CLASS OF 2025 BIOS
Barbara Thomas
Barbara lives in Monroe and is an avid gardener who participated in the UConn Master Gardener program. She has a particular interest in invasive and native plants and has taught several gardening classes at the Monroe town library. She’s been working on the pollinator garden in Great Hollow in Monroe for over 4 years to create habitat for wildlife and a beautiful garden for people to enjoy and hopes it will influence people to use native plants in their own gardens.
She was a board member of the Monroe Land Trust, and joined the Monroe Conservation Commission after seeing a property bulldozed in October 2015. “In July of 2015 I had photographed a spot along the road that looked like bird heaven – it was loaded with berries on Elderberry, Virginia Creeper, and Chokecherry – and 3 months later it was completely cleared to build an office building. I decided I needed to try to stop that loss of wildlife habitat and started to attend conservation commission meetings.” She recently drafted a native plant regulation that would require a high minimum percent of native plants in commercial and municipal landscapes.
Barbara is committed to working toward educating people on the importance of considering our environment in everything we do. She says we have a responsibility to think long term and preserve and improve the environment for future generations.
Peter W. Gaboriault
A resident of Wilton, Peter is an avid outdoorsman and a lifelong resident of Fairfield County. He is a practicing attorney specializing in real estate sales and acquisitions and real estate finance. He founded Bear Paw Builders in 1994, specializing in high-end residential construction. His past volunteer roles include Chairman of the Wilton Economic Development Commission, President of the Wilton Land Conservation Trust, Board of Trustees at the Wilton Historical Society and President of the Fairfield County homebuilders and Remodelers Association.
Donna Merrill
Donna is a 36-year resident of Wilton and has a long history of volunteering in the community including the Hudson to Housatonic Regional Conservation Partnership, Wilton Deer Management Committee and the Wilton Land Conservation Trust. She is currently on the Board of Trustees of the Norwalk River Watershed Association. Donna founded the Pollinator Pathway in 2017 to protect wildlife diversity by connecting critical habitat for invertebrates. She is a former Wall Street trader with a BS in Finance from the University of Pennsylvania.
Saul Cardenas
A resident of Weston, Saul currently serves as Counsel for the Common Fund for Nonprofit Organizations. In this capacity he is responsible for advising senior management on all matters related to legal and business affairs of the company, including corporate governance, contractual and investment matters across multiple jurisdictions. He is a native Spanish speaker (Columbian) and enjoys spending time in the outdoors with his family hiking in Trout Brook Valley.
David Nulf
David lives in Fairfield and is a high school English teacher at Fairfield Ludlowe High School. He is a lover of Henry David Thoreau and is well known for among other things, co-writing the innovative curriculum for “Call of the Wild,” a semester elective course on literature and the natural world which includes taking his students on hikes of local open spaces including Trout Brook Valley. David is an educational innovator and mentor who won the DAR “Outstanding Teacher of American History” Award in 2005 and numerous other honors at Ludlowe where he also coaches the cross country and track and field teams. David also volunteers his time as an Aspetuck Land Trust trail steward.
Joel Green
Joel was born and raised in Bridgeport and is a resident of Fairfield. He is currently a partner at the law firm of Green and Gross. Joel was a five-term member of the Fairfield RTM and served as Moderator for three terms. He is active in civic affairs and has been involved in numerous community organizations including as a member of the Board of Directors of Sullivan McKinney Elder Housing and served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Operation Hope of Fairfield. Most recently, Joel was elected to the Board of Directors of the Bridgeport Field of Dreams Foundation, the Stratfield Village Association and Fairfield County’s Community Foundation where he also serves as the Chair of the Governance Committee. He is an avid competitive sailor who has sailed throughout southern New England.
Bill Kutik
A Westporter, Bill has been a newspaper reporter, magazine editor and technology impresario. He built the world’s largest conference about the software used for human resources, also the subject of his video interview series “Firing Line with Bill Kutik” and his earlier podcast, “The Bill Kutik Radio Show.” He has written for the Boston Globe, New York Daily News and New York Times. In 1972, he was the first editor of Backpacker magazine. He loves hiking, the beach and sailing and is an Aspetuck Land Trust marketing volunteer and voluntary trail steward.