VLCV Board of Directors
David Mears — Chairman
David Mears is a professor of environmental law at Vermont Law School in South Royalton. He directs the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic which provides students with the opportunity to learn the practice of law through representing community and non-profit environmental groups. Prior to moving to Vermont to work in 2005, Professor Mears was a Senior Assistant Attorney General and Chief of the Ecology Division of the State of Washington Office of the Attorney General. He has also practiced environmental law at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Environment and Natural Resources Division, and for the State of Texas in the Texas Natural Resources Conservation Commission and the Texas Office of State-Federal Relations. Before graduating from Vermont Law School in 1991, Professor Mears interned for a summer in the Environmental Protection Unit of the Vermont Office of the Attorney General. He lives in Montpelier with his wife Nancy and three children, Laura, Isaac and Liam.
Steve Wright
Steve came to Vermont from Georgia in 1968. He had a long teaching and administrative career at Sterling School, now Sterling College in Craftsbury, interspersed with tours as an Extension Agent in Georgia, with the U. S. Forest Service as a Wilderness Manager in Idaho and Montana, and Fish and Wildlife Commissioner in Vermont under Governor Madeleine Kunin. In the mid and late 90s he worked in New Hampshire and Vermont as an advocate for people with disabilities especially those with mental illness. Steve recently retired after eight years as Northeast Regional Representative for the National Wildlife Federation. He earned a Bachelor's degree in biology from Georgia Southern College and a Master's in aquatic ecology from the University of Georgia. He lives in Craftbury with his Brittany spaniel, Kate, and a bewildering array of outdoor stuff, including his ever-present camera.
Warner Shedd
Warner is the author of "Owls Aren't Wise & Bats Aren't Blind: A Naturalist Debunks Our Favorite Fallacies About Wildlife" and "The Kids' Wildlife Book" (A Williamson Kids Can! Book). He is also the former regional director of the National Wildlife Federation. Warner lives in Calais with his wife Edie.
Stark Biddle
Stark Biddle is an independent consultant who works with public and private development institutions to improve their impact and effectiveness. He has held senior executive positions in industry, government and the non‑profit sector and has worked with more than fifty domestic and international not-for-profit organizations in this country and overseas.
Stark has been Vice President of the Overseas Development Council, Director of a White House Task Force on international science and technology, Associate Assistant Administrator for Planning and Budget for the US Agency for International Development and a senior analyst for the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the President. Prior to his US government experience, Mr. Biddle spent 5 years with the Colgate Palmolive Company and was Director of Marketing for Colgate's Thai subsidiary.
Stark has an MBA from the Wharton School an MA in political science from Brown and an MA Lit from the Breadloaf School of English at Middlebury College. Stark’s voluntary activities have included: Trustee of the Vermont Council on the Arts; Trustee of the Vermont Natural Resources Council; Trustee of Spring Lake Ranch; Trustee of Green Mountain College; Vice President of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy; Vice Chair of the Shrewsbury Planning Commission; Friends in Council, the Folger Shakespeare Library. Mr. Biddle served as a member of the Board of Directors of Development Alternatives of Bethesda. He is a member of the Cosmos Club of Washington, DC and the Explorer’s Club of New York.
Theresa Murray-Clasen
Following the Peace Corps, Theresa Murray-Clasen worked for the Vermont Department of Public Service. She is now an independent consultant specializing in developing sustainable environmental practices for public and private school systems. Working in collaboration with various non-profit agencies, she has designed and implemented model programs in energy conservation, local food systems and an award winning “closed loop system” composting program.
Theresa’s volunteer activities include membership on both the Montpelier elementary and middle school parent boards and participating in various EnVision Montpelier master planning committees.
Theresa resides in Montpelier with her husband Michael and their two daughters Madeline and Emma.
Tuck Rainwater
Dan Smith
Mr. Smith is an attorney in sole practice in Montpelier, Vermont, with specialization in state and federal milk market regulation. He is also President of Integrated Energy Solutions, Inc., a startup alternative energy management company.
From 1992-2001, Mr. Smith served as founding Executive Director of the Northeast Dairy Compact Commission. In various capacities, Mr. Smith oversaw the interstate adoption and congressional approval of the Dairy Compact, and the subsequent implementation of the Compact price regulation that returned $150 million from the New England fluid milk marketplace to New England and New York supplying dairy farmers.
Mr. Smith was a member of the Vermont Legislative Counsel, 1987 – 1992. Prior to this service, Mr. Smith served as law clerk to the Honorable Frederic Allen, Chief Justice, Vermont Supreme Court, and as the Court’s Chief Law Clerk. He received his law degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1985 and his B.A. from Dartmouth College in 1978.
Also a carpenter by trade, Dan is restoring a settlement farm in East Montpelier, VT, and resides there with his wife and two children.