Board of Directors

Carla Hall, Board Chair

Carla Hall has served on the Otsego Land Trust Board since 2008 and lives in the Butternut Valley on land settled by her family in 1787. In 2006, her family donated a conservation easement on 1,500 acres of their farmland. They also worked with the Trust for Public Land and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to create the General Jacob Morris State Forest on 1,100 acres of their land, connecting with two other protected areas, thereby preserving over 3,200 acres of forests and watershed. Carla is an artist, environmentalist, and brand communications consultant. In 2008, she founded the Butternut Valley Alliance. She previously served as co-chair of the National Council for Glimmerglass Opera, treasurer of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and member of the Corcoran Gallery of Art College Board in Washington, DC. She studied painting at the New York Studio School with Philip Guston and is currently a student of Elizabeth Nields. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Middlebury College in 1974.

Rick O’Keefe, Vice-Chair

Rick O’Keefe is a family physician who works at Columbia Health on the Morningside Campus of Columbia University in New York City. He has been a part-time resident of the Butternut Valley Watershed since 2005. He and his husband, John, are current OLT easement owners in Maple Grove; a hamlet in Morris, and are enthusiastic ambassadors of the responsibilities of environmental stewardship as private landowners. Rick is a long-time member of the Butternut Valley Alliance and currently serves as the organization’s treasurer. Rick is also a beekeeper and a practicing community builder.

Sara Albright, Secretary

Sara Albright is the Director of Advisory Services at Optum and Vice President of the Data Analytics Bassett Optum partnership. She has worked for or with Bassett for over thirty years. In her free time, Sara is a musician and gardener. Now, Cooperstown resident, Sara lives with her husband Matthew Albright, Assistant to the Director of the SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station. Sara and Matthew have conserved their large parcel of land through Otsego Land Trust and have purchased surrounding parcels to add to the conservation easement over the years. Conservation has always been a priority for her family and Sara is looking forward to seeing how she can contribute to Otsego Land Trust.

Dietrich Snell, Treasurer

Dietrich L. Snell is a partner in the Litigation Department of Proskauer, a major international law firm based in Manhattan. He has extensive experience in federal and state-level prosecutorial and investigative work and formerly oversaw the Environmental Protection Bureau, including enforcement and policy with the New York Deputy Attorney General. Dieter has deep roots in the Otsego region; his father, George Snell, was from Herkimer and was one of the founders of Otsego Land Trust. Deiter vacationed on the lake, attended summer camps here, and now owns the home his parents built in the 1980s on the northern end of the lake. He joined Otsego Land Trust’s Board in the fall of 2022 and is very interested in seeing irreplaceable nature and beautiful scenery preserved for generations to come. Dieter and his wife Nina have two teenagers. He loves to play the cello when time permits.

Marjorie Kellogg

Marjorie Kellogg is the author of Lear’s Daughters, The Dragon Quartet, Harmony, and A Rumor Of Angels. She leads a double life, designing scenery for theatres throughout the country, and digging into the hills of upstate New York, to write and garden and learn what the earth has to teach. She is an Associate Professor of Theatre at Colgate University. Resident Designer, National Actors Theatre, 1992-93. 45 years of Off-Broadway and regional theatre productions. Awards: 2014 Robert L. B. Tobin Award for Sustained Excellence in Theatrical Design, 2006 USITT Distinguished Achievement Award; 2002 Ruth Morley Design Award, 1995 Mary L. Murphy Award for Excellence in Design; the first Michael Merritt Award for Design and Collaboration (1994); Boston Theatre Critics Circle, Los Angeles Drama-Logue.

Alison Lord

Alison Lord and her family fell in love with the lands and waters of Cooperstown over the last 10+ years and became landowners in Pierstown several years ago. Alison has extensive board experience with academic institutions, having served on the board of Phillips Academy, Andover, from which she graduated in 1985 and St. Hilda's & St. Hugh's School in NYC, which her daughters attended. Alison and her family also started The Cameron & Hayden Lord Foundation to advance medical research and palliative care support for families with critically ill children. Alison has spent 30 years in the creative industry, working in advertising, as a recruiter, and for the last eight years at Google where she is the HR lead for a specialized creative innovation team. Alison graduated from Yale University with a BA in Comparative Literature in 1989.

Allen Ruffles

Allen Ruffles is an Otsego County native. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and a Master’s Degree in Geosciences. He started his career as an educator, working as a teacher at Lauren’s Central School and serving as a youth coach. He then moved on to the financial sector, working as a financial adviser and then as the bank manager of Key Bank in Cooperstown. Allen is actively committed to community involvement and service. He has served as an engineer in the Army National Guard since 2013. He is also a member of the Otsego County Chamber board and the county Young Professionals. Allen and his wife, Amy Ruffles, have two children, Mia and Cooper.

Joan Fox

Joan Fox is the owner of Keller Williams Upstate New York Properties and has been engaged in real estate broker in the region for many years. Residing in Oneonta, Joan specializes in residential, commercial, luxury, land, and farm real estate sales. She has a strong background in business, negotiation, training, marketing, and creative problem-solving. Joan joined the board at Otsego Land Trust in the fall of 2022.

Emeritus

Dr. Earle Peterson

Dr. Earle Peterson, one of OLT’s early board members, began working with the land trust in its infancy. Dr. Peterson worked with George Snell to professionalize the land trust and begin OLT’s journey toward its current almost 10,000 acres protected. In the early days of OLT, Dr. Peterson and others met with Rand Wentworth, the then-new president of the Land Trust Alliance, to discuss goals for OLT. Today, in 2014, OLT is well on its way to realizing that original vision. Dr. Peterson is a 1958 graduate of Cornell University and practiced veterinary medicine for 45 years. He also realized his own dream of protecting a very special landscape in the Leatherstocking region. Today that landscape is called Greenwoods Conservancy, a beautiful and diverse 1200 acres used for research, education, and outdoor recreation. Dr. Peterson’s primary goal of conserving the multiple habitats of Greenwoods Conservancy was made possible by the presence of OLT and the ability of the land trust to accept a conservation easement donated by the Peterson family. Doctor Peterson’s experience on the board of JFK Medical Center in Edison, NJ provided him with the generative ideas that he brought to both the Land Trust Alliance and OLT. Today, Dr. Peterson assists the land trust in an advisory capacity as well as opening Greenwoods Conservancy to land trust programs.