanghai, China in 2017 as well as in Bucharest, Romania in 2023. Nick lives in Cambridge and paddles on the Charles River with his wife and children.
JOE ORFANT is the former Chief of the Bureau of Planning & Resource Protection for the Department of Conservation and Recreation managing a diverse staff of planning and environmental professionals. More recently, he served as the Chair of the Boston Conservation Commission. He has overseen the reconstruction of the beaches, including ten beach renourishments, along Boston Harbor and multiple projects along the Charles, Neponset, and Mystic Rivers, including the reconstruction of the Memorial Drive Historic Parkway creating new parkland and recreational paths along the Charles riverfront. He studied architecture at Yale and architectural conservation at ICCROM, the international conservation center in Rome, as well as management at Harvard. As the former Deputy State Historic Preservation Officer, he set up and administered the historic tax credit program encouraging hundreds of rehabilitation across Massachusetts, and worked collaboratively with the National Park Service on the development and refinement of the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Rehabilitation. As an adjunct faculty member at Northeastern University, he developed and taught a course "Historic Preservation" in the graduate Public History program along with speaking at a number of schools in the Boston area and local and national conferences.
STEPHEN SMITH is a groundwater hydrologist. He has been practicing professionally for 45 years, with 32 of those years as President of GeoHydroCycle, Inc. Mr. Smith has managed and/or contributed to all of GeoHydroCycle’s groundwater-related projects involving detailed groundwater investigations, field testing, production well design, site investigations and remediation, complex data analyses, and groundwater flow and transport modeling.
NEW STAFF MEMBERS
AUDREY LEPORE returns as Development Director, overseeing CRWA’s fundraising efforts. With nearly a decade of experience in the nonprofit and fundraising sectors, an energetic approach to fundraising, and a wealth of skills in project management and client relations, Audrey is a leader dedicated to creating a brighter future for the Charles River watershed. Audrey was previously the Development Manager of CRWA from 2019 - 2022. She successfully helped CRWA raise funds during the uncertainty of the pandemic. Recently, she helped reshape the landscape of nonprofit support with The More Than Giving Co. as a Nonprofit Virtual Assistant and Communication Manager for smaller nonprofits spanning from Hawaii to Boston.
PEMMA LHAZIN joins as Development Associate. A recent graduate of Endicott College with a B.A. in International Studies, Pemma is passionate about peacebuilding, conservation, and refugee rights. Bringing experience from World Wildlife Fund and National Organization for Women, Pemma assists with event planning and execution, grant writing, mail appeals, social media, and more.
HONORS & PROMOTIONS
JULIE WOOD is the recipient of the UMass Boston 2023 Beacon Award for Outstanding Service. As Charles River Watershed Association’s Climate Resilience Director, Julie founded and manages the Charles River Climate Compact (CRCC), a regional coalition of cities and towns working together to address the many issues our natural and built environments face as we confront a changing climate.
Additionally, several staff members have received new titles. DIRA JOHANIF has been promoted to Senior Climate Resilience Associate, where she will support regional climate adaptation work across the watershed. ZEUS SMITH, ESQ., has been admitted to the Massachusetts Bar to practice in the Commonwealth and will now act as our Associate Attorney, continuing his work to advance legislative priorities, strengthen environmental laws and regulations, and hold polluters and government agencies accountable. ROBERT KEARNS is now CRWA’s Watershed Restoration Specialist, where he will lead efforts to advocate for defunct dam removal, restore aquatic connectivity, and protect critical coldwater fisheries. MARIELENA LIMA is now CRWA’s Watershed Scientist, where she oversees the water quality monitoring program, collecting and analyzing vital data to support our work for a clean, restored river.
Charles River Watershed Association’s mission is to protect, restore, and enhance the Charles River and its watershed through science, advocacy, and the law. CRWA develops science-based strategies to increase resilience, protect public health, and promote environmental equity as we confront a changing climate.
CONTACT:
Julia Hopkins
Communications & Outreach Manager
Charles River Watershed Association
(617) 540-5650 x 1071
